January visit to Disney World

In mid-January, we rented a car and drove up to Orlando so that Zach could attend the National Tour Association conference for work. My plan was to entertain the Boogedy for a few days and after the conference, the family would head to Disney World. Our RAINY drive up made me feel a little hopeless about our plan to visit the theme park:

However, the rain cleared up and left it merely cold and cloudy. The boy and I killed two days by ourselves. We spent a few hours each morning hanging out at the McDonalsds playland, killed some time at the mall, found an arcade with several bouncy castles, and ate at a buffet (which the kid thought was an Amazing Experience).

We putted 36 holes at the Pirate-themed mini-golf course (which was too many holes, by the way). This kid is pleased about his hole-in-one, but not about having to get another picture taken:

When the conference finished, we changed hotels and stayed at a Disney resort. They gave the Boogedy his own room key-card, and he was so proud of it. Here we are on Day 1 at DW, on the monorail to go to Magic Kingdom. It was a COLD day (like 58 degrees), so we were all bundled up.

I’m still dealing with a fascia injury, so we rented a wheelchair and Zach pushed me around. I liked Main Street USA.

I liked this picture of my boys in line for It’s A Small World.

We enjoyed sitting around inside the circusy Dumbo tent while the kid played with other children and ignored us completely.

Zach’s first bought of nausea came from his own foul gluttony. He spotted a man eating one of these Meat Shanks from across a bridge in Frontierland and couldn’t rest until he’d bought his own Giant turkey leg. We split it amongst the three of us, but it was Still too much, and we threw a bunch away before hitting Space Mountain (perhaps it is obvious to observers that this was the wrong order to do things).

We rode Space Mountain three times on this day and five times on Day 3. All of our pictures looked something like this, but I still wished we’d bought them all.

The most terrifying attraction of all, though, was Zach’s Wheelchair Ride of Terror. This crazy ride involved the operator letting go of the handles whenever on a downward grade, or wildly (and unexpectedly) tipping the wheelchair Way, Way back and running erratically. The operator loved the squealing, I think, and startling the onlookers, and didn’t believe it when the rider said “I hate your guts!!”

The weather warmed up on Day 2, and we went to Animal Kingdom, where they have Everest, the coolest roller coaster. But at some point I forgot that I own a camera, so you’ll have to settle for this one photo of the boy brushing a goat.

Zach’s second bout with nausea came on Day 3 from this Buzz Lightyear interactive ride (back at Magic Kingdom today). The Boogedy got to spin our car around in circles while we shot lasers at Emperor Zurg. Poor Zach then wasn’t himself for the last few rides on Space Mountain.

Yay! Who wants more cotton candy and a funnel cake?!

Key West Winter 2013

Some random photos from, oh, the last few months…

I volunteered to go to Key West Botanical Garden on a kindergarten field trip with my kids’ class. I didn’t realize we were going so the children could look for and identify native SPIDERS. I found one with the back of my neck. *shudder* I hope you’ll forgive my shaky camera work.

Here I am, out for a morning ride last week or so. Gorgeous weather, getting my thighs tan again…

The Atlantic Ocean was like a lake that day. Here is the view down into the rocks of the White Street Pier. I saw a dad with a little boy; the kid  was on a cell phone telling his mom about all the kinds of sea creatures he could see from the pier today.

Winter means that Debby comes down from Maryland and gives me classes in glass beadmaking! Here’s the view of my workspace with the blowtorch, mandrils, glass rods, and all kinds of cool supplies she was showing off!

Unrelated: somehow I blew a blood vessel in my eye. Didn’t hurt, but it looked like it did.

The Boogedy rides for joy, now, and wants to use the bike to go everywhere. He got this new big-boy bike for xmas and I just bought him his own rear- and headlights as well as a cable lock. He was thrilled that he got to choose his own combination.

 

 

Adventures with My Sisters

I had fun with my sisters, Jeaka and Marian. They are so good to me! Here are a few of our adventures.

Heading to Blazing Needles, an amazing SLC yarn shop.

Going to Nothing Bundt Cakes with our sweet mama. We bought four flavors, then shared the quarters.

Visiting Orson Gygi, the COOLEST kitchen supply store Ever.

Super Auntie Jeaka and Super Auntie Marian took the Boogedy to a splash pool! Super Auntie Jeaka made visiting splash pools a priority during the Boogedy’s visit.

And near the end of the visit, Jeaka took him to Cookie Cutters to get his first ever haircut that I didn’t do myself. We chose to buzz it for the summer, which I think is adorable, but which he doesn’t like because he’s never had anything but long, “grupply” hair.

Here’s a picture of the big boy with his new “do”. We visited the playground near our old house, where we took him to play the first 3 years of his life. It hit home how big he is getting!

Matchstick Garden

Last night we went to the MARC plant store and bought four empty little pots  and a small watering can (and another 5-dollar orchid, truth be told). Today we set about planting the Matchstick Garden, a present from “Alexis!”

Rocks for the empties:

Scoopin:

Rippin:

Plantin:

Waterin:

The Boogedy was so excited about dousing things that we filled up the watering can and went for a walk, sprinkling plants along the way. When we got to the Key West Cemetary, he spent a bunch of time climbing on the cement graves and tossing the watering can off for the hollow boing-bonk sound. The fog was rolling in, and we spotted these curled up poinsettia leaves that the Boogedy thought might be bugs.

Glass Bottom Boat

A few evenings ago, we picked the Boogedy up early from school and went for a sunset trip on the glass bottom boat.

This kid is definitely mine, as he had no problem eating chips and salsa while sitting backwards on the prow of the catamaran.

Yes, he’s dressed up in a pirate costume, and he was very upset when he saw that it was a catamaran and not a schooner. Really sad that it was not a pirate ship.

As sunset approached, it became pretty chilly and breezy, and the Boogedy kept trying to climb under Zach’s shirt. In this photo Zach is threatening to climb under HIS shirt.

We saw a coral garden, sea sponges, and a huge sea turtle in a swarm of sycophantic remoras. I managed not to photograph any of those things.

The sunset was beautiful, but I didn’t see the fabled green flash.

The lights of the waterfront.

And a tired little boy who needed to be carried.

Advent Calendar

I decided to get excited about xmas this year. Often we try to travel, but that’s not in the cards this year (plus I don’t want to go somewhere cold and have to replace a wardrobe that I got rid of when I left Utah).

I subscribe to the wonderful newsletter from kids craft weekly, and inside the last issue was this beautiful idea: an origami advent calendar. I made 24 cups, here’s a closeup:

And this is where they are displayed in our kitchen.

Today we met the Boogedy at school with the December 1 cup. He was SOOOO excited. Inside was a tag that said “Pick out a Christmas tree!” He carried that cup and tag all the way to the nursery and picked a fluffy little island pine in a pot.

Here are the other tags I have made, with events and crafts and fun things to do. On days when I’m just not feeling the urge to do ANY of these things, the Boogedy will get a little square of deep dark chocolate, a real treat around here. Luckily, Key West is brimming with holiday events, many of them family friendly and inexpensive.

Many of these special ideas came from the newsletter. Do you have any other easy, cheap ideas for me to include?

Peent

I made potato stamps (“stampeters”) for the Boogedy today. I gave him nice, orderly dollops of “peent” and actually heard myself say “don’t mix them.”

Then I realized it was silly to even want that. I told him it was fine to mix any color and told him that they would turn brown when all together. He wasted no time finding that out.

But then I dragged the paintbrush over his “brown peent” and found the hidden rainbow. And it was beautiful.

And we thought it was interesting to see what happened when we took this frozen strawberry from the freezer.

Staying Entertained

Two things we’ve done lately:

Bowling with bumpers and a ramp:

The Boogedy believes that the best and most magical part is when the ball comes back!

Making our own beanbags:

Little fingers helped fill the bags with weevily chana dal:

Finished products (2 of polkadot/cupcake, 2 of lime checks/stripes, and 2 oranges/sunset plaid)

Playing toss, and trying hard to understand why we have to stand way over here on this paper and can’t just drop them in from above:

Stripey Monster

I knit this toy for The Boogedy during the course of our 5-day cross country move. The Boogedy has decided that this is a Mommy-and-Boogedy dolly, not a Daddy-and-Boogedy dolly. He ordered me to make a Daddy dolly. I asked him to say that in his nice voice, so he said “please?”

I used a pattern by Rebecca Danger, available here. This was a Really fun pattern to knit!

Too Much Fun

The fountain with a button to push (that’s the very best part)!

Enjoying someone else’s digging:

Zach surfing before the storm hits:

Zach looking for a lost beach umbrella on the dunes:

taking dorky self-portraits at dawn:

Making homemade pasta:

Mushroom-garlic-three-cheese stuffed raviolis in chicken soup!