Disney World

We would have waited much longer before taking Gavin to Disney World (probably until there was at least another brother or sister and they were both walking), but with D. recently working so close to Orlando, we decide to take the plunge. So, here's our day at Disney World in pictures. Yes, that's right, I'm going to try to comment very little.

But let me just say, for a little boy that smiles all of the time, Gavin was surprisingly not very smiley on this day at ironically the happiest place on earth. In absolutely all of the pictures of us as a family in front of Cinderella's Castle, Gavin has a scowl on his face. We're not exactly sure why.


He was okay dancing at the parade.

And with us one on one.



And a here's a few other attempts at getting a smile on the Jungle Cruise and walking around Tom Sawyer's Island.



Gavin did seem to like the fairies especially Tinkerbell.


He wasn't too sure about Minnie and Mickey though.

We had planned all along that we would get Gavin one stuffed animal as a souvenir, but how do you let a one year old who doesn't talk pick something out? Well, you pick several out for him and lay them around him. You pick up two at a time and whichever one he goes for you set aside and do it again with another until there's only one left. And the winner was Mickey Mouse! One of the workers who was from England, asked if we wanted her to take our picture. Little did we know that she loved taking pictures and snapped away.

This picture is blurry, but it's the only one of just me and my hunny.

Dave took some really cool pictures of the fireworks show and Gavin was mesmerized.



We really had a nice time and needless to say were exhausted.

Transition

We have so much going on right now which is my reason (excuse) for not posting much lately. We got back from Florida, started packing, have moved, Gavin turned 14 months old plus he started going to a new babysitter and I started back to school. I will have 19 plus smiling kiddos looking at me Monday morning and I'll probably be staring back at them with as much apprehension. So at that, I hope to continue to post the rest of our Florida trip this next week plus some more of what's going on in our lives. That is if I don't crash from exhaustion every night this next week.

And for the grandparents and great grandparents, I leave you with a picture of my favorite kiddo.

Inspiration

I've been around a lot of inspiration lately, well basically all in the same day. Thursday, my high school A&P teacher spoke at the school district's opening ceremonies for the year. He's always been a pretty inspiring man, and despite the sixty plus pounds of weight loss due to cancer and despite having gone through chemo merely hours beforehand, he was still giving it his all. And I know he's going to continue to.

Then later that evening, D and I had a date of sorts as the two of us went to the Opening Night of his Art Showing at Galleria Lazzara. I'm so proud of that man. He got to schmooze it up with the art enthusiasts and very humbly say, "Yes, this is my art" and say thanks many times when people admired it.

Here are some of those admirers.

A few shots of his work.


There were three other very talented artists showing as well. This is from Bethany Robert.

And this is my favorite picture of D with his work in the background.I'm so proud of you hunny!

Hats On For Me

Let's just say that I'm already pretty sure that title doesn't make sense, but it will. (Hint: it's a play on hats off to you.) It's probably not a good idea in the blogger world to have to explain your titles, but hey, I'm new to this. Anywho.

A certain little boy loves hats. He gets so excited when anyone is wearing a hat that he's near, especially when his Daddy is wearing his Astros hat.

While at Downtown Disney, we ran across the mother of all Disney stores loaded with every Disney based hat imaginable. We will model a few of our favorite styles. What better place than Disney World to try on hats seeing as though they are famous for those mouse ears. Mouse ears, you say?

Pirate Mickey

Debonair Mickey

Sorcerer Mickey

Minnie Mouse made an appearance

Of course Pirate Pluto or Goofy. The calls is out on whose ears those are.

And at Disney World two days later, we came across a couple more hats. The hat on the right somehow made it's way home with us. I think we went with this over traditional mouse ears because it actually has an adjustable strap.

On second thought, maybe it's not just Daddy's Astros hat that Gavin likes so much.

Downtown Disney

I'm still trying to re-live our Florida trip but between getting ready for school to start again and moving (did, I just say moving? Yep- moving this week.)it's been just a tiny teeniest bit busy. It's opposite day don't ya' know. (Read that last sentence out loud again. I promise you should sound like you're from up north.)

But anyways, I'm determined to get our first big family trip recorded. So, for one of our first big outings while D. was on vacation with us, we went to Downtown Disney, but not before we stopped at the local mall, walked around until they opened, and let Gavin ride a race car.



And now on to Downtown Disney. It's not part of Disney World but it really should be. From the dinosaur themed restaurant to Lego City, it is a child's imagination come alive, probably for a child a little older than Gavin though.

We ate lunch at an Irish tavern called Raegan Road where Daddy and Gavin gave the what's up signs.

Would you believe this Shepherd's Pie was on the kid's menu? We all thought it was pretty good.

Daddy and Gavin saw a Lego dinosaur and we met a friendly dragon made entirely of Lego's who lived in the water.


There was some father/son bonding time. I didn't know the infatuation with "man toys" began this early though.

But Mommy and Gavin got some bonding time as well at Downtown Orlando, our last stop for the day.
They had beautiful lakes and a neat neighborhood park.

Oh, and I couldn't help but post a pic of Gavin's cute crocs. I've had these since one of my baby showers and he's just now able to wear the adorable shoes.

It's my sneaking suspicion that all of the day's activities may have worn someone out.

Noises from the Deep

I woke up this morning to the sound of a growl. It wasn't a kitten purr, but more like what I would imagine a tiger cub to sound like. And do you want to know from whence that growl came? It came from this:
Watch out. He's ferocious!

Nerdy NASA News

While in Florida, Mr. D took a behind the scenes tour of the NASA facility at Kennedy Space Center. Most commoners don't get to have such a close look at the space industry. :-)

This building, the VAB as it's known, is the fourth largest building in the world by volume as well as the largest one story building. It's the Vehicle Assembly Building for the space shuttle and rockets, and it can be seen for miles away. Look how small those people are in comparison to the VAB.

Just some interesting facts I came across: Each of the stars on the American flag painted on the building is 6 feet across, the blue field is the size of a regulation basketball court, and the stripes are as wide as a standard road lane. The interior volume of the building is so vast, NASA employees have reported it has its own weather including, "rain clouds forming below the ceiling on very humid days." You can thank me later for expanding your scientific knowledge. It could be a nice ice breaker at your next gathering.

D. was able to go in and stand by the newest rocket and under one of the space shuttles not in use. I do have pictures, but unless I want someone official showing up at my door, I had better not post them.

However, here's a very close look at the launch pad for the rocket they are currently assembling. Those tall towers surrounding the launch pad are lightening rods.


And here's the infamous countdown clock with my equally infamous husband. :-)

Oh, and if you want to see what us commoners can view of the launch pad, here's the closest picture I could get of the same site.