We have been very busy the last couple of weeks working on fixing up our houses so we can hopefully put them on the market in the next couple of months. This has seriously cut down on our summer travel but it will be so worth it in the long run.

I did just book a weekend at the Mandalay Bay Resort for the first weekend in September. With my Disney Annual Pass, I was able to book a great weekend package that includes tickets to see the Lion King Broadway musical. So planning for our September trip is pretty much done; airfare (check), hotel in Las Vegas (check), hotel in California (check), rental car...rental car? Hmmm, I will let Bob take care of that.

Morel Hunting

We went morel hunting at Meramec State Park the weekend before last. For anyone who isn't familiar with morel (mushroom) hunting, there is only two weeks out of the year that morels grow. Mushroom hunting is a very popular past time in the State of Missouri, Illinois, and lots of other states.

This is the first year I had went mushroom hunting as an adult. I have a co-worker who is quite into morels and his constant talk about the mushrooms peaked my interest so with my sister and her family in tow, we headed to Meramec State Park.

Hmmm, let me just say I had a very nice time but I do know what I will not be hunting for next year. Yep, it was a fun one-time experience but not something I will try again. After traipsing around the forest in a light mist for four hours, we found 14 mushrooms...and ticks...lots and lots of ticks. The ticks were not fazed by my bug repellent. I think they have become immune to deet.

The mushrooms were quite tasty though. After cleaning the mushrooms by soaking them in salt water for a couple of days, we sauteed them in butter. The morels were quite tasty but I don't think they were worth picking ticks off my clothes for four hours.

California here we come!!!

I booked our airline tickets for our September trip. We are flying our favorite airline, Southwest. I have flown numerous airlines and Southwest is my favorite so far. Plus I have a southwest rapid rewards account so I was able to get one of our tickets for free.

Technically we are flying into Las Vegas, spending 3 days in Las Vegas, and then driving to California for four days. We will then drive back to Las Vegas and fly back to St. Louis. First time for us to Las Vegas. I have been to California but my fiancee hasn't.

We didn't visit any parks this weekend. Just spent time working on my yard.

Rockwood State Park

We went to Rockwoods Reservation today to hike and to look for morel mushrooms. We had a fun hike but found no mushrooms. I think it is too cold for mushrooms but a co-worker thought it might be a good weekend. Oh well, we will try again next weekend.

Rockwoods Reservation is a nice smaller park located outside of Eureka Missouri. It is a bit different because there are privately owned houses throughout the park. It was a bit odd to be hiking surrounded by complete wilderness but still hear a heavy duty lawn mower in the background.

We didn't find any morel mushrooms but we did see some non-edible mushrooms. This one was my favorite.

Yellowstone National Park

We have been home for a couple of weeks from our wonderful weekend at Yellowstone National Park. The two words that pop in my mind the most are "Wow" and "Amazing."

YNP in the winter is amazing. We flew into Bozeman MT Thursday night. A charter bus took us the two hour drive to West Yellowstone where we spent the night at the Stage Coach Inn. On Thursday, we walked around West Yellowstone shopping until the YNP Snow Cat picked us up at noon. The snow cat then drove a three hour scenic tour to the Old Faithful Snow Lodge.

Once we reached the lodge, we checked in and unpacked. The room was very nice and the Snow Lodge was amazing. All the staff were very friendly. We had dinner and then walked around the Lodge and Old Faithful for awhile.

Friday we got up early, had breakfast, and then headed to pick up our cross country snow skis. We skiied to the Morning Glory Geyser. Cross country skiing was ok but neither of us really enjoyed it. We dropped off the skis and then just walked around all the paths. The snow was packed down enough that our ski boots were all we needed to get around.

Friday night we did a Star Night Tour, which just basically consisted of riding around in the Snow Cat looking at stars. Our guide was very nice and informative so we did enjoy the tour even though we couldn't see much besides the stars.

Saturday morning we got up early and did an all day snowmobile tour to the Yellowstone Grand Canyon. Amazing!!! We absolutely loved the snowmobile tour. Our guide was wonderful and the other four couples in our group were very nice. My feet were frozen most of the morning but once I got use to the cold, I had a blast.

Sunday morning we got up early for the express snow cat out of the park. The snow cat took us back to the Stage Coach inn where we met the charter bus who took us back to the airport. We had lunch at the airport. The Bozeman Airport is small but very nice. The waiting area has huge picture windows with a wonderful view of the mountains.

Robert proposed to me in front of this wonderful view. It was so sweet. He said he bought me something and asked if I wanted it now. I said sure and he slowly pulled out the cutest stuff buffalo ever. I was holding the buffalo when I noticed a diamond ring on his ear. I immediately started crying. It was very sweet. He said he had the ring in his pocket all weekend waiting for the perfect moment to propose. He was a little worried that I thought it was lame (him proposing at the airport) but I really do think it was the most perfect sweetest moment ever.

Counting down the minutes until 3 o'clock...

I am killing time at work until I can leave at 3pm. I will then drive to my boyfriend's house, switch cars, and then off to the airport we go.

Unfortunately we couldn't find a direct flight to Yellowstone National Park so we will be wasting some time with a layover in Atlanta. We fly to Atlanta with an hour layover and then fly to Bozeman Montana. A shuttle bus will then take us to West Yellowstone where we will spend the night. Tomorrow afternoon, a snow cat will pick us up and then take us to Old Faithful Snow Lodge. Yeah!!!!

I am not thrilled with all the waiting time before we reach our final destination but I am prepared. I have a big travel bag filled that contains plenty of stuff to do. I always carry around my nintendo ds (I'm addicted to tetris type game that uses viruses instead of blocks). I also have a netbook that I can use to access the internet or write up some reviews. And last but not least I have a new sports camera that I has some features that I need to learn how to use. My boyfriend also has his own netbook and nintendo ds so we don't have to fight over whose turn it is to use what.

Is it 3 yet? Arghhh, only 11:30am.

1 Trip down, three to go...

I am back from a wonderful vacation at Walt Disney World. I actually got back last Saturday but I have been busy catching up with work and household matters.

The vacation was great with only a few issues. The first issue was the weather. Apparently Florida had record lows during our trip. Hmmm, good if you like the cold but bad if the intention of going to Florida was to escape the cold. We left 10 inches of snow in St. Louis to low 30's in Florida. Luckily I had my ski jacket and gloves so all was good.

The second issue was the crowds. I am use to going to Disney in off season so crowds are usually very low. Plus everyone keeps talking about a bad economy so I thought Disney would be uncrowded. I was so wrong. Yeah I am sure it wasn't as busy as July but the park was a little more crowded then I am use to.

Other then those two minor annoyances, we had an absolutely wonderful vacation. We enjoyed several good dinners with the highlight being a delicious dinner at Victoria and Albert's. We met up with my sister and her family several times; which was great for me because my niece Haley is adorable and I loved seeing the parks through her eyes.

Everyone (including employees and fellow vacationers) was extremely nice during this trip. We struck up conversations numerous times with other guests and enjoyed their stories and friendliness. We definitely felt like we were in a magical place and was very sad when the trip came to an end.

Counting the Days Down...

Only four more days and we are off to Walt Disney World for a week. Yeah, I am so ready for vacation. Of course that means this work week is going to be the slowest week ever.

I have been working on my plans for our September trip. I booked our hotel room for four nights at the Grand Californian at Disneyland. We are talking about flying to Las Vegas and spending three days there and then driving to Disneyland for four days. The hotel we want to stay at in Las Vegas just sent us a great discount rate. We will decide and book after the WDW trip because right now all we want to think about is warm weather in Florida. St. Louis is experiencing sleet and snow at the moment.

September Trip is in the works...

My boyfriend and I have been talking about a trip to California the first week of September to attend Disneyland's 40th anniversary Haunted Mansion event. Neither of us have been to Disneyland so we did some research on the internet. Thank goodness we did.

We learned that the Haunted Mansion event is a much anticpiated event, so much so that discussion forums were predicting the event would sell out very quickly. Sometimes too much information can be a bad thing because now we were stressing about whether we would be able to get tickets or not.

The tickets went on sale today and we were able to score two reservations. Yeah, one less thing to worry about. The discussion forums were right and the two event packages available for sale today sold out within 15 minutes. Wow. Seems like this is going to be a very popular event.

Since we are flying all the way to California, we decided to take a week long vacation. Now we just have to decide what else we want to see besides Disneyland. This is the fun part for me. I love researching vacation spot ideas. I am sure my boyfriend will come up with some great ideas too.

Best Boss in the world

I am pretty sure I have the best boss in the world. Not only did he approve my three weeks vacation for 2009, but he also gave me a nice raise. Woo hoo, more money for vacation.

So on that happy note, I called Disney reservations and booked a weekend trip for the end of June. I prefer to go to Disney off season (which is definitely not June), but Walt Disney World is having a pin trading event that weekend so I am going to give WDW's busy season a try.

I have never been to a pin trading event and am sorta new to the whole pin-trading-craze that is popular at the Disney resorts so I am really looking forward to seeing what the event will be like. My boyfriend, on the otherhand, is not looking forward to it. Luckily he has agreed to be dragged along with me and he will suffer in silence. Hmmm, on second thought, I doubt he will be silent but I told him to keep the complaining to the mininum and reminded him relationships are about compromise ;-)

Never enough time for vacations...

2009 is promising to be an interesting year with at least four vacation ideas in the works. I do have a 9 to 5 job with two weeks paid vacation time but my planned vacations are going over my allotment. Three weeks vacation time would be perfect...now if only I could get my boss to agree. My boss is a very understanding guy so hopefully he will say yes when I ask for a third week (soon when I get enough nerve). What would really be perfect is if I didn't need a 9 to 5 job but alas I have to pay for all these vacations somehow.

My first vacation is just around the corner. My boyfriend and I are heading to Disney World January 30th 2009 through February 7th. We visited Disney World twice last year and loved it so much we bought season passes on our second trip.

One of the perks of a Disney World Season Pass is great room discounts. Disney offered a room for $50 a night so we couldn't resist our second return trip. With airfare very reasonable ($200 roundtrip a person) we are off to Disney in three weeks.

My other vacations in the works are a weekend trip to Yellowstone National Park at the end of February, a return weekend trip to Walt Disney World in June for a special event, and a week long trip to Disneyland California with a side stop at Las Vegas first week of September. We would also like to go back to Disney World in December to check out the Christmas lights but I really have to play that trip by ear since I will have no vacation days left for that trip.

In between all these trips; we also like to make local weekend trips, visiting parks, tourist stops, etc. Missouri has lots of neat places to visit for a short trip.