Below are the most important things I've been blessed with and am so very thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving!
Here they are proudly displaying the place mats they made at school.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
The good: Lots to be thankful for!
What a nice Thanksgiving we had. It begun with Jack leaving to participate in a turkey bowl. I had my fingers crossed that he'd return home in the same physical shape he left in, which is asking a lot for a middle aged man playing football with a bunch of young athletes. Thankfully he arrived home in almost as good of shape as he left in and we spent the remainder of the day enjoying good food and family fun. This weekend marks the end to a nice taste of retirement Jack experienced the past 6 weeks. After commuting for over a year back and forth to California while trying to unsuccessfully sell our house here, Jack decided to return to Starbucks. He'll start back on Monday. I keep telling him our stock depends on him... :)
Below are the most important things I've been blessed with and am so very thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving!
Here they are proudly displaying the place mats they made at school.
Below are the most important things I've been blessed with and am so very thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving!
Here they are proudly displaying the place mats they made at school.
I'm aging...oh so fast!
So a week ago tonight, I was sitting with a bunch of friends in a theater full of wannabe teenagers (that would be us) and a bunch of screaming teenagers (that would be everyone else) watching Twilight on opening night. Although movies rarely live up to the books, I thought it was good and how could one not have fun spending an evening with the girls!
Thanks Rachel for getting me hooked for without you lending me your book on my trip to Utah this summer I would have gotten a lot more sleep during my vacation and saved $11 on the movie ticket! :) I never read books so for me to have the four books read in 2 weeks shows you how much I was addicted. Until New Moon, I think I'll stick to watching movies via netflix where I can enjoy viewing them in the privacy of my own home without the hecklers, screaming teens, and $7 popcorn!
Thanks Rachel for getting me hooked for without you lending me your book on my trip to Utah this summer I would have gotten a lot more sleep during my vacation and saved $11 on the movie ticket! :) I never read books so for me to have the four books read in 2 weeks shows you how much I was addicted. Until New Moon, I think I'll stick to watching movies via netflix where I can enjoy viewing them in the privacy of my own home without the hecklers, screaming teens, and $7 popcorn!
Monday, November 24, 2008
Disney Rating: Buy!
The good: no cooking and no cleaning, hours of endless fun, EZ pass combined with toddler exchange which made for lots of rides, a kids club that allows you to drop off your children at any time during the hours of 6 a.m. - midnight, waiters that cut up your kids food, feed them and take care of their every need (including making a bed out of chairs and tablecloths for Ty who fell asleep during dinner once), amazing Broadway styled shows, great beaches, and most importantly, hearing your kids say that "this is the best vacation ever". Countdown to January 30, 2010...
The bad: coming home with 10 days of dirty laundry, realizing that I am the chef, bored kids, and trading Broadway shows for boxing matches between the kids...but in the end the return on investment makes it well worth it!
Here are some of the highlights of our Disney World/Disney Cruise vacation:
The view from our hotel room. (Clearly a much sunnier view than what I am used to seeing out my bedroom window most days in November.)
Spending a day enjoying the resort before spending the next few days at the parks.
Downtown Disney. We had a great dinner at the T-Rex restaurant (you wouldn't know it from the golden arch photo that couldn't be passed up) and then Jack insisted that we rent one of these speed boats so I could zip the kids around. Well, let me restate, not "zip" as it was powered by what looked like a lawn mower engine.
The Castle: Anytime Sage heard anyone even utter the word "castle" in a sentence, she'd immediately yell to them, "No, my castle".
The Characters (Luckily the boys aren't into getting photos with the characters but Sage couldn't get enough of them. I spared you every photo with every character!):
Connor couldn't get enough of the Everest ride at Animal Kingdom. In one day he made it on 6 times. Ty loved the Kali Rapids ride as you can see from how drenched they are in this photo.
From talking trash cans to 3-D movies.
Ty, in a rush to catch up with his dad, quickly throws on what he thought was his denim shorts. Neither of us could figure out why they were so hard for him to put on until he returned with his dad and I realized whose PANTS (yes pants) they actually were...
Disney Cruise Line. This was our first cruise ever but I can't imagine sailing on any other cruise line after this experience. By far the prettiest ship! And where else do you find a dining staff that feeds you? :)
Sage clearly excited about her new purse dad bought her. What was even cuter was to see how excited she was to show it to all the characters who were very kind and acted very interested in her purse:
One thing I learned while on this vacation is that Ty may have a future in entertainment. One of my favorite memories of the cruise is of Ty singing happy birthday to total strangers. This is how it began: Each night the dining room staff would sing to various people for their birthdays. What we didn't know was that on the first night after the crew had finished singing, Ty worked his way over to the table and sang Happy birthday to that person. Apparently he would have to stop half way through the song and ask "what's your name?" It wasn't until after someone approached us to tell us what a great singer Ty was that we figured out what he was up to. From that night forward, when Ty heard the staff start to sing it was a signal for him that he was up next. Throughout the cruise people would say "hey, there's the boy that sung to us last night". So on Mickey Mouse's 80th birthday (which took place during our cruise) Jack made arrangements with the cruise director to have the boys come up on stage that night and sing to Mickey Mouse. They now have special badges and certificates for acting as "onstage peformers". It was so cute to see the excitement on their faces as they got up before hundreds of people to sing Happy Birthday to Mickey Mouse. It was truly magical for them!
Atlantis (We love this place and they had added so much since our last visit. If I can figure out how to download video, I'll have to download the piece of Sage going down the rapids. It is hysterical!):
Castaway Cay:
I just love this photo of Ty with Minnie in the moo moo. Judging from this smile, I think he has a crush on Minnie...
Cocoa Beach: Jack was anxious to return to Ron Jon's for some new swim wear. Ty was excited to play in the waves.
Final analysis: We had a blast. We'll stick to longer Disney cruises and separate trips to Disneyland!
The bad: coming home with 10 days of dirty laundry, realizing that I am the chef, bored kids, and trading Broadway shows for boxing matches between the kids...but in the end the return on investment makes it well worth it!
Here are some of the highlights of our Disney World/Disney Cruise vacation:
The view from our hotel room. (Clearly a much sunnier view than what I am used to seeing out my bedroom window most days in November.)
Spending a day enjoying the resort before spending the next few days at the parks.
Downtown Disney. We had a great dinner at the T-Rex restaurant (you wouldn't know it from the golden arch photo that couldn't be passed up) and then Jack insisted that we rent one of these speed boats so I could zip the kids around. Well, let me restate, not "zip" as it was powered by what looked like a lawn mower engine.
The Castle: Anytime Sage heard anyone even utter the word "castle" in a sentence, she'd immediately yell to them, "No, my castle".
The Characters (Luckily the boys aren't into getting photos with the characters but Sage couldn't get enough of them. I spared you every photo with every character!):
Connor couldn't get enough of the Everest ride at Animal Kingdom. In one day he made it on 6 times. Ty loved the Kali Rapids ride as you can see from how drenched they are in this photo.
From talking trash cans to 3-D movies.
Ty, in a rush to catch up with his dad, quickly throws on what he thought was his denim shorts. Neither of us could figure out why they were so hard for him to put on until he returned with his dad and I realized whose PANTS (yes pants) they actually were...
Disney Cruise Line. This was our first cruise ever but I can't imagine sailing on any other cruise line after this experience. By far the prettiest ship! And where else do you find a dining staff that feeds you? :)
Sage clearly excited about her new purse dad bought her. What was even cuter was to see how excited she was to show it to all the characters who were very kind and acted very interested in her purse:
One thing I learned while on this vacation is that Ty may have a future in entertainment. One of my favorite memories of the cruise is of Ty singing happy birthday to total strangers. This is how it began: Each night the dining room staff would sing to various people for their birthdays. What we didn't know was that on the first night after the crew had finished singing, Ty worked his way over to the table and sang Happy birthday to that person. Apparently he would have to stop half way through the song and ask "what's your name?" It wasn't until after someone approached us to tell us what a great singer Ty was that we figured out what he was up to. From that night forward, when Ty heard the staff start to sing it was a signal for him that he was up next. Throughout the cruise people would say "hey, there's the boy that sung to us last night". So on Mickey Mouse's 80th birthday (which took place during our cruise) Jack made arrangements with the cruise director to have the boys come up on stage that night and sing to Mickey Mouse. They now have special badges and certificates for acting as "onstage peformers". It was so cute to see the excitement on their faces as they got up before hundreds of people to sing Happy Birthday to Mickey Mouse. It was truly magical for them!
Atlantis (We love this place and they had added so much since our last visit. If I can figure out how to download video, I'll have to download the piece of Sage going down the rapids. It is hysterical!):
Castaway Cay:
I just love this photo of Ty with Minnie in the moo moo. Judging from this smile, I think he has a crush on Minnie...
Cocoa Beach: Jack was anxious to return to Ron Jon's for some new swim wear. Ty was excited to play in the waves.
Final analysis: We had a blast. We'll stick to longer Disney cruises and separate trips to Disneyland!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
