Another Year Passes...

This past Saturday night I coughed, sneezed and sniffled my way into starting my 32nd year on this planet. I celebrated my 31st birthday.

Actually, it wasn't as bad as that. To be honest, it was really pretty great. Chris really made me feel so special this past weekend. He's such a great guy! :)

After a hair appointment (ha - got my "hair did"), Chris and I checked into Coronado Springs at Disney. There, he asked if I wanted a "January 27th present" (being that my birthday is actually the 28th). I said yes, as long as I would still have something to open (even if it was the card) the next day. He said he had a few things for me, so I opened gift #1, large garnet earrings - YAY! I had told him I wanted garnets (my birthstone) for a while.

We then went to Victoria and Albert's (Disney's highest of the high end restaurants) for dinner. The meal was amazing. Really. 6 courses and they printed menus specially for us with our names as keepsakes of our special evening. Mine even said "Happy 31st Birthday!" We had all kinds of interesting food from buffalo to elk to quail. YUM!

After dinner, we headed back to our hotel room for a quick change and friends of ours (Anna and Dimitri) met up with us for some fun at Pleasure Island. Nothing too crazy, just a couple of beers, live band and some snarky comments between us girls as we marvled at the clothes that "young girls wear these days", reminiscing about our younger days and going to clubs and parties. I would put on a pair of BAGGY jeans, my cleanest white t-shirt and my BEST flannel shirt... add a pair of Doc Martins, and I was good to go! The girls we saw were all wearing backless, deep v shirts with boobage overflow, miniskirts, THIGH high spike heel boots and flat-ironed hair. Ew.

Sunday was fun as well. Chris gave me my other presents of cushy crochet hooks, knitting looms, a super large pen (was cute) and my ultimate gift, a new Michael Kors hobo bag - yay! We spent the day at Magic Kingdom, with me wearing a button that they gave me for my birthday. All day long people were saying "Happy Birthday" to me. It was fun.

Here are some photos to compare.

This is what 30 looks like:

This is 31:


I don't see much of a difference, do you?

Despite all the fun, I'm still battling a cold. Not sure what's up with it... runny nose, headache, sore throat and cough. I'm also losing my voice (I hope Chris isn't too happy about that! :)

I have a new friend - a dolphin named Lester!

Chris and I FINALLY redeemed the gift card that he gave me for my 30th birthday last year. Just in time, right? I mean, it isn't like my bday is now less than a week away! ;) Anyway, he bought me a gift card to go to Discovery Cove (http://www.discoverycove.com) here in Orlando. Discovery Cove is a small park owned by the Sea World folks (or maybe just affiliated with Sea World...) where you can have interactions with many different kinds of marine and bird life. The focus point of the day was our swim with a dolphin. When you arrive, you are assigned your dolphin swim time for the day and you end up breaking up into groups of about 8 for a dolphin interaction. Lester was a thirtysomething dolphin (kind of an old guy by dolphin standards) and was short and stocky. WOW, it was like I was meant to be his friend! :) He did a few tricks for us, "talking" on command, waving to us with his flippers and tail, letting us give him a "dolphin carwash" (where he swims by you and you get to rub him down). He posed with us for still photos as well as photos with us kissing him on his bumpy snout. The best part of the visit was him allowing us to swim with him. One hand on his dorsal fin, and one hand on his flipper and he swam us about 100 or so yards. It was way too cool.



Above: Me and Lester taking a swim

Below: All of the dolphins in our session... Lester is on the far right.




Also at the park we swam with and fed stingrays. Their barbs are cut so there is no risk of injury to the human visitors (it isn't painful, kinda like cutting your fingernails). They also had a coral reef where we got to swim around and see all kinds of fish and more rays (devil rays that weren't with the stingrays). They had a resort pool that was 85 degrees (which was great because it didn't quite reach 70 on Saturday when we were there - we were wearing full wetsuits, but it was still a bit chilly) and a warm lazy river to enjoy. The final part that they had was a bird interaction area where you could feed all kinds of interesting birds, big and small. We went in twice, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Some of the birds were really huge, but I think my favorite was the small bird area. A little "mouse bird" from South Africa stole my heart. His name was Captain Jack and was the sweetest little thing. I fed him and he curled up in my hand and took a nap. Too cute! I just hope Franco isn't jealous :)

Yesterday (Sunday) we went to Sea World for a day. It was great. I have to say I was very impressed. I'm usually quite a Disney snob, but Sea World really exceeded my expectations. So much so that we upgraded our day pass to an annual pass! I can't wait to go back!

First post on Google Blogger

Ok, so I guess I'm about to finally admit that I am a "thirtysomething". Wow, that sounds old for some reason, but in just over a week I'll be 31. No longer a magical 30 or "in my twenties". 31. Blech. Ah well. Moving on.

I'm home from work today. Not really by choice. Well, I guess by choice. I mean, I could have gone to work in what I would term "agony" for the day. I have (yet another) UTI. Ick. Ouch. I'm finally able to sit comfortably for a little while this afternoon. I'm on the mend though. One round of daily antibiotics in me already and pizza tonight for dinner and I should be fine to go to work tomorrow :) Moving on again...

Chris and I are back and adjusted again to life in Florida after our amazing trip to London and Paris with Adventures By Disney - Land of Eternal Knights trip. If you ever have the opportunity, I HIGHLY recommend it. The trip was wonderful. From the time we were wisked away from the Gatwick airport by a guy in a $500 suit driving a Mercedes S class private car, we knew we were in for a trip of a lifetime! We got to see all of the great sites of each city... Westminster Abby, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Harod's Department Store, Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward Theatre, The London Eye, the Tower of London (and my favorite, the crown jewels!), Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Elysees, Disneyland Paris, Chateau de Versailles, dinner AT the Eiffle Tower and the Louve! We've finally gotten all of our photos up on Kodak Gallery. Now to decide which to print for albums.