Disneyworld vacation

 So I hope you don't mind but I'm going to jump around a little getting caught up on posts. And no better place to start then our FABULOUS vacation in January. We flew to Florida and met Nana, Grandpa Dave, Uncle Patrick, Uncle Jordan and Aunt Shay (my family) It started with receiving Disney new wrist bands in the mail. These little bands handled everything, park passes, express pass, hotel room key, charge it...yep, everything. So so easy, no need to carry a wallet or anything else.

 The pictures are also not in a timeline order, we got to take many boat rides (which I LOVED) and most of them looked like this.

 Luke was always up for taking a picture with the characters.

 Its harder then it looks to take a picture with your phone while your riding a ride, but you can still see a few family members on Dumbo.

 We did a lot of exploring, I loved the boardwalk, water and coffee all my favorite things.

 Rock n' Roller coaster, you betcha. Luke and Kolby really wanted to ride it but once their hoods were off they were not quite tall enough.

For the first couple days we were there the Christmas decorations were still up. Its hard to tell but the castle was literally dripping in lights. 

 The boys ADORE their uncles, they were in heaven spending a week solid with them at the happiest place on earth.

 The boys lost their minds over hats, Uncle Patrick bought them these with their names on them.

 It was a little weird for Dewey and I. On the second day we noticed we were holding hands and walking just the two of us, The boys happily walking with an uncle.

 Are you noticing some pictures we are wearing shorts, some we are bundled up in coats? Yep it was that kind of weather, luckily we packed for it.

 Epcot family photo

 Mickey and Minnie photo op

 This picture of Kolby and Patrick cracks me up every time I look at it. They are wearing the Bugs Life 3D glasses.

 I thought this part of Animal Kingdom was beautiful. The Everest ride is in the background. We rode it many many times, to say Luke and Kolby are roller coaster fans is a huge understatement.

 We loved Epcot and all the countries. One night The "Littles" stayed with Nana and Grandpa so the bigger kids could go exploring. We spent the night at EPCOT and had a blast. We laughed and "sampled" each country. Tons of fun :)

 Luke turned 9 while on vacation. He got a button to wear so that everyone we ran into wished him a Happy Birthday. For him this was only natural :) Nana and Grandpa Dave bought him a cake, because you can't miss out on making a wish. He got to go birthday shopping at the LEGO store, a happier kid you have never seen. He declared it the best birthday ever.

 Of course we needed a photo with Kolbys favorite "Cars".

 Remember the hats thing, Grandpa Dave bought Kolby this one and Luke Mickey Wizard hat he is wearing in some of the pictures. Lost their minds over hats.

 More then a few nights were spent like this. They were such little troopers since we pretty much ran all day every day.

 One night was spent enjoying the Christmas street, music and "snow", magical.

 And all to soon the vacation was over, and we were boarding a plane to go home.

This was a vacation of a lifetime. Before having kids I had a image in my head of how I would like things to be. This was it, the boys spending time with family on a wonderful vacation. We will be forever thankful to Nana and Grandpa Dave for everything they did to make it happen.

Quick post to say WE ARE BACK!!!

I know its been 9 months since I last posted. And I'm just going to be honest here, I would look at the blog it would make me sad and I would close it. We went through a LOT of very hard changes with family last year. In simple terms it was devastating. But as I have mentioned several times over the years I am ever the optimistic. I believe things happen for a reason and try to look on the bright side.

Dewey, me and the boys are blessed with health and happiness. We enjoy a wonderful life full of adventure. And I am going to get back into the habit of posting about it.

So stay tuned for more posts and pictures.

Oh and we got a wonderful new blog makeover by Nikki at Blogs for a cause. To start us off with a fresh new look.

3rd installment

A little funny that it took me three posts to actually get to the Grand Canyon pictures. But it was just that good of a vacation.

So Sunday morning we woke up early to go to the Wild West Show the train company put on. Since we have been home I can't even count how many times the boys have replayed the shoot outs. And how many times I have heard "No I get to be the sheriff".

Then it was time to board the train. Luckily for us our wonderful neighbors who had already taken the train gave us a book all about the ride before we left home. So we had all kinds information that we would not have known without the book.

Riding a train might just be my new favorite way to travel. Its nice and slow with comfy seats. Big windows for me to look out. This particular train had musicians come through to entertain us.

And of course I took pics along the way, Cute grandma and grandpa. I have to say a very good way to reach the Grand Canyon.

Of course I have heard about how magnificent the Grand Canyon is. It did not disappoint. It really is so big its hard to comprehend it, a little overwhelming.

So happy that our Grand Canyon first time was with shared with family.

There is a walk way that I have no idea how far it goes. We walked along for about a mile looking at the views. There was tons of educational stops along the way that was right up my nerd alley. The boys thought the rocks and how old each one was was pretty cool.

Love these two!

This might be one of my new favorite pictures of all time.

You really could stay for days just looking at everything. For us it was a few hours. We had a wonderful lunch at a hotel with windows overlooking the Grand Canyon, a little surreal.

All to soon it was time to leave so back on the train for us. I think the highlight of the boys trip was the train "robbery" that happened on the way back. The "robbers" (who we found out were retired and off duty police officers) rode along side the train. At just that moment the train ran into trouble and had to stop. The "robbers" came through each car. Can you just imagine the boys faces as this happened? Then the sheriff came though and we all cheered for him to catch the "robbers". So fun!

Oh you might think we are done... but no. There will be one last post, just that good people :)



Grand Canyon (2)

After the parade Luke went down hill fast, high fever, headache the whole nine yards. Winnie and I walked to the closest store we could find that had kids medicine. We gave him some and hoped for the best as we went to lunch. We had just ordered when we realised he needed to be in bed. So Dewey drove him back to the hotel. While we waited for our food, packed it to go and walked back to the hotel. Surprisingly not to out of the norm for us (we are used to the unexpected, roll with the flow people)  so we came up with a new game plan for the afternoon.

Grandma offered to stay with Luke who by this time was fast asleep so that we could take Kolby exploring.

I had seen a brochure for a place called Bearizonia. Its a wildlife preserve rescue place for large animals that you can drive through.

Happy healthy animals that you get to see up close and personal, YES please.

So Dewey, Me Grandpa and Kolby loaded up in the car to see us some wildlife :)

It was AMAZING! I am aware that animal pics on a blog are a snooze fest however I think my love all things furry trumps that fact.

I mean can you even handle how cute this bear is?

After driving around past bears, wolves and buffalo you park and walk through the next area. Which includes....... BABY bears. Oh my heart I almost couldn't handle it. And I found out that they are bottle fed once every two hours. That means someone has the job of holding these babies and bottle feeding them every two hours. THAT'S A JOB. At that point I was prepared to stay and live there forever if they would let me do that "job". I might have had to be pushed away from this area..

Its kind of hard to tell but there are THREE bears in that skinny little tree. These bears were the next age up from the babies, the kindergartners. And just as stinking cute I might add.

The three men folk thought the whole thing was pretty cool. I loved every minute.

When we got back to the hotel room Luke was just waking up. More medicine a little food for dinner and then early to bed. The next morning he rallied and seemed to be feeling a lot better. Which was handy since this was our big day, our trip to the Grand Canyon via train.

More to follow.....



Grand Canyon Vacation (part 1)

For Memorial weekend we went on a family trip to the Grand Canyon. It was amazing!! Randy and Winnie (Grandpa & Grandma) left early Friday morning. Dewey, I and the boys left as soon as Luke got out of school. (Both boys last day of school). Our first stop was the Hoover Dam.

It is a HUGE structure, if your an architecture nerd like me you would love it.

A little alarming to see how low the water is. All the white that you can see on the rocks is where there used to be water. Lake Meed is way way to low.

For security reasons a new bridge was built to drive over. But you can still drive over the Hoover dam if you go through a security check first. We drove over then parked and walked back over it for the best view.

We stayed in Williams AZ. A darling little western town. We stayed at the Grand Canyon Train Hotel which was a block from downtown. So it was easy to walk everywhere. To the boys delight walking involved going past a lot of trains and tracks.

Because it was Memorial Weekend there was a Parade on Saturday. We spent the morning walking around town and then watching the parade.

It was about this time that Luke started to not feel good. Hey it wouldn't be a Warner vacation if it was all smooth sailing :)

More to follow...



Kolby's Kindergarten Graduation

 We were driving into town to go to Kolbys Kindergarten graduation when he informs me that he has lost a tooth. (perfect timing that's us) Being a "seasoned" mom I reached down to grab a napkin (I keep a stack close and handy) handed it back to him and told him nor to drip blood on his suit.

How is it that my baby has already graduated kindergarten?

Kolby was so excited to wear his "handsome" outfit. Luke on the other hand informed me that it wasn't his graduation so he didn't need to dress up.

All of the kindergarten classes put on a Dr. Seuss themed program. It was beyond stinking cute. Kolby asked if I was going to cry. I asked "what do you think?" he said "Try not to be to loud".

We lucked out and got front row seats thanks to some friends that got there an hour early. Who ever came up with kindergartners singing "oh the places you'll go" was brilliant.

Kolby went to preschool and then kindergarten with 6 of his best friends. It's such a great group of kids. So sad to think after 4 years together this is their last year together. Next year Kolby will go to the same school Luke goes to. A few of the other kids have moved and will be going to new schools too. So we had to celebrate after the graduation by going to sushi.

The restaurant was great and gave the "graduates" and their siblings their very own table. A very big deal. The parents sat a few feet away all trying to relax but failing miserably :)


One more week of school and summer vacation starts.

Happy Mothers Day!

I had a simply wonderful Mothers day and hope you did too. I woke up to breakfast ready and waiting out on the patio. The boys had each made me the cutest present at school. Luke made a vase with tape and Kolby made Hot pads with his hand print on them. Both just perfect. They also picked out a plant for me, they told me it was a "man eating flower". Its official name is a red rose plant. :)

When they asked what I wanted to do I said "Lets go hiking". We decided to try a new hike about 15 minutes to the south of us. As a fun added bonus grandpa came with us.

A lot of the hike was in and through a stream. Which just happened to be ice cold. (that's what happens when snow melts :)

But the absolutely stunning scenery made up for it.

The slot canyon was amazing. These pics were all taken with my phone. I did take my camera but forget to change the lens (derr) we were in way to confined spaces to use it. So keep in mind phone pics and frozen feet when you look at the pics.

At one point we came to a ladder which really was just a log with little wood pieces nailed in for steps. I have never really thought about doing these kind of things before. Now that I have boys that also have to do them it changes things a bit. (scared out of my mind)

Grandpa went first and then the boys were brave little troopers and clamored right up after him. Once we got to the top Luke did ask if there was any other way to get back to the car that didn't involve going back down the ladder. There wasn't but we all made it back none the worse for wear.

Well almost, Kolbys wet shoes caused a blister so he "had" to be carried part of the way back.

A beautiful perfect Mothers day hike!

When we got back we went to Grandma and Grandpas to have a BBQ for Grandmas mothers day. A wonderful relaxing way to end the day.