Perspective

On a day like today with the horrible news coming out of Oklahoma this is what's important to me.....

There are very important people missing from these pictures, but you get my drift. Family and friends are everything. Tell people what they mean to you, how much you love them.....you may not get to tomorrow.

Photo Pass Pics from Disney

I received our edited photo pass pictures in the mail today.

Here are just a couple of my favorites.....

 

 One of the best things about Photo Pass is that you can get pictures of your whole group.

There have been many vacations that I have no pictures of myself at all because I am always the one taking the pics.  Not complaining because I do not like my picture taken but I know years down the road I will regret not getting more family photos.

 How cute is this of Sarah and Tinkerbell!

I didn't post the pic of Jacob and Stitch, he's just getting to old to be cool anymore.

I love that my mom is able to come with us.

Definitely memories I will cherish forever!!

I'm having serious Disney withdrawal so I was ecstatic to receive this cd in the mail today.

 

 



Mother's Day Weekend

My brother Ryan has a hard time thinking of what to give us for Christmas so this year he gave us a weekend in Detroit.  He planned the whole thing and treated us to everything

 So this past weekend we took off on Saturday morning to meet up with him. My other brother Josh and his family came too. 

We met at One Eyed Betty's for brunch. So delicious. It's in Ferndale and we would definitely go back there again. There was easily 50 beers on tap and another 50 in bottles. I enjoyed the bottomless mimosas. 

After brunch Ryan took us to see the Heidelberg project.  I had never heard of it so I had no idea what we were going to see.  Ryan told us we would be going into the heart of downtown Detroit, meaning not a great part of town. 

So apparently this artist bought up some property and decided to make an art gallery type of thing out of it.  I'm not sure if it started out as one house and just expanded or if he always intended to just keep buying up property.  I guess every house or every yard has a riddle. 

It's weird, strange, unusual, kinda icky.  I'm not sure how I felt about it.  I guess his intent was to turn a failing falling apart neighborhood into something people would drive to see.  Something people would talk about.  And if that was his goal he certainly achieved it.  I'm so glad we went.  Something I couldn't have imagined till I saw it. 

This house was just a house in the middle of all of it.  People lived here and they were profiting by having everyone and anyone pay $1 to sign their house.  They had a bucket of sharpie markers on the porch and the lady was collecting money.  The kids thought this was super cool and signed their names and the date.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chase met the artist and asked him a few questions.  I'm not sure what else I would ask except "why"

It's so weird. 

I hope its bringing money to the neighborhood and I'd be curious to go back in a couple years and see how its changed.

 After that adventure we went out to Belle Isle.  I had never been out there.

It's an awesome island with several old buildings on it. 

They were set up for the Detroit Grand Prix in a couple weeks.  Pretty cool that we drove on the track for a little bit.  We also went to the aquarium.  The building was built in 1903 and it was pretty much a bunch of fish tanks.  The picture below isn't that great but I was trying to get a picture of the ceiling.  It was like being down in a tunnel and the ceiling was all shades of green tiles.

 

 

Next door to the aquarium was the observatory.  Another amazing old building. 

Tons and tons of flowers and plants.  

 

After driving around the island we went and checked into the hotel.  We stayed at the

Hilton Garden Inn.  The kids were happy to hit the pool for a little bit and the parents were happy to hit the bar for a little bit. 

We got freshened up and went to dinner.

Ryan wanted to go to a bbq place that he thought we would love but it was packed with a really long wait.  So we ended up at Fishbones right by the casino.

It was really good but the waited was so busy with his crush on Ryan that he couldn't focus on what the heck he was doing.

 And then it was off to the Tigers game. BRRRRRRRRR It was so cold.  We were not dressed for a freezing cold game.  We bundled together and tried to stay warm.  I think that everyone had fun.

 Uncle Ryan and the crew!

 I really love this picture of Jeremy.  He looks like he knows what the heck is going on hmmmmmm......

 Sarah is all about the mascot!  He kept smooshing her head though.  I didn't get any decent photos.

 

The boys.

They don't look cold at all, they were freezing.

 

 

After the game we walked back to the hotel and the kids crashed in one room and the adults hung out in the other.  We sat around and talked for a long time.  Josh, Ryan, and I talked for a long time about the family and how crazy we all are. 

Poor Jeremy and Allison couldn't cut it and we were serenaded by their light snoring lol!

So sorry Jeremy and Allison were we keeping you up with our sibling bonding time???  lol

Soccer moms

I love being able to blog from my phone. Sorry for the errors but its so convenient.
I'm at the soccer field watching sarah practice.
The moms next to me are crazy.
They just met tonight, approx 41 minutes ago.
So far they have discussed their mixed families and how they hate their spouses ex-wifes. In detail, one even admits to slashing the tires on the exs car. Because of course her husbands paid for that car and she feels like if he can't drive it she shouldn't be able to either. But that was at the beginning of the relationship. She wouldn't do that now.
They love all the same books. Even though they've both read the Hunger Games series they proceed to talk about all the books. I no longer need to read the last two books.
Right now I'm getting a lesson on Xanax. Amazingly they both take it!! And love it, can't live without it. One claims her sex life is better, oh yes she said that.
They're discussing their daughters being overweight. One forces her daughter to play soccer so she'll lose weight. After all she is 10 and needs to start thinking about a boyfriend. OMG
I'm not a private person by any means but these two ladies are sharing stories that I wouldn't tell most people.
Practice is over they're folding up their chairs....is this the end....
"Nice talking to you"
After all that, that's all that's said.
I can't wait till next Wednesday.

FL, from Sarah's Point of View

 

We took two cameras on vacatoin.

Mainly because I wasn't sure that I would want to carry around the new big camera all day every day.

Sarah used the smaller camera everyday except the day at MK that I forgot the battery for the other one.  I have to admit she took some pretty good pictures.  I like to see what she thought was important enough to get a picture of.

 

 

 This first one is of me on our way to the airport. 

We were all super excited. 

She was taking all sorts of pictures.....



....including this one of herself and Duffy.

She was disapointed that we wouldn't let her take him with us. 

 



Once we got to my moms and she gave us the tour of their yard the picture taking got crazy.

I think she has 40-50 pictures of the flowers and bushes in my moms yard. 

We were amazed at the lemon tree and how huge the lemons were. 

This is actually a small one.

And another one of herself.  This was at the Upper Deck while we were manatee hunting.

And Goofy at Epcot.  I missed all these topiaries, it was so crowded.

I said I would take pics on the way out but then we were in a hurry.

I'm thankful she stopped to smell the topiaries, haha.

One thing that hasn't changed is my kids love of riding the monorail.

Granted you can't sit in the front anymore since the accident a few years ago but we still try to ride it a few times while we're at Disney.  I like the air conditioning and usually the lack of crowds. 

I love this picture.  It's funny because this is the ride these two loved the most.  I think they rode it at least 6 times possibly more. 

She captured both of them and the name of the ride, pretty good. 

 

I have several more Disney blogs coming up.  I am almost finished editing the pictures and then it will be time to decide which ones to order for scrap booking.

I'm having serious post Disney depression with some serious I already need another vacation blues!