Trip to Disney!

Back in January we made a trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando, because our close friends the Hodges' were also going to be there. Jim and I already had passes from my b-day last year and luckily there was a great deal on 4-day passes for the kids. We drove up and met our friends, then had a great day playing in Disney. The next morning we decided to take it easy and slept in instead of going back to the park. Then we took the kids to downtown disney and we ate lunch at a new restaurant that has moving dinosaurs everywhere (think rainforest cafe, but with dinosaurs). The kids loved it! These pictures are in backwards order, sorry there are a lot and I was too lazy to resort them.

Here are Jim and the kids in front of one of the moving dinosaurs at the restaurant. At lego land. This is the only kind of dog Aidan will ever get close to.


Zoie with sleeping beauty

Summer, Jennifer and Kodi

Tiffany, Ty and Sierra

Summer and I

Jim and Aidan

Nolan and I

Aidan and Nolan

Zoie and I

Mickey, Aidan, Zoie, and Minnie

Ty, Nolan, and Aidan with Buzz

The kids behind bars, he he

What? You moved?!?

I have always love, love, loved getting visitors. It doesn't really matter who it is..... well maybe it does but still, I love spending time with people I don't see that often. Now that we have moved, we still see many of our friends from "back home" pretty often. Between us going there, or them making the short 2 1/2 hour drive to drop in on us for the day. We ALMOST see them as much as we did before, not quite but almost. I love it!

My awesome friends, Jennifer and Mikelin decided to suprise me by driving up for the day. It was so great. We went for a walk on the beach and then my wonderful husband took all the kids to the park so that the three of us could have lunch in cute downtown Dunedin.

It was a great day. Thanks for coming girls!

Beach day with Abby!

My good friend Abby came to visit us. She was the first of our old friends who came to see us. Awww......... but I think it really might have something to do with how close we live to the beach now. So of course while she was here we went to the beach! It was still a little cold, we only lasted about an 1 1/2 hours before we were ready to go.

Abby and I, nice sweatshirt right?Abby's kid's, Grant and Josh

Jim and ZoieOur beautiful toes, we also got pedicures while she was here. We may have looked silly with our clothes on at the beach but at least our toes looked good!

Here are some retarded guys trying to surf. Whoever heard of surfing on the west coast of Florida? Check out those monster waves, ha ha!
I love that bird in the corner too. I don't know why but I think he looks ticked.

Why do old guys always insist on wearing speedos? It's just not right I tell ya!

But are speedos ever really right?

Easter

So I thought I would amaze everyone by posting something that isn't months old, ha ha. Also, I need to go ahead and post the Easter pics so that I can change the background for our blog.

The week before Easter was also our spring break here, which was nice but meant that we were busy. There was a Primary activity with an egg hunt Monday night, Tuesday we went to the water park at Disney, and then Wednesday we left to go to Fort Myers, and spend a few days with Jim's family and see some of our old friends down there. We went to the beach, the pool, the kids went to another Primary activity in Elaine's ward with another egg hunt, I went to a girls night, and Jim and I went to dinner with some friends. We had a great time.

Here is Zoie at our Easter Activity. She got some bunny ears from the dollar store with her money and she loved them.Jim and Nolan doing the three-legged race.Zoie and I coloring eggs, I borrowed an apron from Elaine. It matched my shirt. Nice!Aidan and Will coloring eggs.Nolan and ElaineHere are Jim and the kids getting ready for their third and final egg hunt of the year. I actually had nice clothes for them to wear on Easter, but Nolan got a terrible sunburn and was in a lot of pain so we had to make him a sleeveless shirt to wear. Since he had to wear that, I decided I didn't care what the other two wore, which was a mistake. Aidan has a John Cena wrestling shirt that he is only allowed to wear at Elaine's because I ...... strongly dislike it, and of course he chose to wear it for Easter. Nothing like my kids looking like a bunch of red necks for Easter.Here is Aidan in his lovely shirt.

Nolan looking for eggs, also in a lovely shirt.

Zoie, the only one who chose to dress normal.

We hope everyone had a happy Easter!

Visit from Dad!

My Dad came to visit us right after we moved. It was so great! He helped me unpack a lot of stuff and also fixed up our whole front yard, even though it was very cold outside (for Florida). It was so great to see him again and the kids always love seeing Grandpa Taylor, especially Zoie. She followed him around and thought he was just the best thing ever, she was so sad when he left.

Here is my Dad planting the plants along the sidewalk. Zoie, being a big helper as usual.And here is my Dad putting in a stepping stone walkway. It was all dirt before, and we filled it in with mulch and then layed the pavers.It wasn't much of a vacation for him but we did manage to make it to the beach for a few hours. It was still pretty cold, but we enjoyed walking along the shore and looking for shells.

My Dad with his bag of shells.

The kids playing in the freezing sand. Why is it kids never seem to mind the cold?

Here is my Dad at sunset. I thought this picture turned out neat.
Thanks for coming Dad and for all your help! Come back soon!

A few before and afters

I like before and after pictures. They're fun! Here are some things we have been working on so far.

BeforeAfter

The changes are subtle so in case you can't tell, we painted the trim and the front door, removed some ferns, added plants along the sidewalk, and added mulch in the front. My dad came to visit and helped with pretty much all of the yard stuff. Also, Bill and Elaine hired some people to remove two huge trees from the back.

Here is Jim painting the trim.

This picture is mid-process of painting inside. I forgot to get befores, before we started. The white color is what we are painting. I am not usually a fan of white walls but this house is so small that it needed something to brighten up the room. The hallway beforeHallway after- much brighterTile in process- it was really gross lineoleum beforeJim grouting Kitchen tile in process

Kitchen and dining tile- almost done
Dining room tile done, before new carpet

After

After

Yes, I realize it still needs more work, and I have to do something with that wall that the TV is on, but for now this is what works and it is a big improvement.

So that's it for now. More to come.

What do you think? Any suggestions for that TV wall?