Sea lions, tiger sharks and polar bears, oh my!

We LOVE Sea World! Every year they let active duty military into their parks for free one day. I had heard that they do a very fun Christmas time so we took full advantage of our free day there. The shows are so much fun and the kids really liked seeing the live animals.

They had a snow wall by the polar bears and walrus tanks, my kids first chance at touching ice!
Zach got a kick out of the manta rays petting tank. He really liked playing in the water, but getting flipped with a ray fin was exciting too. Gracie was too scared to pet them. They are so smooth and they were very friendly.

The merry-go-round is all sea animals, we had to ride it a couple of times so we could ride all the different fish.

They also had a Polar Express display, Zach could have stayed by the train all day. It was only for pictures though, but they did have a big boat the kids could play on and we spent a lot of time on that. They also had a huge net play structure that they kids just had to go on, so Stuart and I were crawling all around, I'm sure we looked pretty funny. The grown ups also took a time out to do the big roller coasters they have. Wow, they were really fun!! It was such a fun day and let me just say again that we are so lucky to live where there is so much to do! And I am so impressed with the Busch Gardens group for honoring the military, Stuart works so hard for our family and loves serving his country and it was so fun sharing this together as a family.

Thanksgiving

We had an uneventful Thanksgiving dinner, but we were lucky enough to have Stuart's family close enough to come share the day with us. We also took the kids to Tangled after dinner and they loved it! Even Zach sat thru the whole thing, although a bag of M&M's helped a little with that. But we highly recommend this movie!

It was so fun having Stuart home for 4 days straight so we took advantage of this time and took a little trip up to Blue Springs, Florida. It was a really nice day and the water stays at a constant temp of 73 degrees and we were planning on swimming. But we found out that it is the manatee migrating season so no one is allowed in the water for their protection, and to make matters worse we didn't even get to see any manatees. But it was still a very fun trip and the kids loved the wooden walking trails. We are so lucky to live somewhere that we can still travel and explore new places in November with nice weather.

Happy Halloween

Halloween fun! Gracie helped Daddy carve pumpkins this year. Poor Zach missed it...next year he can help. Gracie really liked helping but we could not convince her to eat a seed.

We had the chance to go to the Disney World Halloween party again, and it was great! We always have so much fun, and even got to go with some friends this year! Gracie was very excited to be a princess this year, Ariel to be exact. Zach was Buzz Lightyear, very fun.

You get the chance to stay late into the night at the Halloween party and trick or treat all over the park, so we went home with tons of candy. Zach was so hocked up on candy he was just running around wild til about 11pm and then crashed. Gracie took a quick nap and got a second wind so we ended up staying til midnight. Fun times. I actually end up having too much fun and forget to take more pictures.
We had a very fun night at a friends house on Halloween night, so the kids got to dress up one more time. We trick or treated from room to room in the house and the kids loved it. The also loved helping to answer the door all night. We were over at this friends house yesterday and the doorbell rang and Gracie ran to the door asking "I wonder what they will be dressed up as". It is hard to explain that Halloween does actually end after celebrating it for a couple of weeks straight.

I'm spoiled...

I finally got my computer back so I promised myself that when I did I would update the blog, so...

I am very spoiled. Back in January my high school friends started toying with the idea of having a mini high school reunion and I jumped on the idea. This not only gave me an opportunity to see some people that I haven't seen in years but also was an excuse to get back to California for a few days. So as I was planning my wonderful husband volunteered to take the kids and let me go by myself! I was in heaven...5 days to go and play with my very best friends with no kids are you kidding me. I think I floated on board the plane that morning.

I got to eat at all my favorite California places which includes this ice cream, which I actaully have dreams about.

I pretended I was still a kid and we spent the day 6 flags going on all the big roller coasters over and over. And had a sleep over, do you know how long it has been since I had a sleep over? It was great!

And then I talked Abby into going to Santa Cruz so I could remember what a west coast beach was like. The water was so cold!

And this is our mini reunion. One of the best nights of my life. I have the coolest, bestest friends. Thanks for all for going and planning and putting me up!

Texas part 2

If you don't feel like reading the earlier post...we went to Texas again for a few weeks. Fun times! My kids love the big house to run around in and my parents have a nice big yard they could play in. Although the mosquito's thought that Zach was an open buffet everyday, they still had fun.

We went to the children's museum, which is very hands on. We didn't even get to half of the stuff before the kids were exhausted. I would be here every other day if we had one in Orlando!

And we went swimming! My kids love swimming. The pool was like bath water because it was so hot, so not very refreshing, but at least we didn't have to worry about cold kiddos. I even got my mom to go off the diving board! It was a sad day when we headed back home, but we are finding more and more fun stuff to do there every time we go, so it gives us something to look forward to for our next trip!

Fun times in Texas...again

We went to Texas again...so more pics of our adventures there. Stuart had to go to work for 2 and half weeks so I called my mom and packed the car and off we went. The weather is pretty much the same in Houston as Orlando, so we didn't really get a break in the heat and humidity, but it was a nice treat to be with family. We found some amazing parks out there, so the kids loved that.

Zach loves playing with Grandma's toys. We do not have a school bus that sings and you can ride around. We also do not have tile that is nice and cool, but hard on the head when coming in wet from playing in the sprinkler.

We brought our big dog, but Zach is convinced that every dog is for lying on, even my parent's much smaller lab. He was not as amused as our dog who is used to it. He was a good sport though.

And this is what happens when my kids get around the MAC counter in the mall. I am in big trouble with Gracie, she loves everything make-up and already thinks she should be wearing lipstick when we go out. It was nice that she shared though...

Our 4th of July!

I love the 4th of July, I think it is one of my favorite holidays. Stuart was home for this fun holiday so we took a little staycation and visited a Disney world resort for the day. It was really fun, but it rained on us almost the whole weekend, so that was kind of a bummer. The fireworks show was great and the rain let up a little bit so we could go and watch it. Gracie was a little confused that the firework show was different then the one we see all the time at Disney world, she kept asking when Tinkerbell was going to fly.

I am so thankful that we live in a country that is free and my kids will always enjoy this freedom. We had a great day at church on Sunday singing a great patriotic hymn and learning the things we choose and we would not have this if we did not live in America. We are so lucky!It down poured on us while walking around the park. It was a good time to call it a day!

A late Anniversary

As said before I am a bad Mom that is a little slow sometimes on getting things done, so this is another late post. A very special anniversary passed a few months ago and I was a little busy to post this on the actual date, or right month for that matter. But I have been wanting to do this for a while, and this is a big deal. The anniversary of Gracie's liver transplant was two years ago as of April 28th.

The first year of Gracie's life was very eventful. The long and the short of it is she was born with a disease that caused her liver to fail and she was put on the donor list in February of 2008. We had 2 false alarms with a possible liver which were very gut wrenching, but the surgeon wanted just the right liver to put into my sweet girl. It took almost three months for us to get "the call" because there is a national shortage of people on the donor list.

Right before her transplant, don't adjust your color, she really was that yellow. She also had the flu she had gotten in the hospital so we weren't supposed to touch her.
Gracie was really sick before the surgery. We were so blessed in every step of this journey. We were able to have the surgery performed at a brand new, state of the art children's hospital, only an hour from where we lived. The staff at the hospital were amazing, many of the nurses became my friends, sometimes by default since I was there for so long. And the liver team/specialists were phenomenal, again many of them becoming my friends to help us through this whole process. I used to wonder why we moved to Colorado when we had no job there and knew only one friend, but now I know that the Lord helped us be exactly where Gracie needed to be for her transplant.

Gracie right after transplant, lots of tubes, but she already looks a little better.

This is the first time I got to hold Gracie in almost 4 weeks.

There are some very interesting things that you learn or go through when you are dealing with a sick kid trial. (1) If there is a possibility that you will spend the night in the hospital, have a bag packed because you husband will somehow find some underwear that does not fit and something that you have not worn since high school ( I had to borrow scrubs from the hospital on more then one occasion). (2) I could hear the helicopter anywhere I was in the hospital anytime because that could possible be a new liver coming in. (3) Family will do amazing things for you during your trails: My sister called every temple in the US to put Gracie on the prayer lists and she said it was very fun to hear all the different accents. My Mom got on a plane with 2 hrs. notice to be by my side and some of my good friends spent the night with us on a very snowy night to wait out the 12 hour surgery to make sure everything went okay. (4) You hardly get any sleep in a hospital and no privacy. (5) You will make deals with God when you find out your child is going to die that you thought not possible. (6) There are some amazing people that volunteer at children's hospitals, like people that bring their dogs, will read to your kids while you shower or eat and lots of groups that bring in dancing, singing and games. (7) Modern day miracles happen around us everyday, have faith the Lord will not forsake you. I could go on and on, I am a different person from that year.

Gracie had to have a crazy breathing contraption becuase she had fluid in her chest. It looks bad but it was so much better then the breathing tube again.
I want to reiterate to you that without the donor Gracie would not be alive today. There is a national shortage of organ donors in this country, so I ask you to please do this and talk to your family about it so they all understand your wishes ( they can provoke the rights to your organs after you are gone). This includes donating your blood as well, Gracie replaced almost all of her blood during her transplant and had other transfusions as well. I wanted to end with a little bit of the letter that we wrote to the family that we received the liver from.

This is the amazing surgeon that performed her transplant. He was incredible.

I can not begin to tell you how sorry I am for your loss. This sounds so simple and plain after your loss, but thank you. Thank you for your courage and strength. During the worst moment of your life you chose to think of someone else. I thank you for your example that you have set for me for the rest of my life. And I thank you for the miracle that you provided me and my family. I wish I could give you a big hug and let you meet my daughter. I promise you that someday you will see your child again and he will be strong and whole and perfect again. I will pray for your family always.

Our Gracie toay, fun and healthy!

A little vice...

So I have a this vice that I am not really proud of, but is a guilty pleasure. Now and then I like to watch the Real Housewives of...whatever. It is not like I watch religiously, I don't even know when they air, but sometimes on a Sat. afternoon if the kids are out with dad and Bravo is showing a marathon I get a little lost in these women's lives. I find it interesting how a lot of these women all know each other and because of their money run in the same circles even though they are so different. Although I am not so naive as to think that the show does not set up some "run-ins" to add drama.

Stuart is not crazy about this show of course, but he made an interesting comment the other day after I was retelling him one of the fights; "wow, I guess all women have the same problems, no matter what their financial status or where they live." And I am sad to say that I think he is right, we as women can be the best to each other, being a shoulder to lean on, someone to gossip and laugh with and someone that will understand you. But a woman can also ruin your self esteem, cut you down and make you hurt. When I watch these shows, sometimes I am relieved to see others going through these same problems as me. Why do we do this to each other? I really think that as women we really want to have friends, someone we can trust and depend on. Someone that will forgive you if you say or do something they may not agree with, and someone that will never feel indifferent towards your feelings.

I will never understand the emotion of indifference. I drive my husband crazy by asking him all the time why someone could do that towards another person. But when it comes from someone that you were friends with it really doesn't make sense. I learned very quickly in the Navy that there are a lot of people out there that are only looking out for themselves, and so I didn't make a ton of girlfriends while in. But being a few years older now I thought that would start to diminish. I feel like I have so much more to learn about life and other people, but that is all part of the journey right?

Although I would never emulate the lives of the women on this show, sometimes I do envy the confrontations they get to have with one another so they all know what cards everyone is holding. And every now and then they work it out and can be friends again, what a nice thought. It is such a silly thing to watch these shows and I promise I don't get too caught up in them, I just wish there wasn't a need to show how nasty we can be to each other, but them what would I watch on Saturday afternoon?

Gatorland!

We had a fun Memorial day! We went to the gator capitol of the world! Who knew that it was right here in Orlando...just waiting for us to check it out. I kept asking Stuart why the Australia zoo wasn't the "capitol of the world" and it had to keep reminding me that those are crocs down there...duh! There were a ton of alligators at this place, I was a little nervous when you walk over them on a wooden bridge. There were some really big ones too! We got to watch some fun shows of gator wrestling, gator jumping and feeding some birds.

There was a small gator that the kids could have pet, but Gracie was not interested, but this fake one was fun to play on.
The petting zoo was a big hit with goats, cows and this llama. We even got to feed the llama out of our hand!

All these gators are waiting for the jumping show to start, so they are waiting for their raw chicken. There were about 30 gators in this pond!

We even got to ride on a train, what a fun day. We were very lucky to have Stuart home on this holiday to kick off the summer and get to spend the day together as a family.