We had a “family reunion” of sorts in Orlando the week before Christmas. The kids got to see their only Aunt, Uncle and Cousin. We stayed at a big house in Orlando and had a great time visiting the Disney parks and hanging in our own pool. Here are a few highlights of the trip.

Where is everyone else you ask...aren't there 14 of you on this trip..."they" were resting, relaxing and enjoying a cup of coffee. Not us-this isn't a spa holiday.


The Adventurers-up at the crack of dawn-go-go-go be the first in line.




Goofing off




Cooling off at the playgound






Rides-rides and more rides. Our kids LOVE rides-the faster the better. We maximized our ride opportunities with my expert touring plans-not for the faint of heart…or for those who want a relaxing vacation.




Dinosaur-(the ride of course)


Drummin


Monkeying Around


Meeting Minnie Mouse


I know it is a fake castle-but it was so pretty


Eaten by a shark


Grandpa’s 70th birthday celebration


The girls had a makeover at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique-inside of Cinderella's Castle no less. “J” chose pink hair extensions. And “M”,cousin-of-a-cousin, went with traditional brown.




First a princess makeover-then it's off to battle aliens...all in a day's work for "J"


Cousin KiKi loves Italian


“J” with uncle Dennis

Fun Day

The Picture

My daughter’s school does a wonderful thing. Instead of a run-of-the mill school photographer, they use a wonderful local portrait photographer. She does a beautiful job and her prices are reasonable. She also photographs siblings who don’t attend the school.

A few weeks ago I went to view my "proofs." Everyone had been commenting on how great the kids photos had turned out and I assumed they were referring to the on-line slideshow showing all the students pictures.

What I hadn't realized was that the photographer had chosen a portrait of my kids to enlarge and display as an example of a framed enlargement. It was lovely. I am far too cheap to have ordered something so lovely but I couldn’t resist buying it and the photographer gave me a great discount since she had chosen it to enlarge.

It will be a wonderful addition to the “new” basement.

Scenes from a Mall

Santa Retrospective

I love looking back at photos through the years-I can’t help but share. Today's retrospective is Santa-enjoy!

And a little hint-if you want a stress free, line-less Santa experience then you absolutely must visit Santa at 1:00 in the afternoon on a school day prior to Thanksgiving. There isn't another kid at the mall because they are all either napping or at school. Santa is bored and is full from lunch so he has nothing better to do than talk to your kids until they are begging to leave-awesome.

2009


2008



2007

2006


2005


2004


2003

Impromptu Remodel

Well we are finally in recovery mode following the basement flood. After waiting over a month we have our new carpet and have moved all the furniture back into the basement. We still have a temporary storage unit in the driveway but hopefully in a week or two we will be completely finished. Oh and let me plug Mohawk carpet with Dupont Sorona fiber….it is awesome. I was NOT a carpet fan until we had this stuff installed-it was well worth the wait.

These photos make it look easy.

Books dumped upstairs in haste to keep them dry


Moldy wet carpet


Hey let's paint-why not-we have no carpet and lots of time


Picking new carpet


After waiting a month-the carpet is here




It's coming together