Homecoming!

Last night I went to visit my little niece, Brooklynn. While I was there, I spent some time hanging out with Suzanne and we had fun hanging out and chatting. I sure love Jay and Suzanne's little baby! I am so glad that I get to see her! She is pretty darn cute, and she looks so much like Suzanne that I just can't get over it!
Anyways, while we were chatting, Suzanne asked me if I used my blog like a journal, and I told her that I absolutely did! That being said, I did realize that I tend to be better at blogging when I am on vacation than when I am at home. So I have recommitted myself to writing on here again. I know that I am not that interesting, but at least my kids will have a record of what I was like when I was . . . . GASP. . . 30!
I didn't write about my homecoming from Disney World yesterday, and I really don't know why. Otto and I had a BLAST while we were there and I am so glad that we went. However, I was ready to come home. I missed the kiddies like crazy and I was beginning to get quite homesick. When I got home, everyone was in bed so I went and woke up Lee just so I could hold him! Man I love that baby!!! Oh, and in case you didn't notice, he is HUGE!!! I also realized that little gem while I was holding him. How did my baby get so big????
Yesterday morning when the kids woke up, I gave them all their presents. Each one of them got a special pair of Mickey ears, a present, a candy and a trinket. Of course they were sooooo excited about their stuff that they all had to wear their ears all day and take their presents to schools (thanks to their teachers for being so patient with them!).
So, my trip was fun, but it does feel good to be home. . . . it would feel better if my house was clean, but I guess that that is the next big project that I am going to have to tackle.

The first anniversary of my 29th birthday.

Tonight, I received an AWESOME email from my Dad. It was short, but he has no idea how much it meant to me that he sent it to me. In it he wrote that this is a big birthday for me because it is the first anniversary of my 29th birthday! Seeing as I plan on having at least 50 more of these 29th birthdays I can really appreciate that comment.
I have been dreading turning 30. 30 just sounds like a grown up. I feel as though I have been kind of playing around with my life up until now and I can no longer say, "When I grow up I want to . . ." I am actually here. I kind of feel weird, like I don't know what I am supposed to do next. And that is why I decided to celebrate my birthday in the most childlike place I know. . . Disney World!
My mom and Jenna and Kristin are down here too and so we decided to spend part of the day together! We spent the morning together at Epcot doing Future World and part of the World Showcase. It was really fun and I am glad that we got to spend the morning together. After eating lunch in the Biergardens in Germany, Otto and I spent the rest of the day going around the World showcase and visiting the different countries. It was really fun. I LOVE learning about other cultures and seeing their art and tasting their food and smelling their smells (no seriously. . . I really do notice the smells!!).
Because this is the year of Celebrations for Disney, they have a variety of fun gifts that you can choose from on your birthday. You can either get a free admission to the parks, a gift card for the equivalent of the entrance fee, or a fastpass to 6 rides of your choice. Because we had already bought our passes, we chose the gift card. I am really good at buying gifts for others, but I have a hard time spending money on myself, so this was fun because Otto and I decided that I HAD to buy stuff for myself. So, I bought a nativity from Italy, a Mickey Mouse apron and some gifts for my favorite niece, nephew, nephew dog (I didn't get anything for my OWN pets, but I got something for my brother's dog. . . go figure hey?)and a gift to put in Robin's memorial box. After realizing that I had spent part of my gift card on other people, Otto and I went and bought a cute Disney World frame to put some of our favorite pictures into. I don't know where I will put it, but I am sure that I can find a place.
So, there you have it. We go home tomorrow after visiting the Animal Kingdom and then it is back to the real world. I have had so much fun being here with Otto and celebrating my birthday. I miss my kids like crazy, and it is definitely time to start heading home. I can't wait to see the kiddies and give them all their presents.
It has been a great 30 years, so far, and I look forward to celebrating the anniversary of my 29th birthday many, many, many more times.

Magical Magic Kingdom

The Magic Kingdom is the epitome of Disney. This is truly the most magical place on earth. I spent the entire day with literally thousands of children who were completely captured in the magic of Disney. It made me really miss my own children, alot. In fact, I could barely stand it. I am actually quite excited to go and see them on Monday.
For lunch, we dined with Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet. Because my birthday is tomorrow, Winnie sang Happy Birthday to me and the characters all signed a birthday card for me to keep. It was so much fun dining with the characters from Winnie the Pooh. I am so glad that we did it!
Because I am such a planner, we didn't have to wait in any lines longer than 5 minutes for the rides. We did, however, promise our girlies that we would do our best to get signatures from all of their favorite princesses for them. So, because we love our girlies, we waited. . . and waited. . . and waited in line so that we could get their signatures! I think that it was worth it though because each of the princesses wrote a special note to each one of my girlies. I can't wait to see the looks on my girls' faces when they see what their favorite princesses wrote for them!
No one does parades like Disney! It was so fun to see the daytime parade and the spectro magic parade (at nighttime it was all covered in lights!!) and we ended the night with the most amazing fireworks show I have ever seen! Apparently the fireworks show at Disney's Hollywood Studios is the best one, but my favorite was definitely the one at Magic Kingdom. When I think of fireworks, I want them big, interesting (the more sparkles the better), and high in the sky!!!! Those are my favorites and so I just LOVED the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom.
Tomorrow is the big day. It's the day I have been dreading for the past 29 years. Tomorrow I turn the big 3-0. I am hoping that by spending my birthday at Epcot Center (my favorite Disney park) I will be fighting back the enemy that I like to call "old age" and prolong my youth for a bit longer! We shall see if it works. . . I will keep you posted!

Typhoon Lagoon

Today Otto and I joined up with my mom and two of my sisters and we all went to the Disney Waterpark, Typhoon Lagoon and then ended off the day at Epcot Center. Typhoon Lagoon was quite fun and it really made me miss outdoor waterparks. It is one of the things that I miss most about living in such a cold place and I always LOVE to visit a waterpark whenever I am on vacation! A vacation is just not complete unless you have spent an entire day going on waterslides, suntanning and floating down the lazy river!
And, of course, no one does a waterpark like Disney does! The Typhoon Lagoon has 13 waterslides, including 3 water rollercoasters! It has a wavepool that produces 6 foot waves so that you can actually go body surfing and I have never actually seen waves this big, and I have been to the ocean PLENTY of times! Typhoon Lagoon also has a special watertank that has tons of fishes in it, as well as sharks in it that you can go snorkeling in. Yep, that's right, you can swim with the sharks! Kristin, Otto and I did it and even though my heart was pounding the whole time as fish swam all around me, it was fun and it was something else that I was excited to tell my kids about.
Tonight we went to Epcot Center and it was amazing! Epcot is my FAVORITE part of Disney World and I am so glad that we got a small taste of it tonight and that we will be able to return on Sunday and spend the entire day (my birthday) there visiting Future World and seeing all of the countries in the World Showcase. YAY!!! I am sooooo excited!
Tomorrow, Otto and I are going to be dining with the characters from Winnie the Pooh for lunch. . . I can't wait!

My American Idol Experience

Have you ever been in a situation where you have said to yourself, "This is important and I need to write this down so that my children can know about this."? Well, today I had one of those days. You see, Otto and I visited Disney Hollywood Studios today, and while we were waiting at the turnstiles for the park to open, a bunch of people from the American Idol Experience came over and said that they were holding auditions for the American Idol Experience. Otto told me to audition and I didn't want to. He told me that I really should and I came up with a ton of excuses as to why I didn't want to, but then I finally just went and did it.
After my first audition, I got a call back to go to another audition. After that one, I got to sit in the red Coke Cola room and rehearse my song. I chose to sing "Colors of the Wind" because it was a Disney song and it reminded me of my girlies who were at home. Well, they they had me perform for the Executive Producer and then they played a video with Ryan Seacrest on it telling me that I had received a GOLDEN ticket to compete in one of the American Idol shows that was showing that day. My showtime was at 12:00 noon.
There were 2 other contestants that competed against me, and I thought that, for sure, one of them was going to win. I just thought that this was a cute little karaoke party and so I was just keeping things fun and having a blast. Then, right before we were about to sing, I heard the host say that it was a competition and the winner of the Finale Show (which was performed at 7 pm) would win a real golden ticket to audition for the REAL American Idol judges Randy, Paula and Simon. It kind of hit me then that this wasn't just a fun little thing, it was an actual competition.
It was really neat, because we had to arrive at the show an hour early where we got to practise our songs while listening to the ipods that also showed our lyrics. Then it was on to hair and makeup where I kind of felt as though they turned me into a Disney character with a TON of makeup and big big big hair! After that, I got to spend some time with a vocal coach who gave me some tips on how to better my performance, and then we got to go onto the stage for the first time where we got our pictures taken and we got to pracise singing our songs and learning where we had to stand and where we had to go.
After that, it was time for the show to start. After listening to the introduction music, running onstage to be introduced and doing a short interview with the host it was my turn to start the performances. I sang my song and then got judged by the three judges. It was fun, and I pretty much knew what they were going to say. It was great and I really had a blast.
After all three of us performed we got to dance while Jordan Sparks had a music video play and then it was time for the audience to vote. We all encouraged the audience to vote for us and then we got to hear the results. The host stalled and stalled and when he finally read the name of the winner, I couldn't believe that I had won!
I did NOT expect to win ANYTHING on American Idol, and I had actually WON!!!! I was so shocked and excited! I immediately found Otto and then we called my mom and Jenna and Kristin (my sisters). They are also in Orlando right now, but they were spending the day at a different park than Otto and I. I told them that I had won American Idol and that I was in the finale and I asked them if they wanted to come and sit in the VIP seats and watch me. OF COURSE THEY CAME!
When it was time for the finale we went through the same preshow things and then we performed again. This time there were 7 of us instead of only 3. I was a lot more nervous because before the show we were all talking and the producers told us that they get over 400 people a day auditioning to be on the American Idol shows and out of those 400, only 40 get to see the Executive Producers. Out of those 40, only 21 make it into the competition and then only 7 make it to the finale. So, that means that I was in the top 7 out of 400 people!!! PRESSURE!!!! After that sweet little tidbit of information, we all went around and said who we were, where we were from and what our musical background was. It turns out that only me and one other guy hadn't actually come to the park wanting to be in the show. Everyone else had rehearsed for months to get ready for the show and get their songs perfect so that they could compete. I had just stood in line and was clueless as to what was going on! I was actually competing with professional singers (and very talented ones, at that) and they were all there to get exposure. I was just there on vacation and so that I could tell my kids that I had tried. I never expected to make it to the finale, and I really didn't want to win because I would NEVER be able to sing in front of the REAL American Idol judges.
So, I didn't win the finale (whew), but I sure did have a lot of fun. It turns out that the other guy who also hadn't planned on auditioning for American Idol was the one who won and I was sooooo glad for him. This experience was soooo great for me because it taught me a few things. It taught me to put myself out there a little bit more because I just don't know what I can do. It taught me that to believe in my singing a little bit more because there were so many people who were so nice to me today and who complimented my singing. It taught me that people are genuinely nice. I had TONS of people stop me in the park today to congratulate me and tell me that they had voted for me. I even had a group of boys who wanted to pose with me and take pictures with me. I had some of the staff at Disney World sign a card for me to say "Good Luck" and I had others who would just come up and talk to me because they had seen me on the big tv's.
It was such a great experience, and I am so grateful that I have such a wonderful husband who pushed me to audition and then who patiently listened to me talk about my worries, fears and doubts all day long and obsess over it all day long. We did do a TON of other things at the Disney Hollywood Studios today, and we had a BLAST together! I am sooooo glad that Otto and I took this trip together and I can't wait until we get home so I can show the pictures and videos to my kids.

Outta this World

Today we spent the day at the Kennedy Space Center! (Finally!!) Otto really loved it and I was really glad that we went! It was really cool to see the progression of the rockets that they have used in order to accomplish all of the space missions. I felt very sad, and humbled when I thought about all of the men and women who had sacrificed their lives for space travel. It brought back memories of when I was in elementary school and I watched the launch of the Discovery Mission and it exploded. I still feel a sense of loss when I think about it.
I also felt a sense of pride when I got to walk by a model of the Canadian Space arm that is a smaller version of the one on the International space Station. It felt nice to know that my country had contributed to that space station in a huge way! Yay Canada!
While Otto and I were there, we kept on talking about our daughter Anne. She is very bright and is really into math and science, so we thought it would be cool if she could one day work for NASA and build robots or something like that. I just don't think I could sacrifice my daughter to being an astronaut with the risk of the rocket exploding. I would never get over that. However, having a daughter who builds robots would be sooooo cool! We figured that we would have to spend a lot of money on her education, so it's a good thing that she has an Education Saving's Plan that can help us with that. It would have been really fun to have Anne with us today, and I can't wait until we bring her here in a couple of years!
Tonight, we went and saw a fun, interactive, Pirate Dinner Theater. We had seats in the second row and we got to cheer for the Red Pirate. Our Pirate didn't win the competition for first mate and he didn't get the girl, but he was the strong one! And it was fun! Otto got to be in the show and we both had fun cheering for our pirate.
I would say that this was another successful day here in Orlando! Otto didn't get too hot because we spent most of the day inside, but tomorrow we start our 5 days at Disney World with the first day being at Hollywood Studios. SO MUCH FUN!!! I can't wait. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow night!
Until then. . .

Universal Studios

The reason I am such a planner is because I have no brain! When Otto and I woke up this morning and got everything ready to go to the Kennedy Space Center I took a quick look at our schedule that I had made before we left and I realized that we were actually supposed to go to Universal Studios today and the Kennedy Space Center tomorrow. So, we did a quick switch and we went over to Universal Studios and the Island of Adventure.
We did both parks in one day. . . . and. . . .IT WAS A BLAST!!! I am a bit of a roller coaster junkie (thanks to my mom) and I am so glad that I married someone who is also a roller coaster junkie because we went on some AMAZING roller coasters today! The Mummy was INCREDIBLE at Universal, and the Incredible Hulk and the Dueling Dragons were both AMAZING at Islands of Adventure! SO MUCH FUN!
Otto and I even got to meet Spiderman (who is Dustin's favorite superhero) and get some fun pics.
Last night we had dinner at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant, and today we had lunch at Emeril Lagasse's restaurant. I do have to say, there is a reason that they are famous chefs! It is because their recipes are goooooooooood!!!! I do have to say that I still think that my banana cream pie is better than Emeril's but I will have to try and come up with a caramel sauce like his. I mention these two restaurants because they were on my "bucket list" and I am so excited that I got these crossed off of my list!
We had fun and we really enjoyed spending the day together. I am so glad that Otto and I took this trip together so that we could just hang out with the two of us. It has been hard because we both really miss the kids, but we have been planning what we want to take them to see when we do bring them in a couple of years!
Oh, and did I mention that it was 84 degrees here today???? Sure beats the snow that I left behind at home!