Weekend in Review - March 20-22

For the first time in ages (or forever if that song is stuck in your head), Mario and I did not have an over-scheduled weekend.  I can't remember the last time we had so much free time!  It was awesome!  So here is a run down of how our weekend went with a few photos along the way and links for more information.

To see photos as I take them, join me on Instagram and if you would like to see my restaurant, hotel, and attraction reviews see me on Trip Advisor

Friday

We did not do anything really special on Friday except I had to do some work for my fathers business which I've been doing every Friday night for over a year now (doing work I've been doing since I was in undergrad) which will be changing soon as I make the transition out of my current job and into his business full time starting next week.  It's going to be an adventure and a challenge, but I'm looking forward to the opportunities that it could create.  More about that later...

Saturday

After relaxing a bit (wait what is this?), we headed to the Chicagoland Family Pet Expo with a friend.  Though we did not find as much as we usually do, we did see a really interesting K9 law enforcement training demonstration.  Usually we unload too many funds finding fun stuff for our furballs, but there wasn't nearly as much this year.  The only real "find" was this amazing clothing company called Peace Love Paws Co.  Not only are their designs lovely, but their mission is truly admirable.  I picked up a signature purple hooded shirt and I have a feeling its going to the first of many pieces that make their way in to my wardrobe!

After the expo, we had a little downtime before we headed to a local restaurant/bar called Spears to see my husband's cousin and his band, Miles Over Mountains.  Mario is related to Steve, the bassist.  MOM has a bluegrass/Americana/jam band type sound and the show was a blast.  There were quite a few of us there to support the band and this was the first time we had seen them play.  Luckily they had their CD release party the night before so we were able to take a recording home.  For the first time in a while, I enjoyed a nice glass of Moscato and we closed out the bar that night talking away with some cousins we hadn't seen in a while.

Sunday

We decided that Sunday would be a nice relaxing "date day".  I actually woke up early (my cat needed his insulin shot) and I booked our FP+ reservations for our May trip to Walt Disney World along with rearranging some of the dining reservations that we had already booked.  I couldn't believe it, but we actually got some great plans with only some minor adjustments and reservations for all of the restaurants we wanted to try this time around.  We are Disney Vacation Club Members and have been for a few years now.  Our actual "home resort" (where our timeshare is based) is Animal Kingdom Lodge - Kidani Village, but we are working our way around the resort trying different locations.  So far we've stayed at Saratoga Springs, Animal Kingdom Lodge - Kidani Village, and we stayed a couple of nights at the Grand Californian at Disneyland as well.  This trip, we managed to get reservations at Wilderness Lodge which is perfect for our preferred proximity to Magic Kingdom for this trip.  We were crossing our fingers that there would be another 24 Hour Day this year and we super excited when it was just recently announced.  After our plans were set for May, we were also able change resorts for our September trip for the Epcot Food and Wine Festival to Old Key West also for proximity reasons for the event.  I'll do another post on our Disney Vacation Club membership at a later date to help explain the "ins and outs" of how we plan our WDW time.

Fridge Figment was hanging out right below my reminder to get these planning tasks done for our trip!

In the meantime, here are some photos from our short trip this past November.  We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge and attended Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.  It was a blast and a much needed get away!

Spaceship Earth at Epcot

Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom

Sorcerer's Hat (since been removed) at Hollywood Studios

Cinderella's Castle (frozen over by Elsa) at Magic Kindom

We managed to get a lunch reservation at Be Our Guest for lunch.  We tried the grey stuff.  It was in fact delicious!

Magic Bands and Party passes!

Our last night all decked for the holidays complete with our Santa "ear hats".

We relaxed a bit longer, got a bite of lunch, and headed over to the movie theater to see Insurgent.  Out of all of the dystopian series that are out, my husband actually likes The Divergent Series the best.  It surprises me, but it makes it easier to get him to go!  Since we had a gift card, we splurged and saw it in IMAX 3D.  I'm not normally big on 3D and quite frankly it normally makes me nauseous, but I survived.  I thought it was well directed and it was engaging, but the overuse of CGI was distracting.  I did enjoy it though.  They've done a great job casting for this series and I can't wait to see how they tackle Allegiant (which they are splitting in to two movies like every other final book).  It actually got me motivated to pull out Four: A Divergent Collection again.  It's the only book I hadn't read and I really want to finish it.  I read the Divergent Series over the course of about a week prior to the first movie being released.  If you want to see my ratings for those and other books because I'm a bit of a bookworm as well, connect with me on Good Reads.  

After the movie, we had to go do some major grocery shopping.  Our freezer was already well stocked (even with some dump meals and pre-prepped meals), but we were very low on all of the fresh fruits and vegetables that we needed for some of the recipes we wanted to make this week.  Lately we have been really bad about pre-planning meals and cooking at home.  Since our schedules are changing, we are going to have more time (which should never have been an excuse) and are making meal planning a priority.  

Lots of yummy fresh produce!

So Sunday night, I made the Turkey & Quinoa Taco Bake that I already posted the recipe for.  This time I added a can of Diced Tomatoes (no salt added) and I included extra peppers, onions, and garlic.  I don't typically bake it with the hot sauce, but we add Cholula to our own bowls to taste when serving.  Since the recipe serves 4, this gave me two extra meals pre-made for the week!  As we continue to meal plan, we are planning meals that create extra servings so that we have meals to bring for lunch on the go.

The finished product after baking.