The Best Mickey-Shaped Foods at Disney

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Let's be honest, one of the best parts about Disneyland and Disney World is the food. There are so many great choices for meals and drinks, but when it comes to snacks, Disney always outdoes itself. We have a few snacks that we get every single time we go to the park: a Mickey ice cream bar, a Mickey Pretzel, a dole whip, and a churro. And we usually get popcorn too, because no matter how hard we try to resist, those dang carts basically throw the smell of buttery-goodness at our heads and it's really hard to ignore.

Anyway.

I had a fun new shirt to wear to Disney this last time, and I felt like I needed to actually live up to what I was advertising. My goal was to eat as many Mickey-Shaped foods as I could find in one day. I'm sure I missed a few, but I went with what I could find! If you know of any other Mickey-shaped foods, let me know!

 

Mickey ice cream bar - sold at nearly every single ice cream stand

Chocolate Chip Cookie Hot Fudge Sundae - Gibson Girl Parlor in Disneyland

Mickey-shaped Beignets - Mint Julep Bar in Disneyland (they currently have blackberry for the seasonal flavor and it is SO GOOD)

Mickey waffles are served at just about every sit-down breakfast place. Disneyland - Carnation Cafe. Disney World - The Plaza Ice Cream Parlor and Crystal Palace

Mickey soft pretzels are honestly so much better than any other soft pretzel. They can be found at most pretzel carts in every park!

 

WE MET OUR GOAL!!

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I meant to type this up and post it yesterday, but we have been so busy between the blog, vlog, and Flying for Time that spare moments have been in rare supply!

We wanted to say thank you to everyone who has donated to Flying for Time. We met our goal in under a week, and have continued to see more orders rolling in each day. Our primary goal was to donate one CuddleCot, and now our secondary goal is to donate another! We are still in the process of getting the actual CuddleCot (why don't people respond to emails fast enough?!) but are excited to posting some new items that will help purchase the next one.

Thank you again to everyone, we never be able to tell you how much we appreciate your support! Even if you weren't able to donate or purchase a necklace, your words of encouragement mean so much to us. Thank you!!

 
 

Our little Lucy bean.

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I've debated countless times whether I wanted to share the name we gave our little bean. I wrote most of this post clear back in June or July, when I was sharing all the bumpdates, but I couldn't ever decide if I waned to share it. This weekend though, after leaving her little grave marker at the cemetery, I decided that I wanted people to know how much she matters to us. We may have only had her for fifteen weeks, but she has been such a big part of our lives that it would be an injustice to not share her more.

I've mentioned in previous posts how close I felt to our little bean before we even got pregnant with her. After we lost Carter, I could feel him a little, but I could feel her more. I had this little female guardian angel that was always there when I needed comfort. One day in February, I knew I was pregnant. It was like someone had snapped their fingers and all of a sudden, I just knew. That little spirit was gone, and I knew I was pregnant with her.

After we got a positive pregnancy test, I tried really hard to convince myself that it probably wasn't a girl. Because that would be too lucky, and it also would mean that everything I had felt was real, and that I wasn't just crazy. Me being crazy was far too likely. But the day we found out we were going to lose her, we also found out she was a girl, just like I thought. It broke my heart to lose a baby we'd had for so little time, but that I knew so well.

We had planned to use Lucille as her middle name. I didn't want to use the name we had picked out because I have the distinct feeling that her spirit will be coming back to us. For whatever reason, it wasn't the right time, but eventually, it will be. I want to save her name for that time, because that's how I know her. Right after we lost Carter, I felt like I could say her name, and she was right there, waiting to bear some of my grief. Brandon and I mostly call her little bean, or just the baby or "she" or "her", but for the family's sake, we decided to call her Lucy. I knew that giving her more of an identity would help our family with their grief, and would give them a way to identify her when talking about her.

Part of the reason I'm hesitant to share this is because we have some family with a baby named Lucy, and even in my head, that name belongs to their baby. Our baby is not Lucy. Maybe someday we will get to use Lucille as her middle name, but for now, she is our little bean. I just hope that, like everything before, my instincts are correct and that we will get her again.

Feel free to call her Lucy or little bean; we will always know who you are talking about. We just appreciate you talking about her at all.

 
 

A grave marker for little bean.

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This weekend was full of so many emotions! Friday morning, I got a call from my mom saying that my brother and his wife were on the way to the hospital to deliver their baby. I waited for updates all day, but it was a slow process, so I tried to be patient! Our power went out at work that morning, so I spent the bulk of the day writing thank you's for people that have donated and/or purchased a necklace. I was running on adrenaline all day, trying to get all my things done before leaving work. That night, I worked on more thank you's, and Brandon edited a vlog. We had a nice night, just hanging out, still waiting for updates on our little nephew. Finally, at 10:43, he was born, and I officially became an aunt! And guys, he is the cutest!

Saturday morning, we woke up early to drive to Logan. We hadn't been to visit the babies in a month, so it was really nice to get up there and do some maintenance. We cleaned off the headstone, trimmed the grass around it, reorganized the toys, and made a makeshift lanyard to put the babies' pins on. The weather was perfect, and we were able to spend a lot of time with them without freezing or being too hot. It will be winter in Logan before we know it haha. Then we went to go have lunch with Brandon's parents and brother to celebrate his mom and brother's birthdays. After lunch, we ran to Hobby Lobby real quick. We had bought some football stakes to leave at the cemetery, and accidentally forgot them at home, so we just decided to buy some more and leave them that day. When we went back to leave the stakes, we decided that the lights needed to be cleaned, so we took them to Brandon's parent's house and got them looking new(ish) again! We had the birthday people open their presents, and chatted for a while, then left to go back to the cemetery one last time.

About six weeks ago, we finally ordered a grave marker for Little Bean. We spread her ashes at Carter's grave, and we wanted to get something to let people know that she is there too. The marker came just after our last visit to Logan, so for the last three weeks it has just been sitting on our counter. It was nice to finally leave it, but it also made my heart so heavy. Some things just really solidify the idea of everything we've gone through, and this was one of them. It breaks my heart to see not one, but two of our children's names in a cemetery.

Needless to say, we stopped for Aggie ice cream before driving out of town.

That night we borrowed the neighbor's dog and went for a nice, long walk. It was a little cooler than we had anticipated, but it still felt good to get out after sitting in the car all day! Brandon was up late that night editing a vlog, so we slept in Sunday morning, did laundry, got some groceries, and capped off the weekend with Costa Vida. Yesterday afternoon, before we left the house, we were able to video chat with my brother, his wife, and their new baby! We chatted for about an hour, and talked about how their last few days had been. We are so excited to go see them and meet our cute little nephew! He is the second grandbaby on my side of the family, and I know that he is going to be so spoiled. There are a few similarities between him and Carter (namely their big feet and head of hair) that pull on my heart strings and make me the happiest mama/aunt at the same time. 

All in all, it was a good weekend. Our visits to the cemetery are always tinged with sadness, but we also appreciate being able to be with our babies in whatever capacity we can.

ALSO. You guys are crushing it with Flying for Time!! We are so close to meeting our goal, so let's keep it going! Thank you so much for everything!!!

 

Where we've lived the longest!

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The cover picture for this is funny, because people always joke about living at Disneyland. I wish!!

You guys today is kind of a big deal!! As of today, Brandon and I have officially been in our house longer than we've ever lived in any other place!! We have lived in our house for 19 months and 1 week. The previous record was 19 months and 6 days haha.

We mentioned it in the vlog that went out last night, but we have moved almost every single year that we have been married. Not necessarily to a different city, but we've at least moved to a different apartment/house every year! We were in our first apartment in Logan for just under a year before moving to a different apartment about a mile away. Our first apartment was fine (it was a first apartment, you know), but the second apartment was seriously so good. It had a half bath on the main floor (two toilets is a big deal!), and just seemed so much cozier and homier than our first. We stayed in our second apartment for 19 months and 6 days before moving to Boise. In Boise, we lived with my parents for three months, then in an apartment for ten months, then in our first house for nine months, then moved to Salt Lake! And now, today, we have been here the longest!

I also mentioned this in the vlog, but it's almost weird that we have been in one place for longer than a year. Even before we were married, I was moving almost every semester. Freshman year I switched dorms halfway through, moved for the summer, was in the sorority house for sophomore year, then moved again for summer before getting married. It's so weird to feel "settled." And I don't mean that in a bad way. There are some things about our town home that I wish were different, and I really do miss our cute little Boise house, but this is home now. We have finished all the rooms in the house, have worked hard to decorate it, and have built a life here. 

A few things have helped it to really feel like home. Three days after we moved in, Brandon had to go to California for training for ten days. Literally, three days after we moved in. I spent a lot of time unpacking and trying to make the place feel like home. He had to leave again for ten days in June, and I think having him gone both of those times forced me to be comfortable where I was at, and really learn to relax in our new space. Decorating Carter's room helped it feel more like home too. We prepared to bring him home, and could see ourselves making memories with him in different parts of the house. He, even without being there, made it feel like home. After we lost him, I didn't work for three months. Staying home and thinking about Carter was nice. We weren't able to make those memories that we had anticipated, but somehow he still managed to fill each room. I had some good quality time with him, and myself during that time.

Brandon and I have grown a lot in this house, both as individuals and as a couple. We have been forced to grow in ways that I wish we hadn't, but it has all taken place in our house. Every tear, every laugh, every ounce of sadness and gratitude that we have felt have all made our house a home. 

I used to get antsy without a lot of rapid change, but I'm happy we've been in one place for this long. I love our home, and I love the people and memories that fill it.

 

Our first apartment

Our first house

 

Our quick weekend at Disneyland.

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Our weekend at Disney was ridiculously wonderful.

We left Salt Lake Thursday afternoon and flew into Long Beach Airport (which I love, by the way. never flying into LAX again), then went directly to our AirBnb to drop off our things. We called an Uber, and got to Laguna Beach around 6:00. Neither of us had ever been to Laguna Beach, as far as we could remember, and it was BEAUTIFUL! We took way too many pictures of the sunset, but it was unreal. We hung out there until it was dark, then stopped for dinner at Urth Cafe before heading back to our Airbnb. Shortly after, our friends Sam and Jennika showed up with their kids! The kids were already asleep, but the grown ups stayed awake for a while and caught up. They just moved to Arizona, and even though we didn't see each other all that often before they moved, I had missed them so much!

Friday morning we all woke up and went to Disneyland!! Brandon and I were so excited to go with the adults, but we were also really excited to do Disney with kids. The first thing we did when we got in the park was take the kids to meet Moana, and seriously, it was so precious. We had some pretty tender moments with the kids all day, and even though it made us ache a little for our own, we had a blast with them. This was our first vacation ever with Sam and Jennika, and on like, the third ride of the day I was already trying to talk them into planning more. So hopefully that will be happening again!

On Saturday, Brandon and I went to California Adventure by ourselves. We got a lot of the big rides done quickly, and realized that we were bored without Sam and Jenn and their kids haha. But we rode the new Guardians of the Galaxy ride (and only waited 15 minutes in line), Toy Story, Cars ride, Little Mermaid, Soarin', and California Screamin' all before 1:00. We contemplated waiting to watch the Frozen show, but we had seen it before, and both of us wanted to go back over to Disneyland, so we did! And it was the best decision. We rode Autopia, Splash Mountain, and Pirates, and just soaked up some last Disney magic before having to leave. We bought Sam and Jenn's kids bubble wands before we left the park, because we had been wanting to the day before and just didn't do it. Luckily, they were still up when we got home, so we all a little pre-bed bubble party. It was so much fun! When we go visit them in Arizona, I fully intend to steal their children and bring them home with me. 

Our flight the next morning left at 7:20, so we left the Airbnb in the 5:00 hour, and spent a good chunk of our time in the airport trying to wake up. I woke up with a cold, but it was so worth it for Disney! Once we got home, we unpacked, took a nap, then just rested for the rest of the night. We're already trying to figure out how we can swing a trip in October. The park was partially decorated for Halloween already, but we want to go when it is the full-blown Halloween Celebration! So we'll see. 

We really did have the best weekend though, and it was a perfect lead-in to a great week! You can watch a recap of our weekend on the vlog, and you can watch Sam and Jennika's vlog here!

THANK YOU!

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I promise to get some new content out soon (in all honesty, it will probably be a Disney post), but I just wanted say a quick thank you for all the support we've received since launching Flying for Time yesterday! We've already sold out of ALL necklaces!!! For those of you that are on backorder, I promise we'll get them out as soon as possible!  But we have more coming of every variety, and we just placed another order for another option that I'm really excited about. 

Not only does this project give us a place to direct our energy, but it also gives us a chance to send a little piece of our boy to people across the world. I have no doubt that, every time they look at their necklace, they will think of Carter, little bean, and all the other babies that were taken too soon. But most importantly, we are helping other families that will be handed this difficult time, and we're doing that with your help.

Thank you so much for your continued support! A friend of ours said "I'm so happy to see your project 'taking off (airplane pun).'" It was hilarious, but so true! We are so excited to see how quickly we can donate one CuddleCot. We hope we are making our boy proud as we share his story and our love for him. You guys are the best! Thank you!!

PS: There's a special little thank you video on the vlog today. Check it out our channel here.

Flying for Time

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We are SO excited to share our secret project with all of you!! We've only been working on it for a few weeks now, but I feel like I've been keeping it a secret forever. That changes now!

After a baby is born still, their skin can start to quickly deteriorate. The cooler the temperature around them, the longer their body is preserved for. When we lost Carter, exactly 46 weeks ago today, our nurse kindly offered to take him back and forth between our room and a chilled room where his body could be kept for short periods of time, to allow us more time with him. Neither Brandon nor I wanted to let him go, and we agreed that saying goodbye once would be hard enough, so we kept him in the room with us for a few hours until we decided it was time to say goodbye. 

Weeks later, as we immersed ourselves more in the loss community, we learned about the CuddleCot, a cooling pad that can be placed in a bassinet or cradle at the hospital in the same room as the parents. The CuddleCot keeps a baby's body cool, and therefore preserved longer, so that the parents can have more time without letting them out of their sight. I don't know if the hospital we were at even had a CuddleCot on hand, but it would have been nice to have, so we could have had even just a few more minutes with our boy.

We'd like to give the gift of time to other parents whose babies are gone too soon.

Flying for Time, the name of our project, has the sole purpose of providing more time to parents who already do not have enough. We will be selling airplane necklaces in remembrance of Carter, and putting the proceeds toward the purchase of a CuddleCot, which will be donated to a hospital of our choice. If necklaces aren't your thing, we will happily accept simple donations.

The cost of a CuddleCot is roughly $3,000, but you can't put a price on spending more time with your child before saying goodbye. Thank you in advance for your generosity. We, and so many parents like us, are eternally grateful.

 
 

Today is good but tomorrow is better!!

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Since our miscarriage, I have found myself just itching to do things. I have too much energy that can't be spent taking care of a baby, so we've been trying to find other things to do. We redid the office, painted the guest room furniture, worked on the blog, worked on my second novel, and still we found ourselves with too much time and energy (although not enough of either to clean the house or make dinner apparently haha). We've been working on our secret project for a couple weeks now, so that has taken up some of our time, but I'm really excited that we have found one more thing to fill our time!

One of my best friends from college does YouTube full-time with her husband. I've always told Brandon that we should do that too, but he never really was interested. Through those friends, we met another couple that live just a few houses down from us, and also lost a son last year. They have a YouTube channel as well, and introduced us to another couple that has a channel! So for the past year I've been telling Brandon that we really should do it, and he kept telling me no, but finally, last week, he decided that we could! We won't be doing it full-time, but I think it will be really nice to start documenting our lives like this. I feel like we are at a point where our life could go a lot of different directions, and I think we will appreciate having it all documented. Our first vlog is, of course, about our trip to Disney! We're still rookies, but we are excited to learn and improve! Feel free to check it out and subscribe to our channel. I'll post the video below, but here is a link to our channel!

It has been fun to see feedback on our vlog so far, but I am extremely excited about our news tomorrow! We'll be sharing it at 8:51 am (mountain time) and everything will be live on the blog at that time, so be sure to check back tomorrow to see what we've been working on!