Been Distracted...

I know I haven't written much here, but I've been writing up a storm on One with the Scale. I've been trying to take control and get my life back on track. I know it seems like just weight and numbers, but when I don't feel like I'm in control, everything tends to spiral.

Last year was a serious transition and I'm looking forward to starting my second year of teaching strong!

I'm ready for the ups and the downs.

Most of all... I just feel ready to do my best!

So now I'm getting my body more in line with my mind :) Come and see how I'm doing...

Disney... "The happiest place on earth".

Hmmm....

Yeah, no!!

We went to Orlando for vacation for a week.

Now, let's set this up for you...

On Friday, I was in a Wedding. Thursday was the rehearsal and I headed up to the Bride's house 45mins North to spend the night and get ready with her and the Maid of Honor in the morning. The weather was awesome, especially since this summer has been pretty oppressive, but sweat was still going where it shouldn't be and the AC in the limo was not keeping up.

Here I am walking in with the tallest guy in the wedding...

Thank goodness for my 4 1/4" heels :)  Yes, this was after the ceremony and about 2hrs of pictures. The shoes that felt like sneakers in the store were starting to hurt...

 

But we all looked pretty cute :)

The reception was at 6pm and we had to leave the next day. 

So, we packed up the car, picked up the babysitter, met our friends at the park and jumped on the highway to head to Orlando, FL! Oh, did I forget to mention that we drove? Yup.

We arrived at our house about 7:30pm on Sunday. Yay!! Monday we stayed home and swam... but when we went outside, we realized that someone had left some goodies and a note...

The kids were actually more excited about jumping in the pool than they were to find out that they were going to Disney the next day, but I think that because they had pretty much figured it out. Oh well.

We finally made it to the Magic Kingdom...

This was after we drove to the parking lot, got on a tram, got dropped at the Main gate, got our tickets, found out the Monorail was broken so EVERYONE had to use the Ferry to get to the Magic Kindom, waited in line for about 45mins before boarding, finding out they lost our reservation for Bippidy, Boppidy Boutique, rescheduling, finally arriving at MK and getting through the bag checks... uh huh. Fun, right?

It was hot. There were a LOT of people and I was still tired from our travels.

The next day we went to Hollywood Studios...

It rained a LOT that day and I called it quits for my family about 2pm. I needed a nap and we were supposed to head to Downtown Disney for our rescheduled appointments at the Boutique...

Phoebe chose to be Tinkerbell...

Payton was Cinderella...

We got the complete package, which also included a photo shoot...

The next 2 days were spent in Universal! Yes, that was fun. I had napped and we decided to go to the park after lunch so the kids slept in. There was far less moaning from all of us. Oh, and Universal sells DRINKS! Adult beverages... even in line :) This place rocked!

We let the kids keep their princess hair since they got it done the night before and weren't actually able to show it off yet. This is our family on the streets of Universal.

On Saturday, we packed up again and headed up to Washington, DC. This picture is taken behind the White House. It was really cool to see all of the monuments, but we want to go back so we can visit all of the museums.

One memorial that really struck a cord was the Vietnam Memorial. Henry's cousin was lost in the conflict and he wanted to find his name. The artistry of this and all of the monuments is amazing...

Now, we took the trolley tour and it was well worth it, but when we got to this final stop it was about 1:05. The stop included the Korean Memorial, the Lincoln Monument and the Vietnam Memorial. We had til 1:30. Remember, hot July day with 2 kids that we've been dragging around for a full week! It was 1:17 and we had still only seen the Lincoln Monument. We raced back in the direction of the trolley and what I thought was the Vietnam Memorial, but realized it was the Korean Memorial...

I said a prayer for the soldiers lost and families effected and we raced to the trolley to let them know we still hadn't seen the Vietnam Memorial. It was 1:28 and they told us to run.

Now, we had to run past the Lincoln Monument now and down the OTHER side. When we got to the wall, we realized it's not in alphabetical order. How in the world are we going to find this name?? The wall is huge!! There are so many names. Henry raced to the reference sheets to try to find it and within minutes, I had found the name! I can tell you that I had to have had help. But there it was... Charles A Gaudreau.

 We somehow managed to make it back to the trolley at 1:46, before it left without us. They were even gracious enough to take us to the Rayburn Building to tour the office of our Congressman, Barney Frank.

We finished the day with a trip to Good Stuff Eatery and the Capitol Building, before heading back to the hotel. We all napped and the girls and our sitter went to the pool while Chef Hubby and I went to Georgetown cupcakes (DC Cupcakes people... from TLC). Gotta admit, not so great :(

We headed out after breakfast and got home pretty late that night, thanks to New York traffic. 

It was a good time overall, but Disney as the happiest place on earth? I can think of a few others :)