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.

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.