Rock Me Gently...Or Not

Pictures

What to do when your boy wants to wear a tuxedo to dinner but spending the money on a full-out tux doesn't make much sense?

Go with the Tuexedo T-Shirt!

Thanks, Hubby, for the great idea!!

Happy Boy

The Mama and The Daddy....

Practicing the art of relaxation...

Hanging out together on a windy, drizzly night in the middle of the ocean...

being awfully silly together!

:)

Can I tell a secret?

It took a lot of work to get this picture that looks like it just "happened" :)

Let's just say that Reese was tired of Mommy trying to take pictures...

what a good sport!

Disney Fun

Riding the parking lot tram is fun too!

Reese never, ever just "walks". He runs, jumps, skips, hops, twirls...I could never keep up with his pace if I did all the foot-work he did!

Watching a dolphin at EPCOT

A good sport about riding Mission Space: Green (less intense). Mommy took him on Orange once and I was terrified and will never do that again!

Our favorite park!

Lost Post...

Going through old posts and look what I found...pictures from our cruise at the beginning of December. Oops!

Daddy & Reese with Reese's special frog Clark Griswold.

We picked up Pirate Reese from Camp Carnival one night...

Karate chopping on the top deck...

Reese knows how to take it easy...

Mommy made a silly-face breakfast one morning & Reese wanted his picture taken with it...

Muffin eyes, Cheerio-freckles, & a banana smile!

When You Find Just The Right Souvenir

Uh, yea.

$9 later.

The perfect souvenir from Mexico!

Trip Report

We left August 8th for our first cruise out of the Port of Galveston. We usually leave from Port Canaveral, FL but decided that since Galveston was a driveable location & we were bringing Jessie & her BFF, we'd give it a shot.

The drive from home to Galveston took about 5 hours but it was a great drive. No traffic. Straight shot down the highway. Definitely more convenient than having to fly to Orlando!

When we got to the port, we used EZ Cruise Parking. I would highly recommend using their service again (and we will when we cruise out of Galveston in a few months). They have gated parking for a reasonable fee. For an additional fee, you can have your car covered or washed while you are gone. We made our reservation ahead of time online which saved money, and they offer a free shuttle to the cruise terminal which is just a few blocks away. The only negative about EZ Cruise Parking was that the parking spaces were small. We drive a Mazda CX9 crossover SUV and when we returned to the car after the cruise, Jeff had to crawl over the passenger side seat because a huge pick up truck had parked too close to the driver's door.

Since we were limited on our time choices (the girls had to be back for school), we went with the 5 day cruise on the Carnival Ecstasy. We had 5 people and didn't want to split into two rooms (I wasn't comfortable taking someone else's child along and putting two teen girls in a room across the hall!), so we were left with the Penthouse Suite as our only option. Poor, poor me...I know. *wink*

We have cruised a handful of times and I had no idea what to expect from a Penthouse Suite. When Reese, Jeff, & I cruise we get a balcony room, and it's fine for the three of us. But I was concerned about us all being on top of each other now that we had 5 people.

Boy was I wrong!

This room was the biggest cruise ship room I've seen! We had two Queen beds (the second bed was the couch that folded down) and Reese's roll away twin bed, and there was still ample room for walking around. During the day, the room steward folded Reese's bed up and moved it to the side (you can see it in the far left corner) which left even more room.

The other thing I wasn't sure about was storage space...especially since we were bringing two girls with lots of clothes, shoes, & accessories! No worries though here either...there was a walk in closet. Wowza!

That picture was only half of the storage space...there was more on the other side! Even though this cruise cost about 3 times what we typically pay (we cruise off-season and don't bring 5 people!) I felt like the room was worth the extra cost.

Our cruise itenerary took us to the ports of Progresso & Cozumel, Mexico. I suppose we aren't typical cruisers, because we don't get off the boat. We love port days, when the ship is empty and there aren't many people in the pool, at the restauraunts, or just around the ship in general. It almost feels like we have the whole boat to ourselves!

Day 1 was port day & at sea, Dayy 2 at sea, Day 3 Progresso, Day 4 Cozumel, Day 5 at sea.

Reese relaxing and watching a movie before going back to Camp Carnival.

The beds were amazingly comfortable & we all slept like rocks.

Look at those lips...

Reese moved up to the next age bracket at Camp Carnival and was now with the 6-8 year olds. The first day he didn't like Camp Carnival, but I think it was mostly because there were so many more kids in there than he was used to. When we cruise off-season, there's a handful of kids but this time it was packed.

Well, the above is true for Carnival cruise lines. On the Disney cruises, the kids club was packed all the time with lots of kids!

By the second day though he decided we were too boring and that he'd give Camp Carnival another try. Lo and behold, it was better :) From then on out, we brought him back with us for meals and some afternoon resting time but that was about it!

The girls were completely entertained as well. I was thrilled as they searched out every free activity they could find...samples of makeup & perfume at the shops, tasting rum cake samples, eating sushi, singing kareoke, taking naps on deck, playing tag with the walkie talkies, trying on jewlery at the jewlery shop, taking in shows, ordering room service, going to high tea...and these were just the stories we heard about.


We don't ever go to the sit-down dinners, because frankly, they take too long and we don't like to eat a 2 hour dinner! But the girls enjoyed getting dressed up and going to dinner...

Reese loved blowing bubbles on the balcony...

And of course there's always yummy food and towel animals!

It's Carnival Time!

We got back yesterday from a fun cruise with Carnival out of Galveston.

We had a great time all together...

I have lots of pictures to share, but I wanted to put this one up tonight...

Look how happy this boy is :)

He loves going to the "kid's club" on cruises!

Those darn unsocialized homeschoolers....

A Tale Of Our Trip...Completely Out Of Order!

I wish Blogger would allow you to upload more than 5 pictures at a time, because when it comes to trips and I have a bunch of pictures to share, it's so hard to figure out the order to upload. See, Blogger also inserts the pictures (five at a time, mind you) in reverse order that you put them.

So not only do you have to take your pictures five at a time, but you also have to consider the order you want them in because Blogger will reverse the order for each group of five.

Ugh.

So, today, I didn't feel like fighting Blogger or counting backwards a whole bunch of times to put these in the right order. So here's the tale of our trip, in who-knows-what order!!

See, like this one.

We went to France Park the evening after the family reunion to visit with Jeff's Mom, her husband, and Jeff's brothers and their family.

This was one of our last days.
But the first picture. Whatever.

I tried to get these three to smile and here's what I got...silly...

This was at the family reunion on Sunday.

Reese had such a great time playing with all the cousins/second cousins there.

Here, they found a pile of sticks and were making "fires". And roasting Crocs.

Up to no good I'm sure....
There were all sorts of games out. The bean bag toss was a big hit with Reese.

Same visit to France Park. We walked down to the waterfall & Jessie was teaching Reese to read the street sign.

The waterfall was really, really pretty...

This was the day we arrived in Logansport (Saturday).

Jeff drove us around this quite little town in the middle of a zillion acres of corn.

When we passed by his elementary school, I said we should stop so the kids could play on his old playground.

So we did.

It was a blast!

Nobody has these spinny things anymore. I remember as a kid playing on one in Zilker Park in Austin. One of my favorite rides. Guess it's too much of a liability these days for some places.

But not Rural Indiana!

We missed some pretty big rain by a day, but there were still wet spots.

Jessie stuck her toes into some water while trying to spin Reese on the tire swing...

Mr. Happy Burger (or Haps if you're a local) was a childhood favorite of Jeff's.

There are two.

We ate at both in one day!

This was our 2nd stop at the Haps that has a soda fountain.

They had "Phosphates" on the menu, which we've seen on the Food Network, so we had to try one.

I asked what flavors they have, and the girl said "Anything you want."

So I asked for an Orange Phosphate.

Nope, don't make that.

I ordered a Lemon Phosphate. They could make that!

The verdict?

Sort of like a flat pop.

Meh.

Back to the family reunion...

Reese climbed this tree for about an hour with his cousins.

And how sad is it that this is the first tree my child has climbed?

All the trees in our yard are oak trees that are tall and straight with limbs up high.

This was a perfect climbing tree!

I liked this picture because Reese was just taking a break from all the running, climbing, yelling, playing, & silliness.

Here we are at the hotel in Logansport, IN.

Reese loves it when I take pictures of him splashing into the water...

And this was a great way to burn off energy from riding in the car for two full days!

About half way through our drive, we passed the St. Louis Arch.

I tried to get a picture of Reese with the arch in the background, but he wouldn't cooperate.

He really hates pictures sometimes...

Here was our visit to the first Mr. Happy Burger.

Inside they have a Happy Trolley for the kids to eat in, and

Reese hosted a radio show the whole time he was in there, talking to himself the whole time he ate.

It felt weird that Jeff, Jessie, & I were at a table next to him and he was eating all alone. But he clearly was in his own world!

When Daddy walked by, Reese stuck out his pretend microphone and said "Would you like to say a few words about Mr. Happy Burger?"

More pictures from the elementary school playground...

They also had teeter totters!

Except Reese kept calling them a "Cecil" (see saw?) and I kept saying it as we went up and down..

Cecil! Cecil! Cecil!

Reese, Jessie, & I were laughing so hard.

And then I fell off the back. Which was a sight to see and made us laugh even harder.

Ahhhh...memories....

They are spinning really, really fast in this picture, but I forgot to turn off the high shutter speed to get the blurred effect.

This was a trip to remember for sure. The kids are awesome travellers and made the trip a piece of cake.

We stopped in Branson on the way home for the night, & played Indoor Glow-In-The-Dark Mini Golf before heading home. I would share pictures of Branson, but I didn't take any. Imagine a hotel out of the pages of Hee Haw, decorated in mauve & teal and you get the idea of what Branson was like.

The walls of our hotel were pink.

Very, very pink.

A Time to Remember

We got back last night from our Indiana road trip...

We had a great time visiting Jeff's side of the family at their annual family reunion, and we had so much fun on the road trip getting there and back!

There are lots of pictures to post tonight when I have a bit of time.

The picture above is us walking to the waterfall at France Park.

Reese loved playing with his cousins, &

it was particularly fun because this is the first time he's ever met any of his cousins before!

Mommy loved seeing where Daddy grew up.

Pretty much in the middle of corn fields.

My little out door boy was totally in his element...

see the shorts he's wearing in the picture above?

By the end of the day, those knees were stained with grass & dirt like I've never seen before!

I'm still working with my trusty Clorox for Colors to try and get it out!

More to come later....

Our Disney Vacation, Summed Up In 10 Seconds Of Video...

We had a great time at Disney for our last visit, but it rained more than I have ever, ever experienced! Wanna see what it was like? Here's what it was like. You're jealous, right?

Disney World: April 1st

I'm so behind in my posting

that THESE pictures are from our

last visit to Disney a few weeks ago!

So, while we're sitting at the hotel ready to head back to

Hollywood Studios today, I thought I'd post these

from our last trip!

Reese is so funny with ice cream...

He doesn't like the ice cream part but instead wants just the cone.

So Mommy & Daddy eat the ice cream & he eats the cone!

Lots & lots of people commented on Jeff's shirt & how much they liked it...

The Happiest Place on Earth!

Jet Lag Can Kiss My Bootie!

We're back, I'm pooped, & that's that! The overnight flight went well...Reese slept through the night & Daddy caught some decent zzzzzz's too. I slept for about an hour I think...then I couldn't get comfy because my back was killing me.

We got home Thursday morning about 5:30 and Reese & I crawled into bed. Daddy had promised he was coming to bed too, but he took care of the mail, bills, luggage, etc. first. Poor Daddy...

We managed to sleep until about 11:00 (Daddy got up earlier) and then tried to get to bed around 9:30. Luckily, Reese fell asleep right away & seems to be back to normal today.

Mommy & Daddy, on the other hand, are anything but back to normal! I woke up at 2:30am and saw Hubbs wide awake...he said he's been up for about 3 hours. We talked a little and then he was able to fall asleep, while I was wide awake for about 2 hours. *sigh*

Reese & I woke up at about 8:45 today, Daddy earlier. I was contemplating a hike with our homeschool buddies today, but we would have had to leave at 9:00 and that just didn't happen!

It's now 10:30, we're just eating breakfast & still in our pjs. Daddy has already made his way to the gym...I was not quite so motivated today! I'm giving myself until Sunday to adjust, then I'll head to Yoga Sunday morning.

Speaking of breakfast...I'm so glad Reese's appetite is back! While spending the first 4 days in Hawaii either barfing or crapping, Reese didn't eat much other than saltines, bananas, bagels, & applesauce. He'd have an occasional bologna sandwich or maybe a few french fries but he didn't really have an appetite for anything.

All yesterday, he ate like a horse, and he's now on his 3rd cup of dry cereal (Kashi's Heart to Heart cereal...he loves that stuff!). Along with a bagel & cream cheese. I'm so glad his appetite is back & he's all better. Whenever he gets sick with throw up/pooping issues, I always go back to three years ago when he came down with Rotavirus and was in the hospital for 4 days.

So...we're back. I'm still pooped. And that's that!

Tide Pool Fun!

Daddy explains why there are holes all over the trunk of the palm trees...

One of Reese's favorite things this trip has been walking down to the tide pools and throwing rocks & coral chunks into the ocean!

We went again last night & he found this crab shell...

a bird had picked it clean!

Don't get too far away!

On some parts of the beach, the lava rocks are razor-sharp,
but on this part, they're nice and smooth and flat.
Reese found it easier to walk barefoot than try and keep shoes on!

It's not almost time for home, is it?

:( I'm not ready!