The Burg Backin' The Rack

Yesterday the kids and I went to Lansing to walk with two of my SIL's and some friends for the Breast Cancer walk. Down in front is Mary (one of SIL's best friends and really part of our family) wearing the pink survivor T-shirt. She had her last treatment Thursday and walked the race in pain and on Darvocet. She is one tough lady! A group of Mary and Colleen's friends from Laingsburg formed a team to do the walk to support Mary and raise money, hence "The burg Backin' the Rack".

There were about 6500 people there and it was crowded! The kids fell asleep about half way through the walk which was great because the fighting stopped. They're much cuter when their quiet too even if Mia sleeps with her mouth open. The weather turned out to be just right for the walk and it was a great day. Afterwards Colleen had a party back at her house and in true Colleen fashion went all out. She made riboon chocolates, had pink riboon hats (see photo above on left), pink cupcakes, pink ribbon balloons and even pink ribbon koozies for your drinks. I think if Colleen ever gives up her eye practice she should become a party planner.

Anyway great cause. Don't forget to click here to get women their free mammograms.

Funny and not so funny

A couple of conversations with my kids that have stuck in my mind:

Funny- In the car on the way home from school the other day Mia was asking me something.....

Me- I don't know, honey.
Mia- What! What do you mean you don't know?
Me- Sorry, I don't know. Am I supposed to know everything?
Mia- Yes, you're a mom! Just like Grandma's know everything too.
Mason- But not Grandpas.
Me- What Grandpas don't know everything?
Mason- Grandpas are boys right?
Me- Yes
Mason- Grandpas don't know because they are boys.

Not so Funny-

Mia- Do you know why I call Mason "poo poo head" sometimes?
Me- No, why? (Like I should have asked)
Mia- Because he reminds me of something that comes out of my butt sometimes.

Nice.

The Dolphin Show

So I already stated that the pool was the kids favorite part of vacation. Mia would perform the "dolphin show" everyday. There would be lots of singing and different tricks into and out of the water. The last day Mike helped her and would push her out of the water like the dolphins and whales did to the performers at Sea World. She is very confident in the water and now and will even do cannonballs into the deep end.

Mason got a little more confident everyday and was starting to hang on to the side of the hot tub (he likes the hot tub vs the pool) and kick. He'd only do it on the step for pictures though.

My cousin Karen, her daughter Emily and my Aunt Betty came and spent a pool day with us Saturday. I hadn't seen my cousin since her wedding in 1994 and it was the first time I had met Emily who is now 10. Wow! It was great seeing her but somehow I didn't have my camera with me then and I didn't get one picture of them. Her husband, Bruce, and son, Zach, came up later Saturday afternoon. When we decided we had enough the pool and was starting to gather our things my left side of my face started to feel warm. Of course, I sunburned half of my face. I had the raccoon eyes going from my sunglasses but one side if my head was definitely darker (red) then the other side. I felt like one of those villain cartoon characters where one side of their face is normal and the other evil.

Later that night Aunt Betty babysat all the kids and let us go out and have a nice dinner with Karen and Bruce. It was nice catching up and getting some good food. We went for Sushi but it was really hard deciding on something as Orlando had every restaurant imaginable and we're used to Holland where there isn't that many good places to eat.

Well, I think this will end the vacation wrap-up as I'm sure everyone doesn't want to hear every little detail of our lives. Just the highlights right? and hopefully not to much griping.

Shamu Shamu Sea World was a great deal as I found a discount online and with any paid ticket you get a 2nd day free. So all of us (My SIL's family too) went to Sea World Friday. It started out great as Mia LOVES animals and was excited to pet Rays and see dolphins. We saw the some shows, some exhibits and then found the best part of the park. The free beer! As Sea World is owned by Anhueser Busch they had a hospitality room where they handed out samples (regular size beers). I am not a big fan of Budweiser but they had all kinds to include Rolling Rock, Kirin and Amberbock. The park was pretty crowded so we just kept getting back in line. Then we saw Shamu's show and went to the "Happy Harbor" where there's kid's rides, games and a huge net tunnel system. This is where Mike lost it. Mason wanted to go up in the tunnels so he went with Mia and their cousin Bailey. Mike followed as Mason is really tiny and thought he'd need help. Mason was quick and just kept going and while Mike helped Mia.... Mason took off with Bailey following (Thank God she stuck with him!). They got to the tunnels where 5 or 6 would intersect into each other and the other children basically used Mason as a stepping stone. Mike couldn't get past the other kids and therefore couldn't get to the kids. Bailey got Mason to turn around and they eventually made it back to Mike. Mike said the tunnels felt like an oven and must have been about 120F inside. He said he was just happy to get his kid back alive and unharmed.

Then he came down REALLY pissed off and we left the park. Just a note there were a lot of school field trips and we see groups of children (or just a few) with their matching T-shirts walking around unsupervised. They were not at an age where I would have let them navigate the park unchaperoned. Good to know that I'm going to have to volunteer to chaperon to make sure my children our safe on their future school field trips.

The scene of the crime.

We went back to the condo and to the pool. Al (my SIL), says, "you know it's sad because this is the happiest our kids have been in the last two days." Not at Disney, not at Sea World.... at the pool where there is no admission charge.

We did go back to Sea World last Tuesday before we came home. It was much better! We actually had a good time. We some 3 shows and this time was down front for the Shamu show (right in the heart of the Splash zone but it missed us and we remained totally dry). The kids did some rides, got their picture with Shamu (the character walking around) and we still left early enough to go to the pool when we went back to the condo.

Happiest Place on Earth my A**

So the first day out we went to Epcot. I chose Epcot because it is the one park we didn't do last year, I remembered something with Dinosaurs there, I thought the kids would enjoy seeing the different countries and I heard Soarin' was a good ride. A poor choice for the kids. I think most of it was above them and there wasn't one ride that Mason was tall enough to get on. Mia really wanted to see Mulan so we went to China and Mushu the dragon was out. We were the lone family visiting with Mushu and I asked the guy when Mulan was coming back out and he said, "not today". So the ONE thing Mia wanted to see there was not happening. The ONE thing I wanted to do there didn't happen either as they had stopped giving out Fast Passes for Soarin' before noon and the wait was 90 minutes.

Wednesday was spent by the pool and Mike's sister, Alice, and her family came up that evening. We all went to the Magic Kingdom on Thursday and Seaworld on Friday. We will never again go to Disney in April. It was packed (or course it's spring break) as I think there were almost double the people there then our visit last year. That did not make for a fun time. We'd be at the park (even at Epcot) for about an hour and the kids would start crying to leave and go home to the pool. NICE! We had a really hard time trying to leave the Magic Kingdom as people crowded, pushed and screamed, "Can you let me out, I'm just trying to get out". Yeah, you and the rest of us. We got separated of course and Mike and this story to tell me when we met up. Mia had fallen asleep in the stroller before we left and Mike pushed her while I carried Mason. Mike said they were standing at a stand still when the guy in front of him who looked to be 80 turned around and started kicking the stroller. (we understand that occasionally while walking in a crowd we have bumped into the back of people with the stroller but they were at a stand still). Mike says, "Uh, What are you doing? My 5-year old is sleeping". The guy looks up at Mike and says, "I'm just sooo frustrated". Mike: "Well you better stop kicking my daughter." The guy, "I'm just so frustrated". Mike: "You're pretty tough with my 5-year old daughter but if you kick her any more I'm going to kick your a**". The guy: "Well, I just had heart surgery two days ago." Mike: "I don't give a s***, that's my daughter". Then the crowd started moving again and they went their separate ways. That puts you in a great mood just as you leave the park.

Don't get me wrong there were good times in there but the whining (of my children), the rudeness (of other people) and the long waits + hot weather pretty much ruined it for us. At one point, I turned to my SIL and said (as I was putting my camera away), "I don't know why I bother trying to take all these fake pictures of a great time". I guess it's so I can look back and say, "Oh, look what a great time we had (because we're all smiling)". So I took the picture of Mia above so I could remember what it was really like:)

I'll rant about Sea World tomorrow.

We're off to Florida

OK, we were off to Florida last week but I just thought I'd show the natural progression of flight when you have a night flight with kids. First- very excited, Second- snack with a movie to be followed by the "Crash".

We were pleasantly surprised how our travels turned out until we reached our condo. We rented from a guy on VRBO. In one of his e-mails it read, "print out this e-mail and show it to the guard at the gate so he knows you're renting from me." So it's about 1:30 am I show the guard the e-mail and he says, "it doesn't show your dates on here so I can't let you in". So he trys to call the owner who of course doesn't answer his phone because it's after 1:30 in the morning. The guard guy does "vouch" for us and let us in after all. We finally get to the condo to find the owner had given us the wrong code on the lock box and we cannot get in. Mike and I are getting really pissed off with the realization that we came all this way and we're going to end up sleeping in the car. I cannot let it go so I start checking the windows and find one unlocked..... I popped the screen, crawled through the window and unlocked the front door. Yes, I started my vacation with some B & E. It ended up being OK as I was able to get a hold of the owner the next morning who told me the right code to get the key so we weren't stranded in the condo.

Anyway, I thought I'd start off our vacation "telling" with pictures of Mia at Epcot for my mom.

I walked into one of the stores in Japan because I saw Hello Kitty. It was Hello Kitty mecca and what 30 something woman isn't obsessed with Hello Kitty? I know I'm not alone just admit it.

So at the back end of the store they have more traditional type items from Japan with a section just of Kimonos. The girls saw Mia and dressed her up. I thought my mom would LOVE seeing Mia in a kimono. After that we grabbed some lunch and Mia being the noodle lover she is went for some Udon noodles. She of course slurped them in true Japanese fashion. See mom, some of your genes made it into the kids:)

The boy who didn't cry wolf

While I had been fighting yet another cold this week the kids seemed fine. Monday they seemed a little stuffy so I gave them some cold medicine but that was it. Tuesday when I went to pick the kids up from school I arrived to find Mason asleep. Their teacher said Mason came up to her and said, "I need to go lie down". So she read him a story and he fell asleep. If only it worked that way it home. The kid stopped napping shortly after he turned 2 and I battle all night to get both kids into bed at night. Around dinner time Tuesday night Mason started holding his right ear and crying, "ear hurts". Mike said that he had been playing with his ears and Mason didn't like it. This went on for an hour or so and then he seemed fine the rest of the night. In fact, I had the usual fight to get him to go to bed. Wednesday he wakes up holding his ear again crying and moaning. Then he starts switching holding the other ear. Most of the time he acts normal. No fever nothing. I take a flashlight and look in his ears and it doesn't even look pink so I'm starting to think he's just fine and likes the attention from me. I decide since we're getting on an airplane Monday I better take him to the doctor just in case so we go later Wednesday afternoon. Sure enough he has ear infections. I just felt bad all around. First because I doubted him really being sick and second because I also felt a little justified going to the doctor since he was sick. So he's on antibiotics acting totally normal. I'm hoping we don't get sick (sicker) on our vacation. I think I'm just as excited as the kids are. Tomorrow I need to start packing, I dread that. It's not so much the clothes part but the carseats, strollers, etc.

I'm off to try to get some sleep since I'm sure I'll get none the next two nights.

A Pet Peeve

Can't sleep so I thought I'd write about one of the many things that annoy me.

A couple of weeks ago I participated in a Fundraiser that involved getting my kids pictures taken. I read about the boy who the Fundraiser was helping in the local paper and the story got to me so when a friend e-mailed about the Fundraiser I was very willing.

The Fundraiser was to have your kid's pictures taken with that "antique" motif in sepia for $10 and you got a free 10x13 picture. 100% of the money went to the boy and who doesn't like pictures of their kids. I'm not really a fan of the "Antique" look and would have rather have had my kid's pictures in normal clothes but I just went with it. Today was the day I went back to view the photos and pick up my free picture. It's not just this photographer mind you because everyone does it (my pet peeve) Sears, Olan Mills, the pre-school photographer for the school, etc. Here's how it went down.
I knew before I got there the cost of the packages (starting at $129.95) so I thought maybe I'd buy just a couple of sheets if I liked some of the pictures. I knew there'd be some good pictures since my kid's thought the photographer was the funniest man on earth and couldn't stop laughing during the sitting. I walked in and he laid out all the pictures and the prices and walked away. At least there was no pressure. He had printed out 8x10s, 5x7s, wallets and proofs for each of 17 different poses. Sheets were $40 a piece and all the photos were great. The "goofed up" shot was Mason flipping Mia off but it was still darn cute. Truly, I don't know what he was doing with his hand... they're both laughing (smiling) but his middle finger is clearly alone pointing up. That would have been a good one to have for the scrapbook. Anyway, I don't know how I did it but I didn't buy anything. It was torture. So what is my pet peeve.... the knowledge that they're just throwing all those great pictures in the trash.

End of rant.