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As a full-fledged member of the marching band, Jillian is expected to participate in some of the fundraising projects they do. We decided to make a family day of it (plus a couple friends) and go man the concession stand for a few hours. Mike was the grill-master, Marisa liked taking the orders and the teens ate alot of candy. They also worked very hard. It was a good day!
Jillian and Karina (I forgot to take pics when Pam was still around)
Marisa relaxing after her "shift"...
It's tough to believe it, but Marisa, my baby, is a 4th grader this year. School started on August 1 - crazy early, in my opinion. She was ready to roll that first day or so, but then she was asking about when the first vacation would be.
One evening, Marisa set up a little bit of duckie-ness and wanted to document it with a photo. I love that she gave the duck in her hand some bunny ears. Wacky!
On Labor Day, Jillian went off on a hike with a friend (and almost became the first family member to make it to the top of a 14er!) so we took Marisa to check out the Manitou Cliff Dwellings near Colorado Springs. She regaled us with tons of information about Native Americans. She's quite the history buff!
Later she was more thrilled when we came upon this giant rubber ducky in Manitou Springs. She loves those things!
We enjoyed the parks and the beach, but the reason for traveling to Florida was to see our family. Our military life has kept us far apart for most of the girls' growing up years and time together is precious. For months, Jillian and Marisa had asked how much longer it would be until they could see Nana and Grandaddy and Aunt Cin-Cin. Everything else was just bonus.
Mom arranged to share some special activities with each girl. She and Jillian did a scavenger hunt using a golf cart to get around. Jillian LOVED driving the golf cart! Both girls made videos for souvenirs. And Marisa and mom met a real author and made a book about The Villages. Fun stuff!
All good things come to an end, but they were close until the last minute. I love this picture. A girl and her grandma. So sweet!
Good-bye, Villages!
We happened to be in Florida when the last shuttle mission was scheduled, so mom, Mike and I drove over to the coast to watch a chapter in American history come to an end. We headed for Titusville which is right across the bay from the launch pad. So did several hundred other people. Yikes! We started on a walk-about to find a good viewing location and, almost right away, a little miricle happened.
We had stopped to talk over our options and a man beckoned me from his driveway. He invited us to watch the take-off from his yard. No strings attached. He said that his dad would never have wanted him to charge for such a thing and we were completely welcome to join the group hanging out in his backyard. Goodness still exists in our country!
I can't imagine that there was a better view from anywhere else.
I only had my iPhone, but I love this shot I was able to capture of the take-off...
I'm so glad that we were able to witness such an amazing event, and nothing will ever take away from the happiness I feel at having shared it with my mom and Mike.
In hopes of warding off the inevitable after-three-days-company-stink, we took off for a couple nights and stayed at Shades of Green in Orlando. It's the military resort on the Disney World property and totally rocks for convenience to the parks. We were so lucky to get a room at the last minute!
We love Epcot and Animal Kingdom best, so that's what we did on this mini-trip. We always enjoy wandering around the "countries" and checking out all the different sorts of food. We had a fabulous lunch in Italy and several snacks along the way. The girls wouldn't pose with this guy, but Mike was willing!
We maximized the usage of fast passes and the girls got to ride their favorites several times. They even talked me onto a couple things. Their reasoning for my being able to handle Test Track..."It's not as fast as you drive all the time." They were right and I didn't even feel nauseous (much). I loved the other one they talked me onto; it was Soarin' and the scenery was beautiful. If only it wasn't 11:30pm when we got on it... we were all pooped and a little grumpy. But I'm glad to have found a ride I can handle and enjoy.
The next day, the girls did their favorite roller coaster, Expedition Everest, four times.
Thank goodness for fast passes! I joined them for the river raft ride and being wet made the day so much more bearable. I also thoroughly enjoyed the Little Nemo musical show and the Safari Parade. By myself. My kids are much too cool to do geeky stuff like that. I'm old enough to embrace my nerdiness.
The whole lot of us agreed that Harry Potter World was a must do for our visit to Florida. It's at Universal's Islands of Adventure in Orlando. It was awesome to wander around Hogsmeade and the Hogwarts castle!
We tried butter beer (yum!) and pumpkin juice (gag!) and bought a chocolate frog at Honeydukes. While I was waiting for everyone to go on one of the rides - the Forbidden Journey was pronounced awesome - I waited an hour to get into Ollivander's for a wand spiel. Total waste of time! Don't fall for it!
We all liked the wander through Hogwarts for the Forbidden Journey line. It makes the time go much faster when there's something to see. Here we are in the greenhouse; thankfully, there were no mandrakes.
If you love the books and movies and have a chance to go, do it!
It didn't feel right to visit Florida and not get to the beach, so we arranged an overnight to meet up with my high school bestie, Jeni, and her two girls. I used priceline.com for the first and, likely, only time. Unknown to me, the holiday week-end is a big deal in Daytona and all the hotels were booked. I ended up paying more than I wanted for two rooms that were, shall we say, less than ideal. We had a queen bed for three people and a king for the other four. And one was a stinky, yucky smoking room. Ewww!
All the more reason to get out and enjoy the beach! We ended up at the beautiful, mostly deserted Flagler Beach. We had a great time hopping the waves. Nearly all of us got sunburn, but we had fun doing it! Here's the cutie-patooties - Marisa and Taryn...
Since we were sunburned, the next day, we just did a stroll along the beach.
Jeni and I didn't mind posing for a pic, but we're not 13 anymore....
We took a long loop back to The Villages and stopped by Disney's Pleasure Island to find some lunch. Life is about being spontaneous, right? We enjoyed a fabulous meal at Fulton's Crab House. Our kids can throw down with some seafood!
It was brought to my attention that I hadn't blogged lately. Turns out that this was true - I had gone through my pictures and selected my favorites, but they sat right there on my computer and refused to blog themselves. So, I'll go ahead and take care of that now.
In June, the girls and I flew to Florida to stay with my family in The Villages. In case you've never heard of the place, it's a retirement utopia just north of the family utopia of Orlando. You have to see it to believe it!
Marisa's dream for the summer was to return to her favorite theme park, Sea World. We made it a girl's day out with Aunt Cin-Cin and had a great time. This was in spite of the torrential rains that showed up in the afternoon. Truly, it wasn't mere sprinkles we endured - it was big, fat splatty raindrops that kinda hurt when they hit.
But we decided that we weren't going to let the weather stop our fun and we saw every show in the place, plus all the animal exhibits and rode a couple rides. The bad weather was actually beneficial for clearing out much of the crowd and we didn't feel the heat. I considered it a win overall!
Here's me and Marisa before the rain...
And here's Aunt Cin-Cin and Marisa after the rain. She got a souvenir t-shirt so that she wouldn't freeze!
