Disney World

We just spent a wonderful week down in Orlando, Florida.  Since we are on the East Coast and the girls had spring break we thought it would be a perfect opportunity to head to Disney World.  Gramma Laurie had the same spring break as us so she met us there, what could be better?

Our first "magical"day was spent at Animal Kingdom.  We were the third car in the parking lot and waited at the gates for the park to open.  Before we left I read about about Disney and the best way to avoid long lines during peak times (ie Spring Break) is to be there when the park opens.  Hence waking up at 6am on our vacation :)  Gramma was a trooper with the early wake up and the time change from the West Coast she was waking up around 3am her time!

Both Brian and my favorite ride of the whole vacation was the safari ride in Animal Kingdom.  We saw lots of interesting animals and one angry rhino.  We took Luna on the Everest Expedition roller coaster which she told us afterward that it was too scary.  I was glad to see she does have a threshold, sometimes it feels as though nothing rattles her.  Rachel was pretty quiet most of the day, just taking it all in.

 

 After our day at Animal Kingdom, we spent a day at our resort relaxing.  My folks let us use their timeshare for our stay and we loved the place.  It had three pools, miniature golf and 2 playgrounds. We had some cool weather but the pools were nice and warm so the girls got in about three hours of swim time that first day.

They also had activities for the whole family.  Below, Luna playing Bingo.  She won the "L" game and got a water bottle as a prize.  She was a happy kiddo.

The next day we went to the Magic Kingdom.  Of course we were there bright and early, waiting for the gates to open.  It was down right cold, jeans and fleece weather.  We enjoyed many rides. Rachel loved Peter Pan and the Royal Carousal and Luna loved It's a Small World and driving the cars on the speedway.  

 

After spending the morning at the park, we headed back to the condo for an afternoon nap.  Everyone slept but Rachel.  She just played on her bed for the two hours!  Then we headed back to the park for dinner, more rides and the night time parade.  Gramma bought the girls Minnie Ears and had brought with her light up necklaces, they were perfect for the night.

The next day was another day of rest for us.  We swam and then in the evening we had dinner with the Weber side of the family.  My Mom (Grandma Broz) and her sister (Aunt Pam) were flying into Orlando to visit with their brother (Uncle Gary) and his wife (Aunt Josie) for the week.  They ended up spending one night at our resort so we all had dinner together.  It was a fun although very quick visit.

The next day, Thursday was our last day at Magic Kingdom.  We were up and there early but luckily it was not quite as cold as Tuesday.  Our first stop was Peter Pan, Rachel's favorite.  We spent the morning going on a number of rides and seeing some of the shows.  We watched the afternoon parade and then went on some of our favorite rides again before going home for the day.  The longest we ever waited for a ride was 20 minutes.  The key was being there early and getting all the popular rides done by 11am.  After 11am we saw wait lines for as much as 170 minutes for a 3 minute ride!  Crazy, I could not imagine doing that with a   3 and 5 year old. We were willing to get up early to not have to wait in long lines.

Thank goodness for Gramma.  She went on all the spiny rides with the girls!  We are so glad she was able to come on this trip it made it so much more relaxing for Brian and I.  The girls loved having her to play with.  

 We all had a great time.  Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us use your timeshare!  It was a fun spring break, can't wait for our next vacation :)

Funny Things Said by Rachel

When Rachel is familiar and comfortable with you she is quite the talker.  She can talk my ear off some days.  But if she is not familiar or comfortable around you she may not say a word, not a word.  I love to just sit with her while she is eating her lunch.  When it is just the two of us, she has lots to say.  It always makes me smile. Here are a few of my favorites.

On groundhog's Day, Rachel was sitting at the table  chatting while eating her after school snack.  She says to me "If the beaverhog sees his shadow there will be more summer.  But if he doesn't see his shadow there won't be more summer.  My teachers told me that."


After swimming for two hours.  I tell Rachel it is time for us to get out of the pool.  Completely innocently she asks "why is the pool closing?"  To which Mommy laughs and says "no, mommy is tired of swimming."

After trying a raw wonton wrapper for the first time.  Rachel says to me "it taste like bread but looks like cheese." (personally I thought it was a great description, just my opinion) She liked it.

In the apartment we had worship songs playing.  The song comes on "I have peace like a river in my soul."  Rachel looks at me and says "that means you have it in your feets."

Isn't she adorable?  We just love her, always making us smile.  I can't believe she will be 4 in just a few weeks.  Where has the time gone?

Egg Stuffing Party

Every Spring our church puts on a huge egg hunt for our neighborhood.  Each year they get about 500 children participating in the hunt.  It is held in the public school (the one Luna attends) in our building.  The kids hunt in waves, so that they are not over run by each other.  The eggs are hidden under a layer of balloons, so the kids have to dig through the balloons to find the eggs.  It is a lot of fun.  There are also other activities such as face painting, crafts and games.

A couple nights before the hunt, we had a huge egg stuffing party in our apartment.  Our goal was to stuff 12,000 eggs with candy. It was 3 hours of total chaos with all the adults, kids, eggs and candy.   We did not quite get it done.  People ended up taking some home to finish up.  At the end of the night we had about 10,000 eggs stuffed and nerds all over our floor :)  I am still finding those things.

 

 Look at all that candy!

Post Sandy

Since hurricane Sandy hit back in October things have been slowly returning to normal.  Most things in our neighborhood are back up and running but there are a few that are still closed and the work is slow going.

Our community center was hit hard by the hurricane.  The pool reopened in January, hurray!  Rachel and I go to open swim once a week there and both girls take swim lessons on tuesday afternoons.  We love that pool.  But the bottom floor of the center is still closed.  They are working to raise the money to fix it.  Below you can see the photos looking down the stairs to the bottom floor.  The blue line along the wall in the left photo was the water line.  It was deep, there is still another full flight of stairs around that corner!

There is also a playground on Pier 25 that was severely damaged by the hurricane.   This was our favorite fall and spring time play ground, so much fun.  It did not have much shade so in the summer it is a little too hot for us.  It has yet to reopen and really minimal work has been done to get it in working order.  But last week, I was walking on the pier and was so excited to see machinery and trucks removing all the broken debris.  It will be a long time before this play ground is open to the public but it was encouraging to see some progress. 

Above:  This is a picture of the sandbox, I had no idea the concrete was so deep and thick for a sandbox!

Above:  This is a walking path/area in the playground, not so smooth anymore :(

Above: Other parts of the playground weathered the storm quite well

We miss this playground, I am guessing it won't be open before we move back to Washington.  :(

Luna climbing at the playground before Sandy

Snow Day

We have had a few snowy days this winter.  One snow storm arrived on a Friday night.  So we woke up Saturday morning to about 10 inches of snow.  Luna was eager to go out and explore, Rachel had no interest in leaving the apartment. 

Luna's favorite activity was to try to build a tunnel in the snow and then crawl through it.  It was a lot of fun playing in the snow with her, both Daddy and I got to take her out at different times.  Rachel never left the apartment :)

We typically walk home from church and it takes about 15 minutes.  That Sunday, Luna loved to climb the snow mounds.  It took us forever to get home.  There were lots of mounds :)  Rachel stayed in the stroller, she had no interest in the snow.

Packages

This is the front desk of our apartment building.  A package truck has just delivered some packages.  They get passed off to our front desk staff and go into our package room.  Then on a computer screen in the mailbox room they list all the apartments that have packages.  Luna loves to run into the mailbox room to look to see if we have a package.

Loads of packages come about 3 or 4 times a day.  During the holiday season it is even more!  The package room can get very full.  Sometimes they will call up to our apartment to see if we are home and if they can bring our packages up to us.  It is great!

PS.  I have no idea why Rachel was making that face, I think she was being silly...

Ice Skating

Rachel does not have school on Tuesdays or Thursdays.  So those our special days that we get to go out and do something fun.  I have loved having this 1:1 time and have been able to see her personality so much better.  She is really a sweet little girl and has quite the sense of humor.

Thursdays are always reserved for swimming.  Some times after 2 hours in the pool I have to tell her it is time to go.  She will ask "why, is the pool closing?" Then I have to tell her "no, Mommy is just tired and cold."  I never thought she would out last me in the pool but she easily does.

Tuesdays usually begin with me asking her what she wants to do.  The typical response is either go to the Library or go swimming (which I remind her we do on Thursdays).  But one Tuesday I gave her a few options one being ice skating and that was what she picked.

The ice skating rink was on the southern tip of Manhattan about 1.5 miles down from where we lived.  Rachel rode her scooter the whole way there, I was very impressed, that was a long way for her little legs.

I was not sure how ice skating was going to go.  I had not been in years, YEARS and Rachel has only been once.  The one time she went the rink had walkers so the kids could use them on the ice to help with their balance.  But here in the city none of the rinks had them so it was just going to be me holding her up.  I was worried that we would end up in a pile on the ice :)

Luckily, Rachel and I did much better then expected.  Rachel was determined to do it on her own and by the end did an entire loop without holding on to me or the wall.  We were the only people at the rink which make it so much better.  Rachel could go any direction she liked and I did not have to worry about her getting in the way of other people.  She was so proud of herself and we both had a lot of fun.  She then scooted all the way home.  She was tired that night to say the least :)

Funny Things Said

After spending three weeks in Washington for the holidays, we had just had a very long day of travel back to NYC.  As we were getting off the elevator and walking to our apartment Rachel says, "hey I remember this place."  (I would hope so sweetie we have lived here for the past 2 years).

We were in Washington for Christmas.  Luna was wanting to play outside and so I was encouraging her to go in our backyard to play on the swing set.  She responds by saying, "It is scary back there, there are bears, foxs and rabbits. I can't play back there."  (oh man, we have created a city kid!)

Again we are in Washington for the holidays and driving around.  Luna from the back seat says to me "There are lots more tree in Washington then New York."  I respond "oh really."  She says "yes, just look around Mom."

The other day I was having to scrub some grease off of Luna's hand and she was not having it.  She was crying and protesting while I was trying to scrub it off.  During the dramatic episode she says "no, not by the hair on my chinny chin chin."  Hilarious!

Bike Riding in the City

It is a special day when Luna gets to ride her bike.  So after being cooped up in the apartment this winter.  On a nice, relatively warm day, Luna got to take her bike out.  We went to Rockefeller park where Luna rode her bike through the Tom Otterness sculptures.  It made quite the obstacle course for her but she loved it.  Mommy still had a touch of the flu so she did not last long but it was fun to get out an enjoy the sun for a little bit.  Once we got back to the building her bike went back into the bike room and has yet to be seen again :(

Sick Little Rachel

In January, Rachel came down with the flu (Mommy followed shortly after).  She spent a couple days laying on the couch and getting many cuddles.  The only time we left the apartment was to drop off or pick up Luna from school.  Here she is all bundled up in the stroller ready to get Luna from school.

Christmas 2013

We had a wonderful time in Washington for Christmas.  It was a busy 3 weeks and we loved every minute of it.  We got to see our family and made many new memories together.  We were so busy we had to cut some things out but here are photos from our time.

The first night we arrived the girls got to spend the evening catching up and playing with their cousins.  It was a fun night and Brian even got some cuddle time with little Woodrow.  :) He is such a sweetheart, love him. Auntie Jessica and I had our hands full with all 4 kids but it was fun to have a house full of kiddo shenanigans.  

We spent our first few days getting the house decorated and picking out a Christmas tree.  Then we headed out to Port Townsend to visit Nana and Pops.  The girls were looking forward to the visit and Luna kept talking about a birthday party something or other.  

Nana and Pops did not disappoint.  The girls decorated a gingerbread house with Nana.  Luna got to have another Birthday party with games, presents and cake.  I must admit the balloon stomping game was a favorite among the adults and Rachel is still talking about musical chairs.  Brian and I got a date night :) We went to dinner and saw a one man play of It's a Wonderful Life.  It was a lovely night out for us.

To complete our visit we exchanged gifts. Pops gave Luna, Brian's old back packing backpack from when he was a boy.  She was so excited to get it and even more excited for her first back packing trip come this summer.

We spent Christmas at our house in Woodinville.  The girls opened gifts in the morning and in the evening we had the Broz family over for dinner.  Grandma and Grandpa Broz had been out of town on a cruise of the Panama Canal.  They returned the evening of Christmas.  My sisters and I met them at the airport as a surprise.  My favorite moment was when us three girls were in the car with my parents singing Christmas carols.  It reminded me of being a kid again :)

The day after Christmas the girls and I went to the nutcracker with Grandma and Auntie Jessica.  The girls and I just love the nutcracker.  The music is amazing and the dancing so beautiful. Such a great memory.   

After Christmas, Brian and I enjoyed a weekend away.  He took me to the Alderbrook Resort out on the Olympic Peninsula.  It was a lovely weekend away, so relaxing.

While we were gone the girls spend the weekend with Grandma and Auntie Jessica.  They took the girls ice skating for the first time and they loved it.  We are so blessed by our supportive and loving family.  It was such a treat to get away.  

We had an amazing time in Washington but were excited to get back into the routine of normal life :)  I love routine :)  Here is one last photo of Rachel and Maggie.  Rachel loves Maggie :)  LOVES HER