I Miss Laurel

Who is Laurel? Read on...

We are back from a very long vacation. We spent 2 weeks at Disney World and then a week on a Disney Cruise in the Caribbean.

We took advantage of the Disney's free dining they were offering, so we had a lot of food that we didn't have to pay extra for! We did character dining that the boys loved and Epcot was having its annual Food and Wine Festival. We were able to use snack credits for the food and it was divine. And do I even need to mention the massive amount of food I consumed on the cruise? More about the cruise later....

WALT DISNEY WORLD

During the course of 2 weeks that we were there, we made 6 trips to the urgen

t care. Yep, all four of us were on antibiotics at some point or another. Parker had an allergic reaction to his antibiotic or some form of allergic reaction, where he broke out in a rash all over his body! Anderson had some bug where he had a high fever for only 24 hours. Which we were very thankful for, since this happened 4 days away from our cruise. We were so fearful it was the flu!!!!

Anderson came to LOVE Mission Space ride at Epcot. He loves Epcot to begin with and I spent 5 full days at Epcot! I am a big fan of Epcot, but seriously, 5 full days! I rode mission space and test track a lot during that time.

Jeff was gone on a business trip for 4 days and of course it was when Anderson was sick. That day I spent 5 hours at the urgent care...some urgent... I thought if I put a mask on him it would help us jump to the front of the line, but NOPE! I am thankful for our good friends, T&H. They took Parker to Magic Kingdom ALL day with them. He had a great time. We were at Disney with 4 other families that we are good friends with. In fact, they all went with us on the cruise as well.

It took Parker a full week to get comfortable with the characters. he was all about them after

that first week. Epcot has an attraction called "Character Spot"

where you stand in line, for about 30-40 minutes, and you see about 5 characters. I did that 4x! It was something that Parker and I would do, when Anderson would ride his rides that Parker wasn't tall enough for. He loved to give them hugs and high fives!

Not sure if I'm ready to do a 2 week trip to Disney again anytime soon..my kids were on empty by the time the cruise came around. They each took a nap every day, but I think it still wore them out!

DISNEY CRUISE LINE

I am a huge fan of the Disney Cruise Line. I have sailed on 2 other cruise lines, and with kids, this is the best. They have an awesome child care facility that my kids loved. The moment they would wake up they would ask "can we go to Oceanner's Club?

We went on the cruise with 12 people total - 8 adults, 4

kids...WHAT A BLAST!

So who is Laurel? My stateroom attendant, that picked up the towels, made my bed, folded the clothes, hung up the

wet clothes, did the turn down service and most importantly, did the towel animals. I asked him if he would move in with me. I did tell him that I will miss him the most.

Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate as much but it didn't stop us from having a

great time. It rained almost every day, but hey - we were on the floating version of Disney! always something to do.

One of our stops was Grand Cayman and it was raining that day. We left all the kids in the club and headed off the boat to walk around and do some shopping. We knew they would of hated it.

In Cozumel, we had booked us a day at a private beach where it was all you could eat and drink. The kids loved the pool (very cold) and they loved to play in the sand. It was quiet and cozy. They only allow around 50 people to come on the beach every day. And it did rain

on us....

Castaway Cay is Disney's private island in the Bahamas and it is always our favorite stop. We got off first thing in the morning and went the farthest part of the beach. It wasn't as crowded and we had the end of the beach to ourselves for a while. It poured down rain for about 15 minutes but then the sun came out. What a great way to end our vacation! :)

There was so much food on the boat, that I'm afraid to know how many calories I inhaled every day.

We can't wait to go back on another cruise. In fact, we rebooked for October 2011. Yep, 2 years away, but you get a discount and you can always cancel with no penalty.

This is too good to be true

As many of you know, we purchased our home almost year ago, and it was a "short sale" it was days from being on the auction block. The house had been empty for 1.5 years, and when we purchased it, the former owner still had possessions. Lets just say that when we closed, they were still in the attic. When they arranged for movers to get their stuff, it took 1.5 moving trucks to haul out the stuff! oh yes...

Today...it got better We discovered termites a few months ago. Today at our house was Termite Termination day. This nice man from the Termite company came at 8am and was at house til about 5pm, exterminating the termites. When he went under the screen porch to take care of the termites there, he found something quite interesting behind the lattice around the screen porch. He found BOXES AND BOXES AND BOXES of women’s clothes! Oh yes ladies, women’t clothes. He said, there were termites in there and he wouldn’t be surprised if there are dead animals inside these boxes. SERIOUSLY! SERIOUSLY!???!!!!???!!!!

Any volunteers to take away the boxes? Or does anyone need new clothes? J

been busy

Sorry to all my faithful blog readers. Its been a long time and we have been busy.

This past weekend we had lots going on. We hosted an outdoor movie and BBQ party for his class. Well, it was raining so we moved the movie part to the garage. It was really cool. This company came in and set up a huge movie screen and projected it on the screen. The kids loved it. We had so much BBQ leftover that we invited about 12 more families after church to eat the rest!

Here is a picture of Anderson from his Patriotic Program at school. He did such a great job!

Weekend in Myrtle

We suprised the boys with a last minute trip to the beach. They have so much fun. DH took them to the coast last weekend, and Parker loved it so much that we decided to do a weekend of it.

Tonight we took the boys to play some mini golf after dinner. They really enjoyed it. Did you know that Myrtle Beach is considered to the be mini golf capital of the world???!!! Anderson even got a hole in one!

Another First Day of School

Parker started school today. He was soooo stinkin excited. He couldn't wait. After Anderson left for school (DH drove him today), Parker ran around the house yelling "TIME FOR SCHOOL! TIME FOR SCHOOL!!! LET'S GO MOM!" UGH...I wasn't ready to let him go....

When I dropped him off in his classroom, I got a quick hug and kiss and away he went! Didn't even look back at me....sniff sniff

We Are Family....

Its been a busy week! My family from the West Coast invaded my home. My mom turned 65 this month and we had a party for her. About 50 adults and 12 children came over this past weekend. We had a great party! :) I think she really liked it.

It has been a really fun week with all my cousins and their spouses and their kids. My mom's siblings came as well. It is sooo much fun when we all get together. We do nothing but eat and hang out. I know I gain some lbs when we get together. The food at my mom's party was incredible and each meal we eat here, is incredible. I hate it that we don't get to see each other as often. But love every minute we spend together. Its fun for our kids to get together and play and fight - but its brotherly love! :)

The thing that makes me laugh the most is that we all make up names for each other and make our kids use these names. My brother is called "uncle goof" (my cousin has her boys call him that) and my aunt is now "EPo Rocks!' So the name is just "eporocks"....hilarious! :)

We will miss them. My house is will be sad and I will miss the noise!

Pictures to come...

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

We have survived the First Day of School!


Here is Anderson all decked out in his "dress uniform"

And of course, Parker had to get in on the action too!



The day before school started we had a "Special Day". We had a "practice" day where we went to school and met the teacher, sat in his desk and there was a short informational meeting with the teacher. He was very very nervous! Afterwards, Anderson and I headed downtown to a kids museum. He had so much fun. We also ate lunch down there too.

Busy Times

Last weekend I hosted a reunion with my youth group from years yonder. Yep, i said it, "yonder". My youth group "Above & Beyond" from our church in Florida. It was sooo much fun. Except for the fact that my house is trashed, but it was so much fun. I saw friends that I haven't seen in 18 years. None of us changed, maybe a little bit. We stayed up late and ate a lot! Friends from Boston, MD, SC, TN, IL, GA and NC came into town. I can't explain in words how refreshing and how much fun it was.



DH left the day before the festivities came and took the kids up to visit his family in MI. Not many people brought their spouses or kids, so it was a nice time to catch up. I flew up to MI after everyone left. My house was a mess, however when we got home, DH helped me clean up...He's the best!

DISNEY HERE WE COME!!!

Most of my friends know that I "heart" Disney! And I think that is putting it mildly.

I just finished booking my 2 week vacation at the theme parks. Yes folks, 2 weeks!!! I'm so excited. The 2nd week I will be without my DH. He has his yearly sales conference that week, so he didn't want to miss out on all the fun. But before you all freak out that I will be there by myself it isn't all that bad. I did it for 3 days last September and within days and hours of his leaving, there will be 3 other families coming to Disney and 2 of them are staying at the same resort. These are also the same families that will be traveling with us on the cruise.

Oh yes, cruise...we will be at the parks for 2 weeks and then at the end of the 2 weeks, we will be going on a Disney Cruise with 3 other families.

I'M SO EXCITED I CAN'T STAND IT!!

Happy 4th of July everyone!!!


We had a great party at our house on the 4th!

Anderson was ready

We had 70 bodies! About half adults and half kids! it was crazy! we had FANTASTIC weather, couldn't of been better. It wasn't hot, it was very comfortable. We live close by a park where they do a spectacular fireworks show, so those that could stay walked down to the lake and saw the fireworks.

Great food, great friends...