100th post

To copy a friend, this is my 100th blog at this address.
We are here in Florida enjoying the sun and warmth - although at times a little too warm.
Justin ended up with heat stroke and dehydration today and had to cut his fun short. We went to all four Disney World parks in two days and have been back to Epcot and Magic kingdom for 2nd visits today. Jared and Kamryn have been much better than I expected. They were fantastic on our 6 hour plane trip here (1 1/2 hrs on the ground in St Louis - on the plane at the gate that whole time waiting for a pilot to fly our plane).
We're going to Typhoon Lagoon tomorrow - the greatest water park I've ever been to and then Thursday we board the ship for the cruise!!! I"m very much looking forward to relaxing and slowing down the pace. More reports when we get back (we'rehaving to pay for the internet here).

We're Off

We're off to DisneyWorld tomorrow. My parents are taking their children, spouses, and grandchildren (32 people total) to DisneyWorld and on the Disney Cruise. We've been planning this for almost 2 years and I can't believe it's finally here. We spend from Sunday afternoon to Thursday morning at the parks and then Thur afternoon to Sunday morning on the cruise. To me, it's the perfect combo vacation. The parks are fun yet exhausting and then you get to go on the cruise and relax.
We're flying on Southwest tomorrow, stopping in St Louis just long enough to drop off passengers and pick up new ones. It's over 5 hours flying time. I hope we survive.
I hope to post updates about the trip while we're gone but no promises.

Swimming

I've taken Jared and Kamryn swimming twice in the last week. I've been concerned that they like the water since we are going on vacation to Florida and I want them to have fun at the water parks, in the pool and at the beach.
I don't have to worry about Kamryn - she loves it and has no fear. It's so much to watch her. At the rec center behind our house they have two indoor pools that are perfect for toddlers. One is the splash zone and has a frog slide and lots of water "toys" and a playground to climb on and a regular enclosed water slide. She loves the frog slide and went down about 50 times in a row.
Now, Jared, on the other hand, does not love it. The first time he didn't really want to get in but I made him. He was okay as long as he was clinging to me and eventually that turned into sitting on my lap and watching his sister have fun. I feel bad for him that he's so hesitant about some things while she goes out and has a good time.
After about an hour he finally had made some progress and was playing in the "umbrella" feature. Well, Kamryn headed off to the playground and that was too far away to go on her own. So I took Jared and we followed her. They had fun playing on it and Jared seemed to really like it since he was kind of out of the water. Kamryn watched the kids do down the slide and I could tell she wanted to go. I couldn't send her down by herself so I had to go with her and I couldn't Jared up there by himself so he had to go with us. So I went down the slide with both of them on my lap. It turned out fine and they LOVED IT - even Jared. So we did that about 20 times in a row. I was exhausted and ready to go home. They didn't want to leave but this was on Friday, early day in our area, and the pool was getting too crowded for me.
We went again on Monday and repeated exactly the same thing as Friday - Kamryn loved it from the beginning and Jared had to sit and watch and warm up to the fun.
It's funny how different they are.
I wish I had pictures to post of them swimming but that's impossible since I'm the only adult there with them.

Taxes

I don't know if I'm going to survive the TAXES this year. I've never done such a complicated return. I, of course, use Turbo Tax and even with that I'm going crazy. We sold some stock my grandpa had given me and that's a headache and we also bought some Layton company stock and that's an even BIGGER headache. Paul and I were up until 1:00 am last night and we still couldn't get the taxes accepted to file online. And of course we owe money! I guess I'm going to have to actually mail our return this year. I can't wait until tomorrow and the paperwork is gone and I can put this huge file away and forget about it.

St George, part 2

How many kids can you get in one tub? We could believe how dirty the water
was when they were done.

Jared and Kamryn with their friend Ellie, watching "george".

Game night with 3 families - we were playing golf.

Okay, a week later I'm finally getting back to write about St George.
Friends in our ward invited us to go down to St George and stay with them for spring break.
We drove down Wednesday after school. In my car we had Taylor and 2 of his friends in the back seat, Jared and Kamryn in the middle and Justin in the front with me. I must have told him several times that I can't wait until he can drive. I didn't mind driving and wasn't tired (especially after we stopped and I got a diet coke with lime). I was very nice to my teenage son and let him play his music the whole way down. We listened to The Who, Styx, Queen and then he put in Led Zeppelin. I could only stand 2 songs from that CD but those two songs lasted for 15 minutes. (I thought of putting links to all of those bands but who has time or cares). I was totally shocked when he put in a Sade CD. Now, this was a CD he burned with the Sade songs he likes. I was glad to find out that he can branch out a little bit.
So our drive down went by quickly and we were to St George by 6:40. My friend's house is BIG and NICE and NEW. I would love to trade her houses. It reminded me of Phoenix so much.
We went to chuck-a-rama for dinner with 3 mom's and 12 kids!
Most of the weekend we just hung out and rested and relaxed. I should have taken more pictures but I was being too lazy to get up and get the camera. We had fun playing pool and ping pong in their garage, watching movies, going swimming and playing games. The kids also went to the park and played soccer and volleyball and tag.
It was a fun getaway and we look forward to going again.

St George

Just a quick post (with more to follow after I download pictures) ...
We just got home from St George - 4 hrs and not one stop !!!! That's a miracle when you are traveling with 7 people - two toddlers and a mom who usually has to make 2-3 stops for the bathroom.
We had a great time and enjoyed being with great friends. More details to come. Now I've got to get ready for Easter!!
Good-night