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Back to Real Life

February 8, 2012

So, now what?

Getting back into the groove after our trip has taken some time. A few have checked to see if I’m in deep sadness after such a fabulous trip and then coming back home to winter…and you know, just the general feelings of letdown after you’ve been waiting for something for so long and then it’s over.

There has been a smidgeon of that, but mostly I feel rejuvenated. All that sun and fun put life back into me and I feel ready to face whatever is next.

So far, that has consisted of:

*Fighting a cold with all my might

*Losing the 6.5 pounds I gained on the cruise. Worth it.

*Helping the kids with their make-up work~ I think today will be the last of it!

*Catching up with friends

*Weeding out the gross~ this covers many areas of my life right now. I’m in a purging state of mind. So, watch out, junk drawers, candy stashes (Chocolate, don’t worry, you’re safe), paper piles, negativity, bad influences, flakes and creeps.

*Little sleep

*Giving in to watching the train wreck that sucks me in with its unbelievable horrificness~ yes, had to make a word up~ The Bachelor. Don’t even get me started on Courtney. This show somehow slipped past the radar of the gross. (see above)

*Baby love~ my friend, Krystal, had her baby while I was gone and I met her last night. She is perfection!

*Puppy love too~ Steve and Jill’s little love. I am fully smitten with Oliver!

*Birthday planning for my boy. Yesterday, he said it wasn’t looking much like a birthday around our house…no decorations, no cake…guess I’ve got some decorating and caking to do before tomorrow! You know I’ll be crying with my usual birthday sentimental blues, it just seems to come hand in hand with their birthdays.

*Trying to keep that Vacation frame of mind~ relaxed, happy, stress-free, calm and uncluttered. Easier said than done in real life, of course, but trying.

Posted in February 2012, Life, Lists of This and That, Vacation | 6 Comments »

My Very Own Jack Sparrow

February 6, 2012

Vacation Chatter, Wrap-Up

After a wonderful day in Cozumel, there was a PIRATE party. I didn’t realize I was traveling with a bunch of hooligans, but let me tell you~ they were EVERYWHERE!

I’m usually the one who always dresses up, but I forgot my pirate gear!

However, our gang was fully covered…ready to “ARGH” it up.

Our head ~~waiter~~ pirate, Deneval

Two of the Cutest Pirates

And a very Sleepy Pirate…

Let’s take a brief moment to see a common thread of the trip…

It’s called, Little Indie Sleepyhead and the Crocs

And oh, there are so many more…

Following the outrageous pirate party~ fireworks and everything~ we had a nice, mellow day at sea. I finally took a book to the deck and found my favorite spot on deck 4. The boys played shuffleboard nearby. The breeze was perfection. I can still see the waves…days 4, 5 & 6 had higher waves and I dug it.

Oh…we also took in a towel folding class…

That night, supper at Animator’s Palate…the room is black and white when you first go in and gradually as the evening progresses, the room becomes more and more colorful.

Lobster Night, oh my word. DELICIOUS.

The last port was Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island. We enjoyed our day and stayed on the island until the very last possible minute, soaking up the sun and sneaking peeks at the manna rays.

Last night with the gentlemen who had been so kind to us all week…

Sad to say good-bye.

And then we had to say good-bye to the characters!

They were all out, but this was a favorite.

Indigo became fascinated with Stitch at Magic Kingdom on the Stitch ride, which is actually kinda creepy when you don’t know what to expect. I was holding my breath during the ride, thinking he’d be scared, but he LOVED it. He became obsessed with Stitch and had to buy the stuffed animal, so he was willing to get past his fear on the ship and go say hello. Stitch had helped break the ice earlier in the kid’s club when he came and danced with them. So fun. Indigo has decided he needs to see the movie now.

However, he didn’t want anything to do with this character…

Next came the yucky task of packing. Blech.

The poor guy who took our luggage…

Finally, after looking forward to something for so long, it was hard to believe it had already come to an end. We had a little more time to kill before our flight that night so we took in a couple rounds of mini golf at Pirate’s Cove…

And then, when we could stretch it out no longer, it was time to GO HOME~ with happy hearts, heavier bellies and gratefulness overflowing.

It is a vacation we will never, ever forget.

Posted in Adventure, Family, February 2012, Travel, Vacation | 9 Comments »

Tequila, Beaches and Conch Shells

February 3, 2012

Vacation Chatter, 5 days and counting

Loving the beach and all things tropical, I thought it might be really hard to leave the ports and get back on the ship. There was only one day I felt that way. Every other time, I was ready to get back on the ship, get cleaned up and get back in the middle of the ocean. There were so many fun things to do on the ship too, that there was always something to look forward to…

We met several great performers~ Buckets and Boards comedy percussion team and Daren Streblow from Thou Shalt Laugh 5 were our favorites.

We are always huge fans of someone who can make a great face…

Bunches and Boards

And they play great percussion out of random objects~ even better. I wish you could have seen my son’s shoulders shaking over these guys.

Daren Streblow is from Minnesota! We talked to him afterward for a while and he was the nicest man. Our friend Joey I.L.O. and Daren were on Thou Shalt Laugh 5 together and we’d been to Joey’s showing, so we recognized him as soon as he came out. Again, Indie’s shoulders shook and he wheezed from laughing so hard. He’d already known lines from Daren’s act by heart, so it was such a treat for us to see him in person. The fact that he was extremely warm and nice made it that much better.

During the show, Nate was selected from the crowd with 5 others for the funny face contest. I think he should have won. This is a recap of the face~ the first was far cooler…and this one is pretty good.

Sadly, Little Boy from Canada won by most applause. Nate was second.

Then Greyley was selected to NOT laugh. Not only was this not possible, but her laughing so hard made Daren laugh and it was a fun moment.

Good times.

I haven’t mentioned the food yet. Ahh, the food. We got our fill of seafood and steak and every kind of dessert possible…not to mention, all-you-can-eat ice cream. The eating experiences were delightful and the team of people that dote on you was hard to get used to at first, but also extremely fun. They cut my children’s meat and took the tails off my shrimp! I mean, how great is that!

Here’s just a glimpse of a mini sampler of desserts…

Next stop~ Grand Cayman Islands. We found a lovely spot on the beach and went snorkeling. It was Greyley’s first time to snorkel and she found this:

She picked right up on snorkeling and loved it. Indigo really tried and liked it…until he’d see something he wanted to pick up and went down to grab it, only to gag on salt water.

Gorgeous view…

I loved the sand in Grand Cayman!

We got so tickled at Indigo riding the ferry back to the ship. He was worn out and sat across from us…needed a little thumb time, I guess. His next goal is to be done with it when he turns 7…just around the corner. Pray, saints, pray!

Next morning we woke up and we were almost to Cozumel! How about a little breakfast first…

We looked in a few shops when we got off and then took a little walk to see if we could get away from the touristy area. Right away we saw iguanas…just roaming around in a driveway…no big deal.

Nate and I had to see how close we could get…he won~ he touched it.

…and then they both darted away from each other as fast as they could go. Nate was much faster, by the way.

We took a tour with a guy named Gabriel, who told us all about Cozumel. Such a nice guy~ he’s lived there all his life and loves it. Saw a few Mayan monuments and learned how tequila is made. Then we stopped at a few shops out on the beach and met the REAL Tequila. And Greyley won the grand prize of the day…

Greyley and Tequila

Eek!

My girl loves water with all her heart.

Heavenly backdrop…

This is the day I didn’t want to get back on the ship. Look at this water!

There was an area that had massive waves and I was dying to get in it, but our tour was almost over and it was nearly time to get back on the ship…

Coral everywhere…

My happy boy…his shirt confused a few of the locals.

I loved how this was growing out of the crevices…

This is what my hair looked like 97% of the trip…that wind, it was a’blowin’!

And one last gorgeous view before we say good-bye…thank you, Cozumel. You treated us well.

Posted in Adventure, Family, February 2012, Travel, Vacation | 7 Comments »

Sail Away

February 2, 2012

Vacation Chatter, Take 4

One of the happiest parts of the trip was the fact that we couldn’t be too sad to leave one thing~ Orlando, for example~ when we had a CRUISE to go on next. Steve and Jill are cruise pros and Nate and I are cruise newbies.

There she is~ the Disney Magic~ waiting for us!

I was SO excited for the cruise, but did have some nervousness too. Would I feel claustrophobic in the small rooms or panic about being out on the water like that? Fortunately, no one told me about the ship going down in Italy…however, the night before we got on, I was packing to leave our condo and turned on the TV. 20/20 was playing, “Cruise Ship Confidential” and oh boy, it did not help. It briefly mentioned the ship going down, but also talked about the other awful things that have happened on cruises. Great.

Model Version

BUT…I loved it! We had a room with a balcony, which helped so much. The first day, when we were doing the safety drill and all filing down to the restaurant, I had to just not think about what it would really be like if it was truly going down. Nightmare…

Thankfully, there was smooth sailing. And when the sailing wasn’t as smooth, it was still kinda fun. I’m a klutz to begin with, so put me on a rocking ship and it can get interesting! I loved how it lulled me to sleep~ haven’t been able to sleep well since I got home~ I think I’m hooked!

We left from Port Canaveral, Florida and our first stop the next morning was Key West. My brother happens to be working down there for the next few months so he and his wife were there to welcome us as we got off the ship!

This lovely couple also greeted us…

The only two things I really wanted to do in Key West were go to Ernest Hemingway’s house and eat key lime pie. Anything else would be cake.

On our walk to Hemingway’s house, we saw these gorgeous trees…

One of the B&B owners saw us admiring her trees and took us around the back to see her favorite…

I cannot tell you how grateful I am to have gone on this trip. Besides all the fun, the simple fact that we were in the heat, the ocean and green, living things…it’s like breath to me. It was wonderful.

And finally, after passing Harry Truman’s house (why didn’t I get a picture of that house?!), Ernest’s place…

Ernest lived here with his second wife, Pauline Pfeiffer. Hemingway is such an interesting, tragic person. I have always been intrigued with his story…my brother and I have this in common.

It was fun to see the books he liked to read, his pictures, their rooms…he loved cats and they are all over his space~ on his bed, everywhere. They have full reign. I think 40 still live on his property. He was partial to the polydactyl (six-toed) cats.

I wanted to stay in his little writing cottage. It’s more spacious than it looks here and we couldn’t go all the way inside this room…

Minus the hunting decor, I’d take it! Apparently he used to have a catwalk from the veranda off his bedroom to his writing cottage. He spent most of his time out here, when he wasn’t fishing or traveling.

Very fun tour.

The six-toed cats are protected in Key West, as well as roosters. It was odd to see roosters everywhere!

Every time I see roosters, I think of the rooster we had for a brief time. If it was a cloudy day in San Jose, the rooster would crow ALL DAY LONG. Needless to say, he didn’t last very long at our house.

After a long, adventurous and toasty day, it was pretty nice to see this in the distance. Yes, pretty sure I am hooked.

Posted in Adventure, Family, February 2012, Fun, Travel, Vacation | 10 Comments »

Magical (And NOT So Magical) Space & Animals

February 1, 2012

Vacation Chatter, Take 3

Still flying high from the Jedi and Idol experiences, we didn’t really care what we did the next day~ we knew it would be fun, no matter what. We decided to go to EPCOT~ Experimental Prototype City Of Tomorrow~ just in case you were wondering. (Knowing this came in very handy the next week.)

Epcot was beautiful and felt like a slower pace after our days at Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. The characters were in cute outfits, matching the different countries. Indigo liked seeing the characters…from a distance. He had no real desire to go get his picture taken with them~ even his favorites. I had this same aversion when I was little, so I didn’t push it. However, he is very fond of Donald and Donald in a Sombrero was being so funny, Indie worked through the nerves.

We nearly panicked when the children were swallowed up by sharks. Man, you just never know when that is going to happen…

The best food in all the Disney parks is at Epcot, in my humble opinion…

I shouldn’t have said that right after my kids were swallowed by sharks, should I?

Eww. Moving right along…

Hungry, Greyley?

JUST kidding. Don’t kill me, please, baby girl. I couldn’t resist.

While we were eating lunch, it began to rain. We didn’t mind~ Steve had brought rain gear with him and ran out to get us rain ponchos. They were lovely. Hmm, no picture of that…oh dear. Well, anyway, we looked SPECTACULAR in our rain gear. Ahem, really. You’ll just have to trust me, I guess. We kept going, but it did slow us down a bit.

Met two astronauts along the way…they were very sweet.

All play aside, I had one of the most terrifying experiences of my life on the ride, Mission: Space. You can see the ride and read about it HERE. It was 5.5 minutes of torture. It should have clued me in when they warned us no less than 6 times of the possible side effects. Also, Greyley was ready for more of a thrill after two days of roller coasters, so she picked the more intense version of the ride, so we happily went along with it. Big mistake, the whole thing.

First of all, I’m claustrophobic. I should have just kept walking when I saw the little space we’d have to be closed up in. Second of all, I should apparently NEVER experience 2.4 G force. I thought I was going to pass out and then die, I’m not even kidding. I kept my mouth shut because I didn’t want to make anyone else panic. Greyley, in the first 30 seconds, was saying, “I don’t like this!!!” I had to just close my eyes, NOT watch the screen and go to a meditative calm place.

It was ten times worse than what I’m even saying and I’m sure most of it was just in my head, but oh my. I hated it.

Everyone but Jill and Indigo felt awful when we got off. Indigo didn’t like it, but wasn’t sick. Jill loved it! That woman must be cut out to be an astronaut. I will never be signing up to go to space, thank you very much.

Things did get better…the laser light show was amazing and ended the whole day on a happy note. We felt like we didn’t fully experience the park because of the rain, but got a good feel for what it’s like. It was fun and interesting to meet the different people who worked there from all the different countries.

Day 4 of our adventures took us to Animal Kingdom…we LOVED this park!

The Safari ride was our favorite, so fun to see the animals up close and personal.

I took a TON of pictures, of which I won’t put you through on here, but…come on over if you need to see some interesting animals.

Our pretty group…

I love how Indigo’s busting a move in his own little world. This is a true glimpse of my boy.

Met these two bugs in the FUN Bug’s Life Show!

We were a little tired by day 4!

After a long day and a fun roller coaster…

These things freaked us OUT…bats.

EEK! And it was OPEN, no glass or anything! The lady who worked in that area scoffed at our reluctance. “Bats are more scared of you than you are of them!” Um, NO. And, “They don’t fly sideways, you silly people.” OK, she didn’t say the silly people part, but she implied it with her tone. I have had a bat swoop by my head, TOUCHING MY HAIR, I don’t really know if he was flying sideways or upside down, all I know is that it happened, Lady! OK, I didn’t tell her that either, but I implied it with my tone…inside my head…

Such a fun day. This is Jill and Nate’s favorite park. I think it might be mine too, tied with Hollywood Studios. Just two completely different things. But could go to Animal Kingdom all the time. The water ride was great too.

Day 5, Hollywood Studios, to see all the things we missed on Day 2. And to ride Tower of Terror a couple more times. We stuffed sugar and napkins in Indie’s socks to TRY to get him on Rockin’ Roller Coaster, spiked his hair as much as we could…and he missed it by half an inch. Shucks.

Nate found the Lord on Rockin’ Roller Coaster.

So we made him go on it 3 times…just to make sure it stuck.

We had such happy hearts with all the fun we’d had all week. So many fabulous experiences, so much love in the air…worn out with all the goodness. We were so tired, we couldn’t quite settle on a place to eat. Someone mentioned IHop as sort of a joke (I think). It was between IHop and All-you-can-eat Lobster and Indigo said in a pitiful voice and completely serious, “My parents have never taken me to an IHop…”

So, we took that boy to an IHop! And he LOVED it!

The only good thing about our fun in Orlando ending was that the next morning, we would get on a big SHIP and sail away! More on that to come…

Posted in Adventure, Animal Kingdom, Family, February 2012, Travel, Vacation | 6 Comments »

Magical Adventure

January 30, 2012

Almost 3 weeks ago, I wrote a post before leaving for vacation…fully thinking I’d write about our trip along the way…

Well, between being so busy having fun, going like crazy, spotty cell service and internet/NO cell service and internet, that just didn’t happen. And while I missed all of you, I’m glad it went that way. Once I gave up trying to make it work, I just relaxed and enjoyed vacation.

551 pictures later…whew. I won’t put you through all that…but let’s face it, if you’re reading this blog, you’re going to be seeing some vacation pictures. So let’s just settle in here together…

What a wonderful trip…

It was a trip that had phases…I’m still shaking my head at all we were able to do. I’m so grateful, I know I won’t even be able to properly put it into words. It was unbelievable…and also perfect because I missed most of January in Minnesota! Weeha!

Phase 1, I flew into West Palm Beach and stayed with my friend Tarryn Fisher. We had the best time. I don’t think there was a topic we didn’t cover. I’m missing her! I’ve had major Tarryn withdrawals ever since I left. I fell hard for her kids too…they are so cute. Take a look at her little girl, sporting one of Greyley’s headbands…this picture slays me.

We met the rest of the group in Orlando and it was amazing how everyone clicked right away. We ate good food, wrote a ton and laughed our heads off. It couldn’t have been any better. I was so sad to leave all of them…such a fun time!

Clockwise from top: Madison, Gianna, Traci, Danielle, me & Tarryn

When our weekend was done, they dropped me off at the airport, I rented a large vehicle (to hold our massive amount of stuff, plus all of us) and picked up my sweet family and our dear friends~ Steve and Jill. Steve put this trip together, did all the hard stuff, itinerary, planning~ we just showed up and had a blast. It was amazing.

We did 5 days of theme parks~ never in my life have I done such a thing! It was exhilarating, exhausting and ENDLESS FUN!

We began the week at Magic Kingdom…

Yes, dreams really do come true when you’re on vacation.

Sleepy-eyed, but raring to go…

The weather was so nice~ WARM! Not too hot, not too cold…just right.

It’s a good thing we all love each other.

We spent a lot of time in these…

Not too much time in lines due to perfect time of year to go AND Fast Passes.

Thank you, Steve! He’d run ahead, often with Indie in tow to get Fast Passes for the next ride. Indie became obsessed with Fast Passes and thought everything in life should have a Fast Pass.

He was also all about the maps.

Both kids got colds, Jill & Steve, too…but they didn’t let it slow them down one bit…troupers, these Minnesotans.

I love this picture of my girl…

She worked really hard for weeks before our trip, getting her schoolwork done, along with play practice at night. It was wonderful to have so much time with her.

Time with my little man too, so sweet…I miss my first grader when he’s at school.

Aw, look at these two…love them. I’m still amazed that they wanted to spend their vacation time with our clan. They seemed to still love us after two solid weeks of togetherness.

I wanted to swipe a few things from Magic Kingdom…this is just one example…

Absolute cuteness, everywhere you turn

A little bit of quiet time together while the others are riding Space Mountain…AGAIN.

The castle is absolutely beautiful at night!

I nearly flipped when Tinkerbell FLEW out of the castle.

Truly a magical day.

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you about Greyley’s American Idol experience and Indie’s Jedi Adventure.

Posted in Adventure, Family, Friends, Fun, January 2012, Travel, Vacation | 9 Comments »