My Happy Place

This week I am visiting Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida with my mom and brother.  This is without a doubt my favorite place on the planet, and there's nothing I'd rather do than spend my days surrounded by this magic.

We arrived at our hotel, Disney's Pop Century, around noon on Friday.  We have stayed here for each of our trips and I love the decade theme.  We've stayed in a different decade each time, and Pop has never disappointed us.  One day before we leave I plan to walk around our hotel, as well as Art of Animation across the lake, and take pictures of it all.

For lunch on Friday we walked over to brand new Art of Animation and ate at Landscape of Flavors.  This is my first Disney trip since becoming aware of my gluten-intolerance so I was a bit nervous about the food.  I did my research and heard that Disney is the best place to travel for food allergies, but I still didn't really know what to expect.  My first gluten-free dining experience with Disney was AMAZING.  The chef came out to explain every item on the menu I could eat and every item he could modify for me.  He took my order, showed me a binder that listed every ingredient in the food I chose, went back to cook it, and personally brought it to me so there was no chance of cross contamination.  He took his time explaining everything and did it with a smile, so I didn't have to feel guilty for inconveniencing anyone like I usually do when I dine out.  I had a chicken burger on a gluten-free bun with fries and chocolate gelato that was really delicious. 

That afternoon we went to Epcot.  We went on Soarin', which is my mom's all-time favorite ride, Spaceship Earth, and Living with the Land.  It was raining for awhile so Test Track was down, unfortunately. 

We ate at Sunshine Seasons for dinner and I discovered that their grill section is dedicated gluten-free!  I had salmon topped with a yummy tomato concoction and served with green beans and roasted potatoes.  My dessert options were creme brulee or rice pudding.  I couldn't wait to try the creme brulee but they had just run out, so I tried the rice pudding.  I don't think I'd get it again, but everything else was excellent. 

We crashed early that night because we had taken the red eye from Oregon, but our trip was off to a great start.  I haven't had time yet to journal everything yet, but it'll have to wait.  It's getting very late and tomorrow is HARRY POTTER!!!  Tomorrow we are off to Universal Studios!  Goodnight friends and Disney fans, see ya real soon!

Warming Our House

After two months of trying to get settled in our new house, last weekend we had our housewarming party.  I lived in Stressville for two weeks and probably focused on way too many details, but I think it ended up turning out really well.  My mom drove up from Coos Bay and she and Tyler's mom were a huge help with preparing food. 

I made a non-alcoholic sparkling pineapple lemonade that I didn't even have a chance to try but it was a hit.  I also made a triple berry white sangria that was pretty amazing.

I used orange and aqua card stock to match the theme colors and sprayed one side with chalkboard paint, then wrote on them with a chalk pen to make signs for all the food and beverages.  I think they turned out so cute!  For party favors I made lavender-eucalyptus soap with shea butter that smells SO good.  I seriously love this soap so much.  I used a heart shaped rubber ice cube tray from Ikea for the molds.

Two of my best friends, Amy and Julie, were able to make the drive up from Salem to see the house.  Amy brought her 8-month-old daughter, my goddaughter, Charlotte.  Charlotte had fun playing with our friends' baby Lila who just turned one.  It was adorable watching them learn to play together!

Once most of the guests left we finally had a chance to relax with a couple close friends.  I hadn't sat down or eaten all day, so it felt amazing to stop playing hostess.  We started up the fire pit and turned on the garden lights for a wonderful, warm summer night.  

 

Of course, the pineapple...

 And I just love this captured moment at the end of the night.

A New Beginning

I started this blog as a way to talk about my exciting and less-exciting life adventures.  I've neglected it, but I decided it's time I make more room in my life for writing.  So far, this has been an amazing summer.  I spent Memorial Day weekend in Sunriver again with three other couples.  It was a really amazing weekend with some of the people I love best.

 
















For 4th of July, Tyler and I went to visit friends in Denver.  We got to sit on Coors Field to watch the fireworks on the 4th.  It was really incredible.  It was our first plane trip together(and we survived!), and it was a lot of fun to explore a new city.  Denver is not so unlike Portland.  I'd love to go back for another visit someday.

A couple weeks ago we went rafting on the Deschutes River with some friends.  It was great to be off the grid for three whole days and live off of what we could fit into one raft.  I love Oregon, and the great outdoors. 

So far, this summer has been full of great times and even greater people.  But the most amazing thing that has happened to me in a long time happened two months ago.  In June, Tyler and I bought our first house together!  It was a stressful process, but we found an amazing house that we are beyond in love with. 

It's perfect for our first place together and we've been having fun doing a ton of projects.  I love the process of turning this house into a home, and I would like to include that in this blog.  I'll be talking about my traveling and domestic adventures, so welcome to my world and enjoy!

Memorial Day in Sunriver

The Thursday night before Memorial Day weekend, Tyler and I started talking about getting out of town for a day or two.  We both had Friday and Monday off work, so we discussed Sunriver and began looking at cabin rentals online.  No decisions were made before we went to bed that night, but Tyler woke me up Friday morning to tell me he was going to pick up the keys to a cabin and we were leaving in two hours.  We invited a couple people, grabbed our friend Smitty, and hit the road.  The cabin was adorable, had three bedrooms, and because it ended up being just the three of us we had more than enough space.  Immediately upon our arrival we cracked a beer and sat on the back deck to kick off our long, relaxing weekend.

Next, we found some bikes in the garage and hit the trails to explore for a couple hours.

We ate dinner at the Sunriver Brewhouse.  They had gluten-free beer(yay!), and I ate the artichoke crab melt on a gluten-free bun, which was exceptional!  The service staff was very friendly and helpful about gluten-free options and gave advice about other things to do in the area.

After dinner, we grabbed drinks at The Owl's Nest, a bar at the Resort.  They had a live band playing a combination of jazz and classic rock.

After that we retired to our cabin to wind down in the hot tub before bed.  Saturday morning after sleeping late I escaped to the porch to recover with coconut water and start a new book in the sun while Tyler made breakfast.

We spent the day at SHARC, Sunriver Homeowners Aquatic & Recreation Center.  There was an indoor pool, a lazy river, a water slide, and a hot tub.  The lazy river was nice, but a little to fast for me to consider it "lazy", and the amount of children(and grown-up children) splashing each other reduced my ability to relax much.  The water slide was great, but as it was May in Oregon the wind at the top of the slide was frigid and I couldn't bring myself to make the climb more than once.

After the water park we lounged around watching tv and playing board games.  Smitty taught me to play chess, which I am apparently naturally amazing at.  For dinner we made the most amazing fish tacos I've ever had in my life and had a low-key night.

Sunday morning I snuck in a quick run in the rain before making breakfast.

Our friends Wayne and Emilee were staying nearby, so we met them in Bend for the day to brewery-hop.  We started at Deschutes Brewery, which had an excellent Belgian-style gluten-free beer.  They identified the gluten-free beverages by putting a rubber band around the glass.  I thought that was clever.

Our next stop was Bend Brewing Co.  They didn't have a gluten-free beer but they had a hard cider that I loved.  It's called Strongbow, and it's dry instead of sweet like most ciders.

After that we made our way to 10 Barrel Brewing Company, which we had heard good things about.  I had to stand in line for almost a half hour only to find out they had no gluten-free options.  There was nowhere to sit and there were fire pits blowing smoke everywhere.  Our friends downed their drinks and we left disappointed and unsatisfied.

After a great day with great people, we returned to our haven and Tyler cooked a nice steak dinner(chicken for me).  We played more games, which became very competitive, and enjoyed our last night of relaxation.

On Monday, we slept in and cleaned up the cabin.  We stopped in Bend for lunch at McMenamins Old St. Francis School.  Then we sadly drove back to real life.  Sunriver is one place I've always loved.  It isn't a far drive from Portland, and every visit feels like a real vacation.