Just Whiting on the Blog

March 2017

Busy is my by-word.

In March Grapes and I traveled to Flagstaff for her Odyssey of the Mind regional competitions.

They got 1st place!

Socks earned a reward ski trip at school. He had a good time, but also got very sunburned.

Good job, Mom, forgetting the sunscreen.

We attended Grapes' school concert
(cello and choir!)

Our princess found different ways to express her royalty.

With help from the siblings...

Grapes got contacts!

Spring break came, and we enjoyed the warmer weather.

One of my favorite things was dinner out at the fire pit.

Aunt Kelsey Came and spent some time with us too!

Kelsey watched the kids so the Doctor and I could take a trip to Flagstaff to celebrate our anniversary.

We went to Flagstaff Extreme (Obstacle course and ziplines) and didn't take a single picture!

Kelsey also came with us to Grace's state honor's choir performance.

Unfortunately, we had a sick kid with us at that concert.

Miss Feta did a taco bell puke in the car on the way home from the concert.

It was traumatic, and may have cured me from ever wanting to eat Taco Bell ever again.

(It also didn't help that in the confusion of getting puke cleaned up and kids into bed after a long night, a single taco got left in the car... not to be found for another 3 weeks.)

Homeward bound, and real life

February 2017

The trip home came very early the next morning, and none of us were very happy about it. The boys fell asleep at the airport waiting for Dad to bring breakfast from 20 yards away.

her selfie says it all: We didn't want to go home!

Back to real life in a hurry-- Grapes got her braces off right after we got back.

Before:

After:

Some of us wanted to relive the trip over and over again. (Indiana Jones style...)

(And Elsa style...)

In all seriousness, the dress was worn daily...

And braids, braids, braids....

We also had a girl turn 13- and her sweet bestie threw her a surprise party.

It was (of course) Harry Potter Themed, and I got to make her cake!

(It was harder than you'd think to make a messy, Hagrid style cake.)

Magic Kingdom AGAIN! (Disney World Trip part 7)

February 2017

We really enjoyed the cabin where we stayed. We did spend loads of time there, but we could (and maybe should) have. By our last play day we were tired from playing so hard, but we weren't through yet!

We had one more day to explore and enjoy the Magic Kingdom.

We were able to meet up with Tia again as well.

The Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin was a hit!

We rode the people mover! (Earlier in the week Feta and I rode it with Tia and it got stopped. We were stuck for about 45 mins.) This time went much more smoothly.

Feta and I visited Belle. She loved it almost as much as visiting Anna and Elsa.

We rode the 'new' Seven Dwarfs ride, and Pencil LOVED it.

Tia introduced us to a side adventure, as part of the "Pirates" fun, where people can participate in a sort of treasure hunt, finding clues and accomplishing tasks. My boys love it! We even got to ride the Pirates ride again because they earned fast passes.

Us girls may have paused to enjoy a Dole Whip while the boys hunted.

We unintentionally got front row spots for the daily parade, and Feta fell asleep and missed it all!

Space Mountain was another favorite! (multiple times)

Merry go round, again!

Tia taught us about Magic Kingdom's design-- it was historically inspired, and each 'land' had lots of interesting things to correspond to the respective times. (like the 'river' of brown rock in the middle of the path in frontier land is reminiscent of the raw sewage that flowed in the streets back in the day)

My boys liked trying out the Stocks.