More Universal Pictures from 10.7.10

It’s always tough to add lots of pictures to a blog page so that when you go to publish the blog you just wrote that it don’t get hung up…So I am going to just add photos with captions to some of the highlights of our day trip to Universal Studios…Enjoy!!

Dr. Suess Land…Many things for the little ones to do…but not my cup of tea…

Harry Potter…This is where my brother and his hubby wanted to go to…The Dragon ride, roller coaster, was in this part of the park…So off we went to do this coaster…But first we had to put all objects of value in a locked safe so I didn’t have my camera to take pics of the ride…While waiting for my brother and his hubby to come out of the Harry Potter castle, I was able to grab this pic of the coaster ride…It was too scary for me…I know I screamed the whole time…I will never ever get on that ride again..Promise!

Then we off to River Adventure to take a rafting tour of the dinosaurs…I hope we don’t get too wet at the end of this ride…Cover all cameras…

Nick (my brother) and Michael (his hubby) climbed in first…This worked out great so I could get a good pic of them…We are all in and ready to take off…Luckily the ride is slow and well lit but there are dark areas where the dinosaurs “roar” at you…

Doctor Doom was another ride I wasn’t getting on…I’ve done this sort of thing a long time ago at a place called Six Flags in Maryland and I didn’t like it then…Free fall just isn’t my type of ride but Nick and Michael went and had a blast… 

At the end of the day, we headed out and stopped by Margaritaville for a drink…That was a great way to end just a fabulous day…Thank you little brother for the wonderful treat and day spent together…This is the bestest photo of them all!

Christmas Time in Florida

It’s Christmas time again and we are spending it near Disney World in Florida…At this time of year, I still decorate somewhat but when I do decorate I think of kids, little kids…I miss when my kids were little and I would decorate so that they would see the house should look when Santa Claus comes to visit…Plus a house decorated for Christmas just puts one in the spirit of things…As of a few years ago, Richard and I went to a small Mickey Mouse Christmas tree…I still have some old Christmas decorations and some new decorations…The best part of Christmas is when Richard puts together Christmas pictures of all the grandkids and us or just of the grandkids…and of the kids when we have pictures of them…So enjoy the creations…

On this picture, featured above, there are all our grandgirls…The 3 sisters and 1 little sister who expecting a brother or sister in Mar. 2011…I can’t wait for the added grandchild to be in our holiday pictures…Bets are it’s another girl…tee hee!!

And last but not least, our Christmas card to everyone, family and friends…Making a Christmas card is so much more special to send out even if it is via email…Happy Holidays everyone…

Our little tree with snowflake lights…This little tree has fiber optics too…My Tinkerbell snowglobe plays music and when you push in th ered button, music plays and snow just flows all around on the inside…

Even the crafts table gets a little decorated…Mickey and Minnie sits in front of our showboat of characters…Oh, the snowball machine, well, that’s for when it’s hot here and we want a snowball…Dreamsicle, Cherry or Chocolate…Yummy!

Having Fun….September Visit 2010

It’s always great to be around kids who like to have fun…In this case, Brianna and Kayla were practicing their dancing routine in Kayla’s room to music…No one knew what they were doing until they came out and wanted to show us what they were doing and practicing on…I guess they have watched Dancing with the Stars several times…

A little turn here, a little twist here, put the feet just right, put in some swinging and what a dance routine they had…It was awesome and I wish I had a video camera just to show everyone…

After the dance routine, or maybe even before, these 2 were playing together very nicely…Barbie dolls are a great way to get 2 sisters together just as long as they don’t bicker amongst themselves…

 

It was great seeing the 3 girls play together without fighting…I love seeing the girls play…

I think Poppy was resting but it was tough to tell…It seems that Brianna wanted to be an angel on Poppy’s back…

So much for resting thought Poppy…When 3 girls come out and attack you, what are you gonna do…Attack back…What fun they all had…

 

Who has who???  At first glance, it looked liked the girls had their Poppy but then he turned the tide on them and he had them…They were laughing so hard that they got the hiccups…or at least 1 out of 3 girls got the hiccups…LOL…

We sure do miss our girls…We can’t wait to do the same thing with the granddaughter and grandchild to come in Mar. 2011 and be able to play with them…

Christmas Photos 2010

It’s always great to see pictures of little ones visiting the great Santa Claus…Granted the real Santa is still up in the North Pole where he lives and he gets his Santa helpers out there to see all the little boys and girls while he making his list and checking it twice…

Misti and Anna – Photo taken in Sicily

Anna was taken to go see Santa but I don’t think she wanted to see him…Little ones at this young age have a tough time seeing a stranger with a white beard…but at least she wasn’t screaming and throwing a fit…I’m sure Santa knows that she is a good girl and won’t get coal in her stocking…

Brandi, Elizabeth, Brianna & Kayla

This Santa was ready to see what all these girls wanted for christmas…I’m sure they talked off Santa’s ears about what they wanted for Christmas…All are smiling which is very unusual…but what a very good photo…

All my girls are getting so big…Time sure does fly by so fast…Merry Christmas from Poppy & Mommom…Thinking of all of u everyday!

Visiting the Upper Echilon of Resorts – Grand Floridian

 

Walt Disney World has many resorts on their property…They range from the lower resorts to the upper echilon of resorts…There is the low end resort of Pop Century and the All Star Resorts to the Contemporary and Polynesian Resorts…but there is one upper expensive resort called The Grand Floridian…Where the people with money stay or if you are lucky enough, you may get an upgrade to this resort…It’s a very beautiful resort with all the inlaid Italian marble with Disney characters inlaid in to the marble…The Fab 5 are inlaid in the main entrance, 2nd floor hallway leading from the monorail entrance…Tinkerbell was found on the 2nd floor by the elevators…

As you come in from the monorail entrance side, there are 2 good sized christmas trees, one on each side of the balcony…This is where you can look over the railing and see just how big the resort’s christmas tree is…

The resort’s christmas tree is decorated with Victorian decorations…There are bird cages, doves, gold ribbon and christmas balls…The tree is about 50 feet tall and is put together in several sections…It is an awesome tree to see in person…

In the Grand Floridian are 2 high-class restaurants…The Citrico and Victoria & Alberts…Reservations are most definitely needed and are very hard to get…I didn’t see any sort of menu to see just what they serve or how expensive a meal can be…but I have heard that they are always packed..

Even the lettering for the name of the restaurant looks expensive…lol

Inside the Grand Floridian is a huge Gingerbread House…You can buy gingerbread cookies and cakes from this house…It is a spectacular sight to see…

One of the chefs who work the gingerbread house was showing the guests how she makes a small gingerbread house…It was so interesting how she uses the royal icing to make icicles and how to make all her decorations stick to the gingerbread house…It does take 24 hours for the small gingerbread house to dry…Then you can eat the house but once you make it, would you want to eat it?  All that hard work go in to someone’s tummy…I don’t think so…

 

At the entrance of the Grand Floridian, ground floor, there are 2 different vehicles…A vintagecadillac and a vintage carriage…I would love to have a ride with my sweetie in this being rode around with a driver and several horses and a warm blanket…Or if one is getting married to be put up in the carriage and driven around to the wedding and/or reception and have everyone look at the bride…How spectacular that would be…

The Grand Floridian is decorated with all the christmas spirit of wreaths and trees all around…It’s a beautiful place to come and see at least once…Richard and I are lucky enough to be able to come every christmas to see these decorations…

Our Son-n-Law Serving in the Military

Our son-n-law, Chad, is in the Navy…We are proud of him for serving our country…He is a corpsman in the Navy and so far, is planning on retiring from the Navy…Right now he is away from home for the Holidays and our daughter, Misti, is pregnant with their second child…Their daughter, Anna, gets to see her dada via internet…It’s heartbreaking but they are not the only family in the military who are without someone home for the holidays…We are very proud of Chad and every other member(s) who are serving this great nation and who aren’t home for holidays, births or any other reason…Thanks for our freedom…

Luckily in this year of technology, there is the internet…Talking to someone miles away is awesome…One of the programs used for this is Skype…Video and microphone/speakers or a headset with a microphone works great…Misti and Anna might not be able to talk to him every day but when they do get to chat/see him, it lights up their day as I am sure that it lights up his day…Anna gets to see her dada and when she does he gets a hug and a kiss…Oh, how sweet to see this and so precious…

 

I am so glad that Anna gets to see her dada…I know she misses him a lot as does Misti, our daughter…Chad, we can’t wait for your return home to your wife and daughter…Be safe…We may not know you much and hope to do so some day but we send our best, hugs and kisses…We wish you Happy Holidays and hope you get to call home on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day…xxxoooo

Eat to the Beat Concert Series at Epcot

 

There is a great way to end the Eat to the Beat concert series at Epcot during the Food & Wine Festival…One of the biggest attractions to this concert series is Big Bad Voodoo Daddy…There was Starship and some other bands there (I can’t remember the names now)…

We went to Epcot on Nov. 12 to see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and hear the great swing music that they play…One of their songs is Go Daddy O and the song from Jungle Book…The music is awesome and ongoing…We were expecting to stand in a line forever for the 7:45 showing but when we got back to the American Theatre there wasn’t a line and plenty of seats to choose from…Camera in hand, we set off to find a good spot to sit, except for up close cause that’s where the guests who pay for a dinner/show get to sit…At 6:30pm, the band started to come out in their zuit suits and the music started…

 

The horn section was awesome…The way they could play their instruments was fabulous…The suits helped with all the swing music… 

Everyone in the audience was clapping and singing…

The lead singer has a great voice…He didn’t stop for a drink or take a break..He just kept on going…I would have to applaud him cause some singers take a drink break…