Waiting Game...

This is the mountain that did me in on Morning #2 at Disney. You can kinda see Jimmy through the blurring motion as he is wearing a Blue Tigers Jacket with white stripes and he is sitting in the seat alone.

This morning I'm having familiar roller coaster feelings. I'm all hyped up with bitter/sweet feelings. I was informed yesterday that a job offer to Lansing was being mailed to me. I will accept it...but I am full of anxiety of how I will make this work for my family. I'm not sure of the shift or the report date which adds to the fear. I'm waiting on the mailman and hope to know more soon.

Snow Happens!

I was late for work this morning. The snow was deep and I had to shovel off the driveway and my car to get the kids buckled in safely this morning. Your stomach really turns flips when your kids take a look at the snow and say "I hope we don't go spinning this morning." I really wanted to go back inside and watch MM Clubhouse instead. We got behind a snow plow who led us to town but it was slow going. We got here safe and sound. Needless to say...it's a bad hair day:)

We had a good weekend with family and friends. Ryan was a stinker doodle for a while so we missed out going to the U of M game...but he later recovered nicely. I had a lot of fun making dress up dolls with Hailee and having dinner Friday night and Saturday night with friends. Managed to have a couple of yummy adult drinks too. I even got a couple of scrapbook pages completed.

Here's a couple of pics from Disney featuring the boys at the playground. They love slides. Ryan was especially happy b/c he got away with going head first a couple of times.

Quick Weight Loss Note

I have to reveal it...I am so hungry and I am feeling really discouraged right now b/c I just want to eat. I'm hoping this little diversion will keep me on track. It is really hard to focus on my goal. I have been really good about working out but I love me some good food! Gotta Go...gonna try to get a quick walk in before I reach for a snack.

Not-so-Spinning Tea Cup for Four

So my boys got me on the spinning tea cup soon after my mishap on the dark and backwards roller coaster. They promised they wouldn't spin it too fast:) We had a blast. I'm loving reliving these memories. I hope you are enjoying them too. Look at those smiles!
Then we had some laughs and the boys liked making us laugh so they made these silly faces while we shared a famous Pineapple Dole Whip and a Root Beer Float. Yumm.

Simple Favorites

Dinoland was a fun little area to catch some rides and play some games. The games cost a fortune but the wins were priceless. Tyler beat out Ryan at a Whack-a-mole game to score a cute little alligator that he adores. Ty walked the area so proud of being in charge of the wins while Jim and Ry went spinning in the air. We ate at Restaurantausaurus for a quick meal of chicken nuggets and double cheeseburger with an extra bun to make a meal for 2.

(Really, this part of the park looked so low budget...a little Irish Hills Prehistoric Forest could easily match this area, but the kids loved it:)

Ryan scored his "Orange Crush" turtle at the water gun race against a whole crowd of kids. Nice job buddy. You really worked hard!

Another fun past time was looking for the pressed penny machines that offered tokens of the areas best characters pressed into your own penny. You just deposit 51 cents. Really, it's a cute and fun keepsake. We ended up with about 15 of them but the boys liked making their creations.

I had quite a bit of anxiety over the meal plan as all of the blogs and Disney help desks said you should make reservations 180 days in advance. I felt really crippled doing that (plus, we only had around 30 days notice) b/c I didn't know where we would be at meal times. I did make a few and we played it by ear the rest of the time. We really lucked out when we walked right into the Coral Reef and got seated. It was beautiful and completely lined with aquarium to enjoy the scenery while eating. Jim had Mahi Mahi and I had Lobster Ravioli with sun dried tomatoes. Very delicious.

Pictured above is a little play area by Finding Nemo for families to pose with the Nemo and Friends shark whose motto is: Fish are friends, not food:)

Ohhh...so many memories...we have to get saving for the next trip.

Magical Adventure!

We just got home from a 9 day Magical Adventure to Walt Disney World and had the best time. There are so many wonderful memories that I want to remember and thought I'd give a few every day while the magic sustains.

The plane ride down went without any hitches. Ahhh. Jim and I had alot of anxiety about the flight but the boys were so good. We arrived to a rainy and dismal Florida but we didn't let it get us down. We met up with some friends who coincidentally had the same plans and acted as our personal tour guides for the first 5 days of vacation. It was fun to be with them and took a whole lot of stress off of Jim and I.

After we got Ryan through a mini-meltdown because he wanted to go to the pool:) we headed to Hollywood Studios for some roller coaster action and 3D Movie fun. I loved Hollywood Studios and we spent several days returning to this park. Of course, when you have the luxury of 9 days...you can leisurely hop between parks. I think the boys enjoyed the busrides and monorail as much as some the attractions. All of the parks were unique and spectacular. We were thrilled every time we turned around. Here are some of our favorites:

Ryan: Test Track and Space Mountain

Jim: Mt. Everest and Space Mountain

Carol: Soaring and Toy Story and Muppets 3D

Tyler: "Doofy" and Dumbo and the Playgrounds

There were a couple of low-lights for me that I won't dwell on but I will tell you that Jim's Everest ride put me out of commission and introduced me to the world or projectile vomiting:( Sorry for the graphic. The second low was losing my camera that is still unrecovered at the Buzz Lightyear ride. I was so heartbroken that the family went straight to a Kodak store first thing the next morning and bought a new camera which salvaged some great memories and is a pretty sweet little camera. The only last downfall was having to come home to a half a foot of snow and having Jim shovel the driveway before we could carry the boys into bed at midnight. (I ended up calling into work for the rest of the week too...that was definately a highlight.)

More to tell...keep watching.

Oh...we started another weight loss challenge. I put back on 4lbs. -181 lbs. during our vacation as we ate like princes and princesses:) Now it's carrot sticks and cucumbers and a snitch of Tyler's leftover ice cream. Wish me luck.