Goodbyes

Less than two months ago, we said goodbye to my grandfather. As the funeral procession passed the NJ Transit Bus Depot, there was a bus parked in his honor. It's destination read "Out of Service, No Passengers." At his funeral, he was saluted by an Honor Guard. Gunshots were fired. Marines stood by and presented an American Flag to my grandmother in his honor. He lived a long life. As we all should. He had seven children, six of whom were by his side at his death. His youngest son was not able to be there that night.

This week, his youngest son has flown to his side. As he should be. But not yet.

Somehow Uncle Mike managed to evade my camera on many an occasion, but his memory lives on strong in my mind. He enjoyed his parties and could always be counted on for entertainment at some point of the evening. Usually up to no good with my other uncles. He cooked, he fished, and so much more.

This past Christmas he amazed me with a side of himself I hadn't previously seen much of. He grabbed up my son intent on keeping him from the danger of my grandmother's steps. He cuddled with him in the kitchen and gently hand-fed him a brownie.

Yes, I'm using cuddle and gently to describe Uncle Mike.

He was also patient,

sweet,

and dear.

Dear Uncle Mike, please watch over us

knowing that you are loved and missed.

I didn't know that it was the last time we would see him. Here.

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Makes My Monday! Family Fun and Precious Moments

This past Saturday, the whole crew went to Dutch Wonderland: my family, my mom and step-dad, my sister and her family, and my brother and his friend (and her son). We don't all get together for group trips too often and I love spending time with my family.

Paige, Katie, Adam, and Ethan (and yes, Katie is taller than the boys who are 11 months older than her!)

Timmy was excited to start his day, even if his crocheted hat was making his head sweat buckets and had to be taken off soon after we snapped some pictures. I, for one, don't understand the concept of sweater material for summer clothing, but it was too darn cute to not put him in.

After eating lunch and being a happy boy in his stroller for quite some time, we tortured him by letting him stretch out and crawl around in WATER....ahhhh! I'm beginning to learn that tired Timmy and water do not mix well.

Katie had no such trouble, though.

After lots of rides and the waterpark area we dried off to enjoy a diving show.

After a relaxing boat ride, my mom led us to one of her favorite spots: the swan that she used to climb in for a family photo with all of her brothers and sisters when she was a little girl.

The whole crew minus Matt (who broke away from us...we were too cool for him) and my step-dad (who was taking the picture).

Mom and Jim with the grandkids

Then something really sweet and special happened...one of those moments that you want to wrap up and always remember. We went over to the Indian Wishing Log to make wishes. Katie took her turn and concentrated really hard to think of her wish...

and then, she animatedly and so sweetly told us her wish...

She wished that everyone would be her friend and that (this part gets tricky because I couldn't really understand what she was saying and asked her to repeat herself a few times and I think she may have changed what she said)" A - all of her friends would have family, B-all of her friends would be her family, C-something to that effect. Either way, it was so adorable to hear her tell us such a heartfelt wish.

We finished up the day with a yummy, yummy family style Amish meal at the Plain and Fancy Farm. The entire day and especially Katie's wish Makes My Monday.


PS - Once again, I was late in celebrating Timmy's monthly milestone, so it just got done but backdated to Friday. If you missed it, you can find it here.

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F4 - Disney (Day 2)...the first part...and this takes us up to BREAKFAST.

First off, just a reminder that the Tuesday Blog Party Giveaway is STILL open and going strong until May 12th. Over $2,000 has been raised at this point. Help us reach the goal of $3,000. Check out Who Says 8 is Enough Gives Back to visit the link list of all the generous giveaways going on.

Back to our vacation...and at the rate I'm going I may be able to write about them for "Way Back Wednesday's". On Wednesday, April 15th we headed out for Day 2 of our vacation (which was really more like the first day since the our actual first day turned out to just be this.) We got to the Disney Transportation by 8:15am ish on our way to the Grand Floridian for a 9:00am Photo Session and 9:45am breakfast at 1900 Park Fare. For the first time, we were one of "those" families; you know, the kind where everyone in the family matches...but I swear..it was slightly embarrasing and it was ONLY to get our pictures done. We took the bus to the Magic Kingdom and then hopped on the monorail to the hotel. Timmy looked so handsome that I had to take my camera out to shoot a picture. His fat little legs made their debut to the public and were quite the coversation starter. Noone could resist talking to him and commenting on his chunker thighs.

We finally got to the Photopass desk at the Grand Floridian at about 9:02. Let me give you some background. My sister had done a family photo session done here on her trip back in December 2007. If you had already purchased a photopass CD (or were planning to), you could book a 30 minute session at a variety of the Disney Deluxe resorts where the photographer is 1 on 1 with your family for only $25. A great deal, right? I thought so. So, since we haven't had any family portraits taken I thought this would be a fun opportunity. My sister's family had pictures taken on the beach there and they looked awesome. Here's what I didn't count on:

1) It is now SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive to do these photo sessions. There are different price points, but if you want the pictures on a CD like the photopass, the DISCOUNTED price since you already bought a photopass CD, is $70. (Oh and now they throw in a choice of 3 combo print packages to lessen the blow-but who needs prints that you have to travel home with when you have a CD?)
2) The early morning sun was SO bright on the beach..Katie and I had a horrible time keeping our eyes open. I wanted pics there, but the entire time he was like -where do you want your pictures? Hello...you work here - you're supposed to suggest the good spots.
3) The photographer didn't try to engage the kids to look at him at all. Katie was just being a brat cause the sun was bothering her, but I kept saying..his name is Timmy can you please just call his name...nope. Then he cut the whole thing a little after 9:20 cause he had to get back upstairs and get our prints uploaded before 9:30.

We did get a couple decent pics and one good one...but still...for the money we paid and the effort we put into getting there - not worth it at all. I would have rather done something local where the photographer would have at least been accountable.

Here are a few of the better ones (each with their own imperfections):

Timmy, look over here Timmy...oh yeah, that's right, that was just me in my head trying to telepathically get the photographer to try.

Perhaps he was afraid to directly engage with the kids since Katie looked a bit like the devil. Seriously, counting to 3 before taking a pic does NOT really work with small children.

I like this one of me. Of course the kids aren't looking. However we did get ONE with Timmy looking and ONE with Katie looking...sooooo.....cut and paste, cut and paste and here's me doing the photographer's job below:

See, you didn't even notice that Chris had two left elbows or two left knees, did you?

Chris opted out of this one, because he was afraid he'd break the hammock.

But look, cut me out of a picture that I looked AWFUL in and you have a matching sweet pic of Chris and the kids.

We got a few of this shot...Katie's eyes closed.....

Katie with her hand on her nose (and on a sidenote, I mentioned in an earlier post that she had her hand in her nose in many pics...I should clarify...she somehow got a cut right underneath her nostril and then like a dog, couldn't leave it alone the entire week (and still).

and finally, drumroll, ONE good picture from the entire shoot:

Whoo, done with these pics...a Friday Foto Finish Fiesta if I ever saw one. This one was for you. Carrie :) Carrie gets lots of bloggers together on Friday's to show off their Phavorite Fotos. You should check them out...I promise you'll find many that aren't quite as wordy as mine.

So, this brought us to about 9:45am on Day 2. Chris went downstairs to check in for breakfast while I wrapped everything up with the pictures and unknowingly left my camera on the desk. I finally met up with Chris, nursed Tim and then noticed that my camera was GONE. I knew I had taken that picture on the monorail. Damn. I asked around and wound up buying a disposable camera for our breakfast with plans to go to the transportation center lost and found after breakfast and on our way to Epcot.

I still haven't developed those pictures, but we had a great time! We saw Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, The Mad Hatter, Winnie the Pooh, and Tigger, too. I had gotten Katie to watch Mary Poppins about a month before the trip to get her excited and since it quickly turned into one of her favorite movies she was thrilled to see her. In having this breakfast, we also grew out of the Crystal Palace breakfast (that has all the Pooh characters) we attended on our last 2 trips. I was really excited that both Pooh AND Tigger were here, too. For the first time, Katie went up to the buffet lines with us and got to pick her food and let me tell you...it triggered an eating disorder waiting to happen. At this meal and for the rest of the week she PILED her plate up and wasted NOTHING. I honestly don't know how she fit it all in. Whenever we were at a restaurant that was a normal menu place she had a tantrum because she couldn't "pick" her food and got fond of telling me at meals that she wanted to "fill up her belly SOOO much". Lovely!

I'll be back with the rest of the day in Epcot....

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