Week 21

Back to our weekly gnome pictures. The boys were wondering why our little gnome wasn't being used but we decided to only use him when we go away. Anyway, you can tell this guy missed us. It's in the eyes.

What do you do when you're broke and no Boston Pizza heart shaped pizzas are on the agenda? Make your own. Not as good as Boston Pizza but at least I tried.

Great card made for Craig by Kaedo. Love that. Best Dad Award! Awesome!

Sterling helping me make the dough. He only stuck with it for a minute because he was absolutely disgusted.

Hope you had a great Valentine's Day.

Thought I should show you all the fun G-NOMEEE had on our trip. We carried him around with us so he could get into the action. It was lots of fun. Back to weekly gnome pictures on Tuesday.

Proud Canadian

Tonight I stayed up with the fam (Kaedo only made it until 11pm) and watched the opening of the 21 st Winter Olympiad. Tonight, as every night, I am very proud to be Canadian. What a magnificent representation of this great land we live in. I hope that everyone who visits here during these games gets the opportunity to relish in the awesomeness that is Canada.

So sad to see the Olympic and Canadian Flags flying at half mast tonight. Craig and I saw the footage of the Georgian athlete's crash this evening and were horrified and saddened by the events that took place. I was so moved to see the Georgian team participate in the opening ceremony, black arm band and heads held high while they honored their fallen comrade. If you have not seen the footage of the crash, don't. It is one of the most tragic things I have ever seen and I am thinking of all the "sliders" that must get on their sleds over the next 16 days. I don't know how they will do it.

To all my fellow Canadians - we should all be proud today, for all the world will see what a truly outstanding land we live in.

Autograph Hounds

Thought I would start here and show the pictures with the characters. We had so much fun doing this. The autograph books they had made held up perfectly and thanks to Annette we got some Sharpies that were easy for the characters to hold on to. I was so happy that they both wanted to do this. Such wonderful memories. With them being 10 and 12 there was no way of being certain they would do this so I can't tell you how happy I was that they wanted to participate. I even got to sneak into the picture with my favorite character.

The Princesses were hilarious. They teased the boys about being so handsome and they taught them how to hold the arm of a Princess. They were darling. Great memories. More to come. Keep checking back.

Lift Off!!!

We were blessed to get the opportunity to see the last scheduled night flight in the Shuttle Program. On Sunday the 7th we got up at 1am and drove to Titusville to see the 4:39:50am launch. at 4:35am the launch was scrubbed. It took us three hours to get back to the resort in all the traffic but we were bound and determined to return on Monday morning to give it another shot. We diligently watched the skies, hoping that the weather would hold up and give us the opportunity to see this once in a lifetime event. While I took 72 pictures of the launch I thought I would just show a few until I can get into the pictures and do some editing. We also have some video I will post soon.

The boys look exhausted because they were. No one is at their best at 4:14am.

The only way I can explain this to you is that as magical as Disney was - a perfect vacation in every way - the launch was something I will never forget. The feeling of being a part of history. Of being able to give that to my children. They can go to school tomorrow and tell all their friends about this. I am certain they are the only kids in their school who have been a part of something like this. Jessica said something funny to Craig on the phone that made me laugh. "How come we travel all over and never get this chance and you take one trip and see the launch. What the Hell?" I am not a religious person, but really felt blessed to see something like this. We all agreed that on a scale of 1-5 this was a 500 in our wonderful memories file.

As I said before, there are 4 more launches between now and September when the program is being disbanded. If you have the opportunity, YOU MUST see this. You will never forget it.