Disney 2012 Part 1

Wow, what a great family trip! I hate that it's taken me so long to post it all here but life's been a whirlwind with almost weekly travel lately...
Anna is a real trooper, like her mom and dad. She rarely got tired and pounded the pavement from gates open to close on this trip: Orlando! In 4 days we covered Lego land, Universal Studios, Epcot, and Magic Kingdom. We even added the Disney night time Trick or Treat party and the Tower of Terror night time 10 mile run for myself and Paul (that was a true testament to how much physical torture we could place on ourselves before we mentally caved!!! Soon enough my feet realized I was doing nothing about their screams between parks and that run so they eventually quit hurting).
Anyway, here's a few photos from our awesome trip. So much fun to travel with these guys, and although Anna's done Disney before, it was like it was all brand new to her. It was really fun to watch her face on the new or forgotten stuff and then watch her recall the stuff we did remember. So really fun!!!
This time we stayed in a condo at Windsor Hills, off Disney site. Only $79/ night with three bedrooms and 2 baths! Uncle Corey and Aunt Myra and cousin Avery stayed with us and it was fun to catch up! It's the best way to go! We stayed in the Puff's Hideout condo. Awesome!!!
At Universal:




She's never seen this movie yet (Lorax) but wanted a picture anyway...




We got the picture with the Mystery Machine but Scooby was always on break!!!




Husband had to.








Spongebob's House: Anna's dream come true...












Squidward's house








Suddenly Spongebob himself came out of a nearby door and motioned to Anna to follow him (gasp!) Her response: "what does he want?" I told her to just follow....




Ta-Da! Her favorite character currently (I can't fathom why but she's not the only kid on the planet who loves him...) She was excited!




We caught an Animal show :) Birds buzzed our heads!








Back to the Future








Simpsons Ride. During the ride they spray baby powder scent for effect. Anna must have gotten a big dose right into her nose because she complained she could still smell it the rest of the day! And she hates the smell more than I do. I suspect she will forever link the Simpsons to that smell...
She watched her first Simpson episode the night before we went to Universal, just in time to learn who these guys were:




She spotted Shrek and had to have a picture. No lines!!








Anticipation over a much awaited parade....




















We rode Men In Black...




And back through Spongebob's house, this time to find Patrick too...












Onward that evening to Magic Kingdom's Halloween Party. Kids could dress up and trick or treat while riding rides and meeting Disney villains. It was crowded!!
We made it to bed around 1:30am!




Anna was a unicorn :)












On the boat to the MK.








Boo To You parade, hard to get good pictures!
















We covered lots of rides, including the new Dumbo (awesome!), tea cups, Haunted Mansion, Whinney the Pooh, and the Barnstormer roller coaster over and over and over (hands up, bc that's he she rolls!). She finally gave in around midnight...




Love!!






The next day at Epcot she anxiously awaits meeting princess Belle on her way into a princess lunch...





Autographing her book...










This is a picture of Anna as he was trying to answer the question, "what's YOUR name?". She choked. Literally. On her food. She was so scared she started crying a bit and Aurora turns to me: "Oh MY! Sometimes they can get a little overwhelmed! Are you ok?!" I suggest she moves on the the next table so we can figure out the problem. It turns out Anna went to answer her name to Aurora and choked on a mouthful of food, which scared her into tears :) She recovered and Aurora came back but Anna decided after that when she saw any princess at a nearby table, she was not going to put any food into her mouth!

















Anna working the camera.












After lunch: her old faves...lots of soft hugs :)








It's the same poses of the same child, 1.5 yrs later.


The rest of Epcot was rides with short lines and:



















...I'd better post this now before I never finish! More to come, next post, including the run!

Second tooth gone!

Anna lost her second tooth! Again, while I was out of town...October 6.

She wanted to meet the tooth fairy so she left this under her pillow with her tooth:





She already has another loose bottom tooth!!! The big guys keep pushing in before the babies are out, knocking them loose to make room.





Love her!!!

Toothless and in DC

On Wednesday Sep 12 our baby's first baby tooth fell out!!







But I was here in DC, at a course called Congressional Operations, learning how Congress really works.




So I missed it :( The thing had been pretty loose for about a month and Paul says that Wed morning when she was brushing her teeth it was just barely hanging on! Anna let him pull it out that morning and she did great :) No pain, just excitement as she headed out the door to school. He sent me this picture of the tooth:





Before I left for DC she promised not to let it fall out till I got home :) So much for that! Then she promised not to let the tooth fairy take it till I got home but she just couldn't wait so I missed that too!!! What a booger! :) But I can't blame her! This is the picture she left for the tooth fairy along with her tooth:





And this is what the tooth fairy left in exchange:





A bunch of quarters and 2 special 1 Dollar coins! I love her!!! What a big girl!!!

She is loving school! From day 1 they were doing site words and she nailed them. She loves the computer time so much. She hates the school food so we bring lunch (rats!). She got all smiley faces for behavior everyday again this week, her third week of school. All smiley faces = a prize from the treasure box. I and one other parent will be the room mothers this year. My first training meeting is right smack at 1:20pm on the 24th, already in conflict with a big work schedule that day when I am hosting some visitors from DC. But I will just have to make it work!

I had the best time at that class in DC! On trips I am usually ready to come home, but this one I was wishing I had just a few more days. There was so much to learn and see and if it weren't for Anna I'd love to do a 7 month fellowship up there. We heard from several key Republicans and Democrats on issues and bipartisanship problems and on how the process works. We learned why this 112th congress has passed the least amount of legislation in history. We heard from Rep Jeff Flake on how he got rid of ear marks. We heard from Dana Bush (CNN) on the role of media. We heard from former Speaker of the House Hastel, who gave us a history of what it was like to work a balanced budget under Clinton and then spend out of control without appropriation in response to 9/11 under Bush, while enacting the 01-03 tax cuts which started the deficit, snowballing g to what we have today. We learned that this congress cannot work together because of the incoming Republican freshmen who took around 87 seats, giving the Republicans control of the house in 2010 are people like us: small business owners, farmers, lawyers, teachers. People America voted for because we were tired of the beaurocrats on The Hill making their life suck. America voted for the people who would stand their ground and would not compromise!

So that's what America got. These people do not understand anything about the art o compromise, which drives how Congress legislates. Compromise and negotiation are the foundation of the quirky processes that drive legislation, and it has to be, for the sake of checks and balance. It takes an art of negotiation and a certain personality to work through issues, to give and take a little on both sides. It's not supposed to be easy!

Take a look. For the worst Congress in American history- the most polarized since right before the civil war. The process hasn't changed, but the people of America have. We voted in 2010 for these people who supposedly reflect our wants. We are the constituents. Our congressmen want their jobs we elected them for, and we elected them to represent us. If we want them to have a spine and do not compromise because we tell them to, this is what they will do, and this is what we will get. And we have heard this from top Republicans and Democrats all week, as well as from lessons and history we picked up. Our congress represents America. So America, what's wrong with this picture? Why aren't we encouraging negotiation and thought? Is it a good idea to keep electing freshmen who have zero idea how congress really works? One of the biggest setbacks for the huge freshman class (1/4 of the House is freshman. 1/3 of the Republican party alone is freshman!!) is that there's a huge learning curve in training these folks on what they can and can't do process-wise. I mean right down to the basics from our text books! On top of this these newly-elects have no drive to compromise. They were elected on their take-no-prisoners campaign. So let's bear with them for the first few years while they figure out what will and won't work. These people are hurting their own party and in turn we feel it as a whole country.

What's it going to take? Time and a crisis. Let's not get as extreme as the civil war but maybe "sequestration" will do it. Last year in order to pass a budget, both parties agreed to an amendment that basically says if they don't come up with a plan to balance the budget that both sides can agree to, then as of Jan 2013, we will have a sequester. This is that for the next 10 years, there will be an equal 10% cut each year across all federal agencies over the next 10 years, effectively gaining $ back over the deficit. This amounts to a whopping 50% cut in defense over 10 years and 50% in social programs. As federal employees we are scared for our jobs and programs and as an American, I am scared for the impacts I will feel at the state level daily. Most Americans have never heard of this but you can bet if you're like most Americans you're going to feel it somewhere. The state can't protect you!

Right now to avoid sequestration, and balance the budget, Democrats want to let the Bush tax cuts of 01-03 expire in Jan to gain revenue to balance the budget. The Republicans want to cut social programs. There's more to it than that certainly but that's the big idea. I frankly think you need both. We wanted this war, we put it on charge for 10 years, and now we have to pay for it! America, you can't spend for 10 years on a credit card and never expect to pay it back! Sorry, but we need to pay our share. And as well, there are several duplicate social programs (and defense!) that could stand a review and consolidation to save money there too.

Alas, both sides disagree and the leadership on both sides can't get it together. And they have no desire to until after the election. If it happens, sequestration will suck and hurt but I can't get entirely angry now that I know what "those idiots" are doing up there. Most all of them mean well and stand for what they think their constituents want. They represent America. So only America can fix it.

She talks too much

Well at least she's not being shy!!

Got her!

Way less busy day in class today :)

It finally came: Kindergarten

Well in 2007, 2012 and kindergarten sure seemed so far away. In fact I remember thinking there's so much time till she starts school, I had no idea which year she actually would start. It wasn't in my mindset. Our little girl was way far off.

Ta-da! Behold the witness of how life gets away from you quickly:



August 27, 2012. Who knew? First day of kindergarten. Her teacher is Mrs Fossum, who seems super great in the 45-second time span and 3.5 sentences I've exchanged with her. She has a nice classroom and is the wife of an astronaut at NASA. I would have posted a picture here of her except I didn't want to interrupt the madness of the first day of school she was working! Maybe tomorrow.

Anna had been protesting just a little lately about kindergarten, saying she was too shy. Even as we walked up to the building. Fortunately We had O and M with us and they told Anna some of the fun things about kindergarten, which I think helped...

"But I don't want to go to kindergarten..."
"Anna, just smile for the picture, baby!"










The years of Gloia Dei made this so much easier. For example I knew those blue shoes wouldn't work out for long, so I brought her tennis in her backpack. As we walked into the building she wanted to change because they were too big! Noted and done. Although I do have to say I felt a twinge of panic as the time was clicking down to the tardy bell. That was different!







Also different, her name:



I'm used to seeing her full first name, Anna-Marie (not just Anna). On some level, yes we saw that coming when we chose the name, but on another level I'm like, "really?" And then I wonder if it's something like I answered some question on the forms, like maybe: "Does your child go by another name?" and did I put "Anna?" I don't know! Ack! I think I'm ok with it, whatever. I was reviewing some of Anna's registration forms for accuracy today, and not only is her first name an apparent challenge (we saw coming), but the inevitable complexity of her middle name, which is that of my own, finally popped up after 5 years of correctness at Gloria Dei. Based on my own experience with the name we also knew what we were getting into. Her middle name (and mine) is Melaine. Like all other legal forms, including my drivers license, it's been transposed to Melanie my whole life. And herein it was caught (AND SHALL BE CORRECTED) on Anna's forms.

Congratulations, baby, you're officially on the public school system grid (in some fashion) and your mother's child. Also they listed her city of birth Houston (it's Webster, as on the birth certificate I had to submit). Oh good grief, our tax dollars at work.

Ok those are nits I can't help but point out for the record! But her school and her classroom is really neat and I know she enjoyed her fist day. Well, as far as we can tell, she enjoyed a soft taco for lunch, had PE, and made a new friend whose name she doesn't know, so it seems to be a success.

Her teacher gave her a wooden puzzle to work on (the likes of which I thought...er...for real? It's a sailboat) and Anna jumped right into it without so much as telling us bye! Paul and I hovered from the door but she was so busy with the puzzle she hadn't even noticed us there. So we left. No drama, no tears. Just a new day at a new school!


















Mrs F has her back turned in this pic.

And that about wraps up her day! C picked up the kids and Anna got to hang out at their house for a few hours till I came home to get her.

And also school started for me tonight! Human Phys undergraduate teaching at UHCL.

Here comes fall!

Bubble Gum

After 2 days of practice, she did it!

Well it's not Colorado...

Though I think Colorado could have used our economic contributions (wildfires) more than ever this year, we made the painfully-grown-up decision to stick to budget and stay local. We had a Disney World trip coming up in September, and two back-to-back trips of that magnitude (Colorado is as costly just for the sheer gas prices) is a bit much on the finances.

So we decided to go local: New Braunfels. Schlitterbahn, the Natural Bridge Wildlife park, and the Caverns. Anna was (surprisingly) bummed about not doing Colorado but all was forgiven when I told her we'd be staying in a hotel. The child LOVES to stay in hotels. As she puts it, she loves the smell, the look, the bathrooms, the beds, the elevators, restaurant, the lobby, etc. Hilarious! She's a regular traveler!!

We stayed at he Courtyard Marriott and it was right on the river, with trees and grass and a great swimming pool. We were upgraded to a room with a balcony, which made for nice evenings! Anna and Paul spent good pool time in between tourist stuff...

I had reserved a King bed room out of habit (and ok snuggle opportunity) but Anna asked for her own stinking bed so we got two queens! Little booger! She's growing up and I guess I'm still stuck in old habit.












The wildlife park was neat but the zebras were hiding from us (bummer!). The others pretty much came up to the car to get fed (you can buy a bag of feed) and that was neat to see up close.

Schlitterbahn was easier than I thought it would be...for such a great theme park, there's not the logistical overhead of a large one. Parked right near the entrance with no parking fee. You can bring your own ice chests and pick a picnic table once you're in for the day to spread out your stuff. Lots of rides but not a crazy amount of walking to have to get from one to the other. Lots of options for the little ones and grown ups. Anna struggled with the whole tubing concept in the beginning but we basically pushed her into it and she took off with it. By the second day she was telling me to let go of her tube as we would head down little waterfalls and rapids!! The rides were awesome but I can say I wasn't 100% in enjoyment mode, as I was constantly worried about losing Anna or her flipping over or whatever else!!! We talked about what to do if we ever got separated on a ride but that thought freaked me right the Hell out so I was mostly consumed with those logistics with a smile on my face! The rides were awesome but I was always a bit relieved when they were done.

At one point we were headed for a 25ft waterfall on the Congo ride,unbeknownst to us until lwe saw it dead ahead :) Anna sees it, "Mama I want to get out of that door right there!" (Fake door for effects). "Too late, baby! Just hold on tight and I'll catch you at the bottom!!" Me first, then Anna, then Paul. Her first words at he bottom: THAT WAS FUN!!! The same words she's used on every roller coaster since she was 2!
She was pretty tough and confident the rest of the time. We also rode one of those uphill water rides, the kind that pushes you uphill with strong jets of water. Funny how no one mentions it's quite the butt spanking and you're at risk of losing your shorts in the process!!! For real, I don't think I really needed that spanking!! Where do you think that big jet of water pushes?! Ack!!!

Anyway Schlitterbahn really figured it all out. Even their amusement park food and gifts were reasonably priced. Nice place and we are talking about season passes for next year because even those pay for themselves after just 2 visits.
Wish we had photos but Paul's iPhone Life-case FAILED and leaked, and almost ruined his phone.




And the caverns were awesome! Not sure ever why my iPhone always takes yellow photos when I use my flash, but...












And they had a little kids rope course and adult rope course/zip line. Anna tried out the kids one and was frustrated she was too short for the "high" one.
























And finally, they had panning for gems (her love of rocks still strong!)




Not a bad little vacation just a few hours from home! We spent some
Time on the drive home teaching her how to blow bubbles with her gum....she's desperately serious about that.

Now school starts Monday, and tomorrow morning we finally meet her teacher. Kindergarten!

She also has a super loose tooth. Not sure when that baby's coming out but she is having fun with it. Figuring out new ways to eat and all :)

It was her first tooth in, soon to be her first tooth out. Seems like that JUST CAME IN!!!

Happy end of summer, all!