::max & mom go to disneyworld::

Max had a stroke of excellent luck at the very end of November. I had a management seminar that I had to go to in Orlando--what fun is going to Orlando without a kid? So I decided to take Max along with me and that we would take about a day and a half and go to as much Disneyworld as we could. Obviously he was a happy camper--lots of attention, a trip and one of his favorite places ever. Kathy was sweet enough to come and watch Sandy for us so Kris could still get some work done, and so it was great that I didn't have to worry about him.
On our way!



There's a nice in-room babysitting service that you can use in hotels near D-World, so we did that for most of the time that I had classes. Max explored the hotel which was big and crazy with a Florida habitat inside with alligators snakes and fish. He also slept in a bunch because of the two hour time difference. While he was doing that I learned a lot. After the first full day of the seminar we got to go to one of the big Christmas parties that Disney throws in the magic kingdon. They start at 6 or 7 and then go until midnight. It was super fun because most of the rides were open, but there were limited numbers of people, and lots of people were out watching parades and shows. So we got to go on a ton of rides really fast.

Thunder mountain. At this point Max was SO worried that I was going to keep the camera out and drop it when the ride started that he could hardly think about anything else. You can see it in his face.

So lots of good rides. They also had big hot chocolate and cookie stations along the way. We got sick of cookies pretty quick and then they started to run out of hot chocolate later in the night. It was still fun though. And of course the lovely lights and decorations were great.


Finally I got exhausted and had to quit the fun. Max could've kept going for hours. But since I got up that morning at the equivalent of 5AM our time I was beat.

Max with a wondrous display of Perry tails. He's also holding one of his beloved hot chocolates. When we got out of that store it had started "snowing" on main street. I think they use soap bubbles or something. It looked great.


Yes, that's one happy boy right there. The next day I had a half day of classes and afterwards we headed out to Epcot. We stayed there until pretty late too--once again I was exhausted and Max was still raring to go. But we did lots of fun stuff and I forgot to take any pictures. Saturday we got to go and play all day. We slept in a little bit and then headed over to Hollywood studios where I was the Rebel Spy in Star Tours. Yes, that was awesome. Here's Max right before he spilled his applesauce all over EVERYTHING. That was right after I spilled my diet coke by dropping it on my foot. Klutzy family?

You can tell I took a lot of trouble with his hair that morning. Here we are enjoying the Phineas and Ferb area. We didn't want to waste time waiting in line for pictures with fake Phineas & Ferb so instead we decided to pose with some of the less popular items in the area. Like the plans for the coolest coaster ever!

And Ducky Mo Mo of course. Love Ducky mo-mo.


After that our plan was to head back over to the Magic Kingdom for the rest of the afternoon. Here we are on the bus contemplating the results of our pin trading.

Gotta trade pins even if we're only there for a day and a half!

The Magic Kingdom was a horrible crowded disaster. We figured that out after waiting for Pirates of the Carribean for 30 minutes. That's a BAD sign. I guess they had been filming the Disney Christmas parade that morning, and they had bands and performers there throughout the day. Who knew. It was awful, so we bailed and went back to Epcot. It's not a trip to Disney World with out at least three rides on Spaceship Earth after all. We were only at 2 at that point. But we did quickly snap a couple more magic kingdom photos as the sun went down.


After a fun night of science, technology and Spaceship earth we were done. The next morning we were supposed to head home, but of course our flight got delayed until the very end of the day. I was mad, but there wasn't too much we could do about it. So we got to spend some time exploring the hotel and visiting Max's friends the goldfish. These fish LOVED him and anytime he came to see them they'd flock to him, swimming in on top of each other in piles. They'd open their mouths and garwp at him--I think he looked yummy.

He loved it--he is a fish guy after all, and they could obviously sense that!


And that's the end of our adventures. We got home late but safe. And it was fun. It's not that often when we get that kind of opportunity to concentrate on one kid only. And it was really fun. We count our blessings. And Max counts for about a zillion of them.

::festive::

The wreath and Santa ornament were made by Max, compliments of someone that sent him a very exciting Christmas activity box. The presents are for secret santas. We had a lot of fun with those this year!

::snow days and choo-choos::

Murphy asked me where all the snow was in my last post, so I thought I'd answer him. It's here--just not all the time! Last week we had two snow days. Or maybe it was week before last? Anyway, technically monday was supposed to be a snow delay, but since Max just had a half day anyway we took a full snow day. And then friday was very snowy in the morning. Most other schools didn't cancel, but Max's did. So there we were, snow days. Not a ton of snow, but snow days and bad roads nonetheless.

As you can see it was pretty soppy snow, whichever day it was that I took this picture. And it was SO cold, so the roads essentially just turned into sheets of ice. That's the scary part. Anyway, it was a snow day and Max and Sandy were driving each other nuts. I went and found the box of wooden trains that had been hidden in Max's closet for a long time. Sandy was in HEAVEN. "My doo-doos" he'd say. And ever since then anytime he wakes up he says he wants to go and play with his "choo-choos" (But it really sounds like doo-doos).


Now we need more track for all those trains!

::::

Merry Christmas friends!!

::tree teaser::

Just a little peek for you of how our ten footer turned out. We got a new star tree topper this year and I love it! It's bigger than it looks in the picture. Isn't it gorgeous?

::magical::

It doesn't get any better than Christmas lights. Does anybody else out there wish that once in a while we could remember a little better how it felt to be two? Everything must be so amazing.

::tree hunt 2012::

At the very end of November we all headed out in our big black car to find a Christmas tree. We've made it a tradition now--the last two years we went up into the mountains southeast of our neighborhood and found a big tree to cut down. Then we went to the small town Dairy Queen over there and had lunch. So of course we had to do it again this year! There was no snow during our tree hunt this year, which made things much easier, but much less festive. It took a good amount of searching to find a good one. It's been a dry year with lots of fires and we had to stick pretty close to the road because the black car doesn't have a lot of clearance. So we had to look hard to the left and right as we went along. Finally when we were just about to turn around and try a different road we spied this tree:

It was tangled in a big grove of desert oak trees, but it was the most perfect and symmetrical tree I had seen all day. I knew that if we could get him out, he'd be a gem.

The boys went a took a walk to make sure we didn't miss any other good looking trees.

Nope, this guy was the best, so we committed and went for it.

This was probably the least complicated tree extraction we've had actually. It seems like the last two were down in little gulleys or on the side of a steep grade--with snow.

Sandy watched, though all he really wanted to do was wander around and pick up "baby rocks."


And out the tree came! It was really surprisingly nice and symmetrical and healthy despite the oaks. It was nice, I think nobody else had grabbed it because it seemed so tangled up in there. It was the prefect height too.
Next I wanted a little tree--one Max's size. I like to hang a bunch of family pictures that I laminated on the little one in another room.


Luckily there was a cute little one right nearby that was perfect.

It was just Max's size--truly.

The triumphant hunters!

It was so hard to take pictures because of the bright sunny day! Overcast snowy days make for much better photo documentation. But oh well.

We tied them to the top of the car and only had one scare on the way home when the baby tree tried to escape. Kris tied him on tight, but the whole rest of the way Max kept shrieking with fear when we hit a bump, thinking that we would lose the tree and just drive away. We didn't. We got them home and set them up. I got the big tree (which is just the perfect height for our living room) all lit, and then it sat for a week and a half without lights because I ran out of time. It's the story of my life right now. I'll post some tree pictures later!

::brothers::

We have lots of squeaking and screaming and "Hey, he's touching me" and all that, but these two brothers are awfully cute together. I'm really glad they have each other.





Love my baby boys.