was HEAVENLY!!!!! I slept until about 10:30 (and had an awesome sleep despite the amount of beer we drank the night before) and woke up with no hangover. Had a bit of a headache but nothing to complain about.

As soon as I walked out of the bedroom I knew it was going to be a great day. Jenn had left the door to the balcony open and I could hear the sound of the rain. It wasn’t pouring, but it was enough to hear it – a sound I love! I found her all cuddled up in her bed so I joined her with a cup of joe and we watched TV and chatted (more chatted then watched). It was such a nice, lazy morning!

After a while we decided it was time to get something to eat so we walked around the resort searching for the restaurant near the pool (while it was still raining – just spitting though). The pool was beautiful! We didn’t get to sit by it because of the rain, but that was fine. We ended up going back to the H2O Bar where we had been the night before since the other place was closed. I was so hungry for grease!!!!!

The waitress was funny when she saw us – out of all the characters that were there the night before she remembered us and said “You girls back to do some more drinking?” Guess we make quite an impression.

After lunch we headed back to our room and had a nice nap! Then we hung out in the den talking some more until we decided we (or at least I was) craving melted cheese and melted chocolate so we went to the Melting Pot for dinner.

Got there around 7pm but they didn’t have an opening until 9pm so being we had no toddlers to deal with we decided that was OK and headed on over to a neat little town Jenn had found a few weeks ago called Old Town. It’s a cool little place with shops up and down an old street setting. I can definitely see myself going back there with the family since it has some rides for the kids. It would make for a fun Saturday outing. (When we have an open Saturday that is.)

Got to the Melting Pot around 9 and were famished!!!!!! Our waiter was a bit creepy the way he talked to us, but the food was DELISH!!!!!! We decided to go with the new Alpine Big Night Out which had 4 courses. All of which were equally YUMMY!!!!!

The first course was:

“Alp and Dell Cheese Fondue
A delicious combination of white wine, garlic, whole grain mustard and nutmeg, with a smooth blend of award-winning Gruyère, Raclette and Fontina cheeses.”

(I’m very sad they don’t tell you online what the pickles were they served this with.)

2nd course:

“Alpine Ridge Salad
A bed of mixed greens topped with oven roasted tomatoes, award-winning Gruyère, Raclette and Fontina cheeses, hard-boiled eggs and honey roasted almonds, topped with a robust shallot vinaigrette.”

3rd course (cooked in the Coq au Vin cooking style):

“Fondue Fusion
Lobster Tail, Filet Mignon, Sauerbraten NY Strip, Nueske’s Applewood Smoked Bratwurst, Hefeweizen Marinated Shrimp, Roasted Garlic Crusted
Chicken, Sun Dried Tomato Ravioli and Fresh Vegetables.”

4th course (which we sadly could not finish because we were stuffed by this point):

“Pure Milk Chocolate Fondue:
Milk, dark or white chocolate, melted for the most pure of all chocolate fondues.”

By the end of the night, before even leaving the restaurant we were SO full we both got really giddy and couldn’t stop laughing.

We got home around 11 (or back to the room), got out of our uncomfortable tight pants/jeans, put on our comfy sweats and even though we were both exhausted, we ended up staying up and talking until about 12:30.

I ended up getting no sleep that night though because I think my room was haunted!!!!! (We both kept hearing people talking and music when it wasn’t there.) But that night is for another post.

All this talk of melted cheese and chocolate is making me think I need to break out my fondue pot this weekend and make something! I’m salivating over here just thinking of that dinner that night!

is something I highly recommend. I just did it this past weekend and even though we didn’t do alot, we still had a great time. There is so much that can be done during orlando vacations so you can choose to either hang by the pool and just veg, or do something new everyday and not be bored! You can make it so that every minute you’re doing something there – seriously. I’m thinking that would be a tad bit tiring, especially if you’re there with kids (for the kids and you), but, it is possible in Orlando. You’ve got Disney World, Universal Studios, beaches, shows, Sea World, Downtown Disney, Olde Town and so much more. It’s such an awesome place to visit. And if you’re a friend of mine coming from far away, you’re not too far from where we live so we can come out to visit you there as well!

was JUST what I needed!!!! Jenn got here Friday about 4 and we left soon after. Laughing and chatting the whole way out. As soon as we left my neighborhood I could feel the stress and tension I’d been feeling slip away!

Not sure what time we got there but as soon as we walked into the lobby for the resort I knew it was the right place to be. The entire place is so nature like! And what’s funny is the guy couldn’t find our reservation at first and normally both of us would have freaked out. But neither one of us did. I just kept looking around the lobby at all the neat nature-like decorations and just knew it would be ok.

We got to our room and had our first “duh” moment of the weekend. I put the key in and it wouldn’t work (not thinking to look for the arrow on the key 1st). Then Jenn tried it and still it wouldn’t work. So we thought we’d have to go back down to the lobby for him to rekey it. Then she got the idea to actually look at the directions on the key and it finally worked. We were giggling and laughing the whole time.

The room was gorgeous! It was a 2 bedroom suite with a den and a kitchen and I loved the color of the walls. I’m guessing they were like a sage green? Whatever color it was I am determined to find it so I can paint one of our bathrooms that color. I immediately fell in love with one painting of a dragonfly (which seemed to be the theme of our weekend) and that painting I’ve found online and intend to get as soon as I can.

We weren’t in the room long before we decided we were starving and very thirsty so we headed on over to the H2O bar and were surprised to see it wasn’t packed at all. Tiny, but not packed. The actual bar itself was so cool. Just take a lookie at the pic below and you’ll see what I mean.

Yes, that is water underneath the bar!!!!! SO FREAKIN’ COOL!!!! We were both wondering how we could do that to our kitchen counters back home. Who wouldn’t want to cook on something like that???? So relaxing!!!!

Once we got over the actual water bar, we started with beer and chicken wings which were so crispy and good!!!!! By this time the bar started filling up and since it was karaoke night people were singing. Then, the really drunk girl in the hot pink dress (who sat at a table with her face literally in a drink slurping it all down in about a second) stumbled in and started singing with a group of women and that was our cue to go and find Chili’s. Which we did with the use of her Tom-Tom (and I want one now!!!). We ended up closing Chili’s (which we usually do anyway) and I’m not sure what time we got home but I had an awesome sleep that night! And, from what it looked like, I must have slept in both the double beds in my bedroom because the next morning both beds sheets were a mess. I do remember waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to find the bedroom door to get to the bathroom and cursing to myself. LOL The room was so incredibly dark – it was awesome. Something I need to do to my bedroom here – there is far too much light in there. No wonder I can’t sleep some nights.

So that’s the end of day one. That was our party night and party we did. We had some great conversations that night at Chili’s too – some of which I am still kind of working on.

Yesterday after dropping Tristan off at soccer camp, we headed out to Orlando to visit one of my old college roomies from Penn State. Her and her family flew down Saturday for a week of Mickey Mouse. We got there about 5 and had such a great night. They were staying in a villa which was gorgeous and had a full kitchen so we ate dinner there. What was awesome was their oldest daughter Grace and our daughter (who are only 3 months apart in age) got along like they’d known each other forever. But you’ve got to know they’ve only met one other time in their lives and they were both around the age of 3. It was like they were old friends. The cool thing about that is when I first met Jenn back at Penn State, Hazleton campus, I felt the same exact way. Which back then was awesome because I was going through a seriously rough time at the time and I was lucky enough to have her as a roommate.

Her husband, Joe, is cool too – I actually knew him before she did – he was a brother at the fraternity that I used to hang out at. So they’re actually both good friends of mine. Before Sunday I hadn’t seen either one of them in probably 5 years. Actually, we saw them right before we moved here to Florida (they live in Pennsylvania). But being with them felt like I’d just seen them last week.

After dinner we headed over to this huge pool that had a water slide and water falls in it and swam for like an hour. We headed home around 10. I’m SO glad we got to meet up with them. So many times people will come to Disney and either not let you know or not make the time to see you (and I’ve come to hate Mickey Mouse for it – LOL). Jenn and Joe made sure to set aside time to see us. Thanks!!!!!!

wasn’t so good soccer wise. The girls lost both games. They played against 2 Elite teams (one from Miami and one from Orlando) and even though they played their hearts out – they just could not keep up. It didn’t help that it was 90 something degrees out all day and stifling hot. The girls were dropping like flies. Caelie – it was like she wasn’t even there today. Not sure where my little soccer star was but she wasn’t on the field – that’s for sure. I knew at Thursday nights practice she still wasn’t feeling well and I think that compacted with the heat – just wasn’t a good thing. It also didn’t help that the one team had been playing since U5.

The rest of the day was great though. Their last game of the day was over at 2 so we all headed back to the hotel, grabbed our coolers filled with beer and hung out by the pool while the kids swam. Tristan was in his glory because the entire team at one time or another was hanging all over him.

Around 6, we all headed over to TGIF’s (all 32 of us – and they accommodated all of us very well I have to say – put us in our own “room” so to speak) and had a blast. I’m happy that I had fun. I was worried that I wouldn’t but then I realized the trouble making parents weren’t there this weekend. That made ALL the difference.

We got back to the hotel about 9 and all hit the sack. The heat that day just wiped us all out (even us parents who just sat and watched the games – LOL).

If we win tomorrow morning we go on to the final at 1 tomorrow afternoon. We’ll be playing one of the teams we lost too though in the morning at 9:15. Wish us luck and hoping it’s not as hot out tomorrow as it was today! Although I hate Orlando – too landlocked and stifling hot!