Florida 2012

 

Another Spring Break has come and gone. We added an extra day this year and it still wasn’t enough. There has yet to be a trip in 6 years where we have wanted to come home when it was time. I guess that says it all when it comes to how much we love it in Florida!

 

This was the year of the family! We started the week in Orlando with Mike’s side of the family. Cindy and Dave, the Mensink’s , and us…..all 13 of us were excited for some fun in the Disney parks!

 

We stayed at a three bedroom condo, and the others rented a whole house. Both had their own pools, along with a resort pool which was a lot of fun for the kids.

 

 

The first park we visited was Magic Kingdom. Disney isn’t complete without fireworks and the lighted parade.

It rained that day, which cooled it down some…which was okay! Florida was experiencing hotter than normal temps, 10 degrees hotter as a matter of fact. It was steamy!

 

The second park we visited was Animal Kingdom, which happens to be my favorite. It was just as hot and sweltering…

      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We seemed able to go on more rides this day. Mike loved being able to ride the bigger rides. The last time we were here the kids were too little and scared. Not this year….

 

The third day we were there we went to Hollywood Studios. Two of our favorite things there are the Stunt Show and the Indiana Jones Show.

 

 

I just have to brag a little bit here….

You would think traveling with THAT many kids, there would be issues. Can I just say, there was not one whine, not one complaint, not one crabby kid? They certainly had reason to to do all of those things; it was so hot (over 90), they walked miles and miles each day, they stood in long lines for short rides, they waited for each other to ride various rides that they maybe didn’t want to go on…and not once did one of them say a negative word. We did good raising these kids!

 

This trip was mostly paid for by Mike’s mom, Cindy. This was a trip grandpa Dave and she had wanted to take us on when the kids got older. Even though he wasn’t with us physically, I am sure he was watching over us and smiling. THANK YOU grandma Cindy for making this wish come true. It was one none of us will forget!

 

We then hopped in our very little rental car and headed 3 hours south to Ft Myers where my parents were for part II of our family vacation. We went straight to the Twins game and met my parents there. We were able to get tickets to the last preseason game this year…..

 

 

It was SO hot! We only were able to stay through the 5th inning. When we left, the ambulance arrived with a stretcher. I am sure due to the heat. It was fun to see, but even the kids couldn’t take that heat anymore. We headed straight for the pool instead!

 

 

Mostly while in ft Myers we swim and eat! This year we took the free waterboat from our resort over to Ft Myers beach. It was an hour long ride and it was a lot of fun. They picked us up three hours later, which was perfect.

 

We even saw a bald eagle!

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

On this trip we tried a couple of different restaurants that we found in the back of a book in our room. Edison Restaurant and Crave. Both were awesome and I miss that food already. I had the best huckleberry martini at Edison’s and the best chicken salad sandwich at Crave!

 

Thanks for joining us, Mom and Dad! We hope you loved our home-away-from-home as much as we do!

 

       

Such great memories every year. I think Connor is even starting to remember some of them…..

LB

Birthday with the Timberwolves

 

I am not big on having the kids’ birthdays at our house. In fact, we have never had a kid party at our house. The amount of work that goes into entertaining little ones for hours on end (especially boys) is just not what this teacher wants to do on her day off!

 

So, Connor’s 9th birthday was inching closer and closer. Because his birthday is in March, he kind-of gets the raw end of the deal because he is limited to indoor activities only. However, Connor had been talking about wanting to go to a Timberwolves game since basketball started. He had never been and Mike and I had only been to one game and it was a long time ago. Wouldn’t you know it, at the beginning of February we got a post card in the mail describing their birthday package. We decided to take advantage of it.

 

We had two games to choose from and since one was a week night, we picked the Sunday afternoon game. We got 8 tickets with the package. We can only fit 7 into our vehicle and after the four of us, that left Connor three tickets for his buddies.

 

 

 

Of course, the first game had to take place in the skyway………

 

 

Upon arriving at Target Center we first had our meet-and-greet with Crunch, the Timberwolves mascot.

Here he is perking up when the lady asked who the birthday boy was……..

 

First it was time for a little all-star wrestling, Crunch style……..

 

 

 

Crunch pulling off Connor shoes…….

 

The Birthday Boy……

 

 

The kids were then allowed to play basketball in this special area……lots of fun music and sweaty kids.

 

 

 

Then it was time to go to our seats and eat! Everyone was starving. The tickets came with meals. they also delivered cupcakes to our row, and they were YUMMY!

 

During the game, Connor’s name was on the scoreboard and I missed it. I was expecting it to be flashed alone, but it scrolled at the bottom of the screen and I didn’t see it until it was too late. Of course, he was the first kid because it was alphabetical. So, no picture of his name…..which is a bummer.

 

 

Timberwolves howling ……

 

Connor also got a Kevin Love jersey with the package….

 

Speaking of Kevin Love, they were having some technical difficulties during the game with the scoreboard. They stopped the game three times to try and fix the shot clock. It was a long time before they would try to go back out and play the game and Love got annoyed after awhile and he decided to just lie down on the table….

 

 

It was such a great time. Kids had a blast and went home with posters, pencils, and bookmarks!

 

My birthday was a week ago and I left Mike a huge hint as to what I wanted (in other words, I left it up on the computer, told him I wanted it for my birthday, and walked away so he could order it).

 

A new camera bag…..

 

I have been wanting a new camera bag that looked more like a purse. I want to be able to go on vacation and not have to drag both. The inside is all sectioned off for my flash, lenses, and camera. There is tons more room and I can haul my own personal items, along with our flip camera all in one bag. And the bonus….it’s cute!

 

 

We leave for Florida in two days! We are all so excited. Getting ready this week has not been enjoyable as my vertigo has decided to rear its ugly head, but oh well. I am just going to go with the flow, if I have an attack, I have an attack. Not much I can do about it.  I just hope it happens somewhere near a bathroom and a bed as I generally need both of those items to get through the worst of it. One more work day and then it’s time to relax!

LB

My Baby is 9

 

Another birthday for Connor! He turned 9 on Sunday. He’s got quite the party planned for next weekend, but on his actual birthday we kept it low key.

 

We invited both sets of parents over for some cake after supper.

 

 

 

 

 

He had asked for a skateboard for his birthday which I vetoed immediately. However, it was literally the only thing he asked for. He could not come up with one other present he wanted. So, he got a skateboard. This was his reaction when he opened it……

“You said you wouldn’t buy me this!”

 

 

Because Connor doesn’t really like cake (although he’s decided he might like cupcakes) we had ice cream cake instead. Then it was time to get outside and try that skateboard out…..

 

 

 

He decided it’s a lot harder than it looks! He kept wanting to do tricks…..hard for him to understand he should learn the basics first. We will see if he keeps at it.

 

9 Thoughts About Connor:

* He has a voice! No longer is Noah deciding ALL the shots around this house. I told Noah this day would come.

 

* He still loves PB&J. He could not decide on what he wanted for this birthday supper as food is not a big deal to him. He finally decided on spaghetti.

 

* He has made huge leaps in his reading capabilities this year! At conferences his teacher praised him for his hard work!

 

* He has received two all-school awards this year for leadership. His name gets announced over the intercom, he receives a small trophy and a certificate explaining the specifics of his behavior/actions that caused him to get the award….helping others and leading others.

 

* He is a typical boy in love with video games and sports.

 

 

* His one-liners are hilarious. He is quite witty, and his sense of humor is very dry. He’s not silly, he’s serious.

 

 

* He will still snuggle and sit on my lap. Often he grabs my hand while we are walking in the parking lot or into a restaurant. I love it.

 

 

*  He does not like going out to eat, to movies, to the store. He is a total homebody.

 

 

* He is a great sleeper.

 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CONNOR! 

We know our time with you being our little boy is so limited. We are proud of you and so blessed to have you.

 

Smooches ~

LB

 

 

Early Valentine’s Day

 

We elected to celebrate Valentine’s day early this year. Both boys have practice on Valentines Day (because remember men plan that stuff) and because I have so very few years left where the boys will humor me and sit down with us to celebrate, I just pushed the festivities up a day.

 

Noah had been sick all weekend. He started a fever on Saturday. I decided to keep him home from school as he still wasn’t able to eat and standing wasn’t high on his totem pole of things to do either. As I type this there isn’t much improvement so I have a feeling Mike will be home with him tomorrow.

 

I spent the whole day cooking. I made chocolate covered strawberries (stick with the melt-aways not chocolate chips), cheeseburger soup, and cupcakes. I also put together 31 bags of chocolate covered popcorn for my students which I bagged and affixed labels to.

 

I set up the table…..

 

I made the kids clink glasses……

 

We ate.

And it was over!

 

Hope you have a Happy Valentine’s Day!

LB