Magical Disney

Grab a cup of coffee.  I will wait.  You will need it because this might get to be a long story.  Got it?  Settled into a comfy chair.  Ok, then let's begin...

Since MadHatter hadn't decided on a place to celebrate her birthday and with whom quite yet, I thought it would be fun to take the girls to Disney World for the long weekend that happened to fall the week after her birthday.  And I also decided that we would skip the Friday before and make it a super-sized long weekend.  It also coincided with the fact that my nephew would also be there with school and we could hang with him for a few hours so extra bonus points. 

I picked the girls up on Thursday afternoon, and we jetted up the highway pulling in to the parking lot at Hollywood Studios just about 4 pm. (Another great reason to leave on Thursday - a LOT less traffic).  By 4:30 we were having our picture taken with Chewbacca...

We walked, we talked, and we rode a ride or two, and then S had to get back to school, and we had to check into our hotel.  We had a FULL day planned at the Magic Kingdom starting early the next morning.

And this is where it gets interesting.

We make it to the Magic Kingdom just after it opens.  Which means we have about 2 hours until our first fast pass starts, so I suggest something we had never done before - The Swiss Family Treehouse.  For those who don't know, it is simply a giant 5 story tree that is fashioned after the book about the Swiss Family Robinson.  After their ship crashed and left them alone on an island, they used the tree to live in.  And guests walk through and around their "house."  We made it to the very top, and I went to take my phone out of my jacket pocket.  It was a tight fit, so I pulled a bit and my hand hit the railing next to me.  And I watched, seemingly in slow motion, as my phone went over the edge and fell.  Until it stopped.  In a hollowed out piece of bamboo that was being used as a water supply system for the Robinson Family.  And it got stuck.  MadHatter, who has eagle eyes, spotted it and said we needed to go down and tell someone.  We did.

I get someone at guest services and relay what happened and that we know exactly where my phone is.  She calls and gets someone from the janitorial staff that has a garbage picker (a long set of claws).  We go up.  My phone is too far to reach.  We go down.  Another staff member is called in with a longer, telescoping picker.  We go up.  Picker reaches phone, but it is pretty well jammed in there at an odd angle.  We go down.  Call backup with the telescoping picker.  We go up.  The second picker pushes the phone into the first picker, and we have a cell phone out of bamboo (and water).  Now we just have to get it from bamboo back to us on the balcony.  Easier said than done.  Phone is dropped 30 ft to wood terrace below.  We go down.  Head of janitorial services breaks all rules and climbs over railing and retrieves phone.  Hands it back to me.  Miraculously, it is not cracked or dented in any way and is still working.  Management is profusely thanked as are all involved in getting my cell back to me.  We are sent on our way with a FastPass for our trouble (we got to choose any ride, so we decided on the 7 Dwarves Train as it always has at least a 2-hour wait). 

Not sure if there is a moral to this story other than keep phones in your pocket if you are 5 stories off of the ground and outdoors.  Ironically, I wasn't even trying to take a picture.  Maybe the biggest lesson was the reaction to losing my phone.  Everyone kept saying how calm and unfazed by this I was.  And I just kept responding with, "Well, there is nothing I can do about it so why make a big deal of it.  I won't let it define my day".  And I had kids watching how I reacted - I would rather have them take a lesson from me still being kind, courteous and happy than snappy and grumpy.

At this point, we headed on our way to our FastPass at Haunted Mansion, and we stop to take a photo of Stinkerbell.  And this is where my phone starts its slow death.  First, it is a green line.  Then it begins to fade at the top.  Then the screen goes black and finally it won't even turn off with a hard restart.  It was caput.  What was I to do?  Keep riding rides.  Which is precisely what we did.  I just don't have many pictures because, well, dead phone.  But luckily we do have season tickets that come with Disney PhotoPass, so there are these...

 The ghost that hitched a ride with us at Haunted Mansion.

Front row at Pirates.  MadHatter looks like she is holding on for dear life.

 Next up, Space Mountain.  Looks like my girls figured out where the cameras were.

 Another first for us.  Stinkerbell said it was her favorite roller coaster ever (replacing space mountain).  Which is funny coming from the girl who used to do this...Click here and scroll half way down)

And then we had to call it a day because I needed to get that phone looked at.  It's funny how reliant we are on them these days but I am just not comfortable without being able to be in contact with B (who is in another country, or my parents since Nana just had surgery).  We made it to the Apple store with a few minutes to spare before 9 pm but was told that I would need an appointment - for tomorrow.  So I made it for as late as I could (9 pm) and we went and got a very late dinner and called it a day.  A fabulous day, save for that phone mishap.

Happy Golden Birthday, MadHatter!

She is 11.  

Eleven. 

Once. Jedenáct. Elf.  

No matter which language you say it in, it is still a number closer to teenager than it is to toddler.  

And I am reminded of that every time I catch a glimpse of her.

Expecting to see this...

Or this...

Or even this...

Instead, I see this staring back at me.

Beautiful, inside and out, but where did the time go?  And those chubby cheeks?

On top of all of this, it was also her golden birthday.  (For those not in the know, your golden birthday is the one when you turn the age of the date of your birth.  MadHatter was born the 11th, so her 11th birthday is golden.  Mine was my 17th as my birthday is July 17th.)  She has been looking forward to and planning this one for ages.  But we threw a wrench in it by moving her across the world just before it happened so now she has to rethink her plan.  I will let you know when she finally comes up with her new one, and we throw the party...perhaps next year at the rate she is planning.

No matter.  We still had a party of our own where we celebrated all things MadHatter!

Yearly door decorations were done with a twist this year.

She got to open her present from Nana and Grampa at breakfast before heading to school.

And I laid out the rest of the loot.

Books and lip gloss and yep, that is a Walkman...

She has wanted a Walkman forever.  I finally got her one (they are hard to find), and now we are just waiting for all of my old tapes to join us (they are still in Germany.

And of course, a personalized Golden Ticket book.

But perhaps her favorite present of all - 

We love you to the moon and back and more than all of the stars in the sky MadHatter.  We are so proud of the lady you are growing up to be and know that only goodness is in store for you in the future.  Happy 11th my sweet girl.

Munich Meetup

2019 had just dawned and the first thing we did was jump on a plane.  Sounds about right.  We had some vacation time left and two families (and great friends) from Munich were going to be in Florida.  

We got back to the airport in Fort Myers late afternoon and instead of heading towards home, we headed North towards Longboat Key.  Located near Sarasota, it was about 100 miles away and we made it just in time for dinner, and then an early bedtime.  Friends would have to wait until morning.

Well rested, we awoke the next morning to this view on our back patio...

With the sun shining, we quickly got dressed.  And by dressed I mean we put on bathing suits and some shoes.  Who needs to put on real clothes when you are spending the day at the beach?

We drove the short 2 minutes to the C's hotel where we would be stationed for the day.  With ground floor access, a large beachside deck and heated pool it was the perfect landing pad.  It didn't take long for the kids to get reacquainted and disappear either to the pool or down to the sand to play.  As for the adults, we gabbed and snacked and just caught up on what had been going on in our lives for the past 6 months.  It was just like old times!  Except at the beach.  In the U.S.  I did snap a few shots of the kids having fun...

Teeny Tiny jellyfish.  Showed up out of nowhere about 3 pm. All over the beach.

So we took the kids back up to the lawn and taught them to play shuffleboard.

At sunset, we headed back down to the beach to see what we could get in the form of pictures.  Armed with only my cell phone, I did what I could.  This was the one and only time I had wished for my big camera on this entire trip.  But I the iPhone actually did a pretty decent job (though someday they will figure out a way for it to handle low light better).

The sun was officially down and we got some dinner into the kids and parked them in front of the tv while the adults went out to the back patio to have their dinner, mostly uninterrupted.  And suddenly it was late.  And the kids were fading fast from a day of fresh air and fun.  It was time to say our goodbyes.  Which also meant making plans for a quick lunch the next day before we all headed our separate ways.

I am so glad we made a point to see each other.  And we are already talking about doing it again in the summer.  Here's to the friends we make while living abroad!

Rockin' the sticks

With all of the goings on in Breckenridge, we did make some time to ski.  But not as much as we usually do for some reason.  Perhaps because it is sooooooo crowded at Christmastime and we knew it would be less so when we were back in March.  Or maybe it was because it was soooooo cold.  Either way, we did make it to the mountain on 3 occasions and loved every second of it.  I think the girls did fabulous for not having been on ski's for 2 years (in their short lives, that is a long time).  You judge for yourselves...

Stinkerbell looks like a ninja.  I don't blame her - it was cold.