We got flocked!

Friday, October 9, 2020

We awoke on Friday morning to a flock of fun flamingo friends.  We'd been flocked!  This was a fundraiser for a local cheerleading group and someone picked us to receive these pink plastic presents.  They only called our yard home for 24 hours and then they were on to their next stop...we sent them up the street to the Johns, of course.  :-)

   


Astrophotography - Jupiter & Saturn

 Sunday, October 4, 2020

Emily's main Christmas present last year was a telescope.  Turns out the gift was as much for her dad as it was for her.  Daniel has purchased lots of new lenses and accessories for the telescope and now he even has some attachments for astrophotography too.  Tonight, they went out to look at Jupiter and Saturn and they got some amazing shots.  You can even see some color on Jupiter and some separation in the rings on Saturn!

   

Gritts Farm

 Sunday, October 4, 2020

I keep worrying that maybe Emily will outgrow Gritts and not want to go anymore.  I keep thinking each year we go might be our last.  Time will tell, I guess.  Lucky for me, she still wanted to go this year...even if she didn't have a friend to take along.  Yay!  So, off we went.  First stop - pumpkin patch!

  
  
  
Then we headed into the fun farm with all the activities.  Emily is too big for a lot of them, and some were closed due to Covid (like the corn bin and slides into the corn) but most things were still open and she still got to enjoy some childhood favorites including the big slides, the goats and the pumpkin house!
   
Then it was time for the wagon ride out to the big corn maze.  This year there were actually 2 mazes and the corn was really tall so it was fun...and extra hard.
   
   
After finding our way out of the mazes, we tried our hand lassoing cattle and Emily took a turn on the zipline!
  
  
We were really lucky to have such a beautiful day to enjoy the farm and we had such a good time.  I so hope we will be back again next fall.  But, our fun wasn't over quite yet.  Next stop - Dairy Queen for lunch at the picnic tables and pumpkin pie blizzards for dessert!!

Back to school in person!

 Monday, September 28, 2019

Finally, the first day back in the classroom since March 13!  Emily did not really mind virtual school. too much and she loved having less homework.  She did fine with it last spring and almost all of September, but she missed her friends and the social elements of school, so it was great to be able to send her back.  
The State developed a color coded map to determine when it is safe for school to be in session in person.  They have changed it MANY times over the past 2 months, but ultimately, we finally got to go back.  BCS had a bit of a battle with the Governor over whether BCS could be in person in school when the map county turned "orange."  But after some negotiations, BCS was finally permitted to return to class in orange.  Only if the county turns red do we have to move back to online learning.  A new map gets released every Saturday evening and determines whether we can go to school the following week, or not.  Here's to hoping our numbers stay low so we can stay in class.

Last Day at Magic Kingdom

 Friday, September 18, 2020

I can't believe the week is over already.  But the good news is that today was a Magic Kingdom day! We were up and out pretty early and we were hoping to get the first boat over to the park.  Unfortunately, we were just a little too late and we had to settle for boat number 2.  But it also gave us a chance to enjoy the pretty views of the lake.

   

When we arrived, we headed straight for Fantasyland for a ride on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

   
Due to the long line cue from earlier in the week, we skipped Small World and also Peter Pan.  Instead, we headed over toward Tomorrowland and made a stop at the Tea Cups.

   

Then we were off to race to the finish line at the Tomorrowland Speedway!

   

And of course no trip to Tomorrowland is complete without a ride on Space Mountain...and usually the People Mover, but...

   

It was getting close to lunch time, so we headed over toward Frontierland for a ride on Splash Mountain.  This time I didn't have my camera out on the hill.  :-)  

   
Finally it was time for lunch.  Today we chose Pecos Bill for tacos and nachos and such.  On our way, we saw some of the Country Bears!  Emily hates tacos, so she got a chicken and rice bowl...with popcorn that we got her at her favorite popcorn cart.
    
   

After lunch, since it was close by, we hit up Pirates of the Caribbean followed by the Haunted Mansion.  And this time we got the picture right!

   

After a few more rides we decided to stop for a snack.  I really wanted to try the Halloween pumpkin milkshake last year, but didn't do it so this year it was on my must do list.  Since everything at Disney is super-sized, it was plenty big for all of us to share.

  

After snack, we were back on the trail for more rides, including Buzz Lightyear and the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh!

   
   
   

With park hours ending so early, that nearly brought us to the end of our day, and the end of our trip.  But before calling it a day, we decided to ride the monorail over to the Contemporary for one more dinner at Contempo Cafe and one more shopping trip at Bay View Gifts...and more cupcakes.  Perfect way to close out our trip.  Sad to be heading back to reality tomorrow.  Until next time Disney... XOXOX