In with the new...

I yearned a fresh new beginning, so I created a new blog.

Please visit and follow Lin Loves Life!

With love,
-Lin

Chapter 7 - 2017

Hi, guys!

I accidentally let my domain expire 😳 Soooo if you're able to see this post, hello!

Here are my July highlights:

• It's wedding season! I got to witness Arienne & Kevin get married as well as Bronica & Matt.
• We hosted a family 4th of July party.
• We got a new bed for our guestroom! We previously just had an air mattress. I haven't really started decorating it yet, but I will soon because my mother-in-law is coming to town!
• Sean and I started a blog together. Please check it out if you haven't gotten the chance to already. I would love to hear feedback! www.themanyadventuresofseanandlin.com
• We went on a family vacation to California.
• As far as movies go, the only one we watched was Spider-Man - Homecoming. It was great!

With Love,

Lin

Chapter 6 - 2017

June came in went in the blink of an eye! I can't believe we're halfway through 2017.

• Went to Charlene's bachelorette party. It was a great and wild time!
• My parents bought us lawn chairs to circle around our firepit that Mark & Vicky got us. It's so nice to relax outside and roast hot dogs and make smores.
• We hosted Father's Day at our house.
• My grandparents and aunt & uncle pitched in to buy us a grill. I WAS SO STOKED! We could only have an electric grill at our condo due to fire code. I longed for the day we could have a real grill. They picked a Char-Broil grill (our favorite grill brand!) that is both gas and charcoal! We have the best of both grilling worlds! 
• My father-in-law chopped off my hair and I LOVE how it looks! It made me feel "summer ready."
• I traveled to Arizona with Sean and my dad for a Velicaria family reunion. It was so much fun and inspiring! I met a lot of family members for the first time. I hope to attend them more often in the future. I'll write a separate post about that trip, as soon as I recap my May Seattle trip. =P

Movies/Shows

• Wonder Woman - Such a good movie! I've been a big fan of Gal Gadot since I first saw her in the Fast & The Furious series. She was ON FIRE in this movie.
• The Mummy - I didn't love the movie, but I didn't hate it either. So in short, I thought it was okay. I like the idea of Dark Universal and can't wait to see what else they'll take out of the vault!
• Cars 3 - Oh my gosh, you guys. It felt closer to the original Cars movie and it made my heart melt. It was about getting older, finding a new purpose, and passing along the torch. Well done, Disney Pixar!
• Doctor Strange - We finally watched this movie! I wish we didn't wait so long to watch it, it was packed with action and has an interesting story line.
• Zoo - I watched this series when it first aired, but lost interest after a few episodes... I decided to pick it back up and it got better! I'm still in the second season.
• Ali Wong - I usually don't watch stand up comedy, but my cousin-in-law recommended to watch Ali Wong on Netflix. SHE IS FREAKIN' HILARIOUS! I've watched the special 3 times now and it still makes me laugh.

Meltproof Makeup

I recently went to Arizona for a family reunion. It was a toasty 118 degrees on one of the days! I'll write about the trip later. I brought waterproof eyeliner, highlighter, and makeup setting spray. All of that melted off. I also brought along 2 holy grail products that stayed put all day. This post is dedicated to them!

If you're looking for meltproof makeup, I recommend the following products:

Brow Colour by ColourPop $6

This stuff did not budge at all! The best part is that it's only $6. I used to be a faithful Benefit Ka-Brow user, but not anymore.

Lipsense $25 (Color) + Gloss

You can't purchase LipSense through Senegence directly, you have to go through a distributor (or are they called consultants?! I can't keep up). I was honestly really hesitant about LipSense. First off, their website looks ancient and desperately needs an overhaul. Second, the product packaging themselves look like they are stuck in the 90s. You know why there's a bunch of these Facebook groups selling this shit? BECAUSE IT ACTUALLY WORKS. And it works really well, too!

The downside is that they're expensive ($25 for JUST the color and you have to buy their branded gloss to keep the color going throughout the day). They narrowed their color list to just 36, which I think is a good and bad thing. The application of the product is tedious and feels like an eternity to put on, however once it's on it's stays forever until you remove it with glycerin soap.

My LipSense color lasts through cups of coffee, lasts through eating, and lasts against the heat. All the hype around the product is indeed worth it.

I've tried multiple "long lasting" lip products and none of them come close to LipSense.

What waterproof/meltproof makeup do you recommend?! I just recently bought an eyeliner by Kat Von D that a girlfriend recommended, but I haven't tried it yet. I'll be seeing how well it lasts in the California sun soon!

With love,

-Lin

Chapter 5 - 2017

May is a blur!

• Rabbit Creek Rifle Range Clean Up Day - Sean and I helped clean the gun range. In return we received complimentary annual passes! We like going to this range because they also have an archery range. 
• Anchorage Market & Festival - One of my favorite summer traditions is going to the downtown weekend market. Sean and I always go on the first day to kick things off. My favorite new item we tried was halibut poppers, aka halibut egg rolls. They were so good!
• My brother got into a motorcycle accident :( I am so thankful to God that he is okay. He is still recovering from his injuries.
• Sean turned 29 & Jenn turned 28
• Fence - Yay for house projects! We now have a fence! Next year we plan to extend our deck and get gutters installed. 
• Seattle - I went to Seattle for the first time! I went down with Vicky and her friends to celebrate her 28th birthday. I'll write a separate blog post about our trip.
• Juneau - I went to Juneau for a workation immediately after Seattle (arrived at 11 pm on Monday night and was back at the airport at 6:30 am to depart for Juneau!). I was there for 2 nights and managed to get some sightseeing in. I went to the Mendenhall Glacier, the Shrine of St Therese, and Sandy Beach. I tried to go to downtown Juneau, but I couldn't find parking and I kid you not - there were so many tourists there it felt like I was driving through the Strip in Las Vegas! Haha. The Disney Wonder arrived at the port a day after I left, so I was a little bummed that I didn't get to see that beautiful ship "home."  

Movies

• Guardians of the Galaxy was AWESOME!
• Baywatch was funny. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales was okay. I think I had too high of expectations.

Travel Plans for December 2018

I am so excited for December 2018 to roll around!!!

I've always wanted to go to Disney World and go on a Disney Cruise around the holidays. My man is making that happen! The Fall sailing dates for Disney Cruises posted on May 18, 2017. Sean called in to fulfill our placeholder reservation that we reserved when we were on the Disney Magic.

HE SURPRISED ME BY BOOKING CONCIERGE! I was NOT expecting that at all! It was on my Disney Bucket List to fulfill and I can't believe we're going to do it next year.

So what do you get with sailing concierge on a Disney Cruise?

• Larger stateroom
• Refrigerator stocked with beverages
• Toiletries from the spa
• Robe and slippers
• Private welcome reception
• Smoother embarkation - you can arrive at your own leisure and be the first guests that board the ship. Your room is also ready by 12:30 pm.
• Ability to book on-board activities and excursions 120 days before the sale date. This includes the ability to book a Cabana at Castaway Cay (which are often at times difficult to get)!
• Concierge team to take care of practically everything - We are so used to booking everything on our own! This will feel weird, maybe even refreshing that someone else will take care of everything?
• Exclusive access to dedicated areas of the ship - Concierge Lounge and Sun Deck
• Smoother debarkation

We've always felt well taken care of and treated like royalty on our sailings, but from everything I've researched everyone comments that the service is taken to a whole different level. How is that even possible?! I guess we'll find out for sure in a year and a half!

I'm guessing that the experience will be like how I feel about Castaway Cay. I always had an amazing time at Castaway Cay and the thought of spending so much money on a cabana seemed absurd. Then we booked a cabana and our experience was on an entirely different level.

My happy mail!

We are sailing on the Disney Fantasy. The Disney Fantasy was actually the first ship we ever sailed on back in November 2013. We sailed newest to oldest (Fantasy --> Dream --> Wonder --> Magic). We didn't really know what we were doing the first time we sailed and now we feel like we are pros. We're really excited to sail on the ship that started our love for cruising!

We're doing a 7 Night Very Merrytime Western Caribbean Cruise and will depart from Port Canaveral. I'm pretty excited to see Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Falmouth since we've never been there before.

Here are some pictures of a concierge stateroom on the Disney Fantasy that are from the Disney Cruise website:

The color scheme is completely different from regular stateroom! I can't wait to see it in person.

Our current plan is to arrive a week before our cruise so we can go to all of the theme parks. The fun part of being a Disney Vacation Club member is choosing where to stay! So far we've stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge (at both Kidani Village and Jambo House), the BoardWalk, and Wilderness Lodge. I loved them all and I wouldn't mind staying at any of them again, but we're on a quest to try as many resorts as we can. We're going to aim for Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary Resort! It's within walking distance to Magic Kingdom and I believe it's on the monorail route so we can easily get to Epcot from there. Our back ups are Grand Floridian or the Polynesian.

We've also decided to stay a few nights after our cruise. We're going to try to stay at Saratoga Springs. We thought it would be perfect since it's within walking distance to Disney Springs for last minute shopping.

I know December 2018 seems so far away, but I also know that time flies! Plus it gives us plenty of time to save up for it. :)

Florida 2017 Recap - Part 2

Wednesday | January 25, 2017 | Boarding the Disney Magic

We woke up early, checked out of the BoardWalk, and began our trek to Miami. It took about 3.5 hours to get to our port and we boarded the Disney Magic around 1:30 pm. The crowd level was pretty minimal since we arrived later in the afternoon. It was easy to go to Cabanas and find a table for lunch. The upside of arriving to port later is that there is less waiting. I usually prefer to arrive earlier to have more time to explore.

Stepping on the Disney Magic was such a magical experience. It was the Disney ship that started it all! She's in amazing shape and she's nearly 20 years old.

We stayed in room 7122, which was a Navigator's Verandah stateroom. I LOVED our room and verandah!

The entertainment show for the evening was Twice Charmed | An Original Twist on the Cinderella Story. It is now one of my favorite broadway shows I've seen on Disney Cruises! Dinner was at Animators Palette.

Thursday | January 26, 2017 | Castaway Cay

This was another BEST DAY EVER because it was Castaway Cay day! We ate breakfast at Cabanas and then we boarded off the ship. I always have an amazing time at Castaway Cay, but it was a completely different level of awesomeness on this trip because we had a cabana! We chose Cabana #9 (on the family beach) and I am truly convinced that it has the best view of the ship. I've decided that I want to write a separate blog post about our time there.

Friday | January 27, 2017 | Sea Day

I forgot to take note of what we did on this day and the following day! :(

I do remember that we had a wonderful brunch at Palo though.

I think the live stage show for that evening was Tangled! Tangled is actually one of my favorite Disney movies so it was so cool to see it brought to life. We sat up front and the whole experience was surreal. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's another one of my favorite broadway shows! Of all the Disney ships we sailed on, I think the Disney Magic has the most magical lineup of shows.

Saturday | January 28, 2017 | Key West

We decided to stay aboard the ship and explore while everyone else was out on port.

I remember that we used our spa passes and had the whole place to ourselves. It was so relaxing!

The show for the evening was Disney Dreams - An Enchanted Classic. Since we saw it on the Disney Wonder, we thought about skipping it. On our first day of the cruise they gave us guides that had all of the stage shows in it. I am so glad I looked through it again because the show was slightly different than what is showcased on the Wonder. We went and I loved it even more than the first time I watched it!

Sunday | January 29, 2017 | Debarkation Day

We ate breakfast aboard the ship and then made our journey back towards Orlando. It took us nearly 4 hours to get back to Disney World. For the second half of our Disney World adventure we decided to stay at the Wilderness Lodge. It's such a beautiful property! It reminded me of Alaska. I love the theming.

Monday | January 30, 2017 | Titanic Day

We started our day by eating lunch at Jenn's favorite restaurant, Joe's Crab Shack. Then we went to the Titanic Exhibition. I wasn't expecting much since we've gone to the Las Vegas attraction countless times, but I am so glad we went! We had a tour guide/actor and his story telling ability was amazing. The exhibit has different artifacts than its Vegas counterpart and the coolest part was that we got to touch an actual piece of the Titanic!

Afterwards we went shopping at the Orlando International Premium Outlets and then relaxed the rest of the day.

Tuesday | January 31, 2017 | Shopping Day

This day was a relax and shop day. We went to the Mall of Millenia, Orlando Vineland Premium Outlets, ate at Bahama Breeze for the first time, and hung out by the pool at our hotel.

Wednesday | February 1, 2017 | Trek back to Alaska

We checked out of the Wilderness Lodge and drove to our Disney Vacation Club Home Resort - Animal Kingdom Lodge. I felt like we couldn't leave Disney World property without visiting our 2nd home. We went to Jambo House and had lunch at the Mara Cafe. We meandered around the property and took pictures of the savanna.

Then we went to Disney Springs for some last minute shopping at World of Disney and Basin. Sean and I did the Characters in Flight attraction. We rode on the largest tethered helium balloon in the world! After that we ate Fish & Chips at Cookes of Dublin. It was really delicious, almost as good as the Fish & Chips at the UK pavilion in Epcot. After dinner we drove to the airport and departed from Orlando at 6:50 pm.