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!

Pros and Cons

As always when moving to a new place, there are things to get used to!

Here's our list of Pros and Cons so far:

Pro:

We have cable included with our rent, so we get to watch t.v.

Con:

We have cable included with our rent, so we watch too much t.v.

Pro:

Kylee is loving her new school, and her teacher sent home a report saying she is up to speed in everything and is progressing well. Plus, our neighborhood has a million kids and she's already made some friends.

Con:

With the amount of documentation they require to register kids in school, we might as well have been applying to work for the FBI. And volunteering at the school? Forget it. Fingerprints, background checks, district training, photographs, references, your first-born child...oh wait, maybe not. Seriously though, I want to do it, but I missed the last district training for this year, so it'll have to be next year.

Pro:

They sell milk here. Our family likes milk.

Con:

It costs an arm and a leg, Costco doesn't sell two packs (or 1% milk), and it comes in jugs that look like this (see photo), which we have discovered it is IMPOSSIBLE to pour without spilling, no matter how careful you are. We pay more to buy our milk from the local supermarket now, simply because it can be poured without spilling.

**As a side note, Costco here also does not sell fruit leather! If anyone feels the urge to send/bring us a gift at any time, we will accept boxes of fruit leather from Costco. Thanks.

Pro:

We have a gym in our subdivision that is included with our rent, so we have easy access to exercise.

Con:

I feel obligated to exercise now, because the gym is right next to Kylee's bus stop.

Pro:

Everything here is incredibly green. It's really beautiful.

Con:

All the grass is crab grass! You know that stuff we try so hard to keep OUT of our lawns in Utah? That's all they plant here! On purpose! I'm not sure why. It's not very conducive to playing on, because it is really pokey.

Pro:

Our church branch is amazing. The people are really friendly and they do lots of activities.

Con:

Our branch building is a school in the middle of nowhere. You literally leave town, drive out on all these skinny roads into the middle of a swamp on the edge of the Everglades, and then out of nowhere there's this school...and that's where we go to church. Also, not only is there no piano, there is not even a full keyboard. We have these little 1/2 keyboards, so there are no musical numbers or choir or anything because you can't play a lot of songs on 1/2 a keyboard.

Pro:

It rains pretty much every afternoon, and it's like monsoon-style rain. Crazy downpours. And it's totally warm. Ally loves to go out and stomp around in puddles and play in the waterfalls of rain coming down off our roof. When it's done, the sun comes back out and everything is blue and sunny again.

Con:

With the rain comes extreme humidity. Skyler and Ally walk around outside for 5 minutes and they both look like they just got out of the shower. Their hair is soaked, and sweat runs in streams down their faces. It's insane!

Pro:

We live within 15 minutes of several different beaches, and since we are residents here we get a free parking pass so we don't have to pay! Plus, the water is warm.

Con:

Sand. Everywhere. It takes longer to clean up after the beach than it does to prepare to go, drive there, play there, and drive home. Okay, not quite, but seriously, it's soooo much sand!

Pro:

Gas is cheaper here. When we left Utah it was averaging somewhere around $2.79/gallon, and here it's between about $2.19 and $2.25. 

Con:

Meat is freakishly expensive. I think the cheapest ground beef we've found was $4.89/lb, and that was for like 70/30. I never even knew there was such a thing. We bought the 90/10 and we almost had to take out a personal loan! Luckily, other things aren't too bad. Groceries in generally are more expensive here, but they're not as outrageous as I thought they might be.

Con:

There is no Costa Vida (or Cafe Rio). We're going through withdrawals.

Pro:

Today we found a place called Moe's southwestern grill and tried it for lunch. It wasn't as good as Costa Vida/Cafe Rio, but it's definitely a good alternative.

Pro:

It's not too crowded here. It's still the off-season, so the population is pretty low and there's not much traffic.

Con:

Naples is a huge destination for retired peeps. Some are really nice. Others not so much. Skyler and Ally and I already got kicked out of the DMV because after waiting for 100 years for our turn to get a Driver's License, only to finally be told that I actually cannot get one because they want a DNA sample (okay, just an un-expired passport to go along with my birth certificate, marriage certificate, SS card, 2 forms of address, AND Utah license - seriously, do I look like I'm sneaking in from Cuba or something?), we were sitting in the waiting area waiting for Andy to finish getting his license (he doesn't need an unexpired passport or marriage certificate because he is not "changing his name"), and since by then it had been about 200 years, Skyler was done. He threw a tantrum about having his shoes on, so I told him he could take them off, and then he stopped crying. He was screaming for approximately 20 seconds total. After he stopped, the security guard walked over and invited us to leave because "it's impossible for us to do business with your children making noise." Well, maybe if you didn't make us wait 300 years to get helped with anything (there was literally 10 people in the entire building, I swear), he wouldn't be tired and hungry and bored out his mind! Anyway, in the end I decided that my Utah Driver's License, which does not expire until April 2018 will be just fine. If  they really want me to get a Florida one (which they claim is required within 30 days of moving here), they can make it easier to do so. I'm not buying a new passport just so they can charge me $58 for a FL DL. (And I don't have 400 years to wait in line again.)

This is just a random photo of Skyler's hair. Andy cut it yesterday, and he looks so much better! I never realize quite how shaggy he has gotten until we cut it.

Overall, it's nice here, and we're liking it so far. Last Sunday we sat out on our patio and watched what we are 98% sure were a couple of alligators swimming around in the lake behind our house. There's also one in the lake by our neighborhood pool, and when Kylee was trying to scare him out from under the dock she found a turtle instead. He was pretty big, and she fed him grass.