A Grown-up Day at Disney

Last week was our 14 year wedding anniversary and to celebrate and to take a much deserved break... Greg and I went to Disney World for the day! It wasn't easy to coordinate with three kids, but thanks to our great neighbors and friends we were able to make it happen. If you ever get the chance to go childless, I HIGHLY recommend it. Now don't get me wrong, I love my children more than life itself and I thoroughly enjoy taking them to Disney and having them experience all that fun and magic, but it was a refreshing change to be there without the whine-factor (well except for Greg). We hit all four parks in one day and rode all those rides that we never get to ride with the kids!! Thanks to Greg's long arms we were able to document our trip in pictures - of course they all look rather similar!















At Animal Kingdom we rode Expedition Everest! What a great coaster!
















At Disney MGM Studios we rode the Tower of Terror and the Rockin' Roller Coaster.

















Of course it wouldn't seem like Disney without a quick stop at the Magic Kingdom! Greg's big head is blocking Cinderella's castle!

And last, but not least, we stopped at Epcot for the "International Flower and Garden Festival." Really great displays with lots of the characters created out of plants. (You can see a bit of Captain Hook and the Crocodile in the background.)

We had a great time and plan on doing it again sometime - only next time we're taking more than one day! ;-)

Springtime means...

LOTS of AZALEAS

and HAPPY EASTER!

Lordy, Lordy, look who's 30/10

Yeah - don't say anything...

For my 40th, my fabulous friends from the 'hood' and I had a "girls day out!" We shopped and shopped and they made me try on these really fashionable hats!




















Me with Jo and Kelli.















We also had a fantastic dinner at the Cheesecake Factory!















Kelli and Cindy

We had a load of fun and a great time and decided not to wait for someone's birthday to do it again!

Jake's Voyage

OK - so I know these are pictures from before Christmas, but I just got copies from my neighbor! Jake's friend Carly invited him to sail with her family on the schooner ship Freedom during the Christmas Regatta. The theme for the ship was the Polar Express - and I'd say they did a fantastic job!

Of course Jake and Carly had fun on the ship, but they also enjoyed themselves afterwards playing in the plaza.

Grown-ups Night Out!

Greg and I are very lucky to have such great neighbors! We always have a great time with them and every once in a while we all get a sitter and go out without the kids and then we act like kids...

John, Me and Greg. (Incidently, that's not my martini! I had to hold it for Cindy while she was playing photographer!)














Me and Jo

James, Jo, Me, Cindy and John - what a crew!

Horsin' Around

Sara and Anna both say they want to take riding lessons. Before we decide to fork out all kinds of money for that, we were lucky enough to be invited to some friends house to 'test drive' this idea...

This is Beauty - she got a good brushing that day!























































All the kids did fantastic! I guess we're going to have to seriously look into some riding lessons!

Happy Birthday Jake!

We 'hit' Disney again to help Jake celebrate his 5TH birthday!!!!
















We made it to Animal Kingdom and the Magic Kingdom - rode rides, ate great junk food, got a couple of souvenirs - the usual! We were only there for the day, but we had a great time!
















Sara and I celebrated Jake's day with a ride on the "Primeval Whirl" - which they should call the Primeval Hurl 'cause it spins way too much for me! She can ride that with Greg from now on! The little kids are not tall enough for this one, but we rode plenty of other rides!

Jake - the soccer star!

Jake had his first soccer game last Saturday! He did fantastic considering he'd never played before and his team, for one reason or another, has only had one practice! He ran hard and kicked hard and ended up scoring a goal!!





Jake is the second blue shirt from the left in the picture below.



WAY to go JAKE!!

KABOOM!

So this is what I like to do in my spare time... dress up like an 18th century Spanish soilder and fire cannons!! That is me (in the picture below) lighting the cannon at the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument. There are a few dozen volunteers who participate in historic weapons demonstrations every weekend at the Fort. It is such a blast!!




On this particular Saturday, we had enough females to have an all-female cannon crew - the first in the history of the fort! (L to R) Jill, Me, Melinda and Erin

Winter Luau

More from our great neighbors...
Mitch and Kelli hosted a Winter Luau to celebrate Madison's birthday and John's birthday which were only a few days apart. So we all dressed in our 'tropical' best and came ready to limbo!! Of course, we're having a slight cold spell here in Florida so it ended up indoors!!
Greg, Mitch, Kelli and Cindy all ready to party!



The kids had a good time... of course they have a good time just about anywhere!


John and Cindy got friendly with the totem pole.


And then John got friendly with the poster...
Happy Birthday John!


Anna and Cassidi ready to hula!

Christmas Parade

This was, of course, before Christmas, but I hadn't gotten around to blogging it...



Sara with Madison and Carly.
















The girls and Greg got to ride on a trolley in the Christmas parade along with our neighbors! Jake and I had tee-ball, but met up with everybody for lunch. They all had such a great time so we are definately in for next year.








Anna and Kelli!











Jake, Carly, Anna, Sara and Madison!

Merry Christmas from the Livelys!!

To all our friends and family...
We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year!

Christmas pictures at the beach!

This is what happens when you try and have Christmas pictures taken at the beach!

The kids run all over...




Jake has to do his action figure pose...



It was cloudy and windy, but we got some good shots!


Special thanks goes to our great neighbor and photographer Cindy Stavley!!