{Inspired}

I am completely inspired tonight. I took a night off from my usual task oriented self and took a bath. And I took my phone in there and watched videos and read and, yes, most of my entertainment stemmed from Pinterest. Sounds like nothing new but it was. I found this...the invisible bicycle helmet:

Which then led me to this teenager:

And then an hour later I realized I had gotten out of the bath, moved to the couch and watched at least 20 more of these videos on GE's Focus Forward Video Series website. I couldn't tear myself away from all of these amazing people and ideas. I am completely inspired. I was just about bouncing out of my seat in excitement about most of this stuff. There is so much good in the world and so much knowledge to be found and to share. Can I help change the world too? Tonight I'm grateful for an awesome reminder of why technology is so amazing. Sure there is a lot of crap and wasted time waiting for you online but if I use it as the tool it is then it unlocks all of this goodness.

Happy Halloween!

This is one of my favorite holidays! I get a kick out of dressing up and I love candy and pumpkins. Candy pumpkins? Even better! Oh the treats are fantastic. Halloween just ushers in all of the delicious smells and chilly fun of fall and the holiday season.

We (meaning I) decided to dress us up in some Despicable Me get-up. My Mom made, yes made, those perfect little yellow sweatshirts for the boys. I took on the evil role as the purple minion while Rob played Gru. I think it all turned out fabulous.  I did however procrastinate finding a bald cap for Rob. I offered to shave his head instead, insisting he should get more into character for Halloween. He, surprisingly, declined. Do you love that the muscles we created kept sagging into a belly. Sorry Gru.

Anyways, I'm trying to get in as many group costumes as I can before the kids mutiny on me and decide it isn't "cool" anymore to dress up with Mom. It's almost time to start thinking about next year. Wizard of oz? Mary Poppins and some chimney sweeps? Peter pan,  John, Michael and Wendy? The possibilities here are endless. Which one will most embarrass Rob? That could be a fun decider.

 To continue the festivities, we enjoyed the trunk or treat at church (I always love me a good chili cook off), had a Halloween party at swim team, were invited to a sweet party, and we decorated pumpkins with a friend. Let the good times roll.

Nice party Kelly!

What the? He said he was looking for toys.

Working hard?

Hardly working.

"I got the guts mommy." Yes, yes you did.

Cheesesteaks and Olympians...

...That's what our weekend was full of. 

Handsome little devil.

Rob and I took the kids on a weekend trip to Philidelphia two weeks ago where I attended the Eastern States Swim Clinic. It was a conference to help me better develop as a swim coach. And it was awesome! I was able to hear from Ian Crocker, Brendan Hansen and Kate Ziegler, all Olympic gold medal winning and world record holding swimmers. More importantly I was able to listen to lectures from some incredible coaches including Chuck Batchelor, Todd Schmitz, Mike Bottom and David Marsh. These guys are 'swimming' in olympians, nationally ranked age group swimmers, NCAA champions and championships. I was getting super geeked out about everything swimming! We talked about training volume, tapering, motivation, hip vs. shoulder vs. body driven freestyle, dryland training...the list goes on. It was just plain cool.

Rob and the boys had some fun too. He toured Philly with a stroller and I put on the business casual for a change (Ok not really. Let's be honest. We're swim coaches so we all showed up in flip flops and team gear.). They went to a Harry Potter Festival in Franklin Park, toured some boats and a maritime museum, ate a cheese steak of course, and we all saw Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Overall I think it was a highly eventful and successful weekend capped off with a birthday celebration for our awesome cousin Tommy Orsack! What could be better? Swimming and sight seeing, followed by a party. Love it.

Driving us crazy crawling around
Independence Hall

Crazy hair, and face, and person :)

Getting lost going to the hotel

Watched this guy set one of his WR's
at Olympic Trials 2004

Preferred method of travel for Cashew

Ben Franklin's grave
{I took the picture and can't even read that}

Happy Birthday Cashew!

Are you a year old already? Oh my.

Look at this little guy. My how he's grown. And as usual, I'm almost a month late on this post.

He is letting me know right and left that he is a whole different person than his brother. And he does not want to be forgotten. Lately he will crawl to me, climb up my legs and point at me until I pick him up, then immediately wiggle to be put down. He'll do this two or three times in a row until he's satisfied. Satisfied that I am simply focusing on him I think. He is fun to focus on. He has quite the personality, which includes a variety of new thoughtful faces. There is a whole bunch going on in that brain of his. It looks like he's thinking all the time.

He likes and dislikes many different foods. This week on the like list was:

1) Enchiladas...gulped up an entire spicy one all by himself.
2) Almost meatless sloppy joes, full of carrots celery and tomato.
3) Terriyaki chicken...way too strong on the soy sauce. I think we have one with a salt affection here.

On the dislike list is:

1) Eggs
2) Butternut Squash Macaroni and cheese...how can these kids smell an impostor when there is so little flavor change?
3) Milk

Hmm...

He is still not walking yet but he is standing on his own just fine. In fact he really loves to stand up and put his arms over his head and then WWF style slam his arms and body down on your face/stomach/arms. The thing I love most about babies putting their hands over their heads is that they can't reach all the way over their heads. Anyways, this is my rough and tumble child. I think he has been bleeding at least three times as much as his brother and he just loves to wrestle and throw things. But with all of that he is the most mellow child.

Hooray for the first year! Looking forward to all the rest.

Orlando...

...the Florida kind. Not the Bloom kind. He's old news anyways.

Yep we did it again. We went to Disneyworld. Thanks to my brother Joshua, we were easily motivated to visit this happy place, yet again, as he works through his Disney College Program. That makes this a full family affair as each of us siblings has each done a season interning with The Mouse. The seed has already been planted in my parents to make this a retirement destination as well, so we can truly complete the family circle of Disney employees. Walt himself should be proud.

 

It was awesome as always. This time our little section of the family (Rob, myself, Peanut and Cashew) made a road trip out of it. Though there really isn't much variation in scenery down the I-95 (trees, minor hills, less hills, more exotic trees, billboards) it still was a fun drive. We sang, we laughed, we yelled at each other, we ate, we spilled food, we watched movies and we slept. And we did a little visiting.

A little light reading.

Our first stop was in Wilson, NC where we enjoyed a night stay and some swimming the following morning before heading out on the second leg. We rolled into this little town at 1am Friday morning and to our dismay Peanut was wide awake and fought us at every corner to go to sleep at this awful hour. We were ready to fall down like dead people into our bed. Sheesh kids.


Super sleepy Peanut

Well Friday afternoon, we headed off again to meander our way to SC to visit some awesome friends. The Robison's were kind enough to let us crash in their beautiful home with our two little wild boys. And may I say, they were the epitome of southern hospitality. Our bed was laid out with a welcome basket that included plenty of candy and toys for the kids. We spent all of Saturday with these two, enjoying every minute, then headed out again at O'dark-thirty Sunday morning to try and make it to Orlando in time to get my parents from the airport. Thanks a delay and a missed flight timing couldn't have been better! And thanks to the blessed new car we were able to fit everyone and the luggage inside :). Double handed fist pump!

We checked into the timeshare we were all sharing and then did a little grocery run to stock the fridge and headed out to cheesecake factory for some grub. Yum, yum, yum. I need to eat there more often. We needed to load up to prepare for the run through the parks for the next few days. Naps would be at a minimum and it was hot my friends. Oh. So. Hot. And humid. And each and every day had a
huge rain storm. We were off to the races.

Park Day #1 - Animal Kingdom

Peanut's first ride!

Thank goodness Grandma brought the mickey ponchos!

Snuggling in for a good sleep during
the Nemo show.

Enjoying the dinosaur dig. 

It was so fun to explore some of the play grounds and other shows that were for small children that I had never really explored before because, well, I didn't have small children before now :). Always something new at Disney.

Day #2 - Epcot

Epcot is awesome! It's big. It's full of things to learn. It's fun. It has really good food. We stopped to watch the Beatles tribute band in the UK pavilion. Loved it. Aunt Katie took a ride in the stroller. Glad it didn't break. Desmond was afraid of the Captain Eo show. We just had a good time as usual. You would too.

 

Day #3 - Magic Kingdom

 

And boy is it magic! This is seriously the most fun park take a little kid to. All of us were looking forward to it. We all were thinking of the rides we each wanted to ride with Peanut. Again, these kiddos have no idea how much we like to be with them.

Monorail Ride. Peanut was waiting
for this all week!

The new area was cool. Dumbo theme a new Little Mermaid
ride a Peanut sized Goofy roller coaster. Yay!

And the new Beauty and Beast area was incredible. Try
Lefou's Brew if you ever get a chance. More delicious
than Harry Potter's butter beer. Yep I said it. Sorry
Universal.

Just passing some time on the people mover.

Yummy new restaurant. The Beast's Castle. So glad we
were able to sneak in a last minute reservation. Good job
Grandpa Pete!

And this is a fabulous new attraction. A really crummy photo.
It was the last photo I got before my camera died.
Belle's story time is a must see. My Dad was cast as a knight,
Rob and Peanut were cast as the wardrobe. You act out
Belle's story for Belle! Oh so fun!

Day #4 - Rest Day!

We never take these. It was fun. We all slept in. Swam in the pool. Played in the laundry basket and did a little shopping at Downtown Disney and sadly dropped Katie off at the airport :(

I think I should do a chalkboard
like this.

Day #5 - Universal Studios

Harry Potter World was solely the motivation for this visit and it was a good time. The Harry Potter ride was one of the better story rides I have ever been on. I was even a little bit scared of the Dementors to be honest. Oh and today's rainstorm was the biggest of them all. I went and bought the boys new clothes at the gift shop everything was soooo incredibly wet. It was a great excuse for a souvenir.

 Day #6- Disney Studios

My old stomping grounds during my Disney College Program. I love this park.

I could not keep my eyes open for a single
picture with that flash. I think we tried at
least 10 times.

Well Disney, until next time we bid you a fond farewell!