Day One at Magic Kingdom

 

Magic Kingdom Fun

 

Girls getting their makeover

 

Cool Dude makeover... I don't know why I don't have any pictures of Calvin.

 

Crystal Palace

We just spent 3 weeks in Florida and it was amazing! The first week we spent at Disney World with my family. We flew out of SLC with all of my family on the same flight. It was a sight to behold. We should have worn matching t-shirts. It was like animal kingdom!But at least the kids were entertained! In total there was Mom and Dad; Kim and Syd and their five kids, Tyson (16), Zach (14), McKenzie (10), Sydnee (7), and Reagan (6); Ryan and Shauna and their four kids, Reilley (10), Calvin (7), Connor (6), and Caden (5), and us. My oldest sister Darci and her family were unable to make it and we missed them a great deal!

The first Day we spent at the Magic Kingdom. The kids loved it! We went on a bunch of rides ate overpriced park food and drinks, but it was fun. And for hearding cats, we stayed together the whole day. That evening we let the kids have a makeover at the Bippity Boppity Boo Boutique. It was so cute! AND way to expensive... well the boy's Cool Dude Makevoer wasn't. It was $7, but the girls... lets just not mention the price:) But the girls got the makeover, with makeup, glitter, fingernail polish, a sash and crown, a micky clip, and they looked gorgeous! I wanted to do the whole makeover where you let the girls pick out their princess dress, shoes, etc but that was over $180!!! It was ridiculous! The boys got paint in their hair spiked up and confetti. It was a pain to get out! But they liked it. Allegra's hair stayed perfectly for two days. You should have seen all of the goop they put in her hair!

After the Boutique we went for our dinner reservation at the Crystal Palace where we enjoyed a buffet with Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore, and Pooh. Tigger was a riot! We had hats for all of the kids to get autographed by the characters. Poor Calvin and Caden lost theirs towards the end of the trip. It was sad. We ended up closing out the park! When we got done with dinner, the park was closed and the only people around were security and staff. We took advantage and took some pictures in front of the castle. Then we missed the tram back to the parking lot, so we waited for a bus to drop us off, and then we had to hoof it for about a mile to the vans. Allegra lost her beloved blue blankey along the way! But all in all we had a wonderful time, ending the day at midnight!

To Buzz or Not to Buzz...

Well, I'm waiting for my disney pictures to download and it is taking seriously, forever! I feel like I have a computer from 1982 where there is a blue screen and you write in DOS, or whatever it was called. So until I get that all worked out I pose a question for you all... To buzz or not to buzz? That is the question. Gianluca wants a buzz cut so bad, but I can't stand the thought of watching those gorgeous strands fall to the floor. What if his hair never grows back the same? I just love his little surfer Dude look. He just wouldn't be The Dude, without his hair! He would look like...another kid! Or should we give in because it is what he wants.... I don't know. His friends just got a buzz cut and Gianluca said, "No fair, I want a buzz but my parents won't let me!" So, what do you think?

The Big 10 Years!

Well, Joel and I have made it to 10 years! It was our anniversary this last week. We were lucky to be able to celebrate it in Key West and Naples, FL for a few days. We had a wonderful time. I was surprised to find out that Key West has no beaches! It is mostly just rocky by the ocean. But it is gorgeous. It would have been better if we were there to get wasted, as I am pretty sure that is what everyone else was doing, or to go fishing and snorkeling. We didn't have the time to do that, but it would have been fun!
We did eat yummy food at Hog's Breath and, well we mostly walked around, ate, checked out Ernest Hemmingway's home (which was very interesting),checked out the amazing trees, ate some more, made friends with Israeli store keepers, laughed at the crazy cat man who did a cat trick show at Mallory Square, and admired the gorgeous trees and roosters who hung out everywhere. I have to say I was expecting knock your socks off Key Lime pie, but it seemed to be just average wherever we tried it. It was disapointing. However, we did end the trip with a gorgeous sunset in Naples, FL. I decided if I ever become a millionaire, I will live there.

Joel I love you and these 10 crazy years we've shared together. Through all the ups and downs you have kept your promise in making me laugh every day!

Gorgeous!


We came back twice for this Hog's Breathe pulled pork sandwich! It was amazing. So was the shrimp ceviche!





More yummy seafood!



Outside Hemmingway's house.


We stayed in the Hemmingway Suite at the Crown Plaza!


Enjoying dinner at the Conch Republic



Some of the Bayan Trees.


Hemmingway cats. These are actual relatives of the orignial cats that lived on his property. He thought they were good luck.


Why did the rooster cross the road?


Awesome tree.


Sunset in Naples.

She's an Artist!

Do you remember watching the end of "Toy Story 2" where Stinky Pete is stuck in that little girl's back pack with the barbie? You can only see the clean side of the barbie's face, and then she turns to Stinky Pete and says "You're going to love so and so, she's an artist" revealing her beautifully painted face. Stinky Pete felt a lot of horror at that moment, which is what I felt two day's ago. I was trying to convince Allegra to take a nap and in the process I fell asleep. I woke up about 30 minutes later to this face:



This next picture was yesterday. I went to take a shower and when I got out she had stamped her whole face and arms! It's still blue today. Like I said, she's an artist!




Allegra is something else! She is sweet, silly, strong willed, very vocal when she's had enough, very loving and tender... in the words of my friend Kjersten, "She's like a little pixie". I love this crazy girl!

The Muse

So for Joel's Christmas present we went to the Muse concert on Monday night. I have to admit the first time I ever heard about them was reading Stephanie's Myers blog, where she stated that this band was a huge inspiration for her writing. I first heard their song "Super Massive Black Hole" in the movie Twilight and really, reaaallly loved it. So after that Joel and I started to check them out. Joel really got into them when he heard they were libertarians (although not officially confirmed). This is one amazing live band. Seriously, the show was mesmerising with the lights, the graphics, and most of all the music.

First I must state that Joel got called back to work to cover for someone last Friday and we were afraid he would miss the concert (I was not nice enough to sell the tickets, I was still going!) He found someone to cover for him on Monday and drove 12 hours to and from work to come see it. When he got home we went to eat and then sat for an hour in traffic to get to the E Center. As we sat there we noticed how the snow was getting worse and worse and it was almost 8 pm. We finally found a parking spot about 2 blocks away and by this time the snow was coming down hard. By the time we got to the concert I looked like the abominable snowman, and let me tell you, wearing flats with no socks was not the best idea. We got their right as they were playing their first song "Uprising". So we ran to our seats and thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the concert all the way to their last encore performance.

What can I say about this concert, amazing, fantastic, &^%*( one of the best concerts I've ever been to (although Sarah McLaughlin, Live, Keane, and Duncan Sheik were awesome too) but none of them have ever put on show like this. Lead singer was amazing! He shreds on the guitar, seriously shreds it, amazing on the piano. Amazing live voice. It sounds just like on the CD. He does a lot of playing on his knees, lots of lunges, lots of kicks, and spins... this is starting to sound a little gay, but it's not. But I was in awe. The base player, who is the best looking, was disappointingly not very rock starish. He just stood their and bobbed his head up and down in a quasi modo fashion. The drummer was amazing as well. We loved it! Joel got the t-shirt. Go to this link to see what the show was like. It was terrific!

Two Months Later...

Yep, it happened, two months ago, and I'm writing about it now. But my big boy turned 6 on February 1st! He is probably one of the coolest and silliest kids I know! Gianluca has an awesome birthday this year. He was lucky to have Abu Maggie come out for his birthday. He always loves having her visit! He had a cousin's party bowling at Boondocks (warning over priced) and I don't have pictures for that. It was a lot of fun though! He really wanted to have a Star Wars Lego party for his friends and he scored on the Lego's. I spent 5 hours building one set and it got destroyed by a ball flying through the living room a day later! There is a reason whey they put an appropriate age on the box. Why don't I ever really pay attention to that? Anyways, what can I say about our little boy?
- He's extremely creative
- very loving and cuddly
- passionate
- crazy
- entertaining
- smart
- awesome dancer
- the list could go on
- Amazing Wii player. His favorite games are Tanks and Lego Star Wars

Funny words he gets mixed up:

- desplode (explode)
- dettack (attack)
- kriate (karate)

Favorite Food:

- Anything sea food
- salad
- Steak
- pizza
- anything sweet

Favorite Songs:

- Around the World and One More Time by Daft Punk
- Bad and Thriller by Michael Jackson
- Yellow Submarine by The Beetles
- Most No Doubt songs
- Most songs by the Killers
- And yes, he loves Lady Ga Ga. I didn't even know he knew who she was, but apparently he does.
Basically The Dude is a lot like his parents, we all love all types of music.

Gianluca has gone through a lot this year. He misses Texas like crazy and always prays to move back. He misses Joel terribly when he's gone and cries for him at night. But he is a lover and a fighter. He loves his sister and loves to tease her. He is a lot like Joel. So whenever he really acts up, I say "Hey he is just like you, so you deal with this!"

We love our little dude and can't imagine life without him!


Two of his favorite things, Daddy and Texas!


Crazy!


Mama's Boy


The Love Hate relationship


The Big Six


Here he is on his actually b-day


Here is his super cool Darth Vader ship


Lego cake


He really struggles with church. Here he is not happy that he is going to church. In fact his very words were "Church is P-O-O-P!" over and over again. He gets bored easily!

Loves Pirate stuff!

Deep Thoughts

Dear Blog,

I have lots of entries to make, but can't find my dang camera to upload pictures. My hubby has pictures on his hard drive, but that is currently in a far off place in the lands of the oil fields. How I wish you could see them, but you can not, so until then please keep praying for this nice weather to stay because I am sick and tired of crappy weather! Today was so amazing. I could have worn shorts if I had shaved my legs. I will say, that is one great thing about winter! Not having to shave on a daily basis is amazing! It is so time consuming!

I digress, Until I find my camera I will tell you about a dream I had. First let me premise this by letting you know that I have bizarre dreams. I have several dreams in one night and I usually remember most of them. They are very vivid, crazy, sometimes steamy, sometimes make absolutely no sense, some disturbing in more ways then one, and some... well I'll just tell you of the latest. I dreamt that I had a hot date planned with Joel. But I kept feeling a tooth wiggling. I thought how odd it was, and so I pulled on it and it just popped out! It was one of the back bottom teeth, so I thought it was no biggy. How did my dentist not notice this when I was in last week! So then another tooth felt that way and before you knew it, I pulled it out too. So here I am looking like a crazy woman with a half-toothless grin trying to look sexy for my husband. I said to him "Joel do I still turn you on even though I look like this?" I'm pretty sure you could imagine his reaction. It was so disappointing. So when I woke up I felt in my mouth to make sure nothing was missing. Hallelujah, I have good strong teeth! Thanks for all the dental work Mom and Dad!

Here is the definition in my dream book for loosing teeth: When you have a dream in which your teeth fall out, it might be a sign that worries are passing.

It's crazy it says that, because I was full of worry when I was having that dream!