Day Date: Festival of Trees

As I mentioned previously, Ryan and I take turns planning one extra-special date for each other every month. October was his month and since his date involved a proposal, I think any date I plan following that amazing experience will never quite match up.

To begin my date, Ryan and I headed to the Orlando Museum of Art for the annual Festival of Trees event featuring lots of intricately decorated trees, vignettes, wreaths and holiday decorations.

Festival of Trees

When I graduated college in the spring of 2007, my first job was working at the museum in the public relations and marketing department, so I have a special place in my heart for events at the museum. Plus, when Ryan and I went two years ago, we had a blast!

After paying admission and entering the winter wonderland, the very first tree we saw ended up being our favorite.

The Best Tree

All Smiles

We then headed into a room sportin’ lots of Christmas decorations, including an elaborate gold place setting. I snapped a picture immediately because I am in love with the chairs and want the same ones at our wedding reception! 🙂

I Love You, Chairs

We passed many gorgeous trees on our way to the room full of gingerbread houses.

Pink Poodle Tree

Bright and Beautiful Tree

The gingerbread houses were truly amazing and must take hours and hours to assemble (not to mention tons of patience).

Gingerbread Mansion

Check Out the Detail

This One is Bigger Than Our Apartment

We managed to exit the room without sneaking any bites. 😉

We then headed to the holiday boutique to check out the goodies for sale. On our way we passed this photo:

Spooky Girl

Ryan said this girl will haunt his dreams. She’s kinda spooky, no?

The holiday boutique didn’t have any creepy photos or paintings but it did have these hilarious napkins:

🙂

All in all, we had a great time at the Festival of Trees, but both agreed it wasn’t as good as years past. They weren’t even playing Christmas music, and there were areas of the museum without trees when it used to be completely full. Oh well, it was still a fun day date!

Dinner Double Date

Our original dinner date plans at Season’s 52 expanded a bit and we made it a double date. Ryan’s cousin Daniel and Courtney, a really sweet girl he is dating, joined us for a fun and delicious double date.

Season’s 52 is probably my favorite restaurant in Orlando. All the food is so fresh and tasty and with each dish under 475 calories, you know you’re eating a normal portion entree, not excessive amounts of food.

I ordered the pork tenderloin with polenta, spinach and cremini mushrooms.

My Plate

I practically licked my plate clean!

On our way home from dinner we passed Jeremiah’s Italian Ice and just had to stop.

Mmmmm

This place serves the most amazing gelati. Our huge helping layered vanilla soft serve with cookies ‘n’ cream gelato and pumpkin pie gelato on the top. It was delish, as always!

Pies!

After Jeremiah’s we stopped by the grocery store to pick up the ingredients for turtle pumpkin pie I will be making for a Thanksgiving potluck party tomorrow.

Unfortunately I forgot two main ingredients and will be waiting until the morning to do some baking. Oh well! Stay tuned for some yummy-lookin’ pies tomorrow rather than tonight. 😉

Hopefully everyone is enjoying a fun-filled weekend before the Thanksgiving craziness sets in! 🙂

Saturday Morning Hike

I woke up at 5:30 a.m. this morning… for no reason. This is getting ridiculous! I wasted time waiting for Ryan to wake up by updating my iPod and flipping through wedding magazines.

Armed with a jammin’ new playlist, I leashed up the pup and went for a quick 30 minute run before breakfast. It was gorgeous outside! 

When I got home I made some more cranberry relish and topped a of bowl of butter pecan Flax Z Snax hot cereal with the colorful relish. I also stirred in half of a scoop of All the Whey cup cake batter protein powder and a big dollup of pumpkin.

Colorful Cranberry Relish

Saturday Mornin' Breakfast

Hikin’ Time

When Ryan suggested going for a hike with Sadie at Weikwa Springs Park after breakfast I was more than game. The cool breeze and sunny weather made it a perfect day for hiking.  

The Hikin' Crew

We followed the Orange Trail, which was a nice 5.3-mile loop through the park.

We’ve done this hike many times before, but today’s weather made it extra enjoyable. Plus, we had a super-cute line leader.

Our Line Leader

In the past we’ve seen deer and wild turkeys on this hike, but today our wildlife run ins were limited to freaky-deaky creatures.

Ahhh!

We saw three black snakes. I was quite on edge after the first encounter!

Lunch

After our hike, we both were haaangry! Ryan stopped on our way home to pick up a Cuban sandwich.

Cuban Sandwich

"C'mon Dad, Just Oooone Bite!"

I love Sadie in the above picture. She doesn’t look interested in that sandwich… not at all… 😉

For my lunch, I opted for a flatbread pizza made on a Joseph’s lavash bread with marinara, broccoli, spinach and goat cheese.

Veggie Flatbread Pizza

Yummy Lunch

I was still hungry after lunch, so I popped a bag of Orville Redenbacher’s 100-calorie butter popcorn to fuel this post. Now I feel nice and full.

Plans

I’m so happy to have a weekend at home! I feel like I haven’t had a weekend in Orlando in a while.

Next on the agenda for today is cleaning the apartment and decorating for Christmas. Ryan’s already popped in the Batman Begins DVD to entertain himself while I dive into the holiday goodies! We may have a dilemma on our hands when I try to blast Christmas music…

The holiday fun will continue today since this month it’s my turn to plan our “special date” for the month. I’m taking Ryan to the Festival of Trees event at the Orlando Museum of Art. The entire museum is decked out in Christmas decor with hundreds of trees on display. They’re all decorated from head to toe and look amazing.

After visiting the Museum we have reservations at Season’s 52, one of our favorite restaurants. All the food they serve has less than 475 calories and they utilize the freshest ingredients to create amazing dishes. I’m excited! I LOVE date night!