Disney World (November 2019) - Day 3: Magic Kingdom

Today, I'm picking back up with our most recent Disney trip at Magic Kingdom, which began after I ran the half marathon.

Disney Travel Day: Wine and Dine Expo & Animal Kingdom
Disney Day 2: Wine and Dine 10K & Kids Races & Hollywood Studios/Epcot
Disney Day 3: Wine and Dine Half Marathon & Magic Kingdom
Disney Day 4: Boarding the Disney Dream
Disney Day 5: Castaway Cay
Disney Day 6: Nassau
Disney Day 7: At Sea Day
Disney Day 8: Disney Springs and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

My friends ventured over to Hollywood Studios while I was running so they could explore Star Wars land a bit more. After running, I snagged breakfast at the Pop Century food court (Mickey waffles, of course), then showered and made my way to the bus stop. By this time, my friends told me they were finished with Hollywood Studios and wanted to head over to Magic Kingdom which was fine with me!

Seeing the Christmas decorations was so exciting, especially so early in the season!

Our first few rides included several in Fantasyland along with our fast passes for Mine Train. Brayden loves the carousel, so that's where we started.

We also rode the Tea Cups which was hilarious because we had two separate vehicles for our group - the ones who wanted to spin and the ones who wanted to remain tame (me)! With three gown adults and one child, it was a tight squeeze but oh so much fun!

We also had fun waving at people from the TTA!

After posing for a few medal pictures with the castle, we boarded a monorail for the Polynesian and our dinner reservation at Ohana!

If you've never been, you need to go! This restaurant and all of the food offered there is DELICIOUS!

My favorite are the fried dumplings. I could eat them all day!

The assortment of meat is wonderful, too. Dinner here is served family style and all you can eat. The starters are placed at your table and the meat is delivered on skewers from the wait staff.

My mouth is seriously watering right now just thinking about it!

The best part and literally my favorite dessert on property is the bread pudding with bananas foster sauce and ice cream. It's seriously SO delicious!

Our dinner was scheduled early on purpose, so we would have a chance to return to the Magic Kingdom to watch the fireworks.

We had to stop for a purple wall photo first, though!

...and poor Everett got to hold all of our bags!

The castle lights were gorgeous as always and I was so excited to see them once again!

This was the first time for several in our group to see Happily Ever After and they all loved it!

We somehow thought the MK was open until 11 p.m. that night, but it actually closed at 9 p.m., so we joined the mass exodus to take a bus ride back to Pop Century. Brayden was handed these stickers by our sweet bus driver on the way! So cute!

An early(ish) night was in order because we had a big day coming up - the Disney Dream!! Stay tuned for more!

Post-Race Pampering, runDisney Style!

Training for and running a race is not an easy task. By the time a race is complete, runners have lots of time on the road/treadmill/etc under their belt, they've logged tons of miles, and they have sore muscles and maybe even a blister or two to show for their hard work.

Once a race is complete however, that's when the pampering can begin! I mean, what better way to reward yourself for all your hard work than with a few indulgences?


#1 Eat a good meal and enjoy a snack or two

One of my favorite things to do after running an event at Walt Disney World is to eat dinner at Ohana. We've kept this tradition alive for years now and I suspect we will do the same after Dopey in January!

Mickey waffles and Starbucks for the win!

#2 Indulge in a post-race massage

 

After completing Goofy's Challenge in 2013, my friend Melissa and I headed over to Animal Kingdom Lodge and the Zahanati Spa for a 50 minute Swedish massage.

 
There are several resorts located throughout Walt Disney World that include a spa and fitness center...I highly recommend checking them out! 

#3 Hang out at the pool

What better way to relax after a tough race than hanging out at the pool? Just remember to wear sunscreen! :)

#4 Go on a cruise! 

We've done this twice so far and I HIGHLY recommend it! Running a race followed by a cruise is a great way to relax and get a little chill time in before the next training cycle kicks up!

You might even want to run another race while on said cruise...aka, the Castaway Cay 5K! :)

#5 Buy yourself a gift! 

This one is kind of self-explanatory! After each major race, I always buy myself a small item to commemorate my accomplishment.  An ornament, an Alex & Ani bracelet, or a Pandora charm have been my go-to here lately.

What's your favorite way to pamper yourself after a race or big accomplishment? 

Today's Friday Five was actually a freebie topic, but I decided to go with last week's topic of "Pampering" since I missed out!

 

Link up with Running on Happy & Fairytales and Fitness for the Friday Five 2.0 linkup!

Brayden's First Halloween

Over the weekend and on Monday, we celebrated Brayden's first Halloween! There's just something special about a first holiday and I just love all things that say "my first (enter designated holiday here)..." :) Watch out, Christmas! Oy.

For Halloween this year, we dressed Brayden up as Stitch (found the costume at the Disney Store) and his cousin dressed as Lilo!

Combine the two and....

Voila! Aren't they just the cutest?!

We took them back to the pumpkin patch for pictures and they had a blast! It was so much fun (for me, too)! 

Remember those "my first" items I was talking about earlier? Well, I might have gone a bit overboard on the clothing and accessories. He has two "first Halloween" sleepers, an outfit, and a bib. Whoops.

I mean, who could pass up this cuteness, though?!

Last night, we took "Lilo and Stitch" to a local church for a Fall Festival! It was so much fun! 

We met up with my brother and sister in law and our niece to spend the evening! This church really had an awesome layout and setup! It was super easy to move around and although it felt like half my town was there, it wasn't hard to maneuver through at all!

My Ohana! :)

The kids enjoyed playing games....Brayden even got into the spirit of things!

 We decided this was one he needed to get a head start on for sure...

There was a pumpkin contest, too. This one was by far my favorite! :)

In all, we spent about an hour at the festival and had a great time! We really enjoyed spending the evening with Jason's sister and her family!

Back at home, we let Brayden survey his winnings....although his reward was in the form of gerber puffs only, no candy yet! :)

That tail, though...
 

Maybe next year, little dude!

How did you spend your Halloween?

Disney Themed Dinner at Home

This past weekend was my last at home before returning to work from maternity leave. In order to make it a special and memorable one, my husband and I cooked up a Disney themed dinner from the comfort of our home and it was delicious! Ohana is my favorite restaurant on property and that's what inspired our menu!

For dinner and dessert, we enjoyed:

• Ohana Marinated Chicken
• Pot Stickers
• Fried Rice
• Grilled Pineapple
• Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake (recipe from Liberty Tree Tavern in the Magic Kingdom)

Keep reading below for the marinated chicken recipe, inspired by Ohana at the Polynesian! 

 

This dinner was so delicious, we'll definitely make it again! 

I had no clue you could purchase pre-made pot stickers from the grocery store! Watch out...I'm in trouble now!

Since we had a pineapple in the fridge from our recent Bountiful Baskets order, we decided to cut it and toss it on the grill, too! 

Dessert was made from a recipe I've shared here on the blog in the past - it's called Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake and is straight from the Liberty Tree Tavern lunch menu. Add a little Blue Bell ice cream and caramel sauce and you're in heaven! Y'all...although this stuff is incredibly unhealthy, it's SO amazing!

 As for the Ohana marinated chicken, this was our first time to have it and we were unsure of what to expect! It was really good and we will definitely make it again! 

Ohana Marinated Chicken

Adapted from: Clover and Thyme

Ingredients:

• 1 tbl. garlic, minced
• 1/8 cup malt vinegar
• 1/8 cup lemon juice
• 2 dashes tabasco
• 1 teaspoon of Cajun seasoning (this was my twist to the recipe - you could do 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp of pepper if you'd rather that instead)
• 1/8 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 4-5 chicken breasts

Directions:

Combine all ingredients except olive oil in a blender/magic bullet and blend until mixed well.
Slowly add olive oil and continue to blend.
Thaw chicken breasts and punch holes in meat with a fork.
Place chicken in a bowl.
Pour marinade on top of chicken to coat.
Cover and cool in fridge for 12-24 hours to marinate.
Grill/cook as desired.
Serve and enjoy!

Blending away!

Ready to chill in the fridge!

Post-grilled yummy goodness!

That's all there is to it! If you try this recipe, I hope you enjoy!! :) Have a great day!

Have you ever attempted a Disney recipe at home? If so, what did you make?

February Disney Trip Part 1

Did anyone catch Dancing with the Stars last night? I LOVE Disney night and ABC went above and beyond on this season’s episode. My favorite dance of the night was the Pirates of the Caribbean dance and I love how Riker got 100% into the Jack Sparrow character! Overall great episode and definitely one of my favorites!

Speaking of Disney, I realized that I never shared anything outside of the races during our Princess Half Marathon trip!

Overall it was a really fun trip and I enjoyed spending time with friends and making new ones!

Our flight left Houston super early in the morning (around 6 a.m. maybe?) which put us landing at MCO around 9 a.m.! I loved having an entire day to spend at Disney that wasn’t mostly filled with travel!

Obligatory MCO picture :)

Did I mention that it was SUPER cold in Disney when we landed? Like, holy cow this is COLD. I was dressed in so many layers, it was a bit ridiculous!

Magical Express was not busy and we were able to get right on a bus to Coronado Springs.

I loved my Magic Band addition – simply cut with vinyl on a Silhouette Cameo!

The best sight in the world (and Carissa)!

Our resort of choice was Coronado Springs. A friend of mine warned me about the huge size of this resort, but I’d stayed there before in 2009 with Heather and didn’t think anything of it because we were close to the main building and enjoyed our stay there. Well this time around….even though I requested a building close to the lobby and a first floor room…we were placed literally in the very BACK corner of the resort, a good 10-15 minute walk from the lobby (and we were placed on the second floor). To be honest, I didn’t mind it at all – we had a bus stop right outside our room which was super convenient, especially for the races. We also weren’t on the dining plan which means we didn’t have refillable mugs to worry about (thank goodness)! Had the later been true, I would have been a little more annoyed. Does anyone know if there’s another refillable mug station at Coronado apart from the lobby? If not, there should be!

Jason and I hung out at our room for a few minutes, then hopped a bus to the Expo. We met up with our friend Randy for lunch at the Wide World of Sports Grill and it was GOOD!

My friend Lisa also happened to be at the Expo so I messaged my location to her and we were able to meet up for a quick hello. She also brought goodies to me which were amazing!!

YUM! Cadbury chocolate is my favorite! :) I also brought her a gumbo mix…hope she enjoyed!

After the Expo, we decided to bypass park plans and take a nap instead. I’m SO glad we did!!

Dinner that evening was at Ohana with friends.

Always a favorite, I love this place!! (I’m sure you’re tired of hearing me talk about it, but it really is my favorite restaurant on property!)

Here’s a few pictures of our food…it was delicious as always! We also had a vegetarian at our table and they fixed an extra special dish just for her! So nice!

On our way back to the Magic Kingdom bus stop, we spotted Wishes from outside the Magic Kingdom. It was neat to see a different view! We stood and watched for a while, then began walking to the buses to beat the crowd.

Overall it was an amazing first day at Disney! We went to sleep as soon as we returned to the room because Jason was participating in the 5K the following morning!

How do you typically spend a travel day at Disney? Parks when you get there? Take a nap? Relax?