Day 2: Disney Hollywood Studios

From the days we lived in Florida, I remember going to Hollywood Studios after work the most. Hollywood has more attractions for teenagers so it was a good progression from the Magic Kingdom. 

It was cold and rainy this day, but luckily we were able to go back to the hotel around lunch time to get more jackets and sweaters. Staying on-site definitely is an advantage because you can go into the park early, and easily go back to your room if necessary. The upside of the colder weather was that many visitors left the park early. 

We brought a bunch of snacks so we wouldn’t have to pay an arm and a leg for food at the resorts. Since we would be staying at the resort hotels and spend all day in the parks it didn’t make sense to rent a car, so we just took a taxi. That also meant we couldn’t really go to a grocery store, so half our suitcases were full of snacks. We just got one meal per day and that worked out well  

Demi is de grootste fan van Minnie

Hollywood studio’s has Star Wars attractions. I still haven’t watched any of the movies, but Joe and the kids all love it, and of course the set designs are very well made so it was fun for me too  

We had been in line for over an hour for one of the Star Wars attractions, when it shut down. Perfect time for a nap! 

 

The love show for Beauty and the Beast is always one of my favorites.

Sing along for frozen!

 

Day 1: Magic Kingdom

After 5 short hours of sleep we took the shuttle to the Magic Kingdom. Since we were staying at the Dolphin hotel on Disney property, we could get in an hour early for Magic hour. We followed the Ridemax plan, and didn’t have to stand in line too long. 

The Magic Kingdom is a lot more focused on little kids than I remembered but it was the perfect park to start with.   

my favorite ride: space mountain was unfortunately closed several times during the day. 

This was the first time to Disney World for Miles, Chase, and Demi. Demi had been to Euro Disney when she was much smaller. 

 Since it was a Friday in January , and we planned out our day we never waited more than 45 minutes. My poor feet were not doing so good though. I had forgotten to cut my toenails and only brought one pair of shoes so the pressure was always in the same spot. 

I gave each of the kids $100 to spend during the trip. That way they could decide how to spend it, whether it was on souvenirs or treats, and once it was gone it was gone. Ginger always wanted to have one of these huge lollipops. 

With social distancing due to COVID still in effect, we had to wear masks inside and on rides and couldn’t get very close for character photos. But Mickey is cute no matter what. 

What a great first day, finishing it off with a fireworks and light show. My body wasn’t too sad that the park closed at 9pm instead of 11pm. 

WDW Florida vacation

 I’ve always loved Disney World. Joe and I worked there when we were first married and would go for a few hours after work whenever we could. Although I love it, Joe has always been a little meh about it. So we kind of decided to go every 7 years. That way it’s not too much for Joe, and each of the kids get to go twice. Once when they are smaller and once as teenagers. In 2007 we went with the Judds to WDW. In 2014 we went to Disneyland California with just the older three kids. And now we are back in Florida. 

The Durango airport is so small that you walk into the tarmac to get on the plane.  It’s very convenient because you can easily get to the airport and hour before the flight and have 50 minutes of waiting at the gate. 

Our first flight was delayed so I stressed all day about what to do. Should I rebook the flight and not arrive in Florida until the next mid morning? Or should we chance it with a 40 minute layover in DFW? I really didn’t want to arrive the next day because that would be our first day at Disney.  We decided to practice our “Disney walks” and chance it. 

The transfer went smoothly, and with some power walking we arrived at the next gate as they were boarding. It was definitely a “home alone” moment . 

We arrived in Orlando and our taxi driver was waiting for us with a sign. He turned out to be the slowest taxi driver on the planet, going 45 mph on a 65 mph freeway.  But we made it to the Dolphin hotel by about 1 am.  

We set the alarm for 6.15 and laid down for our 5 hour sleep. 

Where have the last 8 years gone?

Occasionally I’ve looked back at this blog and lamented about the fact that I didn’t keep it up. The last post was 8 years ago, and so much has changed since then. All the kids are in school, Winter and sterling moved out, and I graduated with my masters degree in Tax. And I’m officially no longer a non-working mother… but instead I’m a working mother. We moved to Fort Collins and then to Durango. Instead of giving a whole history I think I’ll just start off as if I never missed a day. The posts I make on Facebook just don’t go into as much detail as I’d like to remember, and my memory is lacking so if it’s not written down, it just is lost forever.  

This is my first season with a season pass to the local ski resort. I have wanted to get one for many years, but I either had little kids at home, or we lived too far from the resorts. Miles and chase also have season passes, and they just learned to ski and picked it up super fast. Demi, our exchange student from Holland also got one, and it’s been a great activity to do together. I just hope Ginger and Joe will join next year. 

 

My favorite type of skiing is definitely through the trees (as long as it’s not too steep) with some fresh powder. I’d love to learn how to do some jumps and am constantly working on my parallel skiing skills. 

Goldilocks Century

Saturday I rode my very first ever century bike ride. It's a 100 miles on a road bike. Me and my friend Lisa Calderwood signed up for it a few months back, and I've spent the past 8 weeks on an intense training schedule. My weekly mileage increased steadily, until I rode 70 miles a few weeks ago. That 70 mile bike ride was tough. It was raining and windy, I had no support, and was riding in the mountains with a lot of hills.

I was looking forward to riding with other women (it's a women's only ride), and utilizing all of the rest stops. I also figured that even though the 70 miles was the most I could handle, this 100 miles would be different, since I could draft behind people part of the time.

The night before any big day is always restless for me. At 4am I got up to eat breakfast, giving myself plenty of time to be fueled for a 7am start time. Lisa picked me up at 5am, and we made it to the starting line by 6am. That hour before the start time flew by! Before I knew it, it was time to take off.

I started riding with Kristen Bellows. We were among other women going similar speeds, but lost most of them at the first rest stop. The first 55 miles were great. I was taking turns pulling and drafting with Kristen and this other girl named Sarah. At that rest stop (55 miles), we turned around and headed back north. (by this time Kristen was going a little slower, and we left her behind)

The headwind was insane! It was necessary to ride with other people, or I ended up working twice as hard. I tagged along with a Papa Bear for a while, which was nice, because then I didn't have to take turns pulling. Unfortunately, he had to come to the rescue of another woman, so most of the way back into the wind was taking turns.

It really amazed me when I saw women riding close to other riders, but not close enough to take advantage of the windbreak you can get by riding right on someone else's tail. I was all for doing as little extra work as possible.

Lunch was the 4th rest stop, at 72 miles. By that time the idea of a turkey sandwich didn't sound appealing to me at all, so I stuck with watermelon and cantaloupe. Right before Sarah and I were ready to head out, we saw two women we had initially ridden with before that first rest stop. The ladies in Red were going our same speed, and I knew we would still have a lot of headwind to face. So as soon as they took off, I made the extra effort to catch up with them.

The four of us (ladies in Red, and Sarah) rode the next 15 miles together. For some reason, they didn't have another rest stop until mile marker 95, which meant there was a 23 mile gap after lunch. I had really been drinking a ton of water to try and prevent dehydration. There was no way I could ride another 8 miles without stopping to use the restroom. So I decided to stop at Walgreens, and realized I would lose my riding party for the biggest hill (with headwind) coming up.

As I started back up, I was a little deflated mentally. The hill looked so long, and I knew that it would take a ton of extra energy to make it up. I was just chugging along, when all of a sudden a random old guy on a bike passed me. He was only going a little bit faster than me, so I immediately pulled behind him. I was like night and day! I was able to easily ride up the hill at a 10mph pace, where moments before it was taking all my energy to go 8mph.

At the last rest stop (95 miles), I caught back up to Sarah and the girls in Red. I was still feeling good, and finished strong.

I spent 7 hours and 25 minutes on the course. I used Strava, so I know my actually moving time was closer to 6 hours 30 minutes. That was right in my goal range.

Joe and the kids were at the finish line to cheer me on, and give me some pretty roses. I sure felt loved!

In the future I'd definitely like to ride another century. There are so many to chose from in Utah! For the next few months I'll just ride my bike for fun (mountain and road), and maybe do another organized ride in the fall after Swiss Days. I really need to focus on catching up on my doll furniture building, since I've fallen behind. Time flies!

** Once the professional photos become available, I will add them to this blog post

On the brink of change

It's hard to believe that my little girl turned 12 today. I can remember the day like yesterday, when they told me at the hospital but she was ready to go home with me. I was scared, thinking "can I really do this"? Wondering, but if I do things totally wrong? Of course I have done many things wrong, but overall she has turned into a wonderful young woman despite of it. Yes, she is a typical tween. She can go from Sweet, loving, and helpful. To a little demon, in two seconds flat. I remember when I was 12. Just going from believing my parents knew everything, to thinking I knew it all myself. The coming six years scare me to death, just the same as that day at the hospital when I was able to take her home for the first time. This is when I think to myself, have I done enough? Will she make the right choices for herself? Will she make the right kind of friends, that will help her to making these good choices? And even if she does, will she still make the right choices? Because good friends don't necessarily mean good choices. I hope I can be a good friend to her as well as a good mother. That she will come to me for questions and concerns. And that she will love me, through all of the periods that she might hate me. All the while I think about her growing up, I must remember that she still is a little girl. That is one of the hardest things with younger siblings, the older ones always seem to get the faster. But when you look back at pictures, you realize they were still little themselves. 

As part of each child's birthday, they get to choose what they want to eat that day. Winter requested breakfast in bed. And she also wanted to eat sushi. Again, such grown-up things to want. 

I love this little girl, she is so sweet and talented. She exceeds in pretty much anything she puts her mind to. She is smart, and works hard at school. She excels in music with cello, violin, piano, and any other instrument she tries her hand at. She can be very sweet to her brothers and sisters, and helpful with the babies. My hope for her is, that this time with the small babies will help her to want to become a mother herself someday. And that it will help her see that it is not all fun and games.

Here is to a new start of the new chapter in my life. Scary life of teenagers, but also rewarding hopefully. 

Eggs and snow

Winter is knocking on the door. The season that is. We have had a few small snowstorms  each time we get a few inches and it only lasts for a few days. I can't wait for a snowstorm that dumps 4feet of snow overnight!

The chickens finally started laying eggs a few weeks ago, and they are beautiful and delicious!

We get about 8-10 eggs per day, which is on the high side for us, so I have started selling them. It's a good way to recoop some of the money we spend on food. 

Miles is the biggest fan of the chickens. It's super cute when he goes out to play with them. I don't know if they think he's a rooster or what, but if he chases after them, they will kind of squat the same way our Texas chickens did when the roosters came to "service" them. Then Miles can just pick them up easily. 

When the weather was still nicer, Miles also liked to sit in the dirt where the chickens take their dust baths. Not such a pleasant smell when he came back in the house!