Happy Weekend everyone! I hope you are enjoying time with family and friends. I wanted to let you know I, along with a few of my fellow bloggers, are being featured here. Please head over and check it out.
Wishing you and your families a Happy Easter and/or Passover!
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Hummm. I see a trend. Another product for hair has made my Love of the Week list. This week’s love is these sweet headbands called Sweaty Bands.
These non-slip velvet lined headbands are the only ones that stay in my hair. I have very thick, naturally curly hair. Most headbands do not remain in place, especially after a long run. That is until I found Sweaty Bands. Each RunDisney event I attend, I make sure to purchase a couple. Initially, I thought the brand was exclusive to RunDisney, so imagine my excitement when I found I could order some online.
I wear the bands not only when exercising, but anytime I want to keep my hair out of my face. I throw one on when putting on my make up or cleaning the house. The bands come in various colors, patterns, and different thicknesses. There is something for everyone.
Now I want to pass the love on to you. I have teamed up with Sweaty Bands and together are offering my readers 15% off their first order. Click on the photo below and enter SC15off at checkout. I can’t wait to hear what you think.
Two summers ago, we were fortunate enough to take an Alaskan cruise. We sailed on the Disney Wonder, leaving from Vancouver, British Columbia. To date, it has been one of our favorite vacations. The cruise sailed to Dawes Glacier, Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan. In each port, we did some fantastic adventures, but by far our favorite was the Yukon Discovery and Sled Dog Excursion.
In researching excursions for this trip, I found it was a better deal to book directly with a tour company, rather than through the cruise line. There was a significant price difference, and we traveled with a smaller group. I did my research and ended up using Frontier Excursions and Adventures. We were not disappointed. Our driver met us at the dock and escorted us to a minibus. There were a total of 12 people on the bus. It was perfect. Our guide handed us a map of the road we would be traveling and a list of points of interest we would see along the way. We would be following the Klondike Highway, all the way to Emerald Lake. The road passes through three different provinces/states (Alaska, British Columbia, and Yukon). We traveled from Skagway, drove over the White Pass, went alongside the White Pass and Yukon Railway, drove by lakes, mountains, waterfalls, wildlife, and more. We drove through the rain forest, the tundra, and a desert. We made several stops along the way for photos.
The White Pass Summit is located at the U.S./Canadian border. Our guide pulled over (on our way back to Skagway) and took a photo of each family in front of the Welcome to Alaska sign.
At about mile 15, we crossed the border into British Columbia, Canada, and the landscape changed drastically. This area is known as the Tormented Valley. It is unique, and our guide pointed out that it looked lunar.
As we continued, the road took us around Tutshi Lake for almost 10 miles.
At around mile 50 we crossed over into the Yukon. Once in the Yukon, we drove along Windy Arm, which is part of Tagish Lake. We stopped for photos at Bove Island Viewpoint.
After about 2 hours we made it Emerald Lake. Emerald Lake is the most photographed lake in the Yukon. It is affectionately called the jewel of the Yukon. It was gorgeous. The bluish-green waters are the result of light reflecting off layers of marl (a mixture of calcium carbonate and clay) at the bottom of the lake.
After our visit to Emerald Lake, we headed back down to Skagway. However, we still had a few more places to visit. First, we stopped at Caribou Crossing Trading Post. Caribou Crossing is a great place to visit, have a delicious BBQ lunch, take a dog sled ride, pan for gold and more. Dog sledding was the highlight of the day for this dog loving family.
We enjoyed a delicious BBQ lunch, along with the famous grandma’s donuts. After lunch, we were escorted over to attend a Sled Dog 101 presentation. We learned about the history of dog sledding, the athletes and even met a dog or two.
Then we were off to experience our own dog sled ride!
It was a bumpy, but fun ride. These dogs are eager to please and work extremely hard. The ride lasted approximately 15 minutes. Once done, we had a little bit of free time and wandered the property. We played with some puppies and took in the sites. Bill and I spoke to a gentleman about his life in the Yukon. He had moved here from Calgary and loved every moment of it.
Our second stop on the way back to Skagway, was the smallest desert in the world, Carcross Desert. It actually isn’t a desert, but the bed of a glacial lake. It is approximately 1 square mile.
After leaving the desert, we stopped at one of many waterfalls and filled our water bottles up with fresh, cold spring water.
Our last stop before heading back to the ship, the Welcome to Alaska sign of course!
Overall, the journey lasted about 6 hours. Our guide was terrific, and we had great people in our group. I highly recommend Frontier Excursions and Adventures.
In my last post, I discussed the benefits of journaling. Journaling helps keep me on course with my goals. Another tool I use to keep my dreams alive is a vision or dream board. According to Wikipedia, “A dream board or vision board is a collage of images, pictures, and affirmations of one’s dreams and desires, designed to serve as a source of inspiration and motivation and to use the law of attraction to attain goals. ”
Now, how do you make a vision board? In the past, I have taken a cork board or poster board and put my goals and vision on that. More recently, I have chosen to create one using an app on my phone. I like this idea, as I can make it my screen saver on my phone or computer. I can pull it up anytime, anywhere. Let’s face it, most of us spend more time looking at our phones and computers than we do a wall. Whichever, one you chose, make sure it is what will work for you.
Creating a Vision Board on a Bulletin Board
Supplies Needed:
Bulletin/cork board or a piece of poster board scissors, colored pens or markers, glue stick, stickers, and other fun embellishments if you want to get real fancy.
Magazines, photos, pictures, and quotes taken from the internet. These should be items that reflect your goals, fill you with excitement and serve as a daily reminder of what you are working toward.
Once you have everything you need, start putting it together. There is no right or wrong way to do this. Place the pieces down in any order you like and have fun dreaming big!
Creating a Vision Board on an App
I prefer to do my vision board using an app. There are several free ones on the market. The one I use is called Hay House. I downloaded it from the app store on my phone. I like being able to access it at any time. The app is self-explanatory. You can add photos, quotes, affirmations, text, change the background, etc. Once you create an account, you may share your board across the social media platforms.
Now it is your turn! I would love to see my Facebook page flooded with vision/dream boards. Not comfortable sharing them publically? If I get enough interested people, I would be happy to start a private Facebook page where we can share our boards, support and encourage each other to reach our goals. Leave me a comment here or a message on my Facebook page.
Happy Dreaming!
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Did you keep a diary when you were a kid? I never did and looking back, I wish I had. Writing down our thoughts, dreams, and struggles is therapeutic. A couple of years ago, I received a journal as a gift. Each page contained a writing prompt. For example, 20 things that make you smile or write a letter to your future or past self. I enjoyed going through the journal and writing on a different topic. Once my journal was full, I simply took a pretty notebook and each morning jotted down some thoughts. It has been a habit for well over a year. Perhaps you have thought about keeping a journal, but not sure what you would get out of it. Here are 5 reasons why it is beneficial to journal.
- Great way to start the day. Each morning take 5 mins and write down how you want your day to go. Write it as if it has already happened. For example: I woke up early and exercised for 30 mins. I made my to-do list for the day and checked off everything I accomplished yesterday. I went into the office and got through all my e-mail, successfully set up my meetings for next week, and finished making edits to three agreements in my inbox. As you can see, I laid out how I wanted my day to go. By jotting this down, it is in my head and sets my mindset for the day. I am set up for a productive day.
- Promotes healing. We all have tragedy in our lives. We all have relationships that have gone bad. By writing down your feelings and thoughts about these events, it can start the healing process. It’s not healthy to keep everything bottled up inside, but many of us are not comfortable speaking to someone about our feelings. This makes a great alternative.
- It helps connect us to our goals and dreams. Do you have a big, scary goal or dream? I do. Actually, I have a couple. One of which is to own a beach house on the North Carolina coast. I have a series of goals to reach in order to achieve this dream. From time to time, I may sway from these goals. In doing so, I am moving further away from achieving my dream. When I journal about, it brings me back to my goals and reinforces my why. I write the entry as if I am already there, owning my beach house. I describe what it looks like, how I feel, who is visiting me, what a typical day on the beach is like. What time do I get up? What is my morning routine? What is my evening routine? Get real descriptive with your writing. The more you can envision this, the harder you will work to stay on course with your goals.
- Use it as a brain dump. A brain dump is when you take all of your thoughts and put them down on paper. It is everything. It is feelings, emotions, questions, worries and things that you need to do. By putting it all on paper, you are organizing these thoughts outside of your brain. It allows you to take a look at everything and become more organized. Once it is down on paper, you can go back and organize these things into buckets or categories. This may include, work, family, exercise, meal planning, paying bills, school events, self care, friends, etc. Once you have gone through and made different categories, you can use this as a reference as you cross the items off your list. I don’t do this every week, more like once a month, but it works!
- Self reflection. Journal about how your day or week went. Take a moment to reflect on what went right or what was a struggle. It is important to acknowledge the highs and the lows. It is how we grow as a person.
I hope these tips have been helpful. I would love to hear about your experience with journaling. If you have never journaled before, but would like to start, I am offering to all new subscribers to this blog a FREE PDF checklist of journaling prompts. IN ADDITION, for every 25 subscribers, I will be giving away a journal. Please share with your friends and lets journal together.
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As I mentioned in a previous past, I just finished the book “Girl Stop Apologizing” by Rachel Hollis. It is a personal development book about reaching your goals and not to apologize for doing so. This book contains some great nuggets of wisdom and many times, I would stop to write down a quote or two.
I remember hearing this particular quote while on a 12 mile training run. 12 miles can take a bit of time to run and I am often left to mull things over in my head. When I heard this, it got me thinking. Many of us define ourselves based on past experiences. Our past, often times, is what holds us back. There are things we want to do in this life, but fear is holding us back. Perhaps we fear, in moving forward, history will repeat itself. The fear is so great, that we get stuck. We remain status quo and never move toward reaching our potential. This can be a vicious cycle. So how do we move past this?
It is about mindset. It is about learning from the negative impact of that decision, taking what you learned and applying it to the present. This allows for us to move forward, reach our potential and live our best life.
Our adventure last summer came to an end on the Spanish island of Majorca. We spent some time in the cities of Soller and Palma. Palma is the capital city of Majorca and is famous for its beaches. Soller is a typical Mediterranean town with narrow streets, cafes, open markets and beautiful architecture. Upon arrival to Palma, we rode a bus over to the Palma Railway Station. There, we boarded the Ferrocarril de Soller, an electric train. This vintage train leaves the capital of Palma and heads north through plains, the Sierra de Tramuntana mountain range, verdantwoodlands and a valley of orange groves en route to the city of Soller.
The ride to Soller took about an hour or so. Once we arrived, we took a walking tour of the city. Like all our other excursions, in addition to our Adventures by Disney guides, a local guide was there to provide the history and highlights of this city. Eventually, our tour lead us to an olive oil experience and tasting at Tafona Can Det. Tafona Can Det is a family owned business dating back to 1561! The olive mill has not changed much and the way the oil is produced has stayed the same. The family feels if it were to move to a more modern continuous production, it would lose its high quality.
We watched a short video on the history of the mill and then saw how the oil is made, beginning with the olives being washed and ending with with a delicious meal. We were able to sample the delicious oil, along with breads, meats and freshly squeezed orange juice. It was amazing. We were given a bottle of olive oil to take home and an orange or two for the road. Once we finished our tour of the mill, we enjoyed a leisurely walk back to the center of Soller, Plaza de la Constitucion.
When we arrived back to the center of town, we headed to lunch at La Vila Hotel. It is a quaint hotel with a beautiful garden in the back. This is where we enjoyed our traditional Spanish lunch.
Our course, like every other meal on this trip, it ended with gelato from a local gelato cafe.
After lunch, we had some time to shop and take in this charming little city.
Soon it was time to head back to Palma. Instead of taking the electric train back, we took the Soller Railway. This was a trolley that ran between the two locations and made numerous stops along the way. It reminded me of the green line in Boston.
Once we were back to Palma, we were treated to this view.
It was a great way to end our vacation. I hope you have enjoyed following along our European vacation. I have loved reliving the memories and look forward to sharing more trips with you all.
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Hi y’all, it is finally SPRING!!! Can you believe it? The weather here is still a bit wonky, but we are getting there. So today I am doing my monthly goal check in. As I mentioned, by me sharing my goals with my readers, it holds me more accountable. I also strive to help motivate you to make some goals, write them down and smash the hell out of them.
My March goals were as follows:
- Organize the kitchen cabinets – Yes
- Organize the linen closet- No
- Run 65 miles- CRUSHED IT- ran 78 miles
- Become certified in a second nutrition program- Ultimate Portion Fix- Halfway there
- Implement a morning routine- Yes
- Read one personal development book and one book for pleasure- Yes
- Grow my blog audience- Yes
So as you can see, this month was a mixed bag. Since I have quite a few races coming up, the miles had to take priority and they did. My kitchen cabinets were driving me nuts, so that had to happen. The linen closet, not so much. Perhaps this will happen on the next rainy day. I was putting most of my free time into this blog, so the certification in my new nutrition plan fell by the wayside. That is okay. I plan on diving head first into it, once I am back from Disney. I did implement a morning routine, but it is not the one I set out to do. Starting next week, my commute is shorter, so I will have more time to get things done without having to get up at 4:00am! As far as reading, I finished the book Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis. If you are looking for great goal setting book, I highly recommend. Rachel is funny and has some great advice, tips and tough love when you need it. For pleasure, I read Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter. If you like mystery, murder books, this one was good. I highly recommend all her books.
As far as my blog, I did a ton of work behind the scenes on this. I am in the middle of a travel blog course and a content creation course. I want to make sure I providing you with quality content. I did grow my blog and I want to thank all you that have shared it. Please, please continue to do so. I really appreciate it.
Now, on to a new month, with new goals. April is going to look very similar to March. I am adding a couple of things and really buckling down on my own health and fitness. I need to get back to strength training and better portion control. With that being said my April goals are:
- Finish my travel blog and content creation course. *
- Grow my blog by 20%.*
- Become certified in my new nutrition plan Ultimate Portion Fix and be a product of the product.*
- Date Night with the hubby, at least once this month.*
- Try a New Spring Adventure with the kids.*
- Organize my new office space that we are moving to.*
- Run 75 miles.*
- Strength train 4 times a week.*
- Lose 5lbs.
- Read 1 personal development book and 1 fiction book.
- Get at least 5 scrapbook layouts completed.
The list is a bit long. However, I have divided it into two. The goals with the asterixis are a MUST. The others are things to shoot for, but not going to stress over it. Notice how the weight loss does not have an asterix? I go by more how I look and how my clothes feel, than the number on the scale. That is simply a tool and does not define my journey.
I would love to hear how you did last month or what you have on your list for April. Drop me a comment below if you set goals last month and any struggles you face in accomplishing same.
Have a great Monday!
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Happy Friday! I hope you all are having a great day. Welcome to this edition of my Love of the Week. This is where I talk about something I absolutely love. This week I am showcasing two more hair products that I love. Yes, I know last week’s love of the week was about hair, but I can’t get enough of a good hair product.
The first product is called WOW and was recommended by a friend’s hairdresser. We were down in Florida last Fall, I was complaining about the humidity and my hair curling up on me. She lent me this product and I fell in love. The beauty of it, you spray it once, but get multiple washes out of it. Love, love, love it. I bought this bottle last October and still have a quarter of it left.
My second love of the week, goes hand in hand with the spray. It is a new shampoo and conditioner I discovered about a month ago. My hair tends to be dry and these products, really help repair any damage to my hair. The shampoo is called Maui Moisture Heal and Hydrate Shea Butter Shampoo and the conditioner is called Maui Moisture Heal and Hydrate Shea Butter Conditioner. Each contains shea butter, coconut oil and macadamia oil. These are also sulfate free. I was so excited when I found travel sizes.
So these are my loves of the week. I did pick up a couple of new products to try down in Disney. One is a sunscreen for the scalp. I hate wearing a hat, but really need to do better with my sun protection. I will let you know how I like it.
Until next time,
Heather
Today, I head down to Disney to participate in Disney’s Star Wars Race Weekend. However, before I have another trip to write about, I wanted to do a write up on our 10 day trip we took back in February. Despite being there many times, there were a few firsts and overall it was a different experience than our previous trips.
Our winter break happens to coincide with Disney’s Princess Race Weekend. I figured since I was running, why not make it a family vacation. Unfortunately, Bill could not join us, so it became a Mom and son’s trip, and we had the best time. There was little fighting between the boys. They went with the flow and did not complain about the go, go, go pace I have while at the parks. This was more likely due to how I approached this trip. I scheduled some downtime, which is NOT something I tend to do. However, it worked to my advantage, and we honestly had the best time. Now, I am not going to do a day by day breakdown for you. This is going to be a high-level report of some of the highlights and the new things we tried over the ten days. Are you ready?
The first thing that was new and different for us, was a split stay. We spent half the week at the Polynesian and half the week at the Beach Club. We stayed in the DVC section of each of the resorts. Both are amazing resorts and have their advantages. I love the feel and smells of the Polynesian. I love how it is a monorail resort and its close proximity to the Magic Kingdom. I love how the rooms have the split bathrooms. One is rather large with a toilet, sink and bath. The other has an awesome spa-like shower, sink, and vanity. The room also sleeps 5, which is very nice. We have stayed at the Poly many times and is usually our go-to resort. On Wednesday of that week, we headed over to the Beach Club. I loved the proximity to Epcot and Hollywood Studios. The room also sleeps 5, but we did miss having the two bathrooms. The pool was amazing. Of course we love Beaches and Cream and the boys had to try the cupcake milkshakes. If I had to pick one, I am still thinking the Polynesian. Nothing beats the view of the castle!
This trip, I wanted to try some new experiences or revisit a couple of old ones that were a hit or may have changed. We attended two dessert parties, Early Morning Magic at Toy Story Land over at Hollywood Studios and Disney After Hours at the Animal Kingdom. Each event had an additional cost on top of park admission, but I wanted this to be a special trip and in my opinion, each event, but one, was worth the extra money.
The first event was the Happily Ever After Dessert Party at the Magic Kingdom. The party is held at the Tomorrowland Terrace. The cost is $69.00 per adult and $41.00 per child. The price includes all you can eat desserts (we skipped dinner that day), juices, water, soda, coffee, tea, and hot chocolate.
There were trays of desserts like the ones above. They also had some hummus, cheese, and crackers. They had cookies, brownies, ice cream and make your own s’mores. If you love sweets, this is the place for you After you are done eating, you may, at your leisure, ask to be escorted down to the viewing area. We had seats in the hub area of Magic Kingdom. The viewing area for Happily Ever After is why I spent the money on this event. There is no fighting for a spot. One does not need to arrive 2 hours ahead of time for a good view. The spot is amazing and with a view like this, why not??
We also happen to do the Star Wars Galactic Spectacular Dessert Party at Hollywood Studios. We had attended this back in 2017, but it loved it so much, we had to do it again. I am glad we did. They made some changes to improve the event when I didn’t think the improvements were needed.
The party takes place inside Star Wars Launch Bay. At check-in, you receive a lanyard. The lanyard admits you and your party into the roped off area inside. Once inside, you are assigned to a table. The tables have numbers and under that number is an invitation. Okay, not so much an invitation, more like a demand. 😉
For those of you not familiar with the Stars Wars movies, the Commander would be Kylo Ren. He is a bit intimidating in the movie and here at Disney!
Storm Troopers roam about and interact with the crowd.
The Star Wars Galactic Spectacular Dessert Party includes something that the Magic Kingdom one does not, alcohol. For the price one pays to attend these events, after a long day in the parks, alcohol may be a must for some. Speaking of price, I believe this was the same price as the one in MK. Unfortunately, I did not partake in an adult beverage, as I was running the next day. However, I recall from 2017, and it was delicious. It is the same layout as the one at the Magic Kingdom. There are plenty of desserts, cheese, crackers, hummus, ice cream, and more. The party included soft drinks, coffee, tea, and alcohol. I found this party included a bit more, and the choices were better.
In addition to meeting Kylo and eating to our heart’s content, we were free to explore Launch Bay and see props and memorabilia from all the movies. At around 7:45 pm, we were escorted outside to our reserved seating to watch the show. As we were leaving, we were given a plastic mug, in the shape of Darth Vader’s head. The reserved seating area was fantastic. It had changed from 2017, and it is a much better view. I highly recommend this party, even if you are not a Star Wars fan.
Another first, Early Morning Magic at Toy Story Land. I knew there was no way my children would wait for 2,3 or 4 hours for Slinky Dog. I had heard the Early Morning Magic was fantastic. It includes a hot and cold breakfast and an hour and a half in Toy Story Land with access to all the rides. It was worth every penny. We rode Slinky Dog, Alien Swirling Saucers and Toy Story Mania many times. We also had our photo taken with Woody and Jessie. Around this time, the park had opened for the general public and crowds descended upon us. All I can say, purchase the Early Morning Magic, stat!!! The price for this event is $79.00 for adults and $69.00 for kids.
We did one other special event and that is Disney’s After Hours at the Animal Kingdom. The cost of this event is steep, $125.00 each. The event is from 8:00-11:00 pm certain nights of the week. Both rides in Pandora are open, Dinosaur, Everest, two showings of Rivers of Light and the Tree of Life Awakenings. There are snacks served around the park. The rest of the park is closed. This is a bit of a disappointment, but we knew that going in. The boys mainly wanted to go for access to Flight of Passage. We were able to walk right on that ride several times, as well as all of the other rides. However, we were only there for about an hour, when my youngest started to feel ill. It had been a long, hot day and he was done. Overall, the event was okay. I probably would not do it again due to the lack of areas in the park being open. Next trip, we do plan on doing the after hours at the Magic Kingdom. There is simply more to do.
During the ten-day trip, we had a couple of new character meet and greets. First, we met up with Cinderella’s wicked stepsisters over at the Magic Kingdom. This was by far, our best character experience. They spent at least 5-7 mins with the boys. They even set a wedding date!
Over at the Animal Kingdom, we met Scrooge McDuck. It was a great new photo op.
Though we did not get our photo with her, we did see the famous Kevin, from the movie Up. She was roaming around the Animal Kingdom most of the day.
The one we were most surprised to see was the Evil Queen. She rarely makes an appearance. However, a source close to the Queen said when they are new to the role, they go out and about to meet people. A practice run more or less. I was thrilled to meet her.
We also attended the Festival of the Arts over at Epcot. This is a fairly new festival to Epcot and we enjoyed what we saw. There was entertainment, such as the Disney Broadway Concert Series, seminars and demonstrations and 13 food studios with lots of delicious treats such as this Mac & Cheese Lobster in a cone. It is like a mini Food and Wine.
What I loved best about the festival, all the different photo ops. I know there was so much more to do and see, but I had teenage boys with me. Seminars and demonstrations, are not their thing. However, they were good sports and took some photos with me.
I am looking forward to experiencing it again next year.
Though, we had done this next experience before, it had been a while. On Sunday, we spent all day and night at the Magic Kingdom. It was very crowded and we had some time to kill while waiting for our Fast Passes. After riding Pirates of the Caribbean, I was looking around and thought, hey it has been a while since we were on Tom Sawyer’s Island. The kids and I jumped on the raft and headed over.
The island is on the banks of the River of America in the middle of Frontierland. It has some great views of the Haunted Mansion and Thunder Mountain. It is a self-guided tour, with maps, signs, bridges, caves, mills and more. It is inspired by the writings of Mark Twain. It has been years since we checked it out. At first, the kids were not too keen on doing it. However, once we started exploring, they had a blast.
Finally, the last ‘first” we experienced on this trip, was Nicholas’s 1st runDisney race. He and I ran the 5K together. I will never forget the look of joy as he crossed over the finish line!
There is so much more I could write about this trip. However, I am going to leave it here. There are many more Disney trips on the horizon for us. Be sure to check back to look for my review of the Flower and Garden Festival and the Star Wars Races. Both of these are new experiences to me. What I love most about Disney, no matter how many times we have gone, there is always something new to see and do.
Until next time, lots of faith, trust and pixie dust!
