Surviving until spring...:)

You can always tell when winter hits, because blogging starts to go down. And this winter hasn't even been as bad as I thought it would be, although, that said, I am definitely ready for spring to be here. Here are a few things we have been up to though, since returning back to Ithaca.


The kids love playing sleepover. They get out all their pillows, blankets, and stuffed animals (which are quite numerous between Madeline and Dylan...), and all lay down on the floor. Not that much sleeping is happening, also considering they do this in the middle of the afternoon. One thing that is cute now, is Dylan has to do EVERYTHING Scott and Madeline do. He has even started having to wear his backpack when I take Scott and Madeline to school, because they have their backpacks on too. Luckily, Scott and Madeline are so good to him, and love playing with him.

We also went and saw our first Polo match here. Unfortunately, the picture I got is not that great, and my camera was losing power quick, so this is the only one I have to post. The match was against Harvard, and happy to report, Cornell was victorious. Not many people were there, but it was free, so definitely worth checking out. The kids actually loved it and want to go back. It was pretty entertaining watching the horses run all around and the players trying to make goals with the ball, after you got used to the horse smell that is.:) We are hoping to get to another game sometime before we leave here.

Another thing we did was walk to some of the waterfalls on Cornell campus with my friend, Rachel and her kids. It was incredible looking at all the frozen water and ice. Just looking at it seemed to make us all even colder. Would hate to fall in there!

All bundled up and I was still pretty cold. I can be a wimp sometimes.

Right before the cold winter hit, our mall here put a bouncy gym thing in one of the empty stores. Such a good idea, if you ask me. Scott and Madeline had been bugging me to take them ever since we got back after Christmas. For playgroup last week, we met here and let all the kids play for an hour (again sorry for the not so great picture, but this was all I got). My kids love these things. And so do I, since it keeps them all fully entertained.

One other thing that may be of interest, we do have a second home now, though I don't have a picture to post. What is our second home, you ask? Our local YMCA. We go everyday (about) except Sundays. Sometimes I am there a couple times a day. I go to get some exercise most days (although those who know me might find this a bit shocking since I still don't quite look like I actually workout alot, or ever for that matter...), and they have babysitting for the kids while there. Luckily, all three love to go play there. Then Scott and Madeline have swim lessons there twice a week. They LOVE going to their swim lessons. It is kind of nice going because they heat the pool and keep the room in the 80's, so you almost need to wear short sleeves so you are not hot. It's nice to sit there watching them swim, with short sleeves and sandals on while you can see snow falling out the windows. But it's NOT nice to have to get Scott and Madeline out of their wet swimming clothes, back into winter ones while Dylan is running wild through the dressing room. I can see the benefit of doing swim lessons in warm weather. I am just glad they like going.

Along with swimming lessons, they are enrolled in a soccer class every Saturday morning as well, again, at the Y. This is just too cute to watch a bunch of 4, 5, and, I think, 6 years old's run around after a soccer ball. There are about 20-25 kids in their class, and Madeline is only one of four girls, not that she really cares. She is very used to playing with boys, weather they like playing with her or not. The instructors try to have them practice drills, and stuff, and last week they even had a little game against each other. Madeline's team got to wear a mesh jersey over their shirts, and I think this was her favorite part. I think she thought it was almost like playing dress up and kept prancing around in it and looking at it. Typical Madeline.:) I was happy to notice that both Scott and Madeline did try to run after and get the ball though.

Well, these things have kept us pretty busy of late. Sometime I am sure I will get pictures of them in their classes and post them, but I have been feeling a little run down, not up to bringing the camera yet.:)

One more waterfall picture...

Just had to add this picture of the waterfall. This is not rocks (or, at least, not just rocks. There could be some rocks under all that ice), it is frozen water at the bottom of the falls. And the picture is in color, although it may look black and white.:)

Part II

Okay, so to continue our vacation.:) Next we went to...Disneyland! I am not sure who was more excited to go. The kids or the parents. I love Disneyland. And even though I lived less then an hour away while growing up, we didn't go all that often. It was expensive, and I think my parents wanted to keep it a special thing, and sometimes if you do something too much, it can lose it's special feeling. Disneyland still has that feeling for me. (Thanks to my brother for getting us a really good deal on the tickets so we could actually go!)


This is right inside the park entrance. We went to Disneyland with my mom and dad, and my sister, Nicole, and her two youngest kids who are not in school full time yet.

On our first ride. I am with Madeline, and my niece, Kate, who is Scott and Madeline's age. It was great riding the rides with Kate because she has been a few times and knew how to work all the gadgets to get the cars and things to move!:)

Dave riding with Scott and Dylan.

One of the first things we wanted to go do, was see the Star Wars Training Academy. We went to the first show of the day, in hopes that it would not be too crowded yet, and Scott would get picked to be up on stage. He was actually the first one picked to go up. He was so excited. What they do in the show, is pick all the kids to come up for their light saber training, taught by a Jedi.

After the kids all "passed" their training, the stage started to come up from the ground. On it was, Darth Vader, Darth Maul, and Storm Troopers. It was pretty cool. They then divided the padowan's (all the kids) into two lines to fight either Darth Maul or Darth Vader.

Scott got to fight Darth Vader, and, he told us later, was a little nervous.:) He did great though. (The guy behind Scott was their Jedi Trainer) When we asked Scott later how it was, he said it was fun and he didn't even get anything cut off (meaning any body parts cut off by the light sabers)! It was definitely a good start to the day.

Here is Madeline and Kate again. They were so cute together. I wish we lived closer so they could play together more often. And so I could hang out with her mom, my sister.:)

Here are all the kids that went to Disneyland, sitting in a tea cup. The little baby is Kate's little sister, Megan. She is adorable.:)

Dave and I in the tea cup. Dave actually didn't go on the Tea Cups with us, not his type of ride. My dad and I went on with the older kids. It was great. And no one threw up either!:)

Scott and Madeline trying to get the sword out of the stone. No luck for us there.)

Dave and Dylan waiting in line at Snow White's ride.

Here is Scott outside Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Scott absolutely loved all the roller coasters. He went on every one, except the only one he wasn't tall enough for, Indiana Jones. His favorite ones were the Matterhorn, and Thunder Mountain Railroad. I couldn't believe he liked them all so much.

At the end of the day at Disneyland, we told the kids they could each pick out a souvenir. Scott got some things from the Pirates of the Caribbean store, Dylan got a Winnie the Pooh stuffed animal, and Madeline got this little baby Bambi. Anyone who knows Madeline, knows she loves stuffed animals, and she has loved this one. Almost as much as her "pink dog". Which is saying alot.

Overall, the day at Disneyland was great. We went in the middle of the week, after all the other kids were back in school in CA. We hardly had to wait in a line for a ride. A couple rides we waited for about a half hour, but most were 15 minutes or less. The weather was perfect, and so were the kids. They didn't whine or complain once (which is not a normal occurrence for our kids), and we were at the park for about 12 hours total. We had lunch there, and we packed some snacks to bring in, but that was about it.

After the park closed, we headed over to Downtown Disney, where there are shops and food places. We knew there was a little place there that sold beignets, which, for those who don't know, are french style donuts that they sell in New Orleans. When I was pregnant with the twins, Dave had a work conference in New Orleans. So I decided to go with him, and my mom also met us there, so we could do the sightseeing, while Dave was in his conference. Maybe I will post a blog about our adventures there a little later. But one thing we LOVED and had to have everyday, was their beignets, at Cafe du Monde. They are shaped almost like a square scone, but are very light and airy inside. And they dump, and I mean DUMP, about a pound of powered sugar on them. We had some everyday we were in New Orleans. So they had a place in Downtown Disney that sold them, and we wanted to try it out. They were every bit as good as the ones in New Orleans. In fact, the rest of our stay in CA, Dave was trying to figure out how we could get by Downtown Disney again, just so we could have more beignets. We will definitely be visiting there again, next time we are in California.:)

This is Scott and Dylan riding the little motorized Jeep my parents have in their back yard. Have I talked about how much I LOVED being the the CA sunshine.:):) Really, it was great.

Here are Dave, my dad, and the kids washing Dave's parents car. They were nice enough to let us borrow it for two weeks to drive to CA and back (thanks Jay and Vinnie!). My dad washes his and my mom's cars almost every Saturday, without fail. And he has been doing this since I can remember as a little girl. And you should see the setup he has in the garage with all his special car cleaning supplies. He could open his own car wash shop for the neighborhood!:) My mom and dad have the cleanest, well taken care of cars you will probably ever see. I wish we could say the same for our van, but trust me, we can't.:)

After two weeks in CA, we headed back to UT for one more week. As part of mine and Dave's 10 year wedding anniversary this past November and my Christmas present, Dave arranged for his parents to watch the kids for the night, while we went up to stay at a hotel in Midway UT. Midway is between Park City and Heber, and is probably the place Dave would love to live the most. It is beautiful up there. Outside our hotel, they had these ice castles that were really cool.

It was fun walking around and seeing how they made these. Very impressive. Well, the rest of the week in UT was spent visiting with family and cousins. We made it back to Ithaca, without any incidents, and with all our stuff. (That was quite a feat). We thoroughly enjoyed our time in UT and CA and miss all our family already. But is it so nice to be back here at home and seeing all our wonderful friends again. And the winter here hasn't even been as bad as I remember it was last year. Maybe it is because we had a month away, or maybe your first year here always seems the worst. But winter isn't over yet, so who know what will still be ahead.:)