So much to do-So much to say

So it's Friday May 29th and work is a little slow today so once again I get to do the posting on the blog. About what?... you ask, well I thought I would start with which foot creme is better for athletes foot and move on to how to succesfully shave back hair. (Of course I only know about the back hair because of my good ol' roommate Brett.)

As exciting as that all may seem Melanie wanted me to write about our trip to the Nations Capitol. (That's Washington D.C. if any of you were wondering). As some of our loyal readers may know my sister Lindsay got married on Saturday the 23rd to Young Bei Michael Yeah. He is Korean and he is awesome!!! Not only do I really think he is great, but if I said anything negative he could kill me in like 27 different ways (some of them painful). Anyway welcome to the family Mike.

The wedding was fabulous. Both Mike and Lindsay have many friends and family so there was a large number of people. Many of whom came from across the country and even the world to attend. They were married in the D.C. temple and had a luncheon at the Mount Vernon Inn, which is the restaurant in Mount Vernon (George Washington's homestead). It was southern BBQ serve colonial style. After the food had been eaten and the cake demolished we watched Mike and Lindsay take place in some traditional Korean marital cerimonies with their parents and grandparents. I wish very much that I could remember what it was called but nonetheless it was actually very cool and humbling even at parts. The couple had to bow to their parents and they had to go lower than their elders which meant they were pretty much flat on the ground. Then there was the part where the parents throw Dates up in the air and Mike and Lindsay had to catch them with a cloth. (This was similar to catching water baloons with a towel as a kid.) Anyway, however many Dates they caught is supposed to be the number of kids they have.....11! Needless to say they ended things shortly after this point and left for the honeymoon. Of course that wasn't before the final step of Mike having to parade around with his mother, grandmother and my mother on his back. One at a time of course. I told you he is strong. Remember I love you Mike. And that was the wedding...except that I have to add that my AWESOME wife made the three lighter yellow dresses for the girls in the following pics. Don't get jealous she can make you one too for the right price.








As for the rest of ther trip it was busy and full of fun. Melanie and I arrived on Thursday night and met up with my brother from Texas and his wife. We had a gourmet burger at Goodstuff Burgers and walked around some monuments. Interesting note, we heard here that the artist that scuplted Abraham Lincoln in his Memorial had just learned of american sign language at the time and therefore sculpted his hands in the shapes to form his initials. As we looked we noticed that it is not painfully obvious, but definitley leads to the assumption that the story is true.








On Friday we went to the Botanical Gardens and hung out at the pool with the rest of the fam that had shown up that day. This was actually a slower day as we had to prep for the big event the following day.





Saturday was of course the wedding and the weather was beautiful. So much so that we went to a baseball game later that evening at Nationals Stadium. It was the Battle of the Beltways which means they were playing against the Orioles who play only about 40 minutes away. It was a great experience. Mel and I always love big League ball parks. The game itself was a bit uneventful, but still a wonderful experience especially for the few kids that came along with us, and even the other adults who were acting like kids.






Sunday we broke the Sabbath and went to the National Zoo to see the Panda bears and the newborn baby Gorilla. Because of it being Memorial day weekend we decided to not fight the parking and ride the Metro into the Zoo. Great Idea!! except we had 15 kids with us. It was a bit chaotic but we all made it safely...eventually. After the Zoo and aquick bite to eat we headed to the National Mall. No not a shopping mall, its where the monuments are Deborah. We walked to the White House and took a few pics. Next was our big surprise. We paraded back to the Museum of Natural history in the Smithsonian with all of the 15 kids, who by this time were exhausted and beat. Now they didn't know why we had to keep going instead of heading back home, but once we got in line at the Johnson Imax theater in the Smithsonian they knew what was next and their entire attitude transfromed... it was time to watch "Night at the Museum, Battle at the Smithsonian." There were actually two battles for us. One of course was the battle in the movie, but the first was the battle to get into the movie. There was definitely a large crowd pushing in to get the best seats. It reminded me of waiting for doors at Macy's to open at 4:00 am on Black Friday. No casualties though and the kids had an incredible time.










On Monday Melanie and I went back to Mount Vernon to finish what we could not do on Saturday. It was gorgeous. If any of you reading this are ever in the D.C. area go to Mount Vernon. It is well worth it. George Washington was a remarkable man.





By the way this picture of the brick building is George Washington's tomb.

Then we flew home..........THE END.

Since coming home...

I was really nervous to come home because I was afraid that the neighbor boy may have forgotten to feed our dog so I thought he might be dead. I made Mitch walk around to the back yard and thankfully he was still alive and very happy to see us. That is the good news.
As for the bad or just crazy news. On Tuesday we had a huge wind storm, the wind was so strong that it blew down our back fence plus lots and lots of shingles from off the house. I'm just glad that it didn't shatter the glass in our back door because it really felt like it might. Needless to say Mitch and our neighbor spent Wednesday and Thursday putting the fence back together.

Other news which is the scariest by far...Addy crawls and pulls herself up on things. Yes, it is very exciting but also very scary at the same time. She has been scooting backwards for awhile and I wasn't quite sure if she would ever get the forward motion but then this week she threw one of her toys and then slowly moved herself to get it. The cutest part is that whenever I sit on the floor, she will crawl over and try to pull herself up onto my lap. I love it!!

Epcot- day 6

(I have no idea why these posts are all out of order but it has taken me way to long to just post them so I am not going to worry about it)
Tuesday night we decided to just take it easy on Wednesday so that we wouldn't be to exhausted coming home on Thursday. We also really wanted to ride the paddle boats at the resort but they close at five which is usually when we are at a park so we knew we had to do it in the morning. When we went to check them out it was too windy so we decided to play shuffle board instead. Turns out Mitch and myself are not the greatest at that game and so Alex and Shay won two out of the three times we played and the only game we won was way close. After three games we went back to see about the boats but it was still windy so we went to the pool, had some lunch and started packing up a few things. Later in the afternoon we decided to head back to Epcot so we could ride Soarin and see a few of the countries that we missed from before.



As we were walking about it was sooo hot and humid and I started to feel really sick so I didn't eat anything until later that night when we got home. Then in the middle of the night I woke up and went straight to the bathroom where it all came back up. No fun but at least my stomach felt better so I went back to bed. In the morning I was to nervous to eat anything for fear of barfing on the plane. So I didn't eat anything all day. Thankfully I now feel just fine but still a little weak from not eating for nearly two days but hey I feel a little skinner which is always nice :)

our SUPER fun VACATION

BEWARE: there are lots of pictures and posts because I don't keep a journal so this is how I keep track of things. So I totally get it if you just randomly skip through instead of reading every detail of the trip!! I would probably do the same thing.
In general we had a great time and I just can't believe how fast the time went. Addy was an excellent baby like always and got pretty used to sleeping in the stroller although mostly she would just cat nap so by the time we got back to the resort she would be completely wiped out. Good news for me because now she is doing a lot of sleeping to catch up so it gives me time to blog!! I'm so glad that we bought this little vacation package a couple years ago when we had more money or else we definitely wouldn't have been able to afford it. Plus it was way fun to have the whole family (minus my brother who is on his mission) there. I just wish we could do it more often!

Magic Kingdom- day 1

Friday we were so excited to finally be in florida and going to disneyworld so of course we had to start our vacation off right by going to Magic Kingdom and seeing Cinderella's castle. My niece, Gracie, is really into the princesses and has been asking to see the castle for several months so it was really fun to see her face as she starred in awe at everything around her.


We spent a lot of time going on the kid rides and I was pleasantly surprised that Addy was able to go on most of them as well so she didn't have to spend the whole time in the stroller. I think her favorite ride was it's a small world because there is so much to look at and it is a little slower pace so you actually have time to take it all in.

Islands of Adventure- day 2

Saturday was a very full day but we definitely got our money's worth because we were at the park from opening till closing. Islands of Adventure is one of the best parks because it has everything- thrill rides for the adults, fun kid area for the kids, a couple of water rides for when it gets really hot, plus it is just a really fun place for pictures. The best part is they have this unlimited food pass you can buy for like $20 dollars and so Mitch and Ben both bought one and then sort of ended up feeding everyone because anytime they would get food we would all eat off their plate so then they would still be hungry and go back and get more. I'm sure that is not what they want you to do but the food is so expensive in the park that you sort of have to do that in order to afford to go. Anyways if there is anyone out there who is thinking of taking a vacation to Orlando- you should definitely go to Islands of Adventure!


This was Addy and me on the cat and the hat ride. She had to sit by herself which was fine at first but then half way through she got a little scared and so I stood her up next to me and she buried her head in my shoulder. Apparently that wasn't aloud because they stopped the whole ride and made an announcement that kids needed to stay seated through the whole ride. Once I set her back down they started the ride again so then she just buried her head into the side of me and ended up falling asleep!!

Hollywood Studios/ Downtown Disney- day 4

Monday we got up early and went to Hollywood Studios because we really wanted to ride the Aerosmith roller coaster and tower of terror. We learned quickly that if you get there when the park opens the lines aren't very long so you can get on multiple rides plus it is still cool so you aren't roasting and sweating. While we rode those rides my mom and sister took the girls to a kid play area since they get bored really quick in their strollers.






Then we watched the Beauty and the Beast show rode a couple more rides and then went to Downtown Disney for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe which is always yummy and surprise to Mitch and I when the waiter told us that disneyworld was doing some promotional something or another and we were randomly selected so they were paying for our ticket!! I love when things like that happen.




Then we headed back to the resort for some relaxing at the pool.