The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Trip (Part 2!)

In which we visit our awesome second day at Magic Kingdom, seeing the new Festival of Fantasy Parade and... drum roll... the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train event! Lots and lot of pictures...

Tania had quite the line up of interviews so Amy and I took off to Magic Kingdom hoping to be able to catch her there during her free time.

We waited for Tania to go see Anna and Elsa - Amy had picked up a signature book for her son and wanted to make sure to get their signatures because the line to see them is often hours long! (Another can you imagine?) We got Fast Passes and felt terrible walking past the hour plus long line! But... Well... Here we met the second string Anna and Elsa. Sorry Disney, but Elsa was barely passable. She was too young! Still they were super cute and very nice of course. (She will forever be known as the long necked Elsa... We still love you Elsa!)

Second string... 

This girl was there too... 

We hopped on Big Thunder Railroad where Amy and Tania got to be in front. We rode this ride SEVERAL times this trip, Amy and I. Good times. Front row! (I was in the second row where I was supposed to be alone but some big foreigner with bad breath left his friends and hopped in with me. It was awkward...) 

The new Festival of Fantasy parade was a big draw on the trip and it was even on the media schedule for Tania to be there (though probably in a roped off exclusive area). Amy and I really wanted to see the new Steam Punk Melificent dragon we had seen so much buzz about. We parked ourselves in a decent spot and prepared to wait it out the twenty or so minutes until the parade started... if it started, the sky was rather ominous and they had cancelled the Animal Kingdom parade on me at the last minute the day before (which was wise, consider previously mentioned downpour!) But then there is came! Lots of great floats, this was a really fun parade. 

The first float had themed sections and had about six different shows and characters represented. These pictures are not in the proper order (except the first and last...) but you get the idea. 

Our crow! 

Our other scary guys! 

There she is!! There is a guy in there! 

She breaths fire at a certain point in the parade but it wasn't anywhere near us. 

 The costumes!

This guy was walking around before Rapunzel freaking people out. 

Rapunzel! There she is! The heroes were swinging back and forth on these hammers! You could tell they were having a great time! This was an awesome float. 

The end, wah wahhhh... 

The Mine train main event! Through this whole trip we were hoping we would be able to ride the new mine train. They were being rather vague on whether or not it was going to happen for the "plus ones" but it was definitely on Tania's schedule for Friday. Girl gets to go to the dedication ceremony! Buzz was happening though, we has seen on social media some people had gotten to ride it this day and Disney announced that there would be an opening day announced the next day (at the dedication). Yet... this is what the sign said:

We did see they were closing part of Fantasy Land for the evening event though... (The Mine Train, The Little Mermaid Ride, Ariels Grotto and Winnie the Pooh.) 

We went back to the hotel and got ready for the Mine Train event and all confusion was cleared up as we walked into the event and were handed these, our boarding passes! We were going to get to ride the ride!

But first... pictures! 

Grumpy cat was there too. Happy meet Grumpy. Grumpy, Happy. And so forth.

Then it was time, here we go! 

The queue for the ride has some interactive activities that are super cute and fun. We ended up going on the ride four times. The fourth time was the most fun, want to know why? We didn't sit in the front! The rolling hills and turns don't pick up speed for a second and it is more fun in the cars in the back cars. And the ride promotes this swaying action of the cars which we talked about not feeling the first three times... and then the last? being in the back you could see them swaying. I don't think the front one moves but I am not sure. Silly newbs, if we were better reviewers we would have tried four different seats every time but... we were just so darn excited to be there we couldn't even stand it.

Its a great ride. It's a family coaster so no crazy drops and thrills. Just a lot of fun ups and downs and turns. It's so smooth, like Everest is, not rough and jerky and the sight inside the mine is so super fun and cute!

The final scene as you come to a stop before going in to the loading and unloading part is a scene with Snow White dancing with her Dwarfs.

Oh no, wait. THIS was the final scene! So cute!

As you walked out you could see their house (this was in the day...) She is in there... dancing! 

 The party had the cutest little carrot cakes ever!

 We stopped to see my #2 favorite princess in her grotto. She was adorable with the peanut who was in line in front of us! I loved watching her interact with this little girl and could have watched all night. So adorable.

We closed the evening riding Big Thunder during the Wishes firework show. Super fun.

And on to Disney! aka The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train trip! (Part 1)

A couple of weeks ago I got a great last minute opportunity that I just couldn't pass up. I have a super awesome and understanding husband too... and that helped! One of my friends got invited to the media event surrounding the opening of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Disney World. She had a plus one to the evening events and put out an open invite to her friends, that plus one was quickly snapped up by our friend Amy. I had talked to Matthew about it then and what a great opportunity it was for them. They blog and it's good and the people there will open up other opportunities for them.

Matthew agreed it was a great opportunity and told me that if she was able to find another "plus one" I could totally go. What?! Awesome! Tania accepted the challenge and when a friend of hers said she wasn't bringing anyone to the event part she set us up. SWEEEET! It was last minute and the flight was pricey. We found out if I came in late the day before and paid for a value hotel it would still shave $300 off the travel expense. Holla!

The first night I stayed at All Star Movies and I arrived really late and left pretty early in the morning but what I saw of the resort was great! It is motel style with the door on the outside but it was nice and quiet and peaceful. They have HUGE prop items from movies and I had to walk between two thirty foot tall dalmatians which was kind of fun. I would totally stay at this value hotel again, it was great and I think my rate was $109?

The next morning I moved to the hotel that Disney had set up all their media people in, the Wilderness Lodge. It was gorgeous. It felt just like Yellowstone which I was familiar with of course but it would have been cool and different from people who have never seen that environment. Very nature, log cabin, comfortable-ish. When I went to check in she said "Have you been here before?" and I said "No" and she said "welcome home!" Which I found hysterical for some reason. "Welcome home" is their thing but as a response to that particular answer I found funny. We heard it several times from other staff throughout the trip which was cute.

The room was nice, very cozy, very homey and just the general ambiance of the hotel was nice. There were comfy chairs all over the great big lobby and on each floor there were sitting areas, some even had a fire place going for that extra touch. This is a luxury resort and I was again, appreciative of the opportunity just to be there because it's likely one I would not be able to afford on my own. So so lucky!

I had arrived before the other two girls so I took off to Animal Kingdom to check a few things off my list. You see, last time I went I had not adequately prepared for my visits to the park and thought my friends would make sure I saw the highlights... well, not everyone does theme parks the same right? My bad... so this time I was prepared and my friend Amy said to make a list and she would make sure I saw everything on the list. Awesome!

First must see at Animal Kingdom, DeVine! Check!

While I was waiting I went on Safari twice, which was great! I love zoos and this was the best animals all in a more natural environment for them. Except maybe the alligators, where they had like 20 practically on top of each other in their space, what was up with that? I learned that a giraffe usually spends 16 hours a day eating and only a half hour sleeping. Their heart can weigh up to 25 lbs and be 2 feet wide! What? Anyway, this was super fun and I saw a couple different animals the second time I went through. I also learned that ostriches smell terrible. Or blame it on the rhino... they were there together. All I know is that when they say the ostriches are coming you better plug your nose.

I went to the bird show Flights of Wonder, I have seen a bird show before and it was interesting but I had done it before so I didn't need to go again right? Wrong. Thank goodness I did get this must see off the list because it was GREAT. I loved the different birds, it was entertaining, it was funny. Happy that was recommended by Amy. I did Everest once, if you remember Suzanne and I went on it like 8 times in a row last time we went (that girl does theme parks!) and walked around a little until I got news they had arrived. At which time, it started POURING rain. Amy was bringing me a poncho so I didn't pick one up... in hindsight, I should have, her ponchos were stuck in her husband car and she didn't have access to them! I was drenched! Welcome to Disney World people!

I met the girls at the hotel and we got ready to go to the #RockYourDisneySide evening event. The big kick off party. When we arrived Tania met John, who we affectionally referred to as her "handler". He was there to make sure she had everything she needed and that she was where she needed to be on time. She had a series of meetings and media interviews lined up during the trip. His regular job sounded awesome, he was a character handler for one side of the park. Making sure they get the right place at the right time.

Annnnd... this is why Disney won't ever love me blogging for them... it was a great party and an awesome opportunity but having done events in a previous life? These parties are all the same. inevitably the tweeter and the hype make it appear like everyone was off their feet dancing and having fun the whole time when in reality it's rather laid back and pretty classy. They had meals from different countries (they had corn beef and cabbage y'all) and highlights from their summer attractions around the room. Anna and Elsa of course because they were moving from Epcot to Magic Kingdom. (Sorry princesses that got the boot, these ladies are a HUGE draw!) Also characters from the new Festival of Fantasy Parade, Goofy celebrating the anniversary of a water park, characters from the Lion King show since it was getting a new home (though not sure where!) and the living statues which were off in a side room and we completely missed them!

There was a band that they had perform a few covers and then a great DJ that they have at their other events came in to get things going. A couple of the other girls had met him at the Wine and Dine parties. We were really the only table who was rocking out to the music though the table next to us kind of joined in at the end.

One very cool and very "media-wise" thing they did was encourage people to take a lot of pictures and post them on Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag #RockYourDisneySide. They then took those pictures and projected them up on two huge screens they had on the right and left of the stage. Twitter was totally buzzing, maybe even more than the party. Especially because it was a great big room full of people on their smart phones trying to connect with social media.

One might argue that a rowdy Purchasing and/or travel card manager group has got them beat on the party hard scale...

After the party they escorted all the attendees around the lake at Epcot to a roped off area for the best view to watch the Illuminations: Reflections of Earth show. (Another must-see on my list!) I LOVED this show. Really enjoyed it and could have watched it again. It was great and the best seat in the 'house' didn't hurt but it would have been great anyway. Yay for this one!

Some pictures from the party:

Minnie and Mickey in their formal attire. Minnie's dress was actually kid of stunning, for a mouse's dress, and she even spun for me. So cute. 

Amy and I with theses big spirals hanging from the ceiling. They were white canvases where they could project the theme of the party in bright colors. Very clever! 

 Characters from the Festival of Fantasy Parade.

These guys were AMAZING and new with the Malificent Steam Punk metal dragon The crow could spread those wings out really wide and that other guy on stilts is very thorny and ominous. His face was completely covered with that costume. 

We all had to get fierce with them... 

First string Anna, Elsa and a bonus Olaf. (We got the second string the next day, pictures coming!)

And the hotel even had a noisy geyser out by the pool. It went off every hour, imagine that! 

A view from the third floor balcony back toward the pool and the geyser.

Inside the hotel lobby. Every afternoon they had a Kids Club staff member bring out large cards, dominos and connect four type games and play with kids in the middle of the room. Very cute. Nice touch Disney! 

A couple random observations. The Wilderness Lodge reused my Magic Band that I had gotten from Magical Express and the All-Star resort! This is new! It really only happened because the box of magic bands associated with the reservation only had one in it (for Tania) and before they hunted down another they asked if I happened to have one. Great. Getting better Disney!

Also - I assumed my park tickets were associated with the magic band with the Wilderness Lodge reservation. Because of this I thought I would need to check in to the hotel before I would be able to hit the park. Turns out there is an improvement there too. If you are using any magic band associated with you on My Disney Experience you will be able to get into the park. What? Awesome!

A bit of catch up...

Ugh! I am so behind! And when I am behind it just makes me want to avoid blogging altogether and that's what I have done!

Duncan made me a cute Mother's Day book at school and I love it. He is getting into the phonetic spelling of things and it included such things as My mom likes to "go to storz" and my mom loves me like "a big hrt". (Heart!) It's my favorite thing that little kids do and I am so glad he is starting to write like this! I told him he did a great job and asked him if he did it all by himself and he said most of it but he had a little help. I asked him who helped him and he said "Dylan's maid". Maid?? Haha! I told him it was Dylan's AIDE. No M! It was so cute and worth sharing!

This morning he asked if some spiders have the "poison effect" which I imagine is his interpretation of "poisonous". So cute!

My grandma Shirley sends me letters regularly (she is a better letter writer than I am blogger, though she relies on the blog for updates, ooooops!) In the last one she said she is going to share a gem of wisdom or two. Here they are 1) if you want a clean house... don't live in it. 2) your nose does get bigger as you get older and slower. And 3) throw away pans are great for roasting chicken wings. I love it! I hope she shares more!

As you might know by now, I hate teeth, and loose teeth, and the idea of loose teeth and the gaping hole the tooth leaves when it falls out. The wiggling, oh, the wiggling... Dylan has had a loose tooth for a little while and in the last week it has gotten significantly taller than the others on the bottom row as it's being pushed up by an adult tooth behind it. She has caught on and has started playing with it with her top teeth and lo and behold, I looked at it yesterday and that gross little tooth is laying flat in her mouth under her tongue. Yuck! It's still rather attached on that back side. Ick, ick, ick! Trying to negotiate a tooth puller and I imagine it will be gone soon, maybe before I am done writing this post!

The school district had a meeting the other night for all of the special needs parents. A kind of state of the union. I went to the one last year and it was great information so I was watching to see when this one was. Thankfully they sent an email, I guess you were supposed to hear it from the special needs teachers through the schools, but yea... there was a bit of a communication issue there. One of Dylan's sweet aides who is graduating with her degree in special needs teaching even came just to know what was going on. (again, communication in the school is an issue... plus she isn't going to be an aide much longer.) I hope hope hope, she gets on at Dylan's school but I just don't see it happening.

A big topic in this meeting was the de-clustering. In the past they had the special needs kids in two of the five schools in the district but they were not getting the services that they need because they were getting too crowded. Like Dylan, they were working to move kids out of the cluster programs and giving them the support that they need in their neighborhood schools.

I am not sure where I last left off but the special needs teacher at Dylan's school that I have been having so many problems with isn't going to be returning next year. They are instead hiring two teachers (one severe endorsed, one mild/moderate), I am sure they will not be full time because the district cannot afford to pay the insurance. Which is sad... but a regular problem I have heard about. (The aides are almost all part time now because if they go full time the insurance the district is required to provide actually costs more than their salaries!) During the meeting they mentioned a survey that they had done and overwhelmingly the issue of poor communication came up and they needed more details. I wanted to speak up, I know changes are going to be made next year but I also need them to know that I noticed... and was paying attention. Things like the aides not knowing any of the goals on Dylan's IEP,  me not knowing when changes in the aides (like quitting and hiring) and Dylan's aide coverage are all concerns to me. At one point, one representative from the district said to me that I will definitely have a better year next year than I did this year. That's what I needed to hear, moving on now.

The severe certified teacher has already been hired, she has been working at the high school for 16 years and wanted a little change so she is moving to elementary school. She was very nice, I met her after the meeting. She requested that I bring Dylan in the week before school starts so she can meet her ahead of time and get to know more about her. Love it. Love it. Crossing my fingers for a better year next year!

Asher's soccer is meh... he likes it as much as the other kids. Part of the problem I think is that he and Owen are on a team of 4 year olds who played together last year and know what they are doing. So Owen and Asher have a thing about not even wanting to get in the game with them. Yes... sounds familiar. I have no idea what so of recreational activity we are going to have these kids too. Two left feet doesn't help the situation.

The other night we went to the new aquarium with an organization that Dylan is part of for kids with terminal problems. I think Dylan squeaked in because she is doing so well. When I signed up when she was one, I got a bit of a hard time about it so I haven't ever done any of their activities. But I couldn't pass this up and they have some great things going on so maybe I will take a second look. Matthew was supposed to be out of town so I had changed the tickets from our whole family to leave out him and Greyson who my mom was going to watch. But then he ended up being here... so he and Grey just stayed home. Four kids is still a lot of crazy at an aquarium filled with lots of kids and lots (and lots) of strollers and wheelchairs! It's new so a lot of the exhibits were still closed but there is a small shark tunnel and some great rooms where the whole side wall is an aquarium. The kids really loved it and the special needs kids liked it because it was dark except the wall of water which made it easier for them to see the fish! We saw a couple of friends there too which was fun. Dylan totally slept the whole time, which is what she does when she is in her comfy stroller.

We will be doing Night at the Zoo with this group again in a couple of weeks. We have done this zoo night before but it was through the hospital and not through this group. I will be looking for other things to do through them, it's really a great organization.

I don't have a whole lot of pictures this week because I was out of town (again, yes... I am getting to that...) I am sure I left a ton out since the last time I posted but hey, I am trying here!

More Easter Fun! (500th post! Holy Moly!)

This year the Easter bunny did a scavenger hunt (didn't see that coming did you?) and it was awesome. I think that he started to make his own clues and then just plain decided to use some bunny else's. They were easy, cute and simple and exactly the perfect for Ian and Duncan. He hid the first clue in an egg in the light fixture over the table thinking maybe Matthew or I would need to draw attention to it but the very first thing Duncan saw when he came down in the morning was that stinking egg and he asked right away if he could see if there was anything in it. 

This started the under-estimating of the hunting and gathering capabilities of said Duncan. Next year it's ON son. 

They busily followed one clue to another to another guided by Matthew with me not far behind. In the tub, the fridge, the microwave... all over. The very last clue was a little reminder about the meaning behind Easter. So very sweet. On the back it said the final place to check was under their beds and they both found brand new scooters. (Me thinks the Easter Bunny hit a Black Friday sale!)

The first thing Asher said when he saw the boys was "I want a scooter too!" In his cute little voice. Luckily Matthew just happened to pick up a new three wheeled scooter for Asher the very day before so even though he wasn't in the hunt, we were prepared. 

Then we went on the egg hunt down stairs and gathered up far too many eggs that had far too much candy in them and now I am stuck with it all sitting here in a bowl and I can't have anything to do with it. Meh. All I smell is chocolate.

Easter evening we went to mom's house for the beloved egg hunt in her back yard. The boys and Abbi scoured the yard for a ton of eggs that had candy AND money in them. They had so much fun! We tried to get a picture of all of the kids but... meh... 

Asher had his first soccer game and it was freeeezing cold. Matthew took him to represent and I guess most of the team are four year old, second year, soccer players so Owen and Asher and their novice kicking skills didn't quite fit in but they did what they could for a first game. They looked cute, isn't that all that matters? Neither of them liked it too much but they have a little while to figure that out. 

Matthew took them skating last weekend... indoors, where they could try out their scooters! Rumor has is Asher was hardly seen, he just went in circles for two hours. Matt said they were CRAZY and had so much fun! Excellent. I am glad they had that opportunity. Hooray for the idea from Aunt Eden. 

Duncan is star student this week and I should have taken a picture of his poster before he took it to school this morning shouldn't I? Oooops. One of the questions ask what he wanted to be when he grew up and he said he wants to be "a guy that builds really cools stuff that people like and want to come see". Like out of Legos and in MineCraft. Perfect profession. He also wished for $1,000 which he said would make him "RICH!" 

I am the most boring-est star student mother ever. We brought his favorite book and those gross cheese and cracker packs where you spread the nasty cheese on the crackers. Cheese and crackers is one of Duncan's favorite foods. That's all I got man. 

My pictures are backwards... but at least they aren't upside down?

Why so serious?

Egg hunting (Greg is too old so he was helping Asher out...)

Loot!

This silly smile... 

See! So cute! For real. 

Ahhhh motherhood, isn't it grand?

Finding baskets...

Reading the clue

This is what the clues looked like... 

Finished product... not cute. 

Easter Fun

As I have said many times before... I am not a huge fan of the "mad grab" Easter Egg Hunts. Bunch of candy and eggs, tossed out on the lawn, ripe for the picking. Parents yelling from the sidelines as their kids walk over the same egg 21 times. Instead I prefer to make my kids work for their candy and goodies...

Either that or I was totally spoiled as my mother lovingly hid every egg and candy and we all actually spent time finding them and having fun. Something like that... 

So this year I looked for some of the smaller scale, special needs, egg hunts and found one that was supposed to be a scavenger hunt but really wasn't. There was a cost to it because it was a fund raiser for a support group and you had to RSVP because they were limiting the number of kids to 50. My kind of Easter activity! 

Once you sign in and get your hand stamped you walked around an outdoor mall and the kids went from table to table, getting treats and doing fun things. There was a Lego activity with a little Lego prize, face painting, photo prop making, story telling, balloon animals... the Easter Bunny. 

It. Was. Perfect. 

I mean, I could have done a little more with an actual scavenger hunt. I wanted to see if Duncan likes them yet. (For no particular reason... ...) Where were the clues? There was nothing of the sort. But the weather was perfect, I had never been to that mall and it was not crowded at all! In fact, it could have used a few more kids! Except the balloon line, that was pretty long.

The face painting line was a little long too, one lady was solo for a while until one of her co-workers came and set up and she did amazing work! She was really great and had a huge face painting set-up. Charlotte got a pretty glittery butterfly, Asa got a snake and my kids poo-poo'd the whole face painting experience. Greyson got a snake on his arm (that he promptly smudged...) and Dylan got a cute little flower pattern with glitter. They have never liked face painting at all. I don't know why... but I have never really been able to willingly get them to do it. They played on the playground right next to the table.. 

We rounded the corner right after the face painting and there was the Easter Bunny sitting there all solo. The thing was, we didn't start going the right direction and he was set up at the 'end' of the 'hunt' so he was just chilling. Yay! We ran up and got a group picture that was adorable! Easter Bunny, check! 

They had one balloon guy who was maybe 13 or 14? And he was serious business, he was rocking those balloon shapes. The cutest part is that the snake has a little bit of sugar in it so it hissed! Asher looked so cute running around shaking his snake! Until it popped... and he cried... that part wasn't so cute. 

I get Greyson a simple white sword and he didn't want to have anything to do with it. Nothing. He hates it. So I turn to the lady behind us and asked her if she wanted it because I was thinking it would save her some time. She had a peanut like Grey and she had a special needs girl in a wheel chair and had been waiting a while too. Instead of saying "No thanks, I think we have something picked out." Or "No, he really likes blue." Or something, I don't know, not socially awkward. She smiled and nodded and got all uncomfortable like I grabbed her butt. Really? Apparently she had totally picked out what she wanted for her boy, like colors, and was very particular. I was thinking... lady, you know he doesn't talk right? And will likely shun and hate the balloon? (Speaking from experience...) But whatever. She made me feel silly for asking, see why no one is never nice to anyone any more? It all comes down to balloon animals. 

Good thing she didn't take my sword because we fashioned a (non-hissing) snake out of it about 10 minutes later. 

I really don't know where we could have gone to do these fun things and had the lines be so short so it really was perfect for us. They got maybe 7 or 8 pieces of candy, great, and the other fun activities. I loved it. Yay! 

Chillin with the main animal.

We have always done a family picture on Easter! Here it is! 

So. Many. Broken. Eggs.

"I will get you!" 

"Hardly, I will eat and still take you down!"

Ha! Cute right?!

This was a bigger draw than face painting by like... a mile. 

They had bumpy eggs which I think was inspired. She loved it! 

Dylan's face-painting. 

Just chilling in the awesome weather. 

Greyson, pretty much all the time, selfie. Earning the nick name "Grumpy Grey"

Five kids is busy yo'.

I am having a hard time keeping my head above the water much less fitting anything like blogging in but... I am going to give it a shot.

We went to the zoo this week and finally (finally!) cashed in the gift that Tracy and Shannon got us for Christmas, a family zoo pass! (I just found out the Angel's Hands buys there families zoo passes so I think we will need to do that in the future. I never knew!) As I remember you could get one adult on the card and get a plus one and take anyone with you, that's how we did it a couple of years ago but these guys spared no expense and actually got us the pass that gets both Matthew and I in as well as one additional adult. Awesome! Yay for grandma trips to the zoo!

Good because I cannot take the kids anywhere by myself which makes things a bit tricky... Dylan has outgrown any "normal" stroller and so we need someone to push Dylan and someone to push Grey and Asher. Until poor Duncan is big enough to push Grey in an umbrella stroller anyway (sorry dude, it's coming). So I recruited Megan and we all piled in the big van (there would have still been room for three more) and headed up and parking was an issue. (Though we saw another NV there! So someone managed, though I bet there were fewer cars in the parking lot when they got here, seeing them get OUT would have been interesting!) We parked in a separate lot and just happened to get an easy lucky spot.

We weren't there for very long, I brought the new jogging stroller for Dylan and thanks to a tip from one of my friends an Asher or Mason can easily sit by her legs! We also had the sit and stand for up to four more kids. Easy right? Except the jogging stroller's tires were flat after winter... Whomp whomp. So it was a beast to push! Especially with a kid on the front! This only adding to the Duncan and Ian tired legs, so we left after two hours. It was enough though, because we have the pass we didn't have to make a day of it! Next time it will be 2.5 hours and after that 3! I have to build up the boy's stamina (especially if I intend to have him push a stroller in a year!)

I have passes for us to go to the new aquarium in a couple of weeks but Matthew won't be able to go so I recruited mom to watch Greyson and I will just use the jogging stroller with Asher on the front and the big boys can walk. We will see how that goes. Dylan got us the passes and I know they have a shark tunnel so I think she will like the lights and stuff. Grey will just have to go see it some other time! An annual pass there would be a good idea too, once I figure out how to manage them all on my own anyway.

Ahhhhh, the challenges of getting married later, having a lot of kids quickly, and having a broken kid. All rolled up into one big ball. Yay us!

I am contemplating going to the Families for Hope conference in October, just Dylan and me, and trying to figure out how I could possibly make it work. I would love to meet all of the families and kids that I have met from the support groups online - most of them anyway! But Dylan, in a small space (plane), renting a car, getting a hotel room. Oye! It is helpful to know that once we are there everyone I will be talking to will be going through the same exact thing though right? They have arranged care for the kids during the time we are there too, which is nice. Who knows. I do need to decide at some point though... hmmm... Can you imagine Dylan on a plane?!

I do remember really wishing I would have gone to the last one and I am sure I will have those same pings of regret when this one is happening. Of course, two years is enough time to forget that regret (obviously) and that's how (in)frequently they do these!

While I was gone on my girl's trip Ian discovered a new trick, that is raising his middle finger and not raising any others. He thought it was great. Aided of course by his father who was having him show everybody this new fun thing. One day after Dylan's aide brought her to the car I talked to her for a minute and she turned to leave. I looked back in the back seat and saw Ian flipping me off with both hands and he said "That girl doesn't know how to do this..." and he was shaking his head in a 'feel sorry for her' manner. So I hurried and leaned out and said "Uhm, was my son flipping you off?" and she said "Uhhh, yea, I wasn't quite sure how to respond to that..." EMBARRASSING! So I told her he thought it was a great trick that he could raise that finger and no others and he insisted on showing everyone. He response? She flipped me off with both hands and said "Well, it is the tall man!" Hilarious. She is so cute.

Speaking of Dylan's school - apparently big changes are coming next year. Big changes I am not supposed to know about yet. But I hope these changes mean good things for Dylan. I know it means more special needs students though... they are getting a new, very challenging one, on Monday and are severely underprepared for it. The combination of the loss of the last aide (and not having replaced her yet), a new student a couple weeks ago, poor direction, and Dylan having been the first severe has left them in a bit of a pickle. I don't know what they are going to do to cover their bases but I will have to watch closely this week I think.

Next year there will be a lot of changes, and a new principal, so before school starts I will have to arrange a meeting with the school about Dylan. Better then than after school starts and disrupting their routine. They need to be building their routine around Dylan!

She has been busy around here, I think she had a growth spurt because she can reach pretty far up on the counter to knock things down. Everything. Tupperware, bowls of cereal, plates, cups, anything she can reach and toss on the floor. Which... if you think about it... is exactly what Greyson would be doing if he could reach up on the counter! So it's developmentally appropriate but men is it frustrating! We will get to the point where there will be very little on the counter and all of the drawers will have safety locks, not to keep her safe, but to keep her from making a huge mess!

Duncan got his report card and he got all E's. Previously his N's and S's were in behavior, keeping his hands to himself etc. We have really been working on it though and he obviously has made improvements. We passed of sight words but we have a small list of maybe 7 that he will have to pass off in order to get an E at the end of the year. His reading is higher than expected at the end of the year, his phenome segmentation is great. Everything is better than expected but we will need to work on "nonsense words" because, even though it's higher than it needs to be at the end of the year, it's not as high as the other categories. Piece of cake.

We went to his parent teacher and that was easy, cut and dry. He is doing great.

Asher is about 98% potty trained which is great. I think potty training is birth control in and of itself. Nothing else needed. It's terrible and it was a rough first week, that's for sure. If I could just get him to START #2 on the pot we would be golden...

Greyson says "go!" very enthusiastically which is fun for all the kids because they love it when he can say words on demand. There has been a lot of "3, 2, 1...."s in the house this week and I think even Greyson is getting over it.

The running stuff:
I ran that ten-miler race and it was bad... I mean, I did okay. I think my pace was 9:41 or something which is a great pace for me but I really thought I could do better(80% of it was downhill!) so I was disappointed. The first two miles were straight up at a 4-5% incline and that was hard but I made a point to run the whole way, I didn't walk at all. They ended up being a 10:30 and an 11:00 minute mile which is actually great, even for flat, but I think it just wiped me out and I was never able to pick my mojo back up again. We have run the downhill portion in under 9 minute miles before, the whole way, and we hit maybe three miles at that pace but the rest were slower.

But moreover, when I was running I was talking to myself saying how bad it stunk and that I would never run again. (Which is a problem, because, as you might know... I have already registered for a few races!) There was some serious negative talk going on. Not good.

I have spent some time trying to figure out what the deal was and I think I have narrowed it down to a) my sloth-like behavior the week prior b) My poor eating habits and c) the stress of my BRF running so much freaking faster than me! So I will need to work on this things. (Again? Still?) So I broke up with Sara, but only for races. She gets in my head on race days and it works against me, rather than on training runs where it works in my favor. She told me I will be bored at races but otherwise handled the break up quite well. I can deal with that.

Meanwhile I haven't run since, I think I am going to ease into things a little bit and start over. This will also allow me to start taking Dylan out for runs to make sure she likes it and then maybe even start taking her to a few 5ks and maybe a 10k. I would love that and I think she will too. I have an obstacle race and a half in June... so yea, lots of time to get the mojo back.