The Grand Floridian Adventure Part 2

As you may remember, when I last left off on the Grand Floridian Adventure it was September 13th (on the GFA, not posting). Now we are jumping ahead to September 17, because I have ZERO pictures from those between days. We did stuff but either (a) I don't have pictures or (b) they are on the other camera. Anyway, quick summary:

Monday, September 14: Meadow went to meetings all day, Geoff and Hazel swam in the pool and played with ponies. I think they also rode the bus to the Animal Kingdom Lodge to see animals. But that could have been Tuesday (I think there are pictures of this on the other camera). Monday night we went out to dinner at the fancy-schmancy restaurant in the hotel, it was a conference thing. Hazel did not have a great time. Then we went swimming afterward and to the boardwalk. Or maybe that was Sunday. Man, my days are confused. Probably both days. We swam a lot. Oh, we also walked around Downtown Disney this day too. And had an extremely mediocre lunch at some restaurant that really should have been more delicious.

Tuesday, September 15: Meadow=meetings. Geoff and Hazel=stuff. We had dinner with the conference this night too and then we all went to Cirque du Soleil. It was pretty good, but I am glad I didn't have to pay for the tickets. The 7 bucks for popcorn was plenty and I got reimbursed for that.* Geoff and I went to the show that came through Utah at the E Center, but this was Hazel's first time. I think enjoyed watching her more than the show.**

Wednesday, September 16: Meetings and packing in the morning. Then a lady gave us tickets to the water park and we went in the afternoon. It was awesome and a lot of fun. I would have even paid. I KNOW! Paid! They had a great kid zone that had a multitude of slides in vary degrees of scariness and Hazel increased her bravery bit by bit. I know we have pictures of this on the other camera, cause it is waterproof. And then we drove to Tampa. Which was a long drive but totally worth it to see Geoff's cousin and her family. We went to dinner, and spent the night with them on Wednesday which brings us to Thursday and I have pictures.

Whew.

They live on this great pond with a bird.

And an alligator. Possibly a stick, except it really is an alligator and we saw it swim and yawn. They also have a swimming pool at their house. Lucky.
And, Hazel favorite part. A BABY! Yeah, for baby Aysia! Hazel was in baby heaven. She got to hold the baby and feed the baby and pat (burp) the baby. She wanted to sleep in the baby's room so she could "help her in the night" we put the kibosh on that. It was great seeing them and we would love to go visit them for more than a quick overnight trip.

And then we made the trek to Cape Canaveral. Unbeknown to me, Geoff had the GPS set to avoid toll roads. Which made for a very, very, very long drive across Florida. He claimed it was "scenic" but Hazel and I just watched cartoons in the backseat and waited to see our boat. Or ship. Whatever.

When we finally spied it, we were very excited.
Very, very excited.
Even Geoff got in on the excitement action.
And then Hazel lost it for a bit. She absolutely did not want her backpack to be tagged and sent to our room. Because, she is nuts. Does she not realize that it is better to have someone else take care of the luggage?!? Obviously not. So, Geoff went to park the car and Hazel and I went in to the terminal to start the check-in process and just as we were finishing who should show up but THE mouse herself. NOTE: In our house, the only mouse that matters in Minnie. See that mouse silhouette on the ship model in the background? Minnie. The pasta she would get at dinner? Minnie. The ice cream bars? Minnie. You get it. Everything is Minnie. Mickey is not even discussed. Hazel was very excited and perked right up at seeing Minnie and kept up the pleasantness for the rest of the cruise. (or at least that is how I am going to remember it. I cannot think of any other freak outs so I am going to remember the awesomeness of our cruise. It is my cruise. And my blog. I can do what I want.)
Geoff showed up just in time to get a family shot.***
We toured the kid land and it was awesome. I could do an entire post on the awesomeness that is kid land. But, I am not going to. Let me just add it in here: Awesome.

Oh, you want more? Okay, so Hazel is 3 which means she was in with the 3- to 4-year-olds. See how that is only a two year span? Awesome#1. Every single one of the counselors that I met was perky and friendly beyond belief. Awesome#2. The kid land was huge. They had a playground-thing with stuff to climb on and a little slide and then a little TV area with shell chairs. Then there was a huge open space and a stage. They had tables where they served them meals and snacks (They fed them, I could have completely neglected my child all cruise. Awesome#4. (because I am still working on #3)) and then a GIANT tree house thing with a steering wheel (see below) and a slide and other such awesomeness. Plus, a computer room and dress-up area. Awesome#3 And, Hazel favorite part of all, tiny toilets. Awesome#5. Seriously, the kid loves tiny toilets. She wants a tiny toilet in her new bathroom. Except by the time we get done with bathrooms she will be like 15 and who wants a tiny toilet then?!? Moving on. The best part of all: We had late seating for dinner (8:15pm) and our server would take the kids' orders (we were seated with another couple who had a 4-year-old girl) and then rush their food out and then, magically, at 9pm the kid land folks would show up at the restaurant and whisk the kids away to kid land. Awesome#6-10. Disney is a giant marketing machine and I feel guilty about buying Hazel the Disney-crap but I will tell you what. They know how to take care of kids, and more so the parents. The end.

At lunch we met the captain and the first mate. Hazel was very happy with "the dog what walks on two legs".
Our cruise ship had a big old sports area. We played some soccer.
Later, we met Minnie Mouse again. (1) I don't know what is up with the kid and her crazy hands. I assume she is pledging a gang****
We also got Hazel to lay in the windows. She wasn't really amused.
But, dang, look how cute she is in her little mouse ears and adorable dress!

I promise to finish updating the remaining parts at some point in the future.

*I am a cheapskate.

**I am also a sucker for my kid.

*** How short are the people in the costumes?!?! because we are taller than Minnie and her head is H-U-G-E!

****Do you pledge gangs? How does that work? When will she stop with the weird hands?

The Grand Floridian Adventure Part 1

We recently returned from 8 days in, or around, Florida. Meadow had a conference at Disney World for 4 nights, then we spent a lovely night with Geoff's cousins in Tampa and then 3 nights on a Disney cruise. It was great but, holy cow, Florida is h-o-t. And muggy. Oh, the muggy, muggy Florida air.

Anyway, we had a great time and here is my story.

Geoff ordered a snorkeling outfit from his Delta points. I am not really sure how this program works, I just know he got free snorkeling stuff. And Hazel modeled them. In a princess dress.
Remember how I have two cameras? Well, I can apparently only update with one of them at a time. So, this post is from the big camera. My point? None.

Disney World is enormous. I guessed about 600 square miles. But, turns out is is like 36 square miles or 25,000 acres (which sounds far more impressive). My point is this: They are a powerful marketing machine. This was the coolest thing I saw on the compound. Minnie (everything in our world is Minnie, not Mickey) Mouse electrical poles. Awesome.

We stayed at the Swan. It was nice but not as nice as some of the other hotels the conference has been held at. But, on the other hand, nicer than where I would stay if I had to pay. Hmm... this is kind of a crappy picture of it. But, all I could find.
More proof that everything is Minnie Mouse. Hazel was uber-cute in this dress. She told someone, "My mom made the dress but we had to borrow the sash." As if borrowing something was the worst thing ever. I am proud of this dress. I think it looks great and even though I deviated from the pattern and had to do a few things repeatedly (see collar and sleeves) it turned out great. The marketing ladies from my conference found Hazel adorable and bought her matching Minnie ears which she LOVES and wore everywhere.
We went to a character breakfast our first morning in WDW and had a great time. I think Hazel ate about 2 bites but she loved the characters. This picture does not show the true amount of love she had for Donald. I think he was the first character and she was still a bit nervous at this point. By the end of the meal she had warmed up to everyone.
Loved Goofy.
Loved, loved, loved Minnie Mouse. HOWEVER! Not once did we see Minnie in the "traditional" i.e. matching dress. Bummer.
And she got earrings. So, all around Florida was a win for Hazel.
They are clip-on earrings (which had never occurred to me before) and she loves them. She has wanted earrings for quite some time now and I think this is filling the need. They are pink butterflies and, surprisingly, they both made it home.
We made a trip to Downtown Disney before my meetings on Sunday and it was awesome. They have My Little Pony thing where you get a pony and all the outfits you can stuff in a box for $20. Best 20 bucks we spent on the trip. We were able to get all of the outfits (princesses and Minnie) plus extra shoes and other fiddly things. Hazel loves it and it ate up plenty of hours and kept her entertained at dinners.
Daisy. Angry Hazel. Angry Donald. Angry Geoff.
We have quite a few photos with Hazel on or near something.
She was fascinated with the "stick" Tigger is sitting on and was convinced it was poop. From our angle, it kind of did look like poop.
Not a fan.
I had to go to meetings (you know, the reason my work shells out the cash for me to go places). Geoff and Hazel headed back to the room. Hazel put on her princess dress and fell asleep. (Long aside: We were looking for another princess dress for Hazel. She got a blue one at Disneyland and wears it constantly. She sold Popsicles on the 24th of July to buy a dress and I told her she could have another one in Florida. She really wanted the mermaid outfit but it looked cheap (but, was NOT cheap) but she would settle for the mermaid ball gown. And then they were out of her size. And so we tried Snow White. Same story, not in her size. So, we had the guy call around and NONE in her size. We tried quite a few princesses before they found ONE in her size. The blue one. Ack. We went to the princess factory (or so it seemed) and they rummaged around and same story, nothing in her size. WTH!?!?! Come on Disney! 3-year-olds need princess dresses. Finally, they found ONE pink one in her size and Hazel proclaimed it was "her favorite". Fabulous, because that is the only one they have. End) It is a cute dress, however, and off the shoulder like she loves.

Then we went to the cocktail reception (Geoff and Hazel came to and Hazel was fabulous and well behaved and cute and everyone fawned over her) and swimming and THEN to the ESPN Zone for food. Hazel zonked out at the ESPN Zone even though it was incredibly loud and loud and sporty and loud. It was a long day.

And then I have no pictures (on this camera) until September 17th.

More tomorrow, or another day.

First Day of Preschool

Hazel started preschool a couple of weeks ago (09/09/09, to be precise) and she is loving. The first day was show-and-tell except we were running late and I forgot to remind her and thus no show-and-tell. When we got to school she remembered and it was too late. I tried to hand her stuff from the car, "How about the first aid kit? What about this book?" She was not impressed and said, "Mom, that is pretty stupid. I am just going to have no show-and-tell." Bah. I tried.

Anyway, she loves preschool and hopefully we will remember to take something tomorrow.

Outfit was entirely chosen by Hazel.
She is stuck on the princess pose thing. Lame.

Camping!

Okay, first off, if it was for the Awesome Bonnie we never would have gone camping. And that would be a shame because we had a great time. We went up American Fork canyon for the night and while it was chock-a-block with people it was still fun. We had a fire and roasted marshmallows, hunted for bears (none found, however), hunted for moose (Geoff "saw" one), hiked and ummm... camping stuff.


Second, remember how I despise some things about blogger? One of them is the crappy way it moves pictures. I have complained about this before but haven't taken the initative to move to a different site. Just deal with the odd order of pictures because it is a pain to move them without losing the big picture (literally, the BIG picture which I like to keep a copy of at work.)


Moving on.


We hiked/walked around Casade Springs. Hazel took this lovely picture of me and Geoff.
And she took this nice picture of herself.
And then Bonnie took this shot.
And a better one. Hazel got a piece of candy for behaving.* I haven't been up to Cascade Springs since I was a kid. Geoff had never been. You can no longer play in the springs, you have to stay on the path. Still, it was a lovely time and a perfect hike/walk length.
Hazel climbed the rock across from our campsite. There was also one in our campsite that she climbed and almost fell off of. Luckily, I have reflexes like a cat** and was able to grab her before she toppled off backwards, head first.
Hazel and Geoff chilling by the fire. It was hard to get a good fire shot without using the flash and keeping the ambiance. But, I think you get what I was going for. We also told ghost stories and they were awesome. Hazel's was about 30 seconds and incoherent. Nathan's (Bonnie's son) was about 30 minutes and incoherent. In his defense, he was constantly interrupted. Still, it was good times.

Hazel really liked playing in our tent. Not her tiny tent that she insisted on us bringing, only the "whole family tent". She was reading stories to her babies. Except that I notice now that one baby is smashed under her back.
She wanted to take my picture with her dog book. "Look happy!"
Behold the power of static electricity.
Playing frisbee with Geoff. She was not great at catching.
But not too bad at throwing.
Look at that follow through! It is as if the heaven's are shining down upon her and bestowing the power of frisbeeing. Or something.
After being fed (because we are super lame and no one is feeling really great so we didn't even pack breakfast) and packing up camp we headed down to hike Stewart Falls. Except everyone in the UC was up the canyon and traffic was horrible and parking was worse and Hazel was tired and just wanted to visit Grandma and Grandpa. So, we bid adieu to our friends and headed to my dad and Anne's house. We hung out and chatted and then decided to go to the Festivale Magnifico!*** We ate some tacos and Hazel won a toothbrush and really, Really, REALLY wanted to go on a ride except (a) I don't trust carnies, (b) I don't trust those rides and (c) I didn't want to pay the outrageous prices for the lame-o rides. Lucky for Hazel, she found two tickets on the ground and that was just enough to go on the train. So, I still don't trust carnies or the rides but I didn't have to pay and the train didn't go in the air or very fast so I agreed.

She had a fabulous time.
As we were leaving we saw this poster and Hazel was quite concerned about the missing cat. Except it is not missing.
The sign actually says "Have you seen this cat? Because it is Awesome." Oh, Provo, you are so high-larious.

All in all, we had a great weekend. Michelle moved into the basement, and watched Nacho for us while we were gone. We also went to the zoo on Saturday with cousins Tiffany and Ginger and saw the baby tigers and, my goodness, they were cute. And....I think that is about it. We are all suffering from various degrees of allergies and Geoff tore his bicep at work.

The end.

*Yes, I realize I am a horrible parent. My kid watches TV, eats candy, gets bribed by her parents and throws tantrums. I predict she will be thrown out of preschool in less than a month.

**aahahahahahaha aahahahaha I normally have horrible reflexes but I did save her this one time.

***Probably not the real name.

Random, random pictures

So, I haven't upload pictures from the little camera since July-ish. I finally got around to it today and here are a bunch of random shots. Tomorrow I will post the awesomeness that was our weekend.

This is me "hiking" the Mormon/California Trail. In reality, I only hike like 10 feet between roads but whatever, I still got to take a picture.

Geoff and Brandon at Affleck park. Geoff was umm...not happy? I don't know. I don't know if I chose to upload this picture or if I mistyped. But, it is here now for all my readers. All 12 of you.
Hazel at swimming lessons. She was the smallest and only girl. Which reminds me, I need to see about signing her up for the next session.
On the mermaid statue at the International Peace Gardens. I am sure this was allowed behavior.
And the lions at the same park.
Oh, this is a shot of the door I was stripping. Technically, it is sitting on my front porch and thus is still being stripped. Did you know that ammonia takes off shellac? No!?!? Well, now you do. Thanks, internet.
Hazel and I at the 24th of July children's parade. Except it is really on the Saturday before the 24th. We are pink.
Hazel waiting to get her first haircut. Oh, she is such a brave little driver.
Hazel and I at the Bee's game with the mascot. I believe is name is Bumble. Actually, I have no idea. Again, we are pink. This is at my work's summer party. It was very meh.
Hazel (pre-haircut) with Nacho. Poor, poor Nacho.