Mackey Memoirs

Day #11 (Dec 20)- Universal Studios

2012-02-12T19:18:00.002-08:00

I can't believe it. I completely forgot to put the memory card back in the camera before leaving for the park. So our 11th day on vacation was spent at the second Universal studios park, without a camera to document the event. All we had was Javier's iphone which meant we walked away with only two pictures, sob.

OK, so I will briefly explain the importance of these 2 pictures. This entire vacation Jenna has been trying to volunteer to be a participant at every show that asked for help from the audience. At most of the shows she was too young and at the only other show that asked for a child to participate they needed it to be a boy. When we walked into the disaster movie attraction we were standing up close to the stage when the man in charge asked for a volunteer and Jenna's had instantly shot up.

He looked over her head around the crowd, teasing her as he said "I am looking for a willing participant...... anyone at all....... I need some one who really wants to do this........................ preferably a kid." At this point Jenna was hopping up and down trying to get him to call on her. But he continued to tease "anyone at all..................... do I have any volunteers." Of course he picked Jenna, and this was her big moment, she was going to be the star of an action movie. After selecting a few other volunteers for the show we moved on to the stage room. In this room Jenna was taken to wardrobe where she was given a rain coat and then back to the stage where she was positioned on a landing and told that all she had to do was smile and wave at the camera. After they called cut they moved her to a new spot and told her that her next part was to jump from where she was standing on the landing and land on the X in front of her. She was "AWESOME." OK so those were relatively simple task, but I am so proud of her for being brave enough to volunteer.

After everyone completed their part in the movie we moved to a train where everyone would have the opportunity to star in the movie as we all pretended to be victims of a train disaster. While on this set, water came crashing in against the train, the ground shook, the train tipped from side to side, and something caught fire. Fun. After this final scene we go to sit back and watch the finished product.

As the title indicated this was a disaster move, staring "The Rock." The filming that had been done was for a movie preview. The previews showed the city in major turmoil as disaster after disaster struck. And Dwayne Johnson was there to save the day. Jenna's part was by far the best part in the movie. It showed her standing at the top of a tall building in the middle of the turmoil and when the rock approached on the street below she smiled and wave, he then told her "it's OK little girl, jump, I'll catch you." It then went to Jenna jumping off the roof and landing on top of the Dwayne, knocking him to the ground.

Day #10 (Dec 19)- Disney's Epcot

2012-02-12T19:02:00.001-08:00

Epcot is one of Javier's favorite Disney Parks. Fortunately for him the entire family was game for hitting his favorite park for the day. The kids probably enjoy this park just as much as Jav. Part of this is because both girls have always loved learning about other countries and their cultures and traditions. They also like rearrange the list of which countries we want to visit first. After this trip they added Canada to the list, and tried to bump England up to the top of the list (I still maintain that Ireland and Greece are at the top of the list)

We couldn't have picked a better day to come to this park. After nine very active days it was nice to finally have a day to take it slow. We spent the day casually strolling through the park, letting the girls pick what they wanted to do next. Ever since our first trip to Disney back in 2003 every trip to the park has felt this way. I don't know if it's because we have already been on all of the rides before, but there always this relaxed feeling regardless of which park we are at, like there is really no rush to get anywhere.

The girls weren't very interested in standing in lines to meet the characters this year, but when Cinderella walked out and we saw that there was no line they decided they wanted to get a picture. And Javier who loves to act confused when it comes to the Disney princesses told the girls to say thank you to "Snow White." Without missing a beat Cinderella, who was in a playful mood as well, gasped as though she was offended and declared "I am not Snow White, I am Cinderella."

In preparation for the vacation the girls started saving all of their spending money early in the spring. This meant that they had a lot of spare cash burning a hole in their pocket and they need to find every possible opportunity to get rid of this cash. It started on the drive to Florida at the beginning of our vacation, where they insisted on buying their own snack when we stopped for gas. Then on the cruise they visited all the shops in hopes of finding some cool souvenir to bring home. Now at Disney, in a final effort to rid themselves of any leftover cash the girls once again insisted on buying their own snacks. As we watched them get in line to buy themselves a pretzel, Jav and I could help but notice how much they had grown and how independent they are becoming. I am so proud of these little girls (but they really do need to stop growing up).

Day #9 (Dec 18)- Universal Studios Adventure Island

2012-02-12T17:47:00.002-08:00

Whooo Hooo!!! Off to Universal studios Adventure Island.

Our ninth day of vacation was reserved for Universal studio. None of us have ever been to this park before so this was at the top of our list of things we wanted to do. The last time we were in Florida we came down to Universals city walk and got the girls a "thing 1" and "thing 2" shirt. This time we found Javier a "Father of all things" shirt.

We have been fortunate this entire vacation and have had really nice weather, but this was our one and only cold day and we were not prepared for it. The weather man had forecast a high of 77 and a low of 53, so of course we left the resort in shorts and flip flops. When we arrived at the park it was 54 degrees and we did a quick weather check, since waking up the forecast had changed to a high of 56, yikes, way to cold for me. Now we would have to post pone all the cool rides long enough to find some cool souvenir jackets (that's right, we told the girls these were their souvenirs for the day). And of course the weatherman was wrong again, it ended up being cool enough that we needed the jackets especially when in the shade, but it was warm enough that our feet weren't cold in flip flops.

The first part of the park we went to was the marvel superhero Island. There was only one ride that Kaylee was to short to ride, which she was more than OK to pass on it. Kaylee has never been a huge fan of roller coasters and the Incredible Hulk ride was a thrilling roller-coaster ride. Jenna, who is our little daredevil was able to go twice since Kaylee wasn't able to go. The only ride that Jenna didn't want to try was the Dr. Doom's fear-fall, but by the time she realized what the ride entailed she was already strapped into her seat. Sorry baby, too late.

We then hopped over to Toon Lagoon where most of the rides were water ride, but the shops were a lot of fun. Then we skipped over to Jurassic park to let the girls ride a few of the kid rides and then finally we were on our way to the Wizarding world of Harry Potter.

This was the most amazing location in the park. All of the shops that we have seen in the movies were right here, as well as the castle and Hargrids house. As we walked the town and to the different rides it was awesome to see the girls pointing out objects from each of the movies and excitedly tell us which movie it was in. But first thing is first. Everywhere we looked there were people drinking butter beer. Before heading into Hogwarts we needed our own butter beer. They offered it as a soda or as a slushie. We each order the slushie, and I'm not sure how to describe the drink, but it had a yummy caramel foam on top of a slushie that tasted like it was made with cream soda and something else. What ever they used to make it, this was the best slushie I have ever had. The remainer of our vacation was spent counting down till our next opportunity to get some more butter beer. Yum!

While waiting in line to get our drinks we were able to watch the Hogwarts choir perform across the street. I don't think I ever realized before that the choir was accompanied by frogs.

We had to go through Hogwarts twice (I know, really bummer) because we went ahead to stand in line while Javier got a locker and he wasn't able to catch up. But our first time through the ride it broke down while we were in the middle of the ride. Jenna, Kaylee, and I were in our carriage, and it had tipped all the way back so that we were laying on our back with our feet in the air and the Whomping Willow was swinging a giant branch towards us, when the ride came to a sudden stop. It didn't take long to get the ride back up and going, but this was the part of the ride that the girls found most exciting. I think they hoped it would happen again our second time through.

Our second favorite ride was the dragon challenge. For this ride you got to choose whether you wanted to ride the blue or the red dragon roller coaster. Kaylee, who is normally terrified of these types of rides wanted so badly to get on, I think she was able to over took the fact that it was a roller coaster since it was also a Harry Potter ride. But she was about an inch and a half to short. While I sat and waited with her she told me that it wasn't fair that she was too short to do any of the big rides. This was a first, she has ever wanted to ride the big rides, so I came up with a solution and we would try to get her on the ride the next time we came to the park. We agreed that after leaving the park we would go to the store and buy her some wedge flip flops so she would be taller for the next time. And that evening we were fortunate enough to find her some flip flops with a 2 inch wedge which made her tall enough to go on all of the rides). She was so proud of her new flip flops that the next time we came to the park she went on every ride, without any sign of hesitation. She took so much pride in being tall enough and she was going to take advantage of it as much as possible (she even went on the incredible hulk roller coaster and the Dr. Doom fear fall).

Our next stop was Seuss Landing. Javier and I have always loved Dr Seuss. We use to collect the books and read them to the girls every night. Jenna and Kaylee have even been talking about dying their hair blue and going as thing one and thing 2 for Halloween this year, though I doubt their shirts will still fit at the rate they are growing.

Our final stop for the day was to the shoe store to get Kaylee her new flip flops. We didn't show up to Florida with any definite plans as to how we would spend each day, but we still had 2 days worth of passes for Universal Studios so we knew that we would be back this way again soon and Kaylee would get her chance on the big roller coasters.

Day #8 (Dec 17) Kennedy Space Center

2012-02-08T19:03:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of our vacation we had passed by an exit for the Kennedy Space Center while en-route to the Disney terminal at Port Canaveral. Javier has been wanting to make a trip to the Kennedy space center for years and even tried to schedule to take the kids down to see a rocket launch. But with his busy work schedule we never got the chance. So after seeing the exit we decided that this would be our first stop after getting back from the cruise.

Jenna and Kaylee have always shown an interest in spaces so they were just as excited as Javier when we pulled up to the Space center. When Jenna was much younger she had declared she wanted to be the first woman in space, unfortunately someone else has already claimed that title so we told her she could be the first Mackey in space. She wasn't completely thrilled with this idea so she decided she would rather be the first Mackey to go to Mars. A couple years later Jenna's dreams changed and she decided she wanted to be a world famous chef. However, Kaylee already had her heart set on Jenna traveling to space so she tried to compromise and told Jenna could still be an astronaut, and she could be the first chef in space.

The girls loved the ride that simulated blasting off into space. I think I expected this place to be more like a museum but instead it was almost like a museum/amusement park. Of course all of the rides were about space, but that was more than OK with us. Javier was like a little kid in a toy store. He spent most of the afternoon grinning like a little kid as he bounced from one station to the next.

This made for an exciting first day in Florida but after a full day at the space center it was time to head to the condo and get set up for the week.

Day #7- Castaway Cay (Disneys private island)

2012-01-30T17:58:00.000-08:00

Day #7, and our last full day on board the Disney Magic. Today's stop was at Disneys private island, Castaway Cay. Our plan for the day entailed relaxing on the beach and snorkeling.

Our room on board the ship came with a private balcony which we put to use as often as possible. We all enjoyed the private moments with just our family when we could enjoy the fresh air and stare out at the ocean. This morning we sat on the balcony watching the actives onshore as the Disney crew prepared for the day excitement.

It was like watching a colony of ants. As soon as the ship was secured to the docks the majority of the staff disembarked and within minutes trucks and dollies were carrying supplies from the ship to the beaches. We saw truck loads of food leaving the ship as well as souvenirs and other supplies, all for our enjoyment.

The only thing this island was missing was the Pearl, from "Pirates of Caribbean." I had heard from someone prior to coming on vacation that it had been used during the making of the newest movie, and may not be there when we arrive. Darn, guess we will have to make this trip again.

We had decided to forgo any excursions for the day and just enjoy the beautiful beach. Here at Castaway Cay there were several location along the beach for renting equipment. We had planned on renting a big paddle boat for the family after some snorkeling, but it was really up to the girls what activities we would be doing.

So we rented our snorkeling gear and hit the ocean. Have I mentioned what a wimp I am when it comes to getting wet. There is something about going into the water that is never enjoyable. I hate being cold and initially getting into the water means inching your way into the cold water. I know it would be better to just jump in and get it over with, but my legs refused to cooperate. So I slowly, very slowly, inch by inch made my way into the water. After finally submerging in the water there was no way I was getting out for anything, I wasn't about to have to inch my way back in again.

Disney really knows how to provide a good time for those interested in snorkeling. We were able to swim out into the ocean at a location designated specifically for snorkeling. And throughout this area there were treasures to be found along the ocean floor.

One of the coolest things we found on the ocean floor was a statue of Minnie Mouse. Jenna and her friends were so excited about this statue that they let the air out of their life jackets so they could get close enough to touch the it.

While scouting the floor for more treasure I met up with a stingray. It swam up close to me and then headed off in the opposite direction. This was much cooler than petting the stingrays at the aquariums and I wasn't about to let it get away that quickly, So I swam along behind it for a while, only losing sight of it after stopping to get Javier and Kaylee's attention.

Kaylee, who had been doing fine swimming in the ocean, panicked when I tried to show them the stingray. If she could have moved her little limbs fast enough she would have booked it for the beach, but being that Javier was much closer she decided to try scaling him to get out of the water. Silly girl, she was afraid it would bite her.

To help her relax we started scouting for more treasures and were rewarded with a school of fish. They swam close enough for us to touch them, I couldn't believe how big they were.

Once one school passed by it was only a matter of minutes before we found another, and then another, and another. Who would have thought swimming with the fish could be so exciting. And there were so many different types of fish, we turned it into a game. They were everywhere, we even found fish living inside the treasures that lined the ocean floor.

After an entire morning of swimming it was time to be fed. Thanks to the truckloads of food the Disney crew hauled off the ship we had so many dinning options.

After lunch the twins met up with Jenna and Kaylee, so Jav and I spent the majority of our time left at Castaway Cay lounging on the beach.

Once we were back on board the Disney Magic it was time to start preparing for the next mornings departure. This meant packing all of our bags for room service to pick up while we were at dinner, saying goodbye to the the dinner staff that we had gotten to know over the course of the week, and saying good bye to all of our new friends. We made plans to keep in contact with some of the families we met , exchanged phone numbers, and went to the farewell production in the theater. That's right, one final opportunity for Javier to enjoy singing and dancing, and pixie dust all at the same time. I will give him credit, if he wasn't having the time of his life none of us could tell. But none of use were too sad to see this trip come to an end, not when we had a whole week of fun in Florida to look forward to.

Day #6- Jenna's Birthday

2012-01-30T17:23:00.000-08:00

Whoooo Hoooo! December 15. Jenna's Birthday!

What a way to celebrate turning 11. Today was a full day at sea, which meant plenty of pampering and extra attention for Jenna's big day. We spent most of the day doing activities that Jenna chose. Shortly after lunch Jenna met up with a few of her friends at the pool. We all hung by the pool side until the girls decided to exercise their freedom and head to the kids club. This was the opportunity Javier and I had been waiting for. We had celebrated her birthday the weekend before our vacation, but we had wanted to go to the Store on board and get her something special. We settled on a couple of Disney souvenir that she had been wanting to get for herself and then bought some chocolate covered treats for her to share with her sister.

We had thought we could rush to the shops and then get back to the room with plenty of time to hide the gifts for the perfect moment but we were wrong. We had a rule with our girls that if they left the kids club they had to come straight back to the room and wait until we met up before they could go anywhere else. This way we always knew where they were. When we got to the room we found the girls and all of their friends playing in our room. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to sing happy birthday (yet again) loud and obnoxiously to embarrass her in front of her friends. Those silly girls all joined in and earned themselves some chocolate covered goodies.

Jenna's friends definitely made this day extra special. I was pleasantly surprised by the generosity of the children and parents that we had known for only a short period of time. So many of Jenna's friends bought her little gifts from the Disney store and went out of their way to help her celebrate. Even the families we eat with every evening joined in the celebration. One of the most memorable moments was when one of the little girls we eat with left the table and came back with a musical instrument that is commonly taught in China. She had spent the entire morning learning to play Happy Birthday just for Jenna.

Tonight was our second formal night on board the cruise ship. Awesome, another chance to get dressed up.

This evenings show was another Hypnosis show, but this time it was a family show. And for this show Javier got to be one of the volunteers. The beginning of the show was similar to the adult show, the hypnosis had the participants perform simple act to help them relax. By the time he was done with the relaxation exercise Javier was was practically falling out of his seat onto the floor.

Some of the silly thing Javier had to do was stand up and boisterously moo like cow every time he heard a cow bell. But once asked why he was standing he wouldn't remember why he stood up. At the same time another volunteer on stage would run of the stage every time she heard a phone ring and start answering peoples shoes, thinking they were telephones. She was under the impression that whoever was on the other end of the phone was looking for Mickey and she would look around the room and shout "is there a Mickey here?" And every time she did this the Hypnosis would approach her and inform her that she was talking to a shoe again and she would walk back up on stage looking confused.

By far the funniest part of the act was when Javier was told he was the world greatest ballroom dancer. Javier has spent the entire trip joking about all of the dancing done on this ship by the entertainers. And of course you wouldn't catch him dancing around like that. Well, know we were going to get our chance. That's right, tonight Javier joined the throng of male entertainers that danced on board the Disney Magic.

As soon as He was given his cue, Javier strutted center stage followed by his dance partner. The performance began with a quick interview. The Hypnosis approached Javier and said "we'll you look like a guy who takes great care of your body. Tell me is there a special diet you are on to maintain your dancers physique?" Javier looked very seriously at the audience and responded "Pizza."

After the brief interview Javier and his dance partner performed a silly routine. They both twirled and dance around each other making minimal contact with each other, at one point Javier took a rose and threw it to the crowd. At the end of the performance Javier and he partner were told to give each other a hug. I should mention his dance partner was another guy and as they gave each other a quick hug his partner flipped his foot up (like the girls on the TV shows) so Javier dipped him. Bravo!!

Before the show ended all of the volunteers were told they would open their eyes and the audience would clap but they wouldn't remember what had happened until their feet left the stage. Except for Javier. Javier would not remember what had happened until he excited the show room. And every time someone shook his hand he would think he was a cowboy and yell YeeHaw! while galloping and swing his hand over his head like he was swinging a lasso. It took us forever to get out of that room. Javier shook so many hands. The poor guy couldn't get away from all of his adoring fans (heehee).

After the show it was off to dinner. And our waitress brought Jenna a few special treats just for her birthday. The poor girl was so full by the end of the evening we had to help her finish the three desserts our waitress brought her.

Earlier in the morning when the girls went to an activity at the kids club, Javier and I participated in a Disney drawing class. Javier has quite a knack for drawing. I got to wrapped around the imperfections in my drawing and frustrated by the absence of erasers in this class. Mine didn't turn out too bad, but Javier won this little challenge. That's OK, there's always next time.

Day #5- Cozumel and Pirate Night

2012-01-29T18:05:00.000-08:00

Today we arrived in Cozumel and once again we had an excursion scheduled first thing in the morning. The last time Javier and I were in Cozumel we took a tour of the Mayan ruins at Tulum, but to get to the ruins we had to take a 2 hour bus ride. We wanted to take the girls to see some ruins but we wanted to do something a little closer so we would have some time left over to check out the shops before re-boarding the ship.

Today we will be touring the pre-Columbian ruins located at San Gervasio. The time allotted for this tour wasn't enough to see everything at the site but it was more than enough to make it enjoyable. The nice thing about these tours is the locals are so knowledgeable about the customs and history of the Mayans that each tour is enriched with interesting facts and history. And Jenna and Kaylee just soak up everything they are learning.

The Mayans had many Gods that the worshiped, one of them was Ixchel, the goddess of fertility. Today we learned that ancient Mayan women would travel hundreds of miles to San Gervasio to pay homage to her.

Our next stop was El Mirador, what is considered the to be the best view on the eastern side of the island.

Our next stop was El Mirador, what is considered the to be the best view on the eastern side of the island. While hanging out at the beach the girls climbed on the coral and sipped on a coconut.

After the beach we hopped back on the bus and finished up our tour in El Cedral. El Cedral is the very spot in Cozumel that the early Spanish explorers came upon when they landed here in 1518. This was the location of the islands oldest structures and a church that is said to be the first Catholic Mass on the island. However most of the structures have disappeared and all that remained was a few ruins and the church.

We had planned to take the girls to the local shops but after passing through a few we were ready to head back to the ship. Today was a special day on board the Disney magic, it was pirate day and all of the days actives were centered around this theme.

Prior to dinner we had a photo opportunity with Captain Jack Sparrow. This guy was hilarious, he moved, gestured, and spoke exactly like the real character.

For dinner we were given two sets of napkins. The first was folded on our plate and was meant to be used as a pirate bandanna. After dinner we headed up on deck for the official pirate dance party.

At one point during the dance part Captain hook made an appearance and commandeered the ship. But not to worry, Mickey swung in to save the day.

The big Finale for the evening was a huge firework display, accompanied by Bonnie Tyler's "I need a hero. "

Day #4- Grand Cayman Island

2012-01-28T18:30:00.000-08:00

December 13 was our fourth day at sea. On the Itinerary was a day of fun at Grand Cayman Island. The ship was unable to drop of off at the island because of all of the reefs so we were taxied over to the island on a tender boat.

Our excursion for the day was snorkeling among the remains of a sunken ship. And Jenna and Kaylees' new friends Katie and Kari were scheduled for the same excursion.

We started off the excursion with a boat ride up the coast as we were given a brief history of the island. I was excited that they offered excursions like these for the families. I've always wanted to go scuba diving, but lets face it the idea of sharks is very scary. Obviously you face the same risk with snorkeling, but this seemed like a good starting point.

I have never been snorkeling before and wasn't sure how smoothly this trip would go, I' have seen the girls trying to snorkel in the pool and it is so easy to submerge the snorkel making it useless. Well, as it turns out the water out in the Caribbeans is so salty that it is easy to float at the top of the water. But for safety measures we were given little life preserves that came with a valve so you could easily release or add air as you swam.

After a review of the rules our guides asked if there were any questions, and both Jenna's and Kaylee's hands shot into the air. They both had the same concern, where were the sharks. Good girls, now mommy doesn't have to ask about the sharks. As it turns out, there was no need to worry about sharks, for some reason the only sharks seen on this side of the island are nurse sharks but they are in the more shallow areas, not where we were swimming. Our tour guide could have been lying, but I was willing to accept this explanation.

Our kids were probably the bravest passengers on the boat, once we were given the OK, they were ready to hop into the water while others hesitated to initially get in the water. I will admit it was a little scary initially jumping into the ocean but once we got into the water it was so much fun. I didn't have a camera with me but the tour guide was selling some disposable water proof cameras so we bought one just for fun. The pictures turned out pretty good considering it was a cheap camera, but the digital copies we order with our prints were defective.

We hadn't been in the water for very long when I felt a sting to my leg. This is when I remembered that I also ahate jelly fish. I told Javier that I think I just got stung and he laughed and told me that I probably just got kicked by one of the kids. That didn't seem likely but the sting wasn't hurting anymore so I shrugged it off as nothing. A few minutes later Javier was practically running on water to get back into the boat, yelling over his shoulder "jelly fish." Crap, I hate jelly fish. I was getting ready to admit I was a wimp and head back to the boat myself when our tour guide informed us that there were no jelly fish, instead we were swimming with a distant relative of the jellyfish and the stings were more of a brief aggravation that stung for close to a minute and then went away. We each got stung a couple more times while we were out, but now that we knew it wasn't from a jelly fish we barley noticed the sting.

The first area we stopped for snorkeling was so beautiful. The water was so clear that we could see all the way to the ocean floor. This created the illusion that the water was a lot more shallow than it really was. At our first stop the water was 30 feet deep. I didn't think we would get to see very many fish in water this shallow but there were several opportunities where we were swimming with entire schools of fish. There were so many and they were so close we could touch them. Unfortunately, I never had a camera that I had to manually wind so I kept making the mistake of winding the camera the wrong way, and missing several great opportunities.

Our second stop for snorkeling was at the location of a sunken ship. This ship didn't just sink, it was also blown up several years later to get it out of the way of other ships. This meant that pieces of the ship were sunken all over the ocean floor. We found the anchor and what looked like cannons. And Kaylee was very excited about pointing out the skeleton of the ship as we swam over a huge part o the ships body.

We didn't see any treasure at the bottom of the ocean, but some future explorer may get luck. While snorkeling Javier lost his wedding ring. I remember telling the lady at the Jewelery store several years ago that I wanted one with a GPS, and she thought I was joking, no I was serious. Of course I had assumed he would lose his ring again much sooner, so this was something I had already planned for.

After getting back onshore we headed up to a local restaurant that was known for serving turtle burgers. never passes up an opportunity to try something different. Absolutely worth it.

After arriving back on board the Disney Magic Jenna and Kaylee went to the kids club for an evening of fun activities while Javier and I enjoyed some down time. At the kids club they had a game with multiple challenges where the boys had to compete against the girls. One of the challenges was to put a piece of gum at the bottom of a bowl, then to fill the bowl with whipped cream and top the whipped cream with chocolate and then they had to dunk their faces into the bowl to retrieve the gum. This must have been the girls favorite challenge because they still talk about it. Another one of their favorite challenges was one where they had to build a pyramid with chocolate covered marshmallows, and they could only use their mouth to assemble the pyramid.

This evening at the theater the show was "Villains tonight." The show featured Hades as he attempted to regain is evil status and all of the Disney Villains throughout the years. The girls loved that the show was interactive, allowing the kids the opporunities to "booo" at Hades whenever he was on stage.

Day #3- Formal night

2012-01-19T18:10:00.001-08:00

December 12th is a full day at sea. We spent most of the morning participating in several family activities through out the ship and at the pool. The girls are also sign up for the kids club so we decided to let them exercise some of their new found freedom and check themselves into the kids club without our help. It was hard us to admit that they are probably getting old enough to do things on thier own, so after giving them permission to go to the kids club we counted to 10 and then followed far enough behind them so they couldn't see us. This became a practice for the next 2 days, but by the last 2 days on the ship we were giving them even more freedom without having to shadow behind them.

While at the kids club the girls made friends with a set of twins named Katie and Karrie. By the afternoon they had made plans to meet up with their new friends throughout the trip. As luck would have it we found out we were scheduled for the same excursion for the next day.

The show for the evening was "villains" and since it was formal night we got to get dressed up before heading to the show. The family has always loved getting dressed up when going to the theater so this was one of my favorite nights.

As part of the formal night a special Princess menu was prepared. For this evening we were scheduled to eat at Lumiere's, which resembled the inside of Cinderellas Castle and the serves were dressed accordingly. It's going to be hard going back to eating at regular restaurant after this. The kids loved being able to order their own appetizers, sides, entrees, and desserts every night.

After dinner the girls had made plans to meet up with their friends at the kids club, and one of them had joined us for the evening show prior to dinner, so after shadowing the girls up to the kids club we went back down to see what adult entertainment was available for the evening. We caught the very end of a ventriloquist show and found out that the next show featured a hypnosis.

And just to show he cares, Javier tried to volunteer on my behalf, to participate in the show. Luckily for me only willing volunteers could participate. It would take to long to go into all of the details of the show, but I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. The hypnosis had his volunteers convinced that they were driving their dream car, two guys got really into the act, shifting gears and accelerating simultaneous with the sound effects from the hypnosis. It was hilarious watching them primp when they thought a pretty girl was standing by the car, or trying to play it cool when they were told they had a huge booger hanging out of their nose but they had to be careful because the hot girl was looking their way (one guy tried to use his tongue to get rid of the offensive booger). They even thought at one point that they had been cut off in traffic, but don't worry they had an open sunroof so they could express their feelings towards the other driver (without pause almost everyone on stage flipped off the imaginary driver).

At one time the volunteers thought that someone else on stage smelly worse than anything imaginable, or they would think that a stuffed Barney told them to shut up. There were so many different things he made these volunteers, but it was the two guys who were really into the act who made the show a huge success. The show it's self was very clean but Disney had set aside another night for the family hypnosis show so that they could ensure that it was completely kids friendly and a little more tame.

Some the benefits to the kids club were; it stays open until midnight so we were able to catch the late adult shows, and they gave us a set of matching phones for the duration of the cruise just in case a child wanted to contact their parents to come pick them up from the club. This took so much stress out of letting the girls go to the club, knowing we didn't have to keep checking in on them. And by the third evening we felt comfortable letting them check themselves out as long as they called first and then went straight to the room and stayed there till we arrived.

Day #2 Key West FL.

2012-01-18T18:22:00.000-08:00

It's day 2 our our destination is Key West, Florida.

We didn't book any excursion at this stop because, the girls wanted to check out the local ship wreck museum. They have learning about the discovery of the 1622 Atocha treasure ship. Between 3-4 hundred million worth of gold silver and treasure had been found off the coast of Key West in 1985, and some of the findings were on exhibit in the Mel Fisher museum.

This museum also house a lot of history about various pirates throughout history.

And of course the girls had money burning a hole in their pocket so before we headed back to the ship we hit a few of the local shops to find some unique souvenirs. After a little shopping the only thing on the girls mind was swimming. They had been dying to jump in the ships pool as soon as we had boarded the previous day.

These kids are crazy. There were a few different pools on deck that they could choose between. One had a slide but was shallow so that younger kids could swim. But they chose the pool that had a huge screen displaying in front of it, which featured showing of Disney classic cartoons around the clock. It was very common to catch all of the kids in the pool simultaneously float aimlessly in the pool with their gaze fixed on the projector screen. There was no getting their attention.

And for Jav and I, these quite moments were spent indulging in the non alcoholic drinks on board while catching up on some reading. For me, the concept of sitting down with nothing demanding my attention hard to adjust to at first, but I will admit I grew to love it.

And for Javier, being so removed from work and not having to answer constant incoming call had such a positive effect on him. He seemed more relaxed and playful than he has in several years. And his mood was catching.

Of course what cruise would be complete without unlimited ice cream. The girls were so excited about the ice cream they kept checking to see it anyone else wanted some. They didn't care so much about eating serving after serving of ice cream, they just wanted to exercise their new found freedom. Of course that's not to say they didn't eat plenty themselves.

This evening the ship was putting on a Broadway style production of Cinderella, with a new twist. OK, I could say that the girls were excited about seeing this show, but lets be honest it was really mommy really wanted to see it. Every mommy is still a little girl at heart. They have a different show scheduled for every night and Javier struggled to maintain his man cards as he was forced to sit through lots of singing, dancing, and pixie dust.

And we ended our evening with dinner, but not before we got to see Tiana from "The Princess and the frog."

Christmas Vacation Day #1 (Port Canaveral)

2012-01-17T18:41:00.000-08:00

After our 10th Anniversary cruise Javier and I have making plans to go another cruise with the kids. We had heard so many goods things about Disney cruises so this is the route we chose to go. Originally we were going to fly to Florida but at the cost of plane tickets we decided to use that money and spend an additional week in Orlando going to various amusement parks.

I finished taking my college finals on the December 9th and that afternoon we picked the girls up from school and started our 8 hour drive to Orlando.

The next morning we woke up and drove the final hour to Cape Canaveral. I will have to give Disney credit, they found a way to eliminate the stress and frustration of clearing customs and verifying travel documents. We were scheduled to do our check-in at 10:30 and didn't have to wait in any lines, within 10 minutes we had completed the process.

Boarding didn't begin until 12:00 but Disney made the wait bearable. While waiting to board the kids were able to sit and watch Disney Cartoons,complete the check-in to the kids club, and hang with some of the Disney characters.

Once it was time to board there was no bottle necked lines to endure, each guest had a boarding number and as the numbers were called we were able to board the boat. This probably took close to 10 minutes. I would completely do a Disney cruise again just to avoid the long crowded lines of cruise ships.

After boarding the boat we were able to take the girls to the top deck restaurant for lunch and we excitedly looked over the schedule of events that were scheduled for the day. Then we went to explore the boat. The kids were excited about the top decks. Not only were there several pools, there were ping pong tables, a basketball court and an arcade.

I was really surprised at how good the girls were at shooting hoops. We have joked about getting them a basketball hoop, since they are so tall they may as well play basketball. But after watching them we realized we probably should stop joking about it and actually do it.

The Ship finally set sail at 4:00 and we attended the kick off party on deck. This was a dance party and so, being that we thought be would never see these people again we were able to act as silly as we wanted.

And we finished off a long exciting day with an awesome dinner at the Animators Palate. Prior to dinner we had attended a show in the theater and due to all the excitement of the day Jenna was too exhausted to stay up for dinner. By the time we got to dinner I think we were all ready to crash but we didn't want to miss out on the dinner experiences that we had heard so much about.

I'm glad we went. We met several families that we would have the opportunity to get to know better over the week, as we would be eating with them for the remainder of the trip. The seating was arranged so that we sat next to a family who had kids the same ages and as it turns out they live only 45 minutes from us. And we found we had so much in common with the families at the tables around us. By the end of the trip we were all swapping contact info.

Run For Your Life- 5K obstacle course

2011-10-29T17:18:00.000-07:00

On October 22 Baltimore Maryland hosted the very first Run For Your Life 5K obstacle course. Participating in this race had started off as a big joke back in July when Javier first got home form deployment. We were in the process of upgrading his wardrobe when Javier jokingly asked the sales rep at Buckle if he was ready for the zombie apocalypse. His immediate response was "well actually, now that you mention it I hear there is a zombie race in Baltimore this October."

On the way home we looked up the web page for the race and got lots of laughs as we read the frequently asked questions forum. There were questions like; what do you get for participating in the race. Answer: bragging rights (duh), a medal for surviving, and advanced training for the real zombie Apocalypse. How silly, but we joked about running the race anyways.

By the middle of September we decided it may fun to do this race, especially now that we had some friends who wanted to run it with us. I personally didn't want to race, I hated the idea of being chased. But I didn't want to look like the only wimp so I agreed to participate.

So here I am, signed up to run a race with zombies, all for the sake of spending time with my husband doing what he enjoys. And then he got orders to leave for Arizona on the same day we were suppose to be in Baltimore. Fortunately for me I still had our good friends the Nius to run with. Prior to the race we labeled Leland as "the bait," of course he left us in his dust to fend for ourselves. We immediately handed over "bait detail" to the only other guy in our group. The plan was to run if "V" formation, keeping the bait up front. After completing the race we realized that our bait ran behind us the entire race (wait a minute, how did that happen). Prior to the race we were each given a belt with three flag, our objective was to finish the race with at least one flag still intact. This is where the zombies came in, their job was to capture the flags.

Once it was time to line up for our wave to run, we were divided into groups based off our running time. The fastest runners were sent to the appetizers section, we were sent to the main course section, and the slower runners were placed in the dessert section. Of course Leland was an appetizer, but once his group was were off to a start it was time for our group. The course consisted of several steep up hills and downhills. We had to walk down most of the hills to avoid getting hurt, but the uphills were just as tricky. For the first couple of hills we found that the zombies were stationed at the top waiting for us. Further into the race we found the zombies stationed on the uphills, meaning we would have to sprint up the hills to avoid loosing our flags. On one of these hills I had to zip to the left to avoid a zombie running down the hill at me, and I nearly collided with another zombie and had to quickly zip back to the right. I managed to complete the race with one flag in tact, thanks to Whitney who served as my personal body shield as we ran past a zombie on a narrow path close to the finish line.

The zombies were not the only obstacle we had to endure. There were 10 additional obstacles we had to complete while being chased. Some of them were really easy, such as running up a pyramid of hay bails and ducking under and climbing over several wooden beams. We also had to run through a maze filled with zombies around every turn and scale up a cargo net with zombies on the other side. The hardest obstacle for me was swimming through a freezing cold pond. We had been warned in advance that one of the obstacle would involve 4 feet of water, so I assumed this would be no big deal. But less than half way across this obstacle my lungs felt tight and I couldn't get enough air. My first instinct was to stop swimming but I immediately realized I couldn't touch bottom. This caused me to panic, but after a quick prayer my hand brushed against a rope and I realized there was a rope under the surface of the water that lead to the other side of the pond. It was still a struggle pulling myself to shore, since I still couldn't breath, but once I was out of the water everything was fine. Of course from there we had to go up this steep hill that was pure mud at this point. For every step we took forward we would slide another step back or to the side.

This race was the equivalent of watching a scary movie. Every time you got your heart rate back down something new would pop out at you. As for my results; I placed 86 out of 305 for the wave we ran in, and 2047 out of 7045 for the overall race. There was a separate category for those who "survived" all of the obstacles for this category I placed number 1373 out of 4613.

Final project for 2011

2011-09-12T19:22:00.000-07:00

Our final project for the year was expanding our deck. When we bought the pool we knew we would eventually want the deck to lead to the pool. After the first year in our home we modified the plan to include a rail that would separate the pool area from the rest of the deck. This way we would not have to worry about little kids jumping into the pool. and this year we found a contractor who was able to build us a deck exactly as we envisioned it.

The Mackey's and Niu's Take Disney World

2011-08-21T18:27:00.000-07:00

Javier got home from deployment a couple weeks ago and we knew he wouldn’t be getting time off from work until after the kids start back to school. Last year our vacation time had gotten cut short and we had to head home shortly after leaving, so this summer we decided we would just have to take advantage of any free weekends we could get. This proved to be a challenge since Javier is also working most weekends, but we caught a lucky break. Our good friends the Niu’s were traveling to Orland for the weekend and invited us to join them and Javier was able to work thing out so that he had the weekend off. Yeah! Orland here we come. And since we bought 4 day park hopper passes this means we will have to come back again later this year.

My little inventor

2011-08-04T18:19:00.000-07:00

Kaylee dreams of being an inventor. She is always coming up with ideas of what she plans to invent when she gets older. These inventions range from robots that will make mommy’s life easier to inventions that will help her make money. One week she informed me that she was going to be a thousandaire so that daddy could retire. She would make $4 thousand dollars and each of use would get 1 thousand and daddy would never have to work again.

Back in May she decided she would invent her own plane so that family vacations would be cheaper. She started off with a water bottle and her chopsticks she got from dinner at Myabi's Japanese steak house. She attached wings to the bottle and used a rubber band to secure the chopsticks as propellers by cutting the rubber band and secured it to something inside the bottle. I’m not sure how she did it but when she spun the propellers they actually kept on spinning.

As we were finishing up school work one evening she informed me that she still needed supplies to build her plane. So she needed me to get her wires. I looked at her and told her I didn’t know where to get her wires from. She quickly ran from the room and came back with her remote control car and told me she could use the wires from the car. I, thinking what harm could she do, gave her permission to use the car for her experiment. She diligently worked at that car with a screw driver and was not only able to take all the wires form inside the car but also decided that the chip would be necessary. She is still working on her plane and her next invention will be a shrink ray so we can fit into the plane.

Big reponsibilities

2011-08-01T11:13:00.000-07:00

Shortly after Kaylee made a down payment for a guitar Jenna decided she wanted to do the same. It took a little longer to find a guitar that she wanted, but the wonderful owner of the music store kept on searching for one that would make her happy. The hardest part was finding one in her size that was purple. Now after a few months of saving she has been able to pay off her guitar. Her and Kaylee are now ready to start their own band.

Just announced- July has been cancelled ...or has it?

2011-07-19T16:27:00.000-07:00

On the last week of June Kaylee was talking about how excited she was for it to finally be July. Not thinking, I asked her "why." Her response was "Remember, I'm going to turn 8. How many more days till my birthday?" So, being the loving mother that I am, I apologized and told her how sorry I was, but that there was no July this year. I told her the government had officially canceled July.

Her immediate reaction to my news was to grab my laptop and tell me she wanted to look it up. I'm not sure why she chose to question me on the subject. Have I ever mislead her? This was probably her way of calling my bluff, but I wasn't going down without a fight. I told her to do a Google search for "Government shuts down July." As luck would have it, google found an article with the words "Government shut-down July 1" as the header. She tried scanning the article, most of it she didn't understand so I summed it up for her, by telling her that obviously mommy was right, July was being canceled.

Well, Kaylee has learned from the best. She wasn't about to let some lousy article steal her birthday. She looked over the article again and said, "no mom, it says the Government has shut down July 1st, it doesn't say anything about July 6th."

Now Kaylee is 8. She has been looking forward to this birthday for months. To be exact, she has been counting down to it since last August. There are so many things she has been looking forward to. Her baptism, getting her own scriptures, and going to achievement day are at the top of her list.

This year for her birthday Kaylee wanted to do a luau themed pool party. The weather forecast for the day was isolated thunderstorms, but this didn't interfere with any of our plans.

We started off the party with a frozen t-shirt contest. For the time being, it was only lightly raining so we did this on the front porch. This was so hilarious. The girls were clawing and ripping at the t-shirts with their teeth. When that didn't work they tried banging it on the ground. Lauren Walker and Jenna tied for 1st place, but that didn't discourage any of the other girls, all of whom were determined to get those frozen t-shirt over their heads.

Our second game was the old classic, musical chairs. When it got down to the final 2 we removed the last chair and replaced it with a stepping stool so the girls had a fair chance to nab it. Kaylee and her friend Lauren were the final 2, but Kaylee takes after her father (who is a cheater). When playing games Javier likes to joke that "if your not cheating, your not trying." So Kaylee and Lauren were both circling the stool. Lauren was walking around it cautiously, waiting for the music to stop. Kaylee was circling the stool in squat position with her butt right over the stool.

When Lauren realized what Kaylee was doing it became a game. Both girls kept circling the stool, but now Lauren was trying to keep Kaylee away from the stool, and Kaylee was trying to keep her position over it.

Our final game was one Kaylee made up on our way to the store to pick up her cake. She calls it "find the Flamingo. We bought some paper flamingos for the decorations, but instead of putting them out I hid them around the house. Once we had cleaned up from the other games I called the girls into the living room and told them it was time for cake and ice cream, but first I needed their help. I told that while we were having our party a few wild flamingos got loose in my house, and this is a problem because as everyone knows flamingos have crazy party's so we needed to find where they were hiding before they ruined our party.

We had the perfect finale to an awesome party. The weather cleared up before we were done with games so we ended our evening with a night time swim.

The Parthenon

2011-07-15T18:29:00.000-07:00

Over the past couple of years Jenna has become more and more interested in Greek Mythology. I think this is awesome since I had similar interest when I was her age. She has been doing a lot of reading on the subject and has also been collecting a kids book series called "Mount Olympus High."

When "Percy Jackson and the Lightning thief" came to theaters we made sure so go and see it. One of Percy's destinations in the movie was the Parthenon in Nashville TN. Since my parents live really close to Nashville I made plans to take the girls there on our next visit.

The Parthenon was absolutely beautiful. Both of the girls were excited about seeing the Athena statue located inside the building. They have seen several similar statues on the history channel when we watch the programs on mythology.

A Trivia fact we learn on our visit was; the outside of the Parthenon was a part of the Percy Jackson movie, but for copyright purposes the studio had to build their own Athena. An employee told us that several of the young children who have come to visit have told them they have the wrong statue.

And no tour is complete without a stop by the gift shop. Because of the girls fascination with Greek Mythology I thought it would be cool for them to get a nice souvenir from their visit. I told them to pick out what they want, and they both went automatically to the candy bars. "Alright", I informed them, "Since this is a souvenir you can't eat it. In fact we are going to frame and mount it on your bedroom wall." Obviously they never take me seriously because the candy bars were gone before we made it back to the car.

We were fortunate enough to be able to make the trip up with several members of my family. Our next stop, the Nashville zoo. I think the last time we went there was when Kaylee was 3.

Our yard over the years

2011-07-12T19:09:00.000-07:00

When I first looked at this house 3 years ago the back yard was just a barren lot lined with trees. Our first step was to get a privacy fence. Then we added a pool and a playground. This only emphasized how big and empty our yard is and we have been gradually making changes to turn this into our dream yard.

2 summers ago we began the next phase of our improvements by section off a corner for our yard for a garden.

We then added a shed.

Last summer we added to our improvement by building a pergola. And getting our irrigation system set up in hopes of having grass next summer.

This summer we finally have grass and thanks to some beautiful curbing we had installed and 6 large truck loads of mulch our back yard is starting to look so much better. I love being able to go back and look at all of the progress we have made. Though I wish I had waited another month to take the pictures for this summer. By the time Javier got home from deployment the grass was thicker and so much greener. Javier has always wanted grass that he could walk across barefoot and that exactly what he came home to.

Rock City

2011-06-25T20:07:00.000-07:00

Since our visit last summer Grandma Golson has been planning to take us to see Rock City outside of Chattanooga. Rock City is this beautiful place up in the mountains where you can walk the trials to see the various lookout points and the wild life.

From one of the look out points you can see seven different states.

We made the Trip to Rock city with; Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Josh, Uncle Ben, Uncle Sam, Uncle Jared, and our cousin Cecilia. Aunt Jessica is pregnant and wasn't feeling good so she stayed home with with the rest of the cousins.

We walked through this one cave that was named "Fat mans squeeze." Jenna, Kaylee and Cecilia misunderstood us when we told them the name of the cave and they kept calling it Batman's Squeeze. They assumed that batman is just so big he can't fit in the cave.

At one point we came to a rock wall that visitors could climb for a small fee. The challenge was to make it to the top of the wall and ring the bell, which would win you a free climb. Jenna was nervous at first, this was nothing like the indoor rock climbing wall because there was no one holding the rope as you climb. She was afraid to climb to high and get hurt, but the man operating this attraction told her to repel back down so she could see how slowly the rope released. This still didn't reassure her so she called it quits and passed the harness to her cousin Cecilla. After watching Cecilia fearlessly scale the wall, Jenna felt more confident and gave the wall another go. This time she made it to the top and was moved to a more difficult wall.

Kaylee also had a difficult time on the wall, she couldn't seem to get more than half way up before repelling back down. One of her Uncles told her maybe she should try it without her shoes, and Kaylee taking him seriously marched back up the the wall without her shoes. This time she took off and practically ran up the wall. My crazy little monkey.

One of my favorite things about visiting our family in Tennessee is the opportunities my kids get to be with their Uncles. Watching them play and goof off together is priceless. My brothers more then make up for the fact that Jenna and Kaylee don't have older brothers. When we come for a visit they go out of their way to bond with the girls.

While vising Rock City we took the time to go watch the bird show that they out on. All of the birds they showed were incapable of surviving in the wild for various reasons, most had been injured and rescued. One of our favorites was a set of owls, they were so tiny and looked like little stuffed toys. I want one.

We also go to see a Bald Eagle. One of it's wings had to be amputated due to an injury, but at the end of the show we were all allowed to go up and see him.

The weatherman had forecast an entire day of rain, but we lucked out. The storm didn't arrive till we were already on our way out of the parks. We were standing at a lookout point when the clouds rolled in, and looking over the mountain we could see the rain falling in the distance in patches. Of course we came prepared with Ponchos. As we were making our way back through Fat mans squeeze the girls started walking with their arms outstretched like zombies and moaning like ghost,(Woooooo !!!). They were trying to scare their grandpa and in the middle of one of their ghostly moans thunder clapped overhead, and they all broke out mid moan to screamed, it was so perfect. I think they scared themselves.

Nashville Zoo

2011-06-23T15:39:00.000-07:00

I love that my Parents have a zoo close to where they live. When the girls were younger we would go to the zoo with my parents and my brothers. One of the many benefits to going with Family is that they would take charge of the girls and I could take my time and enjoy the outing.

I remember from one of our first trips to the zoo, the girls wanted to see the monkeys but it was hot and the monkeys were hiding in the trees. Jenna while waiting to see if they would come down and play started singing "I like to move it, move it," something they learned from watching Madagascar. Almost on cue the monkeys came down and started swinging through the trees.

Paid in Full

2011-06-09T17:18:00.000-07:00

Kaylee had been telling me that she wanted to save her money for a guitar and she wanted me to find out how much one cost. While looking for her I found this little music store in Hope Mills. The owner told me he could order her a guitar in any color she wanted and at first I had considered getting it for her for her birthday, but as the owner and I continued talking he told me that he had a 4 month layaway plan. As long as Kaylee could afford to make the initial down payment of $20 and was capable of making the weekly payments he would let her pay it off over the course of 4 months. To me this seemed like a good learning opportunity for her.

So Kaylee, who was very determined to get a guitar, saved every penny she earned until she had enough for the down payment. After the initial payment she worked hard, constantly looking for extra chores she could perform until she had enough to pay off the remaining balance she owed.

After 3 months of dedicated work, Kaylee Marched proudly into the store to hand over her final payment. She asked me as we walked in if she could give the owner a hug because he's the nicest guy. After he tuned her guitar and showed her how to hold it, Kaylee asked him if she could hug him and of course he gladly accepted it.

Then Kaylee got to bring her her brand new bright pink guitar.

One Tough Mommy

2011-06-07T17:30:00.000-07:00

My sister recently suggested hat I should document some of the emails that Javier and I have exchange during these long deployment. I thought it would be fun to post our most recent exchange.

While the guys are deployed they like to send photos of themselves decked out in their military gear. Yesterday, Javier sent another one of these photos. At first I was going to respond back with a silly letter, but couldn't figure out how to type out those silly cat call sounds you hear in the old Warner brother cartoons. This left me only one option (because writing a serious response back is not nearly as fun) I was going to have to do a mock photo.

With Jenna and Kaylee's help, we created this response;

Please. You think you look tough. Check me out. I am armed and dangerous.

I've got moves you've only witnessed on the big screen.

And my muscles are no laughing matter.

To put together our mock photo we strung several glitter glues across a ribbon to make fun of the bullet belts. Jenna came up with the idea of creating a utility belt. And Kaylee decided I needed boots with our version of a dangerous weapon sticking out. Sticking with the theme of the picture, the girls started shoving my scrap-booking eyelet tools into my boots before I could even get them zipped up. And the girls found the crop-a-dile punch tool to serve as a substitute for a gun.

Yes, it may seem silly. But this is how we keep things light while he is away. We tease and we joke and then when Javier gets some free time he manipulates my photos into something new.

Beautiful girls

2011-05-05T18:23:00.000-07:00

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The girls are all for a little bit of pampering. In the past I would organize a full day of pampering and make special goodies for them to enjoy while they giving them manicures and pedicures and facials. This time we just smacked on the mud mask and called it a day, or so I thought. For Kaylee, it's not a party until the camera comes out.

Need I say more

2011-04-27T16:10:00.000-07:00

Kaylee loves the camera. She isn't shy in front of it and often will start posing as soon as she sees we have the camera. This evening Kaylee had asked me to take a picture of the smoothies she made so we could send them to daddy, but as soon as the camera came out she started striking her poses.

Summer Smoothies

2011-04-27T14:43:00.000-07:00

Both of the girls love to help mommy in the Kitchen. Jenn has decided she wants to go to France and learn how to be a world famous chef once she gets older. Kaylee has many plan for her future and one of them involves opening her own restaurant. In preparation for her future she is always trying to perform experiments in the kitchen. It is hard explaining her that she can't just randomly throw things together and that for the time being it would be best if she followed a recipe. Well, we found a way to let her be creative in the kitchen. We all love smoothies and now that summer is approaching we have an abundance of fruits for her to choose from when she makes her smoothies.

This was Kaylee and Jenna's first smoothie for the summer and this year they did it totally on their own.

Lets Play Music

2011-04-23T15:12:00.000-07:00

This year was the the end of Jenna and Kaylee's 3rd and final year in the Lets Play Music program. At the end of each year the girls have a recital for the parents. At the beginning of this years recital, the girls came into the room singing a song called "Roots." They each wore sunglasses and had practiced dancing and snapping to the song as though it was a blues number, but when it came time for the performance they were all so nervous they stood completely still except for Kaylee who was snapping and swaying and dancing to the song.

Part of the requirements for their Piano recital this year was they had to perform a song that they had composed. Jenna's Song was a light piece she named "Friendship."

Kaylee named her song "Walking on the sidewalk when monsters come to you."

Both Girls did really well and we are all excited about wrapping up the piano lessons for the summer. It was fun while it lasted but we are in desperate need of a break. They will begin Piano lessons with a new teacher at the beginning of the new school year.

"Great" Aunt Trisha

2011-04-13T19:37:00.000-07:00

My Great-Aunt Trisha lives in Idaho, so we rarely get the opportunity to see her. Fortunately for us, this month she made a trip to Wilmington to see her brother-in-law and they invited us out to join them for their Sunday dinner. So as soon as church was over we packed up the car and drove up to see the family. The drive itself was so relaxing, it was a nice day and there were very few cars traveling. At one point we noticed something in the middle of the road and slowed down as we passed over it so we could see what it was. Just as we got right up on the object, a head popped out. We had just passed over, without hitting, a turtle that had been lounging in the middle of the highway. A few miles later a pair of snakes crossed the road right in front of us, once again we didn't hit them, but it was hard not to react and yank the car into a different direction and flee from the snakes. EEKK!!

The visit with family was nice. It makes me wish we had family living close enough that we could visit on a regular basis.

Catching a Leprechaun

2011-03-17T18:38:00.000-07:00

Last year for St. Patricks Day Kaylee's 1st grade teacher tipped over all of the desk and left little foot prints all over the room while the kids where at lunch. When the kids came back and saw the mess she told the class that a leprechaun must have done it as a joke. But, he also dropped candy all over the class room for the kids.

Kaylee came home very excited and told me that next year she was going to catch a leprechaun. She came up with several plans, most of which involved elaborate booby-traps. Her first idea, was to buy a leprechaun size chair, covering it with glue, and trick him into sitting down. I asked her how we would trick him into coming to our house and she told me we would need to get a pot of gold, because leprechauns love gold, and root beer. The other plans were more complicated so we settled for her original plan and waited a year to put it into action.

March rolled around and I had completely forgotten my part in our St Patricks day trap. The original plan was to find a stuffed leprechaun and leave him in the chair for the girls, but I was unable to find the leprechaun or a doll sided chair. Jenna offered up her dolls bed for the trap and Kaylee cut fake gold coins out of glitter gold paper to lure our leprechaun in.

I'm not sure who had more fun with this little game. Me and Javier, who stayed up all night putting little footprint tracks all over the house, or the girls who woke up to a pot full of goodies in exchange for their fake pot of gold.

The girls woke up at 5:30 to check their trap and found a note saying "Better luck next year." At first Kaylee couldn't believe she had been out smarted but by the time it was time to leave for school she was able to figure out what had happened. She came up to me with that "you've been caught" look on her face and said, "Mom, did you know the foot prints are made out of paper?" and I commented back, "that silly leprechaun." She, had figured out the truth and there was no tricking her. This of course had no effect on our day, Kaylee loves to pretend and showed off her trap to the neighbor kids, telling them all about our tricky leprechaun.

Fleeing to the Outer Banks

2011-02-18T05:04:00.000-08:00

On February 12th we finally had a free weekend with no obligations, so we fled Fayetteville and headed straight to the Outer Banks. On our way we passed several signs advertising "Mackey's Peanuts," so this was our first stop for the day.

The girls have been learning about the Lost Colonies at school and wanted to go see the play about the colony as well as the sight where the Colony lived, but there were no plays scheduled to be performed until late in the Spring so we took them to the Wrights Brothers museum.

I'm not sure how we expected the girls to feel about the museum. I think because we take them to do things like this all the time we take for granted that they don't ever complain and tend to have a great time no matter what the activity may include. During this trip it was so fascinating to watch and listen to them as they discussed with each other what they already knew about the Wrights brothers and airplanes.

The girls took turns reading the plaques that were placed around the museum and then would ask questions . I am always glad that Javier retains everything he reads and is able to answer the questions that I am unsure of. Kaylee is my deep thinker, she enjoys details and I am frequently having to do research to keep up with her desire to learn.

Outside the museum were 4 different Stone markers. On December 17, 1903 4 test flights were performed. Each Stone marks the location, distance, and duration of these 4 flights. The first flight lasted 12 seconds and traveled 120 feet.

The second Flight was 12 seconds and 175 feet. The third flight traveled for 15 seconds and traveled 200 feet.

The 4th flight was more successful and lasted 59 seconds, traveling 852 feet.

At the top of the hill was a monument build for the Wrights brothers. On the other side of the monument we got to watch several small airplanes take off and make their landing.

Or final destination for the day was to the lighthouses. We knew they would be closed this time of year but it was still worth the drive. The girls are so excited about coming back in the summer for a tour of the lighthouses.

Prior to heading home we went to 5 guys burgers in the outer banks and Javier ordered 2 large fires to go with the girls meals. When the order came up they handed him a large bag full of nothing but fries. Him and the girls look so miserably full and they haven't even put a dent in the fries. For giggles I considered playing the mommy card and demand that no one can leave the table till they have finished all of their food.

Irish Dance Recital

2011-02-10T19:21:00.000-08:00

The girls have been taking Irish Dance lessons since last fall and a couple weeks ago they had their first recital and second recital. They were scheduled to perform the second weekend in January for the Highland Country Club but due to the broken water line in Fayetteville everything was postponed.

Thanks to the delay the girls had the opportunity to dance at one of the local retirement communities the night before our big performance. The audience was so wonderful to the kids, they cheered them on as they danced and asked them to come back again for St Patrick's day.

Kaylee informed me that this is where she plans to retire when she gets older, because they have wii bowling nights.

The following night we did our big performance and the girls weren't as nervous as they had been prior to their first performance. As soon as the dance was over the members of the country club presented them with flowers. The girls have been on cloud 9 ever since, dancing around and talking nonstop about their awesome performance. We have 3 performances in March and they have a new determination as they go to their dance class.

"I love to see the temple"

2011-02-09T20:13:00.000-08:00

For the past few couple of years, the primary has had an annual primary trip to the temple. Both times we were out of town and the girls missed the trip. So this February when we made our trip to Orlando Fl. for Uncle Spencer's wedding, the girls had their first opportunity to walk on the temple grounds. Their first trip to see the temple couldn't have been more perfect. After walking the temple grounds the girls got to see their new Aunt Brittney come out the front door in her wedding dress.

While waiting for the family the girls goofed off with their Uncle Sam. and what better way to widdle away the hour, then to stage their own photos.

Uncle Ben was quite the hit with the girls at the reception. But they have always enjoyed the time they spend with him. Since the girls were toddlers their Uncles Spencer and Ben were always there when we would go to grandmas for a visit, and they would always get down and play with the girls. It's good to see things haven't changed.

Spencer And Brittney's Wedding

2011-02-08T20:24:00.000-08:00

This February we had the opportunity to see one of my little brothers, Spencer, sealed in the Temple. Brittney made a beautiful bride and the girls loved her right away. Kaylee thought she looked like a princess and treated her as such. She followed her around to carry her train so it wouldn't get dirty. And wanted to be near her at all times. For the entire weekend Brittney was her favorite person.

After Christmas Snow Adventure

2010-12-28T19:28:00.000-08:00

Can you believe all of the snow? We didn’t have a white Christmas, but the day after we had an abundance of snow. It was so beautiful outside. The girls of course woke up bright and early and were dressed before I could roll out of bed. They have learned from the past experiences that there is a chance the snow won’t last the hour. So by 7:30 we were outside rolling in the snow and building a massive snow man. Javier kept telling us that we shouldn’t make the base so big or we wouldn’t be able to put it to the snow man together. This felt like a challenge, and the girls were more than happy to help me prove daddy wrong. With the help of the girls we made a snow man several times bigger than any snow man we have built in the past 5 year (of course in our defense the past few years we have only managed to assemble 6 -12 inch snowman).

We then went for a walk in the wood behind our house. Everything was so white; I was in no hurry to get back home. It was like a winter wonderland, nothing but trees and snow and the kids leading us on an adventure with only our footprints to lead us back home.

Jennas big 1-0

2010-12-17T17:41:00.000-08:00

For Jenna's 10th Birthday she wanted to have a dance party. We had just gotten "Just dance 2" and she thought it would be fun to have a dance-off just like the one we had done with the neighbors. Every year we have the problem of trying to schedule her birthday party around church activities so there her friends can make it, but this year there was something planned every week prior to her birthday, and we didn't settle on a good day for the party until the week prior. Fortunately, this was by far one of the easiest and funnest parties we have thrown.

We started the party of by stuffing them full of as much junk food as the kids could handle. While they ate they came up with cool names we would use during the game and wrote them on the back of domino tiles. I don't remember all of the names that were used but my favorite was Rachael Edwards. She told me "I want to be R-Dawg, with a "W". Another girl picked the name "Pepper."

Once everyone had enough to eat we took the tiles and divided the girls up into teams, placing the tiles into 2 separate bowls. We then drew two names form each bowl and announced the contestants that would be competing against each other. The girls were just like game show contestants as they cheered and screamed for their teams. At one point Javier got in to compete against the girls, and they changed their objective, their mutual goal was to beating him. We wrapped the party up around 11, but the girls weren't ready to call it a night until close to 1.

I had an idea of what I wanted to do for the cake, but I left all of the decisions for this party up to Jenna and she wanted a Harry Potter Birthday Cake. Lucky us, have a friend who just finished a beginners cake decorating class and wanted the opportunity to try out what she had learned, so she made us a wonderful cake for the party.

Sad farewell

2010-12-12T16:59:00.000-08:00

The first week of November rolled around and it was absolutely beautiful outside. As we sat around enjoying the weather, it came up that we hadn’t been to Chimney Rock in a couple of years. Normally we would visit Chimney rock at least once a year, but Javier’s deployments have prevented us from going for a while. Our family loves to hike and Asheville offers so many beautiful trails, our favorites being Grandfather Mountain and Chimney rock. With winter rolling in we decided that it was now or never. So we called up some good friends who were more than willing to join us, made reservations for a Cabin less than 5 miles from the park, packed the kids, and hit the road for a fun filled weekend.

We have going to Chimney rock since Kaylee was 9 months old, so by now the girls feel like they should be leading us along. As we were hiking I kept waiting for the tralis to split, or to stumble across signs pointing to different paths we could hike. But we arrived at the top of Chimny rock without hitting either. We were certain that there use to be additional trails, but it's been a couple of years, so we assumed that we were wrong.

Of course there were trails leading much higher than Chimney rock, and eventually pass by a few waterfalls. The sights up higher are worth the hike, the only problem, the trials were no longer there.

The highest we could hike was to exclamation point, which is not far much further up the mountain than chimney rock. More than half of the trails we were use to hiking were gone. The state now owns the park and due to legal issues many of the trails have disappeared for good.

This came as a huge disappointment for us, mostly becuase this always felt like our special place for a last minute weekend getaway.

Of course, that doesn't mean we let this ruin our weekend. With less hiking to do, we had more time to lounge around drinking hot chocolate and enjoying the weather.

With all the changes this no longer feels like our special place. So this was probably (things could change) our last trip to chimney rock. Fortunately we still have Grandfather mountain.

Tooth + Money = Toys

2010-12-07T17:23:00.000-08:00

Kaylee likes to create her own word math, most of the times they don't make any sense to me. Tonight she lost a tooth, something she has been anticipating for an agonizing 4 days. So as we are gathering in the living room for prayers she presents to us her latest word math, Tooth + money = toys. Well I understand this one. So, thinking I would encourage her I say "that's right Kaylee, if you save the money the tooth fairy gives you, then you can buy a toy."

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong!!!!!

"No mommy, if you give the tooth fairy money and your tooth, they she will leave you a toy."

Haloween 2010

2010-11-10T18:59:00.000-08:00

This year Javier was home for Halloween. This is his second Halloween in the past 6 years that he has been able to celebrate with us. That being said, and all the wonder costumes available this year, we had considered dressing up as a family. But that thought only lasted a matter of hours. Once the girls got their hands on the catalogs for costumes they went in their own direction.

Kaylee insisted that she had to be scary this year.

And Jenna, who has been reading a lot of books related to Greek Mythology insisted on being Athena, her favorite goddess.

Of course, Javier got out of dressing up (again), but promises that it will happen next year for sure (I'm 99% certain he will be gone, making it safe for him to make such promises).

Long lost cousin..the Nikon

2010-10-17T18:10:00.000-07:00

For 10 years Javier and I have used the Canon. This year we made the switch to Nikon, commemorating the decision by buying a new camera. And after 2 months I finally got to use the Nikon. Not the new one, but the one that suffered an injury during it's first and only deployment in 2009. That's right, one of our Nikon's is a war veteran, shot in combat. It lost it's lens as a result of the injury, we tried, but there was just no way to save it.

Javier, who has a history of breaking at least one camera each deployment, thought he could break the cycle by taking a more expensive camera out with him. As a gift I bought him a new lens to go with him.

A couple months into the deployment I got the call, "hey honey, It's been a long day (This is never the sign of a good conversation)." "Yeah, I went out to take some pictures for the guys today....and the camera got shot, but don't worry I'm fine. The camera saved my life."

I guess if the camera is a hero you are supposed to be grateful for it's sacrifice. No such luck for Javier, he isn't allowed to take our new camera out with him, ever. But for the time, while he is home he is taking full advantage of the the new Nikon and I get to take pictures with him, using it's crippled cousin (yet fully functional).

There is definitely an adjustment switching from the canon to the Nikon, the settings adjust differently. But it has been fun playing with the camera. Javier and I took a lunch date a couple of days ago to down town Fayetteville just to have lunch and take pictures while the girls were in school.

little changes

2010-10-12T19:33:00.003-07:00

In the past couple of months we have started so many projects around this house, but we still have a long way to go before anything is complete. The biggest factor slowing us down is my full load of school work.

I completed my associates shortly after Kaylee was born and tried going back to school once since then. My second semester into my Bachelors we experienced a major Crisis involving Javier and his team while they were deployed. I was also in the process of selling our first home and buying a new one. With everything happening at once I was finding it hard to be a good mom. I prayed about what to do and the answer came in the form of an ear infection and severe anxiety attacks. I had to drop my classes. Now, 2 years later I am back in school. And this time I am going to UNCP.

Our other little change involves Kaylee. After years of growing out her hair she made the decision to have it cut. She spent all summer plotting to grow her hair longer than her sisters. She kept saying she wanted it down to her butt. Then she got her American girl doll and everything changed. At first she wanted her hair cut, because the dolls hair was shorter than hers. Then she informed us she wanted it short, like it was when she was 3 so people would tell her she was cute. Javier, like most dads, loves his girls long hair. He kept telling her she couldn't get it cut. Then one day, on his way home from work he called to say she could get it cut. We make so many decisions for our kids, because we know what is bets for them. But they have to be allowed to make some decisions for themselves. This is one area that we were willing to step aside and let them make.

I had been opposed to Kaylee's hair cut at first, until she brought me a picture of herself when she was 3. So, after getting off the phone with Javier I started getting the girls ready to go out, we were going to get her hair cut before Javier had time to change his mind. In the end, Javier loved the hair cut and I sat there mourning, what had I done? Poor Kaylee, she even started listing all the advantages of her hair cut, "Mom, now it will only take you 5 minutes to do my hair." I still miss her longer hair, but she's right, I save so much time doing her hair every morning.

The things they do when no one is looking

2010-09-18T08:58:00.000-07:00

Oh the things they do when no one is watching. And no I am not talking about the kids. I am talking about their dad.

Give him a few hours of free time and he will find ways to entertain himself. In this case all Javier needed was a camera.

Of course he didn't think to erase the evidence.

Published

2010-09-16T21:27:00.000-07:00

We found out last month that one of Javier's pictures was used in an article written for the local paper. I wasn't able to get my hands on the paper but I found a copy of the article online. I'm so proud of him (and a little jealous).

Bob & Sheree's Beer & Wine Shoppe is nestled in the heart of downtown Fayetteville, NC.

Photo by Javier Mackey

Bob and Sheree’s Beer & Wine Shoppe, Fayetteville, NC

Because we're all wine enthusiasts at heart, you know.

by Emily Farrington-Smith | August 23, 2010

What a perfect little secret nestled in the heart of revitalized Fayetteville! They offer a great selection of local and international wines and beers, in addition to staffing smart, friendly connoisseurs. The shop itself is absolutely adorable: a small, exposed brick room with a sky high ceiling offering great acoustics for cork popping and clinking glasses.

Items from Bob and Sheree’s make great gifts, as well. Not only do they have beers and wines, but they have special chocolates, cheeses and crackers, wine accessories and even a few bath and body products. All of which can be complied into a completely unique and tailored gift basket!

Expect to find a mostly international selection: wines from Italy, beers from England and Germany, champagnes from France. Anything that floats your boat! My parents have a bottle of Chocowine in their fridge from Bob & Sheree’s. The staff describe it as “Yoo-Hoo with a kick,” but we’ve been too chicken to try it. I’ll let you know when we do.

Check out Bob and Sheree’s the next time you’re in downtown Fayetteville. They offer tastings of specialty wines in a daily basis, and you can also schedule group tastings to be held outside on their sidewalk patio. Can you honestly think of a better afternoon than sunshine, a breeze, and a chilled glass of wine? I can’t.

Jackpot

2010-09-10T19:46:00.000-07:00

This summer we were able to get a week with Javier before he had to return back to work and the kids headed back to school. We wanted to start the week off with something just for the kids. They have wanted to go to the Great Wolf Lodge ever since hearing about it from their friends. To Javier and me, the idea of spending 3 days at a hotel without leaving seems so foreign. We are more of the “get out and do something” vacationers. That being said, we bought our kids the paw passes to help occupy our time during our stay. The paw pass covers several different activities at the hotel such as putt putt golf, painting a t-shirt, magic quest (which took me forever to figure out, but once the kids got the concept we set them loose). There were a few other actives but the best would be the arcades.

Each girl got 20 arcade tokens with her paw pass. As I gave the girls their tokens they started listing off the things they were going to get with the tickets the win. Seeing that almost every game took 2-4 tokens to play and knowing how cheap arcade rewards are I told the girls they would probably only win a tootsie roll.

Kaylee took her money (and her daddy) to the first game she saw and I was off to keep an eye on Jenna. After watching Jenna play a couple games I circled back around to check on Kaylee. There stood my little girls, elbow deep in tickets as they poured out of the machine faster then she could keep up with. She had scored a jackpot. Kaylee had been playing a game where your token rolls down a ramp and jumps through a hole in a wheel and you win the number of tokens listed by the hole. Kaylees first token went through the “Bonus” hole. Then she played again and her second token made it through the “Bonus” hole again. Winning her the 1000 ticket Jackpot.

So, I was wrong. She got much more than a tootsie roll. And being the sweetheart that she is, she gave Jenna half of her winning.

My 3rd child

2010-09-07T18:26:00.000-07:00

This is our dog. Sure she looks cute and innocent, but lets face it, this picture is almost 4 years old. Mackenzie is a devious dog, who on occasion has driven me to going on strike. She walks around acting cute and cuddly and oh so perfect, and then when your not looking she shoves her food stash under the living room curtains. Then she bounces around like a playful puppy playing footsies and wrestling on the floor until she has worn me out. Then when I go to sit for a second she grabs another stash and hides it behind the toilet. There was even an attempt to stash the food behind the water bowl, and the living room speakers. She doesn't try the shoe closet, but we all know that's because the kids have stinky feet. In the evening she lays at my feet and keeps my company, but every now and then she opens her eyes and glances around, I just know she is waiting for another opportunity to hide a stash under the couch. You would think that after 4 years of watching her stash disappear on a daily basis she would give up, but as I have said this is a devious dog.

This Labor day we had a BBQ. And as we are sitting around enjoying our day off we notice Mackenzie digging a hole in my garden. She was digging for a while so Javier went over to investigate. She has never dug in my garden before, usually when she is in the garden she is either hopping from one tier of the wall to the next, or ripping weeds out for me. Seeing Javier coming she quickly walked away, pretending nothing had happened, occasionally glancing back over her shoulder to see if he had found anything. When Javier got over to the garden the hole had been buried. Someone had seen her with some food and because of her habits of stashing food we wondered if that was what she had buried, so of course Javier dug to see what she was hiding. Yes, our dog dug a DEEP hole and buried and hot dog and a bun. This must be plan B. I wonder how many holes I have in my garden with food deposits.

Photos by whitney

2010-09-06T12:04:00.000-07:00

This summer we took a trip up to see our good friends the Niu's. Whitney is an awesomely talented photographer and during our visit she took us out for our own personal photo session. I have been wanting to do this type of photo session for years but Javier's work schedule has made it difficult to schedule. I am so grateful that we have such an awesome friend who was willing to do it for us.

Good bye Summer

2010-09-05T16:24:00.000-07:00

This summer went by way to quickly. I needed another month. We had so many plans for this summer, but there was not enough time. Javier put in for leave as soon as possible and we were told we could get the first week of August through the end of the month. This was perfect, it would give us 3 weeks to vacation before the kids went back to school. Of course the vacation got cut short, but we still enjoyed having daddy home for the last weeks of summer break.

I had been waiting to get the pictures from our vacation from my husband, but it's like pulling teeth, so I have decided to move on without them

We had planned to visit out families in California this summer, but Javier had a bad feeling about flying right now, so we had to stick to this side of the U.S. We did 3 days at the great wolf lodge, for the kids. And then we were off to Maryland for the Mackey-Niu reunion. On the way we passed by a sign for Andrea Lane. What luck, it's hard enough finding another Andrea. Finding a sign was fate. That's right, fate was screaming at my husband to take a picture so I could prove I was actually on this vacation (for those who are the ones usually taking the picture you know what I mean).

From here the subway doesn't seem so scary.

We took a Mackey-Niu trip to DC and found this shirt that says "you don't know me." The story behind the shirt? When Jenna was a year old and learning to talk Whitney tired to teach her to say "you don't know me" while bobbing her head from side to side. For the longest time Jenna would walk around bobbing her head from side to side saying "no no no me."

Look at that! I am in another picture.

Summer break is over. The kids are back in school. Most of our summer plans didn't happen. Javier got called on his first day of leave telling him he had been put on an upcoming jump and we had to cut our vacation short. Less than a week into the vacation we had to pack up and head home. Dispite being disappointed we still managed to find plenty of ways to enjoy the summer.

Little changes

2010-08-25T19:34:00.000-07:00

This time last year I made shelves for the closets in our office and my scrapbooking room. Less than a month after I finished the girls started asking for their own room. Then Javier came home from deployment and suggested we move the girls out of the bonus room so that we would have a bigger area for the office/guest room. After the hours I had out into building the shelves there was no way I was giving in....at least not for another year.

Last week I finally gave in and told the girls they could have their own rooms, but I was still feeling a little stubborn about tearing out the shelves I had built so instead I modified them. What started as a bitter chore has actually turned into a fun project for the family. Each of the girls has a different idea as to what she wants her room to look like, and as we all know, kids rooms are so much more fun to decorate. This weekend we finally get to paint. Yeah!!!

The office on the other hand is "Little mermaid blue" and I think I am going to leave it that way for a few weeks, I may even hang the flowers back on the wall next to all of Javier's Army memorabilia, just for fun. There is nothing that says "man cave" like butterflies and daisies. The only progress we have made in this room so far is moving everything out of the center of the room. At some point I will eventually have to make shelves for the closet so we can store everything out of sight.

Summer Camp 2010

2010-08-03T17:26:00.000-07:00

This summer the girls got an opportunity to go to Summer Camp. This is their first summer at camp so it was an adventure for all of us. On the first day of camp we rushed through check-in and then we were off to the cabins. We swung by Jenna's cabin first We were told to stay as long as we wanted and help the campers get settled in. Jenna however didn't need Mommy's help. By the time she had picked her bunk she had already made 3 new friends, and was ready to start her fun filled week. She kept telling me that I could go take Kaylee to her cabin, she was fine. So off we went.

Kaylee's Cabin was located next to the lake, lucky girl. She didn't even wait for me to get her bags inside before trying to kiss me goodbye. After getting her things set up I was ready to head out for a kid free week.

This seemed way to easy. It felt like I was forgetting something. So I headed back to Kaylee's cabin and asked her if she needed anything. She hugged me and told me she was good. Then I was sad, my little babies didn't need me anymore. I asked Kaylee if she wanted me to leave. She then looked at me and said "you can stay as long as you want to." But those little eyes said "please go."

Javier was supposed to arrive home the week before the girls left for camp, but as we have come to expect anything that can go wrong will go wrong. This time it was the simple mistake of someone forgetting to put in the paperwork to make sure that the troops actually had a plane to come home on. So Jav and I regrouped and made the best of this situation. Javier arrived home the day after the kids left for camp. Fortunately we never tell the kids when he is coming home till it is already time to pick him up. This gave us the opportunity to surprise them at camp.

For over a year now the girl have been asking for these American Girl dolls. We had thought they would lose interest in the dolls eventually, but instead they spent the entire deployment saving up to buy it themselves. So as a special treat Javier asked me to order them their dolls for being such big helpers while he was gone.

On the last day of camp Javier and I drove up together to surprise the girls. If we had gone with Javier's original plan I would have been hiding out of sight as Javier surprised the girls. But I got to be a part of the big day. We went to Jenna's cabin first. As soon as she saw me she came running over but then she caught sight of her dad, threw on the brakes, quickly shifted directions, and ran to give her daddy a hug. So there I stood.....all alone....waiting for someone to give me a hug.....someone...............anyone.............hello???

We then went to Kaylee's cabin. The doorway was blocked by a parent that had no interest in moving anytime soon. But Kaylee caught a glimpse of her father from inside. She called to him a couple times, almost uncertain that it was really him. Then she started shouting to him excitedly when she realized it really was him. "Daddy? Daddy? DADDY!!!!" And there I stood, once again, wishing someone would just give me a hug already.

We then got to the car, where the girls found their new dolls buckled in. Could this day possibly get any better. Uhh, Yeah! Because after long showers we had a full day of excitement already planned.

4th of July Weekend

2010-07-19T15:06:00.000-07:00

We have some good friends the Niu's who have been globe hopping since leaving Bragg. Fortunately for us the Army has finally moved them back to the East Coast. For 4th of July weekend they invited us to join them at Myrtle beach. We had just gotten back from visiting family in Tennessee and our suitcases were still packed so we transferred some of our stuff to a small bag and hit the road for a relaxing weekend on the beach.

Introducing Mt Mack-Niu. Thank you Whitney and Leland for an AWESOME weekend!!!

Kaylee turns 7

2010-07-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

Kaylee Turned 7 this month (sigh). I can't believe how big she has gotten. Each year we go through the ritual of mommy asking Kaylee to stop growing up, and then Kaylee reminding mommy that she will always be her baby. There are so many times I worry that I am running out of time with my kids. I worry that I am not doing my job right. I worry that they will change. And I worry about all the mistakes I have made as a parent. Fortunately I have two little girls who are very forgiving of my short comings and who show unconditional love.

This year for Birthday both of the girls were told that we were only going to have a small family party. So for Kaylee's birthday we celebrated a week early so that we could celebrate with the Uncles and grandparents. We celebrated on a Sunday after church, and when I asked her if I could get a picture to send to her daddy she decided to strike several poses. Jenna, who wants to be a fashion designer/chief/first woman on mars decided she also wants to be a photographer for the evening she told her sister how to pose.

There is nothing more fun than going shopping for toys, even mommy thinks so. Kaylee had such a short list of things she wanted this year, but on the list was a fur real friend. I went to the store and found miniature dogs, and squirrels, and monkeys. But nothing that I wouldn't want to throw away before the week was over. Then I found it, a little white kitten. I'm not really a cat fan, but this thing purrs and walks (how much cuter could it be). Forget Kaylee I was getting this for my own personal entertainment.

The morning after her party I woke up to meowing and purring and a cat walking across the room. But no one was there pushing the button, the little possessed kitten kept moving all over the room on its own. Dysfunctional toys are so much more fun than the normal ones.

While organizing some files on my computer this week I found some old picture of Kaylee that got misplaced. And since I am mourning her growing up it seemed appropriate to post a few from her younger years. Her and her friend Hannah took one of the boxes for the toys and decided to create thier own fun, pushing eachother around the house.

Over the river and through the woods

2010-07-01T09:33:00.000-07:00

After a week of doctors/orthodontist appointments and physicals for the kids we packed our bags and left for Grandmas house. Uncle Ben was coming home from his mission and we wanted to be there to welcome him home. My brother Spencer came home from serving his mission in Russia last fall and we weren't able to be there to welcome home, neither were any of the other siblings who had moved out, so we were going to make sure we were there this time. Ben served in the Pocatello Idaho mission. Welcome Home!!! While he was gone on his mission my girls would always refer to him as the Uncle who wears glasses as a way of remember who he is. With six uncles on my side alone it can be hard to keep straight who's- who. Being one of the younger Uncles, Ben would always play with them when they came to visit so they were excited to see him again, and ready for some good old rough housing.

After Ben was officially released from his mission we loaded up in our vehicles to finally go home. Me and the Girls rode with Uncle Joshua and Uncle Samuel. Samuel is the youngest out of 8 kids so he gets picked on a lot. At one point shortly after loading up Joshua mentioned the name of a girl that Samuel has a crush on. And form the back seats, as if on cue, Jenna and Kaylee started singing "who's that lady, sexy lady." Yes we can all thank the swiffer commercials for that one.

The last time we came for a visit we were only in town for 5 days, which was clearly not enough time. So this trip we planned to stay for 13. When we got there it felt like we had plenty of time to do everything. But the first week went by so fast and then there didn't seem to be enough time left. Most of our days were spent visiting and hanging out with family. On the 18th we took the girls to the gardens in Nashville

One of the things I miss the most about Tennessee (other than the grass, because that is really #1 on my list) is the fireflies. We spent so many evening outside catching fireflies and then letting them go. Even the gardens in Nashville were lit up with them.

So after 2 relaxing and dry weeks at the grandparents house we headed back to North Carolina where we got stuck in sever thunderstorms 95% of the drive. Roads that had normal speed limits of 65-70 mph were slowed down to 30-35 mph due to the fact you couldn't see very far past your windshield. It seemed that every 15-20 minutes we would pass an accident along the side of the road, usually with 4-6 cop cars as well. what would have been a 10.5 hour car ride took quite a bit longer. Every time we saw blue sky ahead the road would curve right back under the clouds. For the kids, the whole thing was exciting. It was dark and pouring and they had their snacks and a movie. what could be better. For mommy (who's car sends out "hit me" vibes) it was like being on a 10 hour roller coaster ride. The car managed to survive this drive without so much as a scratch, but didn't survive the walmart parking lot (obviously the hit me vibes also go out to shopping carts). Oh well, you win, you lose some.