Disneyland and California Adventure Food

Are you ready for some more delicious food and treats to try while visiting Disneyland and California Adventure?

One of my top 10 things to eat at California Adventure is somewhat new, the Lobster Nachos at Cove Bar. The line is usually pretty long to wait for a table but seriously these nachos are worth the wait! If only we could talk Disney in to making these in a take away container.

They might be a little spicy for some but the good news is, each order is specially made so you can customize your lobster nachos.

These Milk Chocolate Caramel Sticks are dang good! I have been saying for years that Disney has been missing out on not having much of a caramel selection but these have filled that spot. Disney introduced them as part of the 60th anniversary celebration and I really hope they stay. Find them at the Candy Palace on Main Street.

The Blue Monstro Frozen Lemonade is a nice sweet treat on hot days. It isn't my very favorite frozen drink there but it's pretty tasty and worth the try. Found at the Village Haus Restaurant in Fantasy land.

 

I can't really mention Disneyland treats without talking about the famous Tigger Tails Marshmallow Wands. Brody tried one for the first time last week and went nuts over it. Found at Pooh Corner in Critter Country. 

I have a lot more yummy treats and food you need to try at Disneyland and California Adventure. I will post them soon!

Disneyland food part one can be found here. 

In the mean time, what are your favorite foods there?

The Bathroom Makeover

Just to give you an idea of what we were dealing with in our bathroom renovations let me show you some before pictures.

We decided to keep the original bath tub and vanity to save some money and that's basically all that we kept. 

The window above the toilet actually went to another room, not outside so we decided that needed to go. The door to the bathroom had been enlarged for wheelchair access (we think) so we had to change the door frame as well.

Removing wallpaper is such a pain! I vow to never, ever put up wallpaper. I don't care how in style it is I will NOT do it.

The hardest part was probably ripping out all the tile from the shower and the floor.

 If you ever demo a bathroom I recommend using power tools, ear plugs and safety glasses. Pieces of tile can chip off and fly at you. I am just glad my brother in law was there to help and to tell me what to do.

As you can see the demolition part can get quite messy! With me, my dad and Brother in law it took about a day to demo the bathroom.

 Once the trim and glass from the window were out Travis had to build a frame for the window and then had to sheetrock it.

The tile and stone work were installed by the local Utah company Millstream Tile and Stone. The cool thing is, I happen to know the owner and he let me help out with some of the tile since I have never done that before.

 If you need any tile or stone work done I highly recommend Millstream Tile and Stone!

I don't have pictures from my painting progress but let me tell you, we started with a generic ceiling paint that was tinted pink when wet so you could see where you had painted. Sounds great right? Wrong! This particular paint takes almost 30 days to completely cure which means any moisture in the room will turn the ceiling pink, it's kind of a pain. From there I painted the walls and vanity.

 My tile guy suggested adding the tile on the wall behind on the toilet. I am so glad he did, it gives it a real finished look. He also did the custom marble counter. The pictures just don't do it justice.

We also added new hardware to the cupboards and drawers. The mirror was a basic mirror from Home Depot that Travis added the frame to.

I didn't get a picture of the lights but this is what they look like.

Paint: Glidden Universal Grey
Tile: Subway tile from Home Depot
Flooring:Mitte Gray tile from Lowe's
Sink: Decolav rectangle under mount sink from Home Depot
Light: Hampton Bay
Plumbing fixtures: Pfister

Did I Tell You We Moved?

If you follow me on Instagram you may have noticed that we moved. We bought a house in early March and have been slowly remodeling it ourselves. Talk about a lot of work!
We finally moved in at the beginning of June but still have a lot of work to do.

This picture was taken before we moved in. I have lots of plans for the exterior but that will have to wait.

Brody has even enjoyed helping us with some of the renovations.

Before moving in we removed more wall paper than I even want to think about, painted pretty much everything in the upstairs, opened up some walls, built closet organizers, built a wall, gutted a bathroom, ripped up old flooring, sanded and stained old hardwood, new trim and baseboards, a bunch of electrical work, ripped out cupboard, patched lots of holes and so on.

I will show some before and after pictures soon, but I want to finish decorating first.

The kids transitioned to the new house really fast. Sammy and Sadie loved finding fun places to eat before we had our kitchen table set up.

How Dream Dinners Work

As promised (when I first told you about Utah Dream Dinners), I am here to tell you more about them.

But first I want to tell you how much I have been loving this experiment with Utah Dream Dinners. My family is already sitting down to dinner at a regular time and we are sitting down together! That is huge! I love that it doesn't take long to make dinner, especially during this busy summer. I love that my kids are trying new foods that I wouldn't normally think about introducing to them so we are eating a bigger variety of flavors and foods. Two thumbs up to Dream Dinners!

Okay, so here is how it works. First you go to the Utah Dream Dinners website to order the meals you want and scheduled a time to go assemble the meals.

When I got to the Dream Dinners kitchen the first thing I noticed is how clean everything is. There is a place for you to keep your purse and belongings, a clean apron waiting for you and of course a hand washing station.

The kitchen is set up in small stations with everything you need to assemble your meals. The recipes are clear and easy to read. The Dream Dinners crew is there to help you with anything you need and they are also quick to clean up behind you so each station is always clean and ready for the next cook.

Some of the ingredients are frozen like the meat or pasta but it is still great, fresh, quality food. Last time I was assembling my meals I was zesting an orange and a lime. I can't remember the last time I did that.

Once each meal is finished and ready to go you can place it in your designated refrigerator until you are ready to leave. Assembling meals is so fast! You can hurry in and hurry out or take your time and have fun with it.

There are so many different kinds of meals to choose from, my girls went nuts for the Canadian Bacon Stuffed French Bread and the Fircracker Beef Sliders. I put the sauce on the side so they could dip their sliders in it (they are really into dip these days).

Cooking for a family of five with three young children can be hard but I haven't felt that way with Dream Dinners. I really have started to enjoy cooking again! The only meals I have to think about are breakfast and lunch. How easy is that? That means I am only grocery shopping for breakfast, lunch and produce.

Don't forget you can try Utah Dream Dinners Introductory offer for only $25 and learn how to take away dinner time stress.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

San Francisco 10th Anniversary Trip

Travis and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary last week! We decided to take a trip to San Francisco to celebrate. The crazy thing is, we had not gone on a trip just the two of us since our honeymoon. We were past due for a getaway!

Below are a few pictures from our little trip. We spent more time enjoying the trip than taking pictures.

I can't even tell you how many of these vanilla shakes with caramel sauce I ate at Ghiradelli Square.

We love Blondie's Pizza!

 AT&T Park is so pretty!

And it just so happened that we were there during the annual Gay Pride Parade. I will spare you the pictures. Too many naked people.

Our Sad Excuse For Dinner

Am I the only one out there that dreads dinner time? I am so unprepared by the time dinner rolls around that I am scrambling to throw a dinner together and I end up looking like a short order cook and can't even sit down to eat with my family. I am not sure how it got that way. I will just blame it on life with twin toddlers, although that's really only a small portion of it.

I use to try and plan out our family's dinner menus ahead of time and then plan the grocery list around that but I have just been swept away in life and landed in this mess at dinner time. I am usually a pretty organized person but when it comes to dinner I fail miserably. My poor family!

As a mom it's my job to make sure my kids eat good healthy meals, not like the picture below. Ha!

Trying to make dinner is frustrating too because Sammy and Sadie end up clinging on to my legs while I try and cook making cooking difficult so there are many nights when we grab fast food. I don't even know what our monthly food budget is because of our expensive fast food  dinners and total lack of planning. Fast food for 5 people can add up fast! Plus I am teaching my kids poor meal time habits.

Does any of this sound familiar to anyone?

Growing up I remember dinner being a time when we sat together as a family and talked and enjoyed our time together while we ate. I want my kids to experience that. I don't want them thinking our current dinner situation is a good one.

I am going to turn our sad family dinner time around though! I am going to be part of the Dream Dinner Experiment! I am actually really excited about this! Utah Dream Dinners is about taking the stress and madness of dinner away. You look at the menus online and choose which ones would be best for your family then you show up to the store to assemble them. No grocery lists, no shopping, they have taken that hassle away from you. You take your meals home and all that's left is to cook the pre-assembled meals.

I am going to even let my little ones help me cook some of the meals. They love to try and help cook and with Dream Dinners taking all the hard work away it will make it easy and enjoyable. While I am at it I can even teach them how to set the table and clean up after dinner right? I can't forget about teaching them table manors too. How am I supposed to teach them these things when I can't even sit down to eat with them? Dream dinners is going to help me in so many ways!


Right now Dream Dinners has a great offer for Whatever DeeDee Wants readers. Purchase 3 meals for only $25. They will also teach you how to make all your dinners for 1 month in only 1 hour! Click here for more details.
I tried this out and am happy to say I am a fan! I wouldn't be telling you about this if I didn't like it.

I will be telling you more about my experiences with Utah Dream Dinners soon. 

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Merry Christmas!

Happy holidays from my family to yours! Hopefully you can read our card, it was a little blurry when it uploaded.

Go Cards!

Who else is excited that baseball season is here? I love this time of year!
As you can see, we root for the Cardinals at our house! Brody is still a little upset that his favorite player, Kyle Lohse was traded but I can still get him to watch the games with me about half the time. He is even learning all the players on the team.
I catch Sadie and Sammy watching the games, they seemed pretty intrigued by them. I don't blame them.

If you are a Cardinals fan I suggest you check out Manager, Mike Matheny's Blog! It is pretty good.

What team do you cheer for?

Give Thanks

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! 

I am so grateful for this little family of mine! 

It's been a crazy year for us but we have been very blessed.

What are you thankful for?

What I Have Been Up To

The past two months seemed to really get away from me. Here is a little recap of what I have been up to.

Brody started playing  Tball

I hosted a baseball themed wedding shower

I had two nieces get married

Brody even got a new suit for one of the weddings

Our family spent some time at our cabin in Flaming Gorge

We went cliff jumping, floated the Green River, shot guns and Travis got to try out his drift trike

Brody started school and tumbling classes

But above all, I have been super busy taking care of my kids (especially the girls). They keep me really busy!

 Trying to get a decent snap shot of our family is hard!

What have you been up to?