Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Where do I start?



I have been pondering the question, "Where do I start with all of the pictures I have from our trip? How do I pick what I should tell everyone about? How did that avocado get that big?" More on that later.



I decided the best thing to do was begin at the beginning and give a small sampling of the 17 days that we were away. From my home. And my stamps! And the new catalog!!! But, I digress. It was all worth it and we made memories to last a lifetime, although I must admit there are a few that I wouldn't mind forgetting...lol! So here goes! This first picture is Little Miss A on the scrumptious bed at the Renaissance hotel in Orlando. I can't even begin to describe this bed's wonderful fluffiness and complete ability to suck you right into sleep. See all those pillows? There were about 4 more in the closest of our room. I will definitely try to stay there again the next time we go back to Florida. It was simply divine!



Next, this is the outside of our timeshare condo in Daytona Beach. Now, I can hear the snickering...the laughter of some of you. "She owns a timeshare?!?" Yes, I do. David and I bought one in Vegas years ago and end up swapping most
years so that we can stay on the beach in Daytona. I don't recommend it for everyone, and can't say I would ever buy another one, but we really like ours and use it almost every single year. Now, let me give you the caveat that this particular time share, in Daytona, not so nice. In fact, on a scale of 1 to 10, I give it a 3.2. Westgate doesn't own the entire property and so the rooms are, hmm, how do you say....not so hot. But it has a big comfy bed and a jacuzzi tub and a kitchen and a view of the beach, so that all works for me. Plus, it takes me like one minute to go from drinking a cup of coffee to lounging on the beach, so I can overlook a lot.
Like the fact that my daughter turned transparent! How this happened, we do not know. I mean, she has always been a bit of a night owl, but I never realized that she might actually be part vampire until she stopped fully showing up on film. CRAZY!!! I don't know what kind of glitch in my camera caused this, but I am blaming my camera. So if your name is Buffy and you like to slay vampires in your spare time, BACK OFF! She is my baby and I'll accept her no matter what her nocturnal habits are.


Can everyone say, BIG HONKIN' AVOCADO??? This is a comparison study of the Haas avocado, pictured already scooped out, and a Florida avocado that I had not
yet cut into. They are ginormously huge! The best part is that they have 35% less fat and 50% fewer calories than a Haas. So that means I ate the entire thing without a second thought. Because, you know, that is how I am. Health conscious. And the fact that I turned it into some seriously yummy guacamole and ate it on chips doesn't count. Because the core ingredient itself was healthy, that makes up for it. See, you learned something here today. You are welcome!


Finally, my baby and my baby at the mini-golf place. This is the first year that we have been able to play mini golf with Little Miss without a major meltdown. The first time we took her she melted down so badly I forgot to take pictures. Luckily, the hubby got some on film that are framed in my kitchen and I will gladly show to anyone that stops by. This time she not only played, but played with a pretty respectable score. And just like her daddy, she would throw in a "Darn it!" every now and then when she missed a putt. Isn't genetics fun?




Finally, some perspective. These are some pictures of my baby's first trip to the beach ever. She was 20 months old. The first one shows her in front of the a/c letting it give her that "beach girl", windblown look. The second one was taken one afternoon after a hard morning of riding mommy's hip in the Atlantic Ocean. Suddenly I felt her go limp and realized that she was sound asleep. We just plopped her on the beach towel under the umbrella and let her sleep it out while I had a slushy and read a magazine. Life's tough like that sometimes! Now...off to tuck in the little one and get back to the business of stamping. But I promise that I will be posting
more Florida stories (there are too many good ones not to) and some cards very, very soon. Thanks for reading, and until next time, Happy Stamping!


Kim

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

The Happiest Place on Earth...

...really, truly was! We made it home yesterday, getting out of Orlando before the airport was in danger of being shut down. David and I had a plan for what we would do if our flight didn't take off that involved him going to a luggage carousel to get our bags back while I ran like Flo-Jo (ok, I don't know the names of any of the current female track stars, so I'm going with what I can remember) to the airport Hyatt and getting a room. Fortunately, this did not happen.

Unfortunately, we took off from the Northwest corner of Tropical Storm Fay and got to experience the kind of turbulence that can best be described as, well, turbulent. For someone who doesn't know better (i.e., Little Miss A) this was great fun! For someone who is deathly afraid of flying (i.e. ME), not so much.

Anyway, I promise I will post a ton of stories and pictures (after all, we shot 3160 pictures). I am not kidding. 33 rolls of film, 2200 on the digital (David bought me an 8 GB chip), and 168 by the fine photographers at Disney. I spent 2 hours loading pictures into the computer today and am sure that this weekend I will spend many, many more hours going through them.

So, once I can find my picture gallery I will put up some great shots, I promise! And, as soon as I get caught up I will be back to stamping the days away! Hope everyone is having a great week, and I can't wait to see a bunch of you here this Friday for my open house. Until next time, Happy Stamping!

Kim




edit: I finally figured out how to find my pictures that I added today, so here are just a couple of my favorites:
Here is a supercell thunderstorm from our front walkway in Daytona Beach. Incredible to watch these bad boys pop up like that! Next you see Little Miss playing on the beach. (Don't worry, I kept her covered in 50 spf!! Besides, stinkin' little thing always gets a nice golden brown...unlike her mommy!)

Oh me, Oh my! As soon as we walked into the park, we spotted Chip and Dale! They were very kind, signing their names to Little Miss's autograph book and giving her lots of good hugs.

Here are the two of us in front of Uncle Walt's statue and castle. Hard to believe that this all started with a mouse, huh? And speaking of, here she is with Mickey and Minnie! I can tell you one thing that Disney does really well: you get to spend a good bit of time with the characters. We waited for about 45 minutes to see these two, but they let us take a ton of pictures, get her book signed, and get plenty of hugs to boot. When we walked out of this greeting area my baby had a smile on her face to beat the band and was saying, "Mommy, that was totally AWESOME! They are REAL and REALLY HERE!" Every single day she would tell us that it was her best day ever. And I'll let you in on a secret: every day there with her was my best day ever, too!

More to come...thanks for reading this one!

Kim