Dudleychicks Do Disneyland

Well so much for keeping up on my blog...stuff happens!  Lots of stuff actually but I have not been good about documenting it all here (for the three of you who actually read my blog).

But I did want to do a special post on the recent convergence of the Dudleychicks on Disneyland. I went to the CTMH convention which just happened to be held at Disneyland this year. Be warned it is a long post with LOTS of pics. Since Ashleigh didn't come home to work this summer but opted to stay in Utah I decided she should drive to CA and meet me for a couple of days of family fun. She agreed, but wasn't sure she could get the time off.  It took some creative maneuvering and sweet talking her supervisors in order to get the time off but she figured it out.

I headed towards California by air on Tuesday morning while Ashleigh took to the open road.

We converged here... ready for some fun!

The Disneyland Hotel

Unfortunately, our room was not quite ready so we had to wander around a bit,

but look who Ashleigh ran into!

Once our room was ready we grabbed our bags and headed to the Adventure Tower. The room was awesome. We loved all the little Disney touches everywhere but my favorite part was the headboard that lights up and plays, "When You Wish Upon A Star". So cool!

We knew we had limited time so we made haste settling in and headed for Disney's California Adventure.

Now when I was younger my father lived in CA and I would visit him for a month every summer. We always went to Disneyland but I think the last time I was there I was 16...that was just a FEW years ago. In those days what is now California Adventure was a parking lot. Now it's a hopping park full of fun (but partially under construction to add a new front entrance and Cars section). We had dinner reservations at Ariel's Grotto later in the evening but had some time to kill so we headed for one of our favorite rides. We knew it was a favorite because we have ridden the one at MGM in DisneyWorld many times.

Because we were staying at the above mentioned hotel we were given magic tickets known as FASTPASSES. These babies let us skip the hour wait in line...love that! Here we are just before we got on the ride.

These are our scared faces, but really we were excited.

We screamed and laughed like little girls and remembered when we once rode this ride lots of times in a row on New Years Eve in DisneyWorld. Good Times! Next we headed over to It's Tough To Be a Bug and donned our honorary bug spectacles.

Finally, our tummies were reminding us of our dinner reservations so we headed over to Ariel's Grotto.

Dinner was delicious!

The Menu

Yummy salad

Antipasto

Shrimp and Clams

Fresh Sourdough Bread flower with dipping sauces

My Tri-tip entree

Ashleigh's Fish

The desserts were divine!

With our dinner we got priority seating (which really meant standing) for The World of Color show. I have to say this show was probably my favorite show I have ever seen at a Disney park. Think Bellagio fountains on steroids with color and lasers and movie clips projected on walls of water. It was breathtaking! We were standing right up against the railing next to the water...front and center!

We were so close we got wet from the back splash of the fountains. This is what I looked like after. 
I guess I should have worn water proof mascara!

Day 2...
We got up leisurely on Wednesday and nursed the beautiful blister that had appeared on Ashleigh's foot before heading into Disneyland.  Angie and Vicki joined us for the day's adventures.

Our first ride of the day was Pirates of The Caribbean, followed by Splash Mountian. Vicki doesn't like the drops so she opted to wait for Angie, Ashleigh and I...little did we know how smart she was. I just wish we had left our backpacks with her. I think this is the absolute wettest I have ever gotten on a ride that wasn't at Water World. We got completely soaked! There was at least four inches of water in the bottom of our "log" when we got out. It took the camera a while to dry out but the phones were ok, thank goodness!!!

If you look closely at the pic you might just see a special appearance of the tie-dyed traveling underpants on this ride.


Next we went to new Orleans Square for a bread bowl of Clam Chowder, some Mickey Biegnets and a trip through the Haunted Mansion.

We took a short break from the fun to head back to the hotel and check in for convention
but were back just in time to watch the fireworks over the castle.

Mickey Fireworks shot by Vicki

All in all it was a blast and some much needed fun time with my girl. I just wish it had been longer.

Now it's time to say goodbye...M~I~C~K~E~Y    M~O~U~S~E.

The Gift of Girlfriends

I am a little late with this post. You see my birthday was more than a month ago, but I have been wanting to write about what a great birthday weekend I had this year.

 

But before I get to that I need to back up a few years and explain that back in 2006 I went through a bit of a mid life crisis. There were some pretty big changes in my "inner circle" that fall. My baby girl went away to college to spread her wings and find herself. I was ok with that, after all I had spent eighteen years preparing her to go out into the world and make something of herself. I would be fine, I still had my good friends to see my through. OH WAIT...NOT! You see, two of my best girlfriends moved away around the same time. The NERVE, the GALL!! Didn't they know I needed them? Didn't they know it was all about me?? Forget that one was going through a not so fun divorce and the other was moving her family so her husband could find work. I needed them!

Fast forward to my birthday weekend 2009. We had planned a great girls weekend getaway,  It was great to be together again. We had a blast and someone got themselves hitched! For more on that trip see this post from my friend Becca. And don't forget the surprise ending of that trip here.

Now back to this year. I had been in a funk. It was a big, ugly, unemployed, what am I doing with my life, feeling sorry for myself funk. So when my dear friends told me they would like to come for a visit and stay the weekend with me I was so excited. They will tell you they came to see other people too, but I know the truth. It was all about me! They both arrived on my birthday after all.  One brought along a little friend, the other one brought a mumu.

It was like a high school slumber party. We laughed, watched movies, ate junk food and caught up on each others lives. 

We explored Pirate booty at the museum. 

We played in the park. 

Then we laughed and talked some more and made plans for a big reunion dinner.

I didn't take nearly enough pictures to chronicle our adventures and unfortunately the ones I did take were with my phone, but I had a blast (funk officially blasted away).  We're already talking about next year. 

THANKS GIRLFRIENDS for the best birthday gift ever!

The Great Food Truck Race 2011

One of my favorite shows last summer was on the Food Network. It was called The Great Food Truck Race and it was a reality show/competition where they followed six or seven food trucks across the country. They stopped in a different city each week and competed in some crazy competitions. At the end of each stop the truck that made the least money was sent home while the others moved on to the next city. It was a fun show to watch and I was happy to hear it was making a comeback this summer.

A few weeks ago I got this picture message from Ashleigh. 

The trucks were in Cedar City on their way from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City. Unfortunately for her they were just passing through and she didn't get to sample. I had heard that they were heading to Denver after Salt Lake City so now I knew they were getting closer.

Word spread quickly on Facebook that the The Great Food Truck Race was in town on Mother's Day weekend, so I set out with a friend to see if we could find  some of them. Some of the local food trucks like The Denver Cupcake Truck and The Biscuit Bus had taken these special visitors under their wings and were updating Facebook and Twitter as to their whereabouts. 

Helen and I found three of the Trucks parked on Colfax near the Bluebird theater. The lines were long but there was an exciting buzz in the air and the food coming by looked and smelled delicious.

Our first stop was The Hodge Podge Truck. 

 

 Love that logo!!

These guys really had personality!

The team is from Cleveland, Ohio and they were serving up some yummy treats. I opted for the Lobster Roll with marinated tomatoes and a fresh squeezed lime-aide. .

 Menu photo from http://thecastlerockincook.blogspot.com

Next up was the Lime Truck. 

This California based truck had some delicious offerings too. 

 Menu photo from http://thecastlerockincook.blogspot.com

We indulged in the veggies from this one. Helen got grilled asparagus and I went for roasted corn on the cob.

Photo from boulderlocavore.blogspot.com, I forgot to take a photo before I devoured the deliciousness.

The Roxy's Gormet Grilled Cheese truck was across the street  but the lines were really long so we decided to try to find them again the next day. Sadly, I never found the Roxy truck again.

Finally, we decided to try and hit the Korrilla BBQ truck which we were hearing was parked the the Stuben's parking lot on 17th and the lines were not long.

 Seeing their car told us the truck couldn't be far!

 

We  made it over there just in time to hear them say, "Sorry folks, we're sold out. Come back tomorrow!", to which our small crowd replied with "AWWWWWW". Actually we heard them say it and made our reply four times (different takes...this is reality TV). They asked us to sign release forms and took our pictures. We were thinking, sweet, maybe we will make it onto the show. 

The next day I decided to go back on my own and try to find the Korillia truck again. When I got there there was only one poor guy working the truck. 

Apparently old #7 threw a wrench in the works in the form of a challenge. I won't spoil it, you will have to watch and see. 

Anyway, they recognized me from the previous day. They had me say something like, "This better be good I was here when you ran out yesterday and I came back".

 Another great pic from http://boulderlocavore.blogspot.com/

The menu was limited due to the challenge so I decided to try the tacos.  They  had me taste the food which was AWESOME (by far my favorite of what I tasted), and do an on camera interview. They asked me if I was from Denver and if I was a Bronco fan. They did a few takes with me saying different things and they took more pictures of me and my food (I didn't remember to take a pic). So who knows, maybe I'll be on the show and maybe I'll end up on the cutting room floor.

Either way the adventure begins on August 14th on the Food Network and I know I will be watching. 

I only made it to three of the six trucks that were in town, but I enjoyed myself anyway. 

For more info on The Great Food Truck Race's visit to Denver check out a couple of local food bloggers take's at My Kitchen in the Rockies  and Boulder Locavore  as well as this article in Westword.

The Poop Deck

pic from Nataliedee.com

I have house guests of the un-invited variety.

They are squatters and they have taken up residence on my deck.

They are pigeons and they squat ALOT!

The deck has been re-named The Poop Deck in their honor. 

I avoid The Poop Deck at all costs. 

The other day I came home from dropping my friend Angie off at the airport (miss ya girlfriend) and found that The Poop Deck had been cleaned off and things were re-arranged. I had also had house guests of the invited variety so I texted each of them to see if they had felt sorry for me and decided to clean up The Poop Deck as a birthday gift. Each of them replied with, "EWWWW NO!!" 

 It was a mystery, how did The Poop Deck get magically cleaned?? The next day a friend came over to pick up something and handed me a business card that had been stuck in my front door. It was for a pest control service, mystery solved...kinda.

I have to admit that it kind of freaks me out that someone was on my deck without my knowledge or any prior notice but that has happened before. My HOA is notorious for sending men to do repairs on my deck with no warning. Last time I was awakened by men on ladders leaning against my bedroom window hammering the siding back in place at 7:00am.

I guess I am happy that it is cleaned off and I didn't have to do it. But the real surprise is on them because the birds are already back. AND, if they think I am paying for pest control services I didn't ask for or authorize, SURPRISE...I am not!

Good Eats...5280 Week 2011

Every year in February Denver has an awesome tradition. It's called 5280 Restaurant Week. It is a week where literally hundreds of restaurants in the Denver metro area create a special dining experience for two at the cost of $52.80 (or just $26.40 for one). Keep in mind that there are dining establishments on the list that normally charge much more than $52.80. Last year a group of friends and I celebrated 5280 week with a trip to Texas deBrazil. I was a first timer and I was amazed at the journey my taste buds were taken on. We laughed and made many a crude joke about "men with meat". I think Michelle's face in this pic says it all. 

This year when 5280 week rolled around we decided that we needed to up the anty a bit and we chose three places to visit. 

My friend Helen was the Hostess with the mostest.

She did all the organizing, created themes for each night and made decorations and favors for everyone.

 Round 1

Our first outing was dubbed, "A Night of Glitz, Glam and Bling" at Elway's in Cherry Creek. We were asked to wear our finest attire and all the glitz glam and bling we could carry off.

Here I am dressed and ready for a fun night. 

 When we arrived we were greeted by a table decorated with feather boas and these cute GG&B boxes at each places setting. Inside were beautiful rhinestone earrings for each guest.

Dinner was scrumptious!

Especially Dessert!

Brownies and Cheesecake lollipops, yummy.

(Insert schweaty chocolate balls jokes here...we did.)

 A great time was had by all (to the envy of the tables around us).

Round 2

Our second outing was a repeat of last year's "Men With Meat" (on skewers). 

This year it fell just before Mardi Gras so we went with the festive Mardi Gras Theme.

 The men with meat did not disappoint.

Some new friends were added to the group.

And Helen even had a slice of King Cake for all of us. Cass was the lucky winner of the baby in her slice.

 

 Fabulous Food and Festive Fun!!!

Round 3 

Our final 5280 week outing was to The Melting Pot of Littleton. It is one of the restaurants that extends its 5280 special well past the official dates. We enjoyed our "It's a wrap" dinner on the March 31st, the last night of their month long special. For me that date was bittersweet. I was excited to go to one of my favorite places with friends,  but the date marked the anniversary of my layoff and an entire year of unemployment. I decided that the only way to properly enjoy the evening was to invite a couple of my friends who were laid off with me, so Mindy and Nora joined the 5280 group. 

We dipped our sorrows in melted cheese, doused them in batter and fried them in oil and finally drizzled them in chocolate. I couldn't think of a better way to make ourselves feel better.

All in all this year's 5280 adventure was a HUGE success. Thanks again Helen for all of your efforts in organizing and planning these fun evenings. 

I may have eaten lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and top ramen in order to afford these fun nights, but it was SOOO worth it!

Can't wait for next year.

This is my life...

Wow, hard to believe that this is my first post of 2011! 

Where have I been???

What have I been doing???

Well lets just say that the life of the unemployed is about as exciting as watching paint dry most of the time.  I have been posting fairly regularly on my craft blog but I haven't had much I felt like blogging about in my personal life so this little blog has been sadly neglected. 

This past year has been HARD, really hard. I feel like I am stuck. Like I am driving in a blizzard and can't see the direction I should be going or even the destination I am heading towards. I don't like that feeling. I keep asking myself the same questions.

How did I get here, and where do I go from here?   

What am I supposed to be doing?

When will I see the light at the end of the tunnel? 

I have to have faith. Faith that everything will eventually be ok. Faith that HE has a plan for me even if I can't see it right now. Faith that I can do whatever it takes to get through this. 


Because I don't allow myself to wallow in pity for very long (a little wallowing is healthy...right?) I have to acknowledge the positive things that I have enjoyed during the past year. 




I have had LOTS of time for crafty projects. They have kept my mind and my hands busy. I have spent time during the day with other crafty friends and stayed up until the wee hours of the morning creating. I have had the chance to build my hobby into a small business, not enough to live on but every little bit helps. 

I have read LOTS and LOTS of books! I love reading and I can get lost in a book so easily. I read more than 100 books in 2010. I haven't had that luxury in a very long time and I am really enjoying it. 

I have succumbed to my body clock and my inner night owl. I enjoy staying up until 3:00 or 4:00am reading, crafting or sometimes even cleaning. I also enjoy sleeping in until 10am. When I have to adhere to someone else's schedule I will need some time to adjust, but for now this is how I roll and I am loving it.


I have had the chance to volunteer my time to various projects, friends in need and charities. There is nothing better to raise your spirits than to serve someone else. 

I have enjoyed lots of good times with great friends! More on that in future posts, stay tuned. 


Yes, this is my life and as Kate would say, "It might not be a perfect life but it's my life."