Friday, December 31, 2010

For the love finally!

As many of you know this year my Mom and Dad gifted us with a trip to Disney World in FL for Christmas.  We had a wonderful time, and for the most part it was pretty uneventful. Especially with 4 kids 4 and under.  Thankfully everyone who had the nasty 24hr flu crap puked before we left and India waited until last night at home to cut her top 2 teeth. 

It had its highs.  Such as seeing lots of characters like Rapunzel who is very popular now.  How they decorated the park for Christmas was spectacular.  And just the coolness that is Disney itself and everything it offers is phenomenal.

It had its lows.  Dave and I rode quite possibly the most nauseating and claustrophobic ride known to man, and paid for it for hours afterwards.  We lost the keys to the car briefly in the Goofy parking lot on Christmas day, and after 45 minutes of crawling around with our butts up in the air under rental cars (can we say suspicious looking!) we found them in the stroller.  We got stuck on the Pirate's of Caribbean ride for a 1/2 an hour while they fixed it.  If I never hear "Yo Ho Ho" again I will be fine.  And last but not least, it took poor Rachel 26 hrs to get to Seattle with the girls from Orlando.  Fog in San Fran, and all the snow in the East made it just a cluster #!*% to get home.

But in the end it was a really good time.  We spent a total of 6 days there with 4 1/2 days dedicated to the 4 different theme parks that make up the entity that is Disney World.  To put the picture order in perspective......

Day 1: we travelled from Denver to Orlando and spent the rest of the evening in the Magic Kingdom watching various parades, and fireworks.  What.... like we were going to sit in the hotel and watch "The Santa Clause" for the 100th time on tv.  Chip and Dale performed the Chinese variation from Nutcracker on stage.  I guess it is official. I can now quit my day job and work for Disney.  I am highly qualified for that position and it doesn't matter how much I eat before performing, my costume would always fit. 

Day 2: we went to the Animal Kingdom where we went on Safari and had dinner with the screeching monkeys at the Rainforest Cafe.

Day 3: was our Epcot day.  So many cool places and countries to visit in Epcot.  Dave and I agreed we could have done without the awful horrible spinning space ride and spent more time in the countries shopping for overpriced tchochkies and eating funnel cake.

Day 4: was Christmas day and we went to the Magic Kingdom along with the entire population of Orlando and 1/2 of New Jersey.  So not kidding.  Forget the Mickey sweatshirt, evidently high heeled cha cha boots with skin tight textured leggings and an animal print top are what is in style for a trip to Disney World. :)  I wore a $10 Mickey top from Target.  Guess I am not fashionable.  Bootylicious yes, but not Jerseylicious.

Day 5: was Hollywood Studios, and we were glad for the opportunity to watch indoor stage shows and take it easy.  The weather was actually colder in FL that day then back home in CO.  Dave and I rode a roller coaster that went 60 mph while Aerosmith blared from speakers.  Much much better then Mission to Puke at Epcot.  Only wish we got more pictures of stuff at the "Walt Disney The Man" exhibit.  So cool, and narrated by Julie Andrews.

Day 6, and 7 for some of us, was travelling home.

Like I said we only did Disney itself.  We didn't even attempt Universal Studios, Sea World or Busch Gardens.  That would have required another week.  We couldn't even get to shopping at the killer Factory Outlets because the highways were so crowded with people the day after Christmas that the traffic didn't let up until 10 pm that night.  I guess all those people from Jersey had to go shopping somewhere. 


Train Station @ Main Entrance to Magic Kingdom

Cinderella's Castle lit up @ night

Dumbo! 

Electrical Light Parade w/ Alice

India loved the Small World dolls
Tree of Life completely carved with animals at Animal Kingdom
As Indie would say "Roar"

Giraffes!
Drummers in Japan at Epcot

Mary Poppins in England

Alice also in England

Mulan in China

Snow White in Germany

Pascal and Norah

Calla in her matching costume with Rapunzel and Flynn

Mom and India

Mickey and Minnie

Winnie the Pooh and Dave too

Loving Piglet

Main Street decorated and hoards of people

Beauty and the Beast stage show

Backdrop at Indiana Jones

Stunt show for Indiana Jones
Here is to wishing you all a Merry Belated Christmas,  I hope the New Year brings you Peace, Happiness, and Love.


XOXO! Cara

PS. Yes, I am wearing a sequined Minnie Mouse ear headband!

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Disney pics coming soon!

Hi y'all!  Hope everyone had a Merry Navidad.  I know you are waiting to see pics of Disney, but it turns out I am missing a card with the pics from day 2 on it.  So as soon as the roads clear up or I can can send Dave up to the house with the snow plow then I will get things posted.  On a side note thank goodness it is finally snowing.  I was begining to wonder if we would ever get any seeing as it was warmer here in CO than in FL while we were there.  Global warming aside I need to pay some bills, so let it snow let it snow let it snow.

While you wait for photos let me humor you with our own 12 Days of Christmas, Smith, Martin, Doyle style in reflection of our trip.  For the sake of everyone's sanity I'll just start at 12 and go backwards.  Feel free to hum along the tune.  I prefer the Muppets version personally.  :) 

On the 12th day of Xmas my true love gave to me - A 12 Hour Flight
11 Million People
10 Different Mickeys
9 Shopping Sprees
8 Disney Princesses
7 Monorails
6 Stage Shows
5 Golden Funnel Cakes
4 Theme Parks
3 Mylar Balloons
2 Meltdowns
and 1 Missing Set of Car Keys

 XOXO

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Santa Baby

Dear Santa,

Forgive me Father for I have sinned.  It has been 355 days since my last confession.  For the most part we have been pretty good around here this year.  We'll just leave out a few details about some of us and all will be well. 
The girls and I attempted to mail you a letter with what we wanted for Christmas.  I know the Post Office would have been the most logical place to drop off the letter to be mailed, however I needed some makeup and I am all about taking the least amount of trips into town with both kids these days days, so Macy's it was.  As we approached the mailbox to mail the letter a very nice older sales associate saw what we were doing and asked Calla what she was asking Santa for.  Calla responded back something about Olivia.  Because she is all about Olivia the pig these days.  The lady looked at India and said what do you think she would like for Christmas.  I quickly responded "her two front teeth!"  The lady laughed and said "of course, how cute!" This is the point when I realized I should have kept my pie hole shut, because I chimed in again and said, "yeah, and I am willing and ready to trade Santa favors for her to get the teeth, just so she will sleep in her own bed again."   Lets just say it was pretty obvious that the favors I was referring to didn't involve building a new pergola and paver patio for your employees off the side of the Elf Workshop at the North Pole.  So, Santa if you could put some extra candy in Betty, the Sales Associate at Macy's Ft. Collins, stocking this year for me I would appreciate it.  Her poor ears are still burning.

Anyway, moving on.  Like I said before we are trying to live a bit more simply and don't really need much.  For me I would like either a Personal Chef who cooks like The Pioneer Woman, and is also willing to do the dishes.  Because we have a serious case of no one wants to do the dishes around here.  Or I would also be happy with a maid who does the laundry and doesn't complain that I change outfits 3-4 times a day. 
Exhibit A:
Bet you can't guess which pile is mine? 

Like I mentioned before... Indie needs some teeth.  She eats like a hoss and hasn't figured out that she only has two, but is really good at gumming things and getting them down.  She has her sing a ma jig (which only has a couple of teeth too) and really loves it. 

Exhibit B:
  She is also pretty content playing with her silverware and the dog bowl, so toys are not necessarily needed
Exhibit C:

As far as Calla and Dave are concerned, well.....We kind of need to have a chat about that.  Calla of course love anything that has to do with Olivia the pig, and also loves to draw and color.  Dave is not as obsessed with the pig, but also loves to color and draw with Calla usually while Olivia is on tv right before bedtime.  He also loves his tattoos and recently finished his 2nd arm sleeve outline.  However, he has been super busy and hasn't had time to get it filled in, colored, and finished.  This morning I did a double take before he left for work, because something looked a little different. 

Exhibit D:

Santa if you could please bring Dave a gift card to have Ish finish coloring in the tattoos on his left arm, because El Cheepo is resorting to other means.  Calla on the other hand will need some new markers and more coloring books because she is obviously bored with her old ones.  Oh well, I guess it could be worse.  The markers are washable and my walls are clean.  Besides how could you resist a face like this. 
Exhibit E:
But you already knew that.  Because you know everything. 

I am attempting a Christmas party this weekend.  Since I am not doing Nutcracker this year, I figured I could handle a small dinner for family.  So if you could also help me get through that then perhaps I can forgo the personal chef and make Dave do the dishes, but I still need the maid to do the laundry. 

Safe travels
Love always,
Cara :)