Nick turned the big 3-0!

Well Nick has turned the big 3-0! He can no longer make fun of me for being an older woman. Thank goodness. I am throwing him a poker birthday party tonight since poker is his true love. Not sure where I fit in on that one. I will post some pictures from the shin dig after it is over.

Hurricane Ike takes a strike!

Where do I begin... Last week at this time my daughter decided she was going to get sick. Woke up Thursday morning with 101 fever. Of course who has to stay home with a sick baby... momma does. So I stayed home from work. Fortunately I was able to get a last minute appointment with her Dr. since all offices would be closed on Friday to prepare for Hurricane Ike. Sure enough she has strep throat. Good times. Thursday evening and Friday was prep time for the hurricane. Friday night my mom came over to stay the night. It was not a fun night. 10 pm try to sleep... 10:05 mom is snoring...10:10 daughter is snoring...10:15 Nick is snoring... me...no sleep... wind... noises outside... then at 11 our power is out... 1:30 metal grinding sound outside...Nick going outside to check on the metal grinding sound at 2am...mom and me standing at the back door yelling for him to come back inside...where is he???... noises...hurricane...not good...laying in bed...mom...you awake...yes... want to play cards...sure... So we decided there was no way we could sleep through this mess... lets play cards in the candlelight. After a good hour we decide to go back to bed. I really didn't sleep a wink. Just sat there and listened to all the horrible noises outside and hoped our house would stay in one piece. A few hours pass and Nick goes to check on things. The wind has changed directions... guess the eye of the storm passed. Nick comes back in... lost the tree out front. I think at this point he crawled into bed and was devestated. He loved his trees. We planted them when they were itty bitty and now they were big. The sun starts to come up and we get knocking on the door. Our neighbors check on us. We lost our gutters, tree and some of the shingles on our room... and power of course. Well... it is 5 days later and mom is still here. We have power. She doesn't. In-laws don't. Friends don't. We have had lots of visitors and life has been crazy. School is out all week. Boss called to say our building has a lot of damage and will not be able to be moved back into until the end of the year. What??? People will be without power and water for weeks. Major devestation all over Houston with people without places to live. This is sad. But... we are making the most of it. I hear there are great prices for flights out of IAH???? Wonder where we can go???

Our vacation from our vacation...

Well after 9 days of Disney World... we decided we need a vacation from our vacation. LOL! It just so happens we had already planned a trip to the new Secrets Maroma Beach in the Riviera Maya south of Cancun with our friends Nise and Jon. The week we were scheduled to go Hurricane Gustav was threatening both the Yucatan Peninsula as well as the Texas coast. Fortunately we did not cancel our plans because we were not affected much by Gustav. For two days we did get some killer waves, which went over our heads, but it made it more fun. All we did was float in the ocean, drink, float in the pool, drink, eat, drink, sleep, drink, swim, drink... you get the idea. What a beautiful place Maroma Beach was. By far the most beautiful beach we have ever stayed at. The room was AMAZING! We were upgraded to a swimout suite for free. It was so nice to have the pool right outside our room. They even had fresh flowers in our room upon arrival. I wish I was still there. Awwww... the life! You have to see these amazing photos below.

Magic Kingdom July 2008 Walt Disney World

What can I say about the Magic Kingdom? It is the most magical place on earth. I know I have too many pictures to post on this blog and it will be hard to pic my favorite ones. My favorite memories include Taylor riding Space Mountain 3 times. The first time she was scared and crying. The second time she said she was bored. The third time she said it was really fun...we made her ride in the very back. She also loved Splash Mountain. I think of all the rides this was her favorite. She would put her hands in the air for the big drop. I was so very proud of her being so brave. Of course we would always get soaked on this ride. One of my most favorite magical memories was taking Taylor to have lunch at Cinderella's Castle. She was in awe of being in her castle and seeing Cinderella and her friends. All the little girls made wishes on stars, however, Taylor said hers did not come true. She had wished to be turned into a mermaid. Really??? Couldn't she have wished for something that could be possible??? Oh... and the fireworks.... WOW!!! They were amazing! Thanks to Tour Guide Mike we found he perfect place to watch the fireworks. What a fabulous trip this was. Can't wait to go back. Jeff even asked me last night at small group... so how many days till we go to Disney is it? I was the one who was so excited and counting down and everyone looked at me like I was crazy. Now... after the trip they are ready for the countdown. Why couldn't they have played this game with me 2 months ago??? Guess we will have to go again!

Animal Kingdom July 2008 Walt Disney World

We spent one day at the Animal Kingdom park at Walt Disney World. Was that really only one day??? Gosh... it feels like we were there for more than one day. I honestly don't even remember now it just seemed so long. We had some very cool moments at Animal Kingdom. The Safari ride was really cool to be able to see all the live animals. The Dinosaur ride was priceless... well the photo of our group was really what was priceless. There was definitely a look of terror on everyone's face. And my most proud moment was my sweet Taylor riding Expedition Everest 3 times. I have to say that this is really her first real rollercoaster and I was so scared that she would hate it with the big drop and even going backwards in the dark in the mountain. BUT... not my girl. She is obviously an offspring and me and my hubby... since we are thrill seekers. Check out my favorite photos from this day.

Epcot July 2008 Walt Disney World

We spent one day at Epcot and lets just say it was an interesting start and ending of the day. The day starated with loads of laughter and some funny looks from people standing near us and ended with us being trapped inside Spaceship Earth after midnight at the very top. What an experience that was. We ended up walking down stairs to exit the ride. Now that I think about it the middle of the day was quite interesting as well. We had two people in our group, no names mentioned, that just couldn't handle Mission Space. Well...we did decide to go on the orange path and not the easy green side. Supposedly they have issues spinning in confined spaces. Wonder why??? They ended up worshipping the toilet for a little while. LOL! Sorry... Jeff and Claire... oops... we won't make you ride that one again. LOL!


Jeff just thinks he is an artist. Being in Paris gave him thoughts that he actually was an artist. Well... in one way he is but not painting.

Are we in Paris, France??? Not this trip... that was in 2006. Sure looks like it though.

Me with my girls showing off our Mickey Mouse earrings I bought for us... oh and our pins too. Man... that was fun trading pins. Went from a great idea to an addiction in a matter of minutes.

Taylor with her daddy. Look at those blue eyes. Aren't they both adorable???

Our awesome family in front of Spaceship Earth. Little did we know that 15 hours later we would be trapped at the very top for over 30 minutes.