Wow, What A Fun Past Couple of Weeks...

So it's been a while since I last posted anything, but in the last blog I let you know that I'd be taking a sabbatical or whatever you call it while we were in Disney and my parents were in town. Okay, so they left almost a week ago, but well, it's been a crazy week or so since then and I've been just plain tired. And yes, I'm allowed to be tired. Our Disney trip was amazing. I only have a couple pictures on this computer right now that I can put up here and they're not really of "Disney" (just Sydney playing on one of the playgrounds there, quite possibly her favorite part) but here they are anyways. Jeff's laptop instead of our desktop which I'm on right now, so you'll just have to wait for more fabulous pictures (can I say that even though I haven't seen even one of them yet?!). But it was awesome. Such a great experience and already I can't wait for next year (in case you don't already have it marked on your calendar Mom and Dad, you're coming back the same time next year, we've already got ours marked, and in pen, not pencil so it has to happen!). We stayed in this villa which was actually quite nice, only about 10 minutes from Disney, with 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths a full kitchen and living/dining room. There was also a pull-out couch, so in all, we probably could fit 8 or more people with no problem (8 adults, and then kids on the floor). It was a lot nicer than I expected and for quite a reasonable price (although it is nice having your parents pay for it - Thanks Mom and Dad!!!!!). Anyways, we hit Magic Kingdom first and had a ton of fun. I got to ride all the smaller, non-roller coaster rides, which there was actually more than I expected and the whole "fast-pass" thing works awesome. It worked out pretty good for me though not getting to go one all the roller coasters because it meant a chance to sit down and wait and man, did I need that. Although corralling Sydney was probably more work than waiting in line, but still. We had a ton of fun at Magic Kingdom and stayed for the Light Parade and then left. The next morning we headed out for Animal Kingdom. It was a lot of fun, but because I didn't really get to go on any of the rides there it wasn't as much fun for me because most of what I did was walk around and look at animals. That was fun and all, but well, we have annual passes for Lion Country Safari and I found that our safari is better than Disney's, with more animals and you actually can stop and look at them closer up and for longer than when you go on the Disney Safari ride. But it wasJeff and I decided not to really take any pictures because my dad was going photo crazy and we thought we'd just rip his off and not have to worry about our own. But the downside to that is that all the pictures my dad took are on still a lot of fun and supposedly the new Everest ride is great and the couple other rides that they had were fun too. The park closed early for some reason (like 5:30 or something) so we didn't get long to stay, but we pretty much saw everything and went on everything that we wanted to. My favorite part of Animal Kingdom was probably the Bug's Life 3D movie. We got in just before it closed and it was a prefect end to the day. It definitely had some fun surprises that really made you feel part of the movie... it was great. For our last day we headed out to MGM Studios. We weren't quite sure how it was going to go taking Sydney there as there's not really anything for kids to do, but she did great. And it was probably all of our favorite parks. Again, I didn't get to do many of the rides, but I did do Tower of Terror. It was amazing. I don't think I could have handled going again, after the first time I had to wait for a long time for the baby to start kicking again and kinda got a little scared because I guess it felt my anxiety just before going on it and it was beating me up, but after the ride I don't think I felt it kick for almost a half an hour, which for me is a long time. So I didn't take the chance to do it again. But it was amazing. Totally terrifying (which is probably what you'd figure given the name). I hadn't screamed that much ever on a ride I don't think. It's such a strange sensation, not always knowing if you're going up or down or what, and the fact that it's all in the dark makes it ten times or more, more scary. Ya, so that ride was great. The rest of the day was a ton of fun, although it was sad at one point when we were watching the Indian Jones stunt show and one of the actors got hurt and they had to end the show early, but we got to go back and watch a later show and it was really cool. Also, the Lights, Motor, Action car stunt show was super cool. The drivers were amazing. Overall an awesome time. I don't think that it's a place that I'd take a three or four year old necessarily because there's not a whole lot for them to do there, but still it was great for all us "big kids". So that was our time in Disney. We came home Saturday after a few hours of outlet mall shopping (Sydney made out like a bandit, Grandma can come down anytime she wants if she's going to shop like that). The weather was pretty good the whole time we were in Disney, a little hot the first two days, but not too bad, then cooled down nicely for our last day, although I could have done without the showers, but still, better than the scorching sun, but when we came home it clouded over and was cool. Great for us Floridians, almost cold, but not so nice for people trying to get away from that weather. So Sunday we had planned to go to the beach for a while, but since it was so cold we decided to show my parents Jupiter Island and the multi-million dollar homes there. It was a fun drive. Then on the way back we headed to Jeff's office to show them around. My mom works in a church office, so she loves to see how other churches run etc. Then Monday I had an ultrasound and yes, the baby is perfect. After try for forever to get a good view of the heart the baby finally cooperated and everything was happy. Mom almost started crying when she realized what she was seeing. It was her first time ever getting to see an ultrasound done, so very exciting for her. It was also my favorite ultrasound with this baby because the technician seemed to be in a better mood and gave us a full tour (excluding one area because we don't want to know if it's a boy or a girl). I think she was so preoccupied with the problems that she saw last time to really show us anything, but this time because all was well she gave us a much better look. We even found out that the baby is going to have Jeff's chin. It' s amazing what you can tell, or at least what the technician whose used to looking at these things all the time can tell. I was able to pick out a few things, but it still is quite a blur, but once the tech showed us what we were looking at, it made it much easier to see. After the ultrasound we bundled up and headed to a park on the water for a picnic and then down to the beach for a few minutes before we froze just so Mom and Dad could see the beauty of life in Florida. It was pretty windy, so there were tons of surfers out and that was cool, but it was just too cold to stay for long. That's about all the happened while my parents were in town, other than lots of fun and playing with Sydney. She was totally spoiled! Thank goodness it was only a week and all my hard work and training hadn't totally disappear. No, it wasn't really that bad, but it was nice to get her back to a bit more of a schedule once my parents left.

Since then we've been trying to relax a bit and regain all the energy that we lost during that week and then we started working on our family room. It's almost finished now... I keep saying that thinking that any moment it's going to magically be done, but maybe one day... and I'm super excited about that. Thanks again to Mom and Dad who for Christmas gave us the money to finish it. It's going to add so much room to our place. I can't wait till it's fully finished and we can actually use it.

Well, that leaves us up too about today, I think. I had a great morning, going over to the Plourde's home so Sydney could play with Emma. Really it was more for me, but well, if I say it was for Sydney to play maybe it'll make me sound less selfish. But I had a great time hanging out and talking to Cheryl - she's awesome and such a roll model in parenting for me. Having six children six and under is a feat in itself, but having them all well-behaved, that's amazing. It was also nice having another adult to talk to. I miss that sometimes. Okay, most of the time when Jeff's at work. So today was nice and Sydney is now napping and soon to wake up after such an exciting time playing with all the kids, so I should end this before the world comes crashing down on me (no, Sydney's not really that bad, actually she's quite a great kid). Have a great day!