Spontaneous Trip to Disneyworld

Yes, I've been known to surprise members of my family by just showing up on their doorstep unannounced, but usually it takes me weeks of planning. I get a kick out of suprising people but I'm not very spontanous about it. Until two weeks ago today that is, after a few days of sulking around the school and my house knowing that my parents and sister were at Disneyworld without me (ME! -- A self-proclamed Disneyworld fanatic), I decided to buy an airline ticket to go meet them. I bought the ticket at 3:30 pm, and was at the airport by 6:00 pm to board my 7:30 flight to Orlando that night. Instead of surprising them at their hotel room, which I actually considered, I called my Dad shortly after ordering my airplane ticket to see if they could come get me at the airport and if I could crash with them in their hotel room. They were really surprised and happy to have me. And I was happy to be in Orlando and be somewhere much warmer than 20 degrees!

My parents went to my younger sister Kristen's house in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for the holidays, and just like me, they LOVE Disneyworld. So almost every time my parents come to Florida, they make time for Disney. The weekend after New Year's Day, they drove up to Orlando with my sister Kristen and her kids (her husband Aaron had to work) to spend some time at Disneyworld. By the time I got there on Tuesday night, they had already been to 3 of the Disney parks with their 6-day pass. My sister was going home with her kids on Thursday, so I only overlapped one day with her family. It was so fun to see them! Her kids, especially Parker, liked riding the rides with me. They would've preferred riding with their cousins (my kiddos), but I was an okay exception I think. After Kristen left, I went to 2 more parks with my parents. It was SOO fun, and warm, and so very Disney!

This was the first day -- EPCOT

The morning before we went to the park. This was outside my parent's hotel room. Kristen's room was down the hall.

"Finding Nemo" ride


We are vikings in one of the "Norway" stores


We ate in a restaurant in "Italy". I had a really delicious ravioli dish.

Parker and I in a phone booth in "England"

My second day was -- HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

Mom and I getting ready to watch a really cool stunt car show called "Lights, Motors, Action!"

Dad and I in front of the stunt car set

In front of "Muppet-Vision 3-D" show. I LOVE the muppets!

My favorite ride... "The Tower of Terror". We rode it twice!!

This may be the last time we see Mickey's sorcerer's hat at Hollywood Studios....
We found out that they'll be taking it down soon....

My third and last day was -- MAGIC KINGDOM

Dad and I in Fantasyland

I'm on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Going into Adventureland

Dad and I are stuck!!

Mom and I in Liberty Square

Mom and I rode the carousel

Racing cars on the Indy Speedway

In front of the castle at night

Nothing is like the fireworks at Disneyworld!

Okay, I know what you're thinking.... Julie takes another trip at Disneyworld without her kids?? Yes, I did! And I'm not ashamed of it! My kids are actually getting use to it. But I've promised them a trip next year. Our family is also very big fans of Universal Studios Florida, and next year is the grand opening of the "Harry Potter Island" at Islands of Adventure in Universal Studios! We are really excited to see that too!

New Year's Eve Party

We had a fun party at our house this year on NewYear's Eve. We invited our friends, the Selthofer's over to play games, eat and chat all night. We partied and played until 1:30 am. The kids were SOOO tired the next day, but we had a fun New Year's Eve.

Although I am often an avid photographer or "crazy picture woman", as some call me, I let my friend Megan take pictures that night. She and I have that in common! So I stole these from her blog Thanks, Megan!!

Our snack spread. We had SOOO much food!!

The kids enjoying their food

The boys liked playing the Wii

Joshua and Adam really got into it!

After watching the ball drop, we toasted in the New Year with eggnogg

More Christmas Pics

I am taking advantage of our half day of school today to update my blog. I am REALLY late in getting these up, but here are our Christmas 2008 pictures ...

Getting ready to go downstairs on Christmas morning after climbing, screaming, and pulling Mom and Dad out of bed at the crack of dawn.

SANTA CAME!

Watching Alex open a present from Santa

Alex and Logan got this gift from Santa. They LOVE to play with it, practically everyday.

Surprise.... We got a Wii!!

Jessica got a Tini Puppini dog

Opening a present from Grandma Dyal

It's a COOL Jungle playset! We play with this all the time too!

Spencer opening a present

Spencer scored this year on LEGO sets

Jessica opening a present

This is a present from Grandpa Williams

Each kid got their very own Wii video game from Grandma and Grandpa Williams. Alex got Lego Indiana Jones.

... and Spencer got Star Wars Force Unleashed

A cool Spy set and cute webkinz from the Brown cousins

Jessica got a Bratz doll from the Buhler cousins

Alex got a red-eye tree frog webkinz (one he's wanted for a LONG time) from his cousin, Maddie Empey.

Mom opening a present

Dad got a pair of jeans

ALL OF SPENCER'S PRESENTS
(My kids have gotten so use to my routine of taking a picture of them and their presents after birthdays and Christmas, that they set up their own presents and asked for a picture on their own without any prompting from me this year. Mostly because I don't let them them play with anything until after I take the picture. They wanted to play! But I just thought it was funny that they did it on their own!)

JESSICA AND HER PRESENTS

ALEX AND LOGAN WITH THEIR PRESENTS
(They got so many combined gifts this year that we took a picture with both of them)

Eating Christmas breakfast
Every single one of us looks forward to our traditional Christmas breakfast each year. We ate an egg, bacon and cheese souffle, grapefruit, cinnamon rolls, hot chocolate and OJ. YUMMY!

Christmas PJ's

Every Christmas Eve, we get new pajamas ---

Christmas Eve

I've been pretty sick the last few days with the flu. I know, great timing!! I've been really bummed out about it. We had to cancel our plans on Wednesday night. We were going to drive around and look at Christmas lights, but I wasn't up to it. I went to bed early because I wanted to get enough rest and get better for Christmas Eve.

Well, I didn't really feel better the next morning, but we went ahead with our plans anyway. We went to IKEA for breakfast and then to see a matinee of "The Tale of Despereaux". I fell asleep in the movie. Everyone else really liked it. I only saw half of it. I came home and took a long nap. Then I got up ready to make our traditional Christmas Eve snack spread, until I made it downstairs. I got really queasy and dizzy. We decided to order pizza instead. If I'm better tomorrow night, I'll make the snack spread then. We'll have our Christmas turkey dinner on Friday. Urg! Everyone has been really understanding and flexible with this situation -- I'm probably the one who is most bummed out, but trying to enjoy Christmas Eve and Christmas anyway.

Breakfast at IKEA.
We always wear Santa hats on Christmas Eve.

Daddy and Logan

Wicked in Detroit

Joshua and I went to see the musical "Wicked" on Saturday in Detroit. It was so fun!! I totally recommend it! We went with one of Joshua's suppliers and his wife, who had tickets for it. They also took us to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in Greektown called "The Pegasus". I liked them a lot. They were really fun to hang out with.

Well, I forgot my camera. I left it in the car during the play. I wanted to take a picture of Joshua and I at the Opera House, or at least in front of one of the posters to document us going. Oh well. But we had a really fun time!

Here was my favorite song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKY0RejvuoQ
Here is Joshua's favorite song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRUeEJQSKbs&feature=related

Santa at Walker-Winter Elementary

I spent all morning last Wednesday being Santa's photographer at the school. One of the kindergarten teachers at Walker-Winter, Mrs. Florida, has a husband who plays Santa Claus every year at school. He is also a professional Santa Claus at other places around town too. So, she asked me to help take pictures with her camera. Whenever Mrs. Florida wants/needs pictures taken, she always asks me to do it now, actually ever since she liked the pictures I took of her kindergarten class on the first day of school. She said I should be a professional. I wish ... That would be a fun job. Anyway, it is a nice compliment and very flattering.

So, I took individual pictures with all the kindergarteners and Santa (all three classes), and then I followed him around to all the other classes around school and took group shots, and pics with teachers and Santa. Alex's teacher, Mr. Chris, uploaded the pictures I took to the school website photo album. He's in charge of all the technical/computer stuff in school.

Below are the pictures I took of Logan and Santa, and also Alex's 2nd grade class. Santa never made it to the 5th grade classes, so Jessica's class never got a picture with him.

Alex is in the front, in the red plaid shirt

Not yet too old to sit on Santa's lap

I captured a few pictures of Alex and Logan sitting on Santa's lap at our ward Christmas party this evening. Spencer and Jessica have outgrown it, but Jessica still made an appearance standing next to him, mostly to get the treat he was handing out.

Logan asked for a chihuahua puppy. We explained to him that he may not get it since Mommy and Daddy don't really want a dog in the house. He explained to us that he didn't ask us for one because he knew we wouldn't get him one, but he knew that Santa would because he was a really good boy this year. Oh no.... I hope we're not in trouble on Christmas morning....

Look at my big boys! Waiting in line to see Santa.

"Santa, I want a chihuahua for Christmas!"

"Santa, I want a Wii for Christmas!"
Alex still believes in Santa Claus... probably one of his last years. Spencer and Jessica were both in third grade when they found out that Santa wasn't real. Alex is in second this year.

Fun with Grandpa and Grandma

It was fun to have Grandpa and Grandma here for a few days! We did lots of fun things!!

Grandma read Logan stories from the Friend magazine

We loved playing games

... including lots of card games

Spencer loves Grandma

Grandpa and Grandma make us laugh

WE LOVE GRANDPA AND GRANDMA! WE MISS YOU!