We love Donald Duck, oh yes we do! - Link to the PTR - COMPLETE

[MeMom]

Looks like a beautiful family time! Thanks for sharing it with us.

I'll take the root beer float for $3.50, please.

Henry looks so cute in his Cars shirt.

When he is older, you might find some kind of ball in the fridge.
I know that from experience.
I don't remember why, but I know there was a reason.

Food, however, will have a hard time staying in the fridge. It goes from the store to the fridge to the mouth after about a five second stay on the shelf!

Someone else has tried to sell me on poutine before over on the TR. (You know who, I think.) I'm sticking with a pretty firm 'no' on that one!

Thanks again for the family pictures. I'm glad the three of you were able to spend precious moments together. I know your mom and grandmother love being around you and Henry!

 

[KristiMc]

I am from PA and had never heard of cheese curd till I met my husband who is from Northern NY. The Amish make it there and it is sooooo good. My in-laws came to visit last week and they brought us 3 bags.

 

[k_reile]

Brook...glad you had a great weekend with your mom and grandma! over the truck in the fridge!

 

[disneydusted]

Hummm, cheese curd.... new to me! Sounds good though!
The latest pictures of Henry are adorable! His look is changing in just the little time since your Disney trip. It is fun to see him grow up.
I'm so glad you had a good visit with your mom and grandma. The ice cream store looks like an interesting place full of history.
I have to tell you that I have thought of you and your "northern" accent the past few days. We are big into the Capitals hockey and when the announcers interview the players so many of them have your accent. They are fun to listen to. It seems our area doesn't have any sort of accent, no one can tell where we are from...

 

[lovealldisney]

Mmmmm... gotta love Wisconsin cheese. When I was little my parents would stop at a cheese factory on our way up north. If we were lucky and they were making cheese that day we could go in back and watch. They would always have fresh curds made. YUMMY!! They are my favorite! They are best when they are fresh and still warm they squeek when you eat them!

 

[SoonerGirl]

Sounds like you had a great visit with your mom & grandma.

Henry looks like such a big boy in those pictures, it's so fun to see how much he changes in such short periods of time!

I think I've heard the term 'cheese curds' before, but never had any idea what they were.

I'm so excited too! I remember you saying you were going over Christmas and me instantly thinking about "holy crowd levels" and here we are! I'm sure I'll be right along with you making a zillion tentative plans.

Do you subscribe to TourGuideMike or RideMax or any of those sorts of programs?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure we're crazy to be going then - and your week is even worse than mine! I'm hoping to get most of our park touring done during the first half of the week, and then as Christmas day gets closer we'll just spend the mornings in the parks and tour the resorts, play mini golf, etc during the afternoons and evenings while the parks are like this I do want to do the Candlelight Processional on Christmas Eve though, so that might be an adventure!

I don't subscribe to any of the touring programs, but I'm considering tourningplans.com for this trip!

We were in Disneyland one year on NYE, it was my first experience with a Disney park, and seriously, I'm amazed I ever gave them another chance! It was miserable! The morning wasn't so bad, but by afternoon the wait times were ridiculous, and it was so crowded. Trying to leave the park after the early fireworks (we didn't even stay until midnight) was actually scary, you could only move in the direction the crowd moved, and it felt like you weren't even walking, just being pushed with the crowd - not something I ever want to experience again. I've heard at WDW, that if you want to be in a park on NYE that you need to get there early and not leave, since they will probably close to capacity, and that Epcot is the best one to go to simply because of it's size.

 

[Charleston Princess]

Nope, there are no cheese curds in the South.

 

[princess&her4princes]

No cheese curds here in MA.....that I've stumbled across anyways, would love to try them, though!! Love cheese...and unhealthy food!! LOL!! Mmm, the ice cream shop looked great, what a nice day you had with your Mom and Grandma! And I loved the 3 generation pic, too, what a nice picture you'll forever treasure!!!

So, you spent that Disney gift card did you!? LOL!! What did you get good..besides the adorable shirt for H? Too cute, btw, he is getting SO big! In just a couple of months he's turning into such a little boy before our eyes!!!

I hope you plan to start a PTR soon....I think a lot of us are going to go through Brook withdrawals!!!

Hope you're doing well otherwise!!
Kristen

 

[Lovemy3babes]

Oh, great pictures!! What a special, fun time you had. I love Henry's work shirt! LOL, so cute. I have lived in MN for most of my life and have never been to either the Mall of America and Mt. Rushmore. (Saw your new ticker) And we're only 15 minutes from the SD border. Can you imagine? Shame, shame on me I know!

 

[kschafer]

Sounds like you had a wonderful visit with your grandmother (80 is young...I LOVE it!) I too thought until recently that everyone knew what cheese curds are. I saw a comment from a novice cheese curd eater about them squeeking on your teeth (yep, that's how you know they are fresh!) I love curds but I love all things cheese so no surprise there!

Where did Henry get his wonderful red hair? My brothers and I all have various shades of red but out of our 7 children, only 1 seems to have inherited it

 

[jenseib]

I love cheese curds, but only have had them or heard of them deep fried. What are they when they are not deep fried? Are they just chunks of cheese?

 

[PopArtGal]

I love cheese curds, but only have had them or heard of them deep fried. What are they when they are not deep fried? Are they just chunks of cheese?

Yup and they are awesome!

 

[GreatBiscuit]

Sorry to hear about the deer incident. We've had our fair share of impacts here in Texas. (I've hit one, my parents have taken out three.) I was introduced to Cheese Curds on a trip to visit my in-laws. Now whenever we fly into the Twin Cities, the first thing I do is grab some fried cheese curds in the airport.

We usually hit up Mall of America at least once, usually after a morning at Como Park or the Children's Museum in St. Paul. (Two of our daughter's FAV's.) There used to be a restaurant there which I BELIEVE was called the Cafe Odyssey. They had some AWESOME cheese soup. I was sad when were there before and it was closed.

Well, I appear to be rambling so I guess I better wrap it up. Nifty update as usual!

 

[robinm1215]

I agree with you about the lights on in SM! Each ride I have done after I saw the maze of track in there after November I haven't been able to put my hands up. The engineers for that sort of coaster were brillant though to pack that much in such a small area!

I would LOVE to see your Kidani pics! I will PM you. Thank you for sharing!!!

That is soooooo great about getting to plan already for your next trip!!!! If you do a TR on the August trip, please let me know.

So glad you enjoyed your visit with your Mom and Grandma. Sounds like it was a lot of fun. My cousin has lived in Madison, Wisconsin for a few years but I've never been out to visit him. And I have heard of cheese curds but never knew what they were. Nope, definitely don't have them around here

Got your pm and I just sent you the pictures from my recent trip. Sorry, there's a lot of other pics besides Kidani included but I figure as a Disney fan you won't mind much looking at more Disney pics! Actually, there are some pics of the view from my room in Congress Park so you can see how it compared to yours. There's really no people in the pics (except I think there is one of me) since this was largely a solo trip so I hope they're not too boring.

Don't be nervous about the NYE trip -- look at it as an adventure. Yes, the parks will be crowded but you've been there before and will be again (that's the beauty of DVC) so just try to soak in the holiday atmosphere which I've heard is great and see what you can. I really did learn on this last trip that you can relax at Disney and don't need to be in a park every minute of every day I mean I still felt at times like I was missing something but it was all good. Can't wait to hear about your plans!

Yes, we are planning for August now. There's 8 of us (my 2 best friends and their kids) so I have a ton of ADRs to make on Friday -- should be interesting. I'm still deciding about the TR and will definitely let you know if I start one

 

[lazydoxy66]

My DH loves fried curds. We're headed to Wisconsin at the end of June. Strawberry time!!!! I'm sure we'll bring back plenty of cheese too.

Henry's shirt is adorable.

I'm glad you had a good time at grandma's. She sounds like a great lady!

 

[blessedby3]

"I love you Dut Dut!" This is a favorite. I love how bright red his hair looks in it too.

Oh my goodness!!! This is the cutest picture ever. They look like "best buds"! Just adorable
It is priceless. Loved your TR. Cant wait for another. I just havent seemed to have the time to get one going from my March trip. With 4 kids from college down to diapers I am sooooo busy. I guess I will just enjoy yours!! Thanks for sharing

 

[brookelizabeth]

I love cheese curds.

We use them in "poutine" here. Fries with cheese curds, covered in brown gravy. It sounds disgusting but it's great. Junk food. Not healthy...but great lol

Ahh, the infamous poutine. It actually sounds really good to me. Don't tell MeMom. I love fries with gravy, so toss in the cheese curds-yum!

Love the three generations pictures!!! Those are treasures! How cute is Henry??? If I have a child that is half as cute as him, I will count myself lucky! I've heard of cheese curds, but I didn't know that they actually packaged them and sold them for consumption. I thought they were a by product of the cheese making process. Goes to show how much I know...

Love that Cars shirt!!! Maybe they make that one in an adult size that I can get for DH, too!!

I am so glad we finally got a generations pic! I have another with my Grandma, Mom and sister - but my sister is making a silly face...which she usually is, so it's appropriate, but I knew she wouldn't want it posted on the internet!

You are so sweet about Henry...I am pretty partial, but I think he's absurdly adorable!!

I do think cheese curds are just a byproduct, but man, they are a TASTY byproduct.

They really should make an adult size of that Cars shirt-it's really fun and not overlly cutesy! I would love to get one for Joe too!

Nope, never heard of cheese curds.

I'm so glad you had such a lovely weekend!

H's work shirt is absolutely adorable!!!

Can't wait for the PTR! Did you think of a title yet?

If you ever head to Minnesota or Wisconsin, keep your eyes peeled for cheese curds-you won't be disappointed!

I have thought of a title. Now it's just a matter of finishing up what I have wrote and gettig it started. Probably today!

Looks like a beautiful family time! Thanks for sharing it with us.

I'll take the root beer float for $3.50, please.

Henry looks so cute in his Cars shirt.

When he is older, you might find some kind of ball in the fridge.
I know that from experience.
I don't remember why, but I know there was a reason.

Food, however, will have a hard time staying in the fridge. It goes from the store to the fridge to the mouth after about a five second stay on the shelf!

Someone else has tried to sell me on poutine before over on the TR. (You know who, I think.) I'm sticking with a pretty firm 'no' on that one!

Thanks again for the family pictures. I'm glad the three of you were able to spend precious moments together. I know your mom and grandmother love being around you and Henry!

That's funny about the ball! I vividly remember as a child putting my stuffed animals in the fridge, they were "visiting Antartica". I'm sure my Mom got a kick out of it.

Between Joe and I we end up wasting quite a few leftovers, so I look forward to, in a way, when food is flying off the shelves. Though, my pocketbook will disagree I'm sure.

I do recall the poutine discussion. Fried food, cheese and gravy? Come on MeMom!!!

It was a really great weekend. I treasure the times I can spend with my Mom and espeically my Grandma. She's a precious lady and I love seeing her light up when Henry is around!

I am from PA and had never heard of cheese curd till I met my husband who is from Northern NY. The Amish make it there and it is sooooo good. My in-laws came to visit last week and they brought us 3 bags.

Oooh, I bet Amish cheese curds are good. It seems near everything they make is pretty darn good, isn't it?

 

[brookelizabeth]

Brook...glad you had a great weekend with your mom and grandma! over the truck in the fridge!

It was really cute when I opened the fridge and saw the truck. I called Joe into the kitchen and said, "What doesn't belong here?" He cracked up. I bet Caleb will be doing the similar stuff before you know it!

Hummm, cheese curd.... new to me! Sounds good though!
The latest pictures of Henry are adorable! His look is changing in just the little time since your Disney trip. It is fun to see him grow up.
I'm so glad you had a good visit with your mom and grandma. The ice cream store looks like an interesting place full of history.
I have to tell you that I have thought of you and your "northern" accent the past few days. We are big into the Capitals hockey and when the announcers interview the players so many of them have your accent. They are fun to listen to. It seems our area doesn't have any sort of accent, no one can tell where we are from...

He has been looking so big lately! This morning too, the way he looked at me...he really is becoming less of a baby and more of a 2 year old. Sigh. It's fun to see him grow though!

The creamery was really neat. I wish I could have had the time to explore it a bit more. It's actually very close to my Mom's house, so it might have to become a 'regular' Saturday afternoon visit when we are down there.

I don't have an accent! Really, I don't!!

Mmmmm... gotta love Wisconsin cheese. When I was little my parents would stop at a cheese factory on our way up north. If we were lucky and they were making cheese that day we could go in back and watch. They would always have fresh curds made. YUMMY!! They are my favorite! They are best when they are fresh and still warm they squeek when you eat them!

I agree! Squeaky cheese curds are the BEST. I would love to see them making them sometime, that would be really interesting!

The creamery we went to was in Nelson. It's right on the border, a cute little town.

Sounds like you had a great visit with your mom & grandma.

Henry looks like such a big boy in those pictures, it's so fun to see how much he changes in such short periods of time!

I think I've heard the term 'cheese curds' before, but never had any idea what they were.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure we're crazy to be going then - and your week is even worse than mine! I'm hoping to get most of our park touring done during the first half of the week, and then as Christmas day gets closer we'll just spend the mornings in the parks and tour the resorts, play mini golf, etc during the afternoons and evenings while the parks are like this I do want to do the Candlelight Processional on Christmas Eve though, so that might be an adventure!

I don't subscribe to any of the touring programs, but I'm considering tourningplans.com for this trip!

We were in Disneyland one year on NYE, it was my first experience with a Disney park, and seriously, I'm amazed I ever gave them another chance! It was miserable! The morning wasn't so bad, but by afternoon the wait times were ridiculous, and it was so crowded. Trying to leave the park after the early fireworks (we didn't even stay until midnight) was actually scary, you could only move in the direction the crowd moved, and it felt like you weren't even walking, just being pushed with the crowd - not something I ever want to experience again. I've heard at WDW, that if you want to be in a park on NYE that you need to get there early and not leave, since they will probably close to capacity, and that Epcot is the best one to go to simply because of it's size.

I'll have to checkout touringplans.com too. That will all be a future PTR update.

That is crazy about Disneyland! Ugh. I would be freaking out with Henry in his stroller if we were stuck in a mob like that. I've already gotten into my mind this is going to be a trip where we have to wake up early. Ick. But, it will be worth it!

I like your plan of doing the parks earlier in the week and then doing exploring/mini-golf/etc as the week creeps closer to Christmas. I have to research about in the past how things are New Years week. Is it busier closer to Christmas, or closer to NYE? Or just plain nutty all week long? I think we are going to avoid a park on NYE....

 

[brookelizabeth]

Nope, there are no cheese curds in the South.

I can't recall for sure, but you don't have Shamrock Shakes either, right? You gotta come visit us Yankees.

No cheese curds here in MA.....that I've stumbled across anyways, would love to try them, though!! Love cheese...and unhealthy food!! LOL!! Mmm, the ice cream shop looked great, what a nice day you had with your Mom and Grandma! And I loved the 3 generation pic, too, what a nice picture you'll forever treasure!!!

So, you spent that Disney gift card did you!? LOL!! What did you get good..besides the adorable shirt for H? Too cute, btw, he is getting SO big! In just a couple of months he's turning into such a little boy before our eyes!!!

I hope you plan to start a PTR soon....I think a lot of us are going to go through Brook withdrawals!!!

Hope you're doing well otherwise!!
Kristen

I DID spend that gift card! It was mostly Joe's doing though. He found a Cars themed semi truck, with 2 Lighting McQueen cars that you can drive up into the trailer and then shoot out the back. He insisted Henry wanted it.

Then the shirt for H.

And a shirt for ME!

So, we only spent about $14 out of pocket. Not too shabby! And Henry really does love his truck. He slept with it last night!

I just started the PTR....link will be in the post after my replies!

Oh, great pictures!! What a special, fun time you had. I love Henry's work shirt! LOL, so cute. I have lived in MN for most of my life and have never been to either the Mall of America and Mt. Rushmore. (Saw your new ticker) And we're only 15 minutes from the SD border. Can you imagine? Shame, shame on me I know!

You are waaaaaaaay out west, eh? I can see why you haven't been to the Mall of America! That's a haul!! I've never been to Mount Rushmore either, it's gonna be a long drive, but I think it'll be really cool to see the fireworks and experience it all. Are there any exciting or weird attractions that could break up our drive out your way?

Sounds like you had a wonderful visit with your grandmother (80 is young...I LOVE it!) I too thought until recently that everyone knew what cheese curds are. I saw a comment from a novice cheese curd eater about them squeeking on your teeth (yep, that's how you know they are fresh!) I love curds but I love all things cheese so no surprise there!

Where did Henry get his wonderful red hair? My brothers and I all have various shades of red but out of our 7 children, only 1 seems to have inherited it

It's a SHAME people don't know what cheese curds are. They are so missing out. I'm with ya on the squeaky ones too. It was so fun to eat them as a kid and ask your friends "Can you hear them squeaking?" And hello, deep fried ones? Drool.

Henry got his red hair from both sides actually. Joe's Dad has some red (mostly shows in his facial hair and in some light) and my Grandma from my Dad's side had BRIGHT red hair. We were surprised, but thrilled when he came out with that beautiful coloring! All the nurses were just smitten with it too.

It is funny how it pops up, and doesn't pop up. One of my best friends has bright red hair (BEAAAAAAAUTIFUL) but no one else in her family does!

 

[brookelizabeth]

I love cheese curds, but only have had them or heard of them deep fried. What are they when they are not deep fried? Are they just chunks of cheese?

Yep! They just take the chunks and fry 'em. They are tasty both ways.

Yup and they are awesome!

You said it!!

Sorry to hear about the deer incident. We've had our fair share of impacts here in Texas. (I've hit one, my parents have taken out three.) I was introduced to Cheese Curds on a trip to visit my in-laws. Now whenever we fly into the Twin Cities, the first thing I do is grab some fried cheese curds in the airport.

We usually hit up Mall of America at least once, usually after a morning at Como Park or the Children's Museum in St. Paul. (Two of our daughter's FAV's.) There used to be a restaurant there which I BELIEVE was called the Cafe Odyssey. They had some AWESOME cheese soup. I was sad when were there before and it was closed.

Well, I appear to be rambling so I guess I better wrap it up. Nifty update as usual!

That reminds me of when I lived in NYC and would fly back to MN. The first thing I would do was hunt down Caribou Coffee.

Cheese curds were often had on my return trips, along with pickles. NYC doesn't have good pickles.

We love the Como Zoo! We are probably headed there in a few weekends to celebrate a late Mother's Day with Joe's Mom. It's such a fun zoo and FREE. Score.

We just went to the Children's Museum for the first time a while back-it is a blast! We really enjoyed the 'water' area with all the bubbles. And the wee tot area was perfect for Henry too.

I think you are right about Cafe Odyssey--was it on the 3rd level near Cold Stone? It sounds very familar. It's surprising how quickly restaurants come and go in there. And now the entire 4th floor is vacant since the No Smoking law in Minnesota.

So glad you enjoyed your visit with your Mom and Grandma. Sounds like it was a lot of fun. My cousin has lived in Madison, Wisconsin for a few years but I've never been out to visit him. And I have heard of cheese curds but never knew what they were. Nope, definitely don't have them around here

Got your pm and I just sent you the pictures from my recent trip. Sorry, there's a lot of other pics besides Kidani included but I figure as a Disney fan you won't mind much looking at more Disney pics! Actually, there are some pics of the view from my room in Congress Park so you can see how it compared to yours. There's really no people in the pics (except I think there is one of me) since this was largely a solo trip so I hope they're not too boring.

Don't be nervous about the NYE trip -- look at it as an adventure. Yes, the parks will be crowded but you've been there before and will be again (that's the beauty of DVC) so just try to soak in the holiday atmosphere which I've heard is great and see what you can. I really did learn on this last trip that you can relax at Disney and don't need to be in a park every minute of every day I mean I still felt at times like I was missing something but it was all good. Can't wait to hear about your plans!

Yes, we are planning for August now. There's 8 of us (my 2 best friends and their kids) so I have a ton of ADRs to make on Friday -- should be interesting. I'm still deciding about the TR and will definitely let you know if I start one

Madison is SUCH a cool city!! I've only been once but insantly knew it was a place that I could live. I don't have any plans to, but if the opportunity ever arises...and if you ever go, you gotta hunt out some cheese curds!

I got your email-THANK YOU! I haven't had a chance yet to look through them-but will soon. I'm excited to see more of Kidani. And no worries on the extra pics, Disney is never boring!

You are right-I do need to look at the trip as an adventure and just soak in the atmosphere and do whatever we can. Even if we don't get to much, we can still have a good time because we are together. My instinct is to run to everything and squeeze it all in, but I know that makes for a stressed me and a miserable Joe. Gotta constantly remind myself of "NO RUSHING! ENJOY THE MOMENT!"

Tomorrow you get to make your ADRS already! What places are you going for?

My DH loves fried curds. We're headed to Wisconsin at the end of June. Strawberry time!!!! I'm sure we'll bring back plenty of cheese too.

Henry's shirt is adorable.

I'm glad you had a good time at grandma's. She sounds like a great lady!

And don't forget the fireworks in Wisconsin! I always find it funny that they have giant billboards for cheese and fireworks. I think my favorite cheese billboard is for the Cheese Chalet. Can't get my 'cheesier' than that!