July 23, 2005

I just wanted to write a quick note to say Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband, Matt. The last four years have been great and I'm looking forward to MANY more!

Almost Free

I had an excellent trip to Kroger today that was blog-worthy so I thought I would share. Starting today, Kroger is doing their mega-event where when you buy any ten participating items, you receive $5 off your order. I bought the following items:

1 Dixie Paper plates 24 pack

2 Softsoap Hand soaps

1 large A1 steak sauce

1 Daisy Sour cream

1 Jif Peanut Butter

4 Sobe Life waters

3 Kleenex

2 Speedstick Deodorants

2 Chex Mix

3 Cat treats (no, I don't have cats, but free is free. I'm sure someone will take them!)

For those twenty items I received $10 off my order. I had coupons for everything except the Jif and the sour cream.

I had my card out all ready to pay when the cashier informed me my total was ONE CENT. So, I put the card back in my wallet, handed over my penny, and walked out with my loot. :)

Happy Shopping!

Vacation

Matt and I went on vacation this year to Orlando and Key Largo, Florida. While in Orlando, we stayed at the Universal Resort just walking distance from Universal Studios.

Our first day there we went to the Islands of Adventure theme park. They had two great rollercoasters, the Hulk and Dueling Dragons, and some other fun rides. We also went to see a movie, "the hangover," and had dinner at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville.

The second day there it RAINED...all day. This was the day we went to Universal Studios, but we had to do it in the rain. Luckily, most of their attractions were in-doors so we did get some reprieve from the rain at times. They had a nice indoor rollercoaster, the Mummy. They also had some cool 4-D attractions based on the Terminator and some animated movied that I can't remember now. We also went through the Jurrasic Park water ride that was fun and I managed to stay mostly dry. (that was before the rain....)

Matt arm-wrestling Captain America!

Our last night in Orlando we had tickets to see Blue Man Group. This was one of the highlights of the trip. They were hysterical! I didn't realize it was going to be a comedy show....I was only expecting the musical stuff. It was a two hour show and Matt and I enjoyed all of it. I even got some light-up drum sticks that I know my kids at school are going to love!

From Orlando, we flew to Miami and drove to Key Largo. The one whole day we had there we spent at "Theatre of the Sea." They had all kids of "shows" to watch as well as informational tours. We first went on the bottomless boat ride where two dolphins came up and performed in the boat. Then we went on a nature tour around the park. They had lots of lagoons full of various types of fish, turtles, and sharks. I got to pet one of the baby sharks. They also had a "Parot Theatre" where they had about 10 trained parots that put on a show. It was interesting to hear that most of the birds were in their twenties in age!

I got to hold one!



Matt and me on the nature trail.

After that we went to the Dolphin show, which was so cool. They had two male dolphins, ages 11 and 12, that did tons of cool tricks.

On a side note, one dolphin trainer's name was Tessa AND one of the child volunteers from the audience was also Tessa....so there were three Tessas there for that show!

After the dolphin show, we headed to the sea lion show. We learned the differences between sea lions and seals (mainly the ears) and Wilbur the four year old sea lion was SO cute! He weighs over 350 pounds and is expected to be around 800 when he's full grown!

Some audience members got to throw rings for him to catch. Look at that face!

Wilbur showing us how strong his front arms were... (If you enlarge this picture you can see his "ear." Only sea lions have the little ear flap. Seals don't have outside ears...)

He loves to slide!

The main attraction was later in they day. I have ALWAYS wanted to get to swim with a dolphin but have always backed out because of the price. I told Matt I was doing it this year, no matter what. So, I got to swim with Nikki, a 25 year old female dolphin. It was worth every penny! I got to do lots of tricks with her including a dance, a hug, a kiss, and a few swimming tricks. I highly recommend it! I can now cross it off my list of things to do in life!!

All in all, this year's vacation was one of my favorites!

Free Hefty Freezer Bags

Here's a great deal everyone should be able to do. Wal-Mart has their Hefty Freezer bags priced for $1. There was a $1 coupon in the 5/17 Red Plum insert. So, if you have the coupon, free freezer bags!

You can get the 22 count quart size bags or the 17 count gallon size bags. Both are $1. The good news is that there's no particular rush on this deal. The $1 price seems to be the new "regular" price, not a sale, and the coupon is good through July 31st!

I went out and got mine today!!! Happy Shopping.