Our Florida Trip

The first day we got into Florida we called Chelsea then went and picked her up and took her out to eat. This is the picture I got of them at the resturant. They're being nice to each other.

It was so cold there the 2 good days we were there. On Jan 2nd we went to animal kingdom. Chelsea got in free so while we were trying to get in she went and got everyone 1st time buttons, and she got herself a happy birthday Chelsea button. Everyone kept wishing her a happy birthday. Chelsea wanted an ice cream so her and John got one and since it was his 1st time at the park and her so called birthday they got free ice creams.

We went on a dinosaur ride, it was like you were in a jeep driving through rough bumpy roads and dinosaurs were coming out at you. The ride would speed up, slow down, and stop. Anyway he was scared had his head burried behind John and after we got off the ride I had to take this picture of him crying.

This is a tree in the park called the tree of life, it has all different kinds of animals carved into it.

Here Timon is giving Chelsea a hug because he thinks its her birthday. The other picture is of an upside down looking tree, they say it only has leaves on it 3 months out of the year.

After spending most of the day at animal kingdom Chelsea had to go to work, so we left the park and took her to work and this is the employee entrance way behind the park. We didn't go back to animal kingdom because it was just to cold and there were soooo many people.

On Jan 3rd while waiting for Chelsea to pack and call us so we could load up, we decided to go to putt putt golf. This golf place was called Hawaiian Rumble, the volcano waterfall behind him erupts every ten minutes, I was going to try and get a picture of it erupting but decided against it.

After putt putt golf Alex and John went on the go carts. On this course Alex was able to drive, on the better course he meet the height requirements but not the age requirement.
I took this picture of the pink flamigo while it was standing in the water. After I got home and looked at the picture the background was all black except the left side where you were able to see the water and grass, so I cropped the picture and I thought it looked cute.

Finally Home

We made it home about 5:00p.m. saturday evening. I sure hope this is the last trip I ever make to Florida. That's just to long of a drive. Then to top it off it was cold there, in the 40's. Lisa and her family along with Danny, Mom & Dad were there to greet us. They had a little welcome home party with pizza, brownies and long over due conversation.

While we were on the way home they fixed Chelsea's room up with balloons all over her bed and floating in the air. They also made a welcome home sign and taped it on the back door. They also made Alex a sign and put balloons in his room so he wouldn't be left out.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN...

It's that time to pickup Chelsea. We're headed out tomorrow morning early on that long dreaded trip to Florida. We're going to stay a couple days; make a visit to Animal Kindom, load Chelsea up and come home. It looks like the couple of days that we're going to be there will be cold, then warm up when we leave ( go and figure). I just hope to get home before any bad weather decides to hit.

Christmas Day

Finally Christmas morning, it came pretty quick. Our family opened our gifts on Christmas Morning. The only thing missing was Chelsea.

Alex is digging under the tree trying to find gifts that don't belong to Chelsea. I think all of ours have been opened.

We have dad bar-b-queing and John also has his grill going. Lisa and her kids came over along with John, Alex and me, Diane and her family don't come and have dinner with us. There's dad telling us food's done and let's eat.

Of all the family Vanessa is the one that don't need to exercise, but she's the only one doing it.

Lisa painted this picture her first one like this, and gave it to mom and dad for Christmas. This picture doesn't do that picture justice. She did it all freehand and she did an excellent job. She did another picture but it's in the drying stages now.

Here's Alex with one of his Christmas gifts, his electric guitar. Then below he is playing with his guitar hero game, while John watches.

Below is Lisa and Dad, Dad came and joined us for just a minute and while he was there I decided to take this picture.

I bought a new camera for myself, I've been trying it out. Not sure how to work it yet to get the best pictures. I have found a class that I will be taking that will teach me all about the features of an SLR 35m camera.

Chelsea called us today. I do think she misses home even though she says she doesn't, or maybe it's just because it Christmas and it makes her think of family. We just recently found out she's coming home, she has been saying she was going to stay, her and her roomate had talked about staying and getting an apartment. Now the talk is she is going to California, Arizona and Texas to visit her new friends. I don't blame her for wanting to get out of this little house and get out of this city, I hate it too.

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas eve with John's family at his parents house.

We had dinner about 7p.m. and around 11p.m. we opened gifts. Here's Alex gathering gifts and passing them out. In the background is John's mother and sister Sandi, on the couch is Sandi's daughter Jackie and Sandi's husband Tony. The other picture is John's brother David and his family, David jr and Becky.

I got this picture of the 3 Johns, but everyone in his family is either married to or named their child John. On another note Chelsea called us last night at midnight and everyone got to talk with her. She didn't have to work on Christmas eve, but she has to go in on Christmas day. She's begging us to keep the tree up so she can open see the tree and open her gifts by it. I'm still thinking about that, it's a real tree and it's been up since the beginning of December.

After all the gifts were open; the paper cleaned up and just before it was time to leave he decides it's chocolate pudding time.

Church Christmas Program

Last night was the 2nd showing of the Christmas program at Church. It should have been last sunday but since we had that snow storm, it was delayed until last night.

They had the children walk in shaking hand on the way. At first he was in the choir. Just over half way through he made his exit and did a costume change.

Then he became Joseph in the manger scene, and was seated above the choir.

They fixed up the baptistery.

The play was about a reporter doing an article on the birth of Jesus, trying to find the facts.

Work Luncheon

A few of the women I work with got together and had us a little Christmas luncheon. We invited the Principal to join us. Each of us brought some food and although there isn't many of us we had alot of food. After eating instead of going back to work we sit in the lounge for another hour and a half talking.

School Christmas Program

Today was the Christmas program at school, I was suppossed to take pictures of the program for a project the principal is doing. I ended up having to take a class in the afternoon, we had 3 teachers leave a 1/2 day and there were only 3 aids at work today so I didn't get to see the program. John came since he's on vacation this week, so I got him to take pictures.
Alex's class did a medley of 3 songs she made up a few years ago, the tune was to a few popular songs around.

When the class I had was up on stage, John got a picture of me peeking in the door.

HURRAY!

I just found out that Detroit Public Schools are closed tomorrow, which means I get to sleep in and relax tomorrow. I went out today about 4pm and the roads were still bad, I guess because of all the blowing. I had to run an errand, and then decided to look for boots for Alex. We were out last weekend and he didn't find any he liked. Today we hit 3 stores before we found something, I had to buy the boots a couple sizes to big, but no big deal maybe he can wear them next year.

Here's a picture of his snow Angel he made today.

Let it Snow!

Well! we're getting us a little snow storm today. According to the news we have about 7" already. I haven't been out yet to shovel so I'm not sure. Dad has been out to shovel, he said it was useless because it doesn't look like he did anything.
Above is my burning bush you can see how far up the snow is. This was about 7:30am. Below is the tree by my porch, looks like there's to much snow on it that it's making it lean.

I got these shots looking up and down the road, It's very beautiful but you can't see very far. It's not 8:45 am and it's still snowing. I've heard we are expected to get about 10", we need this next week for Christmas not now.

I hope this clears up by this evening, we have a Christmas play at church, and my son is in the choir and he is also Joseph.

I took these last 2 pictures about 2pm. Alex and John decided to get out into the snow, John cleaned up the sidewalk because it became a little bit more snow covered, not as much as I had to shovel. They let the dog out and she decides to have a taste. It's still snowing but very little.

December 13th

Today is John and my 21st anniversary, I came home from work with this surprise 2 dz roses. I can't remember if I've ever gotten flowers before.

The Twins

Carsyn looks like a little angel, but is she? It looks like she put Cooper under the table and wont let him out.