Disney At Last!!

We finally made it to Disney for the very first time! We had a spectacular time that began with a day at Downtown Disney and some shopping (Legos anyone??) and good food. We then made our way over to Animal Kingdom Lodge where we enjoyed fantastic views, swimming, activities, and were introduced to "tea time", which the kids have become very accustomed to! Here is a peek at our stay...

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Our first day began in true Disney Magic fashion with the opening ceremony at the Magic Kingdom. I actually shed a tear to watch Izzy get so excited to see Mickey and Minnie arrive in the train to open the gates. I caught a wonderful pic of her waving at them from Kevin's shoulders as well as one of her sheer joy at seeing the Castle for the first time. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that Isabella was tall enough for all of the rides, so the four of us did it all together. Who knew she was a thrill ride junkie??? She did Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain twice each and was begging for more! She was actually the one who kept her hands up the whole time!!

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Of course the biggest thrill was seeing Isabella meet the Princesses that she adores!

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Nate was in need of some action, so off to Hollywood Studios! This worked out great because he is totally into this Indiana Jones phase and was thrilled to see the stunt show and get to pose with some of the scenery. Of course he was a bit miffed that it wasn't the "real" Indie, and the dude "was even way too short". Of course I explained to him that even Harrison Ford himself doesn't even look like the "real" Indie anymore!! Our thrills continued with more stunt shows and the topper of the whole vacation...THE TOWER OF TERROR!!! That's right-even my little daredevil rode the blood curdling drop fest. Let me just say that she handled it much better than I did! That crap is for the birds! Check out the pic of us as we are dropped-Kevin and I are both reassuring Izzy, who was in better shape than the two of us put together!!

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It was fantastic and everything that we expected! We can't wait to go back!!!

Happy Anniversary to Us!!

Today is our 17th wedding anniversary and I just couldn't resist the idea of doing a little reminiscing, some sharing with friends, and of course embarrassing the bejesus out of us both...
Kevin and I met on October 17, 1988. It was my very first day at Cumberland College and my new friends from the color guard were determined to "set me up" right away. As we approached the music building the girls told me to "let us know who you want to meet," and with not very much hesitation I told them, "the cute trumpet player with the dimples." Later that night, Kevin invited me to go with him and some friends to Cumberland Falls. I am not exaggerating at all when I say that I fell in love that same night. I mean, I was SERIOUSLY done for! We sat in a little dip in the rocks by ourselves looking at the stars and talking for hours until it was time to go back to school. (Girls had a curfew...seriously) We became pretty inseparable from that day on, and luckily we developed a wonderful friendship that we still have today.
I had so much fun finding the pictures for this video...I mean are you kidding me with the hair??? The 80s were not good to me! If you look closely, you will notice a few really classic things-first, Kevin is actually wearing a "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" t-shirt in one picture. Second (and most importantly) I was actually about 5'6 at our wedding if you include the 9 inches of hair on top of my head. Jon Bon Jovi had NOTHING on me! Turn the music down at the bottom of the page first-I picked a really special song for the video that you don't want to miss...
Oh! And to my darling husband who is in the next room folding laundry, completely unaware of the humiliation that awaits him...I love you dearly forever, and I am so lucky that I am in love with my best friend...:)

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Great Fun! Great Friends!

WARNING!! Those of you up North who are snowbound and freezing may want to avoid this post all together!

We spent a fantastic day at Clearwater Beach with our great friends Nicole, Antonio, and Shane. The kids had so much fun chasing each other on the playground and watching the exciting shows at Pier 60. Isabella was thrilled to "babysit" Shane, while the boys were so cool playing football, hide and seek, and working hard to look just plain awesome for the chicks...

Dinner was at Crabby Bills across the street, where Nicole and I had a hard time trying to keep the older kids from feeding Shane random weird things like lemons and hotsauce, and Izzy thought it was great fun to give him a tomato slice to use as a hat. (Sorry, no pics of that-I really need a new camera!)

They didn't want to leave and Antonio tried really hard to bring Nate home with him. It is so great to watch the boys interact...they have so much in common and I know are becoming great friends. It was such a fun day enjoying the beautiful weather and the ocean-maybe even worth the parking ticket that greeted us as we returned to our car.
***Don't forget to pause the music at the bottom of the page before watching the video! Enjoy!

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An Exciting Day!

Last weekend we spent a great day in Tampa! We began at the Forum getting to see the Ringling Bros. Circus. I was so excited because it was actually my first circus ever! We were a bit disappointed to find out that our seats were about 600 miles in the air, but hey, nothing like looking DOWN on the high wire acts!! The expereience was great though, and it was just the beginning of our day...
We then shot over to Channelside and looked at the huge cruise ship waiting to depart and even got to see Jenny who was just showing up to work on her dinner cruise ship. We then decided to take advantage of the fun around us and have some dinner and fun at Splitsville. I bowled a crappy game and only beat Isabella by like two points (not great for my competetive ego). Nate also got a reality check that he is not quite the kingpin that he is on the Wii in real life! Daddy took home the trophy, but it was fun for everyone and the sushi was terrific. Check out the video of our day (but don't forget to pause the music at the bottom of the page first!!)

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A Nature Walk

We decided to enjoy the fantastic weather and the beauty around us with a day at Honeymoon Island. We live just a couple of minutes away, so it was easy to escape from real life, take a breath after the holidays and enjoy Florida and each other.
We began our adventure with a picnic by the ocean-great food (bologna of course), sun on our face, and an 80 year old stalker who insisted on telling us stories about the bench that he donated and how it was in the movie "The Punisher" with John Travolta. Actually a very sweet man (who I'm pretty sure just wanted Isabella off of his bench..)
We then took a hiking trail that led us ultimately to two bald eagles' nests. We didn't get to see the eagles but had a great time looking at the mulitude of osprey and hunting for gopher tortoises. The walk was about two miles total, and by the end both kids had to pee and Isabella was sooooo done walking.
After the hike, we couldn't leave without taking advantage of the playground (energy automatically restored). It was a great start to my New Year's Resolution...to spend more time outdoors enjoying the beautiful weather and ocean that we are surrounded by...
Here's a video of our adventure-no need to turn down the music (I didn't add any to the video).

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Brody the Great

So many of you ask about our Great Dane, that I thought I'd let you take a look for yourselves! Pictures do say 1000 words, however I opted against posting pictures of the multitude of damage and destruction that the little cutie has caused along the way...we love him anyway! How could you not??

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas! It was actually the first that we spent in Florida and it was quite different to have Christmas Eve on the lanai in 80 degree weather rather than being snowed in with no electricity!!! It was certainly a great time, but was bittersweet because Jason, Breann, and Myara made the trip North to visit with Breann's family. I'm happy that she got to see them, but it just wasn't the same without my little bro there. We also missed seeing Grandma Barb and Papa John, but will hopefully see them both very soon...
Christmas Eve started a bit dramatically, when I had the audacity to put curlers in Isabella's hair earlier in the day. She was fine with it until she saw herself in the mirror and was horrified. She threw a fit and begged me to take them out of her hair. She thought that she would have to keep them in for the party and said that she didn't want everyone to laugh at her. Awwww-it took a while to convince her that they would come out before anyone saw her (I told you she was a diva!) I actually shot a video of the fit, but promised her that I wouldn't show it to anyone. Her hair did turn out beautiful though, as you can see in the pics! The price we women pay for our beauty!!!! :)
Christmas morning began a bit sooner than we had hoped-Nate woke Izzy up at 2 a.m. and came to our room to wake us...needless to say, he was sent packing. Iz had no problem cuddling up with us and snoozing away, but Nate spent the rest of the evening watching the news in his room. We began our day at 6 a.m. and the kids were very thrilled with the haul for the year. Some of the favorites for Isabella were her bike, all of the many Barbies, and about 1,000 Littlest Pet Shop animals. Without a doubt, the top of the list for Nate was the Wii-his first game system ever. He also loved the rip stick and great tool box (filled) from Santa.
I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday too...lots of love from all of us!!!
***Don't forget to scroll down and turn off the music before playing the video!!**

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