The Photographer's Wife Working Mom, Family, Disney, Travel, Reviews

When my mother-in-law first brought this dish to a family gathering, we all looked at her like she was nuts. After all, she likes trying new recipes and sharing them with all of us, but this one just sounded strange and we just weren’t quite sure what to expect. Especially because some people call it a “Strawberry Pretzel Salad” and I don’t want “salad” for dessert.

Wow – was she laughing at us afterward…it was delicious! She has even been asked to make it several times since then. It’s just a perfectly yummy mix of salty and sweet…and you can even claim the fruit servings to make yourself feel better.

I recently had a potluck gathering at work (aren’t those the best?) and wanted to bring something different than what they were used to, so I brought this. They loved it – I was even shocked to hear that some people knew what it was and had had it before.

Of course, anyone that’s been reading this blog for a while knows that I didn’t make it, Brett did, and he also whipped up some homemade whipped cream to give it that extra oomph. So here is what he did and how you can make it too!

 

Strawberry Pretzel & Cream Cheese Dessert

Here are the ingredients:

2 cups crushed pretzels

3/4 cup butter, melted

3 tablespoons white sugar

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

2 (3 ounce) packages strawberry flavored Jell-O®

2 cups boiling water

2 (10 ounce) packages frozen strawberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

Stir together crushed pretzels, melted butter and 3 tablespoons sugar; mix well.

Press mixture into the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until set. Set aside to cool.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together cream cheese and 1 cup sugar. Fold in whipped topping.

Spread mixture onto cooled crust.

Dissolve gelatin in boiling water.

Stir in still frozen strawberries and allow to set briefly.

When mixture is about the consistency of egg whites, pour and spread over cream cheese layer. Refrigerate until set.

At this point, Brett also made whipped cream, poured it into a piping bag with a cake decorating tip at the end and decorated the top of the dessert. You could also buy a can of whip cream and spray it on top.

We served it alongside additional whipped cream, because you can never have too much whipped cream.

 

On Sunday morning, we went to a birthday party at the Tallahassee Museum. We already love going there, and were excited to bring Trent to play with some friends his own age. They had a nice little setup in the picnic area by the playground.

Trent wasted no time before heading over to the playground…even pregnant mommy got in on the action.

We were actually there before the museum even opened, so after playing a bit, a group of us took the stroll around to see all the animals. We had never been there so early and were greeted with active animals ready for their breakfast!

I wonder what he’s thinking in this next photo…looks kinda sneaky.

Trent screamed “RRROOOAAARR” when he noticed the dinosaur.

He walked the entire museum himself and by the end we could tell his little legs were getting tired…still didn’t want to be held though. Never wants to be held.

We enjoyed some snacks and cake and a little more play time.

“K mom. let’s play ‘blind walking’!”

“Bye-bye!”

 

On Saturday, we took a trip to Seaside and Destin, Florida to visit a friend who lives in Texas and was visiting his family there. You definitely don’t need to twist our arms for us to get in the car and take a day trip!

After Brett’s morning photoshoot, we hopped in the car and headed out. We had another friend along with us who sat in the front seat while I sat in the back with Trent. We watched Mickey Mouse and Jake, ate some snacks and played games. He did really well.

Our first stop was Seaside - you may know this little town as the place where The Truman Show with Jim Carey was filmed. I actually didn’t know that until yesterday, but I just knew it as a nice little town that looks like a nice relaxing place to vacation. There’s lots of little shops and places to eat just a hop away from the beautiful beach. I mentioned our last visit to Seaside last summer and we were glad to spend a little more time here this time around.

The first thing we did was take a stroll around some of the shops and the park area where we came across some unique and interesting treasures along the sidewalk…

How cool is this firepit? Would love to have this in our backyard.

While the constant sound of wind chimes would drive me crazy, these were very interesting.

Neat trees.

We didn’t even bother taking the stroller out of the car…Trent just wants to walk on his own everywhere…with his sheep.

Trent found his favorite place of the entire day…a toy shop with a big duck out front!

This same duck was outside when we were here last year…so please excuse me while I tear up at how little Trent was…

And now…well past his limit on being forced to smile for photos. Now we just get the blank model stare.

There were other toys to play with too.

And because I can’t help it…here’s Trent on the same toy last year.

But our little Goldilocks had to try out all the sizes before deciding this blue one was just right…and then he proceeded to carry it around the store.

I didn’t want to spend $50 on a toy that day, so when he wasn’t looking, we hid it. He started looking for it and I felt so bad…Mother of the Year over here. So we found something that looked almost the same, but on a much smaller scale.

And he absolutely loves it.

Next, we took a quick walk on the beach…shoes and all. We are so glad Trent seems to be fine with the sand now. Last year, he did not want to touch it one bit and now he started walking on it towards the water all on his own. He didn’t even want us to hold his hand. I see plenty of beach trips for us this year.

He had to include Sheepy in his adventures.

Next up…lunch. After much indecisiveness from the group, we decided to eat at Bud & Alley’s Pizza Bar.

Bud & Alley’s has several restaurants in the area, including the Taco Bar and their main location, the Waterfront Restaurant and Rooftop Bar. I’m glad we picked the Pizza Bar, we had a nice table out on the deck where they have nice cushioned benches that Trent could move around on…because it has been impossible to get him to sit in a highchair at restaurants lately. I wish we would have take a photo of the patio area…it was really nice sitting out there.

Brett and I split an appetizer and a pizza. Our appetizer was the Frito Misto, which was fried Grouper, Gulf Shrimp and calamari. It was served with pizza sauce and a mayo-lemon dip and was delicious.

We had the Bianca pizza with Ricotta, Fresh Mozzarella, Cream, Basil & Oregano. Every last bit of this pizza was consumed…I think the addition of the cream made it much better than other “white” pizzas we’ve had lately.

Our tablemates also split an appetizer and a pizza. Their appetizer was the calamari, which was like our appetizer without the grouper and shrimp.

They had the prosciutto and arugula pizza. They didn’t eat most of the arugula, but enjoyed the rest.

With our tummies full, we headed back towards the car to make our way to Destin and took some more photos along the way.

The only pink construction vehicle I’ve ever seen. The back said “Digging for a Cure.”

They are improving the central square area that was a large grassy area with a stage.

I would also love to hit up these food trucks one time…they have a grilled cheese truck, a BBQ truck and a flavored ice truck…among others.

After a short drive to Destin, we went to the Silver Sands Outlets. I love the idea of outlet malls, but many of the stores here don’t seem to be true outlet stores. I go in expecting deep discounts on stuff they don’t/couldn’t sell in the main stores, but was met with a mere 25% off discount on the only thing I bought…a pair of shoes for Trent at Osh Kosh B’Gosh. I can get more of a discount with a coupon. But he needed shoes and that’s why we went there. I went into Motherhood Maternity hoping to get a few much needed maternity items, but they had the same “deals” as their main stores, so I couldn’t justify getting anything just because I was at an outlet store. Nothing really screamed my name, so I left empty handed. Oh well, at least I looked and maybe I can find some good stuff online.

The sun was starting to set, so we made our way to the Emerald Grande. Our friend highly recommended going here for some gorgeous views and he was right. Just take a look at some of these photos Brett took with just the short amount of time we had before it got dark.

The Emerald Grande is this huge, absolutely beautiful hotel right on the water in Destin. The viewing deck had glass all around it, so Trent could enjoy the view as well…although it made my heart race a little. I get nervous and I can’t help it…I’m a mom!

We didn’t get any photos of them, but there were several dolphins swimming around right in front of us.

Anyone can visit and walk around the area, especially because they have the HarborWalk Village…a walkway with stores, restaurants and fun activities for kids. Being it was February and we got there late in the day, most of the activities were closed, but all of the shops and restaurants were open, so we just strolled the area and let Trent walk around. We didn’t even know this place existed and now it’s on our list of places we’d like to stay at.

We weren’t quite ready to eat dinner and we still had one more stop on our trip, The Village at Baytowne Wharf. This was another place we had never heard of…a bunch of shops, activities and restaurants on the bay side of Destin. It was dark by this point and Brett probably didn’t feel like carrying his camera AND tripod, so we don’t have any more photos…but we took a walk out on the pier and looked at grossly expensive yachts. Then we ate at Hammerhead’s Bar & Grille…because I wanted snow crab legs

{Photo from the Hammerhead’s website}

The snow crab legs were good, but disturbing to have paid $28 for them lol. I also ate 90% of an entire large platter of chips and salsa. Ummm, I’m pregnant, so I’m allowed to! Trent’s grilled cheese came out in a fun little boat with fries and cookies…too bad he didn’t touch the grilled cheese and Brett “had” to eat it. Everyone said the food was decent, but with the amount of seating available, you could tell it was just a touristy-seafood party place during the summer.

After dinner, we said our goodbyes and headed home. It was a fun-filled day and Trent only had a few outbursts when I tried to pick him up when he wanted to walk. A toddler wants to do what he wants to do!

 

We’ve been on 3 cruises now, which hardly makes us veterans (or does it?), but it’s enough that we’ve really started to learn what we like and don’t like. Unfortunately, those cruises were on 3 different cruise lines, so you can’t necessarily apply everything you like/dislike from a cruise over to a new cruise line, but you can apply quite a bit to help make decisions about the next cruise.

One of those things is that we have always selected our actual room. We have never risked it by booking a guarantee…and trust us, the discount has most certainly enticed us, but we would be so disappointed to book say a guarantee balcony and then get stuck with a balcony that has a severely obstructed view on the 2nd deck. Because, let’s face it, that’s our luck.

We had balconies on our first 2 cruises. After not using it much on the first cruise, we didn’t think we needed it….but Brett convinced me on our second cruise and we used it so much that we thought we would be “Balcony Snobs” from then on. But funny how having a toddler makes you rethink, well, just about everything.

When I first thought about booking a cruise for my birthday, Disney wasn’t even on the radar, let alone anything more than an inside room. Just call me el Cheapo. But, just as he usually does, Brett talked me up to Disney and at least something with a view. Salesman, that sneaky Brett is.

We considered getting a balcony, but Trent was going to be 19 months old at that time…smack dab in the middle of his “I do what I want, climb on everything and throw whatever I can get my hands on” phase. We didn’t need to pay for remotes being thrown overboard, let alone not needing to be a worried mom the entire time, so we opted for an Oceanview.

We were really intrigued by the Category 08A rooms. Category 08A rooms are one category below the balcony rooms, but still considered Oceanview because it’s a “porthole” room. However, we didn’t get just one porthole, we got two very large portholes! These were large enough to sit in and enjoy the view without the worries of a balcony I mentioned above.

Another major benefit of these rooms is the amount of SPACE they have. There was plenty of room for Trent to run around, which is so important at his age…because if they can’t run around and release that energy, it comes out in the form of a tantrum…usually at dinner. So we had plenty of space for storage (all of our suitcases and clothes were completely out of view) and plenty of running-room for Trent. There were also 2 tvs…one for adults and one for Trent

And the final major benefit I’m going to mention is the bathroom. Although it’s not the split bathroom I’ve heard so many people like that Disney offers, it had an actual tub. The shower and tub were just like at home, just smaller….not one of those stand-up only showers in most cruise bathrooms that hardly allow any wiggle room. There would be no way to give Trent a bath if we didn’t have the tub.

Location: Room 5522 was on Deck 5, Forward Starboard Side. It wasn’t as close to elevators as we would have liked and it definitely took us a day to figure out how to get to our room depending on which elevator we took, since we were near the theater and one of the hallways leading from the mid-elevators to our room was non-existent, so we had to go around the theater to get anywhere on our floor. We could take the forward elevators up to Deck 11 and we would be near the ice cream machines, but everything else required us to walk all the way to the Aft, including Cabana’s, Flo’s and all 3 dining rooms. While we absolutely loved our room, we didn’t like the amount of walking to get to the places we used most…with a toddler. Although, Trent was delighted to press the elevator buttons every time.

You can view the layout for Deck 5 (as well as all the decks on the Disney Dream) on Cruise Critic here.

Well, that’s enough talking, how about some photos?

This first one was taken by the door/bathroom. To the right is the desk/sitting area with 2 chairs and the couch that turns into a single bed. To the far right and not pictured is the very large closet, where each of us had our own section.

This next photo was taken over by the closet. Just look at all that floor space! SOOO much bigger than a typical stateroom. The door on the left is the bathroom and the door by the bed is a connecting door if you had friends/family staying in the connecting room. The fridge is located in that cabinet directly underneath the tv.

If you want the couch made up into a bed at night, just tell your stateroom attendant and he will make sure it is done every night and then made back into a couch for during the day. Also, that little ottoman-like table opens up for more storage.

The next photo gives you a good picture of the entire layout and of how HUGE those portholes are!

Here, you can kind of see the padding on the bottom of the porthole that is supposed to make it comfy to sit on. However, maybe my butt is too wide because I found the width of the “seat” to be a little on the small side to where I couldn’t lay down and relax. There’s lots of storage room underneath the bed for suitcases and such.

Cruise ship bathrooms aren’t known for their spacious luxury (unless you’ve spent the big bucks), but we were pretty happy with this one. The tub/shower combo was perfect for a toddler and us adults had room to move…although Brett said he was about an inch from his head hitting the ceiling, so if you are over 6 feet tall, you may find yourself leaning over for your shower.

You can read my full trip report from this cruise by clicking here, but I wanted to share this post for anyone out there that might be searching for photos and opinions about this room. We looked up forum posts, photos, videos and anything we could find while trying to decide on a room and all of it helped so much…so I hope this helps someone else out there too.

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