This year, we decided to visit the place where it all began, Disneyland in
Anaheim California.

Disneyland is personally our favorite park.
It is the original, Walt‚’s
park.
There is just something special and charming about Disneyland.
Just
like last year, we decided to go during the holidays.

This year, the Holidays at the Disneyland Resort run from November 9, 2018-
January 6, 2019.
We went during the first weekend, and had a blast!
The Food
Disneyland Resort went all out with their special holiday food and even
prepared a Foodie Guide to 2018 Holidays at Disney Resort! I couldn‚’t believe my eyes when I saw all the options the resort was
offering in 2018.
They also have the Festival of Holidays at Disney
California Adventure and prepared yet another Foodie Guide to 2018 Festival of Holidays.
There was honestly no way for us to eat everything in two days, so we
just enjoyed a few.
Here‚’s a list of what we had:
Disneyland Park
Peppermint Holiday Sundae at Gibson Girl Ice Cream ParlorGingerbread Creme Brulee at Blue BayouChurro with crushed pretzel and peppermint at the churro cart near Big
Thunder MountainCandy Cane Beignets – Mint Julep BarLumps of Coal Beignets – Cafe Orleans
California Adventure
Peppermint Churro at the churro cart near the Redwood Creek Trail
Festival of Holidays
Reuben Potato Tots with Russian Dressing and Rye Toast at Favorite Things
Our ultimate favorites that we would definitely eat again are the
peppermint holiday sundae, gingerbread creme brulee, candy cane beignets,
and the peppermint churro.

The Decor
I‚’ve said it before and I‚’ll say it again‚Äö√Ѭ∂holidays plus Disney is the best
combination.
We simply can‚’t get enough.

I wish we had more time to take it all in.
Disney does it best! I mean just
look at how magical the castle and it‚’s a small world look.
The rest of the
park is decked out too!
If you can, try to visit the parks during the holiday season.
It can get
really crowded, but if you utilize MaxPass and take some time to relax or sit down for a meal, the crowds don‚’t seem
too bad.
Trust us, you won‚’t regret it!
I‚’ll do another post in the coming weeks that shows everything we did eachday! There‚’s simply nothing like walking down Main Street USA toward Sleeping
Beauty Castle during the holidays.
It might even snow on you!

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Festive Preparations at Home At home, the Christmas tree is up, and I’ve noticed my pawrents bringing home intriguing boxes and packages. Naturally, I assume they’re filled with treats for me, their spoiled princess. I’ve been nosily investigating because, after all, Christmas is nearing!

Last Year’s Christmas Memories In anticipation of the upcoming celebrations, let me share what I got last Christmas. There was an attempt to dress me up as a reindeer – quite a mismatch, given that I’m a proud dog. Despite my lack of enthusiasm for the reindeer look, I played along for the sake of more gifts.

Gifts Galore I uncovered a festive collar, a cozy new nap blanket, and a fun toy from my gift bag. Nap blankets are my absolute favorite, especially for nibbling! Then came the posing session – I must say, I’m quite the professional.

Post-Reindeer Joy Once freed from the reindeer attire, I thoroughly enjoyed my gifts. My soft penguin blanket remains a favorite, and the reindeer toy survives in my toy box, albeit with one ear missing. As for the reindeer ears and collar, their whereabouts are unknown, and I hope they stay that way. But, with Christmas approaching, I’m bracing myself for their possible return. I’ll keep you all updated, friends!

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My daily routine is all thrown out of whack! Gone are my midmorning naps,
noon naps, and afternoon naps in peace.
I keep getting bothered with
snuggles.
What is happening? I am SO tired!
But, there are a few pawsitives to this situation‚

1.I get to enjoy the air conditioning all day long! Sometimes I just hang
out under Mom‚’s desk (aka the dining table).

I still go outside as I please, of course.

Mom & Dad are my personal door openers at my beck and
call.

2.I am now Dad‚’s supervisor.
I look over his work and make sure he is doing
everything properly.
I also realized that I enjoy being a lap dog!

3. I feel more attached to Mom & Dad than ever! Literally attached.
This way
if they move, I KNOW!

4. We are spending a lot of time in our backyard.
I‚’ve always loved yard
time and sunbathing and now we enjoy it several times a week!
Rolling in the grass is so satisfying!
I don‚’t mind posing for photoshoots as long as I can sunbathe.
Get all my
angles Mom!
Alright, telling Mom what to type is exhausting.
Time for me to take my nap.
Please don‚’t wake me up Dad!
I‚’ll try to keep my posts coming.
Keep bothering Mom to do my typing!
Until next time, friends!

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Our adventure started in the back of the shop, where we put on official
Chocole‚’a aprons, learned a bit more about Chocole‚’a and sipped on some
coffee accompanied with dark chocolate beans.

I was very excited to wear an official Chocole‚’a apron!
Then we made our way over to the kitchen where the real fun began.
The
kitchen is usually closed to the public, so if you want to go inside,
you‚’ll have to book a private workshop.
The first portion of the workshop was spent decorating our own chocolate
bars.
A full chocolate bar of Chocole‚’a chocolate? Am I dreaming?
You pick your toppings for your bar and then head over to the warm
chocolate station where you get to pour chocolate into the mold.

First, heat the mold.
Then ladle in the chocolate, and tap out any air bubbles.
Next, decorate your personal chocolate bar to your hearts content! Hurry!
You don‚’t have too much time before the chocolate starts to set.

My bar (left) has macadamia nuts & dried raspberry, marshmallows and
sprinkles and ginger candy & lavender.
Aaron who only has his upcoming
Ironman race on his mind, made a triathlon inspired bar with gummy bears
that are swimming, biking and running!
Once you‚’re done, your bars head to the refrigerator to set.

Time for the DIP portion of the workshop!
We each got our own large Chocole‚’a boxes to fill with our choice of items
to dip (or dunk) into chocolate.
Dip all your items into a personal cup of melted dark chocolate.

And lay them on a sheet to dry.
I also decorated a few of mine with
additional toppings because, why not?
After your tray of dipped goodies go into the refrigerator to set, you get
to indulge in more sweet treats! Hot chocolate! Yes, the seasonal treat
that is usually reserved for the holidays.
Yum!
In between sipping chocolate, you can also decorate your custom box label
if you wish.

Once everything is set, you package them up to take home and share (or not
share)!
We had a blast at Chocole‚’a Dip & Decorate workshop.
We were both smiling
ear to ear the entire time and had a lot of fun with our fellow chocolate
loving participants.

Before leaving Chocole‚’a I just had to get a limited Unicorn Pop! One of my
favorite things about Chocole‚’a is their speciality items! Isn‚’t it just so
cute?
If you‚’re looking for something fun and unique to do for a celebration,
special occasion or triple date night, check out Chocole‚’a Dip & Decorate
Workshop! The workshop will open to the public in May, so stay tuned to Chocole‚’a website and Instagram for more information and updates!

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I woke up today with a continued sense of purpose.
I had a great sleep,
with some weird dreams that included a dinosaur made out of a cloud that
screamed and then exploded into rain…glad I survived the dream.
On our morning walk, I paid close attention to some new aches and pains.

Mainly I had some tenderness from my trail run.
What a grand idea that was.

By the end of the walk, my body had woken up a bit and I was ready to go.
The weather was a few degrees warmer than yesterday with a little more
humidity.
I could feel it.
But this is Hawaii, so I just learn to deal with
it.
I got my Tailwind ready to go, and gulped down a SIS gel for good
measure.
If you haven‚’t had one of these gels, they are my personal
favorite, and what I use for all marathons.

I also brought out some new shoes.
It is important to cycle through shoes
when you are running long distances.
I rotate between 7-8 pairs.
It keeps
the foam cushion from getting compressed too much, so they last longer.
At
least that is what I tell Janell.

Music of choice today was Taylor Swift radio, starting with “Blank Space”.

With my headphones on, I was ready to go.
As mentioned, it was warmer today than on day 1.
So I had every intention
to take it easy.
But after doing a new activation drill from Purple Patch
(my new triathlon program), I actually started hot out the gates.
In fact,
I ran today‚’s 10 miles over 2 minutes faster than yesterday‚’s! Whoops.
I did take the same number of breaks, and my heart rate was only 1 bpm
higher on average, but my stride was a little longer (perhaps from the
activation drills).
I guess we will see how bad an idea it was tomorrow.
26 down.
74 to go.
For my second run of the day, I decided to stay on the road vice the
trails.
As much as I would have loved to be back in the mountains, my
ankles were a little stiff today from all the rock and rolls, so I gave
them a rest.
Despite the weather app saying it felt like 72 degrees, the humidity in the
afternoon made it feel like it was 85 degrees.
I got out another new pair
of shoes, or lightly used pair rather, and put on my cool kid glasses.
I
figured that if nothing else, at least I would be running in style.

Since I listened to only Tay Tay this morning, I switched it up with some
old school (for me) All out 90‚’s.
Nothing like running to the beat of “My
Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion…
After another round of activation drills, I was on my way.
Surprisingly, my
legs weren‚’t heavy feeling at this point.
I was however still running a bit
quicker than I planned, so my walk breaks were important.

I was getting more and more drenched in sweat, and tried not to think about
the smells that were going to be ingrained in my shirt after this run.

Again my run was quicker than the previous day, granted, it was an “easier”
run with half the elevation gain.

32 down.
68 to go.
I made sure to have a post run recovery shake, treat, and hydration (Liquid
IV).
That GF banana bread was surely pushing me to finish today!
All in all, I was happy with another day completed.
With some aches from
day 1, it will be interesting how long I last tomorrow on my long 15 mile
run.
I think I will still wake up motivated, knowing that I will be half
way through once it is done.
However, I will probably start to feel the
previous 32 miles with each step.
Some of the tools I have been using for a while now for recovery include
the Hyperice Vyper vibrating roller and the Hyperice Hypervolt massager.

After a good 20 minute session with these bad boys, I am usually feeling a
lot better.
Time will tell.
Two days down.
Four more to go.

Thanks for reading!
PrefaceDay 1: Miles 0-16Day 3: Miles 33-47Day 4: Miles 48-63Day 5: Miles 64-73Day 6: Miles 74-100

The post My First 100 Mile Week Day 2 appeared first on Aj in the Life.

A few weeks ago we shared the basics of how to plan a trip to Walt Disney World (WDW). Today, we’re going to dig a little deeper into the planning that we do before our trip to Disney World.

Please keep in mind that most of our trips are just the two of us. If you have kids or are traveling with a large group, some things may be different for you. But, we still think many of the same principles can apply to everyone!

If you don’t have a spreadsheet already, now would be a great time to make one. We like to use Google sheets so all our information is in one shared place and we can always have access to it! My Disney Experience will show your plans, but we think it’s just easier to view on one sheet.

WDW requires a lot more planning than the other parks because there are 4 parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom & Hollywood Studios), FastPass+ reservations and advanced dining reservations. For the purposes of this blog post, we are going to assume you are staying on-site at a Disney Resort.

To Hop or Not – Park Hopping

When buying your park tickets you need to decide whether you want to park hop or not. What is park hopping? Park hopping means you can go to one park, say Magic Kingdom in the morning and then go into another park like Epcot later in the same day. You could go back and forth or go to all 4 parks if you really wanted to!

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Since our previous trip to the Disneyland Resort in 2018, MaxPass increased in price from just $10/day to $15/day. You can read all about what MaxPass is and how to…

Prior to our last trip to Disneyland, we were presented with a new food challenge. A recent life event resulted in Aaron needing to eat gluten free. This was something…

Going to Disneyland in California during the holidays has somehow become one of our traditions. There’s just something about the holidays that makes Disneyland Resort even more magical than it…

Back when we were in college, we had annual passes to Disneyland. We would go to the parks on a whim, for just a few evening hours and enjoy dinner…

If you read our posts on Day 1 and Day 2 at the Disneyland Resort, you may have noticed that we utilized Disneyland’s MaxPass service. This was our first trip…

Wow! Did you see everything we did on Day 1? If not, check out this post. We tried to do as much as we could on Day 1 since Aaron’s…

One thing you may come to learn about me is that I really like to make lists. To do lists, grocery lists, packing lists, a list of goals, you name…

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Compared to the summer time, today was great.
But compared to the last few
months of “cooler” weather, today got warm.

I got my belongings together, and chose my running vest today for some
extra storage of water and gels.
I use the UltrAspire Spry 2.5 vest which is perfect for 15-30 mile runs.
I also have a gel tube that can hold 5 gels at once, which makes it easy to consume when needed.
After a careful selection of my music, 5 Seconds of Summer radio again on
Spotify, I was out the door with “Good Girls” playing in my head.

My first few steps were refreshing because I didn‚’t feel the fatigue that I
was half expecting.
In my initial post about running 100 miles, I expected that today would be a hard day for me
physically.
However, to my surprise, I felt strong.

In fact, my moving pace for most of the run was quicker than I had
expected, and even with my 30 second walk breaks, my mile times were
comfortably within my goal time.

The views today were also pretty spectacular.
I love seeing the reflection
of the sky in the water!
Bright Suns! What I meant by that is once the sun rises, it is HOT.

Unfortunately, it is rising earlier and earlier too! I should have done
this in the winter time when it stays dark until 7:00 AM.
Next time.

I might have to start my marathon attempt at 4:00 AM on Saturday.
Yikes.
Things got dicey toward the end of the run, and in the last 4 miles my
heart rate started to climb.
It was partly due to the elevation gain back
to my starting point, and partly due to the temperature being 10 degrees
higher than when I started.

47 down.
53 to go.
I‚’ll be needing another ice bath and some food to replenish my soul after
this run.
I ordered a 12 pack of Red Bull from Target yesterday (curbside
pick up was great!) and have one chilling in the fridge.
This is one of my
favorite post race traditions.
Or in this case, post long run.

I also like to lie upside down for 5-10 minutes to flush the legs.
I think
it helps.
Who knows.
I definitely am happy with how I feel halfway through this.
With only three
days left, I am 100% confident I will finish this.
Ask me again how I feel
in the middle of my marathon in 3 days and we shall see if I change my
answer.
Thanks for following along!
PrefaceDay 1: Miles 0-16Day 2: Miles 17-32Day 4: Miles 48-63Day 5: Miles 64-73Day 6: Miles 74-100

The post My First 100 Mile Week Day 3 appeared first on Aj in the Life.

World of Color Dining Package Experience Last year, we enjoyed the Fantastic Dining Package at Blue Bayou, and this year, we opted for the World of Color dining package at Carthay Circle in Disney’s California Adventure Park. Since our visit was in early November, we were treated to the World of Color Season of Light Holiday Show.

Dining Package Options The World of Color Dining Package includes a multi-course meal and reserved viewing tickets for the show. The participating restaurants in 2019 were:

• Wine Country Trattoria (Lunch/Dinner: $50 for adults, $25 for children)
• Storyteller’s Cafe (Dinner: $50 for adults, $25 for children)
• Carthay Circle Restaurant (Lunch: $56 for adults, Dinner: $74 for adults, $25 for children for both)

We chose the lunch package at Carthay Circle Restaurant for its more affordable pricing and the early show reservation.

Reservations and Menu Reservations are highly recommended and can be made 60 days in advance. The 2019 lunch menu offered a selection of appetizers, entrees, and desserts. Our choices included Fairytale pumpkin soup, Baja White Shrimp, Carthay Salad, Pork Chop, and desserts like the Honey Crisp Apple Tart and Triple Chocolate Verrine.

A Relaxing Lunch The meal at Carthay Circle was both delicious and relaxing, providing a nice break during a busy day at the park. They also catered to dietary needs, offering gluten-free bread.

World of Color Viewing Experience For the World of Color Season of Light, we checked into our reserved area at 8:25 PM. Despite being early, we found the central area quite accessible. However, some stage equipment from the Festival of Holidays needed repositioning, slightly affecting our viewing location. Nonetheless, we enjoyed an unobstructed view of the show and got a bit wet due to the wind.

Overall Impressions The World of Color Season of Light show was delightful and definitely got us into the holiday spirit. Though we missed the original World of Color Show, this experience leaves us eager for a return visit. We’re curious to hear from others who’ve experienced the Carthay Circle Dining Package – where was your viewing area?

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