Soring Over Florida Alligators Zip Lining at Florida Eco Safaris

If it’s not enough that my very first time zipling at speeds I’m not used to traveling at heights I’m not used to standing at we were also soring over Alligators. As far as Alligators go I would say he’s pretty sweet, if you talk to him he’ll move closer to you. I’m not sure he’s hungry, I think he enjoys the conversation, at least that’s what I was telling myself as I was praying that my lines wouldn’t give.

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When asked if I wanted to go on a trip to Kissimmee, Florida, I said yes, of course. I was expecting Disney World, I’ve never been there before. Next thing I know, I’ve signed myself up for ICE, bi-plane riding, and zip-lining. UHHH, the nerves kicked in at the words ziplining and bi-plane riding. Hmmm. Ok, here we go, I wasn’t going to back out. I put on the gear and felt quite adventurous.

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Then we climbed the stairs, the rickety stairs up to our first line. Now we’re talking rules and don’t touch this and don’t’ do that, my hearing glosses over as I’m noticing how high we are and that we have to be unhooked for a brief time as we get ready to jump/fall/sit into our glide across the trees. My nerves kicked into high gear and I wasn’t sure what to do.

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As I watched everyone go before me I was wondering if I could really do this? The thrill seeker in me won out. I did it, I flew through the trees like a bird and loved it. It wasn’t until about four lines into it that I was actually able to really enjoy it. I’m pretty sure I’m afraid of heights but I have a closet thrill seeker in me that rides mechanical bulls, runs through the streets of New York in a ball gown, and fly down zip lines over Alligators.

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Florida Eco Safaris take care of everything you need. They provide tour guides who help you along the way. They are quite prepared for any and all occasions and ours even provided some quick witted much needed humor to lighten the tension of something so adventurous. They of course provide the gear and keep up with all ziplining standards. I had an amazing time and can’t wait for round two. At Florida’s Eco Safaris you can choose from four amazing ways to explore Forever Florida: Coach Safari, Horseback Safari, soar over it all on Florida’s biggest and All New Zipline Safari™, or pedal through the treetops on the New Cypress Canopy Cycle. We also did the Cypress Canopy Cycle, it’s a lot of work and I was a little too close to really large spiders for my taste but I did really enjoy the workout.

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Travel Expenses were covered by Kissimmee CVB, Global Resort Homes and Florida Eco Safaris. Special thanks to Kas pictured above for helping to organize the event.

Finding Nemo in 3D: Visiting the Seattle Aquarium #2DaysInSeattle

It’s been a while since our family has visited the Seattle Aquarium. It’s grown quite a bit since our last visit. They have a new indoor entrance and so many more hands on opportunities to play with the sea life.

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After buying the tickets we were able to catch the end of the diver feeding the fish and her interview. My kids were fascinated and amazed, it reminded me of how much my kids loved going to the aquarium in the first place. Of course Finding Nemo brought out a love of aquariums in all kids (which by the way Finding Nemo comes out in 3D September 14, 2012), but my kids loved looking at fish way before they saw the movie..

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The aquarium used the familiarity that children have and created an activity where the kids had to find different fish from the movie. Not all the fish we had to find were prominent in the movie but Nemo and Dori were both on the list. My kids had a blast searching through the fish and different tanks to find Nemo and the other fish on the list. What a great educational opportunity taking your kids to the aquarium was. 

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After our fish hunt we went to see the baby otter. To get to the otter l we had to go through the puffin house. Wow!! there was a puffin in there that was going a little crazy I think. Quoting Finding Nemo, “Fish don’t belong in a tank, it does something to them”….I was thinking that actually applied to this crazy puffin. The kids loved it though, they thought he was just putting on a show for them. Seriously, I’m happy the aquarium does what they do, the educate the kids and myself in so many different ways.Look at this seahorse it’s amazing!

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Through stories, hands on exhibits and information we had a very fun and educational day. I learned that the Great Pacific Octopus can get up to 400 lbs, at least that’s the largest recorded weight. And they can get into as small as a quarter size hole as long as their beak isn’t that big. It’s their only limitation.

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We ended our day with fish hats and I leave you with this trailer of Finding Nemo in 3D.

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Travel and Expenses were covered by 2daysinseattle, the Seattle CVB. And yes I do have an ongoing relationship with Disney and DreamWorks. I have permission to use their artwork.

Krispy Kreme Coffee Doughnut Pairing Suggestions

I love doughnuts, I love them almost as much as I love pizza, especially when the doughnuts are hot and fresh. In fact, the fresh ones I eat and eat and eat without realizing how many I’ve eaten. I’ve recently found that I’m not alone when it comes to having such a rampant sweet tooth. Coffee on the other hand I have not always been a big fan of. My husband turned me into the coffee addict that I am and when it comes to coffee, I still prefer coffee with my cream and sugar mixture. My sweet tooth is un-satisfy-able at times.

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So when Krispy Kreme asked us to try the coffee straight up with the doughnuts I was skeptical and apprehensive. Even though they were giving me such wonderful doughnuts all I could think of was I have to have my sugar. I never thought the doughnut would actually provide the sweetness itself.

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House Blend pairs with the blueberry cake doughnut

Dark Roast pairs with the Raspberry filled doughnut. The coffee really did enhance the flavor of the doughnut.

House Decaf pairs with the original doughnut. It’s strange but the house blend and the house blend decaf taste different and it’s meant to be that way. Of course, I drink coffee for the caffeine kick not for the taste, but I do prefer to drink coffee that I enjoy. Did you know that we add sugar to bad coffee, so if you start out with good coffee you don’t need sugar or in my case you don’t need as much.

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My favorite coffee is the Krispy Kreme Dark Roast coffee blend out of the three we tasted. I liked the dark flavors and enjoyed it just a tiny bit black, which for me says a lot about the coffee. Now I’m off to the store to find myself some more Krispy Kreme coffee grinds to use in my Keurig My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter. They only sent me home with the House Blend.

 

Travel and expenses were covered by Krispy Kreme.

Moving To A Booster Seat: What About the Evenflo Amp Booster

We’re moving Miles to a booster seat and we are considering moving Zoe to a new backless one. How do we make that decision to know of they are ready. First we have to know their weight and height and our local laws. Over at Looksblue, I wrote a post about knowing your state booster seat laws and how to find them if you don’t know them. So two, know your state laws.

Then if your child is ready and your state says it’s ok you have to find the perfect booster seat for you. There are so many good choices out there and we’re happy with the one Zoe’s been using for the past year, but since Miles is ready for one now and is the right height and weight, I’m ready to move Zoe to a backless one. At just the same tine I was considering making this switch, Evenflo sent me the Evenflo Amp Backless booster seat.  I think what I love most about this one is that it’s so easy to install and take from one car to another. 

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We were able to take this booster seat and put it in our friends back seat and take our three kids and go to a game night at the church. It was a tight fit in the backseat. One was a car seat, one was a full back booster seat and Zoe’s seat was the Evenflo Amp.

It is designed and tested for structural integrity at energy levels approximately 2X the federal crash test standard. I find that to be quite impressive.

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The Evenflo Amp backless booster seat is for use with children 40-100lbs and 40-57 inches tall. Zoe just fits into these categories. Now when they sit in the seat the seat belt must be in the perfect location on their shoulder. This piece that I’m showing you in that photo above is to adjust the seatbelt to make sure it’s in the right location against their shoulder. Remember safety when putting your child into a booster seat. Follow all rules and precautions. image

The Evenflo Amp Backless booster has ComfortTouch™ padding  which looks like it acutaully makes the seat comfy. You can find it in a variety of colors and designs. We have the red one and like it a lot. My husband told Zoe that she’ll be sitting on a lady bug. It worked like a charm because I never thought she’d give up her monkey seat. I wouldn’t have wanted to give up my monkey seat. We haven’t tried the accessible Elastic Dual cup holders for drinks yet but Zoe tried to use it for something else. Not while we were in the car but while she was becoming accustomed to it. It promises to have easy Cleaning with an easy to remove for machine-washing which I’m super excited about. We eat in our car so we make messes and car seats always get dirty when you fly so if it’s easy to clean that makes me super happy.

Available at Target for $27.99 and Amazon.

we received samples

Wordless Wednesday My Coffee Girl

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A Walk Down Alaskan Way Through Photos #2DaysInSeattle

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Pier 62 and 63 is where my husband asked me to marry him almost 11 years ago. We’ll be celebrating out 10 year anniversary June 8th.

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Thanks to @2daysinSeattle/ Seattle CVB for a fantastic day out with the family experiencing the fair city of Seattle.

Behind Broadway with Steve Fickinger: NEWSIES Hits March 15th

When I was a little girl NEWSIES came out and when I watched it I was bored out of my mind. I think that because of the NEWSIES I decided that musicals must not be my thing. I actually hated the NEWSIES when it came out so long ago and Steve Fickinger, VP of Creative Development and Licensing for NEWSIES on Broadway, said the movie wasn’t the best. “I can’t imagine many of you saw it in the theaters, because I think it played for one week.” Because it failed. “Well, as you might imageknow, oddly the film failed. Failed, failed. I think it made maybe three million bucks. It was in the theater for one week, one week, a famous failure.” He said, “It’s not a great movie.” But NEWSIES the Broadway Musical is going to be fantastic.

Talking to Steve and watching the preview of NEWSIES the Broadway musical gives me hope that N on Broadway it actually has a chance at being something really special. The songs are better the dancing is better and they incorporated more girls into the show. I wish I lived in New York so that I could see it in March when it starts it’s run. I guess my other hope would be that it’s so successful that it goes on tour and comes to Seattle so I can watch it locally. I bet my kids would like it this go around.

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Disney's Newsies, directed by Jeff Calhoun at Papermill Playhouse 9/15-10/16/11
Music by Alan Menken
Lyrics by Jack Feldman
Book by Harvey Fierstein
Based on the Disney Film written by Bob Tzudiker and Noni White
Choreography by Christopher Gattelli
Lighting Design:Jeff Coiter
Costume Design: Jess Goldstein
Set Design: Tobin Obst
Photograph © T Charles Erickson 
http://tcharleserickson.photoshelter.com/

Steve Fickinger was great to interview, funny and candied with us. He admitted that Disney had a problem with parents in movies and LOVES to kill them off and if a parent actually gets to survive then only one! You know it’s true and that he was being quite silly telling us not to quote him. His honesty with us made me feel I could trust his judgment.

How did the idea for NEWSIES on Broadway get started?Newsies, the Musical 601
Disney's Newsies, directed by Jeff Calhoun at Papermill Playhouse 9/15-10/16/11
Music by Alan Menken
Lyrics by Jack Feldman
Book by Harvey Fierstein
Based on the Disney Film written by Bob Tzudiker and Noni White
Choreography by Christopher Gattelli
Lighting Design:Jeff Coiter
Costume Design: Jess Goldstein
Set Design: Tobin Obst
Photograph © T Charles Erickson 
http://tcharleserickson.photoshelter.com/

NEWSIES is the number one requested Broadway musical. So Steve talked with Alan Menken and Jack Feldman, who did the original film, and also spoke with Bob Tzudicker and Noni White who wrote the original film. They didn’t have Broadway experience so Steve had to find more help. He told us a story about how he found more help.  “Alan Menken, who I’m sure you all know from Beauty and the Beast and etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, Enchanted, Sister Act, many wonderful things, he happened to be at Leo’s Grocery Store. He lives, uh, kind of slightly upstate New York in some beautiful, leafy suburb where I’ll never be able to afford a home, and he happened to run into, uh, Harvey Fierstein, who you probably also know from Mrs. Doubtfire, he wrote the La Cage aux Folles, he wrote towards some trilogy. “ …..”they fell to talking, they’d never met before, and Harvey says, what do you do, what are you working on? And Alan, well, I’m doing this, and I’m doing this, and I’m doing this, and he happened to throw Newsies into the conversation, and Harvey said, let’s talk more about that. So they went over to Alan’s house, and, uh, as they talked more about it, Alan, uh, Harvey watched the film, and Alan picked up the phone, and he said, you know, you’re never going to believe who actually is interested in writing the book for Newsies. Harvey Fierstein.”

Newsies, the Musical 375
Disney's Newsies, directed by Jeff Calhoun at Papermill Playhouse 9/15-10/16/11
Music by Alan Menken
Lyrics by Jack Feldman
Book by Harvey Fierstein
Based on the Disney Film written by Bob Tzudiker and Noni White
Choreography by Christopher Gattelli
Lighting Design:Jeff Coiter
Costume Design: Jess Goldstein
Set Design: Tobin Obst
Photograph © T Charles Erickson 
http://tcharleserickson.photoshelter.com/

Together they created NEWSIES and they had to use the best parts of the movie because believe it or not there is a cult following that loves the movie. So he took the songs, the emotion, sort of the bravado of the musical and created an adaptation that I’m ready to go see right now! Advance tickets go on sale starting Monday, January 30th, previews begin on March 15th and opening night of the show on Broadway is March 29th.

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Disney's Newsies, directed by Jeff Calhoun at Papermill Playhouse 9/15-10/16/11
Music by Alan Menken
Lyrics by Jack Feldman
Book by Harvey Fierstein
Based on the Disney Film written by Bob Tzudiker and Noni White
Choreography by Christopher Gattelli
Lighting Design:Jeff Coiter
Costume Design: Jess Goldstein
Set Design: Tobin Obst
Photograph © T Charles Erickson 
http://tcharleserickson.photoshelter.com/

Thanks to Disney and DreamWorks for covering travel expenses.

Enjoying a Good Book

These are the best of times

imageWordless Wednesday Linky

Creating Drinks and Doughnut Variations at Krispy Kreme

I love trying new things and had to try everything while I was visiting Krispy Kreme and taking only one bite of each was difficult.

IMG_7596Part of our visit included making our own doughnuts. We were given the doughnut shells and we had to use those plane doughnuts to make our own. We were given glaze, chocolate, drizzle and a wide assortment of toppings but not every toping possible. Krispy Kreme has pretty much any topping you can imagine to create their doughnut variations. They’ve used fruit, licensed products like Oreos, candy bars, and candy. Some products are used to create color and some are used to infuse flavor, because it’s a combination of color and flavor that makes us want those doughnut variations.

Now if you know me you won’t find this surprising, but we were supposed to create our own doughnuts within our group, decide who made the best one and then box up 12 of the same doughnut, I misunderstood the directions and thought we were supposed to make a dozen doughnuts of whatever we wanted, so I had fun getting creative. I created about 12 different doughnut topping variations.

IMG_7615OOPS! I’ll try to follow directions next time. Out of all the ones I created I decided that my signature doughnut was an original doughnut with plane glaze, mocha powder and chocolate shavings on top. It was delicious. Another thing I didn’t realize was that we weren’t supposed to eat our creation. I took a bite so it couldn’t go in the box.

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After making doughnuts we had fun making drinks. Krispy Kreme makes cold and hot variations of fabulous drinks. Last year my favorite chiller was the Oreo chiller. My favorite drink of the day was a salted caramel chiller. It was really good, we also created a toasted marshmallow latte that left me wishing I could find a local coffee store that made toasted marshmallow lattes. YUM!

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Look out for these fabulous creations from Krispy Kreme this Valentine’s Day along with a buy a dozen doughnuts get a dozen free doughnuts coupon with their Valentine’s Day promotions!

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Travel and Expenses were covered by Krispy Kreme.

The Kenmore Blogger Summit Fox Force Five

You may look at this title and think WHAT?

You may look at the people in this photo and think, Never Mind!

Fox Force Five

If you said never mind then you must know the fabulous people in this photo and how crazy creative they are and the humor behind the name Fox Force Five. Redneck Mommy couldn’t even say the name without cracking up. Fox Force Five named the winning group of the Kenmore Blogger Summit Crock Pot challenge and named a major contender in the Kenmore Vacuum Video Challenge as well. I mean who else could come up with flying underwear being conquered by the Kenmore Progressive Canister Vac? None other than

Jim (Busy Dad Blog), Shawn (Backpacking Dad), C.C. Chapman, Tanis (The Redneck Mommy), Tricia Night Owl Mama And Me!

Sadly, this photos is missing a key member, Shannon Mr. Lady was supposed to be part of our group but her flight was canceled due to the inclement weather we had. Shannon We missed you!

We were tasked with a few challenges during the day. One of them was to come up with a crock pot recipe in 20 minutes using the Kenmore crockpot and the other challenge was to come up with a Kenmore Canister Vacuum commercial in less than 30 minutes. Our recipe was amazing with a little bit of Asian flair, and our commercial was the funniest. I wish I had the footage to share with you because it cracked me up. Tricia was killed with dirty underwear, and I played the part of the SUPER Vacuum that saved the day throwing the dirty laundry into the Kenmore Washing Machine. Oh and I can’t forget to mention that the dirty laundry was played by Tanis and C. C. Chapman. Words just can’t describe how funny our commercial was.

These are some of the funniest and most successful people I have ever met. One thing I love about them is that their success doesn’t make them impossible. They are genuine, kind and humble and they never stop cracking me up. I highly recommend each of them.

 

Even though this post has hardly anything to do with Kenmore, they did provide travel and expenses so that Fox Force Five could play together all day. Thanks Kenmore, I look forward to further testing the crockpot and writing more about the Summit.