Florida get away!

A week in the Florida sun!

Two weeks ago Dan and I had the opportunity to get away for a fun week of warmer weather, golfing, and relaxation. We went to a all inclusive resort in Florida with his siblings and parents. My wonderful sister in-law and little brother watched our kids for us. They watched the kids here at our home so that the kids wouldn't miss school.

Florida was wonderful. It's so beautiful there, we love palm trees. Plus the humidity was great, we were so use to dry winter weather that the week long reprieve was very welcomed. This resort was a golf resort, which had a 18 hole golf course. We ended up golfing everyday. I wasn't expecting to go so often, but I've discovered how it can become an addictive sport. If you have a bad game, you want to redeem yourself and play again, and if you do well it feels like such a great accomplishment that you can't wait to play again. There were also free golf lessons everyday. I hadn't been golfing in years, so the lessons really helped me with my swing. I discovered that I was golfing all wrong. I'm amazed at really how hard it is to golf well. Dan thought that the lesson's just messed up his swing, but he's already pretty good. I guess you shouldn't change up a swing that's working for you. We also played a lot of other sports. I took full advantage of the nice weather and ran outside everyday around the surrounding neighborhood. Dan played basketball with his brothers a lot too. The nice thing about a club med is that the food is all inclusive as well. They're a french resort so they always had amazing breads, cheese, and pastries. I swear I ate about five pieces of white chocolate bread everyday! It's a good thing we played hard, so we could justify eating a lot! We also soaked in the hot tub everyday. It was fun to sit in it and watch the river. I guess you could call it a river, the water is brackish. Fresh and salt water mixed together. We saw a Manatee, and the resort employees said that there have also been dolphins, and sharks spotted in the water. It definitely was to cold to swim in it, but they had sailing lessons. Dan and I opted not to go sailing after Dan's sister's boat capsized! There was also dancing at night, and a small group of acrobat circus performers. It was a wonderful trip, but it's so nice to be home. We really missed the kids tremendously. When we made it home Benjamin sat a studied my face like he recognized me, but couldn't remember exactly how I was related to him. After about thirty seconds he connected the dots, and was super excited to see us. The kids of course got "souvenirs" (thanks to the local walmart). Kate wanted a caboodle to keep her play makeup in. Seriously she loves makeup just like her mom, I'm scared she's growing up way to fast. Kirk asked for a fake snake, so we got him and Benjamin a plastic one. The funny thing about that is the cashier at Wal-mart wouldn't pick up the fake snake. She just said she was afraid of them, and refused to scan it. We had to take off the tag and she scanned that instead.

Here are few pictures of our trip we had a great time!

We flew into Orlando airport, because it was cheaper than flying into west palm beach. Orlando was over two hours away from the resort, so I arranged for a our group to be picked up from the airport, and then taken to the resort (this was cheaper than renting cars for everyone). We were all pretty excited when we saw our transfer was a big hummer limousine. I had never ridden in a limo before, so it was a new experience. It was nice to be able to stretch out, and all be together. It's hard to tell, but the limo is behind us in this photo.

Here we are golfing. We were able to take a quick shot before we started. Golfing was a lot of fun, I just wish it wasn't so expensive, or require so much time. It's hard to get good at golf when you only play about once every four years.

Dan's Mom holding Michelle's baby Bryston. He was the only child on the trip, and was given tons of attention, but you can't blame us, he is so darling!

The view from our room. Photo of the entire gang. Not a bad shot actually. I balanced the camera on a folded towel, and then used the timer. You can see how beautiful the lake is behind us.
The last night! We went dancing with everybody in the group.
In the Orlando airport wearing goofy sunglasses. The ones that Dan and robbie are wearing I got for 30 cents at down east home. They were making fun of them, I told them not to dis the sunglasses!

Christmas 2010

This year Christmas seemed extra magical. I think my kids are at the prime age when the excitement for Santa, and their anticipation for Christmas day is at it's peak. They were particularly mindful of Santa's good list and naughty this year. If ever they were tempted to get out of line, a quick reminder of "Santa's elves are watching" did the trick. This year Kirk was dying for an AT AT walker. It's the big star wars robot that walks. He started asking for it in September. I think Santa lucked out this year and got it on sale. He also got a couple of Lego sets; which he has played quietly with in his room for hours (I think I'm in love with Lego's too). And no Christmas would be complete for Kirk unless he got a few more star wars guys to add to his collection. He's been getting star wars stuff for Christmas since he was two, and still hasn't out grown them. I use to think this Star Wars fanaticism was just a stage, but it looks like he is a star was kid, and doesn't have any plans of changing that. Kate wanted American Girl stuff again, and was extremely surprised that Santa got her the Felicity doll which was about to be retired. It's so sad to me that the American girl company is retiring all of their memorable historic dolls. I read the books as a kids and Felicity and Samantha were my favorites; they have retired both of those dolls..... so sad. Luckily Kate got one before it was to late, Felicity looks just like me. She has red hair and green eyes. Needless to say I was ecstatic for her to get it. I have to admit that I've found myself brushing her hair, and dressing her up into her colonial gowns. She also got a amplifier which plays music on our i pod nano, and also amplifies a microphone so you can sing along. It's been very helpful for her to practise for her singing lessons. Finally Benjamin got a few things for Christmas too. Santa found it very easy to by for him. He got a car garage, and some new cars, and also some new trains to add to our train table in the basement, and lastly he got a toy push lawn mower. He loved that! Dan and I got our Christmas early this year. We scored an amazing deal on couches for our basement. I woke up at three in the morning to stand in line outside of RC Willey. If you know me well you know I LOVE black Friday deals. I just love the feeling of getting a bargain. I ended up getting a leather reclining couch set. There were only four per store, and I got the very last one! I felt like doing a happy dance in line when I got the voucher. We also splurged and got a big screen television. Now we don't have to watch movies in our bedroom (our bed was getting alittle cramped when we had all the kids watching too).

It's been a great Christmas. Here are a few pictures of the kids in their toy bliss!

I'm still alive; and blogging!

My sister mentioned to me today that it's not Halloween anymore, and I need to update my blog. She's right, I've been way to lack on it. I just can't tell you where the last three months have gone to. I love blogging, I love to capture the fleeting moments before I forget them. This is why I'm so sad that I haven't been keeping it up the last few months. My life is always busy, but the last couple of months have seriously felt like we've been in warp speed. I hope things will start to slow down now that we are into 2011. I'm really excited of this year. I've got a lot to look forward to and also dread. My Marathon is now just around the corner in May (maybe that's why I don't have anytime to blog my whole day revolves around when I can work my run in). But the bottom line is that my new goal is try to blog once a week. I feel like that is reasonable, but still frequent enough to record our family's adventures. I'll be updating soon!