Category: Photos

Our Week In Disney World – Part I – The Flight Down

Disney, Family, Photos, Travel

As some of you might know (especially if you read my wife’s blog), we just got back from a week-long trip to Disney World this past Saturday.  During the time away, we took notes of the days events so we wouldn’t forget what happened.  In addition to this, my wife and I (ok, mainly me) took a lot of photos.  How many?  Nearly 2,600.  Even after weeding out some of the duds (like many in-door shows with low lighting, no flash photo rules, and swift onstage action), there are over 2,100 photos that I’d like to share with everyone.  So, just like my Charleston trip last year, I’m going to break up the story of our Disney World trip into many posts.  Some will be stories of the days events.  Some will be "Photo of the Day" type posts (with explanations coming the next day).  Some will be series of photos along a common theme.

I’ll start, appropriately enough, with the trip down to Disney World.  By the Thursday night before our trip, I had run a backup of our laptop computers to our main desktop system and was backing that up to an external hard drive.  The idea was to store that off-site in my office in case anything happened to our house while we were away.  Unfortunately, the backup didn’t complete in time (Friday morning), so I let it run figuring that it’d be done by Saturday morning.  Since we were going with B’s parents, I could drop the hard drive off there.

Friday night, we got the kids into bed early and packed until the the clock said 1am.  The next morning, we were pretty much done and ready to go.  All of us except for the backup, though.  It was *still* running.  Finally, we had no more time and I figured that a partially complete backup was better than no backup at all.  I shut down the backup (and our computers) and dropped it off at B’s parents house before the trip.

We dropped our car off at the parking lot and they loaded our suitcases (4 plus 4 carry-ons) onto the bus.  After a short drive to the airport, we made a last-minute decision to use Disney’s Magical Express to handle our luggage.  It was so worth it!!!  4 carry-ons plus 4 checked bags carried by 2 adults just doesn’t work.  We would move forward in line by 2 feet and need to make trips to move all of our luggage forward.  Later on, when we were walking through Orlando International Airport, we counted our blessings that we just had 2 bags per adult and not 4!

When we got to security, NHL melted down.  He started crying and freaking out about taking off his shoes and going through the line.  It was understandable.  Here’s something new for him to do (even though we talked with him in advance) and he was still quite tired from waking up early.  After he went through security, however, he lauded it as his favorite part of the trip.  (This was before the airplane ride, though.)

After a wait for our plane to board, we experienced the Southwest Cattle Call.  You see, Southwest, unlike other airlines, doesn’t assign you seats.  Instead, you get "seating line numbers."  So instead of knowing that you’ll be sitting in row 9 seat B, you know you’ll be boarding with groups A, B, or C numbers 1 – 60.  We were lucky to be in group A31.  After A’s 1-30 boarded, we went aboard and easily secured two rows for ourselves and B’s parents.  I got a window seat with JSL between B and me.  NHL got a window seat behind me with B’s parents next to him.

We soon discovered that one of our flight attendents was a masquarading stand-up comic.  After takeoff, just before snacks were served, he announced that a couples’ "table is ready on the deck."  As we landed and the pilots engaged the breaks, he called out "Woah there Trigger" followed by horse noises.  He definitely made the flight an entertaining experience.  (If any Southwest management types are reading this, I don’t know his name, but I can provide flight numbers/days/times so he can be tracked down and commended.)

The flight itself was rather uneventful.  NHL had fun playing with B’s parents using activities we planned in advance.  JSL liked using his aquadoodle and looking at the snack menu.  He also fell asleep a half hour prior to landing.  Me?  I took photos.  I don’t get the opportunity to take photos above the clouds that often, so I took full advantage of my opportunity.

When we got to Orlando International Airport, we walked (and took a monorail) across the airport to the Disney Magical Express shuttle lines.  As I mentioned before, we were very thankful that we had done Disney Magical Express.  It was hard enough lugging 4 carry ons and two kids with us.  We didn’t need an additional 4 heavy suitcases as well.  When we got to the Magical Express shuttle, we got our first taste of Disney lines.  It was hot (90+) and the lines moved slowly, but we eventually got on the bus for our hotel.  The kids (and let’s face it, us adults too) excitedly saw the Disney World signs just before we got to our hotel.  We were finally in Disney World!

My Grandmother: A Life In Photos

Family, Life, Photos, Travel

Last week at this time, I was getting on board an airplane and heading down to see my parents and grandmother.  My grandmother, who turned 94 years old in October, isn’t doing that well.  Her memory has been going for some time, but lately she’s had other issues as well.  Conflicting reports from my parents either had her as heading downhill or at death’s door.  B and I decided that I should head down there to say goodbye as it might be the last time I get to see her.  The boys didn’t come because: 1) I didn’t want them to see great-grandma like that and 2) We didn’t want to pull NHL from school.  B stayed home with the boys, so I was on my own.

After seeing her in person, I don’t think she’s quite at death’s door, but she does seem to be giving up.  All she wants to do is sit and sleep.  I roped her into one game of backgammon but her only real contribution was rolling the dice.  About the only time that my "real grandmother" emerged was when I showed her some videos of the boys that I brought with me.  She smiled and laughed.  My father and I spoke about getting webcams set up so the boys could talk with Bubbe and Grandpa, but perhaps it would be theraputic if they were able to talk with Great-Grandma as well.  Something to think about.

While visiting, I got the chance to see a series of old photos of my grandmother’s.  My mother was trying to decide who to disburse them to when grandma passes away and I decided that they should first be scanned.  The scanned versions could be distributed to all of the kids/grandkids via CD or DVD (depending on how many photos there are).  This way, everyone gets all of the photos even though not everyone gets all of the prints.  My mother and I quickly went through the photos and organized them based on importance.  Photos of my grandparents and father/uncle while they were young got the highest importance.  Photos of me, my sister, or my cousins while they were young were the lowest.

When I went home, I took the 6 highest priority photos with me and scanned them in.  Here they are, along with a photo of my grandmother at her 94th birthday party and a photo of her from this past weekend.

JSL/Daddy Bonding Time

Fatherhood, JSL, Parenting, Photos

Last night, B’s parents took her and NHL to see Disney on Ice (check TheAngelForever.com as I’m sure my wife will post pics/videos soon).  JSL and I stayed home.  JSL wanted to watch TV.  Usually, this means recorded episodes of Blue’s Clues.  As I didn’t want to deal with tons of different Blue’s Clues episodes, I I looked through our DVDs to find a nice, long Blue’s Clues movie.  Instead, I happened upon "What’s the name of that Song?" from Sesame Street.  The DVD featured Super Grover and Elmo on the cover.  As soon as he saw it, JSL started chanting "Grover! Grover!"  So in went the DVD and we sat down on the couch to watch.

As the movie commenced, Super Grover is flying above the city wearing his helmet, cape and G on his chest-plate.  JSL chanted "Grover!  Hat!"  Yes, JSL, Grover is wearing a hat.  He watched the movie enthralled by it all.  He did get a bit annoyed when Grover wasn’t on screen though.  That’s my boy!  (I loved Grover growing up.  I had a stuffed Grover that I carried everywhere.  He’s still my favorite character.)  At the end, he kept pointing and laughing as Super Grover flew past the screen.  Then he signed and said "More!  More!  Grover!"  So we watched it again.  And again.  And again.  And again.  Yes, that’s 5 times.  I assure you, I *DO* know the name of that song as well as all of the lyrics and everything every character says.

During our bonding time, I decided to do a photographic experiment.  I found a sturdy perch for my camera, set the timer to 10 seconds, and took photos of JSL and myself.  JSL laughed whenever he saw his photo on the LCD screen.

JSL’s First Peanut Sunflower Butter Sandwich

Food, JSL, Photos

JSL has been a finicky eater recently.  He’ll eat crackers, cheese sticks, pizza, and cream cheese sandwiches.  Sometimes, he can be coaxed into eating chicken nuggets or macaroni and cheese.  However, he’s not eating much else.  This is surely the beginning of the Terrible Twos and him asserting his culinary independence.  We’re worried about his protein intake, however.

We keep a kosher kitchen and kosher meat is very expensive, so we mainly eat vegetarian style meals.  Peanut Butter would be a good protein source, but that’s a no-no for at least 5 more months.  Enter Sunbutter.  While doing some research on Peanut Butter alternatives, I stumbled upon a review of Sunbutter mentioning how good it was for little kids.  I checked a local natural foods store, but it was insanely expensive.  Another store was pricey too, but I decided to take a chance on it.

Tonight was our trial run.  The veggie dogs that we were eating for dinner didn’t interest JSL.  He liked the bun, but refused to take even the tiniest taste of veggie dog.  I decided to make him half of a Sunbutter sandwich.  He was in heaven.  He gobbled it down and asked for more.  B, NHL, and I even took a taste.  It has a very PB-like flavor with a hint of sunflower seeds.  This is definitely going into the JSL meal rotation.

 

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