Back to the Grind

This is what our 'grind' looks like these days.

The 'ticket booth' for his lego amusement park.

More lego amusement park rides.

Tough huh? :)  Actually, I only took pictures of the fun parts because nobody wants to look at photos of the kids out on dog bomb duty or me scrubbing sinks.  Or digging through more boxes.  I swear they multiply at night.  After being on box hiatus we made a good dent today though!

We've been busy.  Having all the activity options of a big city is nice.  Even after being careful not to overload we spend a fair amount of time in the car because it seems like everything is 30 minutes north or 30 minutes south-- natural side effect of living in retirement central.  With so much time in the car we need to use it for something worthwhile; we've been here long enough that the novelty of simply watching out the window has worn off.  I feel a bout of Story of the World history coming on. . . if I can only find it!  Might be the only way I can get my kids to listen to it.  I love it, the kids, not so much.  Maybe this time.  If you have other car-ed stuff you love let me know.

And for your viewing pleasure. . . Florida snow :}  The big pile of snow in front of a lake and palm trees made me laugh.  It's just the ice shavings from the rink but it's enough to play in.  

New Year

We started off the New Year with our family tradition of watching the last sunset and the first sunrise, it's something we've really enjoyed over the past few years.  Since most people stay up late the night before, morning is very quiet and it's beautiful to sit in the stillness and watch the day unfold.

The picture doesn't do the colors justice, the sun was bright pink, the colors reflected in the water and over the sand.  Certainly worth getting up for! 

The chill quickly wore off and this year we had breakfast on the beach in our swimsuits rather than at Cracker Barrel in our pajamas.  We dug for shells to add to our collection.  Waded around and played in the water, it's shallow quite a ways out.  Found what we think was some sort of eel and an electric ray.  Lise and I had some sting rays come up behind us and glide right past my ankle!  Made me jump to have those two dark shapes suddenly appear under the water only a few hairs away.  They continued to play in the surf for a good 30 minutes.  So fun to watch.  Really great morning for exploring!

A few days later we went back to Disney!  This place is quickly becoming one of our favorite short getaways.  We all love it.  We all get motion sick easy too but this place isn't bad, you learn quick which rides to avoid.  The first time I was worried about how the leftover vertigo would do; we haven't been to an amusement park since it hit me last February and it has been a looong, slow road.  But after Thunder Mountain and a host of other zippy, fast moving rides I was fine. . . until we climbed in Pooh's Hunny Pots.  Yeah, the mild ride for toddlers just about did me in. 

lol  I should probably at least stop for pictures, we end up with a lot of them that look like this :}

The Osborne light display- so many lights it's like standing in front of an oven.

It was actually cold enough to wear coats!  Made me one happy camper :)  By the 3rd day it was back to 'hot in t-shirts' though.

We made it to Legoland too, but my camera batteries died so no pics.  Unless my ever-working hubby has some in his phone?  Maybe.  

The next day we headed to the Japanese garden for an Oshogatsu festival: taiko drummers, Japanese food (my kid chose a hot dog- really?), kid games, etc.  It was fun and more crowded than Disney.  I got one picture. . .

Pretty cool flower, but no kids.  Ah well.  Happy New Year everyone!  Ours is off to a fantastic start-- house rented, time away as a family, beautiful winter, lots of loved family and friends.  We hope this year has great things in store for each of you.