Disney World 2017!

The benefit of visiting Florida in January, is that it isn't too hot or humid. The risk lies in the crazy weather you might encounter during your travel to paradise. The day we left for vacation, Atlanta received about 3 or 4 flakes of snow, which caused a huge mess with flights through ATL. Delta was fabulous with all the updates of our delayed flights and instead of landing at 8:30 pm, we fell into our beds just before 1 am.

We visited Disneyland two years ago and this was a much different trip. The girls appreciate the princess experience, but it was way less important this time around.

Bless the Disney princesses. Cinderella looks like she may be just about ready to hang up her tiara and return to civilian life.

And while Maia and Ruby's love of princesses is waning, their excitement and bravery for thrill rides has dramatically increased!

On our first day we had a FastPass for Splash Mountain. Little did we know that the temperature would hover in the low 30s. We took off our sweatshirts so that they would be dry. I got soaked and just had my light jacket to keep me warm for the rest of the day. I never thought I would be that cold in Florida. The things we do for our children...

Maia's face. Ruby's face.

We had a great experience. We stayed at a Disney Resort and used the dining plan and memory maker photo package. We didn't get FastPasses for all the "top" rides, but we were able to ride every ride that we wanted without too much waiting. The longest we waited was an hour, but on average our wait time was 30 minutes without a FastPass. With the dining plan we ate like kings and had tons of entitlements left over. We made sure to get our money's worth by dining at several of the upscale restaurants. This was my first time at Disney World and I hope it won't be our family's last. In 2 years Maia will be 9 and Ruby will be 8 and I think the whole family will be brave enough for all the rides.

Thank you Nana for a wonderful trip! We have so many wonderful memories from this past week.

What Makes...

I'm writing this from our Disney World hotel room as I slowly defrost from our day at the Magic Kingdom. Apparently we arrived on the one cold weekend of the year, but thankfully it should warm up over the next few days. The girls are 6 & 7 and it's the perfect age for a trip like this. They are both tall enough and brave enough to do roller coasters and we are having a blast.

However, I'm not writing tonight to tell you about our vacation. I want to tell you about something I'm really excited about and have been for the past few months. Actually, this project has been in the works since July.

Aleks and I have been recording a podcast and our first episode will be available tomorrow!

The podcast is called What Makes and in it Aleks and I explore what makes various things in the world and our lives. The first episode is "What Makes a Good Joke?" Each episode varies in length and will be released each Monday. Our first season consists of 10 episodes.

There are a couple of ways that you can listen to our podcast.

1. Visit our podcast's blog at www.whatmakespodcast.com on your computer and/or mobile device and find each episode embedded in the blog.

2. Go to iTunes and subscribe to What Makes. Each new episode will then download onto your podcast app on your smart phone.

This is all very homegrown and amateur, but Aleks and I have had fun and I think we have some interesting conversations. We aren't experts on anything and would love your feedback on what we discuss.

So. Tomorrow at 5:00 PM CST the What Makes podcast will drop its first episode. In the meantime, feel free to visit our website so you know where to go tomorrow to listen.