Oh the places you’ll go if you know they are there. And by there, I mean here! In New Jersey/New York area for those of you local.
Be prepared to be intrigued! If you’re looking for Valentines ideas for you an your sweetheart to have a night on the town, you’ve come to the right place.
These are just some of the ideas from Cloud 9 Living and if you haven’t checked out their site, you have no idea what you’ve been missing.
Whether you want a night out, a cheap thrill (literally, you can race a lamborghini) or a stay-cation, they have you covered. Some of the activities are quite pricey, but I have put together a few of the best Valentines deals for you right here;
HELL’S KITCHEN DESSERT TOUR
MANHATTAN, NY
FROM: $55
Explore Hell’s Kitchen and discover some of the best sweets in New York City’s busiest neighborhood on this tasty dessert tour!
BEST OF BROOKLYN FOOD TOUR
BROOKLYN, NY
FROM: $125
Brooklyn is home to 2.5 million people, diverse cultures and a tour that will satisfy your hunger for cultural food and knowledge!
MURDER MYSTERY DINNER SHOW
FORT LEE, NJ
FROM: $77
Prepare yourself for an evening of intrigue as you figure out whodunnit during this Murder Mystery Dinner Show in Fort Lee!
NEW JERSEY DINNER CRUISE
WEEHAWKEN, NJ
FROM: $167
Delight in a magical evening aboard the New Jersey Dinner Cruise, surrounded by delicious food, dazzling city lights, famous New York sights, and endless entertainment.
None of these working for you? How about racing a Lamborghini? Yea, I’m serious.
RACE A LAMBORGHINI
NEW JERSEY MOTORSPORTS PARK
RACEWAY PARK
POCONO RACEWAY
FROM: $468
Put the pedal to the metal as you race a Lamborghini down the straightaways of a real race-course and make your wildest dreams come true!
Willing to venture a bit farther away? There are many ideas to choose from. Happy Valentines!
Disclosure: I have no affiliation with cloud 9. I just thought it was awesome and wanted to share!
Leading Addiction and Relationship Specialist Dr. Drew, and World-Renowned Psychologist and Parenting Expert Dr. Shefali Coming to Speak at iPlay America
Freehold, NJ., February 4, 2019 – Two of America’s favorite doctors and best-selling authors are speaking live and meeting with guests at iPlay America in February. Dr. Drew Pinsky, known by many as Dr. Drew, will be headed to iPlay America on Tuesday, February 19 to speak about his expertise as a doctor of internal medicine, addiction expert and best-selling author. Later in the month, on Tuesday February 26, Dr. Shefali will be sharing her wealth of knowledge as a leader in the field of mindfulness psychology and parenting.
Sponsoring doctors Drew and Shefali is the National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS), the largest leadership honor society in the country. The mission of the NSLS is to help the greatest number of people in the greatest way by offering life-changing lectures from the nation’s leading presenters to help people discover and achieve their goals.
Dr. Drew Pinsky, a California native, has been practicing medicine for over 30 years. Dr. Drew is most known for his time producing and starring in Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew and Teen Mom. He will be coming to iPlay America to speak to fans about his personal journey beginning in medical school, overcoming obstacles, building resiliency, the science behind addiction and destigmatizing mental illness.
Doors will open at 6:00 PM and the event will begin at 7:00 PM. VIP and general admission tickets are available for purchase at https://www.iplayamerica.com/event/dr–drew/. VIP tickets include a priority seat at the speaking engagement, a photo with Dr. Drew and a copy of his book, Cracked.
For over a decade, Dr. Shefali has been one of the world’s leading clinical psychologists. After receiving her doctorate from Columbia University, she began working with patients by integrating eastern philosophy and western psychology. Dr. Shefali, who has been endorsed by Oprah, is also a world-renowned wisdom teacher, international speaker and acclaimed author. She has presented her ideas at TEDx, The Kellogg School of Business and The Dalai Lama Center for Peace. At the appearance, Dr. Shefali will share her knowledge and methods to uncover the reasons why we limit ourselves, the ways our upbringing conditions us and the pathway to break free and break through.
Doors will open at 6:00 PM and the event will begin at 7:00 PM. VIP and general admission tickets are available for purchase at https://www.iplayamerica.com/event/dr-shefali/. VIP tickets include a priority seat at the speaking engagement, a photo with Dr. Shefali and a copy of her latest book, The Awakened Family.
“We are thrilled to host such well-known experts like Dr. Drew and Dr. Shefali at iPlay America with these two inspirational and informative events in,” said Jessica Schwartz, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for iPlay America. “Our fans are always looking for us to host a variety of engaging events, and we are happy to continue to provide new and exciting experiences to central New Jersey residents.”
About iPlay America
iPlay America is theplaceto Get Inside the Fun! It’s all indoor, family-friendly themed environment provides guests nearly four acres of outstanding rides, games, and attractions making it the perfect destination for FUN year round! The Event Center @IPA is home to concerts, corporate events, expos, galas, trade shows, company outings, sporting events, social gatherings, and every kind of party. iPlay America offers guests a mouth-watering selection of Boardwalk style fare, classic American cuisine at Game Time Bar & Grill, and an impressive event catering menu. ALWAYS free to enter, iPlay America’s guests can enjoy exciting attractions like 2-level Laser Tag, Indoor Go-Kart Track, Spinning Coaster and the Sky Trails® High Ropes Course (the largest indoor ropes course in New Jersey). iPlay America is a 2017 winner of TripAdvisor’s Certificate of Excellence for Outstanding Service. For FUN, fine food, and events of any size, the award winning iPlay America is the place to Get Inside the Fun. iPlay America is located on Route 9 at 110 Schanck Road in Freehold, New Jersey.
It’s that time of year again, my Birthday!! Every year for my birthday I make my way down to Atlantic City to celebrate, and this year I rode in style in the all new 2019 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport. It is a stylish small SUV that is just the right amount of sport and comfort. Certainly not a “Mom car”, I was proud to drop my kids off to school for the week in this.
ECO-BOOOOOST!!! Wow, the eco-mode is amazing. I cannot believe how much gas I saved in this beauty. That is probably the numero uno thing I LOVED about it. I was able to fill up the tank, and drive to and from Atlantic City, and then to and from my job all week until Thursday when I finally had to get more gas. I have to say, I have test driven many vehicles and the gas mileage on this thing is no joke.
The outside is a beautiful grey metallic and the rims are alloy. This was perfect for this week as we had a cold front come in with icy-rain, and the 4 wheel drive helps tremendously! We felt safe and comfortable.
The seats were black leather on top with microfiber where is matters for comfort. Especially in the Winter in New Jersey, all leather gets too cold and too hot. So the added touch of microfiber is perfect combined with the luxury of leather.
This model had heated seats only, and I would’ve liked to see them cooled as well for those hot months where black is great, but unbearable at times in the strong sun and heat.
The back seats are a little tight, and from going from a ford explorer to this, it feels a bit compact for me. My kids didn’t seem to mind one bit and liked the drop down arm in the center to separate them from eachother so they each had their own “side” of the back seat LOL.
Although the inside itself is a bit compact, the truck is much bigger than I suspected. I actually didn’t need to open the trunk at all until I went food shopping and I have to admit I was a bit nervous that I got more than this thing can fit, but boy was I wrong.
Even this picture doesn’t do it any justice. There is much more room still behind the bags and air space above.
This could easily lug around some strollers and/or soccer gear if needed, no problem.
Keep in mind the “Sport” is the compact model and the Outlander is much larger. It also offers 3rd row, which I’m a huge fan of if you’re willing to give up some trunk space.
For me, I remember always wanting a Mitsubishi when I was younger. It was the prime time of the eclipse and the 3000GT. They were all the rage and I swore I would get one. I never got the chance, but this brings back those memories seeing the Mitsubishi name back out on the market.
A few weeks ago my 6 year old son and I visited “Jurassic Quest” at the Edison New Jersey Expo Center. Was it worth the entry fee? Yes and no. I got the VIP pass for my son because he is so into Jurassic Park right now, I wanted him to experience all there was to see at the expo and make sure he was able to do everything. The thing is, it seems like they boasted the “VIP” pass as so many extras, when in reality, I do not think we even did anything “VIP” the whole time there.
The main attraction was the walk through of Dinosaurs which was amazing! It had over 30 prehistoric dino’s right in front of our faces. They were huge awesome animatronics that spanned 3 feet in some cases, and growled and roared just like you’d expect if you were back in the land before time.
In this area was a chance to “ride” a dinosaur. They had 6 set up, and this is one are that VIP came in handy because otherwise we would’ve had to buy a ticket. We still had to wait in the same line, no special line, but just flashed the wristband to climb aboard the T-Rex. I really thought my son would want to “ride” all of them, but he only chose the T-Rex and wasn’t really interested in the others after. It isn’t much of a ride, it is more of a photo op experience.
Check out the amazing area they had set up and all of the cool scenes!
Walking out of the walk through area, we saw a cool ring setup but couldn’t really get close enough to see in it. There were so many people just piled around it, there was no way to squeeze in although I would’ve found a way if my son really wanted to. I stepped on my tippy toes and was able to see if was a guy walking around showing a “baby dinosaur”. I assume it was nothing more than an adorable animatronic from photo’s I’ve seen of the events at other venues, so my son decided he didn’t care to see it, but as a VIP paying extra, I think it should’ve been a separate showing or at least a section for VIP’s to go in and out. Check out the video posted by Jurassic Quest on their youtube;
My son did enjoy the giant inflatable slides and bounce houses that were a perk of VIP, but there were lines for all of them, and after going on each once he was done.
There were some cool 4D photo sections, but VIP did NOT include them and they cost extra. We didn’t do it as my son wasn’t interested.
Everyone got to take part in the craft section which was really cute and worth the 30 minutes we sat there for him to glue the pieces all together. He left with it proudly!
The store section before we left was quite like a flea market the way everything was layed out, but the prices were nothing like one. They had a lot of cute stuff but be prepared to pay A LOT for anything you get including the cute adorable “walking” balloons like they had in the Jurassic World movie. We didn’t buy one because they were $20, but my son did buy a $26 T-Rex small figure…
All in all, he had a great time and I would definitely go again if he is still into Dinosaurs when it comes back to town. We only spent about 2 hours total there, but it wasn’t to far from my house so it wasn’t bad. Being that the VIP was only $10 more, I guess I would do it again since it included the slides and the photo ops, but I think parents should be free since kids are not permitted without an adult.
2019 is here! And that means all new, 2019 products to test! My son has been getting into doing reviews and I thought this would be fun for him. Check out what’s in the January box in the video at the bottom!
Daily Goodie Box. It’s more than just Free Samples!
If you’re interested in any of the products in this box click the links below!
It’s a new year, and there are many “New Year/New Me” resolutions flying around. I haven’t had a resolution in a while (see my quitting smoking post) due to the fact that they usually fail when you do not know the real reason your doing it and forced a timeline in to fit it into the New Year week. If it’s something you really want to do, you would do it anyway, not because of a new year rolling in.
Seriously, has anyone ever succeeded in keeping a New Years resolution?
Anyway, my reasoning for starting the intermittent fasting (IF), 16/8 specifically, is that my bootcamp I have been a part of for over a year now has a new challenge going on. A team challenge where a bunch of people join a team (side note; go team ThinItIoWinit!) and try to reach a common goal. They will be tracking the teams by average weight loss for 12 weeks. I do not need to lose weight, nor does the rest of my team; hence the name, but I do want to tone and be healthier.
My uncle is a trainer for a big gym in NYC, and has mentioned the 16/8 to me many times in the past. It basically re-balances your metabolism. Somewhere along the line I got into a habit of eating much more during the day than I need to. I replaced the cigarette addiction with a food addiction. I never used to be a breakfast person, but then I heard that breakfast is important for fuel source, etc… For some it may be, but for me it added to my caloric intake, and really made me feel more sluggish during the morning. I am not good at following a diet, or special meal prep plans as others are, and I actually gained weight when adding protein shakes and bars to my daily meals (the every 3 hour plan).
So this is an attempt for me to find a way to stay fit, be active, and still enjoy the foods I like while toning. My weigh in on last Friday 1/4 was 126.6. Next weigh in is Monday 1/14 and I am going to guess I will have lost 1 lb so far. I will update as the weigh in’s come.
Week 1 Intermittent fasting;
Monday 1/7 Went to the morning bootcamp class – I made a conscious decision to understand only I can control my actions and excuses were just that, excuses. I went to Dunkin’ Donuts as usual in my morning routine, but I replaced my hot coffee with extra cream and sugar drastically with green harmony leaf tea with extra lemon. I felt a little shaky without the sugar or fats, but I made it through. 7pm-11am no food- only water and green tea.
Tuesday 1/8 – Today was worse. I was fine during the first hour or so, but I started to feel very hungry and my stomach was burning. I assume it was shrinking, possibly “eating itself” I say. We had sandwiches for lunch from work, turkey cheese on a roll for lunch.
I had eaten a little later because my dinner wasn’t done by 6pm (my eating end time goal) so I ate until 7pm instead.
Wednesday 1/9 Went to the morning bootcamp class – This was probably the hardest day yet for fasting. I woke up hungry, and was even telling myself “get a coffee light and sweet, you’ll be fine it’s only a coffee” but I faught it and got a green tea with ZERO sugar and only a fresh lemon. As the morning progressed, the hunger was worse, I felt nauseas but after the first few hours it got a little better. I was in a rush to eat my cheddar bagel twist right at 10am, I ate a sandwich witht turkey and cheese for lunch and leftover corned beef and cabbage for dinner. It was a really hectic evening after work and I was running around until 9pm at night so I am sure I burned my dinner off quickly.
Thurday 1/10 – I am much more lenient on the food addiction today, I can tell already. I feel much better in general, my stomach isn’t burning as much although growling a bit. I think it shrunk already actually in just 4 short fasting days. I haven’t ate since 630pm last night and I am still going strong at 11am. It actually reminds me just of quitting smoking cold turkey. Day 1, 2, and 3 were the hardest and then it got easier as the days went on and the habit changed. We will see.
Friday 1/11 – This day went by so fast in the morning before I knew it, it was lunch time! I did not eat too healthy today. I got a sandwich with breaded chicken and peppers. Stopping eating at 7pm on a weekend was really hard, but I did it!
The weekend was the hardest. Saturday I had to work 6am-8pm away from home, so it wasn’t too bad, but I did sneak in my light and sweet coffee a half hour early during my drive to Philly. Sunday… well it was hard but I stuck to my guns and did it.
I am not going to update daily for 12 weeks, but I’ll update as I get my weigh ins and provide some details on what happened.
Monday 1/14/19 first weigh in 6am – I am down 1.8lbs (2 probably really but I had my heart monitoring belt on). The week prior was really tough, but I did not eat super healthy which is key. I was able to eat WHAT I want, just not WHEN I wanted. The number one thing I cut out as my morning coffee with milk and sugar. I replaced it with green tea with lemon instead.
