the magic kingdom!!!

aw, we saved the best park for last. we were all happy and ready to get the day started!

jason told us that the magic kingdom is set up higher than ground level. underneath the whole park is a tunnel system to help all of the characters get where they need to be without walking in the open through the park. he also said that sometimes it'll be raining in the other parks, but the weather will be perfect in the magic kingdom...

we went on a few rides before getting in line for the Be Our Guest Restaurant. it was a long wait, but the interior was worth it! we ate in the ballroom and walked through the beasts area that had the rose and his portrait. i would recommend this to everyone because it really was as though we were in the castle, it was awesome! the only unfortunate thing was i waited too long to tell jon that i was hungry. so by the time we got in line, placed our order then sat and got our food i was soo sick. i just felt like i wanted to lay down and/or throw up. that's about when he gave me a firm talking to about getting food when i'm hungry and not waiting. yes sir! 

jon and gaston!

it was so much fun to be here with Jon. we have many fond memories at disneyland, so although this was different, it felt very similar. 

robinson's.

john took this to come back and show kat the menu while she waited in line. i think it'll be a cool picture down to line to show the prices. people always complain about how expensive disney park food is but jon and i think it's great compared to sea world!

dole whip. heaven in a bowl. my pregnant self can't handle this picture.

this was on big thunder mountain. i decided to go on it and although it wasn't too jerky, it made me really sick. the gang wanted to go on it again so i just waited and watched the fireworks.

Jon took this picture as they were ascending on the roller coaster. he said it was amazing to be riding the roller coaster while the fireworks were exploding in the sky.

all in all, this trip was awesome. kat and john were great company and of course, any time with jon is perfect in my eyes. i want to go back already and experience it all again!

disneyworld: epcot!!

the next morning, as we turned around the hotel corner towards the car, jon said "okay guys, i can only blame myself for this." we all looked over to see what he was talking about: the three boxes of CPK pizza sitting on the roof of john and kat's car. all night, in the rain. i guess jon had pulled them out of the trunk and put them on top of the car and then forgot to take them inside!

we were sooo bummed, as our whole plan was to have leftover pizza in epcot all day long! the pizza was mostly soaked, but i ate a piece of mine that was a bit dry and almost immediately regretted it. we threw it all away!

it didn't damper our mood too much, i mean how grumpy can you be at disney world? we were so excited to go to epcot because john and kat raved about it and said it was all about innovation and culture! two things we're totally into, but mostly cultural foods/accents.

 a couple hours into the day, it started POURING RAIN! it came down hard and fast! it started raining while we were on Rocket to the Red Planet. full disclaimer: there are two parts to this motion simulator ride. you can either go on the side that isn't so thrilling, or the side that is very thrilling. john and kat had been on the side that wasn't as thrilling since john gets motion sick. our friend jason told us the day before that we needed to go all in and go on the one that is very thrilling. i think all of us knew we were in line for the very thrilling side except john. RIGHT before we got into the very cramped 'space ship', kat told him that they had never been on this side of the ride and its supposed to be more intense than the ride they went on! we all watched his smile fade into a look of panic. there were so many signs everywhere saying "Do not ride this ride if you are prone to motion sickness!" another unsettling sight was a group of four teenagers getting really pumped up, jumping around nervously and screaming before getting into their space ship. kat and i exchanged very worried looks. we got in our space ship, the doors closed and we were looking at a screen that showed us getting boomeranged into space with major g force. kat was sitting next to me screaming "john i hate this! i hate this so much!!" totally freaking out! i finally yelled "KAT YOU'RE MAKING IT WORSE." the four of us rode the rest of the ride in complete silence. i was sweating and talking myself out of throwing up. my eyes were closed and i was riding gerry in san diego, going over jumps and cantering around the arena. jon was holding my hand and i was careful not to squeeze it because i knew he'd already be really worried. the ride lasted way too long and when we finally finished and stepped off of the ride kat started profusely apologizing to me. it wasn't her fault and we were all very, very sick haha! the night before, at cpk, i told them i was really nauseous and they watched me take a zofran. immediately after taking it i said "i'm healed!" kat teased me saying it couldn't work that fast. after this simulator ride, i offered a zofran to kat. she took it and said "wow, that really does work fast." luckily the rain was coming down so hard that we had time to sit inside the gift shop waiting for jon to buy a poncho. it gave our stomachs time to settle. i decided to take off my shoes while it was raining, i felt like a sicko walking around the park barefoot, but i was happy later when it cleared up and i had dry shoes to put on!

the best part of epcot is obviously the food. we got chocolate in the UK, stopped in France and ate sweets and sandwiches. in japan we watched the drummers, in the US we listened to the presidents and the choir sing about america and just all around loved where we are from.

7 weeks 4 days.

Morocco. 

we stopped in italy and had the greasiest pizza. this is about the time that my cousin said "a.j., i'm really trying to keep up with you." (eating wise) in germany we got jon's favorite food: bratwursts. he said they were eh but still enjoyed the experience. 

in china we stopped and watched flexible chinese girls and strong chinese boys flip around and hula hoop. everyone else was more impressed than i was, but i loved the terra cotta warriors they had on display! i wrote a paper on them at San Diego State, so i loved seeing the replicas. these are the only replica of the original 8,000 warriors discovered in 1974 by a local chinese farmer trying to drill a well in Xi'an, china. i'm standing by a tall one, but in the room they had all the tiny warriors!

 jon loved norway because it reminded him of sweden! we rode the ride that wasn't great called the maelstrom. some parts were cool, but it was over all kind of weird. we heard that it was going to be turned into a Frozen ride which will probably be awesome.
our last stop was mexico! i love mexico and the little mart reminded us of old town san diego (haha). the ride was super cute and the atmosphere was really fun. we were pretty done at this point, so we didn't eat here and just headed home. i hadn't been sleeping very good since i got pregnant, but this weekend i didn't wake up hungry in the night once and i slept hard every night! it was awesome!
our last day was spent at the magic kingdom!!!

i want to go back: universal studios!

i'm finally writing about our awesome trip to disneyland/universal with my cousin John and his wife kat! we had so much fun and going through all these photos makes me want to go back this instant. 

 here i am at 7 weeks 2 days pregnant. skinny little thing! at this point i could already tell my body was changing. my boobs hurt so, so bad. i usually had to wear a sports bra to bed or else i would wake up in pain from rolling onto them, haha. i also felt very bloated. my morning sickness was in full swing. i'd wake up STARVING in the middle of the night, requiring jon to run downstairs for applesauce or cereal, or me waking him up by trying to slowly open a granola bar. i would wake up and eat almost every single night and i would eat at least every two hours during the day. work was very difficult because i'd have to sneak to the back and eat in the break room or in the bathroom so that no one was suspicious. i finally had to tell my good friend at work i was expecting because she kept commenting on how hungry i always was. we had told our immediate families but none of our cousins or aunts or anything yet, but we knew we had to tell john and kat before going on our trip. they were very excited for us and i'll tell you that they were so sweet about it the whole trip.

here we are in the orlando airport! we flew really early in the morning so that we could spend the first day at universal studios.  

 we decided to go to universal studios because j&k told us it would be a let down if we were to go to disney world first, haha.

 this was the main event for us: the wizarding world of harry potter!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was a tiny section of universal, but it did not disappoint. the shops, the decor, the workers in wizard drab and the butter beer was all amazing. i think it's safe to say that jon's favorite part was the butter beer. i loved the honey dukes candy shop and the wand shop. before we went on our trip, we researched and talked a lot about the rides i would go on. i made the personal decision to go on most rides. i knew our baby was just a tiny bean and had a lot of space to be bouncing around in my belly, the main thing was the motion sickness. harry potter and the forbidden journey is the ride inside the castle and it was kind of like a real ride mixed with a 4d ride and boy did it make me sick. it was really awesome, but i don't know how much i'd like it even if i wasn't pregnant! after that, i had to sit out while the rest of the crew went on a more intense roller coaster (i think it was the dragon challenge). john sat out and ate saltines with me while they rode, he got sick on the castle ride too!

another fun thing about being in florida was my old friend from college, jason stephens, was working at disney world! he had friends in town, so he happened to be at universal the same day we were. it was sooo good to see him, jon and i both think he is the nicest. 

 

the second best part about universal studios was definitely the Jurassic park section. i haven't seen that movie in so long, so i really didn't recognize the scenery. john, kat and jon all loved it though! all i know is the JP ride was amazing.

we walked around the rest of universal, including marvel island. jon was realllllly digging it, he loves those comics and movies. we ate a bit (a lot), got some stretched pennies, and they went on the hulk ride. jon said it was really intense, i couldn't tell if he liked it or not. (when i asked him he said "i can't remember how much i liked it. i think it was fun but really loud.") all in all, it was a fun first day! we were surprisingly not too tired even though we'd gotten less than five hours of sleep the night before. we finished the night at california pizza kitchen, just in time too. i was feeling very, very sick by the time we got to the restaurant. this was all before i had even gone to the doctor, so i am lucky enough that my step-MIL had zofran at the house to send with me. (she's a nurse, she has that kind of thing laying around) zofran literally saved me this trip, it was amazing to feel how fast that stuff can work. john and kat had gift cards to CPK, so they treated us! we each got a pizza so that we could have left overs for the next day at the park…..more on that later. 

the last notable thing about our first day in FL was when john told us about his 'condition'. we were all getting ready for bed when he said "sooooo, let me tell you kids about a little thing called sleep apnea." jon and i moaned and groaned, but i secretly didn't mind at all. my dad has had that forever and has been using a C-PAP machine to sleep with for years. the constant drone of the machine is actually quite soothing to me!! 

next stop: epcot!!!!!!!

i'm a travel agent.

yep, you read that right! my dad and i started a franchise with Cruise Planners and we now have our ownnnn business!! we signed up with them way back in april. we were going to go to training in june, but my dad had all of his heart stuff going on so we pushed it back. i've been laying low about it because i wanted to go to training and learn more about the company.

we went to ft. lauderdale, fl the week before last and had an entire week of classes, learning and cruise ship tours! we had to be at the convention center at 7am everyday and we wouldn't leave there until around 5 or 6pm. we'd get dinner and go home to just lay in our hotel beds, we hardly did any site-seeing at all! haha...it was so fun to be there with my dad though and we laughed so much.

the first night we were there we had a cocktail party. i thought this was so funny because my dad does freelance work for a woman in georgia and he got on the hotel computer during our work party to do work for his other client. that man.

after the welcome party on tuesday we went out. i went for my 3 mile run and my dad went walking. i made it down to the beach! it wasn't as hot as san antonio is, but it was way more humid! i ran along the beach for maybe 1/4 of a mile before realizing it was the worst idea ever and found myself back on pavement. it was the only time during that trip that i went running even though i had big plans to do so. just too busy!

wednesday is the day that i ate nonstop. they constantly had food for us and i took advantage of it entirely. have you ever eaten so much that you threw up? i hadn't either until this fateful day. i woke up at 11:30 pm and tossed my cookies (and cake...and chipotle) then fall back to sleep and didn't wake up until the morning. weirdest thing ever!

 

Don Shula was the coach for the Miami Dolphins and apparently has steakhouses throughout florida and has started opening burger places called shula burger. it was pretty good.

cruise planners gave everyone $25 american express gift cards because the whole day we were running behind and we are partnered with american express. we took our cards and went out for a nice dinner at bimini boatyard bar and grill. i went out on a limb and ordered mahi mahi (this is about the time i found out that 'mahi mahi' and just 'mahi' are the same thing. i'm glad i asked my dad and not the waiter). we started out on the patio but it started pouring rain!!!!

on saturday we got to go to miami and tour the carnival liberty! it was so cool to be able to see all the different suites! they served us an awesome lunch which included crab cakes, salad, steak and creme brûlée. are you getting a good understanding as to why i threw up the first day there? 

check me outttt.

on sunday, our last day in florida, we got to tour the largest cruise ship in the world! royal caribbean's "allure of the seas"! it was a night and day difference from the carnival liberty. it is HUGE and has so many cool amenities! we got to see the largest suite on the ship (there is only one of these rooms) and it was beautiful. they had their own loft, hot tub out on their personal balcony and a baby grand piano in their living room. amazing. the other rooms were awesome too and the coolest thing about this ship is the option to have a room with a window or balcony looking into the interior of the ship.

it was such a fun trip! i love being business partners with my dad.

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this is my one plug for robinson's cruise planners, my blog isn't going to turn into a business blog. i just wanted to let everyone know what i am up to!