Easter Weekend 2018

Hi friends! How are you? I hope that those of you who celebrated Easter and Passover this weekend enjoyed a wonderful holiday. I apologize for disappearing on ya yesterday; I had an unintentional computer-free weekend. I forgot my computer charger in Valdosta and since I had some work stuff to do, I ordered one to be delivered to the hotel. It didn’t end up fitting my Macbook, so I decided that destiny was telling me to just enjoy the weekend, sleep a bit more, and know that work will be waiting when we got back. 

The girls are on Spring Break, so we packed up the crew on Saturday to head to their very favorite place: Disney World!

Usually we travel and head straight to the parks, but decided to take an extra day on this trip to drive up and enjoy dinner at Disney Springs so we’d wake up at the hotel on Easter morning. Traffic was pretty intense heading out of Georgia – everyone was traveling to Disney or the Florida beaches! – so we ended up late for our reservation. I called the restaurant an hour beforehand to let them know we wouldn’t make it on time, and they were incredibly understanding about the situation and still helped us out with a table.

Even though I’m surrounded by my #1 phobia, T-Rex has surprisingly good food.. and a great cocktail menu.

The meteor shower was pretty exciting every 15 minutes, too. 

We walked around Disney Springs for a couple of hours, and then headed to the hotel. The girls crashed hard, and the Pilot and I stayed up Easter plotting and unpacking. We joked that the first thing we’d hear in the morning would be the squeaky mechanical cat sounds.

Sure enough, we woke up to the cats squeaking and crawling around the floor of the hotel, and the girls cracking up at them. Best ever.

I loved watching them open their baskets – sandals, sundresses, swimsuits, candy, little cupcake dolls, and said cats – and the best part of the morning was watching them hunt for the Easter eggs that were hidden all around our hotel room.

We had a delicious brunch at the hotel:

and ventured to Magic Kingdom. 

We had a feeling it would be a busy weekend, but it didn’t end up being bad at all. We had Fast Passes for our favorite rides/activities, and still caught extra rides and shows. We usually get Fast Passes (you can book 3 for each day in advance, and after you use them, you can book additional passes one at a time), and then go with the flow for the rest of the day. It makes it pretty stress-free, and it’s fun to see where we end up. This was our first time riding the Winnie the Pooh ride and watching the Mickey Phillharmagic show, and the girls loved both of them. 

We spent the entire day riding rides, walking around, and catching shows, with breaks for food and AC. After a full day, we headed back to the hotel and had a wonderful dinner at the Todd English Blue Zoo restaurant. 

One of my favorite things about Disney is that everything is kid-friendly. So even if you dine at a fancier restaurant, there are still kids everywhere, so you don’t feel awkward when someone randomly yells or a rogue fork goes clanking to the ground. 

We shared a cold shrimp appetizer,

(the fennel sea salt took it over the top)

the bread basket (we destroyed that thing after walking around at the park all day. The best was the super soft caramelized onion bread),

and I chose the ahi tuna for my entree. The tuna was perfectly-cooked and served with green beans, smashed potatoes, and a quail egg. 

Monday morning, the Pilot took the car to be serviced (it was due, so it was perfect timing that we were in a city with a dealership), so the girls and I grabbed a quick breakfast at Fuel. I was stoked to see that they had overnight oats with almond milk, blueberries, and almonds. Healthy eating has come SO far at Disney (and life in general) since our first trip together 10 years ago. There are so many healthy and delicious options, and I feel like it’s pretty easy to stick to normal-ish eats if you want to. For me, I tend to stick with the same kind of breakfasts and lunches that I’d eat at home, and for dinner I might try something on the more indulgent side + a dessert each day. 

After breakfast, we grabbed the boat to Epcot, and after we were finishing up riding the Nemo ride, the Pilot was just getting there. He found us at one of the new imaginative play structures, which has lots of shaded chairs for the parents to watch their kiddos run around. 

The day consisted of the standard Disney adventures: rides, shows, walking around, meeting characters, 

(P is on a mission to hug every possible furry character)

and amazing eats mixed in.

If you go to Epcot, you HAVE to go to Japan for the snow cones.

They’re soooo good, especially on hot days. The melon flavor is my fave, but they’re all good.

This year was so different than our *usual* Easter activities (Easter usually looks like this or this), but definitely one that I’ll remember.

This week, we’re back into the routine + Livi is out of school all week! I’m putting the finishing touches on the new workout plans – can’t wait for you to have them!! – and getting things ready for the Pilot’s side of the fam to come hang out with us this week. We can’t wait to see them.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend, too! What was the highlight of your weekend? Did you do anything super fun or make any new recipes?

xo

Gina

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