Indoor Soccer!

This is Sophia's first go at indoor soccer. She did so well. Her team is made up of pre- kindergartners and kindergartners, so it is a bit chaotic, but fun none-the-less. Her team won their first game 7-1!

Boo at the zoo!

Sophia is Merida from Brave this Halloween. On Saturday we decided to check out Boo at the Zoo. As a booster member I thought we would be in and out of there with our early entry. Boy was I wrong! The line to get into the zoo wrapped around the zoo parking lot! It was icy cold too! Luckily, the line moved fast. Unfortunately, once we got into the zoo the crowds were just as bad. We headed to the back to see the cats and decided to forego the treats. Once we got to the back, we found a few empty tables handing out great treats. I am not sure we will go again next year, but it ended up being really fun!

Disney California Coast Cruise

 After much thought, I decided to take Sophia out of school and go on a family cruise along the California Coast. We went on a Disney cruise that had a Pixar theme. It was amazing! We spent two nights docked in San Francisco, one day in San Diego, and one day in Ensenada, Mexico.

In San Francisco I took Sophia to the Exploratorium using our Clark Planetarium pass. We had such a great time! First of all, we took a bus to the museum... which was an adventure in itself! We had so much fun exploring all of the cool activities at the Exploratorium. We completely loved it. We then met up with Frank and Lore and walked across the Golden Gate. Sophia did a great job walking across the whole thing (to one side and back!). We spent the afternoon relaxing on the pier. Sophia, myself, CeCe, and Amelia took on the trampoline at the pier. Dominga bought all of us some great cupcakes too! The nice thing about being docked in San Francisco fir two nights was that we had the most amazing view of the city from the ship! The next day we met up with my mom's friend Robin. She wanted to take us out for Chinese at a very specific place. Oh man, what a disaster. She could not remember where it was! We walked up and down China town looking for one place, which we never did find. Frustrated and hungry I opted out of the adventure and took Sophia out to lunch on the ship.
In San Diego, my mom and I took Sophia and CeCe to the Children's museum in Balboa Park. The kids had a blast. They played really well together. After the museum we took the kids back to the ship to kids club. My mom and I then walked out along the pier.
Ensenada was ok. We only walked around the city for a bit. The coolest part was seeing all of the seals lined up along the beach next to the ship. It was incredible!
In all, the whole cruise was so much fun! We enjoyed having everyone dress up for pirate night! We also really enjoyed having all of the Pixar characters on board, specifically Jessie!

Grandma's 67th Birthday

Disney World here we come!

I love Disney World this time of year. The crowds are down, the weather is great! We have the things we love to do! It is just a relaxing good time! This year, Frank decided to join us. The most famous line on this vacation was from Sophia as we walked past cotton candy... she said, "Uncle Frank, if Mommy and Grandma weren't here you would buy that for me, huh?". We were all stunned. =)

Road Trip America!

We wanted to visit Conrad’s family in Nebraska, but the flights and car rental were outrageous. I got the grand idea to do a little family road trip. We don’t get much vacation time with Conrad, so this was a great opportunity for us!

Of course, 7 miles out on the road we got a flat tire! Seriously! Luckily, it was early enough that we were first in place at the tire store. An hour later we were back on the road.

We drove to Devils Tower in Wyoming. By the time we made it and could see it in the distance we figured we could continue on to South Dakota, but since we were so close and it was on the list we decided to go. What a good thing we did! WOW! It was so beautiful and so incredible. We didn’t get to spend much time there, but we definitely want to go back. After seeing the tower, we went to Tower View, this tiny little restaurant right by the monument. We were the only people in the restaurant, but that made it even better! Conrad had a buffalo burger and Sophia and I shared a regular burger. Maybe it is because we were starving to death, but they were awesome! For dessert Conrad got Rhubarb pie (boo) and I ate some of his ice cream (yum!). After dinner we drove to Spearfish, South Dakota.

We had a really nice hotel, but I don’t think any of us noticed, as we were all so tired we just passed out! The next morning we drove to Mt. Rushmore. I have always wanted to go, but it is sort of out of the way. It was awesome! First of all, the monument was empty. I cannot believe that someone thought of the idea of Mt. Rushmore, let alone created it! After Rushmore, we drove to see Crazy Horse. It was a beautiful drive, and beautiful from a distance; however we didn’t want to pay $25 to drive in and drive out! Well, after Crazy horse we drove through a million jillion corn fields and made our way to Columbus, Nebraska!

We always look forward to our visits to Nebraska. It is always so much fun visiting with family, not to mention the food is always so delicious! Conrad really enjoys playing golf while we are out there. We took Sophia to the course, but she really wanted to play. Since that wasn’t going to happen I happily took her to the mini golf course. We had a blast! We pretty much had the place to ourselves. She did so well too. The only sad thing was that it was so hot! It was 94 degrees and super humid. We had a fantastic dinner; I am telling you Ron and Ann make an awesome steak dinner! The only down side to the night was someone drinking a little too much and keeping Sophia away. In doing some research for something for Sophia and I to do I found that Omaha has one of the best zoos in the country. We decided to go. Conrad even decided to not golf and join us. It was a great day! The zoo was super crowded, but it didn’t take away too much from the fun. Highlights were the aquarium, the butterfly dome and the lions!

On Sunday, Sophia and I relaxed while Conrad golfed. It was such a nice morning. The downside was that we didn’t get on the road until 1p.m. Our plan was to drive straight home, but with such a late start we had to stop overnight. Wouldn’t you know, the first town we stopped in had zero rooms due to a local rodeo! We stayed in Rock Springs. Yes, it’s only 3 hours away from Salt Lake, but we didn’t dare risk it.

Disney Transatlantic Cruise!

Sophia, my mom and I did a Transatlantic cruise from Orlando to Madrid on the Disney Magic. This was our first Disney cruise and boy was it fantastic! The two bonuses of cruising Disney across the Atlantic is there are very few kids (compared to other Disney cruises), and the kids get a lot of character time! The downside of a 16 day Disney cruise is that by the 16th day you have every Disney song ever created stuck in your head for the next year, as the hallways play Disney tunes constantly.

We left 2 days after Sophia's birthday. Here is the itinerary: Saturday Port Canaveral, Sunday Castaway Cay, Monday At Sea, Tuesday At Sea, Wednesday At Sea, Thursday At Sea, Friday At Sea, Saturday At Sea, Sunday Madeira Portugal, Monday At Sea, Tuesday Cadiz Spain, Wednesday Gibraltar, Thursday At Sea, Friday Barcelona, Saturday Barcelona