Recent Happenings

We've recently been seeing lots of posts on Facebook about the snow in Utah and Colorado, and it's kind of sad, I'm not going to lie. However, I'm torn. I LOVE snow, but I HATE being cold. I think yesterday was the coldest day we've had since we moved here...and it was like 77 degrees as a low (somewhere around mid-day we still hit the 80s). So, since we can't go sledding or build snowmen, we do other things. Here are some of the recent happenings here in Florida:

We swim in the pool in our subdivision with friends.

We killed our fish. Okay, not really. But he did die. It was a super sad day. He survived his entire trip to Florida only to croak after about 5 weeks. RIP little guy. Skyler thinks now we're getting a turtle to put in our tank because he saw that someone else has one.

We went to play at a park by the beach, and then walked in the sand and let the waves wash over our feet.

We found an exhausted Snow White who thought climbing the stairs for a nap was just too much to ask, so we allowed her to nap on our sofa.

And Ally, too.

We sliced Skyler's head open so we could visit the ER and see what it's like. Okay, again not really, but while Andy and I were out on a date at the Cheesecake Factory Skyler decided to tumble off a recliner at our friends house and whack his head on their coffee table. They felt super bad! The doc said if it had been 1/2 inch back they would have had to staple, but where it was they were able to use glue.

The nurses loved him and made him a glove balloon to match his shirt.

We got Kylee new glasses. Yep. She went in for her eye exam and her vision was about 2x worse than it was last year. It's declining so quickly they suggested we do 6 month appointments instead of annual. Darn vision! Hopefully it'll even out here soon and start leveling out!

We play on the patio. Ally loves to ride her bike around and yell at the lizards, but she gets so hot out there we can't stay out for too long. Her sweat starts dripping in her eyes and she yells "Owie, Owie, Owie!" as she wipes it away.

Kylee turned into a pirate...

...and was forced to walk the plank and get eaten by a rabid shark. Sorry folks, we'll let you know about that funeral.

We walk to the bus stop with Kylee, and then walk home. Super exciting times. (Just as a side note though, for those who get tired of snow/cold, this photo below was at 7:55am on Nov. 17, and it was like 81 degrees outside. Notice the shorts and bare feet.)

We visit the beach. Last Saturday it was super cloudy but we decided to go anyway. It turned out to be awesome because it was still really warm (in the 80s), but there was no bright sun going down to blind us, and it wasn't too hot because an occasional breeze blew. Plus, we saw a group of dolphins (there were 5-6 of them) swim by really close to shore, so that was cool. 

Then a mermaid washed up on shore...

...and then another one. There were mermaids everywhere. They're real. If you don't believe it, you'll just have to visit us in Florida and find out for yourself.

We went to the zoo because Collier County residents get in free every 1st Saturday of the month. It was freakishly hot (are you recognizing a theme here?) so the kids were a little bit miserable after a while, and I apparently only took this one photo, but it was fun. The monkeys all live on little islands and you get to take a little boat cruise to go see them, so the kids liked that. I'm thinking we'll go back in January maybe when it's supposed to only be in the 70s instead of 95+ like it was that day (plus humidity). All the weather things here have the actual temp and then the "real feel" temp that accounts for humidity. If there's a huge difference between the two it usually means it will downpour soon, but before it does - it is HOT!

Halloween

A week before Halloween we had our branch Halloween party. Andy and the other student husbands were at a conference in Tampa, so all the wives had to take our kids alone. After looking at a bunch of different costumes both online AND at stores, Skyler still insisted he "just wanted to be the bee again." (He was the bee last year.) The hat barely still fit him, but he was happy, so it's all good. The cowboy in this photo is our friends' kid, Rome. He's just a few months older than Skyler, and they love to play. Kylee decided to be a mermaid (mostly because we waited too long to go costume shopping and it was slim pickins at Costco).

On the way home from the Halloween party (Saturday night) Kylee reminded me that she was supposed to bring a pumpkin to school on Monday morning for a geography project they were doing. It was way too late to stop at a stop a store with three kids in costumes, so I decided we'd go on our way home from church the next day to the Episcopal Church Youth Pumpkin Patch I'd seen driving by a few times. Interestingly, their pumpkins are all grown on the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico, and shipped to Florida. Ally LOVED the pumpkin patch. She kept choosing pumpkins that were twice her size and trying to pick them up. Skyler was fine with choosing pumpkins but was not thrilled about taking a photo because it was around 98 degrees at the time and church gets out a 1pm, so he was super tired, hungry, thirsty, and hot.

For actual Halloween Andy was home, so we all got dressed up to go trick-or-treating together. Andy and I never get "real" costumes - we always just pick stuff out of our random Halloween bucket and make do. In my years at AFS I collected quite a few pieces of costumes, so we can usually throw something together. My skirt actually did have a poodle on it - it was just on the other side so you can't see it in the photo.

And of course Andy carved us a cool pumpkin again.

On Halloween it was like 90 degrees outside and the humidity was out of control. We boiled to death within about 10 minutes. I didn't even have Ally wear a shirt under her costume, and she still boiled. We had to roll up her sleeves and take off her hat, and she was still dripping sweat in minutes. Luckily some lady was handing out bottled ice water along with her candy, so the kids got drinks along the way! When Ally went home with Andy to hand out candy, she unzipped her own shirt and sat around on the driveway 1/2 naked. Poor kid was so hot! We decided next year we might just all dress up as swimmers at the beach.

Disney World!

Since we live in Florida now, we decided we should take a trip to Disney World before Andy started school. We went last week, and it was so much fun! There were a couple of cloudy days where we thought it might rain, but it only sprinkled a little bit once. The rest of the time the weather was great. In fact, we almost wished it would have rained more because it got HOT some days.

The kids were excited to see Anna and Elsa made out of bushes.

As you can see, Kylee LOVED the Rockin' Rollercoaster. I think she truly almost broke my fingers cuz she was squeezing so tight.

She also didn't care for Splash Mountain.

Skyler is about 40.25" tall, so he made the cutoff for all the 40" rides! He went on Splash Mountain with Andy first, but as you can see from the photo below...you can't see him! He ducked down and he was in the back where the thing is taller, and the camera didn't get him at all.

So...I took him again (he agreed to go, this was not forced), and they tried to seat us in the very back again. I requested that we be closer up so the photo would get him, and they put us in the very front! When we were nearing the big waterfall, I said, "Are you going to put your arms up?" And he said, "No, you do it!" And I said, "You want me to put my arms up?" And he said, "No, you put my arms up." So I did. He closed his eyes tight, and I held his arms in the air, and we got a photo of us going down Splash Mountain.

If you zoom into this one you can see the look of "What the heck is going on here!?!" on Skyler's face. Interestingly, this ride (the Dinosaur Ride at Animal Kingdom) was TERRIFYING and yet it didn't scare him at all! He asked me ahead of time if the dinos were going to be real or fake, and I said fake. Then we went on it and it was like real-life Jurassic Park. Seriously freaky. I was so afraid he would be terrified. He wasn't. We got out and he said, "Mom, I thought those dinosaurs were fake but they were moving and they wanted to eat me up." I said, "Nope, they were fake. They just looked real and we didn't get eaten up, right?!" And then he was fine, and he'll tell anyone who will listen that "the scary dinosaur ride isn't that scary because the dinosaurs are fake and they can't eat you up." 

Now...we also took him to the "It's tough to be a bug" show in the Tree of Life...and that was horrible. He was completely traumatized and had nightmares for two days. They should really warn you that what you think is going to be a cute little bug show is actually a terrifying experience that will endanger your child's psyche.

Of course we had to hit up the Buzz Lightyear ride since it is by far Andy's favorite ride as Disneyland. Unfortunately, at Disney World it is not nearly as cool. The guns can't be taken off their holders, and all the targets are the same. At Disneyland they are worth different points, and there are tricks to get more points, etc. The kids still loved it though!

If you look closely in the photo below you can even see little baby Ally steering our car for us. Didn't make for high points on the round since she kept turning our car in all kinds of weird directions, but at least she had fun playing, too!

We were lucky enough to see quite a few characters with minimal lines. Skyler was super excited to see them all.

Kylee even saw the real-life cartoon Tinkerbell! Okay, really the guy was taking our family photo and then he had her hold out her hands and make a surprise face, and when we looked at the photos later he had added Tinkerbell to her hands, but still...it's cool!

Woody was the longest line we waited in, but Skyler LOVES Woody, so we had to do it. His face says it all. We were super lucky, in that we stood in line for like 45 minutes and then we were the last family they saw before taking a break. Of course their breaks are really short, but Skyler would have been sad if we were next and they left!

We also saw Tinkerbell...

...and Mickey...

...and Donald...

...and Daisy...

...and Minnie...

...and Sophia!

I didn't even know that Skyler knew what the Epcot ball was, but when it first came into view when we were there, he started shouting: "Epcot! Epcot! I see Epcot!" He was super excited about it. Then at night when it was all lit up, it looked amazing.

I love going to Disney in the Fall when they are decorated for Halloween.

All the kids of course loved the Dumbo ride.

While the older kids were on rides she couldn't do, Ally was perfectly content to splash in any tiny puddle she could find.

Skyler and Kylee both LOVED the Barnstormer roller coaster. I think they went on it 5-6 times in a row.

On the safari ride at Animal Kingdom we saw all sorts of cool animals. It was like visiting the zoo but it only took 20-30 minutes, and we didn't have to walk anywhere. It was pretty fun!

We were watching a family of gorillas tackle each other and roll around in the leaves and dirt, and Ally decided she wanted to be a like a gorilla too! She was rolling around on the trail getting leaves all over her back and hair.

Super fun trip. We're totally going back sometime soon!