Inside the Gingerbread House

2009-05-26T18:34:00.000-07:00

I'm sure everyone figures you won't see pictures from our vacation until about December based on my history of how often I update my blog....Surprise! I am actually going to get them up on the blog within 5 days of getting home. So this year...we went with some friends to Florida on a 4-day Disney cruise and a couple days at DisneyWorld. We went with Kim Hamilton and her family. A total of 21 of us on the cruise. We had a great time! Yes I know my first blog last December had pictures from DisneyWorld since we were just there last June. I guess DisneyWorld must be a favorite vacation place for us.

Me and Bry on the Disney bus ride to the ship.

Bry doing his impression of Minnie. We have finally finished getting all checked in and are just about to get on the ship.

Jayde excited to get on the ship. As you see he has his guitar with him. He doesn't go anywhere without it. He claims it is a love of music........I think it's because it is a great chick magnet.

Me and Jayde in the stateroom. We haven't been on board long and are still at port.

Before you leave port...you have to go through a safety drill. Everyone has to wear life jackets and you are assigned a gathering point. Here are the boys...life jackets on....in our stateroom but ready to go.....waiting for the alarm to sound "emergency".

Bry at the sail-away party.

Jayde at the sail-away party.

Our first port was Nassau, Bahamas.

I headed with the teenagers to Atlantis and spent the day at the Atlantis Water Park. Jayde, Bry at the top. Sierra, Abeth, Tatiana on the bottom.

Heading back to the ship after a day of sun and water to get ready for formal night.

Formal night. Jayde, Tatiana, Bryant, Abeth, Sierra

The next port was Disney's private island. They have the ship from Pirate's of the Caribbean right offshore. This day was ugly weather....windy and lots of rain. The kids went on a teenager only excursion and my plan was to just sit on the beach and read a book. The weather was so bad that I didn't even get off the ship....bummer! I spent the day relaxing and reading in the stateroom. It was relaxing - but I had been looking forward to relaxing in some tropical sunshine and definitely didn't get any of that.

After the day on the private island.....dinner and the evening was setup as pirate night.

All the kids in our group on pirate night.

A close up of the teenagers. Jayde, Sierra, Tatiana, Abeth, Bry

Later that night there was a pirate deck party. Lots of dancing and it ended with fireworks being shot off the ship. Pretty cool! Here are some pics of the dancing.

That's Kim behind Bry (right side)

Even Goofy was a pirate and showed us his moves.

Bryant with Ariel. Jayde helping him out with the pose.

Bryant's friend Ryker and little bro went on vacation there too. Their last day at the park was our first day at the park. So the boys made plans to meet up and spend time together. I think these 4 would fit right in at Animal Kingdom.

Splash Mountain.....just so you know this is how wet we got within the first few seconds....before you even ride the track up to start the ride.

Jayde found me quite comical in this picture

.......so he said we needed to take another one where he could imitate me

After the ride....water still dripping from our faces.

Action shots on Thunder Mountain......

The boys

Star Wars Weekend at Hollywood Studios

Tait, Sierra, Bry, Jayde - Tower of Terror

Toy Story....I think we have a pose just like this last year.

Serious faces....bug eyes

So maybe you feel like you just went on vacation with us.....8 days that flew by so fast! I have to say that I am always up for a cruise. I love them! I think they are the only vacations I have done that I really feel like I completely escape from everyday life. I don't pay for cell phones or emails while I am on them....nice to not have the kids having 5 different texting conversations while talking to me too. And I really get away from work since my blackberry isn't attached to my hip.

Jayde and Bry are heading to Utah next week for a great weekend with their Dad and family at Coral Pink. After that - they are heading up to spend the rest of the summer in Kamas. While they are excited to go up there, spend time with the family that they live so far away from, and make some cash by working at the Drug Store - I try not to think about how long they will really be gone. I want to turn back time when I think that Jayde only has 3 more years before graduation. I just can't figure out where all the time has gone and I wonder if I have made the most of what seems like moments since my boys were born.

2009-05-10T17:17:00.000-07:00

I am finally updating the blog and I am sure everyone is in shock. In fact, you have probably decided to longer even look to see if there is anything new.

What has been happening in our life over the last 5 months......... I don't think anything has changed in my life. I wake up each day and when I crash into bed that night I try to figure out where all the hours went because I sure didn't get everything done that I wanted. The boys get out of school in 3 days.....May 13th. We get out very early each year and the kids love those first few weeks when all other districts are still in school.

Jayde has successfully made it through his first year of high school. Bryant is looking forward to being the top of the food chain in middle school next year.

I have some pictures of the boys. Most of them are very recent because I don't think I took a single picture this year until Easter....So here is Easter morning..finding what the Easter Bunny brought.

Both Jayde and Bry participated in Track for their school. Jayde chose to just do pole vaulting this year. Bryant participated in a few different events.

Jayde pole Vaulting.......

Bry's events....

They had the middle school advanced band come and play with the high school concert band so Jayde and Bry were in this band together.

The high school had a dinner fundraiser and then there were a variety of performances for the show while we ate dinner. Jayde was the MC with his friend Tracer. He also sang a duet from Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog..this is some pictures of his duet.

A shot of Jayde in the drama play.....

2008-12-24T14:55:00.000-08:00

I am finally joining the blog world! I can't take any credit for this.....Glo and Gen thought of my creative blog name; and Gen stayed up 'til wee hours of the morning making my own unique background, header, etc. I will probably never change this because it was way too much work for me. She does such an awesome job that I hope I can sweet talk her into a change occasionally.

Well....it is Christmas Eve and I am not quite sure I want to admit that I am sitting at home all by myself (I do have Molly, Cisco, and Kaya curled up around my feet as close as they can get, but since they are man's best friend that is just what they do all the time). My boys are with Doug this year. They are actually headed back from Utah today...not sure if I will see them tonight. I will go to Doug's house first thing in the morning to watch Jayde and Bry open gifts...probably wake the boys up since they are now teenagers and could sleep the morning away- even on Christmas.

As for my boys........

Jayde turned 15 this month and received his learners permit last week. I can't believe it! He has been with Doug in Utah and so I have not had the enjoyment of any parental heart attacks yet. I am sure he will be doing some driving with me this week and I hope that I can remain calm and relaxed. I know I will be fine as long as we stay in our subdivision...but as soon as we venture out of there (about 30 seconds after leaving the house) I don't think I will be as calm.

Bryant says he is now officially a teenager since he turned 13 in October. I have classified him as a teenager the past year and he continued to tell me he wouldn't be one until he was 13 ( I don't think he realized it's not so much the age as it is the attitude) . I do have to give him some credit because he definitely was more willing to surprise me with a clean house or help me out when I needed it.

One of our favorite memories this year was our trip to Florida. We went with GeNille & McKell and Brekken. We spent about a week there and had a great time. Here are a few pictures from our trip:

On our first day we went to Hollywood Studios. This ended up being a favorite park...we kept going back there throughout the week.

Of course you can't go to Disney World without getting your picture with Mickey!

This a favorite picture of mine with Jayde, Bryant, and Brekken. The army dude is an actual man.

The weekend we were there, Hollywood Studios was all about Star Wars. The kids stood in line forever for this picture.

Jayde thought this huge guitar was awesome!

In case you didn't know...even if you have boys, your trip to Disney World will be all about the Disney girls and princess' (or is it princesses). We spent a whole day chasing down and waiting in line to get pictures with as many as we could. It was always comical to be in line with my 2 teenage boys and then all the little girls with their parents.

We spent a day at Sea World

That's Jayde and Bry in the shark tank! They spent about 3 hours doing this...first they spent time with the shark workers learning about sharks and what to do while in the tank... then just the two of them headed into the cage and spent about 30 minutes in the tank with the sharks getting up close. They could have counted the teeth in their mouths they were so close. They would swim right up and touch the cage. A bit scary -- I am not sure I could have done that!

My brother Grady married Janie in August. Here are a couple pictures from that day.

This is a picture at the reception of me with my mom and sister, GeNille

Jayde caught the garter

Bryant - love this picture!

For those who haven't seen all of us for a while. Left to Right: GeNille, Me, Gina, Janie, Grady, Glorilyn, Gerilee, Gennifer. We are missing Gregan because he is serving in the St. Louis, MO Mission.

Since I didn't get Christmas cards out on time, I will include the most recent picture of us. I hope everyone enjoys the holidays and our family wishes you a very Merry Christmas!!!!!!!