I had been excited for months for the fall Dapper Day at Disney World to roll around. I was so excited to get dressed up (and get Jason dressed up) to go to Hollywood Studios. An amazing photo opportunity with lots of like-minded people who love style. It was a blast - and I loved wearing a petticoat. I was Disney-bounding (dressing up as inspired by a Disney character, whether it be the color of their outfits or try to match the colors of their fur) as Stitch. Do you see my inspiration?

Trying to go through Jason's closet to do Disneybounding, especially for Dapper Day, was impossible, so he just matched my colors in his fancy-boy bow tie.

Due to construction at Jason's parents in Orlando plus the fact we wanted to make this a little celebratory (this weekend was right after Jason's first week at his new job) we stayed one night at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I'm sad to say, I didn't love it. Even this photo, it totally doesn't even look all that great, right? Definitely more of a Polynesian girl. Anyhow, we had an awesome time dressing up and seeing all the stellar outfits people showed up in. We even met some really sweet people. We will definitely be back!

We even got the strangest Vinyl ever!

I think Disney bounding is going to come up a lot on this blog. So I think it's pretty important I offer you up an explanation as to what in the world it is that I can refer back to often. So... Disney bounding is for people who love fashion and also Disney - like me. You look into your own closet (or basically normal-ish clothing) and create looks inspired by Disney characters. There is an awesome blog, Disney Bound, that explains all of this. And there are TONS of Disney inspired looks there.  Here are looks I've done in the past:

Stitch!

Minnie Mouse

Snow White (reversed)

Belle (Beauty and the Beast)

We've been dying to go to EPCOT's Food and Wine festival for years. Our birthday, which falls around Thanksgiving, is always within a few days of the festivals ending, so over the past few years, we have gone to Disney near our birthday and missed the amazing festival. Not this year! We went to one of the first weekends for the event during Dapper Day weekend. We are lucky - while we live about 3 hours from Orlando, my in-laws have a lovely home near Disney. Since this was a celebration trip (both of Jason getting a job and our 'unanniversary', a random, fun celebration of our anniversary we hold in September every year), we decided to get a hotel room and have me take a half day so we could do our Friday outing in EPCOT.



Jason and I have become big beer drinkers over the years. What started as liking a few certain beers at a brewery in Hawaii opened us up to trying more things and expanding our palettes. While I hate some of them still (I can't do porters or stouts at all), I really love some. For instance - the Shiner Wild Hare Pale Ale in this flight was my favorite of the night. They even had Kona on draft at the Hawaii stand - a beer from that special place in Hawaii I was talking about.



After our initial beers to get us started, we started to get hungry. That's when we started going 'around the world' to sample both the food and drink. I honestly believe this should be deemed the 'Food, Beer, and Wine' festival. Because it all pairs so amazingly.

Pulled pork with pineapple chutney and spicy mayo paired with pineapple wine and Kona Brewing Golden Wave from Hawaii. Jason's fave from the night.

A yummy filet mignon with mushroom and truffle sauce and a Moosehead lager from Canada. (Not as good at the one inside, but for 7 bucks, I'll take it)

My favorite stand of the night? By and far Brazil. These little cheese breads (pao de queijo) were the perfect drinking food, and the frozen caipirinha was delicious and surprisingly strong for a frozen drink at Disney. And not sweet - I don't do overly sweet frozen drinks, and this was exactly how a frozen cocktail should be. Plus, how AMAZING does this stand look, even on a fairly raining evening?



We're going back to the food and wine festival in early November, so look out for more photos from the event then!

One of our favorite daily activities is the dog walks. We don't own a backyard, nor do we really need to in order to exercise these two, because it's lovely weather and we have a lot of paths and areas to walk. We live across from a pretty large city park called Quiet Waters, which is free to enter on weekdays and cheap entry on weekdays, and we love to go and walk around the lake which has people on this water skiing track called Ski Rixen. There is nothing I love more than photos of my dogs pooped from good, long walks at a park. Teemo also played with his first coconut!

While these photos were taken nearly a month ago when we went to Disney for Labor Day, it was still during the unofficial 'start of fall'. The Magic Kingdom was already full of pumpkins and adorable fall decor - funny since the temperatures were over 100 degrees. It's so beautiful to see the fall decor but it definitely has a real disconnect since now that it's October, little has changed here in Florida. Anyhow, Labor Day is a wonderful time to visit Disney - it's surprising uncrowded (the last weekend in September, a random non-holiday, was more crowded), beautiful with the fall decor, and during my personal favorite holiday.

So you all know about the new Fantasyland, right? I'm a big fan of Be Our Guest (not that I've been able to get in since our first visit), and I was SO excited to ride the new Seven Dwarves Mine Train. We stood in the line (only an hour this day) and I gotta say, I liked the line more than the ride. See the photos below of all the line details. There was a cool, interactive water/music deal with animal heads, and barrels of gems that you spun to project images on the ceiling. The ride itself was a bit too short for me, but it's definitely a good ride still.



I also Disney Bounded as Stitch! Jason hasn't gotten into Disneybounding yet. It was hard enough to get him into his Dapper Day attire (that will be a future Disney post!), but I love basing my outfits off of my favorite Disney characters. See a few shots below of the blues on blue with a red accent to represent his collar. (PS. Aren't Boston Terriers the 'if Stitch were actually a dog this would be what he would be')



Also - DOLE WHIP! Seriously, amazing stuff. We found out a secret - there are two sides to the line. And the weird part? The right side, in the shade, is actually shorter. Plus, instead of a normal Dole float, another Florida passholder in front of us keyed us into a delicious mix - pineapple Dole whip with Sprite float!