EARLY CHECK IN: December 15th, 2007 - Seven night Western - 12/15/07

[cristit14]

Welcome, sounds like your DD is the same age as mine. She will be in 6th grade, just barely turned 12.

I haven't been posting as much lately since I am not certain we will be going. DH doesn' have a new job yet. He is still working until June 1st so I am really hoping he gets one soon and that they will let him take the time in December off.

I have to finish getting ready for camping tonight. A fun filled weekend with 95 girl scouts. Wish me luck

 

[lunsusie]

Hi, folks!

We just moved our reservation to this 12/15/07 Western sailing. We had been planning for May 2008, but a year is just too far away. I will be sailing with my DS, and we are very excited about a cruise right before Christmas.

It looks like I have a lot of reading to catch up with this thread, and I look forward to getting to know all of you!

 

[yearbook50]

Welcome to our new cruisemates!!

Wow camping with 95 girls...how did that go?

In other news, Disney finally sent me my wedding contract. Can't wait to get home on Wednesday and print it out and send it out. Disney's wedding prices went up again but its still cheaper than anything would be in New England even with the few amount of guests I have.

 

[Pinkprincessmom]

Welcome to our new families.

Melissa...a Disney wedding sounds so exciting. I want my DD to have a Disney wedding. She's only 7 now though.

Cristi...I hope your DH gets a new job soon. The one in my DH's department is still open if you guys become desperate.

John is 2 months old now. He has his appt. tomorrow. He's looking a bit chubby. I'm interested to see what his weight is. We also think he might have reflux. He's quite fussy. We've been reading up on it and it sounds like reflux. We'll see tomorrow.

 

[yearbook50]

Melissa...a Disney wedding sounds so exciting. I want my DD to have a Disney wedding. She's only 7 now though.

Well...you should start saving up now for it. It seems like Disney just keeps going up in price, the wedding boards are up in arms about some of the increases, I dont want to think about how much more they will be in 15/20 more years...especially with the new couture weddings ($75,000 for each 50 guests) I originally was going to go for a custom...but I wanted to have my wedding on a Saturday so it was $20,000 but then the guest list exploded and it was going to cost about $40,000. Thats when I put an end to it all and said we are doing the escape wedding...only 8 guests, family only and it should only cost $4,000 for the wedding ceremony & cake, then $2000 for the fireside room at Victoria and Albert's for us and our 8 guests so the $6,000 it is going to cost is rather reasonable.

Btw, if any of you ever get out to South Africa, do a couple day wine tour. I went on a wine tour today and it was amazing, we ended up tasting wines at 4 different wineries, 3 of them were really excellent. So many different kinds of wines here and it is relatively cheap in comparison to the states. I bought a bottle of a reserve dessert wine today for 41 rand which translates to about 6 dollars US. A wine of the quality in the states would run you about $40 or more dollars.

 

[cristit14]

Hi all! I'm back from camping. Now, I must tell you our camping trip is lodge camping so we are inside with running water and heat. It went really well. There were about 75 or so girls and about 17 adults there. A cadette troop planned it ( I was in charge of registration, money, sleeping arrangements, that kind of stuff). They did a "That's Entertainment" kind of theme. Some of the events were "Iron Chef" (learning to make a healthy snack), Jill Nye the Science Scout and Girl scouts do ESPN sports event. They were all pretty fun. It was snowing when we got up there Friday night and I was worried about the weather, but it was okay. Saturday was really strange, we had a little rain, sun, snow, hail and thunder (while snowing). The only time it got kind of yucky was towards the end of the events, before dinner. It was thundering/snowing when we were in our last event and for the couple of hours of free time before dinner.
Here are some pictures that I took on Sunday morning before we came home.

 

[grumpymakesmehappy]

Hi all! I have good news and bad news. First the not so good news, we have decided to cancel our Dec. cruise. Instead of going on the cruise, we are going to Italy for 2 weeks! The good news is we are booking a 4 night in October and will be going to Italy in January! I really hope you all have a wonderful vacation and that we can meet up on another cruise down the road. -Bridget

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

John is 2 months old now. He has his appt. tomorrow. He's looking a bit chubby. I'm interested to see what his weight is. We also think he might have reflux. He's quite fussy. We've been reading up on it and it sounds like reflux. We'll see tomorrow.

Susan--Good luck at the Dr. Have you found the website http://www.infantrefluxdisease.com/ It has a lot of information, there are also message boards, it is a really good site. I never knew that so many babies are affected by reflux.

Susie--Welcome!! I can't believe this cruise is coming up so fast!! Summer always goes really quickly at our house so we should be cruising in no time. We're booked for a double dip in Nov 2008, I'll have to pick your brain about Costa Maya.

Grumpy--Sorry your'e leaving us, Italy for 2 weeks sounds pretty good too.

Kathy (FeinFam)--I haven't forgot about you, now that Tulip Time is over I'll get you guys added to the website.

Cristi--The pictures are absolutely beautiful!! I'm so glad that my reign of Service Unit Manager is almost over and I can go back to being troop leader and enjoying Girl Scouts.

Melissa--When do you get back to the states?

Nothing new here, I cleaned up my house yesterday after not being home all weekend. The sun is shining and it looks dry the rest of the week, after more than 3" of rain this weekend. The flooding in Iowa doesn't affect us directly but our town does have Iowa's largest lake that was built for flood control, in 1993 a lot of people in the river bottom got flooded because there was just too much water to hold back. Hopefully, that doesn't happen again this year.

 

[Pinkprincessmom]

John had his appt. yesterday. He was diagnosed with reflux and put on axid. The dr. actually witnessed a gagging/coughing episode and said it was definitely reflux. Hopefully the medication will make him a happier baby.

Reflux isn't affecting his weight gain. He's now 13 lbs 6.5 ozs. and 24 inches long. Quite a big boy. The DR. said he was very healthy and strong.

Melissa...I was thinking of the escape wedding with only 8 guests. I'm sure my DD won't be happy that I've got her wedding all planned out.

Cristi...those pictures are beautiful. I don't blame you for not wanting to move here.

Grumpy...2 weeks in Italy sounds like a fair trade for a Disney cruise. Glad you get to do Disney in October. Best wishes.

Stacie...thanks for the website. Hopefully DS will outgrow this soon, but until then, I hope the medication helps. How is your little one?

 

[Love2Cruise]

Hi, My family and I will also be on the Dec 15 western. We just changed from a July 4 day. This will be our 3rd cruise on the Magic, 2nd time on the western. It will be Me , my DH, DS-22, DD 17, and DD 9. Unfortunately my DD 24 is not able to join us due to having just started a new job
We are very excited and look forward to meeting all of you
Sue

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Welcome Sue and family! You probably have lots you can tell us about Cozumel and Grand Cayman. Did you go to any of the beaches last time?
We have a group website set up, the info for it is on the first page.

Susan--Andy was 17 lbs last week and is getting chunky. He has two chins and it's hard to see his knees. He was getting way more calories than what he was supposed to though. We were adding 12 tsp of rice cereal to each 6 oz bottle to keep it down, now we've reduced the cereal to 1 tsp per ounce and he's eating cereal out of a bowl in the morning and at supper. We still call him "the Magic Exploding Baby" because you never know when he's going to spit up, sometimes it is right after he eats and sometimes it's three to four hours afterwards. He is a happy spitter though, he just lets it fly and gets a great big smile. I think he enjoys the element of surprise he gives us. Last week it was twice in the grocery store on two different days! (I now know that my grocery store has paper towels in the meat department and in the pharmacy, clean up on Aisle 4!) He goes for his 6 month check next week.

DD's chior sang the national anthem at the Iowa Cubs game today, it was a noon game. Andy and I went for a while, it was 85 and HOT! Then we went to Target afterwards (of course). We bought a little snow cone making machine, the kids are dying to try it.

 

[yearbook50]

Melissa...I was thinking of the escape wedding with only 8 guests. I'm sure my DD won't be happy that I've got her wedding all planned out.

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Escape weddings are really the way to go

btw, I'm finally home!!!!

I'm saving the unpacking until tomorrow though and I'm about to take some sleeping pills so that I can get my body back to EST.

 

[cristit14]

Welcome Sue and Family!!!

Welcome home Melissa! Have you recovered yet?

I hope everyone has a nice Mother's Day!! We are going to Hudson Gardens for Brunch with my parents, Brad's parents and his sister and family. It should be fun. It is supposed to be beautiful weather tomorrow.

 

[yearbook50]

Welcome Sue and Family!!!

Welcome home Melissa! Have you recovered yet?

I hope everyone has a nice Mother's Day!! We are going to Hudson Gardens for Brunch with my parents, Brad's parents and his sister and family. It should be fun. It is supposed to be beautiful weather tomorrow.

Yup. I"m all recovered.

I'll post some pictures soon after I download them all to my computer.

 

[lunsusie]

Happy Mother's Day, Everyone!

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Happy 15th Everyone!!!!​

I didn't fall off the face of the Earth, although this weekend it felt like it, I had no Internet!!

Andy turned 6 months yesterday, he celebrated by having a check-up and shots. Lots of extra love for him today.

I got the website updated, finally.

Melissa, welcome home, can't wait to see your pics. Are you heading home for the summer?

 

[yearbook50]

Penguins on the Cape


Leopard that almost attacked one of the students


Nelson Mandela's Prison Cell


My group and me with our sponsors after our final presentation


Lion!


Elephant that later charged at us

 

[yearbook50]

Thats the Etosha Pan...basically a big salt pit that animals go to die



Apparently in Africa...Cream Soda is neon green



And at this point, our truck went away from the cheetahs because we didnt want near them until they were fed.

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Melissa--Your pictures are amazing!!!! I have a feeling that none of them were taken with a zoom lens either. What an experience.

 

[cristit14]

Wow Melissa! Those pictures are great!!