Tuesday, January 20, 2009

SeaWorld

My parents have been in town and we went to SeaWorld one day for some fun. It has been cold the whole time they've been here - I guess it is January.


The kiddie area will be our favorite - lots of rides for little ones.


The kids love to ride their bikes down the hill by our house. Taylor got the snowboard out of the attic and was going down the hill on it - who needs snow?




Friday, January 2, 2009

The Trip From Hell

It's noon on New Year's Day and we're all still in our jammies worn out from the party the night before. Dale announces that he booked a hotel and we're going to St. Augustine (The oldest city in the United States). Wow, how spontaneous - one problem - Kendall isn't feeling well. We sit down and talk about it and he decides he's okay and wants to go. One hour into the trip - Kendall throws up in the car. Max is screaming the whole way so far and finally falls asleep 1 1/2 hours into the ride - Kendall needs to go to the bathroom because he has diarrhea - Max wakes up. Kendall throws up some more, Max screams the rest of the way, and we arrive 2 1/2 hours later. Bummer - the hotel has no pool. Some of us go to the hot tub - it's too hot and can't be tolerated. We watch some TV and decide to go to bed so we can see the town in the morning.

Midnight - Summer throws up in her bed, the girls are now sleeping on the floor. Max is stirring. 1:30 am - Taylor gets up and is throwing up and has diarrhea at the same time - Dale cleans up the mess. Max wakes up and is screaming and unconsolable. Max settles down for 2 minutes, just to have someone get up running to the bathroom every 5 minutes. Summer is now throwing up in the ice bucket, Amy has thrown up a few times, and I go to help Taylor and and find him standing naked in the bathroom throwing up - he takes a shower. This goes on until 4:30 when Max finally stops crying and we're all so exhausted that even if someone is throwing up, we manage to get some sleep. We wake up and now I don't feel so hot. Dale and luckily Max are the only ones who escaped the sickness.

We pack up and head home and never even make it to St. Augustine. This is a picture of Taylor on the way home.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Christmas

The boys got rollerblades and so did I. And I also got this white TV stand that I have been wanting.

Summer got a blow up swimming pool and thanks to the 80 degree weather and a little hot water from the tub, the girls played in it for 2 hours.

Taylor also got this pogo stick and they got some video games they have been playing a lot.

Amy got a new bike. Max got the talking Elmo and I have to say that all of the kids have enjoyed playing with it. We got Horton Hears a Who which is a great movie and also from my parents we got a Clearplay DVD player which takes the garbage out of any DVD. Shelby got Pedipaws - I'll have to practice with it though - it's basically a dremmel sander.

It's orange season again.

We actually went to the beach the day after Christmas because it was so warm, but we didn't takes our suits, just played on the beach.

Max still isn't too sure about the beach.


Sunday, December 21, 2008

Last day at Disneyworld

Today was our last day at Disney before our passes run out. Can you believe it is almost Christmas and there are gorgeous flowers blooming? I couldn't resist taking a picture of the kids in front of them by the ferry. All the kids have grown - Summer started out at about 40" and is now 44" and could ride Space Mountain.
Dale's trying to pull out the sword in the stone - you go babe!


The Merry -go-round


Captain Hook and Smee


The Wishing Well

Max waiting for the kids on the race track.

It was 80 degrees today - I'm still amazed at the weather here.

Cute Boys

I found Max snuggled up with these two one morning.
He has learned to climb and gets up onto the table. He thinks he's pretty clever.

Here Taylor is ready to go to his first concert to play the handbells. He did a terrific job.




Monday, December 8, 2008

Gingerbread Houses

Before After


Our fun friends the Smithsons suggested getting together to make gingerbread houses which was a great idea. They taught us the trick - hot glue the pieces together! How smart are they. Also, the kits from Target come with the frosting already made.
The kids had so much fun.



Hollywood & Bear

Taylor has been wanting a Turkey leg at Disney World all year so when I took the three older kids to Hollywood Studios Saturday, I decided to get them all a turkey leg. A few bites in and they all were gagging it down. Word of wisdom - stick with the pizza.
We waited in line for 90 minutes for Toy Story Mania which was totally not worth the wait. Rockin' Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror were good though and Fantasmic was pretty good.

Kendall earned his Bear and is now in the Webelos den. Yay! I'm thinking of darkening my hair back to its natural color, what do you think?