So I was giving Abby a bath and I felt this power come over me which caused me to fall to the floor. It was if I heard a deep voice with the words “IIII caaaan seeeee youuuuuu.” I regained some of my strength to check on Abby and this is what I saw: a re-creation of Mordor!! I knew she was getting all her energy from somewhere...a conduit to Middle Earth???
--David
For once in my life, I can actually say I'm glad that it finally snowed!! Besides the fact that we desperately need the moisture, I don't like it when it's just cold. If it's going to be cold, then it might as well snow. So this storm was welcome! I was excited to pull out Abby's new snowsuit (that I bought almost a year ago on sale) and see what she thought of the snow. She loves it. We went up to my sister's house so she had some cousins to play with, and it was a party!
Can you tell their moms shop together??
Pretty deep hole, right?! We had to dig an extra foot so we could just leave the slab in concrete in the hole rather than pay too much money to get it hauled away. Getting the holes dug was HUGE, so I was really excited to call the people to cut the concrete. They showed up at 7:15am (sorry neighbors) and had the concrete cut for both windows in about two hours. Nice work guys! That was one check I was happy to write, because we didn't have to do the work!!
Later that day our window guy came to install the new windows. Again, lovely work. Especially because someone else did everything. We thought we had the measurements all good so the window would just swing open, but we were off a bit and the window hit the siding and wouldn't open all the way. That was just a Bad Dream though as we just had to notch the siding a bit to clear the way.
So then I ordered a couple of window wells and had them delivered. I figured the really hard part of the job was done and putting dirt back in the hole would be a lot easier than taking it out. I was somewhat right. We put the window wells into the holes we had dug and found a bit of a problem...we couldn't put the well right up to the house foundation and still be able to open the windows all the way (they are casement windows, and the whole thing swings open). Bring on Nightmare #2. Trying to position those suckers so they were as close as they could be, but far enough away so the windows could open was not easy. We spent hours trying to get them both just right. Eventually we did, and we figured that we'd just find something to cover up the dirt that was still exposed next to the house.
Well, in trying to figure out the best possible solution, I called our window guy to give us some ideas. He came over to look at the problem and said to me, "What size of window wells did you get?" I said, "36 inch ones. The ones you told me to get." "Ummm, I hate to tell you, but those aren't 36 inch window wells. Those are 24 inches." NIGHTMARE #3. The stupid window well people delivered the WRONG SIZE. And stupid me didn't measure them before we installed them. I was almost in tears at that point, but had enough anger to call the window well people to tell them the problem. They were very apologetic and had the window wells I paid for at our house in an hour. And we just got two free window wells, as they let us keep the original ones they brought. Maybe when I get over all of this I'll start digging again and we can actually use them on some of our other basement windows. Someday.
The bigger windows bring so much more light in those basement bedrooms, and now the rooms are safer!! Although I wish it hadn't been so hard, I'm glad we did it. It was worth it in the end. Here's hoping our children thank us someday...
Here she is casting some spells with her magic wand...
...and taking a drink break before hitting the streets!
It's always nice for us to visit with family while we're there. We certainly have wonderful hosts!!
Thanks for everything Grandma Jackie and Grandpa Bruce!!
David's parents were kind enough to take care of Abby the first half of the day so we could ride the big rides without carting her around. It was great. We lucked out on three major rides as they would close the ride temporarily, and we would just happen to get in line right after the ride reopened. We'd pretty much walk right up to the front and then see an enormous line when we got out. It was awesome! We hit everything we wanted to, with time to spare. So we decided to splurge and buy a $3 churro. It was worth it!
When Abby finally arrived, she was so happy to be there!!
We took her to the Disney Princess Fantasy Faire, but didn't wait in line to see the princesses. She doesn't care that much. We just got the free crown and posed a bit...
Here we are in front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle...
She loved the Jungle Cruise. Our guide was quite funny, so we fully enjoyed that ride too!
And we hit Toon Town, although Abby was a little annoyed she couldn't actually pick up the things in Mickey and Minnie's houses.
We had a great dinner at the Blue Bayou (the restaurant that overlooks the Pirates of the Caribbean ride) and ended the day watching the parade. Here's Abby on her dad's shoulders getting the best view.
All in all, we had a fabulous time! Abby was fascinated by everything and loved all the rides she went on. It will be even more fun when she really gets it!
Just as I knew it would be, it was very cool to get my grandpa's perspective. The job he worked is now obsolete as machinery and technology has improved, but there are still a lot of things that haven't changed in the mining process. It is quite the operation.
And here's the famous giant tire. These tires go on the trucks that haul the dirt from the mine to the seven-mile-long conveyor belt. They are over 12 1/2 feet tall, cost $25,000, and last for only a year. And there's six tires per truck. It's a good thing they're mining gold and silver along with copper in that mine!
It was a very windy day...as you can see from the first picture. But we had a great time! Thanks grandpa!!
We love riding in my sister's car because we get to watch movies, even on short drives! Abby doesn't sit still for long, unless she's strapped into something, but she was fully enjoying this flick! She kept the headphones on the whole time...it was quite funny! Looks like our next car needs to have a DVD player...
The face tattoo was a little more difficult to remove than I thought it would be, but we eventually got it off!
Here's Abby's cousins, Zachy and Max, saving her from floating away to the other side of the pool.
The pool was just a bit on the chilly side, so all the kids had to spend some time in the hot tub to warm up. I think Abby and Caroline would have stayed in there all day if we'd let them!
Grandma and Grandpa also have some awesome four-wheelers that Abby LOVES to ride whenever we're there. She figured out how they work a few months ago, so now we're just working on the steering part...she pretty much runs over whatever is in her way at this point.
We're so glad Grandma and Grandpa live only five minutes away!!
The coolest part of this playground was that all of the little houses were furnished (with babies, furniture, food, etc.). The kids would have played here all day if we'd let them! 
