Another Kipp Howard

Recently, I created a Google Alert for my name to see what kind of things came up over time. Most of the top hits are from my questions and answers for various technology related topics. And, even though I have a relatively unusual name (especially with the double "P"), there are apparently a few other Kipp Howards out there.

Tonight I received a Google Alert in my email that linked to the first picture of another Kipp Howard. Hey, he has more hair than I do!

There is also another Kipp Howard who is a Sales Rep in Kansas City.

It is kind of weird for me, but I'm sure a lot of folks have more common names and this isn't a big deal for them.

I believe that Ilea will probably never hear of someone with her first and last name. There are a few other Ilea's out there but they are pretty few and far between.

Salmon Beach

Hi All,

I had been approached about a stained glass project back in June. We talked a bit, and then they got busy with other things. Recently I was contacted again, and in a short time we had this project finished! My customer lives in the house with the blue roof, and his brother-in-law lives in the one with the green roof, 2 doors down. This unique neighborhood is on the Gig Harbor side of Point Defiance, down a big hill. We had to carry the window down the hill to them in the end. They supplied me with the photo, and we went from there. The final panel was 56.5"x18", and went between a room with lots of light and a stairwell. It was a fun project!

Crazy Freezer

OK - I've been really good about freezing things since we got our freezer in the garage. This time I was freezing bags of pomegranate juice. Apparently one had a very slow leak. You can see the bags of juice on the upper shelf, and below it was this perfect stalagmite of pomegranate juice! It was dripping so slowly it just kept building up! Science in action - I love it!

Who?

Ilea, our fabulous reader, has been mispronouncing a word recently. We've been giving her a hard time about it. The word was Olivia, which was the title of one of her books, and she was pronouncing it like All-i (short i) - vah, more like the word Olive-ah. We teased her and told her how it was pronounced. She finished the book and we thought she was done. Then today while we were in Starbucks, Ilea lost a tooth. She said something about her sal-i-vah! We laughed!

Spring is in the air?

So as I take down our Easter decorations, I'm enjoying the sight of the snow coming down outside! Poor Kyler (and Kipp) were at soccer practice, and they finally called it off. Our heater was fixed this morning, YEAH! and the house is up to 67deg! Wahoo! It sure is fun to look at when you're in a cozy house!

Spring Outside, Winter Inside

Well, it's been a rough couple of days. Sun evening our furnace started making a noise like an animal being tortured, so we had to turn it off. We got really lucky and a repairman was able to come out Mon morning by 8:30. And he even knew what the problem was. But because of our brand of furnace it will take a few days to get the part. Yesterday the house was 60deg, and got up to 63 by 5pm. We've borrowed 2 space heaters and had our sad little fireplace going, but it didn't help much. This morning was 58 deg upstairs, and it's 55 downstairs right now. (It was 28 deg the last 2 nights). The kids have their sweaters and mittens on. We have at least one more day to survive! What an adventure!

Report Cards

Kipp was reviewing the kids' report cards, and making comments on what Ilea's teacher said. He picked up Kyler's report card, and I said, "Ilea's teacher is a lot more verbal." Kyler piped up, "Yeah, I would sure think so!"

Mom: Why do you say that?
Kyler: Because if you forget your homework or do anything wrong, my teacher get really really mad!
Mom: What do you think VERBAL means?
Kyler: SUPERMAD!

It felt good

Tonight, Kyler and I, went to a Thunderbird game with the Littles for scout night. As we were driving there, Fred drove off of the Alaskan Way viaduct towards the Key Arena and we went over one of those bumps that makes your stomach lurch a bit (roller coaster style). Here is the conversation after that lurch:

• Sue: Did that make your tummies tickle?
  
• Everyone (except Kyler): Yeah!
  
• Kyler: That made my private parts tickle.
  
• Everyone: [chuckles]
  
• Kyler: And, you know what, it felt good.
  
• Everyone: [laughs]
  

Kyler's mouse

So while we were at Petco trying to sell cookies, Kyler looked around at the pets. He decided he wants a mouse (this has not been approved yet). He excitedly asks Rochelle (the other mom there) and I if we want to see which mouse he has picked out. So we go over to a large cage with 25 identical small white mice running in every direction! He points to one and says, "That's the one I picked out!" It was hysterical! Keep you posted on this one....

Girl Scouts

Ilea has been selling Girl Scout Cookies this year. It started pretty well, taking pre-sale orders around our neighborhood. People were pretty willing to buy from her, and she really enjoyed it. We got most of them delivered (quite a bit more work) but she really enjoyed that too. She comes bouncing in, and even asked if she could get a job selling cookies when she grows up! So tonight was our first "Site" sale. We were at Petco from 4 - 5pm, right after school. Well....Not so fun! An hour of standing in a drafty doorway, not selling very many boxes turned out to be a different story. We have a number of more hours to go, so we'll see how excited she is next year!

Fabric Gift Bags

I am so excited! My friend told me about how they use fabric bags. She said that they have been doing them in her family for 30 years, started from another friend (whose grandmother or mother sewed old tea towels and fabric scraps together to save money). She sews fabric bags with the ribbons attached. It makes wrapping a snap, and they are keepsake bags, used over and over in the family. I cleaned out my closet, as well as going to the fabric store. I bought lots of Christmas fabric at 70% off, about a yard each. I ended up making 74 bags of all sizes. This was our first test. I have 11 presents for Kyler, who is turning 7 tomorrow. It took less that 15 min. to "wrap" them and tie the ribbons. I was so excited! Worth any amount of money for that! I wonder if you could get work as a professional gift wrapper? Anyway, I had 2 foam swords, that were long and awkward to wrap, but there was a bag big enough. Plus weird shapes for Star Wars and Lego stuff. I am thrilled. I can't wait until next Christmas! Many of the fabrics are sentimental to us also. The blue/green one near the front is from a Pool coverup robe I made Kyler. The purple/black leopard is from Ilea's pajamas, and the small blue stripes near the front is from Kyler's old PJ's that I had made for him. I don't sew a lot, but I can manage a bag, and it was a great way to use scrap fabric that I couldn't bear to part with. They really look great, and the Christmas ones are going to be really pretty!

David Allen (GTD) presentation at Google

As I mentioned in my Getting Things Done (GTD) post, I'm reading a book by David Allen. I'm about half way through it and I'm just to the part where he walks you through setting up the system. I haven't done that yet, but plan to on one of the next couple of weekends.

Recently (in 2007) David Allen did a presentation for the Googlers on GTD and I just finished watching it. If you don't know anything about GTD, take some time (46 minutes) and see what this GTD thing is all about. He has a dry sense of humor and a pretty clear style of speaking:

New pictures from last year

Yeah, we have been pretty lame about posting pictures even though I made the posting method easier for myself. Anyway, with a lot of work from Jenny, there are a bunch of new pictures from our family that you can check out if you are so inclined.

Getting Things Done

Every once in a while (years in this case) I get on a organizational kick. It first started back in '91 or 92 when I started using my Dad's Franklin Planner system that he got from work but he couldn't get into. This included watching a few hours of Hyrum W. Smith in a Franklin system video. This system was pretty exciting and I used it for about 5 years to some degree of success.

The next stage was when I moved into the electronic world when I purchased a Palm Pilot Professional. This was a great tool and I used it for about 5 years as well. I upgraded to a Palm V and that ended my use because the hand writing recognition was atrocious. It made using it very frustrating and my old palm was just too limited in memory (1MB). So rather than reverting back to a paper based system, I pretty much stopped using it hoping that I'd find some technological solution that didn't cost me excessive amounts of money.

After this, I went for a number of years without an effective time management system. Over those years I've felt that I have not been very productive in my personal time management (and I'm sure Jenny would agree ;). Recently I've been reading a few articles about David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) and all of the people that have taken his ideas and customized them for their own use. So I got David Allen's book for my birthday this year. I just started reading it last Tuesday and I have that same optimistic feeling I had when I watched the Frankly system videos. I keep thinking that this system has potential and will help me get more organized.

I'll add comments here as I get further in the book and start implementing the GTD system.

Great Book

Hi All,

Most of you know I read quite a bit, and I don't usually review books. But this one was so great I wanted to share it with you. It's called Cosmic Christmas by Max Lucado. It is the Christmas story told from the viewpoints of Gabriel, the angel who spoke to Mary. It was so neat! Very visual, and really got me thinking more about the story I am so familiar with from a different viewpoint. It's only about 60 pages, and great for your whole family. I'm reading it to our kids now. I hope you enjoy it too!

Ilea's 9th Birthday!

I can't believe my baby is almost in double digits! She is in 3rd grade. Ilea chose a Backward Party this year. We sent out Thank You notes to let people know about the party. We told them Good bye, and "I'm sorry you came" when they arrived. Most of the kids, including us, were dressed backward! We made backward nametags, and taped candy to the outside of our goody bags, like reverse pinatas. We had presents first, then cake and ice cream. The cake was cupcakes turned upside down. We played Silent Chairs, where you march in silence, and sit when the music starts. We played Pin the Donkey on the Tail. We had a reverse target game, where you shot over your shoulder to the target, which had the smallest points in the middle, and larger points on the outside. Last we had a relay where the kids were blindfolded and the others had to direct them on a path. It was all a lot of fun.

Halloween

This was a fun Halloween! The first year that Ilea could really help with her pumpkin. Kipp had to help a bit, but she cleaned out the whole thing. Jenny had to do all of Kyler's.

Ilea was a Vampire this year, her first scary costume. Kyler was a bat. They had a lot of energy, and went all around the outside of our neighborhood. It was a chilly night, but not freezing, and not raining.

Home page repaired, finally!

Our home page has been broken for some time (over a month) due to, what appears to be, an upgrade to the default PHP language version. I spent a few hours today trying to figure out what was going wrong and finally determined it was a PHP configuration setting (zend.ze1_compatibility_mode = on). I was able to set to "Off" via a php.ini file which was pretty easy to do once I figured out what to change.

And, Yes, we realize that some of our pictures are over a year old. We need write some notes on a number of our pictures and then publish them. I suspect it will probably be a few more weeks before we get the new pictures up. Sorry for the delay.

Blog is fully restored

I've finally restored all pictures, posts and indexes for our blog. I had blogger configured incorrectly for the index pages and had to copy all of the old pictures from the previous hosting site to the new one. Let me know if you see something that is not correct.

Fri, Disney MGM Studios

Today was the last full day, and it was full. We got to MGM Studios by 8:45 like usual and headed over to Tower of Terror as soon as it opened. Kyler had already decided he didn't want to do this one, and we figured he was probably right. So we finally took advantage of the Baby Swap. All of you stand in line, and when you get to the front you tell one of the workers you want to swap out. So Kipp and Ilea went on the ride and someone took Kyler and I down the handicap entrance to wait. When Kipp and Ilea came off, then I took Ilea back with me up the handicap entrance, and they put us on the next ride. That way you don't have to wait in line another hour or whatever it is (in our case it would have only been about 10 min, but that's beside the point). Ilea LOVED it. It made me a little nauseous, but it was a fun ride.

The next one was Kyler's favorite, Star Tours. It's the same simulator ride from Disney circa 1987! It was a little clunky, but Kyler loved it. Next we went on Studios Backlot Tours. This was a backlot type ride. They showed us some special effects with water, and how you tape things and put it together to look smooth. Then we rode a tram and they told us a little about some backlot stuff stored there. It was interesting. One place we stopped was Catastrophe Canyon where a fuel truck lights on fire, and then water comes. The heat was quite intense, and we got splashed a little, but it was fun to see. After that we went to a big show calledLights! Motor! Action! It was in a big stadium, and it was a stunt car show. It was about 30 min long, and it was really good. The cars came flying through, did a lot of tricks, and were really fun. You never knew what was going to happen next. They showed us a few tricks, and it was a pretty good show.

We wandered off to the next show, Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. It was fun. It had a pretty big set, and some funny things. They talked about how the stunt men have to prepare, and acted out some of the scenes from the movie. The kids liked it.

After that were a few shows that seemed to be mis-billed. We went to one hosted by Drew Carey, called Sounds Dangerous, that talked about how they do sound effects. It turned out to be a silly movie, mostly in pitch black, with just a sound track. But they didn't go at all into how the sound effects were created.

Next we headed over to one which was supposed to be a behind the scene look at making of Narnia. I was really interested in that one. You entered through a large wardrobe, and the room was all white, with snow light effects, and pine trees covered with snow. The White Witch said a few lines, then we watched a movie. But the movie was a 5 minute summary of the real movie, with a 30 sec trailer for the next movie they are making! That was it! I was disappointed.

By this time we were pretty much done. We headed sort of out, stopping at Tower of Terror on the way. Kipp and Ilea used their Fastpass, while Kyler and I shopped a little.

This had been the hottest day, about 92, and we were finished. I think MGM is the smallest park. We did want to come back for the firework show, and decided to go eat dinner outside the park and take a quick dip in our pool. We headed for the tram, and it looked like it was about to leave, so we started to run. About 10 feet away Ilea tripped, and skinned her knees and hand on the concrete. It didn't seem too bad at first, but the blood started to ooze out. The driver came to see her, and so we headed over to first aid, which was near the entrance. They got her some big bandages, which always helps, and we went back to the tram. This time we made it out. We went to Chick-Fil-A again, and loved it. It's really tasty chicken. We had about an hour to swim in the pool, which the kids loved.

It was great to feel clean and cool after a day in the park, with no fanny pack to carry. We brought books and Kyler's Gameboy, and headed back to the park in time to get a good seat for Fantasmic. There is a stadium that can hold 7,000, but it often fills up. We got great seats about 5 rows up with no one in front of us, in the middle section. Kipp and Ilea went to go ride Tower of Terror one more time, and Kyler and I waited. No one ever sat in front of us, although the stadium was quite full by the end. We had a fantastic view, and it was an amazing show. There was a big moat, and a large set with a high mountain. It started with Mickey Mouse, and there were lights, music, water, fire, everything! They would spray water in a thin sheet in the shape of a fan and project laser images and movies onto it. It was about 75 feet tall. You could kind of see through it if they had lights on behind. So once they had the wicked witch from Snow White, and on the water they had the magic mirror. It looked kind of shimmery, just perfect, and you could still see the witch behind. They had songs, and lots of characters, and people would come in boats with lights in the moat. At one point when there was a dragon (I think it was from Sleeping Beauty), the lake surface itself caught on fire at one point. Not just points of fire, where you could see the gas, but most of the surface, and it burned pretty well! It was wild. It was truly unique, and a stunning show. We couldn't have asked for a better ending. I've never seen anything like it. The end was Mickey in the Sorcerer costume, way up on top of the mountain.

We finally got out of there and headed home for the last time. We packed up our stuff, and went to bed.

Sat was pretty easy. We didn't leave until noon, so we didn't have to get up very early. We packed the last of our stuff, and turned in our car. The first flight is short, about 2 hours, and we were in Houston. The second flight left on time, so we had about an hour for lunch, and then the longer flight. It's about 4 1/2 hours to Seattle. The luggage took forever, and our friend, Fred and Sue Little, picked us up and surprised us with dinner! What a great treat! We got home and went to bed in our own beds. It was a GREAT trip, one the kids will remember forever (we hope!).

Thursday, Nasa/Medieval Times

Today was a slower day. We slept in a little, and had doughnuts for breakfast. We got going a little bit late and headed out to the coast again. We got to Kennedy Space Center about 11:30. We first did the tram tour. It took over 2 hours, but it was very interesting. There were 3 stops. One near the launch pad, with the actual control room used for the Apollo series, one about Apollo, with one of the rockets there, and a great movie, and a quick stop about thedifferent capsules. It was interesting, and there was a lot to see. When we got back to the main section we rode a simulator ride about launching, and saw a great IMAX 3D movie about walking on the moon. It was narrated by Tom Hanks. It was really good too. There was another IMAX movie we didn't have a chance to see, and another exhibit. We did what we could, but we needed to get back because of our dinner.

It took a little longer getting back than we thought. The tickets for Medieval Times said to arrive by 6pm, and the show starts at 7:30. We didn't know what happened during that time. Did they take your dinner request? Serve dinner? Pre-dinner show? We ended up getting there about 6:30, and they said we wouldn't be seated until 7:15. So we toured a village they had set up. There was kitchen, basketry, weavers, ironsmith, torture chambers, and other stuff. It was interesting and cool, and the kids liked it. We looked around inside, where Kyler took a picture with the King, and we looked at Armour.

Finally we were lead to our seats. We had red crowns on (think Burger King), and sat in the red section, near the middle. We had good seats. There were 6 sections. There was a huge arena in the middle, and you sat on a long bench with a table in front of you. Down a few steps was the next row, so everyone could see. The first course was soup in a pewter bowl, with no spoon. It was tomato vegetable, and it was pretty tasty. Horses came, and there was a loose plot with the King, his daughter, and a tournament. We were given the Red Night to cheer. They continued to serve dinner throughout the night. We were given half of a roast chicken next, with a half of a baked potato, and a spare rib, still no silverware. Kyler didn't like getting his fingers dirty, but the food was pretty good. Before the men started the tournament the Falconer came out, and had his bird fly around and chase a lead he had. It was flying really low some times! Then the men all came out to compete. They had a lot of different events. They jousted for a ring (about 3 inches wide) hanging on a ribbon from a pole. They also picked up flags as they thundered by, and then did some real jousting at each other. It was amazing. Loud, fun, and I would think painful. They knocked each other off the horses, and then fought a little. There was a final event with 2 rows of rings hanging down, about 15 feet apart, so if you got one ring from the first set, you had to be ready immediately to try for the next set. It was really good. There was also a performance of tricks some horses performed in between. The story continued, and there was a bad guy, and then the all started fighting on foot, using sword, halberd, mace, etc. It was really neat, with great music, lights, and very exciting. The whole show was about 2 1/2 hours long. It was a lot of fun, and something really unique.

Wed, Magic Kingdom

On Wednesday, we went to the Magic Kingdom. We had asked the kids what they thought would be the best day before we left, and they both said Animal Kingdom. We thought this would be the best, and it was. Kipp and I thought it would be pretty much the same as Disneyland but there were a few big differences. For one, there is no Matterhorn in the Magic Kindom. The closest is comes is Expedition Everest in Animal Kingdom. Also, you can't park out front. You park in a lot, then take either the monorail or a ferry over to the front of the park. Most of the big rides were the same though.

We got there before opening at 9, as usual. We headed immediately to Space Mountain. Kyler knew it was dark, and we told him it wasn't scary and held our breath. The cars hold 3 people, and Ilea, Kipp and Kyler were in one car, and I was in the next car. I could hear Kyler screaming and was so afraid he hated it and was getting hysterical. It's kind of long, and of course there is nothing you can do once you start. I couldn't enjoy the ride much myself because I was so worried. But when we got off Kyler said, "That was awesome! I loved it!" I was so relieved! We planned to come back later to that one. We went over to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. This is new since we had been to Disneyland (which admittedly was about 20 years ago). It is a continuous track with cars. You can swivel the cars with a control stick, and both people in the car have a laser gun. As you go through the ride you shoot at targets and get points. It was so much fun! Needless to say Kipp way way outdid the rest of us, but we all had fun. We got off and immediately went on it again. Because there were no lines, it was awesome!


Next we strolled over to Fantasyland and went on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. This was cute, lots of detail. Next was Peter Pan's Flight, which was a little better. You rode in boats, and they were connected to the track at the top, so they started flying, and you could see London way below you, and then you flew all around Never Never Land. It's A Small World was across the street, but the front looked very different than in Disneyland. All the waiting was inside, and you got on a boat inside too. So the classic front was different, and much smaller than Disneyland's. The ride and the music, unfortunately, was the same.

We tried to do Haunted Mansion next, but they said it was down for a while. It seemed like they might fix it, since there were actual people instead of a sign, so we headed over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This was another great coaster, and both kids loved it. When we got off we asked at the front of the ride if they had a walkie talkie and could tell if the Haunted Mansion was open yet. They pointed me to a lady who had a phone and could find out. Her name tag said Nance, Seattle, WA. I started to ask my question, then asked if she was really from Seattle. She said yes, and I told her I was from Covington. She said she was from Kent East hill, right near 132nd and 240th! It's about a mile from our house, a block from where Kipp's cousins, Jack and Kathy live! So we talked a little about home, and she gave us all buttons (1st Visit and Honorary Members of MM Club). She was also able to find out that the Haunted Mansion was open now.

Off we went to the Haunted Mansion. Kyler was a little apprehensive, but we told him it was fun and he finally agreed. Ilea loved it, and Kyler was so-so. There was one place where a few things popped out, but they weren't really close to the cars. He was just nervous.

After that we headed over to Pirates of the Carribbean. It was really fun. Kyler was nervous again, but he ended up really liking it. They had a new feature where they had mist covering the tunnel and they projected the head of Davey Jones (from the movie) onto it and he gave you a message before you got going. Then you rode right through the mist. The ride was the same, except it had been updated with Johnny Depp and a few other characters. Again, almost no lines. We waited about 10 min for this one.

After lunch we headed to the Jungle Cruise. Pretty short lines, and the kids really liked it. The patter from the driver is funny, and the kids liked all the animals and things. Right next door was the Swiss Family Robinson Tree house. It was fun also, but easy and quick. Next was the Enchanted Tiki Room. That was a disappointment for me, as it has changed considerably. There are birds, and one has the voice of Gilbert Godfrey, who I hate. There were also some singing flowers, but no birds-of-paradise, which I remember. Luckily, it was a short show. When we got out it was pouring rain. This was almost the hardest we had seen it, and everyone was under cover. We dashed across the street and got into the Country Bear Jamboree. Again, a show for the kids: Kipp and I almost fell asleep. By the time we got out the rain had stopped and it was clearing up. We went back to Big Thunder Mountain again and then split up. Kyler and I took the raft over to Tom Sawyer's Island and Kipp and Ilea went to Splash Mountain. Kyler didn't want to get wet. Unfortunately, the humidity was really high after the rain, and walking around the island didn't help. He had fun looking though, and we caught up with the others, who were soaked. Ilea and Kipp got pretty wet at Splash Mountain. The ride was having some troubles so at times we were stopped in some of the areas.

We tried another 3D movie, Mickey's PhilharMagic. It was pretty good, and didn't scare anyone. We rode the train, and saw one last show, The Laugh Floor. It was interesting. There are animated characters on the screen, and they talk to the audience like a comedy show. The camera will show a person from the audience and put it up on a screen, and the character will talk to or about that person. It was pretty neat. While we were in Tomorrowland, we went on the Transit Authority - the one that used to be called the People Mover. Then hit Space Mountain 2 more times, Buzz Lightyear, Teacups, and Haunted Mansion.

It was about 6pm now, and we had pretty much done it all, plus. We decided to eat out of the park that night, and take off. We rode the ferry this time back to the parking lot. We tried Chick-Fil-A for the first time. It was great! Simple, just chicken sandwiches or nuggets, but they were very tasty. It's owned by a Christian man, and the store is closed on Sundays. We wanted to drive around a little, looking for a Ben and Jerry's (we had a coupon for 2 free scoops), but couldn't find it. We took a wrong turn, and ended up headed back into the parks again. It was almost 8pm by then, so we headed all the way into the parking lot and got there just as the fire works started. We looked through a break in the trees and saw pretty much all of it. We hopped back in the car and zipped home. It worked out perfect. Off to bed after another long day.

Tues, Rest day

On Tues we got up a little bit later. We agreed to a time share presentation for an all you can eat breakfast and an $80 Visa card. The breakfast was nearby and was fantastic. We listened to the guy for a bit and said no. Then we got our card, and we were off. We wanted to do one letterbox in Florida, so we headed off that morning. We found the spot, and started out and I made the mistake of telling Kipp that the person hiding it saw an alligator while doing it. We went into the bushes, with Kipp extremely worried that an alligator would charge out of the bushes and eat Kyler. We did find our letterbox, and had a great drive looking around Celebration (a planned Disney community, very posh, with beautiful houses). We didn't see any alligators that day.

After lunch, we decided to head out to the beach. We found Cocoa Beach, and spent about 1 1/2 hours swimming in the ocean. At the end, I realized it was raining kind of hard, and we got out to avoid lightening and to rescue our clothes! The rain doesn't last long, but we didn't want our towels and clothes to be soaking wet. We waited for the rain to stop, and then drove around a little more, and headed home. We ate at an all-you-can-eat Seafood buffet. It was pricey, but we used the free money from the presentation. It was pretty good. They had a great variety of food, and most of it was tasty, including crab legs, lobster, shrimp, and all kinds of shellfish. We went home and took a dip in the pool. It was a nice day.

Monday, Epcot

Monday we also got an early start and were at Epcot before 9am. The first thing we rode was a roller coaster called Test Track. Kyler wanted to know if it would be scary, and of course we told him no. Turns out that it was the family favorite of the day! There were basically no lines in any of the parks we went to, which was fantastic.

We followed the touring plans from The Unofficial Guide to Disney World, which we got from the library. It is a fantastic book, and the plans worked really well for us.

The next thing we headed off for was Mission Space:Ride to Mars. It was a simulator ride and each rider had a "job" to do. We were prompted to push buttons during the mission. It was OK, and Kyler loved pushing his button. Ilea loved it a lot. She loves all the roller coasters, and didn't have a problem with ANY of the rides the whole trip.

The next ride was The Land. It was an easy boat ride for about 20 min, which went behind the scenes of Disney's plant research. It was really interesting. They had a 9 lb lemon, and were shaping pumpkins to have Mickey Ears, growing plants without soil (spraying the roots with nutrients ), and very low soil production. It was really neat and interesting. After that was the ride Soarin', which is the same as Soarin' over California in Disney's California Adventure. It was really well done, and we enjoyed it, but were on the lowest seats.

Next was Touring the Seas with Nemo, which started with a slow track ride into a huge aquarium. They had a neat effect, where they projected the cartoon characters from Nemo onto the glass wall that separates you from the fish, so it looks like the characters are in the tank with the fish. It was interesting, with other fun displays and also some real manatees. The kids liked everything there.

Then another 3D movie, Honey I Shrunk the Audience, and this one didn't go so well. It was based on Honey I Shrunk the Kids, and was supposed to be funny. But about 1/2 way into it a cat gets loose, and seems to jump out at you, and then it morphs into a tiger. Kyler went hysterical, and I had to pull him out, over people in the row, out of the dark theater, with him crying all the time, "I DON'T LIKE THIS ANYMORE!" We sat outside until Kipp and Ilea came out. The last thing we went to in the Future World half of Epcot was the Innovations Pavilion. It was ok (they had a Segway demo, where you could actually ride them, but the line was too long, and the kids couldn't go). We ate lunch in there because it was air conditioned. We wanted to go, but we ate in front of this Fire Safety building demo, and the kids BEGGED us to be able to go through it. We waited for them, and they assured us it was worth it.

After lunch we did one more ride in Future World, the Universe of Energy with Ellen Degeneres and Bill Nye. It was a long, dark ride (45 min), with a movie in the middle, and some scenes you rolled past (yes, of course there were dinosaurs, but I wisely covered Kyler's eyes before he could get scared). We were learning to ask about the ride before we got on....

After that we headed over to the World Showcase. It was fairly hot, and we went quickly through some of the countries. Mexico was first, then Norway, which had a ride in it. It was called Maelstrom, and was basically a river float ride. Kyler really loved it for some reason. He loved seeing the vikings fight, and the troll was cool. Ilea enjoyed it too. Next was China, Germany, Italy, America, and Japan. We went back to America for a show called American Adventure. It was about 1/2 hour, animatronic, hosted by Ben Franklin and Mark Twain. I enjoyed it, and thought it was great for the kids, who don't see anything patriotic much these days. Also, before the show started they had 9 acapella singers, dressed in period clothes, in the rotunda where we were waiting, and they were fantastic. As we were leaving the show a lady in the next row said loudly "if I wanted to see something patriotic, I would have gone to Philadelphia!" I couldn't believe it. The kids liked the show. We continued around the world to Morocco, France, United Kingdom and Canada.

Kyler loved all the characters he saw, and wasn't intimidated, even by the big ones (like Baloo the bear). Ilea preferred to stay with us and watch. But we saw Mary Poppins, and there wasn't a very long line for her, only one or two. Ilea mustered up her courage and went to talk to her with Kyler. Mary Poppins asked Ilea and Kyler both their names, if they were siblings, and a question. She asked Kyler if his sister kept her room clean (Kyler said yes). She asked Ilea if her brother used his manners (she very shyly said yes). Then they got to take a picture with her. It was great.

For dinner we ate in the park. Kyler had McDonald Chicken nuggets, and we had burgers. It was cool, and the food was good. We wanted to repeat a few rides so we went on Test Track again. It was so great, we went on it again! Because there were so few people, we only had to wait about 5-10 minutes. The lack of lines was amazing. We went over to the Soarin' one again too, and this time we got the top row. It was great! The top made a difference, and it was even better this time.

The park closed at 9pm, and there was supposed to be a great fireworks show (IllumiNations). Around 8pm, we headed out to find a good place around the lagoon (the World Showcase is all around a large lake). We found a pretty good spot and plopped down to wait. We talked with the people around us, and it got dark. The show was really neat. Choreographed to music, of course, with fireworks, water fountains shooting up, lights on some of the buildings around the lake, and then a huge globe started moving out to the center of the lake. It was made up of the land masses only, so the water parts of the globe were see through. Then the continents started to light up, and it was very different. Also there was fire in the lake. The heat was intense, and we were pretty far from it. All in all, it was a great show. We headed home late, tired, but happy.

Sunday, Animal Kingdom

Sunday we got up and got to Animal Kingdom about 8:45am. It was really exciting to finally see DisneyWorld! We headed over for our first big ride. The kids went on TriceraTops (a Dumbo-like ride) and we all went on Primeval Whirl. It was a medium roller coaster that had spinning cars. Kyler didn't like the spinning, but assured us he did really like roller coasters. Next on the list was another Dinoland ride called Dinosaur. We have seen the movie, and this was what's called a 'dark ride', where you get in a car and go through dark tunnels, looking at scenes on the side. The problem was this one was very loud, and the idea was we were going back in time. Dinosaurs started popping out, roaring, and the man keeps yelling about how you're not going to make it, and there's a dino going to get in your car. By this time Kyler's screaming his head off, crying, with his head in my lap. Kipp's dealing with Ilea who's scared, but not hysterical. Kyler swore he was never going on another ride like that one! It was an awful way to set the day off. If only we had known! Because the height restriction wasn't that much, we figured it wouldn't be that scary. Ooops!


Next was the Kali River Rapids, where you get wet. Kyler again didn't want to go on it because he didn't want to get wet. It was 85 deg, and we told him he'd dry fast, it probably wouldn't be that bad. The rest of us loved it, but unfortunately Kyler did get wet, as we all did. He wasn't that bad because Kipp leaned over him, but the rest of us were pretty soaked.

While we dried off we went on a jungle hike, with animal displays, including bats (huge ones, from Asia), Gorillas, and Tigers. It was really neat. The whole park is beautiful, of course, with the giant Tree of Life in the middle, on an island. You can walk around the outside of the lake, or cross over the island like a central hub. We also took in a bird show which was great. There were tons of wild birds all the time, and the show had a few interesting ones.

Next big ride was Expedition Everest. It was the favorite of everyone but Kyler. It was a large roller coaster with a few twists. After you go for a while, you come to a stop because the track in front of you is torn up. Then you fall backward on a different track and shoot through the dark for a while. Then you stop again, and watch a shadow of the yeti tearing up your track ahead (which scared Kyler of course). You start going forward on still another track, zoom by an actual roaring Yeti this time, and finish the ride. It was great! The Yeti scared Kyler. He wasn't having a great day. We took a break and had lunch in the park at a pizza place.

After lunch we did the Pangani Forest Trail, which had different exhibits and went on the Kilimanjaro Safari. It was a long truck ride through a savanna-like setting. There were LOTS of animals, very close, including white rhino, lions, giraffe, elephants, these huge cattle with massive horns, antelope-types, zebra, ostrich, hippos, flamingos, and more. It was really interesting. The animals were very close, and it was neat to see.

Again we saw a couple of shows, one for Fesitval of the Lion King, which was very acrobatic, with songs, kind of a mini Cirque du Soleil style. The next was Pocohantas and her animal friends, which was pretty much for little kids.

We explored on our way to our last 2 shows. We saw a 3-D movie called It's Tough to be a Bug, with characters from Bug's Life. Hopper scared Kyler, as did some of the 3-D images. They really popped out at you! We missed the timing for Nemo play, so we took a train to a building with info exhibits on earth/zoo stuff. The weather wasn't great by this time, raining off and on. We got back to Finding Nemo - The Musical and enjoyed it. They wore black outfits with big puppets on their hands. It's hard to describe, but it was pretty effective. The park was closed when we got out, so we headed to our car.

We went to the store that night and got fried chicken. After dinner we went to explore the pool and hot tubs. There were 2 pools, 2 hot tubs, and one kiddie pool with a giant mushroom that spilled water like an umbrella. We had fun and finally got to bed.

DisneyWorld Here we Come!

Our trip started very early in the morning, 9/22. Ramona graciously took us to the airport, leaving our house at 5:45 am. Security went fine, and the 4 1/2 hour flight to Houston was bumpy, but we made it. Our next leg was delayed by 1 1/2 hours or so, and we finally arrived at Orlando about 9pm. We went to the baggage carousel, and all the luggage came out except Ilea's bag. Kyler's was there, and almost all the people left. Finally out it came, soaking wet. We're pretty sure it had fallen off the tram between the airplane and the baggage claim during a rain storm. No problem. We headed out for the hotel, looking for food on the way (since we only got snacks on the plane). We stopped at the world's slowest Wendy's. Finally arrived at the hotel about 11pm, and got checked in. It was a great room, and we all went right to bed. It was a double suite, and the kids had their own bedroom, bath, kitchen and family room. Ours was the same, but larger, including a jacuzzi tub, and large screen TV in the family room. Very comfortable. Day 1 done!

Blog was down for a bit

We recently changed the account our web sites/blog were hosted under and I just got most files moved. The blog is finally working but I still need to grab the blog pictures from the previous account. I don't understand why blogger didn't copy those as well when I republished the blog. :(

Our website is still having some troubles so I still need to get to that but with Disneyworld coming up and the fact that we just got a Tivo, I've been focused on other things. Since we'll need to get a bunch of Disney pictures up on our site after we get back, I'll be forced to get our web site working again.

Food for Breakfast

When Ilea went to camp, she got to bring a box of cereal. I let her pick out a sweet one for this special occasion, and she chose Cocoa Crisps. A few days after she got back from camp we had this coversation:

Kyler: Ilea, you don't seem to like waffles anymore.
Mom: She can like waffles and still have other things too.
Ilea: It's just these cocoa crisps! They've got me going crazy!

Are we having fun yet?

Ok, so here is our third time camping in as many summers (not including the Clam Bake!). Here is the van, for a 2-night trip! No, we didn't bring the kitchen sink... but we did borrow an air mattress and a few kitchen items. This trip was a learning experience. Over all the kids gave it about a 9, and we gave it about a 7. We went to Millersylvania Park, which is just south of Olympia. We got there Fri afternoon, and set up. Our site is VERY close to our neighbor. It was a little awkward. We said hi, but they didn't seem the friendly chatty type ( a couple without kids). The kids wanted to go swimming so we went over late afternoon. It was a really nice day, and the park is very pretty. On the way back to camp Kyler found a caterpillar, and named it Tickles. He decided it liked him petting it because it raised it's head up.

The first thing we learned was that you need to bring cooking utensils. We borrowed a camp stove and some pans, but forgot about the cooking things. It took 4 campsites to find a corkscrew. For dinner we made do with a plastic fork and had some great chicken quesadillas. We walked around the camp, played Uno, and enjoyed the evening. When it got dusk, Kipp made a great fire, and we had Smores, of course. We stayed up until about 10, then got ready for bed. The funny thing is, while we were eating our dinner (about 7pm), our neighbors disappeared into their tent and didn't come out again. We could see a light on in there, but they didn't make a fire or do anything.

The second thing we learned is that we need a better air mattress. It was new last summer and worked fine, but at the clam bake we discovered it had a hole. The one we borrowed was a little too small, so we tried to battle it out during the night. This means pumping it up again at 2am, and about 5:30am. But no rain! And we were warm! All plusses. Also there was a bathroom just up the way, with a sink and flushing toilets and everything! Wahoo! This time we actually brushed our teeth.

The morning was cooler, in fact, rain was predicted for the evening, but it was overcast all day. We started another fire, and ran into the lack of utensil thing again. Scrambled eggs were going to be harder, so I went across the way and asked to borrow something (they had a spatula). Much better! We cooked bacon and made some great eggs. Didn't see our neighbors until about 9am, and then just for a few minutes. We ran to get some more ice to put in our cooler, and packed everything up for the day since it might rain while we were out. Since we had borrowed the camp stove, we had put it in our car the night before, and decided to put it in the tent for the day, along with our chairs and stuff like that. Our neighbor asked hopefully, "Are you leaving?" Just for the day, we told her, WE'D BE BACK.

When we got in the car, it smelled funny, but we didn't know why. We went letterboxing in the area, and brought a picnic lunch. The next thing we learned was that we needed a better first aid kit in the car, and that Kyler is a baby (but we knew that)! He got a large splinter in his hand. I do admit it was pretty big, about 1/2 inch, and on his palm. But we're out in the middle of nowhere. So we called the nurseline (great benefit), and she really recommended getting it out, don't get it wet (wood will swell), and try not to get an infection. So we headed back to town to find a drug store or something we could use to get it out. The very kind pharmacist gave us a syringe to use as a needle (very small, sharp, and sterile), and we ended up buying some tweezers also. Kyler freaked when he saw the syringe, although we tried to keep him from looking at it. He was screaming his head off before Kipp even touched him! I had him in my lap, and Ilea was trying to read him a story to distract him. Kipp started working and I was afraid someone would call CPS. Kipp was able to loosen the skin, and in 2 tries had the whole thing out! It was pretty big! So glad it all came out. We had to go to Starbucks after that to get him a chocolate donut, and we needed a little reinforcement for our own strength by then. So off to more letterboxing. This time, it started raining while we're out. Over the next 3 hours it rained maybe 4 or 5 times, usually only about 5 - 10 min, sometimes pretty heavy though. We took shelter where we could, and decided maybe it would be more fun to eat dinner out.... We looked in the entertainment book for Tumwater, and lo and behold! there is a good sounding restaurant, and it's in the very parking lot we are sitting in! But, no, all the lights are off because it's closed Sat and Sun! A pasta restaurant, called the Mason Jar. Oh well. We ended up somewhere else, watched the sky, and enjoyed a great dinner.

Back to the camp about 6:30, and it's not raining. We bought some more wood, and walked around the camp more. When we went to get the chairs out of our tent, we learned the next thing. Camp stoves leak gas! Our tent was strong enough to knock you over! We opened everything up. THAT'S what that funny smell in the car was....Played Uno, and wondered where our neighbors were (both cars were there, but no people). Had another great fire, and the gentleman neighbor came out of the tent about 9:30pm. He decided to have a fire (they had 4 or 5 bundles of wood), and built it in the dark. He played the guitar quietly, and it was very nice. We got the kids in bed around 10 again, and tried to battle the air mattress. I had a genius idea of putting the smaller, but able-to-hold-air mattress on the bottom, sideways, so that when our mattress gave our, our torsos would still be on the other mattress. The extra air in ours would go to the bottom, and fill it up and it should even out OK. So we learned that night that air mattresses have a life of thier own! Needless to say, it didn't work out that way. By 2am, it was like laying on a recliner, with our pillows sticking up in the air, and our bodies slipping down to the bottom, and nothing comfortable at all. We let the air out of the bottom mattress, and filled up the top one, knowing we would need to do it again by about 6am. But no rain that was promised, and we were warm.

Sun morning got a great fire going, and saw blue sky. We had sausage, bagels, and cereal. We walked around and found the best sites to stay at next time. We finally packed up about 11:30 or so and left for home. We were tired, but everyone had a pretty good time. The kids thought it was great (of course, a folded blanket on the ground is fine for them). Our neighbors were weird, and very close, but it didn't stop us. The kids did great, and it was a beautiful place. Back to real life now...and a soft bed....

Ice Cream Slumber Party

Ilea had an Ice Cream Slumber party just for fun! She invited a few friends (Nori was on vacation), and they had a great time! Katie, Payton, and Victoria came over after dinner. There were word games, like word search and a few mazes, and a quiz on Real vs Fake Ice cream names. They also made a beautiful Serving plate for their sundaes, and made a bag of real ice cream from milk, cream and vanilla. They got to take that home the next day. They had sundaes, of course, and watched a movie before bed. In the morning they had pancakes. It was a lot of fun, and everyone enjoyed it.