Florida Adventure, Part 2

Wednesday morning, bright and early, we drove over to Disney World (that is, after fueling up sufficiently at McDonald's and the grocery store). Isaac had been doing an in-depth study of our Disney World Touring Book for a whole year, so following in his father's tour guide footsteps, he knew just where to have us begin our day.

First stop was the Buzz Lightyear ride! The boys love this ride because they get to shoot little red, laser beams at targets as they go, in order to accumulate points. One of their favorites, for sure.

Next stop, and another one of their favorites, is the race-car driving ride. If there wasn't a line, I'm sure we would have done it five or six times in a row!

What a great race!

Here, Colby, Zane, and Grandma Balyo are getting ready to ride the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It is dark inside of this ride, with a thick mist at one point, a small waterfall, and lots of animatronics. It was NOT Colby's favorite.

We sure seem to have eaten a lot of ice-cream in Florida! :)

Ok, somewhere around this time, I was looking in a little shop that was selling all kinds of unique little instruments from different countries. Loved them! Shakers and rattles and rainsticks and drums...just the kind of thing that would have been really fun to use in our homeschool music class. So, I brought the boys over and this is what followed:
"Did you guys see all of these instruments? Look, bongos! Ooh, and look at these cool shakers! Look how you have to kind of flip it to make the music. Hey, wow, that looks like a bug in there. Is that a...Aaah, there's a cockroach in the shaker (shiver, shiver, shiver)!! Aaah, gross! Let's move on!" So, needless to say, the kids in homeschool music class will not be using a bunch of instruments from different countries, this spring! :)

This was by and far THE longest line that we stood in at Disney Word. We even had to wait through Tigger and Pooh's "honey break." But, the boys didn't want to leave the line and I'm glad, because it was sooo worth it. I really wish that we would have gotten Ian and Colby's reaction to Pooh and Tigger on Video. Colby had Tigger bouncing with him and Ian ran back for one more big hug.

Lots of love for Pooh and Tigger!

Daddy and Zane, being silly outside of Mickey and Minnie's houses.

A fun, but exhausting couple of days at Sea World and Disney World! Good-bye, Orlando! We sure have had fun! Now, to head South...

Now, just a helpful hint to anyone taking 4 young boys to Sea World and Disney World:
Make sure you take Sam's Club size bags of pretzel rods (because they'll probably each eat about 20- including the one who is not yet even two!). And, make sure you pack enough peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to feed a football team (because they'll probably each eat about six... and then ask what else is on the menu!). :)

Florida Adventure, Part 1

Florida!

Wonderful...sunny...rollerblade-friendly...rubber-nosed dolphins...lemons and oranges...I-can-hardly-stand-feeding-them-but-I-just-want-to-anyway-rays...ice-cream...looking for gators...it's-so-fun-to-meet-people...golf carts...HG-TV and morning cartoons...hot tubs and swimming pools...shells and mystery beach objects...lots of food...and naps!

One of the things that the boys were looking forward to the most was driving the golf cart! I don't think I could even put a guess on how many times Isaac talked about driving the golf cart since he' found out we were going to go to Florida in January.
You probably can't tell from this picture, but his excitement and nervousness is basically bursting out of his seams, here. And wow, I will never forget that first ride I had with Isaac driving (and I'm pretty sure Grandpa and Isaac won't either) He didn't quite make the 90 degree turn and almost put us into the lake! :) But, he was a trooper and got right back up on that horse (I did too, but I'll tell you what...my legs were shaking, terribly!!! ).
Ian's excitement is a little more visible, here (as are his untied shoes). He wasn't quite ready to tackle the whole neighborhood (and we weren't quite ready for any more near-lake experiences), but he sure loved driving around the cul-de-sac.

The first 2 days in Florida were chilly, but over the next few days, it started to warm up. On Tuesday morning, we drove up to Orlando so that we could go to wonderful, wonderful Sea World and Disney World the next day.
Sea World is just wonderful! What a privilege to be able to touch such smart, docile water mammals. God's creativity is so obvious when you are looking at all of these amazing water creatures.
I highly recommend studying the animals before visiting them, though. We've been using a fantastic science curriculum for elementary students, put out by Apologia, and the boys have learned so much. I really think they (and I) have been able to appreciate things so much more than if we'd gone with no scientific background.
Posing with a giant manatee.
Posing pinnipeds (flipper-feet). The boys were so excited when they saw that the name of the Seal and Sea Lion show had a ship that was called The Pinniped.
The Dolphin show is an absolute must-see!
I could watch this show over and over and over again and not grow tired of it, nor lose my amazement over the artistic, physical muscle as well as patience, that it takes from both the humans and animals to learn and perform all of the sequences.
You just don't want to blink your eyes...
...lest you miss something else spectacular!
A little break of ice-cream (The adults had wonderful soft-serve cones with hot chocolate fudge in the center- yummy!), a little playing on the climbing net at the playground, a few rides on both the Shamu rollercoaster and the Sea Carousel...and we are off to Shamu's show.
We almost didn't get to see the Shamu show because apparantly the orcas weren't interested in performing that night. But, Yay, they were eventually convinced somehow to do their show... and we were extremely grateful! What a wonderful experience!

May You Get Lots of Sleep in the New Year!

The boys tried so hard to stay up to welcome 2010, but they started dropping off, one by one...

First, Colby snuggled up in Isaac's bed and fell asleep with the lights on...

Then, Ian fell asleep in his tried and true, treefrog method...

And finally, after a noble battle, Isaac gave in to sleep as well.

Cute, little muffins couldn't even wake up for a Happy New year greeting!

I Knew It Was Going to Happen...

I could no longer deny it. Zane desperately needed a new coif. His little locks were curly when wet and then straggled down to the center of his nose when dry. This growing mane was just no longer cutting it for us (laugh with me!). So on Tuesday night, I finally took some sharp scissors to a moving/dancing/bouncing-target baby, dug into the depths of the Halloween candy bin for a little blue sucker, and clip, snip, poof...

Our baby turned into a little boy!

I Know, Another Post on Weather!

What a difference a week makes!

Do you know whose is whose?

Certainly couldn't have done this last week! This picture was taken almost exactly 1 week after the snow tunnel picture of Isaac in the below posts. Same time of day and same location! Just love it!
Pumpkin Pie!

We attempted to take full advantage of the 74 degree weather (noted by the boys, in the car) by racing through school-work (really unprecedented concentration), having a delightful picnic at the park with friends, throwing snowballs, rollerblading and snow-golfing. Our excellent read-aloud book, "Treasures of the Snow" was even better than usual, since the boys were able to play outside with soldiers on snow-mountains and dirt fields as they listened.

Ian's photo artwork

It's Gonna Be a Bright, (Bright),Bright, (Bright) Sunshiny Day

Ok, did you read my post about October? Snow, freezing rain, wind, drifts, unseasonably cold weather?

This was Thursday, October 29 in our back yard.

I couldn't even let the boys play outside for very long because of how cold that wind was at times... 2 degrees with the wind chill at one point (see incredulous posts below). Scott had to actually scrape the windows of the house with a snowbrush so that we could see outside...the house, mind you. In fact, not to belabor the point, but we still have snow in our yard. Most of it has melted, but there are still patches and drifts in different areas of the yard. Now granted, a good part of the snow in our yard probably blew into our neighbor's yard, but still...

So, you can imagine my surprise when I went outside today, to rescue several disheartened playmobil soldiers who'd been forgotten/stranded in the last snowstorm and saw this bright jewel of the grass:

This was earlier today (Tuesday, November 3) at the same spot in our back yard as the above photo.

So, I think the question we all need to ask ourselves is, "Wyoming... arctic tundra or sunny paradise?"

Mmm, Guadelejara...

Yep, that was me...

...does look like I'd eaten a few too many #9's (see below). Actually, as I recall, I was so large that I had to stretch my maternity shirt in order to get it to cover the watermelon I was hiding... I mean, my belly!

Ok, that was just for fun...

Onward...

So, the other day, I not only got to have my favorite tamale and cheese enchilada combination at Guadelejara ("I'll take the #9, thankyou!"), but I was also able to re-meet and thank my fabulous OB nurse, whose quick thinking (coupled with God's grace), saved my extremely fragile life after Zane's birth. Kind of a strange feeling to be "indebted" in such a mortal way.
***Neither of these nurses pictured here, were actually the one that saved my life (I guess I don't have one of her), but, "they all helped in providing exceptional patient care and outstanding patient satisfaction," says my marketing husband.***

I didn't actually recognize her as I was a wee bit "under the weather" in the circumstance, but, since Scott occasionally sees her at the hospital, he was able to point her out to me ("see that lady, over by the jar full of candy? She's the one who saved your life!" (I know the picture of me is a bit gross, but in my defense, it was kind of a yucky time- despite the fact that this was quite a few hours after the "real" excitement of the morning).

As a (very exciting) sidenote, I will never forget the odd feeling of waking up, looking at the clock, and realizing that 6 hours or more had passed since the last time I'd been somewhat coherent.

I guess meeting her, just left me feeling a bit hmmm....in awe, maybe? Grateful, maybe? Thoughtful, perhaps? Grateful for the medical know-how of the team that worked with me. Awe that so many things were timed so perfectly for my safety...location of doctors, understanding of nurses, perfect match blood resources in a fairly small hospital, even the fact that I was even there in the hospital...instead of driving there or stuck back in our (at the time) very rural home. Thoughtful, that my life was spared, while other special people were taken home to the Lord during the months that followed.

The list could of course, go on and on- but I'll spare you! :)

At any rate, I am a prime example of God's grace and mercy. Wow! How about that! So many times over this past year and a half, I have wondered at that! God's grace and mercy! God's provisions for me! I've wondered- how many times does God provide for us in an unreasonably perfect way- a way that we may or may not even realize (Jeanne, if you read this, I know you could drum up about a hundred ways!) Even at this point, I am only dimly aware, and through retrospect and family tales only, of all the amazing ways God provided for me on one single eventful day- February 6, 2008.

So, long story even longer...

I'm so glad we went to Guadelejara. Not only did the sunny chairs and great Mexican food make my day, but being able to thank the lady that kicked up the action in the maternity floor on a cold winter's night was certainly a bright spot, as well...

I'm so glad to be here for this:

and this:

and this:
and this:
and this:
So, now I'm wondering, how has God shown grace and mercy to you? I'd love to know!