New York journey

Here we are on April 9th overlooking Times Square at a great hotel. This has been a 'journey' so far. We arrived late on Sunday evening after a lovely (that's for you Dan!) flight, it truly was great. We flew Cathay from Vancouver to JFK with all the old fashioned service we used to get on flights. Upon going through customs and getting our first stamps in our new passports we picked up our luggage and got into the que for a taxi. Our driver was nice and got us to our hotel in about 1/2 an hour. We were booked into the Roosevelt Hotel. Very near Times Square and other places. Within an hour of checking in we had called the front desk to have maintenance come up and figure out what was wrong with our a/c unit. Needless to say, we moved rooms at 1:30am (keep in mind, Dwayne and I unpack everything as soon as entering a room!). On our first day out we scouted out a new hotel and moved on Monday afternoon. We are now at the W hotel at 47th and Broadway! It is lovely too Dan!


On Monday we picked up our pre-arranged tix for the double decker bus tour and did the uptown tour. It was brutally cold to be in the open top, but we bought gloves and saw lots!

Out for a nice dinner and to a club for a drink before turning in at 2am.


Tuesday, we took the bus again and stopped at the Empire State Building as well as Ground Zero. We toured through St. Pauls church that is adjacent to the site and was a 'clothing' up area for firefighters and police. We tried to take the subway back uptown but there was a track fire and the E train was delayed so we jumped in a cab.

Chicago was our destination for Tuesday night and Dwayne had once again surprised me (or maybe us both!!) with front row center tix. It was truly amazing. We had a great dinner at Bobby Vay's and then wandered back to the hotel.

Wednesday morning we set off for more sightseeing but didn't get a whole lot done...sort of! We went to Liberty Island and Ellis Island. Lady Liberty is beautiful and Ellis Island is a place where the wonder and amazement reigns. Dwayne had a great-grandfather (x3) come into Ellis Island so we were on a mission of discovery. Alas, we didn't find what we sought but it was amazing!

The EO group is now in town for tomorrow's session with Seth Godin so we met Chris and Shannon for dinner in Little Italy. Who needs to travel all that way when it's right here. Dwayne is sure a couple of the 'cousins' were talking in Italian about a recent hit!!!

I'm alone tomorrow to shop and hang out. Maybe a manicure is in order!

Great Adventures! Part 2

Our last posting left the Princesses and the Knights on adventures around Disney and Kennedy Space Center. This adventure posting will bring more Disney and fun with friends!


I totally forgot a really fun part of our trip to Disney Hollywood Studios. Cam got chosen to be a part of the Lights, Motors, Action show. It was so much fun!! He did well and was a very polite Canadian kid! He had his pin collecting lanyard and got a pin that only kids in the show get. So 3 a day are given out, you can't buy these babies!

The Langs joined us on Thursday with our first stop being Epcot. We were all totally lucky to have found the characters right away and got Emily, Ethan and Sarah in to meet Mickey, Minnie and friends right out of the gate! The boys got in line for Mission:Space and then we got our fast passes for the Test Track (my fave at Epcot). After a brief stop in Canada, a wander through the UK and France we decided to have lunch in Morocco. What a great way to explore the world! We even saw the Nemo undersea exhibit and went Soarin' over California (the Test Track is still the best!). As we were leaving Morocco we got to have pics taken with Princess Jasmine and the men (Dwayne and Dan) were happy to stand along side for a photo! After lunch we headed over to the Magic Kingdom. WOW and that was only 1/2 of the day!


Magic Kingdom....castles, Princesses, rides, sun...what more could a group of kids ask for! The boys even got to ride in the front of the monorail with the driver!! With Emily being so little she couldn't do all the rides so we took turns staying back with her. By far her favorite was Uncle Dwayne as he would take her to the shop and let her try on hats and wigs...and take pics along the way!

This is a mish-mosh of pics but it's fun!!

Great Adventures! Part 1

We arrived home (ok, into Seattle) on Saturday night/Sunday morning. It had been a long leg of the journey flying from Atlanta to Seattle with 6 kids! I was not surprised at with our arrival and snow falling....let me explain...you see whenever (and this has happened for the past 14 years) my parents leave on spring vacation, usually to Mexico, it snows. I know, it's crazy but it totally happens!! Needless to say, my parents flew out on Saturday morning!!

We started out journey on Friday March 14th with an overnight stay in Seattle. Our flight left at 7 am on Saturday and we stopped (ever so briefly) in Chicago. Once we arrived in Orlando our shuttle took us to our hotel at Disney's Saratoga Springs. We blitzed Disney on Sunday and Monday and took Tuesday to do a pre-planned trip to Kennedy Space Center. Dwayne loves to do museums on our trips so this counted, or at least we convinced him it did! It was fantastic. The mobile launch pad on the massive crawler (with launchpad A in the background) was making its way down the gravel road to prepare for the next launch on April 15th. On Wednesday, it was a day for being somewhat lazy and hanging around. I had pre-booked an amazing experience for Dwayne ('cause I'm amazing!) to do the Richard Petty driving experience.

He drove a Nascar around the track (following an hour of instruction etc) for 10 laps and managed to top speeds of 122.21 miles per hour. The afternoon saw us hanging in the spa for our hot stone massages and then to dinner with the kids. The Langs flew into Orlando but caught up on their sleep before joining us on Thursday.

Oh yes, and the weather was mostly fantastic too! We had a rainy day and I had prepared for all things with 2 umbrellas and 4 ponchos (which actually got used to keep Sarah and I dry on the Kali River Rapids, while Dwayne and Cam we entirely soaked!).

More adventures to come!

Getting ready for holidays!

Today was a great day! I got to spend some of it with my friend Jenn and our daughter Sarah. On Saturday our family is jetting off to Florida and next Wednesday the Langs are joining us for 2 days at Disney and a week at Club Med. How excited are we???

Today the 3 of us could be found at the Wild Orange Spa. We HAD to have pedicures. For anyone that knows me (or cares!) I have an issue with feet. People who don't have nicely maintained feet shouldn't EVER wear flip-flops or strappy shoes. It's just an issue!!

Here is the after shot of our pretty feet....Sarah is wearing Holy Pink Pagoda, I'm in Don't Socra-tease Me, and Jenn is in Bogota blackberry (my all time fave). We even got jewels to make us sparkle!!

Look at what else loves the sun!!

Today was possibly one of the most glorious days we have had in our new 2008 year. The temperature soared to 14* and the windows got opened to welcome a glimpse of spring....ahhhh! The only thing wrong with a lovely sunny day is the finger prints that appear on the windows....I'm sure they weren't there yesterday!! (for anyone that I have admitted to, fingerprints bring out the absolute OCD in me...hence they are all totally clear now!).

I got out to bootcamp this morning and Cam is out playing with friends in the neighborhood...all of them wearing shorts! I remember while living in Whistler, we would be in shorts at +3 and the non-locals would be in full parkas, I think they thought we were crazy. Nope, just getting every last bit of Vitamin D we could!

With all the birds out and happy, Mamma happy and the kids enjoying some sun...look at what else I found that came out to bask in the brightness?! My first little crocus(or is that crocii?)!! I wait all dreary winter for the little bit of color that will grace us...and it has arrived, early, just as the groundhog said it would!

Whistler Playing

It has never, ever happened that we as a family get away during the winter season. Snowclearing always takes up my time and the family doesn't get to play in return. This year we did things a bit differently though. With good staff in the office and in the field, we ventured to Whistler for a long weekend. What's that?? I know, we took time to play!!



The kids spent Saturday and Sunday in Adventure Camps learning to snowboard, they have never done that before either. Dwayne and I spent Saturday working on the biz you know, planning, structures, job descriptions etc etc. It was good to get it mostly done! We stayed in on Saturday night and hung out. On Sunday morning Dwayne and I continue with planning our family stuff and then he went skiing for the afternoon. After a bit of shopping, I was by the fireplace with my book enjoying the quiet. It was tough as I wasn't allowed to call the office or even find out about the weather, kinda like an intervention!!



We went to Ric's Grill for dinner and then headed home on Monday (Dwayne stayed up there for the ICSC conference). I did the night shift on Monday night and...well... my sleep patterns went downhill from there!!



It was a great weekend and the team did an amazing job!! Sadly (or happily) I realized that I am replacable and wasn't really needed....*sigh* !!

SNOWING!

IT'S SNOWING AGAIN!! It's lovely even as I sit at 5:30am and watch it out the window...simply lovely!