Spring Happenings

We have been enjoying this early Spring weather the past few weekends...right up until the beautiful trees dumped a layer of yellow everywhere!

Spring means the start of a new soccer season.  It is AMAZING how far we have come in the past 6 months.  Nate has been so much more engaged at practices and actually wants to be on the field at games.  A far cry from the tears and tantrum of soccer camp and his first game last season!  His skills are starting to get better but we are still working on the actual point of the game - right now he is content just following the pack and running around the field.  But last weekend he actually ended up at the right place at the right time and SCORED A GOAL!!!  It was amazing and a really proud moment for all of us!  And it gave the little man more confidence to get out on the field and play harder.

Little brother loves Soccer Saturdays too

In addition to Soccer, Birthday season seems to have picked up as well...so we have had birthday parties after games the last couple of weekends....the first one was little Luke's 1st birthday...

This goofy picture makes me smile....we read a book called "Just Me and My Little Brother" and one of the pages says "At birthday parties, we will eat the most cake and ice cream, just me and my little brother".  This picture makes me think of that. :)

The next birthday weekend was Summer & Shelby's super fun horse riding party.

I think they may actually eat the most cake and ice cream at parties...

Family

My sisters and I lost our paternal Grandmother last week...which means we lost both of our grandmothers within the last 8 months.  I know we are fortunate to have had so many years with our grandmothers but it still feels strange to lose a generation of women in such a short period of time.  We have one remaining grandparent - our paternal Grandfather, her husband.  

Now that I am a working mother myself, I have an even greater appreciation for my grandmother.  She was truly Rosie the Riveter...she went to work during WWII wiring airplanes, while my grandfather was off on his ship, and worked until she retired.  She raised 5 kids in a 1 bathroom house, cooked 3 meals a day, and grew a garden and canned all of her vegetables until she wasn't able to do so any more. They loved to camp and travel...one of my most memorable childhood vacations was with her and my grandfather (and my family) driving to Yellowstone.

Michael and I went over to see her the weekend before she passed...she was already unresponsive but she showed signs that she heard us and knew everyone was there so we were glad we got to spend some time with her.  While it is very sad to let her go, I can't help but to think how amazing it is that she was surrounded by her husband of 68 years and 5 children around her bed for her final days and she was able to pass peacefully in her sleep in her home of over 50 years.   How blessed should we all be.  I pray for my grandfather as he navigates these days and months and hopefully years without her.

They had 8 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren....and most of us got to reconnect this past weekend at her funeral.  And Nate got to spend time with his favorite cousins - thank goodness there was a playground behind their little church to occupy the kids!  Thursday evening was the viewing and the kids did lots of playing that night...

This playground was a lifesaver for keeping the kids occupied...but I think I might have played on it when I was a kid, and it hadn't necessarily been "brought up to code"...Matthew managed to get his head stuck in between the wooden slats.  Thank goodness Michael was able to pry him out!

Friday was spent at the church for the funeral service - which my uncle did an amazing job as usual, he has such a gift for finding the right words - and then driving to the graveside service.  While we were in that area, my dad took us over to the house that my grandmother grew up in (I believe my great-grandfather built it in 1925)....some family members still own it and have been renovating it.  My dad told us stories about his memories being there as a kid. I wish we had taken pictures...there is something so intriguing and comforting about hearing and seeing where your roots are and knowing where you come from.

After all of that family time....Julie and her girls came back to our neck of the woods for the rest of the weekend.  So there was even more cousin time to be had!  Being with all of dad's family was a nice reminder to embrace your family and hold tight to those bonds.  I hope we can build that same closeness with our generation.

I think Nate and Rayne are off to a nice start!  Nate and Matthew were fighting over a toy or something and Rayne just couldn't take it...so once they settled their dispute she needed Nate to give her a hug.  So big cousin calmed her down.

And we played with rockets and bubbles and swings all afternoon.

Magic Day 6 - Our Last Day at the Mouse House

On our last park day we went back to the Magic Kingdom.  Since we had covered all of the parks at this point, we were able to take it slow and just do some things we missed and redo some things we enjoyed.

However, (again something I wished I had researched a little more) I did not realize that the Super Bowl MVP literally goes to Disney World the day AFTER the Super Bowl!!  So as we are riding the boat over to the Magic Kingdom on Monday morning, our boat captain announces that we would be fortunate enough to see Eli Manning's parade that afternoon.  And once we arrived, we realized that most of South Florida (i.e. South NY) had come up to attend the festivities.  The crowds weren't awful but definitely busier than the Thursday before!

Since we were taking things slow - and because we had 15 snack credits left on our meal plan! - we started the morning with cinnamon rolls the size of our head.  They were delicious.

We did Fantasyland again - Nate requested Peter Pan and Snow White - and we also watched PhilharMagic while we waiting for our Pooh fast pass time which was really good.  We hit up the Buzz Ride again...and for some reason Nate wanted to do the Peoplemover again...I think he just liked the steep escalators.

Michael and I pulled Fast passes for Space Mountain so that we could both take turns riding it!  We did lunch while the rest of the park went to the parade and then made our way over to do Splash Mountain one more time (of course, at Nate's request).

That's me and Nate in the back row!

Nate had been begging to go swimming at the hotel pool the whole time we there but we never got back in time....so we made a little time for it before dinner on our last day.  (It was 6:00 pm - No the pool wasn't heated, yes it was that hot while we were there.)  Thankfully they had life jackets so I didn't have to get in with him!  He was so excited...he was dying to go down the waterslide.  Matthew played in the baby pool and was not happy to get out!

After swimming, we ate our last meal at the hotel restaurant - Whispering Canyon.  It was a fun, interactive meal...Nate thought it was funny...he even joined in when they had horse races!

Running the bridge for the last time...they were too fast...nothing but blurry phone pics!

It was sad to have our vacation coming to an end, but Michael and I both agreed that we couldn't have done another day in the park...we were beat.

We were up bright and early the next morning to catch our Magical Express back to the airport.  Might sound obvious but, one word of caution - don't miss your assigned pick up time.  We purposefully missed our 7:30 am pick up and went down a little before 8:00 because our flight wasn't until 10:30 and I really didn't want to get the airport 2 hrs early and have to contain Matthew.  Well, as with all things Disney, you don't mess with their well-oiled machine.  The "Cast Members" aren't quite as friendly and helpful on your way out.  Luckily, one guy was and we still got there with plenty of time to spare.  Matthew screamed the entire way back to the airport (I was happy we missed the 7:30!) and slept the entire flight home.  So, at least it ended peacefully!