Christmas Wrap-Up and Happy New Year

While Michael watches Deal or No Deal (one of his favorite shows) and plays with some packing peanuts (packing peanuts?? really?? after everything Santa brought him??), I thought I'd recap our Christmas and the days leading up to the New Year...which is in just a few hours now.

Lots of Christmas treats were given and received (thank you thank you Kathie and Mom!). I am blessed (and my body is cursed) to have family and friends that are such good cooks.

Christmas Eve was spent at G's parents house playing games and eating and opening presents.

It wasn't quite the same as past Christmas Eve's because G's aunt, uncle and cousins couldn't make it over.

G's uncle had his last chemo treatment that week and his immune system could not afford to be around any sick germs which seemed to be going around....can't blame ANYone for not wanting to get sick.

Christmas Day was also a little different because my mom didn't come over in the morning. She did midnight mass with her boyfriend and then spent the day with his family. They were with us last Christmas, so I said we could share her.

We slept in Christmas morning and then made our way over to G's parents for breakfast and more presents! Our niece, Christine, even made it home on Christmas Day, before being deployed to Afghanistan.

It was a Toy Story Christmas for Michael (bed linens, pillows, books, toys), a fuzzy Christmas for me (slippers, socks, blanket, etc.) and a game-theme for Gary (Wii, chess, board game, cards, football memorabilia...with some clothes thrown in for good measure).

On Saturday, my mom came over to celebrate Christmas and...

...we opened more presents.

Gifts from mom, Keni, Josh and Gabby were all ripped open with glee and enjoyed. Yes we were very spoiled this year (as we are every year).

Then it all started going to hell. I got sick that night. My ear and throat hurt so bad on Sunday morning, that I went to Urgent Care (cha-ching). Result: upper respiratory infection, ear infection (complete with a tinny steel drum/echo noise that has taken the place of our clock chimes), and tonsillitis. Sweet. Add in the antibiotics and the fun things it does to someone with Crohn's...and well, I hate being sick. OH...and then I get what looks like Michael's pink eye. Michael still wasn't acting like himself later in the week, and the result from his doctor appointment was a double ear infection. Now he's on the same antibiotic as me. Hopefully, we get all the crud out of our systems and house very soon. I'm going to have to do some serious disinfecting around here! Have I mentioned that I hate being sick?

All in all our Christmas holiday was wonderful and I hope that yours was too! Did Santa bring you everything you wanted or did you have to buy it for yourself after Christmas? What was your favorite gift? I'd have to say my favorite is the MacBook I am using right this moment...love it!! Thanks Gary!! xoxoxo :)

I don't know about you, but I can't wait to wrap up 2009 and start the new year (with much better health of course). I am SO energized and SO hopeful for an exciting and fabulous Twenty-Ten (that's how all the cool kids say 2010...so I've been told)!

Merry Christmas!!

From our house to yours...

Much love,

us

testing testing

ETA: Only the small pics can be seen in their entirety...medium and large get clipped. Hmmm, I might have to change the formatting of this little 'ol blog. One more thing to add to my "To Do" list.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Testing out posting pics from flikr and the various sizes. :)

Pics are from First Beach, WA (any Twilight fans out there??) and part of the 10 mile Lake Ozette loop trail Keni, Noelle, and I hiked in September....and have yet to post.

testing flikr posts :)

where have I been?

Unfortunately, I haven't been anywhere. Our computer crashed, but luckily Gary was able to load the recovery software to get us mostly up and running again, except for a few applications (like my Palm software...error, error=grrrr). A week later, after we were getting back into the technology groove - you guessed it: the darn computer crashed AGAIN. Gary ran some diagnostics on it (yeah, he's pretty smart...and yeah, I guess we're a little nerdy) and it came back with an error code of FATAL crash imminent. That was Saturday morning.

I have a far-fetched wishlist in my head (and heart) that includes a dreamy Mac computer and it's been on my list for a few years, but they are so expensive. I mean, it financially didn't make since to buy a Mac because you could purchase 2, almost 3, new PCs for the price of 1 Mac.

BUT, after 3 PC crashes in 3 years, 2 of them within 1 week, the Mac was starting to seem like a better option. We did some research online (Apple had just had a one day sale on the iMac and a Macbook Pro on Friday- $100 off of each, not really that big of a sale, but it was big for Apple...let me remind you that it was now the day AFTER the sale) and we found the best deal at Best Buy (mostly for their financing)...especially considering the nearest Apple store is about an hour away.

We head to Best Buy to check 'em out in person. OMG! There they were on the display table... showing off their sleek sexiness...they might've well been topless for Pete's sake. And let me tell you, the new 27" iMac is....HUGE!!! We talk to the Apple Guy, who gives us a 2-3 minute demo...and wow oh wow. We were pretty sure we were going to make a purchase - even G admitted he had been thinking of switching to a Mac, which surprised me! But watching the Apple Guy edit photos, create a picture book, create a family newsletter, create a DVD with your pictures set to the beat of the music from your iTunes library...all in 3 minutes....well all I could say the whole time (after I wiped the drool from my chin) was "Yes. OH. Wow. Yes." Almost a When Harry Met Sally performance, let me tell you.

The sales guy was great, no pressure, go think about it, down-to-earth realist, etc. etc. So I ask him what he could do for us if we bought not one but TWO Macs. He left to work out the numbers and we came home with these:

A wonderfully, glorious 21-1/2" iMac and a 13" MacBook Pro. I swear I heard the angels singing and a golden light appear when we opened the boxes.

Just one more picture for you that makes me chuckle, the juxtaposition of the two computers. We could SO turn this into our own commercial.

The only downside of the whole transition is that Adobe would not let me switch my CS3 software from a PC version to Mac version because it was 2 years old. They did offer a discount to upgrade my software to CS4 in a Mac version for a mere $500 (which is actually a very good discount), but still....it bummed me out, and we did not (could not) purchase it...at this time. So no 'real' photo editing going on for awhile. WYSIWYG SOOC....and all that jazz.

It'll be awhile before I come down off of this cloud. {sigh}

sweet corn casserole

Okay, okay. So much for getting this recipe to you right away. Once again, I got sidetracked...maybe have a little ADD going on??? Gary tells Michael that "sometimes mommy gets sidetracked". I can't deny it. The first step is recognizing I have a problem, right? Anyway, this recipe is super easy (I think ALL of my "go to" recipes are super easy - they HAVE to be with our busy lives).

This dish is so versatile. We had it with the chimichangas (below), but it could also be a tasty side dish at Thanksgiving or maybe you could bring it to your next potluck.

SWEET CORN CASSEROLE

INGREDIENTS

1 stick of butter, melted
8 oz. sour cream
1 box Jiffy corn muffin mix
2 eggs
1 can (15 oz) creamed corn
1 can (15 oz) regular corn, drained

DIRECTIONS

Mix all ingredients and bake at 350 degrees in a greased (Pam-sprayed) 9”x13” pan for 40-50 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. I have had to add an additional 20 minutes to make sure it was cooked all the way through on the inside...just depends on how "saucy" your mix ends up being...perhaps I didn't drain the one can of corn enough or maybe I put in more than 8 oz of sour cream??

In real life, sometimes I get lazy or cocky (heh-heh-heh, did I just say "cocky"?? OMG I've watched too much Beavis and Butthead) and just toss in guesstimates of ingredients and end up having to change some things around...but that's okay. That's how you make it your own and sometimes end up with something even better.

I hope you still try to make this yummy dish. It's a nice change of pace, and in my mind I consider it healthy because it's made with corn. Obviously, I'm in total denial about the entire stick of butter.

chicken chimichangas

The other day, I was talking to my friend, Sharon, about dinner ideas and she passed along a deli-c-o-so Mexican dish (my gosh we eat a LOT of Mexican foods...I never noticed that until I started writing this blog). Anyway, this was so super easy and very flavorful (and better for you since they are not fried). We modified it a bit to suit our taste buds and I tried to use what we had in the cupboard. Feel free to do the same for your family too.

CHICKEN CHIMICHANGAS

INGREDIENTS

3 c. shredded chicken (easiest and most flavorful is to use half of a rotisserie chicken!)

4 c. fiesta blend shredded cheese or monterey jack (we love cheese)

1 tsp oregano

1/4 tsp cumin

1 garlic clove, minced

1 can (4 oz) chopped green chiles, drained

1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained

8 (10-12") flour tortillas (get the good kind: either Mission or La Banderita brands...they are nice and thick, which means they won't crumble or tear when you are folding/rolling)

salsa

sour cream

DIRECTIONS

Mix together chicken, 2 cups cheese (save the other 2 cups for the topping), oregano, cumin, garlic, green chiles. Spread a spoonful or two of the black beans on the tortilla. Next, add a spoonful or two of the chicken mixture on the tortilla. Roll the tortilla up (fold the sides in first, then roll from bottom to top) and place seam side down in a 9x13 pan that's been sprayed with Pam (or similar). Top chimichangas with remaining 2 cups of cheese. Bake for 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees or until cheese is bubbly and starting to brown.

Top with salsa and sour cream. Tastes great with sweet corn casserole (I'll post that recipe next) or chips and salsa or small salad.

Thanks for sharing this recipe Sharon. It's already become one of our favorites!

trick-or-treat....smell my feet

...give me something good to eat.

We actually had some goblins say that to us last night. We didn't have the usual flood of kiddos we normally have. We have 5 bags of candy left over. On a normal Halloween night, all or at least close to all 9 bags of candy would be GONE. So definitely, not as many kids last night. Perhaps because of the cold?? I think I drank 3 cups of hot chocolate while we passed out candy...if anything, just to wrap my cold fingers around the hot mug.

We got Michael dressed in his fisherman costume and I took him to three of the neighbors' houses before trick-or-treat started (we have such understanding neighbors). He really only wanted to stop at one house (Sharon's) and then got an attitude at the other two houses...signing "all done, all done" and trying to stomp his way back home. He doesn't eat candy, so this is one "holiday" he could really care less about.

We had him sit outside with us for a little while and entertained him with the bowl of candy. Like I said, he's not excited about the actual candy part, but he found a little treat that had a picture of Buzz and Woody on it, so he was excited about that. Then he signed "all done, please, go". So G took him inside and put on a movie (Shrek) while we finished passing out the candy.

It seems to be customary for the firetrucks, medics, and police to cruise the neighborhoods and pass out candy. Our neighbor across the street from us is a firefighter and he was on duty last night, so he made sure to hit up our street. :)

We brought Michael outside to visit with Jerry and "his" truck. It was so dark out by then that when I took their picture, I couldn't tell that Michael had blinked. boooo. Not to fear though, we have a few other pictures of M and firetrucks courtesy of Grandma Kita and her firefighting/paramedic days.Michael's pumpkin he painted at school and a couple gourds he picked out.
We hope you had a great Halloween! G's off golfing this morning (after a frost delay)...he's trying to enjoy the nice weather as much as he can before he's trapped indoors (which to me, that means it's almost scrapbook season-yippeee!!).

This year seems to be flying by - I can't believe it's NOVEMBER already!

2 years ago

Almost 2 years ago to the day (Oct 25th and 26th), our little family was experiencing a crisis like no other. Gary had a stroke. It's still so amazingly miraculous to think about how he couldn't walk, slurred when he talked, was going to have to wear an eye patch for double vision, and couldn't use his right arm......to being probably 90% completely recovered. The fact that he's still HERE is the most amazing part. Needless to say THANKFUL and GRATEFUL come to mind a ton.

Look at what he was doing this year, compared to 2 years ago:

Grateful-thankful-grateful-thankful-grateful-thankful...and repeat.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

2007 email to family and friends about G's status while he was starting his 2nd week of a 3 week hospital stay (warning: kind of graphic medical crap described):



Hey there! Gary's dad brought us his laptop to use while we are at the hospital, so I can fill you in a bit.

Last Thursday, Gary woke up to get ready for work and he asked me to look at his eyes because they felt like they were moving in circles. They were moving back and forth and twitchy-like. I took him to the ER and they did a CT scan which came back clean and because he had a
headache/neck ache while in Florida and M. Beach, they thought that he might have some fluid somewhere causing vertigo. The ER gave him meds and then sent us home.

All that Thursday, his head and neck REALLY REALLY still hurt, but we thought that w/the meds it would hopefully go away.

Friday morning he felt okay enough to take a shower, but during the shower his right arm and leg became uncontrollable...and then he was feeling very sick and started dry heaving. Any kind of movement made him hurl. I told him I was going to take him back to the ER but he
couldn't move, so I called 911.

Because of our previous day's events and a clean CT scan, the medics thought that maybe he was having a bad reaction to the meds.

The ER seemed to be of the same thought, but they wanted to do an MRI to be sure. The radiologist said there was a tiny "spot" on the MRI in his cerebellum indicating a possible stroke...so tiny the doctor said she couldn't see it. A stroke in the cerebellum causes involuntary
reflexes, imbalance, dizziness and nauseous ness, which is why they thought it could be vertigo. Marysville doesn't have a neurologist, so they transported him to Riverside (OSU was full).

Once at Riverside, they wanted to do their own MRI/MRA so that they could see more of the neck area to confirm the neurologist's suspicions that he had a tear in his artery (which he has seen happen in younger stroke patients). During this time, they started him on blood thinners to prevent another stroke from happening. Well, that MRI/MRA came back inconclusive...the radiologist couldn't say yes or no about a tear. Soooo, they had him do a cerebral angiogram where they go through the groin artery up to his neck and brain. They were able to tell definitively that he did have a tear (called a dissection) in the artery on the left side of
his neck/bottom of his head area. This tear was causing blood to pool up and then a section of this pooling broke off and caused the stroke. So treatment is blood thinners (heparin by IV and coumadine by mouth). The blood will thin thereby removing/preventing any clots and the platelets in the blood will repair the tear. No surgery will be needed (YEA!!!).

Well, Tuesday night his groin area started to bleed profusely...it took 3 hours to get it to stop. Lots of pressure, lots of gauze, and he had to "sleep" flat on his back and to not move his right leg with a 5 pound bag of sand on his groin for added pressure...while they checked his vitals and the groin area every half hour, then every hour throughout the night. ugh!

A vascular surgeon was called in to look at it on Wednesday a.m. and he ordered an ultrasound to make sure the artery was sealed (which came back as "mostly sealed"), but he cleared Gary to do some physical therapy (he was able to walk out the room and down about 5-6 rooms and
turn around, with the help of 2 therapists and a rope around his waist for support).

But later Wed night he started to bleed again and it took 2 hours to stop, but then followed the same procedure as the night before.

Thursday a.m. the vascular surgeon came in, decided it was just bleeding topically and put in a couple of stitches with NO numbing medicine. He told Gary that the needle to numb him is bigger than what he was going to stitch him with and that the lidocaine would burn until it was numbed up...so NO numbing (OMG, OMG!!!). Again, he was cleared for therapy, which he did some more walking with the therapists and even tried a couple of stairs with them.

Then, you guessed it: Thursday night he started bleeding again. But because the skin/hole was stitched shut, it bled internally and swelled. The size of the swelling/pool of blood was a little smaller than half a basketball. And then they had to put pressure on that to get it to stop
bleeding internally!!! OMG-yikes!!!

Friday morning the vascular surgeon was back in and scheduled Gary for surgery to stitch shut the artery, suction out as much blood as he could and then stitch the skin closed.

Friday and Friday night was very painful and the drugs they gave him helped bring the pain down, but was always still there.

Saturday (yesterday) was still painful, but dealing with it...until Saturday night when the nurses said that it looked like it was swelling some more and oozing more than they thought it should. So they put 50 pounds of pressure directly on the swollen surgical area for 40 minutes. They also had an ultrasound done (in his room) to determine if the swelling was blood that might be causing an aneurysm (it came back as tissue swelling only--no aneurysm!!). During this time, they changed his pain medicine to something stronger, which helped (happy sleepy
drugs).

They checked on him every hour during the night, so even with the drugs, they were still waking him up...but they said it looks better. We're waiting on the attending physician and the vascular surgeon to assess him today for another update. Although, as I was typing this the swelling was increasing again. :(

Once we get this groin thing under control (which also ended up giving him a staph infection from the "star" closure from the initial angiogram procedure), we can hopefully move to the therapy portion of his recovery. The therapists said that once he can leave this room, he will go to their rehab center for 7-10 days. They'll do 3 hours of intense therapy everyday there (concentrating on his balance, walking and using his right arm). Luckily, the slurring in his speech has been going away and the speech therapist said that the slurring will probably only be noticeable when he's tired. Then from there, they think he'll be able to come home, but he'll still be required to do either outpatient therapy or in-home therapy. We have a 4-level split home, so we're going to have some issues with all the freakin' stairs in our house, but we'll worry about that later.

So that (in a VERY big nutshell) is what's going on.

Thanks very much for all the thoughts and prayers--they mean a lot!
-val


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


Now fast-forward 2 years to this:

Grateful-thankful-grateful-thankful-grateful-thankful...and repeat.

bowling

Well, I am mostly back to the land of the living after having a nasty infection for over a week. I still feel a little dizzy (dizzier???), but being on the mend is a good thing. Kath, I thought you'd enjoy that last post - hahaha!!

Last night was Michael's last night of bowling (Special Olympics) for the season and all the bowlers received this wonderfully creative award (thanks Robin!), as well as a coupon for a free game of bowling in the future (thanks Mr. Boggs!):

The night was one of Michael's best. He usually doesn't do well with lots of kid noise and people, but even though he kept his ears covered most of the night, we actually saw some smiles and he even cheered a couple of times. He likes to cover his mouth when he's laughing. He was really into watching all the balls hit the pins too. We'll take him back to bowl during the winter when it's not so crowded and we can bowl too. We like bowling...I'm not so good at it, but maybe Gary can get a third 300 game this season!

business time

I'm sick. I'm tired. Too tired to blog about my trip to Seattle or our family trip to Florida or anything. So in honor of Wednesday, I thought I'd post this hilarious video from YouTube of the Flight of the Conchords. They make me laugh!! Funny stuff!!

Turn off the blog music at the very bottom and press play on the video.




(I hope it doesn't offend any of you - it probably won't, I just want to make sure we're all good here!)

apple walnut cake

I know this is going to sound strange to most of you, but I don't like chocolate cake. I prefer white or yellow or vanilla cake with white frosting. But I also really, really like spice, pumpkin, apple, and cinnamon flavors. This cake suits my tastebuds just fine and it's such a wonderful fall treat.



APPLE WALNUT CAKE


INGREDIENTS
4 cups coarsely chopped apples
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
½ cup salad oil
2 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. soda
2 cups flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 cup chopped walnuts


Combine the sugar and apples; let stand. Beat eggs slightly; beat in oil and vanilla. Mix and sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir in apple-sugar mixture a little at a time. Stir in nuts. Pour batter into a greased and floured 13x9 inch pan and bake at 350-degrees for 1 hour or until done. Once cooled, frost with the caramel frosting (below).


QUICK CARAMEL FROSTING

1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
½ cup milk
3-1/2 to 4 cups confectioners sugar

Melt butter in 1-inch pan; add brown sugar. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly for 2 minutes. Add milk and stir until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from heat and cool. Slowly add confectioners sugar. Beat well with spoon after each addition until thick enough to spread.



Okay, if you look at the picture, you could tell that I couldn't wait for my frosting to thicken up when I made this, so mine turned out a little runny....but it was still de-lish and extra, extra moist!!


Oh so good! You need to make this soon - I dare you to not love it. And if you do make it, please send a piece my way. My tastebuds will thank you (but my hips? not so much)!


Recipe from the ladies at St. John’s GRACE event.

no vampires allowed

DSC_0136, originally uploaded by Hey...It's All Good.

Doing a blog test with posting pictures from Flikr and thought I'd share one of the 500+ pictures from my trip to visit my sister in September. Here we are (that's me, Keni, and her fab friend Noelle) at First Beach in La Push, WA...home of Jacob from the Quilette tribe in the Twilight books (we spent the night in Forks...home of Bella).

Absolutely breathtaking views every where I looked!!! Can't wait to tell you all about it. :)

family vacation

Let's take a trip in the Way Back Time Machine. All the way back to April 2009. That's really not that long ago, but because we're talking about vacation and sunshine and being carefree and not working, it just SEEMS like it was forever ago. I've had this post ready to go for a few months, but I wanted to edit some of the pics....and then life gets in the way and editing pictures got pushed to the back burner. You know how that goes sometime. I thought about not even blogging this vacation, since we leave for pretty much the SAME vacation NEXT WEEK! The photos are still unedited, but I really wanted to share Michael's first trip to Disney. He did amazingly well, considering all the NOISE and CROWDS.

For Michael's spring break, we went to Florida to visit with G's parents who were "wintering" in the Sunshine State. Michael and I flew (thanks Grandpa!) and Gary drove so we'd have a car available. Needless to say, G took one for the team because that's a long, long drive. I know because we all drove back together!

Anyway, I thought I'd share a few (okay, maybe a TON) of highlights from the trip. Fasten your seatbelts, cuz here we go!

Hangin' at the beach (Crooked Lake):

Not much to say to describe these pics, except that Michael would play and play and play here for hours at a time. Except for this day (it's a video, so go down to the bottom and turn the music off):

It was too cold (68F) and dangerous to play in a lake that looked like an ocean. The sand was blowing so hard that it felt like needles on your skin and at times it looked like it had snowed. Luckily, that only lasted for one day. Back to our regularly scheduled play time.

Michael's turtle tracks to the water.


Splashing and goofing off.

His usual "head dip" (he does this in the bathtub too). He also tries to drink the water, but we try to catch him before that happens (not always successful).

I watched Michael drop sand a few times and watched him get excited over it...but I was curious because he didn't seem to be watching the actual sand dropping. It took me awhile, but I realized that he was watching his SHADOW drop the sand. That was also a first.

First time he really seemed interested in sand/water toys, so that was neat to watch.

Michael was really vocal while playing this time.

Playing with the Gray's (the owner's of the place we rent) grandkids. They played well together and the girls were wonderful. :)


He even conned grandpa into taking him to the beach.

Michael's 1st visit to Walt Disney World

Disney was having a special that we couldn't resist: a free ticket ON your birthday and Michael was going to have his birthday while we were in Florida...so we thought it was as good a time as any to try it out (we bought our tickets with a military discount because of G's dad). The problem is: Disney is a crowded place, so we weren't sure how Michael would do. Spring Break and Easter weekend being at the same time makes Disney way more crowded. Strike one for Michael. One of the first rides we took Michael on was "it's a small world"...an all around favorite for lots of people. But for Michael, he really could've cared less. Towards the end of the ride, floating around and listening to the "It's a Small World" song over and over and over, we notice that Michael is covering his ears. It's okay buddy, we think some of the adults probably want to cover their ears too.

Peter Pan's flight wasn't too bad...there was no ear covering, but no real excitement either. So we're not off to a good start. That would be strikes two and three for the boy. Oh dear, maybe bringing him to Disney wasn't such a good idea after all.

Hmmm, let's see what other rides did we try? Stitch's Great Escape...too much screaming. The carousel was just okay.

But G did get a head squeeze and a smile from him.

The Speedway was fine, but had a tremendously long wait to get OFF the ride, which was not fine. Dumbo, the Astro Orbiter and the teacups were better.

Oh, and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin was a success, but only to see the characters...the ride itself was just okay.

Then we took him on Space Mountain.

I started to doubt our decision when I realized that we couldn't sit right next to him. Carole wouldn't even ride it - no way Jose.

Me: Gary do you think he'll know to keep holding on? Make sure they push down the seat bar tight onto his lap so he doesn't fall out. Oh dear, oh dear.

Gary: I think he'll be fine. I'm able to reach around and hold onto his shoulders if I have to. We really can't change our minds now, we're locked in. He'll be fine.

Okay, here we go (see Michael waving goodbye??). The ride starts through the dark tunnel....it's pitch black and I can't see my baby. Is he holding on?? Our spaceshuttle car is eerily quiet throughout the entire 2-3 minute ride. He didn't fall out (whew - a very, very good thing), but did he like it?? The ride comes to a stop and as the lap bars rise up, we hear clapping and a WOOOO-HOOOO, YEEAAA!!

Oh. My. God. It's Michael doing the cheering!!! Turns out he didn't care for the other rides, not because of the crowds or noise or kids, it's because they weren't FAST ENOUGH. People waiting to get on the ride were smiling and sharing in his enjoyment. He even begged us by signing "more, please; more, please" as we left Space Mountain. The boy is a speed freak!! Well doesn't that change everything?!

The next rides were Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain. We talked Carole into riding both of those. I thought Carole was going to pass out from screaming so much on Big Thunder Mountain....but when we got off; she said "Oh, I guess that wasn't so bad. I might even be able to ride it again...but not right now."

Splash Mountain was a fun ride too, especially for Michael, because it combined the steep downhill plunge with getting splashed with a ton of water. As your log starts to go down the drop, they take your picture which you can purchase after the ride is over (we didn't buy ours though...didn't want to pay $20 for a 4x6 picture). Our picture was H I L A R I O U S! The picture shows Gary and Michael sitting in the front seats, with Carole and I sitting directly behind them. Carole and I are holding on to the bar with the tightest of grips, arms extended, hair flying, eyes squeezed shut, our teeth clenched in terror. Gary wasn't as bad as us, but he was at least holding on with both hands. Which is more than I can say for Michael. The boy was only holding on with one hand, looking around at the view with the most serene, happy smile on his face...all while dropping - no, more like plunging - down 5 stories into a gigantic splash. Needless to say, he really liked Splash Mountain.

I'm sorry I have no pictures of the crazy rides to share with you. I was too busy holding on for dear life.

We rode every ride we thought he'd like and we stayed until the lights came on.

As we took the little train back to the park exit...8 hours after we got there, we agreed that this was a pretty successful adventure.

Yeah, I think we'll take him back. Especially after we found him asleep that night with a smile on his face.

Visiting Great Grandma

We always visit my grandma (M's great-grandma "ggma") when we are in Florida. We did our usual: out to lunch to the restaurant of her choice and then some errand-running and house cleaning for her. Little did we know that it would be the last time doing that...over the summer, my mom and uncle moved her to NC...to be closer to family. She was starting to struggle too much on her own and worried us all, so it's a relief to know she has help. It's also sad that we won't get to see her as often. We fly to FL every year (and have for almost 10-11 years straight), but hardly ever get to NC.

Michael was a hot and tired little boy, so he relaxed with ggma after lunch.

Michael signing "I love you" to great-grandma. Aawwww.

Michael's birthday party

As I said, we took Michael to Disney on his actual birthday, but we still wanted to have a tiny celebration. So, we invited all of the other "winter folks" to join us for cake and ice cream one evening. Carole ordered a Wall-E cake which was a BIG hit for Michael!

(wonky flourescent lighting)

And I'll end this novel of a post with some of the sunsets and scenery from our little lake.

So long until next time!