~A XMAS STORY~decorations, crowds, pixies..AND A BLOODY NOSE~ACTUAL UPDATE 11/9 p190

[punkin413]

Caught up !! Great pix of Fantasmic !!!I hope we can get in to see it in Sept. I am sure I will in May !!!

thanks! i hope you get to see it too! i'm sure you can work it out. i'm hoping they start putting it back on the calendar more often after they see what a disaster it's going to be to not show it as often.

Fun pictures! Luke wasn't happy with you people, was he? Did he go any more, or was that enough for him?

It's so nice that you guys were able to have a big snow like that and have such a great time with it. That's a rare thing in the south, so it's fun when it happens.

I'll have to see how I'm holding up as far as Fantasmic goes. I think I'll be fine to go, but it depends on how bad my leg is swelling and how much my knee hurts. It's been giving me a lot of grief lately, and I'm fighting off going to the doctor. Trent went and got me some stuff at GNC for joint pain, so I'm going to try that first and hope for the best. Fantasmic is showing twice the night we'll be there and with it being cut back so much, it does make me want to see it while I can. If not, though, we've got ten days this summer, so I'm sure we can get it in then.

We're leaving early Wednesday (18th) and returning Sunday evening.

no, he went again. i think he was just nervous and he didn't appreciate what he thought was us laughing at him. he just does NOT like to be laughed at when he's not in on the joke. he's usually a sweet boy but when something doesn't please him or he doesn't understand it, it's "stupid" or "dumb." anna's trying to break him of that habit but it's almost impossible because he's around other kids at preschool.

i hope your knee doesn't give you too much trouble next week. i will be thinking of you! you need to force yourself to go to the doctor when you get back. i hate it too but you need to take care of yourself! you have many more disney trips in your future and you'll need to be able to keep up with brooklynn and bella!

OK, I must admit, your snow day looks like a lot of fun!

Your neighborhood is beautiful. I wish we had something like that around here. We are looking at new homes in the (hopefully) near future and would love to find one with mature trees, a lake and large lots (though the hills might be a bit of a stretch here in Iowa )

thanks! we bought our house brand new in 2004 for $130,000 and we have 2200 square feet and almost an acre of land. it was a heck of a deal. the only drawback is we're in the middle of nowhere. but i like it! it's so nice and quiet here and the skies are beautiful at night because there's no big cities nearby. plus we have the number one school system in georgia and that will be a big plus for us in the future. as long as i have a decent grocery store nearby, i'm set. I-85 is literally 5 miles from our house so we can get to an awesome mall in 20 minutes going south and outlet stores in 15 minutes going north. we also have gainesville 30 minutes to the west and athens 30 minutes to the east. so we're in a good location. it's just that we live in the COUNTRY so there's not much going on in the immediate vicinity.

Your day looks so fun!! It really is nice to see people appreciate it! Is it all gone now? We got about a foot from that storm, but today was around 60 so a lot of it melted, and there are some grassy spots again. Some schools around here (not mine thanfully!) have to add 45 minutes on their school days and are going until the end of June because of the ice storm back in December. I love your house by the way. I can't remember if I said that back during Christmas with the pictures of lights, but it's beautiful!

yep, it's all gone. it was 76 today so i think that finally melted it all! and thanks about my house. i love it too! we plan on staying here for awhile. it's the perfect size for us.

Wow!!! Definitely a fun day!! I wish we had snow like that every once in a while!!

Such beautiful photos of the houses and lakes... And great videos too!! Poor Luke in that first video. I chuckled when he said, "That wasn't funny, you stupid kooks!" and you stopped laughing and said, "Oh!"

Also, what an awesome idea to use the boogie board!! I had to show Conan how fast it went! It made me think of Chevy Chase in the Christmas Vacation movie, when he puts some sort of oil fluid on his silver metal sled to go ridiculously fast.

Thanks for posting all your great photos and videos, Dawn!

thanks! yeah, luke doesn't like to be laughed at - that's for sure! anna doesn't like him to use the word "stupid" but it's been a common occurrence lately. she's trying to get him to stop. oh, and we LOVE "christmas vacation." that's one of my favorite christmas movies. i love clark. "there's a lot of sap in here."

nice to see all of you having fun in the snow.

the videos were great.

How nice of Anna to make the hot chocolate.

Chris looks like he got one workout that day, up and down the hill.

Too bad no video of you and Ray going down.

Eli did not want to join in the fun?

Your community looks so nice.

yeah, chris was so tired when we were done sledding! he went up and down a lot. i only dragged two kids on it (little maddyx, the one in the red coat, and luke) and both times i was DEAD when i got up to the top of the hill! um.....i can imagine eli sledding. thanks about our community. we love it! it's in the middle of nowhere but that's why i like it. being used to NYC, you'd die of boredom here!

I had so much fun watching everyone enjoying the snow. So glad you could have that experience together. What a great day!

So thoughtful of Anna to make hot chocolate, Yumm!

Your so lucky to live in a beautiful area, I'm sure it so lovely in spring/summer. A wonderful place to walk.

Luke was so cute in his rubber boots making a snow angel.

I was wondering what you would sled with. I thought a piece of cardboard but a boogie board is genius! I will need to try that here. We have these things called snow racers (has a seat with a steering wheel and a little ski), flying carpets, blow up tires and toboggans. My neighbour made Lexi a beautiful hand carved sled for Xmas one year. Talk about fast, that thing can fly. We can't take it to the snow hill because the other parents are afraid of injuries if she runs into another kid. Being wood it would hurt more than plastic could. I agree.

The videos are too fun, I'm glad no one flew into the lake or hit a tree.

I guess I shouldn't take our snow for granted. I can remember how weird it was when I moved to the south.

I was just saying yesterday, I'm ready for it to melt away. I'm over it for this winter. Bring on SPRING!

it is a great neighborhood to walk in. from my house to the lake, around the trail and back is 1 mile exactly so it's nice to have that option for exercise. in fact, i took sherman and eli for a walk today since it was so pretty out.

so cool about lexi's sled! i'm sure she loves it.

i hope you guys get your spring soon! i'm hoping we're done with what little winter we got. i LOVE spring - it's probably my favorite. today was the first day we had our windows open all day.

I love all the snow pictures, that looks like so much fun!

thanks! it was.

what fun! very nice neighborhood you have and fun neighbors! I would kill for a hill to go down on a sled! Its sooo flat in my town lol

thanks! we have a good bit of hills here. that's one drawback when trying to find a lot to build a house on. we have a huge hill in our back yard but we couldn't sled down it because we'd run into the house! i didn't like it at first but now i do because it's sort of like our own little privacy fence.

Wow that body board really did go, I'll have to try that when it snows here again, so about 3 years

let me know how that goes! it was ray's idea and i was glad he thought of it because it was tons of fun!

That looked like such an awesome time. All of our snow here was so hard and icy we couldn't really sled on it without getting hurt so we didn't go. You guys were flying down that hill!

My four year old Macey doesn't quite understand the Disboards and I am a hairstylist and she said " That girl is pretty how do know her? Do you cut her hair?" It was funny. I tried to explain to her that you live far away but she said "No she doesn't she is right there." pointing to your picture with Tink. Glad you guys had such a fun time can't wait for the next update.

that's so cute about macey!!! i love how kids' minds work.

Love the snow pics and videos Dawn! We had so much snow here, I wish we would have taken advantage of it like you guys did.

thanks! you guys are just so used to it - you probably don't want to even SEE it much less get out there and play in it. but we never get the chance so it's just different here.

 

[MAGICFOR2]

OOPs! I missed your snow videos yesterday! Looks like you had so much fun! We haven't had enough snow to sled this year, except for one week when we were just too busy, I guess. Last year, we took Myles down a huge hill, and he screamed with joy the whole way down - he's the same age as Luke. I sat in the van and held the baby and watched!

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

the snow videos were really cool, whould anyone in that group be mean enough to turn someon on the sled and push them toward the lake.
that would be funny to see them bail out before they get there.


or mean either way you look at it.

 

[tinkgurl]

that's anna!

while ray was sitting on the ground i sat next to him and anna told us to pose!

The two BEST pictures of the whole day.

 

[MA pigletfan]

LOVE THE SNOW PICS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have to say i have not played in the snow at all this year..and we have gotten a ton of it....looks like you played in it enough in Georgia to pick up my slack

 

[jwwi]

We sure get our fair share of snow here in WI, but it was fun when the kids were younger. We used to sled often. Thanks for sharing all the pictures and videos.

 

[punkin413]

a week ago today we were sledding in the snow. today it was 80 degrees and i was SWEATING as i jogged around the lake. don't get me wrong - i'm not complaining because i'm definitely ready for spring. i'm just.....perplexed.

OOPs! I missed your snow videos yesterday! Looks like you had so much fun! We haven't had enough snow to sled this year, except for one week when we were just too busy, I guess. Last year, we took Myles down a huge hill, and he screamed with joy the whole way down - he's the same age as Luke. I sat in the van and held the baby and watched!

luke liked it after the first time. i think he just panicked that first ride. but i remember one time he went down with evelyn and when he came back up i said, "was that fun" and he started laughing and said, "THAT WAS SO FUNNY!!!!" you just never know with him.

the snow videos were really cool, whould anyone in that group be mean enough to turn someon on the sled and push them toward the lake.
that would be funny to see them bail out before they get there.

or mean either way you look at it.

my husband would be the one to do it but he knows i wouldn't let him. in fact, when we rode together i told him specifically not to aim for the big dip and he did anyway, so i actually bailed before we got there. that was fun - snow all down my shirt!

The two BEST pictures of the whole day.

i love that picture of anna because the scenery is pretty too!

LOVE THE SNOW PICS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have to say i have not played in the snow at all this year..and we have gotten a ton of it....looks like you played in it enough in Georgia to pick up my slack

we had a good time! we don't get it often so we had to take advantage.

We sure get our fair share of snow here in WI, but it was fun when the kids were younger. We used to sled often. Thanks for sharing all the pictures and videos.

you're welcome! my pleasure.

 

[winkers]

a week ago today we were sledding in the snow. today it was 80 degrees and i was SWEATING as i jogged around the lake. don't get me wrong - i'm not complaining because i'm definitely ready for spring. i'm just.....perplexed.

I'm jealous, it was 5 degrees here with the wind chill ..................that reminds me of Bill Engval, his theory is the wind chill is what it would feel like if you stood outside naked.

 

[punkin413]

i don't know if you guys have ever seen the show "toddlers & tiaras" on TLC but ray and i were just watching it and the show was from the georgia mountains center which is literally RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from ray's office!!!!!! we just thought it was funny. and nothing against any of you who do pageants but some of those people just look RIDICULOUS. nice to know who our neighbors are!

 

[lmillercrew]

You may absolutely share with Anna what I said about Luke and Chris.
I concur with a pp that said your sledding on the boogie board reminded them of Christmas Vacation. That was the first thing that I thought of when I saw how far Anna went! Holy Crap!!
I could really use some of your 80 degree weather.

 

[Sandy321]

I think I'm caught up (altho I did get lost in the videos! )

its so hard to believe that Fantasmic will only be 2 nights a week... so sad! so CROWDED!

Love all the snow pics - glad you enjoyed the snow (would love to send you all our excess snow!! Love the snow angels - and not all snow can be made into snowmen - just an fyi - sometimes its too cold to pack into balls.... also, I loved the hot chocolate cups!!! LOVE that you took advantage and enjoyed the snow!!! I'm ready to move!)

 

[MeMom]

i don't know if you guys have ever seen the show "toddlers & tiaras" on TLC but ray and i were just watching it and the show was from the georgia mountains center which is literally RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from ray's office!!!!!! we just thought it was funny. and nothing against any of you who do pageants but some of those people just look RIDICULOUS. nice to know who our neighbors are!

I've seen the commercials. That's enough for me. I don't think I could make myself watch the actual show.

Scrolling back through your report reminded me that I meant to check out the snow cream at the grocery store when I went, but I forgot. I'm going to go put it on a list for next time. I want to find out if it tastes anything close to the real thing.

 

[DisneyLaura]

a week ago today we were sledding in the snow. today it was 80 degrees and i was SWEATING as i jogged around the lake. don't get me wrong - i'm not complaining because i'm definitely ready for spring. i'm just.....perplexed.

You're pictures and video looked fun. I haven't played in the snow with the kids at all this either. Wasn't that crazy one week we had a snow storm and the that weekend it was like 70 degress here and all the snow had melted.

 

[timandlesley]

Such fun! Not only did you guys finally get snow but you enjoyed it, LOVE THAT! What perfect packing snow, couldn't believe the size of that snow ball We haven't had any like that this year which was a bummer. Loved the pics and video, thanks for posting! Hope it gets warmer soon for you guys, I am SO ready for Spring!
Lesley

 

[MagicShell]

Weather in the South sure is odd. Yesterday was great, almost 80 and the news is saying that we may get sleet and snow tomorrow morning.

I have seen that show on TLC. My 6 year old son saw a little bit and asked if the girls were real. A lot of that stuff is creepy.

 

[punkin413]

I'm jealous, it was 5 degrees here with the wind chill ..................that reminds me of Bill Engval, his theory is the wind chill is what it would feel like if you stood outside naked.

very true! it was about 65 here today but it's supposed to be down to 40 again by this weekend.

You may absolutely share with Anna what I said about Luke and Chris.
I concur with a pp that said your sledding on the boogie board reminded them of Christmas Vacation. That was the first thing that I thought of when I saw how far Anna went! Holy Crap!!
I could really use some of your 80 degree weather.

i told her and she thought that was so cute! isn't it amazing how far the boogie board went? just call ray clark griswold. the weather's supposed to get back down in the 40s by the weekend. blah!

I think I'm caught up (altho I did get lost in the videos! )

its so hard to believe that Fantasmic will only be 2 nights a week... so sad! so CROWDED!

Love all the snow pics - glad you enjoyed the snow (would love to send you all our excess snow!! Love the snow angels - and not all snow can be made into snowmen - just an fyi - sometimes its too cold to pack into balls.... also, I loved the hot chocolate cups!!! LOVE that you took advantage and enjoyed the snow!!! I'm ready to move!)

i know - such a bummer about fantasmic. i'm somewhat familiar with snow being that i grew up in northcentral tennessee and we got about 3 or 4 good snows a year. we just never get it here!

I've seen the commercials. That's enough for me. I don't think I could make myself watch the actual show.

Scrolling back through your report reminded me that I meant to check out the snow cream at the grocery store when I went, but I forgot. I'm going to go put it on a list for next time. I want to find out if it tastes anything close to the real thing.

yeah, i will never, ever put my child in one of those shows. it's a personal choice but i just don't believe in rewarding someone for their looks and looks alone. i know they say their personality comes out but it all looks fake to me. i asked ray what he'd do if we had a little girl and i told him that i was gonna start her in pageants and he just looked at me like....um.....no. i'm not saying it's WRONG - i just don't see myself doing it.

i think mayfield makes some snow cream popcicles that are decent.

You're pictures and video looked fun. I haven't played in the snow with the kids at all this either. Wasn't that crazy one week we had a snow storm and the that weekend it was like 70 degress here and all the snow had melted.

yeah, it's crazy here too. it's supposed to get cold again this weekend.

Such fun! Not only did you guys finally get snow but you enjoyed it, LOVE THAT! What perfect packing snow, couldn't believe the size of that snow ball We haven't had any like that this year which was a bummer. Loved the pics and video, thanks for posting! Hope it gets warmer soon for you guys, I am SO ready for Spring!
Lesley

oh, we jumped on the chance to have fun with it! i'm so ready for spring too!

Weather in the South sure is odd. Yesterday was great, almost 80 and the news is saying that we may get sleet and snow tomorrow morning.

I have seen that show on TLC. My 6 year old son saw a little bit and asked if the girls were real. A lot of that stuff is creepy.

it sure is! we're not getting snow but it is supposed to get colder this weekend. i am so ready for warm weather - i hate this back and forth stuff! that's so funny about your DS! i don't blame him for asking that though.

 

[hlrababy]

I am still jealous looking at your snow pics!!!!

Oh my gosh, the boogie board!! I swear, I started laughing. All I could think about was if Ray greased up the bottom really good with the non-caloric silicon-based kitchen lubricant!

 

[punkin413]

wow.....i didn't realize this update was so huge. we took lots of pictures so get ready!

fantasmic was awesome, but now it was time for two things i was REALLY
looking forward to. first of all, we had fastpasses to use for TSM!!!! if you'll remember from WAY back this morning, we had gotten fastpasses first thing. but our return time wasn't until 5:50. at that point we were headed to get seats for fantasmic, so we had no choice but to use them AFTER fantasmic. no problem!

luke was hungry and i was getting worried because we were cutting it close to park closing. it was around 7:40 and the park closed at 8:00. so ray and i headed over to TSM while anna and company looked for food. i just didn't want ray to miss TSM since he had never ridden it!

i took these on the way. i love the mickey!

we booked it and got here right at 7:45.

i double-checked with the CM at the fastpass entrance to make sure that they kept the osborne lights on after closing and he said that we were fine, we'd have about an hour after park closing to enjoy them. i had read that they did this but i wanted to be sure.

so we hopped in the fastpass line and were inside in no time. ray LOVED the queue area, especially the tinker toys!

super cool in our glasses.....

okay, i knew that ray would be competitive on this ride. he loves stuff like this and he always beats me. but i had NO IDEA he'd turn into an 8-year-old obnoxious little boy!!!!!! every time we'd go into another round he'd look at the score and, even if i came really close to beating him, he'd scream at me, "YEAH, BABY......TAKE THAT!!!!" or something similar. it was so annoying.

or maybe i'm just a sore loser.



anyway, he did beat me but not by a whole bunch like i had expected. I'LL GET HIM NEXT TIME!!!!!

as we were waiting to get off the ride my phone rang and it was chris. he asked where we were and i told him almost off the ride. he said that they were in line and standing on the bridge that actually goes over the track and luke had said, "there's dawn and gray!" they didn't think he'd really saw us but he had. i told him we'd wait for them at the exit. they were just getting on as we were getting off and we saw them. i'm glad they got to ride because i knew they'd love it!

i took this while we were waiting at the exit. i love this little area!

that's one cool dude!

so much fun!

coming off the ride.....

so as soon as we were done at TSM we headed towards the streets of america to see what i was MOST excited about......THE OSBORNE LIGHTS!!!!!!

i can't tell you how excited i was to see these. i couldn't wait!

we came in the back way, near the LMA area. OH, MY GOODNESS......SO PRETTY!!!!!!!!!!!

see the mickey?

i loved this! peace, love and mickey.

ray was in video heaven! he just walked around and took tons of footage. here's video of our first few moments there.....



we got there around 8:10, which was actually 10 minutes after park closing. i was really happy that the crowd was pretty thin. there was still a crowd but NOTHING like i thought it would be. i've read horror stories about not being able to move in this area and it was nothing like that. so now i know the secret: get there around park closing!

here's the first video ray got of the lights dancing. you hear him say, "are they gonna start moving?" i had told him they danced but i guess he didn't know what i meant. you can see me keep looking back at him because i knew he would just LOVE it! it was SO COOL!!!!!!



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[punkin413]

here are some pics anna took while we were watching the lights dance for the first time. i love these because luke looks so mesmerized!

as we walked down the street some more they started pumping the snow. you can kinda see it here.

now luke had talked about NOTHING other than how it was gonna snow at disney world in the weeks leading up to the trip. when it started ray and i were in an area where it was really coming down. so we started screaming for anna to get him over there to see the snow. you can hear that in this video and also listen for him running around screaming. he LOVED it! i wish ray would've thought to film luke because it was so funny.



i was so happy that the crowd was thin enough where he could run around and have fun. it was really cute! there were some CMs that had lights in their hands and they were running around, screaming with him!

you can see some of the CMs in this picture but it's blurry so you can't tell what they're doing. they were so fun, running around with luke! anna and i both agreed that this would be an excellent job to have!!!

more pretty lights! ray gets the pretty full moon in this one.



we got in line for some photopass pictures then and took some of these while we were waiting.

the only bad thing about the osborne lights is that they can't take photopass pictures while the lights are dancing because there's a chance you'd only have half the lights in your pictures. so sometimes it takes awhile to get a picture made! ray walked away a little bit to get some video when the lights started to dance again.



finally it was our turn. i love all these that were taken at the osborne lights! i think one of them is going to be our christmas card next year. obviously not one that says 2008!

anna actually took this one.

when anna, chris and luke got up there, luke wasn't not very happy about having to hold still and not play and run around under the lights. he kept looking around. i was behind the CMs yelling at him and anna and chris were both yelling his name too to get his attention. one of the CMs standing near the photographer picked up on it and started screaming "LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" it was so obnoxious but HILARIOUS!!!!!

as soon as the pictures were done he was down and playing again!

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[punkin413]

we then headed down the street that's completely covered in lights and it was SO COOL down there. ray wanted his picture with the snowman.

erica - this is the stoop we had our snack on last september!

it's the leg lamp from "a christmas story"!!!!!! i can't believe i found it.

some video.....



as you can tell from the video, by this time the crowd was all but completely gone. it was really nice!

some more pictures of the lights dancing. the blanket of lights over the street had a really cool effect!

ray was just amazed. he loved it!

more photopass pics!

anna gave up on luke this time. he was too busy running around and having fun!!!!

one last video of dancing lights! this is really amazing. the view from the end of this street was really, really pretty. it gets REALLY good towards the end!



we then headed back out into the main street and i noticed the fireplace with the osbornes' stockings hanging over it....

ray decided to warm his hands by the fire.

one last look back......

we stood at the opposite end we'd come into and watched as they played the last song of the night with the lights dancing. anna, luke and chris were dancing around during this - it was cute! then promptly at 9:00 on the dot, the lights went dark.

i cannot tell you how much we LOVED this hour of our trip!!!!!! it was a huge highlight. i'm so glad we got to see them. and pictures and video don't even come close to doing the lights justice! if you ever get a chance to see them, DO IT! i can't wait to back in 2010 and see them again.

and i'm telling you - the key is waiting until just before closing to head in that direction. the crowd was minimal and we all had so much fun - especially luke! it was so fun to see him run around and just dance under the lights with the snow falling.

we then headed towards the exit and stopped to take some speeder bike pictures near star tours.

i have never gotten a picture on it so i decided it was my turn, but luke wanted to ride too. so we went together.

just after that picture was taken luke raised his head up suddenly and BONKED me right in the eyebrow with his hard head. it HURT! but you know how kids are - he wasn't even phased!

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