A Walk in the Park

Saturday, January 23, Evie and I met up with our friends Susan and Jennifer and Luke for a walk and to play on the playground. Jen caught some adorable pics of both Luke and Evie while we were there, like the one above. You can see more here.

The Family Photog

The pic above of Evie and my niece, Chloe, was taken at the Tallahassee Museum of Natural History by my dad during a visit on New Year's Eve. Dad has a SmugMug site (http://bill-carol.smugmug.com/ ) where he posts his pictures of our family gatherings, nature and other events and places he goes. He's not one for writing, so I think of it as his way of blogging.

Ever since I can remember, my dad has dabbled in photography. We traveled all over the country when we were kids, and I can vividly remember him waiting for what seemed like an hour for a bee to land in just the right spot on a flower on a hiking trail. Now that he is retired he gets to devote much more time to it, and I can tell it is something that brings him a lot of pleasure. And he's pretty good, too.

So, go check out his stuff. He has a lot of great shots of the grandkids (his, obviously) from the last few years and some truly beautiful scenes from places all over North Carolina (where he spends much of his time).
Love you, Daddy!

Merry Christmas 2009

Evie had a very wonderful Christmas. She loved all her toys (too many to mention in this blog) but off the top of my head she got three playtents, a dozen or so books, several stuffed animals, four puzzles, and a plethora of things that go beep-boop. The video above shows Evie's reaction to her toy car keys. Obviously she loves them!!

Her mouth was wide open with amazement for at least ten minutes. In the back of this picture you'll see the toy microwave Santa brought her. She loves to put all her toy food in there and make her own lunch.

Lastly you'll see this is her playing with her new cell phone that Grammy and Pops got her. We got done unwrapping presents several hours ago and she still hasn't let this thing go. Please note in this video we are only half way done with gifts. Wrapping paper was everywhere!!!

Best of Blake

And for the grand finale for this series of posts, I present the best of Blake. Folks, this is why I love this man. Cracks. Me. Up!

My own personal Viking...

With Mickey at O'Hana...

In Adventureland...

Before: 1 liter of beer (in Epcot's Germany).

After: 1 liter of beer (in Blake) (between that and the three plates of food from the buffet, he was a little full...)

Day Four

On our last day at Disney, we visited the Animal Kingdom, which neither of us had ever been to. This was our favorite of the three parks. Here we are with the Tree of Life in the background. Though it is fake, it is still beautiful and has animals carved into the trunk and roots.

Here I am with Mt. Everest in the background. This was hands down our favorite ride at Disney. A truly awesome roller coaster!

I'm always a fan of the gorillas. Asleep or not, they are just cool!

Ready to see It's Tough to Be a Bug in 3-D! (Don't be jealous of the hotness!)

For our last night at Disney, we went to the Spirit of Aloha dinner show at our resort. The food was great (though after our V&A experience, it paled in comparison) and the show was even better. We especially enjoyed the fired dancer at the end. A-mazing.

Day Three

On Monday, we visited the Magic Kingdom.

We kicked off our day with a ride on Space Mountain, then made our way through the "lands" from there. Best rides were the coasters: Space Mountain, Big Thunder Railroad and Splash Mountain. We also enjoyed Mickey's Philharmagic show (in 3-D).

On Monday evening we hopped on the Monorail over the the Grand Floridian Resort to see the Christmas decorations and for dinner at Victoria & Albert's. We had to make a quick shopping trip to Commander Porter's to pick up some dress shoes for Blake since he'd forgotten his back home...

One of our seven courses at Victoria & Alberts. Blake upgraded his main entree to waygu (Japanese beef I believe). Whatever it was, it was delicious!

Blake's dessert. We were so full, but enjoyed every morsel of our dinner at V&A's. Although it was very expensive, it was worth the money and we highly recommend the experience to anyone who loves good food and wine.

Day Two

On Sunday, we went to Epcot. Our first ride of the trip was Spaceship Earth in the big "golf ball." Best rides in Epcot are a tie between Soarin' and the Test Track.

Entering Morocco...

Here we are in China (our favorite of the countries)...

Making a phone call in England (not really, I just really love those red phone booths...)

Blake enjoying Japan...