In case you were wondering, my list didn't go so well this year. Better than half, but a couple of things I never got to. I think I'm ok with that. I've been working on my new list, so it should be done by Friday- and this one is going to be a fun one!
Monday August 6
Today was a much better day. It's good to be home and the fridge seems to be working after Justin spent like 2 hours yesterday taking care of it. Asa of course helped too, but he was also unpacking. Since we had to throw away most of food, and mom was nice enough to take me to the store to restock.
I spent most of the day sorting laundry and putting things away while the kids watched TV and played video games. Everyone just needed to decompress from the trip and the weekend. Mom and I went out after Asa got home and got our new Disney passes though. Another year of Disney Magic!! So exciting, I LOVE my Disney passes!
So, I think I've talked about the whole school debacle enough, but last week before we left I sent an email to our news station for '8 on your side' about all of it. We finally talked to the principal at Oakstead today about it, and she said she would see what she could do. The 8 on your side lady told me if I didn't have a positive outcome to get ahold of her and they would see what they could do. So that was awesome.
Then I got an email from Justin asking about birthday cake, which is awesome. And, he even said he was going to try and make his wings less spicy just for me for the party on Saturday. Still in my email, I got one from Clint who said he was getting me the awesome Lifeboats game for my birthday to make up for the missed cave tour and the missing dog. Super nice of him and Jess.. and I'm so excited to get it!!
Finally had some home cooked food for dinner too. We had gotten the stuff for a Low Country Boil, so I happily made that for everyone. Now I'm watching the Olympics, playing my kindle, and about to make some banana and nutella sandwiches for bedtime snacks! Overall, a good uneventful relaxing day to get geared up for a busy week.
Tuesday August 7
Today was Disney day! I managed to convince the boys getting up early to be there at opening was the best bet. You get to see/do SO much more in the first couple hours a park is open. So, we got up at 7, and were out the door by 7:30. Our first stop was the Animal Kingdom which opened a few minutes before we got to the gate. I quickly headed back to Expedition Everest to get fast passes, while everyone else went back to the Kilimanjaro Safaris. I have a new appreciation for Asa always running to get the fast passes and meeting up with us. I ran at least a mile to the back of the park and over while everyone else leisurely walked along.
We did get to go on the Safari early, which is the way to go. We saw tons of animals. They've changed the ride slightly, no 'poachers' to help out.. just some construction area at the end, where the zebras will soon be. I did also decide I want some baby Warthogs on the Waterstraut/Crandall Farm. Just the babies though, the big ones are yucky.
Then we all headed over to DinoLand and the boys convinced Hayden he could go on PrimeEvil Whirl, a spiny roller coaster. Unfortunately, Hayden was too small to go without an adult- so I convinced myself I could go on it and not get too motion sick. Probably not the best decision ever, but Hayden loved it. He wanted to do it again, but thankfully while we were on the ride the wait went from nothing to 20 minutes, so we opted out of it.
And no trip to DinoLand is complete without a spin on the Dumbo like Dinos, and the awesome playground.
Then, we all went to see the Lion King show. This is Hayden's favorite thing in all of Disney. It's a pretty good show for an amusement park. They have acrobats, and a guy who spins fire. At one point the guy 'drinks' fire. Hayden just speaks of this in amazement. "I don't know how that guy drinks fire and doesn't die! Maybe he's a robot that just looks like a guy!"
By this time it was lunch time, so we went to the car for some uncrustables and juice boxes before heading over to the Magic Kingdom.
We could tell it was going to be crowded when we were getting on the monorail at 1 pm and we had to wait. It was so packed, I thought it best to take the train to the back of the park. We grabbed 5 fast passes to big Thunder Railroad, the train like roller coaster, despite Hayden protests. He wanted no part of it to begin with.
While waiting for our fast pass time, we took the boat over to Tom Sawyers Island. This is always one of the boys favorite places. I don't get the huge appeal; but they love going in the caves, the fort, and over the bridges. I even told Peyton maybe we could read Tom Sawyer this year, he seemed excited about that. (Hasn't it been banned in some public schools for language or something? So lame!)
When our fast pass time arrived, we headed back to Big Thunder Railroad. The stand by line had grown to 80 minutes, which is kind of ridiculous. Us fast pass holders flew right through the line though. At the start of the ride Hayden was clutching onto me as tight as he could. By the end he had his hands up and was asking to go again.
We managed to avoid waiting longer than 15 minutes by going on It's a Small World, Philharmagic (best Disney thing in my opinion), and the Tea Cups, which I also had to go on thanks to Hayden being too small to go by himself. Hayden thought me on the tea cups was hilarious, he spun the cup around and around and then laughed and made puking noises. Such Asa's kid.
Peyton was bummed it was 105 minutes for Space Mountain, so we grabbed Buzz Lightyear fast passes, and killed the time going on the people mover and to the Monsters Inc Laugh floor. You can text your jokes into them, and they use them in the show along with your name and hometown. Hayden's joke was used for the second time. This did not make Peyton happy, at all. His hasn't been used at all.
Wednesday August 8
Today was not particularly awesome. If you've been following Peyton and Hayden's school debacle, it has not been going well, and today we found out Hayden would not be able to go back to Oakstead. Telling him was not awesome. He cried at first, but we tried to spin it really positively, and I think he'll be ok with it. We did email 8 on your side again, though. The school board here is atrocious.
The boys didn't want to go out today. I'm not sure I blame them, they've been gone so much lately, so we stayed home and played some games. I also had them vote on all their favorite activities from this summer for the 'Best Of' Week next week. They were blindfolded so nobody could complain about how anyone voted, and they used their auction paddles to signal their vote. We've got a good group of activities. I'm pretty excited for them.
We also finally got new phones today. Nothing fancy, but if you know me, you know how I've been totally unreachable for most of the last four months without going through Asa. I kind of enjoyed the social buffer, but I really did need my phone back.
Asa and the boys were pretty funny tonight, playing with Hayden's toys. They had a draft for the playsets, and then picked out their action figures. Dad-atopia was Asa's country, and nobody was allowed in. Although, I think eventually he formed an alliance with Hayden's country. There was a lot of screaming about Princess Dora, and security breeches. I'm not sure exactly what was going on, but I know they were having a good time.
Also, worked on my list of 32 things to do before I turn 32. Gotta say, some of my friends have had really great ideas. This list is going to be so fun!
Thursday August 9
This morning we got up around 9, had breakfast and headed out to the beach at Honeymoon Island. When we got there, there was hardly anyone else there so we got a prime spot. The boys quickly got to work collecting shells for the sand casts we're going to be making next week.
Mom built a nice sand castle, while Peyton looked for fish, Calib layed in the water, and Hayden played with his sailboats.
Eventually, Peyton got a crab, Hayden lost his sailboat, and Calib was convinced he was going to be stung by a sting ray. (Hayden has THE cutest sting ray shuffle, by the way, he thinks its more of a dance than a way to walk)
Peyton did save a life today, too. After he gave up trying to catch some fish, one swam up with the wave but got left without water when the wave when back out. He was flopping around so I screamed for Peyton who quickly scooped him back up, and put him back in the water. Poor little fish. I think he survived though.
Anyway, We stayed about two hours, which was enough time to apparently get sunburnt despite reapplying. Then headed over to the sprayground where we had a picnic lunch and happily washed all the salt and sand off of us.
We even got snow cones from the truck thats always at the park. You can't beat $1 snow cones. Thats even better than at the fresh market.
Asa wasn't too far behind by the time we got home, and after a little time at home we headed out to BJs for dinner. Best Beginnings really is the best appetizer ever. I can't get enough of avocado eggrolls in ginger dipping sauce. YUM.
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Hayden also had the funniest order ever. Just bread and cheese for him tonight.
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And, thats it. That's all she wrote (for this Waterstraut yearbook anyway). In a few short hours, I'll be 31. It was a good year- for the most part-, here's hoping for just as much fun and just as little drama in the next year. I hope you enjoyed reading the last 52 weeks. I'll see you in a few days for Week #1, as we start it all over again!
Up Next: The big 3-1. And, the new, awesome list. (Thanks everyone for your help!)
And in case you were wondering, heres how my list went:
1. Swim with manatees- 1/26. This was as cool as I thought it would be- and a total must do again!
2. Crochet an afgahan
3. Make at least 24 new recipes- 24 of 24 complete
4. Go to Key West (and stop in the Everglades)
5. Go Camping at least 3 different places- 3 of 3 complete (11/11 Fort McAllister State Park, 6/17 Disney,8/3 Mammoth Caves)
6. Get at least 5 new stadium pictures- 2 of 5 complete (11/13 Jags, 8/4 Titans )
7. Make 12 sewing projects- 12 of 12 complete
8. Read 12 new books- 12 of 12 complete
9. Make a Calendar Journal- 12 of 12 months complete
10. Go Canoeing or Kyaking- And Hayden didn't even tip our boat- 6/18
11. Do at least 6 new things in the Tampa Bay Area I have not done before- 5 of 6 complete (parasailing 10/11, hillsborough county fair 10/12, Mosi Ropes Course 10/12, Clearwater Aquarium 1/16, Dinosaur World 1/22, Tradwinds 5/23)
12. Learn how to cook on a grill
13. Learn how to play two songs on the keyboard
14. Go Ice Skating
15. Get to level 75 on tetris attack- Check. 8/20. Made it to level 76. 8/22 Made it to 99.
16. Go on the Shiekra
17. Learn how to eat with chop sticks- 6/12- Not that hard!
18. Eat at the Taco Bus- Food Truck Rally 10/22
19. Teach Calib how to do the laundry- 6/12
20. Teach Peyton how to cook lasagna
21. Teach Hayden how to ride a bike (without training wheels)
22. Make a scrapbook from the Epic Vacation
23. Organize the stuff in the Closet (papers, pictures)- Half done? It's all isolated in one place after the move- all put away and sorted on 3/9- done!
24. Watch 24 new movies- 24 of 24 complete
25. Blog one entry per week- 52 of 52 complete
26. Fix the laptop hole in the door- 10/26 It's not pretty, but it isn't a hole anymore.
27. Learn at least two songs on the guitar
28. Make Homemade Pasta- 6/13
29. Go Puddle Hopping after a rain storm- 6/22. It was a pretty epic puddle.
30. Go to Caldesi Island
31. On our one year anniversary, take a picture of us holding a picture of anniversary #1- Check! 6/17
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