A Smile in my Heart–Magical Week of Friends,Fun & Freezing-10/28-COMPLETE!

[Stasieki]

Great updates! The pictures of the kids running to thier grandparents melted my heart.

 

[mermaid764]

Great update!

I love all the pics of your kids in the photo ops by Tony's...such a neat area!

Your meal there sounds delicious and makes me more excited to try it next month.

I also love Katie and Emily's jackets...did you get those at WDW?

 

[mommytothreeboys]

All those photo ops are great! I had no idea they were there!

Great pictures...all of them! I feel like I'm there when I look at your pics!

I love the "my brother is a not so scary pirate" picture...way too cute!

 

[lovebuzzandwoody]

LOL! Nope, just PB&J! But looks like you understood what I was saying, so what did you have for lunch?

Pizza ~ hold the martinis!

 

[mom2mek]

Beautiful update!

We had dinner at Tony's and really enjoyed it too. Love the area in the back for pictures. The girls had a blast back there.

Your pictures with that blue, blue sky really are gorgeous. I'm so glad to see Emily getting in the pictures with the characters. Chip and Dale are Danielle's favorite. Chip was the character to get her over her fear of characters on her first trip when she was 3.

My heart is melting looking at the pictures of the kids greeting their grandparents. What a special moment.

Thanks Vanessa. Now you probably see why this was my most favorite day of the trip! Even though there was a chill in the air, it was a gorgeous day spent with friends and then family! I'm not quite sure what got Emily out of her shyness to start getting in more character pics, but I was happy about it!

Love all the balloon pictures, they much such need pictures I think. Especially with the crisp blue sky.

Glad you guys enjoyed Tony's. We love it there too and I know it often gets bad reviews. More space for us then, right?

The creepy picture of Michael taking a picture of you taking a picture of him didn't show up.

The pictures of the kids running to their grandparents are priceless!! Love them! What great timing!

I love those balloon pics too, Michelle! Make me smile! I was very pleased with Tony's! It certainly isn't gourmet Italian food, but we aren't gourmet people, nor are we Italian so it was just right for us!

I am not so sure... they don't like face paint.



Did you have martinis for lunch today, Michelle?

I loved the balloon pics too! Those wintertime blue skies in the south are heavenly to this "raised in the gray north" girl!

Sara, I feel like your family has relocated to Disney World!

LOL Nicole - well your boys could do one of the less intense pirate packages, that don't have as much make-up. I like the little mustache one they do!

Ahhh....wouldn't that be nice? To live at Disney World? I call the castle!

Great updates! The pictures of the kids running to thier grandparents melted my heart.

Aww..thanks! You would think they never see them! (They are local and my kids see them all the time....lol, but I guess at Disney, it's different, right?)

Great update!

I love all the pics of your kids in the photo ops by Tony's...such a neat area!

Your meal there sounds delicious and makes me more excited to try it next month.

I also love Katie and Emily's jackets...did you get those at WDW?

We really enjoyed Tony's - hope you do too! Next month? Woo-hoo!

Nope - I got the jackets at a Disney Store Outlet in Potomac Mills. They were like $7!! They so reminded me of my junior high show choir jackets with that sheen material!!

All those photo ops are great! I had no idea they were there!

Great pictures...all of them! I feel like I'm there when I look at your pics!

I love the "my brother is a not so scary pirate" picture...way too cute!

Thanks Missy! Not quite sure why all the pictures are showing up ginormous in the posts - I have sized them all the same. But anyways, glad you like them!

LOL! Nope, just PB&J! But looks like you understood what I was saying, so what did you have for lunch?

Pizza ~ hold the martinis!

Hmmm...I'll have the martinis...hold the pizza!

Sara

 

[*dreamit*doit*]

Sara!!!! I haven't forgotten about you...I've just been a bad DISfriend! Sorry! I'm on my way to catch up now. Hope you've been having a good summer. My girls have been keeping me busy but it's been good-busy and fun-busy...oh, yeah, and we also went up to WDW for a few days! I'll be back once I'm caught up!


It's worse than I thought!! I just realized you already started your TR from your trip with your mom! Ok, catching up here and then going straight there!!

**************************

Okay, so I caught up here! There's so much I want to say, I don't know where to start!!

I'm just going to throw a few things out here in no particular order:

- LOVE the pictures of your kids running up to their grandparents! Got me teary-eyed.

- Shawn's pics of Illuminations are stunning!!!

- Since we're talking about Shawn...was he making up for his rogue move on TSM by bringing you the Pina Colava later on?? (Really, I'm glad you can laugh about it now...sort of.)

- It's awesome how your kids and Monica's have formed such a nice friendship...just like their moms!

- Stinks that you didn't get to see Michelle before she left back home (which I just realized is in South Florida, too, just like me!! Hi Michelle!)

- I'm so happy that you got to go into One Man's Dream! I haven't yet and every trip I say I will!! Like this latest one, but then didn't. I think it's because I think I'm the only one who will be interested in it. But really, I'll bet DD6 Miren would like it, too. We have some Disney trivia books and a through-the-years book she loves to read. Yup, definitely doing it next time.

- Your change-of-plans night turned out great! Don't you love when that happens? Can't go wrong with Kona! I just had my first LapuLapu on this latest trip...YUM!! I'd like one right now, please and thank you.

- Miren has a pressed coin collection, too. It's a pretty neat and inexpensive souvenir, and fun to go around to the different machines. Your night sounds like such a special treat for Emily. I bet she'll remember that.

- And, I LOVE that fancy Minnie!! She's the cutest; I've never seen her! She will be on my radar next time we are there.

I'm sure there's more, but that's all for now. Heading over to your other TR now. Look at you with your two TR's!! I'm barely keeping up with mine from our December trip, and I think I want to do one for our June trip because I have lots of pics I want to share...we'll see!

 

[mom2mek]

Sara!!!! I haven't forgotten about you...I've just been a bad DISfriend! Sorry! I'm on my way to catch up now. Hope you've been having a good summer. My girls have been keeping me busy but it's been good-busy and fun-busy...oh, yeah, and we also went up to WDW for a few days! I'll be back once I'm caught up!


It's worse than I thought!! I just realized you already started your TR from your trip with your mom! Ok, catching up here and then going straight there!!

**************************

Okay, so I caught up here! There's so much I want to say, I don't know where to start!!

I'm just going to throw a few things out here in no particular order:

- LOVE the pictures of your kids running up to their grandparents! Got me teary-eyed.

- Shawn's pics of Illuminations are stunning!!!

- Since we're talking about Shawn...was he making up for his rogue move on TSM by bringing you the Pina Colava later on?? (Really, I'm glad you can laugh about it now...sort of.)

- It's awesome how your kids and Monica's have formed such a nice friendship...just like their moms!

- Stinks that you didn't get to see Michelle before she left back home (which I just realized is in South Florida, too, just like me!! Hi Michelle!)

- I'm so happy that you got to go into One Man's Dream! I haven't yet and every trip I say I will!! Like this latest one, but then didn't. I think it's because I think I'm the only one who will be interested in it. But really, I'll bet DD6 Miren would like it, too. We have some Disney trivia books and a through-the-years book she loves to read. Yup, definitely doing it next time.

- Your change-of-plans night turned out great! Don't you love when that happens? Can't go wrong with Kona! I just had my first LapuLapu on this latest trip...YUM!! I'd like one right now, please and thank you.

- Miren has a pressed coin collection, too. It's a pretty neat and inexpensive souvenir, and fun to go around to the different machines. Your night sounds like such a special treat for Emily. I bet she'll remember that.

- And, I LOVE that fancy Minnie!! She's the cutest; I've never seen her! She will be on my radar next time we are there.

I'm sure there's more, but that's all for now. Heading over to your other TR now. Look at you with your two TR's!! I'm barely keeping up with mine from our December trip, and I think I want to do one for our June trip because I have lots of pics I want to share...we'll see!

Wow - look at you!! You are so funny! I'm glad you are back and posting though - can't wait to read more about your December (and now your June) trips!!

I do have two reports going at the same time and I don't know why I do considering the fact that I am SO slow to write ONE report! Oh well...it helps pass the time until the next trip...whenever that may be....

I never really thought about the fact that Shawn may have been trying to "make up" for his rogue moment by grabbing that Pina Colava for me!!

Yep - our kids are great friends. We have been to the beach together as well as Disney and they get along great! I'm so blessed to have found such wonderful friends (and it's all thank to the DIS ).

Definitely try One Man's Dream next time - it's great!

Thanks for the compliments! Glad to have you back!

Sara

 

[mkluvsmickey]

- Stinks that you didn't get to see Michelle before she left back home (which I just realized is in South Florida, too, just like me!! Hi Michelle!)
[/SIZE]

Hey neighbor!

 

[therussells08]

Great updates! I love all the PP pictures from your trip! And I can't believe how blue that sky was! It's beautiful!!

The pictures of your kids running up to greet their surprise visitors.. So cute!

 

[mom2mek]

Great updates! I love all the PP pictures from your trip! And I can't believe how blue that sky was! It's beautiful!!

The pictures of your kids running up to greet their surprise visitors.. So cute!

Thanks! It was a gorgeous day, that's for sure!

Sara

 

[mom2mek]

Day 4 - February 10, 2010
Magic Kingdom (but back at the Poly)
Chapter 5

After the reunion on the beach, the kids were very eager to show the Poly off to the grandparents! First though, the grandparents wanted to check out their room in Hawaii....CLUB LEVEL, baby!!!

We had originally planned to spend the first part of our trip offsite and the last 4 days of our trip staying at the Poly in Club level, but decided on a standard garden view room for the entire trip when they came out with the 7 days for the price of 4 promotion. My parents kept their initial reservation for the club level though. The travel agent made the reservations linked so that the kids would be on both rooms and we wouldn't feel weird about them staying in the grandparents' room on some of the nights.

Clearly, since my parents had already checked in at the GCH, they weren't aware of the fact that as club level guests, they could have gone to the desk outside the GCH and had a golf cart take them around to Hawaii where the Concierge CMs would check them in to their room. No worries though, they just walked into the lobby of Hawaii and went straight to the elevator. They had a garden view room on the 3rd floor and had a lovely view of the quiet pool. Kind of funny that our view in Samoa was actually better than their view, but of course, we didn't have the awesome club benefits.

Funny story though...as they were walking towards their room, someone on the lagoon side opened their door to come out and my step-dad said, "hey, next time we should ask for a room on that side - they can see the castle over there"! LOL! My mom and I about died laughing - as if it's just a matter of "asking" or "luck of the draw"!

Here was their view:

The kids were dying to go swimming and since it was a beautiful day with no rain in sight, we obliged. On our way out, we stopped in the lounge to see what it was like. I immediately knew my parents were going to love it here. Even though they didn't have lagoon view in their room, they LOVED the view out of the concierge lounge!

(sorry, cell phone pic)

(Katie wanted to pose like all the tikis she saw throughout the Poly)

So, since we drove to FL from VA, we carried the kids' shorty wetsuits with us along with Shawn's and my step-dads. We figured if the kids were going to want to swim, we should be prepared to not be so cold. The 7 of us walked over to our room - so conveniently located right outside the door of Hawaii, and showed them our room and view. We grabbed Pop Pop's wetsuit out of our stuff and they headed back to Hawaii for him to change. We would meet them at the pool in a few minutes.

Before we went down, of course Michael had to jump in the shower to get that pirate makeup off. He scrubbed for a few minutes and was able to get most of it off fairly easily, however he still looks like he has some eyeliner on, no?

(I love this pic...totally cracks me up)

I had to go back and look it up, but the high temperature for that day was around 59 degrees. I'm going to guess that since it was around 3:30 by the time we got out there, it was probably a little bit colder than that. So yes, it was a wee bit chilly for swimming, but oh well....we were going for it - I say "we" but I mean "they" as there was no way I was getting in ). We were actually surprised at the fact that we weren't the only people at the pool when we walked past! We saw at least 3 or 4 other people! LOL! At least we weren't the only crazy ones!

The pool is heated to like 84 degrees and there was steam rising off of it since the air was so chilly. My mom and I laughed at the fact that the lifeguards look like they were on an ice fishing trip! I don't quite know how they would have "rescued" anyone with all that gear on!! The kids walked right into the pool thanks to the zero entry and were very comfortable in the water. After a few minutes of floating around, they wanted to try out the slide. I walked over to the marina to grab lifejackets for the girls to use when coming down the slide since I wasn't sure how deep it was over there. They all loved the slide and as soon as they came down, they would jump out and run back up to do it again. Thankfully since it was so cold, they didn't really have to share the slide with anyone else!


Here comes Shawn:

Next up...Michael:

Katie waiting at the top....

Katie coming down. Funny thing is she would hold her nose but then she would open her mouth just as she was about to hit the water (starting to hold her breath). She kept getting mouthfuls of water until I told her she needed to hold her breath BEFORE hitting the water!!

I missed Emily coming down the slide, but here she is right after:

Here comes Katie again:

A happy girl:

And this would be Pop Pop! He always came down with a lot of fanfare and screaming louder than the kids (all for show of course...)

Here is a short video of Shawn coming down the slide (starts with Michael and then Shawn sits down and waits for the light to turn green before going down). Just click on the picture for it to work:



After about an hour, they were done with the pool and really wanted a nice, warm shower. Shawn left a few minutes before me and the kids so he could jump in first, and then I got the kids out and dried off before heading back to the room to get them warmed up!

Up next...we are back to the Magic Kingdom!

Sara

 

[mkluvsmickey]

Yep, looks like your son is wearing guy-liner with his wetsuit!

Wow, brave kids and men to brave that pool! No way I'd get in there. It looks like they had a great time though. Must have been freezing to get out and walk up the slide though.

 

[mom2mek]

Yep, looks like your son is wearing guy-liner with his wetsuit!

Wow, brave kids and men to brave that pool! No way I'd get in there. It looks like they had a great time though. Must have been freezing to get out and walk up the slide though.

I know, right? But it is cute though - he would have made a pretty girl! (Don't tell him I said that) Or an 80's glam-band member!!

Yeah, the getting out was definitely the hard part. Their teeth were chattering almost immediately so it was good they didn't have to wait long to go down the slide and back into the warm pool again! I was standing outside of the pool in my long pants, shirt, and thick sweater!

Sara


Again...sorry the pics are showing up so ginormous! I swear I have sized them all the same (and doublechecked the sizes after the fact) - they shouldn't be this big. Hopefully they will switch back to normal size eventually.

 

[mermaid764]

The pic with the three of them in their wetsuits is too cute.

It was a good thing you brought along the wetsuits so they could at least try the pool out.

Your TR is making me want to stay at the Poly even more

 

[vamassey1]

Wow that pirate make up didn't stay on long. He really is rocking that guy-liner and I do agree he would make a pretty girl. Love the picture of the kids in the elevator.

It's amazing how it is never too cold for kids to swim. Me on the other hand, I have no problem sitting out and watching.

 

[mommytothreeboys]

Love the little wetsuits!

I'm with you on not swimming on a day like that...it has to be a good 80 degrees before I want to hit the pool! Good for the kids for making the best of it though. They look like they are having a blast!

Love the picture of Katie posing with the Tiki! I make my kids do the poses at the Maharajah Trek in AK...they think I'm so silly, but it's a great photo op!

 

[mom2mek]

The pic with the three of them in their wetsuits is too cute.

It was a good thing you brought along the wetsuits so they could at least try the pool out.

Your TR is making me want to stay at the Poly even more

Thanks! I love that elevator shot! So fun! Yes, the adults who swam were especially grateful for the wetsuits! The kids probably would have gotten in regardless!

Wow that pirate make up didn't stay on long. He really is rocking that guy-liner and I do agree he would make a pretty girl. Love the picture of the kids in the elevator.

It's amazing how it is never too cold for kids to swim. Me on the other hand, I have no problem sitting out and watching.

Yeah, if we weren't going swimming right then, I probably would have had him keep the makeup on a little bit longer....he had it on about 3 hours total I guess. Oh well. It was nice to have my little boy back!

It's true about kids and swimming. Wonder why my kids have shorty wetsuits?? My parents have a pool, and when they open it at the end of APril or early May, the water is BONE COLD!!! But the kids still want to get in it. They will wear the short suits and still turn blue around the lips!

Love the little wetsuits!

I'm with you on not swimming on a day like that...it has to be a good 80 degrees before I want to hit the pool! Good for the kids for making the best of it though. They look like they are having a blast!

Love the picture of Katie posing with the Tiki! I make my kids do the poses at the Maharajah Trek in AK...they think I'm so silly, but it's a great photo op!

Yeah - they loved the pool. And honestly, the water did feel nice (I felt it with my hand) considering how chilly the air was - it was like one big giant hot tub! That getting out part is the killer!

Sara

 

[mom2mek]

Day 4 - February 10, 2010
Magic Kingdom
Chapter 6

After the chilly swim, the kids and Shawn got cleaned up (and warmed up) and we met Grandmommy and Pop Pop back up at the monorail station to head to the Magic Kingdom for some dinner, Spectro, and whatever else...

First picture of the two of them for this trip...

(Aren’t they cute??)

We arrived around 6:00 - Spectro was at 7:00 and Wishes was at 8:00 that night and we had plenty of time to grab something quick to eat and find our spot to watch Spectro. Tonight was the night I was hoping to finally grab some great seats for Spectro!!! I was also really looking forward to trying out Columbia Harbour House for the first time! We made our way down Main St and towards Liberty Square where we were going to meet up with Monica and her family for the parade.

Woo-hoo!!! Score on the great parade spot. We found our seats right in front of the Hall of Presidents where we had the nice planters to sit down on and enough room for the kids to sit on the ground in front of us, without any extra room for parade encroachers. I was very excited to finally get these great seats and what was better was they are right near CHH! Monica's Mom Peggy had gone with her sister and BIL (remember, they came and joined us for dinner the night before at Kona) to try and use up some of their snack credits that they had left before they were leaving that night to drive home to Ohio. Dave offered to go with Shawn, Michael, and Hunter to ride Space Mountain with the fastpasses from earlier and I offered to go get our dinner and bring it back to our "planter" seats to eat. My parents decided to come with me and get their dinner too, but they just sat inside the restaurant (where it was warm) to eat while I took our food back outside to sit with Monica. I was so sad that they were leaving that night, and wanted to have more time to talk with one of my best friends.

Sometime on the way to Liberty Square, Katie fell asleep in the stroller, but I went ahead and got a fish platter for the girls to split in case she woke up at some point. My kids all love fried fish, but just in case, I also got the chicken and fish platter for myself in case if they didn't like ithe fish, they could have some of the chicken. Well, no worries, Emily loved it, and when the boys got back from riding Space, Michael loved it too. Shawn had the fried shrimp and also enjoyed his dinner as well. With 3 CS meals, we had 3 desserts – 2 chocolate cakes and 1 apple cobbler thingamabob. Delicious! Everyone was pleasantly full. My parents got back about 6:45 and we all settled in for the show.

Shawn had ordered a small tripod to try and get some good shots of Spectro and the fireworks, so he went to work getting it set up. Unfortunately, as you will see from the pics, something wasn't set right and practically none of his photos turned out.

(This was the view across from where we were sitting – just thought it was kind of a neat picture with the Liberty Square CM next to the people covered with an American flag blanket).

Spectro was great as usual and our seats were fantastic. It was so nice to not have to worry about someone trying to infringe on our space. We adults had seats on the planters, the girls (Katie was still asleep) were in the stroller right in front of my parents and right up to the rope, and the boys (and Shawn) were on the ground right in front of us and right up at the rope. Around 7:10, we could hear the parade nearing closer to Liberty Square with those first few bars of the Spectro music playing, the lights in the park dimmed low….and we were ready to sit back and enjoy this most beautiful parade. I swear I feel just like I’m 5 again when I’m watching it.

Look everyone, it’s blurry Mickey:

I actually thought this one was pretty cool and wouldn’t let Shawn delete it:

As the parade finished up, we were all really cold but decided that we had one more ride on our radar!! Big Thunder Mountain Railroad!!! Monica and I managed to convince Shawn to ride it with Emily so we could ride together since he was originally going to sit it out. “Please honey, ride with your daughter so I can scream and holler with one of my best friends in the seat behind you”! LOL! He obliged so we were off. My parents graciously offered to take Katie who was still asleep in the stroller and go shopping in the warm stores until we would meet back up on Main St later. The boys rode together (thus completing the four rides they had determined were the ones they wanted to do together), Monica and I rode together, and Shawn rode with Emily.

As you can see from these next few pictures, Hunter was still full-force "cursed pirate"!!! Michael was still rocking the guy-liner look even after a shower, a swim, and another shower!

Ahhh…sweetness –such good buddies!

Monica, Dave, Hunter, and Michael all had hoodies on and Shawn had a cap so they all had them up over their heads as we approached the cold outside temperatures and the fast-paced runaway train. Emily and I, on the other hand, did not have anything over our heads. We totally could have used a pair of earmuffs that night!!

We literally boarded Thunder Mountain right before 8:00 (one of the last trains of the night) so as we came off that first big hill and out into the (very) cold night air, the fireworks had just started! It was so cool to be riding around Thunder Mountain with our very own fireworks show! Funny how far back those fireworks actually are from the castle.

Shawn snapped this after we got off the ride:

After our exhilarating (i.e. COLD) ride on Thunder Mountain, I took Emily to use the deserted bathrooms over by Splash Mountain (hitting up the pressed penny machine right there too) and then we headed back to the group and slowly made our way towards the castle hub. We took our time since we knew it would be crowded at the hub, and Frontierland was completely deserted – like a ghost town. We wanted to give the hub plenty of time to clear out!!

As we arrived to the castle, Shawn grabbed some pictures:

We saw a photopass photographer and put him to work:

Our Thunder Mountain riding group:

Monica cropped this photopass shot of Shawn and I….LOL! I kind of like it!

I cropped this one of the boys:

A picture I took with my cell phone - sorry for the bad quality, but I thought it was neat how the castle's colors matched Emily's jacket!

We started to say our goodbyes to our friends as we made our way down Main Street. I couldn’t believe they were driving back to Ohio that night. I think it’s like a 16 hour drive or something! Yikes.

I felt so blessed to have “lived in the same town” as Monica and her family for those few days. We all had such a blast together and I hope we are able to do it again soon.

With our friends disappearing out of the Magic Kingdom gates, we set off to find the grandparents somewhere in the stores. Before too long, we found Pop Pop and Grandmommy shopping, and Katie still asleep in the stroller. They had made quite a few purchases already and had enjoyed their time shopping. I think they did a little shopping in the Christmas shop in Liberty Square after Spectro, and sort of watched the fireworks (or what they could see of them) from that area as well so as not to wake Katie up by getting too close. In all honesty, I don’t think anything would have woken her up at that point. Then they made their way to the shops on Main St as soon as the fireworks were over and tried to stay warm indoors while waiting for us.

As Main St got more and more deserted (didn’t take long that night) Shawn set up his tripod to try and get some castle shots. It was kind of funny to see people walk up to Shawn and give him their photopass card to take a picture of them – I guess having his tripod was all he needed to make him look official…no need for something practical like, oh I don’t know, a “costume”!

Michael and Pop Pop played and goofed off (yes, Michael carried his pirate sword around with him that night – the makeup might have been gone, but the spirit lived on…LOL)

(Ha! And Michael thought his buddy was gone….this buddy just happened to be 64, not 8…but amazingly had the same goofy personality! Something about Disney turns Pop Pop into a kid again…)

(This would be right around the time that Michael’s sword broke. Pop Pop felt horrible for playing with it kind of roughly, so he promised to find Michael another sword the next day)

(I cropped this one to get a few of the blurry people out of it)

(Flashing their gang signs???)

You can see how quickly Main Street empties out on a cold night….this was only 8:45!

We left the MK right after that and took the quick monorail ride back over to the Poly.

I went to sleep that night with a smile in my heart after such a glorious day at the MK!

Up next….a breakfast with friends….but this friend is one from another planet….

Sara

 

[vamassey1]

Another wonderful update! Columbia Harbor House is my favorite CS. I love the way it fills secluded and it's never as crowded as the rest of the CS places. You had the perfect spot for watching Spectro. We usually try to catch the parades in the Liberty Square/Frontierland area. I can't believe Katie sleep through so much. She must have been worn out. BTMR is our favorite family ride at night. I just seems so much more exciting in the dark. Wonderful castle shots.

 

[mom2mek]

Another wonderful update! Columbia Harbor House is my favorite CS. I love the way it fills secluded and it's never as crowded as the rest of the CS places. You had the perfect spot for watching Spectro. We usually try to catch the parades in the Liberty Square/Frontierland area. I can't believe Katie sleep through so much. She must have been worn out. BTMR is our favorite family ride at night. I just seems so much more exciting in the dark. Wonderful castle shots.

Thanks Vanessa! CHH is definitely on my list of places to go back to - I really want to try the Tuna Sandwich next time!

I love BTMR at night too! Seems faster and is all that much more thrilling (not that I'm a thrill seeker by any stretch) - it was especially nice with the fireworks going off!

Sara