Sav's Disney Soccer Trip - Day 1

Over President's Day weekend Savannah's soccer team headed down to Orlando, Florida to play in a soccer tournament at the ESPN Wild World of Sports Complex at Disney and I was lucky enough to tag along with her. Our flight took off Friday morning just as a severe cold front was moving into Maryland and the temperatures forecasted for the weekend were in the single digits. Savannah and I, however, were overjoyed to be heading to the warm, sunny, 70 degree weather at the happiest place on earth.

The flight was smooth and easy going but unfortunately getting to our hotel wasn't. David had emailed me a confirmation number for the Disney Express that would take us from the airport to the hotel. The confirmation number didn't work; it was just showing David's name, not mine or Savannah's, and so they wouldn't let us on. We spent a good half hour trying to get everything squared away. I think one of the workers could tell we were having problems and my stress level was rising because he tried to cheer us up with Daisy stickers...a bunch of them. Savannah was amused, me, not so much.

They finally decided to just let us on with that confirmation number and off we went...to the wrong hotel. The confirmation number that David had sent me was actually the confirmation number for a business trip he had to Orlando at the end of the month. Yes, truly. So we ended up at the hotel he would be staying at which unfortunately they would not let us stay at. The hotel had a driver take us over to our real hotel, Disney's All-Star Sports Resort, and after seeing it Savannah and I both agreed we wished we could go back to the first hotel. But things started looking up when we started running into teammates and getting excited about all our weekend adventures.

We rested for a bit in our room and then met up with everyone at 6:00 to take the bus to Disney Springs for dinner. Once there we decided to split up, the girls going off by themselves and the adults heading over the The House of Blues for some dinner. It was such a beautiful evening and I was enjoying getting to know the parents a little bit better. I had some yummy lobster macaroni and cheese for dinner and topped it off with a cherry coke which I hadn't had in ages and think I might now be addicted to. After dinner we met back up with the girls who first complained about their gross meal and then just wanted to shop. It was fun walking around looking at all the different sights (some of which were not very family friendly) and stores.

Such a fun candy store!

One probably wouldn't believe me if I mentioned how many shots it took to get this picture just right; either one of them laughed or didn't have their bracelet showing or stuck their hand in the other's face. But finally, I got the perfect shot of Emily and Savannah showing off their cool Disney bracelets, one of Savannah's favorite parts of the trip. She repeatedly mentioned that she wished she had one of these to open her room at home.

It is truly amazing what they can make out of Legos. I had to take these shots to show the boys!

The girls ran into a few friends to take pictures with!

And they even did some carol singing with Mickey and Donald.

We finally headed back to the hotel but the fun didn't end there. The gift shop had some great hats for all of us to try on...

even Michelle and I got into the action.

It was a great first day of our Disney adventure!

January Activities

Althought the blizzard was the main event in January, we still had plenty of other fun things go on. David, Savannah, and Xander spent an evening helping feed the homeless at a local shelter. Along with several other members of our ward, they helped prepare BBQ chicken sandwiches and salads for dinner...

and then sandwiches for the next day's lunch.

I was super proud of them for doing this service!

David and I were able to attend a stake High Priest temple session with a wondeful meeting beforehand in the temple chapel. It was such a beautiful day spend in the beautiful House of the Lord.

Although the heavens rained down a lot of snow on us, they also produced some beautiful sunsets throughout the month. Unfortunately I only had my phone camera on this spectacular evening.

We also started our monthly Parent/Kid dates back up. Noah and I went to Barnes and Noble to get a new book and then stopped at the Starbucks for a creamy, delicious caramel frappacino. Noah was thrilled!

Savannah and I went to Dunkin Donuts for some hot cocoa and donuts. Yum!!

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of David and Xander's date but they stayed up late one night and watched both of the Sherlock Holmes movies.  (I was just slightly jealous!)

For one Family Home Evening activity we got our craft on and made some cute little snowmen. We had made them at our YW Christmas party and they were so easy and so dang cute I thought the boys would get a kick out of making them.

Getting some help from Dad!

When you're doing anything snow-related, even if it's just a snow craft, you must have hot cocoa!

Our little snowman family!

Snowmaggedon 2016!!

The days following the great blizzard were very laid back, mainly because we were snowed in and couldn't go anywhere. The plows didn't even get to our neighborhood until Tuesday! The kids ended up having the entire following week off of school so we tried to come up with fun things to do. Noah and I spent one afternoon outside sledding. Well, he did the sledding; I just took pictures!

It was a little rough going at first until we got a better run dug out for him...

then he just flew!

Wipe out!

I'm okay, mom!

It was certainly easy to hang out in the tree!

He loved the snow cave.

And he wanted to show how high the shoveled snow in front of our house was!

The kids spent a lot of their time outside playing in the snow! Not only did they do some sledding, they built snow caves and snow forts and had huge neighborhood snowball fights!

I caught Savannah's snowball mid-air in this picture!

Noah was smart and got some protection.

Even the missionaries got involved in the fun!

Elder Shumway was getting transferred and had come to say goodbye; he had no idea what he was walking into!

There were also plenty of inside activities, including dress up and nerf gun battles;

a movie - Kung Fu Panda 3 - with our friends Akua and Nana;

and lunch at Noodles.

The kids also enjoyed a Harry Potter movie marathon which of course inspired some major wizard duels around the house!

We definitely took advantage of the snow days!