March Snow brings??

So I've been living in the DMV area for close to a year and a half. And I came from South Eastern Idaho. In the time I've bee living here I have not gotten to observe a real good winter snow. It's snowed a little, and I've been out to West Virginia and Maryland in the mountains to see the snow. But it hasn't snowed here, where I live. Well tomorrow might be the day!! We are expecting Snowmegedon 2013 here! According the the forecast:

I'll keep you guys posted! It's totally laughable compared to Idaho where I used to live, but weather here is always more dramatic some how! Hopefully we don't lose power which they are saying is likely. BOO! I like severe weather but only when it doesn't affect me! HAHA!

XOXO The Mrs.

93.1 Da Pa'ina

So ever since our Cruise we took for our Honeymoon I have really been loving listening to Reggae music. I love being home by the ocean and listening to island music on the radio. Unfortunately I don't live in Florida anymore or anywhere remotely close to the Caribbean that I love. So my solution was an app called Radio Alarm. It allows you to live stream radio stations from all around the world. Well in browsing their selection of Reggae stations I came across 93.1 Da Pa'ina last summer. It has seriously become a staple in my music choices. I listen to it at work almost every day. It is amazing the stress relief a little Bob Marley can bring to your work day. So we had just come back from our exciting adventures in Florida and I completely and totally have had the Winter blues. I miss the sunshine, I miss the beach, and I miss being tan and warm. I miss fresh seafood and that salty ocean breeze. So I of course turned on my little app and was listening to my radio station. 

And I thought, hmm I wonder... What does it cost to fly to Hawaii these days? I've been twice before and it was under $500 then. But with this economy I expected it to be like $2000+ just for airfair. Well I looked it up and it was only like $980 (still a lot I know, but it is Hawaii folks) . So I did what any rational person would do and texted my Dad and said, want to go to Hawaii?? 

YOLO

I am ecstatic to announce that we will be taking a 12 day trip to Hawaii this Summer! Listening to the radio pays off folks.  We will spend the main part of our trip on the Big Island and then will spend 2 days and 1 night on Oahu. I CAN"T WAIT! IT'S GOING TO BE SO AWESOME!!!!! 

Stay tuned for details of what we will be doing and seeing while we are there!

XOXO The Mrs. 

Parties, Boarding, and Dip

Once again, the award for Biggest Slacker to Blog goes to... Me.  I swear I want to be so on top of my Blog, especially since my pal Gentri Lee created this awesome new look for me, you should all go read her blog instead of mine. She does awesome give aways and is just pretty much perfect. But alas I have been too busy living life to post about it. So here is a massive catchup once again: 

January was very busy for us. As soon as we got back from our trip we moved. Like within 2 weeks. John also changed Jobs from SAIC to BAE, a move we were both amazed and excited about. My Company had their Annual Holiday Bash, which was so fun, and we actually got snow! 

Me with my 3 favorite PA's from the office and our Husbands. These girls seriously rock my socks off on a daily basis. 

Finally some winter weather shows its face!

 February was a good month too! My team finally went to the Super Bowl, and WON! Holy Batman it was awesome. Seriously everyone saw that right? Those birdies were on FIRE!!! 

We also got to go on a Snowboarding Adventure with our good friends Hilda and Adam. It was a very eventful day with lots and twists and turns, our alternator gave out in a blizzard, but we made it to the slopes eventually via a pit stop in West Virginia and Maryland, and it was perfect snow. Alls well that Ends well right? 

 Hilda and I Shredding it on the Bunny Hill. 

 My Mr. is so Gangster. 

The "mountain" all lit up. It was snowing so hard on our way home. So grateful that we all made it safe. Yay 4 wheel drive. 

My new favorite dish that came out of this Winter is a greek dip. My boss and the billing manager at work introduced me to this little gem. It is SO good and creamy and delicious. I seriously can crush a whole box of Wheat Thins on it. And it is SO SO SO easy to make.

Greek Dip:
1 box feta cheese (however much you want really)
1 brick of cream cheese(8oz) softened
1 jalapeno seeded and chopped roughly

Combine everything in a food processor and blend until smooth and creamy, you can add a little water or milk if it seems to be too thick. It takes about 5-10 minutes for it to really get thin like it should be. It is supper yummy and an awesome party snack. Just don't count calories when you eat it...

XOXO The Mrs.

Welcome to 2013!

Whelp it's not a Buckle family vacation without a trip to Disney. We decided to go to EPCOT because we thought it would be the least crowded. We went on New Years Eve. It was wonderful, but crowded. It had warmed up a lot since our HP experience which I liked! It was pretty relaxing just strolling the world showcase with my family. I miss doing this ALL the time. 

Visting America in America. 

 They were handing out free new years hats and noise makers. It was awesome! Everyone was celebrating starting at like 5pm! 

 After a walk around the world showcase we headed to our family's favorite spot Beaches and Cream for a traditional No Way Jose. I'm telling you if you do nothing else at Disney go to Beaches and Cream and get Ice Cream. It's amazing. Peanut Butter and Chocolate Heaven. 

Us on the Dock at the Yacht Club. I feel so lucky to be able to share my childhood favorites with this awesome man. LOVE YOU HUBS! Happy New Year and bring on 2013!! Disney as always scores and A+. 

XOXO The Mrs. 

Year End in Review Pt. 3

I've been hesitate on how to handle this particular part of our trip. Because it was equally awesome and not awesome. After going to Kennedy Space Center(awesome) we went over to Orlando and checked into our amazing Hilton Hotel - Parc Soleil. It had a huge kitchen and living room and 2 suite rooms. BEAUTIFUL. Also, it was maybe the penthouse. What can I say, My Mom knows how to travel instyle! We of course had the obligatory luggage cart races  as well... 

So as you can see the Hotel was A++

My Mom and I have been dying to go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It has looked so amazing in all the commercials and since we are both HUGE fans of the books we wanted to go. My Mom however had 1 stipulation. She did NOT want to go in the Summer. She wanted to go when it was cold out so that people would be bundled up like they really would be if we were in England. HAHA so funny. Well she got her wish. It was a brisk 35 ALL DAY LONG.

My Mom grinning and bearing the cold for the ultimate Harry Potter Experience! 

We waited 3 hours outside in the freezing cold to get into the Hogwarts Castle. This is where the trip gets kind of rocky. While everything was super detailed and amazing looking. I mean really they did a fantastic job on EVERY little detail. What really was lacking was organization by the park staff. It was like they had no clue how to help people form a line. It was such chaos and people were ducking and weaving and walking all around, it was right after Christmas so of course it was super busy and they just were very incompetent. It was a big disappointment. I would recommend going in the Off Season and going first thing in the morning as they had maxed capacity on all of the stores and building by 11am. It's a little ridiculous when you have to wait in line to go into a gift shop...

 The Castle = A+, The Lines and Staff = D-

It was so crazy, the line to get on the ride was a 3 hour wait outside, and as soon as you got inside the castle there was no one in the line. It was taking so long because they were only letting people into the castle at certain times. Rediculous. Like I said, poor planning by the park on how to deal with crowds... Just saying they would never have wasted space like that at Disney. 

 It was super impressive how massive they made the Castle look considering it was actually quite small. The ride inside was ok, but it is definitely not for those that get motion sick. 

Olivander's was really a cool experience, but at the same time super Cheesy. Not sure it was worth the hour long wait to get inside. 

 The Hog's Head was probably one of the better parts of the day. The food was very authentic, even if the Butter beer was WAY too sweet and kinda gross. It also was a very cozy eccentric pub, which I thought was perfect. Again the attention to detail was just simply amazing. 

Not sure I will ever travel to Hogwarts again outside of my books, but it was worth at least 1 trip to see the shops, which I couldn't even get pictures of because it was so crowded. Oh well. My Honey Dukes Jar was an awesome souvenir and once it is unpacked I'll post a picture! 

XOXO The Mrs. 

Year End in Review Pt. 2

So for those of you that have known me for a while or know my family, you know that my Dad and I love Astronomy. My dad has his masters in Astrophysics and has been an Astronomer since long before I was born. He does voluntary research for Lowell Observatory in Arizona. So I was very excited when we talked about going to Kennedy Space Center over Christmas Break to avoid theme park lines! It had been years since I'd gone to Kennedy Space Center and since the space program is no longer active you can go and see all sorts of great things that you wouldn't have been able to before. We took the Bus tour out to the Launch pads and explored the rocket gardens as well as the Saturn IV rocket. I would highly recommend a trip to Kennedy Space Center. It was awesome! 

 The VAB , Vehicle Assembly Building.

 My leading Men! I love my husband and my Dad! We had such a great time and we actually ended up getting annual passes so we will get to go back again this fall when we go back to Florida! 

 This is the actual gangway that the astronauts walked across for the Apollo 11 mission. It was so neat that we got to walk across it. 

I can't imagine being hurled towards the earth like this. BLAH! Can we say motion sickness???? 

Sunset over the Rocket Garden. It was Beautiful. 

XOXO The Mrs.

Year End in Review Pt. 1

Part 1: The Homestead
Rating: A+

Nothing beats being home for the Holidays. Especially when home comes with a beach house, ocean views, and all you can eat food. I am a lucky native Floridian. Which means Winter to me is 76 degrees and sunny. A "White Christmas" is rollers coming in over the shore and white shells on the beach. South Florida was a great place to grow up and an even better place to go visit!

 These are my two beaches. The top 2 pictures are of Palm Beach. We got to go almost every morning we were home because my dad's (lucky guy) office is a block from this beach. The bottom two are of Lake Worth Pier/beach. I grew up dancing, twirling, and shell hunting on this beach. It was our first destination after the airport.

 My family has a beautiful 9ft artificial tree. Fun fact about me... I'm allergic to real Christmas trees. I get a fever, sore throat and cough. YAY. But I love our fake one. It has just enough room for our hundreds of lights and ornaments we cram onto it!

 It is a Christmas Eve tradition that my family has Spaghetti and Meatballs for dinner. My mom and I handmade the meatballs! YUM.

This was my favorite part of Christmas this year:

This to me is what a Christmas Gift should look like when being opened.

Let me tell you about my Mom. My Moms Christmas list is usually simple and to the point. She wants something useful, and small. She rarely asks for anything expensive or fancy.
So getting her a present worthy of her awesomeness is a challenge.
However, one of the items on her list this year was that she wanted a trip to NYC to eat pizza, pastrami and see the sights. She of course threw it on there as a joke, I took it as a challenge!
SO... I got uber creative and ran with it. Obviously the Mr. and I can't fund a trip for her to the Big Apple. So we had to think outside the box. What could I give her? Pastrami.
I made a card using my sweet In Design skills that I never get to use anymore that basically told her she was the lucky winner of a trip to NYC, all she had to do was take her credit card out and book now. Funny me, there was even fine print at the bottom saying the offer was only valid for parties of 4 or larger, meaning please take me with you.
The present part of it was that to wet her appetite for her trip I was giving her a complimentary Pastrami Sanwich. Curtesy of Carnegie Deli. I ordered 2 lbs of pastrami from the world famous Deli in NYC. I even tricker her into thinking that it was a cheesecake for my husband to explain the huge styrofoam box in her fridge the 3 days prior to Christmas!
Now for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, I highly recommend eating at Carnegie Deli if you are ever in NYC. They have the best Pastrami and Corned Beef in town!
Needless to say her mouth was watering and she couldn't wait to heat it and eat it! It may not be an object that lasts forever, but a pictures worth a thousand words, and her expression was true Christmas Joy. YAY!

This was our Christmas Dinner. Lobster Fisherman's Pie. I based the recipe loosely on one of my favorite recipes from, where else, Disney. It was surprisingly easy to do and was absolutely delicious! I encourage everyone to give it a try cause it was simply amazing!

Lobster Fisherman's Pie
Serves 6-8

Ingredients:
Lobster Bisque*

Mashed potatoes:
4 large Idaho spuds, peeled and cubed
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 - 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (depending on potato size)

Fiserman's Pie Filling:
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced carrot
about 2 3/4 tablespoons flour
1/2 lb lobster meat, cooked and chopped
1/4 teaspoon tarragon
Hot sauce - to taste, We probably did a few tablespoons of Franks
1 cup Sharp Irish Cheddar Cheese

Instructions:
Potatos:
1. place in large pot of boiling water, make sure you lightly salt the water. Cook over high heat for about 20 minutes, or until fork tender.
2. Drain and whip/mash potatoes until soft.
3. add butter, heavy whipping cream, and mix until it is all combined. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Lobster Fisherman's Pie:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Butter, and olive oil go in a large saute pan over medium. Saute onions, celery, and carrots (the trinity) until soft. about 10 minutes. Add flour and stir until combined, will be a little pasty. Don't over cook a t this stage or the flour will burn.
3. Stir in the lobster bisque, continue stirring and cooking until it comes to a boil. 8-10 minutes.
4. Add the cooked lobster, tarragon, hot pepper sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper, stir to combine.
5. Using a ladle for the neatest results, carefully pour mixture into small ramekins or baking dishes. Top with mashed potatoes, and cheddar cheese. We did and individual dish for each adult and then took the leftovers into a larger one for refills.
6. Place baking dish in preheated oven, we set all of ours on a tray with wax paper on it so if they bubbled over it wouldn't be messy in our oven. Cook for 25 minutes or until golden and bubbly on the top. Let sit 5-10 minutes after removing from oven.


*The original recipe makes it from scratch, I didn't have the time so we used Costco's pre-made Lobster Bisque Soup. It worked just fine.

Hope you guys enjoyed your Holidays! Stay tuned for the rest of My Year End in Review!

XOXO
The Mrs.