A Reminder in Vacation Heaven - Day 2

Part of the fun of Disney was getting autographs from the characters... it's fun, but you also wait in crazy long lines for your kiddo to get these autographs, and it was 95 degrees with about 99.999999% humidity. So I was getting a little hot, a little tired and a little bit ready to be done with signatures. Until a park worker came in and put someone ahead of us in line... a Make a Wish family with a little girl in a wheelchair who had obviously been undergoing chemotherapy. Like a slap in the face I remembered that here I was with my perfectly healthy family doing a perfectly wonderful thing.... with no tears in my eyes and no lump in my throat looking at my little girl like that Mom had. Wow.... I thanked God profusely for the remainder of our trip. We have health and love, and no obvious time line for our family. Hug your kiddos. I hugged mine.

Vacation Heaven - Day 2

We stayed at the park at Port Orleans French Quarter - the hotel was great, the room was nice, you would never starve on the food plan, and Madeline thought the pool was wonderful. The first day we went to Animal Kingdom - it is a cross between sort of a zoo and an amusement park. The safari ride is amazing with the animals seemingly running free, then at the same place was Expedition Everest - a thrill ride and a half. Madeline rode the Everest ride and LOVED it - she's definately not a baby any more! It was REALLY hot the day we were there, even though it was October it was over 90 degrees. So we look a bit sweaty in the pics - but we were having a fabulous time!

This photo is from the safari ride - it was amazingly realistic!


Expedition Everest - Madeline conquored it!


Family Fun!


It is so beautiful!


On a 95 degree day, this was my favorite ride


We were soaked after the Kali River ride - we needed that!




Madeline met Mickey and Minnie and got their autographs... too much fun!

Vacation Heaven, Day 1

We just returned from our trip to Disney, and it's hard for me to sum up in words how wonderful it was.... honestly it was like a little bit of heaven. I enjoyed every precious moment with Steven and Madeline. We took no computer, watched basically no TV (other than the Disney channel in the room), made very few phone calls, and just enjoyed our family. I will never forget it. I took like 600 pictures (no joke) so I will split them up into days for the blog.

The first night we visited Rebecca, Mark and Sophia and had a wonderful time! The girls got to celebrate their Birthdays together, and did it in grand style. They also laughed, ran and jumped on beds - who can argue with that! Sophia gave me lots of hugs and attention, which I of course enjoyed to the max!

Here are a few pictures from our visit - enjoy, I sure did!






We stopped at IHOP on the way from Rebecca's to Disney, and there happened to be a balloon guy there who made Madeline a balloon horse - how cool is that?

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Well, I had drafted a long post, but somehow I've lost it... now I'll try to recreate...

You might have noticed a bit of a lag in my blog posting. This Fall has been really busy with soccer games, School Board, PTO, family events, and planning our Fall Break vacation. Our small one has also had a round of H1N1. After all of the news stories, and tales of a local man who is now in the hospital with multiple organ failure from H1N1, I have to admit to being very scared when we got the diagnosis. But, we are blessed in that she only missed two days of school, and should be able to go back tomorrow. We are very thankful! I've said many prayers of thanks.

Today we went to see Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs with Dad, and had a wonderful time! Madeline enjoyed the movie, and also enjoyed some good quality time with her Mom & Grandpa. We are blessed indeed.

Gone Fishing

We had a great labor day week-end! We spent some time with Mom and Dad relaxing at the cabin, and it was just what the Doctor ordered! We took naps, read books, and went fishing. I have never been much of a fisher, but it was nice to sit and enjoy the quiet and the water, and I admit my competitive nature kicked in and I wanted to catch a fish! Lucky me, I finally caught a three inch long fish :-)

Madeline caught a frog, she was quite proud...



Here I am with my massive fish catch...



What fun for Madeline to spend time fishing with her Grandpa ... another memory she will benefit from so much in the future.



Here's Dad working on Madeline's fishing rod - he made sure that she had fun!



Anyway, I am not always perfectly eloquent in my blog posting - what I am trying to say is that I love my Mom & Dad and am really blessed to have been able to spend some quiet time relaxing with them. I'm always on the run, and they usually just catch me coming and going, but at least this week-end I was able to slow down and spend some time just quietly fishing with my Dad and Madeline. That is the best! Plus, I had time to just sit on the porch with Mom and listen to her talk about Mammaw....

The rest of the week-end was equally quiet, but I loved it! Steven, Madeline and I did nothing but hang out together. We discovered Jenga, our new favorite game around our house. We need to do nothing more often!

Today We Call Her Miss Hustle

OK, so winning isn't everything, but it is pretty cool, especially when you didn't win a game at all last year... AND, Madeline played what has to be her best soccer game ever! She blocked goals, and then the Coach put her in as forward and she played a couple of great plays and scored! People were congratulating her all over the place, and she loved it. Victory was sweet for Ms. Madeline, she high fived, she hugged and smiled big time! So, we might never win again, but I'm glad that she got to experience it once ;-)



She ran around all of the girls, got the goalie out of the way....



Then she scored :-)

The Good Things In Life

Life is good when you are 7 years old.... you get to experience so many of the good things in life...

Good Friends to dress up like princesses with:



Some great soccer - it's fun to stop that goal!



Sometimes you get to go outside in your jammies to look for bugs...



Everyone loves a big bug!



You are happy if you get new pink Converse Tennies (Chuck Taylors for you old folks out there) - especially when you convince your Mom to buy matching ones...



Life certainly is good when you are seven, and it's also good for those old folks who are blessed to hang out with that seven year old too!

Summer

I don't have a picture to post right this minute, because honestly it's late and I'm too lazy to download from the camera. However, I have been taking a few minutes to think back over the summer. I don't want to rush through life or Madeline's childhood, and was pretty successful this summer in making some fun memories with my family... I was happy that we accomplished the goal of having a good time without spending a ton of money. Let's see, here are some things we did

Swam at the local pool, a lake, and a swimming hole
Had several picnics
Slept in a tent all night once and just for a while once
Played in the swings
Did Slip-n-Slide
Saw a couple of local theater productions
Witnessed the famous family fireworks show
Laughed a lot
Walked in Knob Creek with my family
Put Steven's car in a show (oh and watched him wash it, a lot)
Went to the park
Had play dates
Rode our bikes
Flew Kites
Ate tons of fresh veggies
Read some good books
Went to movies on very hot days
Hung out at the cabin
Went to the family camping
Made cards for soldiers
Had a couple of family parties
Attended several Bible Schools (we are big fans of Bible School)
and otherwise just lived and loved together:-)

It's been a wonderful summer, such a blessed life, and memories which will last a lifetime. God is Good, and our lives are touched by his Grace.

First Day of School (Second Grade)!

Today was the first day of Second Grade for Madeline. She has gotten so big! She woke up, got dressed, ate breakfast and cleaned her room, no problem. I asked her if she was nervous, she asked why would she be nervous? Then we drove to school, at which time she said she did not need for me to walk her in to her room. She declared that she is old enough to do things by herself and reminded me that she started walking in alone a LONG time ago in first grade. So, she jumped happily out of the car leaving her shocked Mommy to take the blurry photo shown above. Suffice it to say that she did fine, her Mommy, well, not so much!

Here are a couple of proper first day of school pics....






And for the sentimental folks like me, let's go down memory lane to the first day of Kindergarten and First Grade... Oh my sweet girl is growing up!

A Short Staycation

We've been on a bit of a staycation this week - not by design really, but because we had no child care. It has been wonderful! Today we had our old buddies Lauren, Campbell and Ainsley over, along with one of BFF's Margaret. We were having a majorly big time! We were also happy to have Sarah, Joe, Jack and Annie for a little while too. It was fun for me to catch up with Margaret, while the girls had fun together with a million inside toys and then in our mini water park outside. They played in the kiddie pool and the slip n' slide (my parents would not let me have a slip n' slide, so I guess that goes along with opening more than one box of cereal at a time for me - it was fun to watch them). We made a good dinner of grilled fresh veggies and chicken. It was one of my favorite days I've had in a long time. Tomorrow, we are going to lay low and try to rest a little before school starts.

BTW I think the "staycation" name is kinda cheesy, but I guess sometimes it is descriptive.


You really want me to run and then fall down? On purpose?

Who needs expensive toys when you can play with a towel?

What's better than giggling with your friends?

This thing is FUN!


Annie was loving the pool :-)

Lauren mastered the slip n' slide!