Florida 2012

We flew to Florida late Sunday night. We spent Monday recuperating and getting ready for Orlando. Nate and Dad took the kids to the "juice store" which Caleb specifically requested. It's a store that sells citrus and gives out free samples. After that they went to Lakes Park to play. I think Isaac was pretending to be a bear in this picture.

Tuesday afternoon we made the 3 hour drive to Orlando. The drive took longer than that because of a bad accident. Two semis hit, one was a cow trailer. The cows escaped and there was one dead cow in the trailer, gross. We stayed at a Wyndam resort, Bonnet Creek. We were on the 12th floor and it made us a little nervous when the kids went on the balcony.



Having fun in the hotel pool/lazy river


The pool was warm, but there were alot of crazy kids around


Wednesday morning we went to the Magic Kingdom! We left our hotel at 9:15 am and didn't get thru the park gates til after 11 am. We were not prepared for that. We took a shuttle from our hotel, stood in line to get our will call tickets, stood in line to get on the ferry, and then stood in line for security. It was spring break for most of Florida so there were alot of people. Once we entered the park though we saw our first characters! There was a dance party in the street and we saw Mr. Incredible, Frozone, Daisy and Pluto. We got a Fastpass for the Buzz Lightyear ride and then ate our packed lunches.

The Buzz Lightyear ride was Isaac's favorite. As you can see from Julia's face it was not her favorite.

The boys in jail with Zurg, the villian from the Buzz Lightyear ride.

We then hit the Tomorrowland Speedway to drive some racecars. Look out, she's driving already! We then got a Fastpass to ride the Winnie the Pooh ride and headed to the Mad Tea Party ride.

No one got sick in the teacups
We went to see Mickey's Philarmagic 3D show. It is basically a 3D movie, but Caleb hated it. He kept his glasses off and still didn't like it.
We had to get the Mickey ice cream bar.
Julia loved it.

Next it was the afternoon parade. We had a good view and the kids enjoyed seeing all the characters. Our kids have not seen all of the Disney movies so they often asked me, "who is that?" For example; Ariel, Jasmine, Belle, Alice in Wonderland, etc. After the parade we went on the Magic Carpet Aladdin ride and walked thru the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. We ate supper at the Columbia Fish House and then took the raft across to Tom Sawyer Island. Next it was the "It's a Small World" ride, and yes that song is stuck in my head. But, the ride is still great. We finally could go on the Winnie the Pooh ride and the kids loved it.

There was a street dance party at night, it was one of my highlights. All of us were dancing and having a great time. The best song was "Everybody is Kung-Fu fighting." The kids would do a karate chop pose. Caleb thinks "Ice, Ice Baby" is the coolest song, as long as he doesn't hear the lyrics in the verses! We hit the Buzz Lightyear ride again because someone gave us their Fastpasses as they had to leave, very nice of them. Nate and Dad took the kids on the Aladdin ride again while Mom and I held a spot for the electric parade.

The lights on the castle kept changing colors, very neat.
The electrical parade was amazing and hasn't changed much since I was there last! Isaac was exhausted and slept thru the parade. Julia's favorite characters were Cinderella and Tinkerbell. When the parade was over we were herded along with the masses of people towards the fireworks show. We opted to leave and watch the fireworks as we were exiting. This strategy worked well. Julia promptly fell asleep and Isaac woke up to see the fireworks. He tells everyone, "I meant to sleep thru the parade so I could see the fireworks." I think we were all in bed by 11 pm.

Thursday morning rolled around and we said, "get up we're doing it again!" Actually we slept in and arrived at Hollywood Studios late morning. We started our day by getting a Fastpass for the Toy Story ride. We then met Winnie the Pooh! He was the only character the kids were willing to get a picture with. Julia liked seeing Pooh, but did NOT want to stand next to him.

We then went to see the Disney Jr. Live on Stage show. It's a show that highlights TV shows from the Disney channel like; Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, Little Einsteins and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. My kids know all of these shows and they thought this was fun! We were all singing along with the theme songs.
Caleb's favorite show from the Disney channel is Phineas and Ferb. See the little green platypus above the characters heads? That is secret agent Perry the Platypus. For his souvenirs, Caleb picked a Perry action figure and a Perry t-shirt. I'm sure you'll see them sometime soon. We ate our packed lunches and waited about 40 minutes for the Lights, Motor, Action stunt show. The kids thought the show was a little loud, but liked it overall. The best part was the real Lightning McQueen drove around!


Posing with Lightning McQueen, ka-chow! Nate and I took the boys on a Star Wars ride, that was a mistake. We all sat in a "plane" and wore 3D glasses. The plane shakes and moves around while things are flying towards you from the movie. Not our best parenting moment. While we were doing Star Wars, Mom and Dad took Julia to the Little Mermaid show. The only thing Julia kept saying is, "I don't like Ursula, it was scary." Oops. We watched the afternoon parade and saw more characters. During the parade it started pouring rain! Thankfully it didn't last long. Next we watched the Indiana Jones stunt show. It was a little scary, but it was just kind of violent. Lots of people getting shot, etc. Again, not our best parenting decision.

After the show we split up. Dad and Nate went to ride the Star Wars ride, Mom and Julia went to the Muppets show and I took the boys to get their picture with Lightning McQueen. Mom said the Muppets show was horrible and was glad we didn't all go. We ate dinner at Pizza Planet (from Toy Story) and played some arcade games. We finally rode the Toy Story ride and it was awesome! Isaac wanted to ride again, unfortunately the wait was 80 minutes. We had planned on going to the Fantasmic night show. We saw signs for the show and decided against it. It looked like it might be scary and didn't want to scare our kids again. Nate and Dad rode the Tower of Terror ride while Mom and I waited with the kids. We headed back to the hotel and were in bed by 10 pm. Somehow Julia survived two days with no naps and late nights.
Not the best family picture, but we take what we can get!

On Friday morning the kids swam in the hotel pool with Grandpa and Grandma. We ate lunch then drove back to Ft. Myers. We went to the neighborhood pool after supper. Saturday morning we went to Sanibel Island. A beautiful beach and beautiful weather, we all had a great time.

We got up early Sunday morning to fly home. We pull up to the airport and there is a sign on the door saying our airline, Direct Air, went bankrupt and was not flying. What?! We were stunned. We then drove to the next closest airport to find a flight home. The first lady quoted us $3,000 to fly our family home- what?! We drove back to Mom and Dad's to regroup. We found an airline that picked up some of Direct Air's flights for a much more reasonable price. We were able to attend church with Mom and Dad and spend another day in Florida. That afternoon I rescued a little girl who was drowning in the pool. Her parents were not watching at all and didn't even notice when I pulled her out of the water. Infuriating.

So Monday morning we flew from Ft. Myers to Rockford, IL. We rented a car and drove it to the Kalamazoo airport where our van was parked. Our traveling was much more involved than we anticipated, but we were just thankful to be home! We love visiting Mom and Dad and we have some great memories from our first family trip to Disney!

Julia's 3rd Birthday

Pink and black ladybug cake
Celebrating with family
1st Daddy/daughter date


Before the haircut

After her first haircut
Daddy loves his little girl
Birthday morning celebration with donuts
Our precious daughter


Today is Julia's 3rd birthday! It's hard to believe. Last weekend we celebrated with my parents and brother and sister-in-law. Julia changed her mind everyday about what kind of cake she wanted. We narrowed it down to a ladybug cake and then she saw a pink and black one on the internet, so that is what she chose. This was not my cutest cake. I wasn't happy with the results but Julia liked it and that is what matters! She enjoyed getting new dresses and wanted to put them on right away. We celebrated Julia's birthday at breakfast as suppertime wouldn't work. We put some candles in a donut, sang, and she opened presents. We gave her a necklace that says "daughter" in Korean. She sees me wearing necklaces and wants to do the same! We also gave her a toy tea party set. In Korea they make rice cakes for birthdays. Honestly, they are not very good so I made Rice Krispie treats instead. Julia and I had special Mommy/daughter time. We ate at Big Boy, had ice cream and watched a movie. Since we are going to Disney I wanted to watch Cinderella with her. The movie store didn't have it, frustrating! We got Snow White instead. She liked it ok, but I forgot how many scary parts are in it- alot of fast forwarding. We were talking about princesses and I told her that she is God's special daughter, His princess. She giggled and thought that was funny.

Julia got her hair cut for the first time! Before she went Isaac told her, "Getting your hair cut hurts." Little stinker. Julia did great though and thought it was fun. She looks more grown up with the shorter hair. Nate took Julia on a Daddy/daughter date. They got dressed up and went out to a restaurant, it was very cute. Julia loves eating out, she asks to go out almost everyday. What she really wants is to get chicken nuggets and french fries from McDonalds! Julia insists on dressing herself now and gets upset if we try to help her. She also wants to pick out her own clothes. I drew the line at changing clothes in the middle of the day. Fancy Nancy books are probably her favorite right now. She is also starting to enjoy play dates with other little girls. Now that Julia is 3, she no longer goes to nursery during church. There is a special program for 3 & 4 year olds. We have had a child in nursery for 7 years now. It makes me sad that we don't have any children young enough for nursery. But, I can also appreciate this time in our life. People are still impressed with Julia's verbal skills. And she asks questions about everything. I don't think we can get thru a book or video without multiple questions! She loves learning and understanding her environment. We are so proud of Julia and love her very much. We are excited to see how she grows over this next year!

What Did You Say?

Popping bubble wrap. This kept her quietly occupied for a long time.
I love it when they play together. They are driving a boat here.
Isaac took this picture
Quality time with Grandma
First snowmen of the winter

Isaac had some funny words recently. He was talking about his teachers and then he says, "and my prisoner is Mr. Greefkes." He meant his principal. The other night we had ravioli and Isaac kept calling it "granoli." He has still been calling Valentine's Day "Thanksgiving." Isaac and Julia are at the age where they have alot of questions about dying and heaven. We talked about how our family would be in heaven because we love Jesus. Isaac asked if Adam and Eve would be in heaven. He pondered that for a minute and then very sweetly said, "I love Jesus." A more embarrassing moment also happened. Isaac lifted up his shirt and said, "everyone show your boo.." I think you know what I am referring to. I didn't believe my ears and calmly asked him a couple times to repeat himself. It was clear he had no idea that anything was wrong. I told him that is a crude word we don't use and that he can say "chest" instead. He told me a friend told him the word. And it's starting in preschool, ugh.

Julia is full of questions about people's emotions. Whenever we read a book, watch a video or hear a song she asks, "are they sad? why are they sad? are they happy?, etc." I bring the kids to childcare at the gym sometimes. There is a little Asian girl, Mia that attends too. Today out of the blue Julia says to me, "Mia looks like me." I said, "Mia is Asian like you?" And she again said, "Mia looks like Julia." I asked, "because you both have black hair?" She said yes and then changed the subject. This interaction took me by surprise. I know in my head that she is noticing differences in how people look, but I hadn't realized she has internalized it already. I related this story to Nate and he said it makes him a little sad that his daughter will always feel like she looks different than the rest of us. I know this isn't a newsflash, we knew this going into international adoption. It doesn't change the fact God meant us to be a family, just makes us remember we need to be intentional in how we discuss racial differences and the people we surround our family with. One last funny story regarding Julia. I bring her in with me when we drop Isaac off at preschool. Julia loves preschool. She would love it if she could attend right now. As soon as we get in the classroom she makes a beeline for the kids and joins right in. The other day I said goodbye to Isaac and then left the school. As I was walking to my car I thought, "something is off, what is it? Oh yea, I left Julia in the classroom!" I was embarrassed but neither the teacher nor Julia had noticed. Julia is signed up for 3 year old preschool next year, she'll love it.

Caleb's latest obsession is ninjas. He has two Ninjago books that he thinks are the coolest things ever. His imaginary games always include ninjas fighting. He also likes the movie Kung Fu Panda. I can tell he is growing up. We watched The Lion King the other night and he wasn't scared. (And Julia had a ton of questions about why Simba's Dad died. Why does Disney always kill off a parent??) I've also noticed that Caleb doesn't suck on his lip anymore or rub his hair. Those were his nervous habits that we were always telling him to stop doing. He still has awesome grades at school and his reading level still impresses me. So glad he is enjoying school!

Denver

Hitting the slopes
Love my sister


Last weekend I visited Steph in Denver. I arrived Friday evening and we ate at a fun Mexican restaurant called Lime. They had excellent tortilla chips. Saturday morning we headed to Breckenridge for a day of skiing. Apparently everyone else was going the same way because there was some serious traffic. There were alot of people skiing, but it was still great. Steph lost me on the first run, but we found each other easily. I enjoy skiing with Steph because our skill level is similar. It's hard to ski with someone who is better than you because you either feel bad for holding them back or you end up skiing by yourself so they can do the harder runs. Steph is a rocket going down the slope, it was pretty funny. The weather was beautiful and I was only cold when riding the chair lift. We were sufficiently sore for several days after skiing! That evening Steph made her yummy broccoli pizza while I made a snickers cake for her birthday.

Sunday was Steph's 25th birthday! We went out with some of her friends for a birthday brunch at a place called Coral.... something. I can't remember the name. My memory lapse may have something to do with the combination of cold medicine and a mimosa at high altitude. I was a little loopy after that, I had to lie down for 1/2 hour when we got home. I'm such a lightweight. We did some shopping that afternoon. I was on a mission to find reasonably priced black boots, that was a fail. Maybe next winter. We had some frozen yogurt at Pink Berry. I love all the toppings you can have. It's like the TCBY we had growing up, only healthier. That evening I went to church with Steph. I see why she likes the church. The people are friendly (and quite young) and the pastor is Biblically sound. On Monday morning I flew back home.

I love being able to hang out with Steph and participate in her life for a couple days. She is a great sister and I love her very much!

Life

The kids love it when Rudy plays in a Kleenex box
Chefs hard at work
New basement floor and you can see the two paint colors
The only snowman they could make this winter
Caleb and Ira in the lazy river
Grace Christian field trip for top fundraisers to Aquatic Center
My first attempts at braiding


I've had blogging writer's block the past couple of weeks. We've just been living life lately. Caleb was one of the top fundraisers for his school's work-a-thon. The kids went to an aquatic center for an afternoon as a reward. Caleb was kind of peer pressured into going down a big slide. His classmate was begging him to go with him. I was proud of them for going down, but neither one of them did it again!

Nate has been working hard on the basement. The flooring is in and it looks great! The painting is mostly done too. Next the baseboards have to go in and we need to purge the basement of all the stuff we don't need anymore.

We had a nice Valentine's Day. I made a nice breakfast for Nate and the kids. The kids helped me decorate heart shaped sugar cookies. For supper I made lasagna, strawberry spinach salad and heart shaped rolls. Isaac keeps saying "Happy Thanksgiving!" Julia was a little sad that the boys had Valentine's parties at school and she didn't have a party. But, we went to library story hour and McDonalds for lunch, which always makes her happy. Almost everyday she asks, "Can we go to a restaurant?" She loves eating out. I need to get a video of her singing, it's cute. And Isaac says "double drats" often. He comes home singing songs from preschool too. Caleb is a great reader. He is starting to like reading to himself, but he still likes having us read to him.

I met an amazing woman today. She is an older woman with a big heart for foster/adoptive families. Her and her husband have 10 kids! They have two biological kids and adopted 8 older kids out of foster care. And she attended Calvin College, how could I not like her? She is so inspiring. We were able to share our dreams/visions for foster/adoptive initiatives in South Haven. So exciting!

This weekend I am visiting Steph in Denver, woo-hoo! I'm really looking forward to seeing her and having some time away too!

Daddy Interview

21 Questions to Ask Your Kids

1. What is something Daddy always says to you?
Caleb- "Caleb" Isaac- No

2. What makes Daddy happy?
Caleb- being good
Isaac- obeying rules

3. What makes Daddy sad?
Caleb- being bad
Isaac- disobeying

4. How does Daddy make you laugh?
Caleb- tickling
Isaac- tickle and tackle

5. What was Daddy like as a child?
Caleb- crazy
Isaac- lawnmower (umm, ok)

6. How old is Daddy?
Caleb- 32
Isaac- 15

7. How tall is Daddy?
Caleb- 60 inches
Isaac- 24

8. What is Daddy's favorite thing to do?
Caleb- talk
Isaac- clean the house

9.What does Daddy do when you're not around?
Caleb- work in the basement
Isaac- go to the gym

10. If Daddy becomes famous what will it be for?
Caleb- money
Isaac- tools

11. What is Daddy really good at?
Caleb- working in the basement
Isaac- reading books

12. What is Daddy not very good at?
Caleb- putting the new floor down
Isaac- touching lights when they are on

13. What does Daddy do for his job?
Caleb- power plant
Isaac- I don't know

14. What is Daddy' favorite food?
Caleb- pizza
Isaac- pizza

15. What makes you proud of Daddy?
Caleb- the new floor
Isaac- I don't know

16. If Daddy was a cartoon character who would he be?
Caleb- Ferb (from Phineas and Ferb)
Isaac- Mickey Mouse

17. What do you and Daddy do together?
Caleb- work
Isaac- tackle

18. How are you and Daddy the same?
Caleb- brown eyes
Isaac- short hair

19. How are you and Daddy different?
Caleb- he's bigger, I'm shorter
Isaac- Dad's bigger

20. How do you know Daddy loves you?
Caleb- he puts me to bed
Isaac- I don't know

21. Where is Daddy's favorite place to go?
Caleb- work
Isaac- McDonalds

Interview with the boys

I came across this fun idea on pinterest and here is the website: http://pepperbuttons.blogspot.com/2011/10/21-questions-to-ask-your-kids.html

21 Questions to Ask Your Kids

I asked Caleb and Isaac, Julia is too young to really get the idea. I asked the boys at separate times so they wouldn't copy each other.

1. What is something Mom always says to you? Caleb- No. Isaac- no answer
2. What makes Mom happy? Caleb- Doing good things. Isaac- saying sorry
3. What makes Mom sad? Caleb- doing bad things. Isaac- not being nice
4. How does Mom make you laugh? Caleb- tickle Isaac- tickle
5. What was Mom like as a child? Caleb- crazy. Isaac- don't know
6. How old is Mom? Caleb- 33. Isaac- 62 or maybe 22
7. How tall is Mom? Caleb- 23 inches. Isaac- 100
8. What is Mom's favorite thing to do? Caleb- cook. Isaac- stay in the house and do work
9. What does Mom do when you're not around? Caleb- clean, stuff around the house Isaac- take a nap
10. If Mom becomes famous what will it be for? Caleb- the house. Isaac- what does famous mean?
11. What is Mom really good at? Caleb- tickling me Isaac- shoveling
12. What is Mom not very good at? Caleb- the computer Isaac- walking on ice
13. What does Mom do for her job? Caleb- stay at home, take care of Julia Isaac- clean house
14. What is Mom's favorite food? Caleb- pizza Isaac- hamburgers
15. What makes you proud of Mom? Caleb- cooking for me Isaac- don't know
16. If Mom was a cartoon character who would she be? Caleb- Elmo Isaac- Dora
17. What do you and Mom do together? Caleb- shopping Isaac- tickling
18. How are you and Mom the same? Caleb- brown eyes Isaac- have sweatshirts
19. How are you and Mom different? Caleb- older and younger Isaac- Mom has longer hair
20. How do you know Mom loves you? Caleb- reads books to me Isaac- don't know
21. Where is Mom's favorite place to go? Caleb- store Isaac- exercising


I found this exercise funny and a little humbling. And I'm trying to not be sad that Isaac didn't have an answer for "how do you know Moms loves you?" Someday I'll have to ask Julia these questions, I'm sure there would be more interesting answers!