Older and wiser.

We have had one long continuous birthday party in the family. Sweet baby Camryn arrived in March last year instead of April. Thank goodness. We didn't need more excuses to eat cake this month than we already have. And since every little cowgirl needs a pony we sent one to the birthday girl.

Alayna starts off the official month of April birthdays in the family with the awesome birthdate of 4-4-88. (Don't worry Alayna, only the people that can add/subtract know how old you are.)

Colton was next to blow out his birthday candles. He is a big boy of three as of the 12th.



That's him as Woody


and playing with "Cars."

We were back four days later to celebrate Kirsten's sixth birthday. She shook her booty while singing the song in her head, "sixy." Her daddy recorded the rendition for future leverage.

Max at six months is a crawler and he found Maximus. His helmet is making his cute little head round but it also keeps him out of danger from flying toys and siblings.

And yes, that is Jenny standing on Emily. Don't ask because we don't know why either.

Emily's 14th birthday extravaganza lasted about three days if you include the birthday party of her friend. Weird stories to add to your file: Emily has a very good friend from school that she met in Pre-K. They like telling people they have been friends since they were four years old. Her friend was born the morning of the 22nd of April. Emily was born the evening of the 21st. They just realized this year that they were born in the same hospital. They may have known each other longer than we thought. Their friendship could date back to the hospital nursery.

And just because he was going to be thirty on the 29th, doesn't mean we can't still think of him as only eleven. So Justin got a double shot. Again.

We are not going to eat another bite of cake.
At least not for three weeks.

Does anybody really know

what time it is? I was home from the Disney Cruise for 5 days when I was off to WA for nearly 2 weeks. I now have no idea what time it is. When we flew to Florida we changed time zones and two days later we lost an hour with daylight savings. Then five days in central time zone and 2 weeks in Pacific time zone has got me totally confused. I started teaching Seminary again this morning so I really need to decide when I should be sleeping. Six a.m. central time zone seems to be unacceptable at this point.

It rained much of the time I was in WA but I saw some blue sky too. I don't mind the rain. I know the rain is what makes the Northwest beautiful. I laughed at how many times people apologized to me for the weather, though. I mean nobody ever apologizes for the weather in Oklahoma and really somebody should. Rain in OK comes down in buckets and more often than not includes thunder, lightning and floods. And what's really fun is hail, tornadoes and straight line winds all of which are typical weather in OK. Those Northwesterners really are amateurs when it comes to the weather. When an Oklahoman asks me if it rains all the time in WA I have to say well it's not what you think.

I came home to Jenny and Jon staying at the house until they could move into their new home in Collinsville. I got to hang out with Colton one day and it was such a treat. He doesn't talk much so it is hard to tell what he is thinking but he has the cutest smile and it is so fun to get him to laugh. He recently discovered the Tarzan movie and he decided to watch it while sitting on my legs. In the scary parts he reached back to make sure I was still there. I was playing with my phone so I took a picture of his adorableness.

Cruisin'

with the Cruises. We went on a harbor cruise in the Bahamas and this is Tom's house, so they say.


And this is Oprah's house, both of them. She needed not one but two mansions in the Bahamas.

But really who cares when you're staying at Walt Disney's place. This is the boat that delivered us safely back

to this beautiful Disney ship.


When Geoff left for his mission four years ago we left within the week for a Disney Land and Sea vacation. (I know it sounds heartless but at least we didn't leave him home alone.) We loved the cruise so much that we decided we would take each of our grandchildren when they are five. At the time we only had almost 2 year old Kirsten. Now we have four more grandchildren. So much fun to look forward to.

We somehow acquired a Minnie doll for Kirsten since we left her stuffed bear at home. The real Minnie was so lovely. Kirsten loved getting the autographs of all the characters.

Rapunzel and Belle.


Rapunzel and Princess Tiana.

Goofy was goofy. One day we caught him at maybe 11 a.m. walking around the ship in his jammies.

Pluto was a character.

A view of the atrium and five princesses at one time. Dreams do come true.

Kirsten went on this slide six times. Lonny called it the Aqua Mouse just because the other slide was the Aqua Duck.

Emily and Kirsten rode the Aqua Duck together but not that you can tell. We were told before the cruise that the lines were long, like hours. That was not true but it was still hard to judge when to get ready to take a picture. Lonny just happened to look up and see two girls we knew.


Kirsten could play in the Oceaneer's Club but she had to wash her hands first in this sink. It lathered and rinsed. You just had to stick your hands in the holes. I want one.

Lonny, Emily and I took a bike ride at Castaway Cay (Disney's private Island). We climbed a tower halfway through the ride and then saw how far away we were from the ship. We left Kirsten building a sand castle with Mickey. Really.

This awesome slide was also at Castaway Cay. The only way to get there was to swim. By late afternoon the day had cooled off but mostly the weather was perfect for Spring Break.

Chip and Dale. These two were crazy, one of them took off with Kirsten's autograph book but came back for the photo.

Cinderella and Kirsten.

Ariel and Kirsten.

Donald Duck and Kirsten. She sure did make a lot of friends.

This was the Sailing Away party. Lonny and Emily were riding the Aquaduck that goes along the top of the ship and out over the water at one point. Sometimes this area was crowded sometimes not. During the party Kirsten and I were shown on the big screen just hanging out. Mickey and friends are on the stage dancing.

Kirsten had macaroni and cheese every night for dinner. This was the night we ate in the Animator's Palace and the turtle on the screen was talking to us. He asked where we were from, we said Oklahoma, he said he had never heard of it. How does a video talk to you? I have no idea either.

Kirsten's parents told us not to let her fall overboard. From our room she would have just fell on a lifeboat. They're just lucky we brought her home at all because we had such a good time on the Disney Cruise to the Bahamas. Can't wait until next time.

The Happiest Place on Earth

was exceptionally happy. We arrived in Orlando early for our cruise so we spent one day at Magic Kingdom. It was the first Saturday of spring break but the place was deserted. I love an amusement park without hot, cranky people in long lines. But enough about me.

We went on all the kid rides for Kirsten. She informed us she didn't know the story of Dumbo

or Peter Pan or Winnie the Pooh

or Alice in Wonderland.

By the end of the week she had seen Snow White but not the movie.

She did recognize two friends in the parade.

And she knew these characters although the movie Aladdin is not her favorite but she chose to watch it on the cruise after she met Aladdin and he told her a secret she did not divulge. They must have bonded.

Every girl knows Cinderella whether they have seen the movie or not.

Her ugly stepsister could not convince Kirsten to give a high five but she obviously had other friends along the parade route.

Kirsten was entertained all the same.

And Prince Eric, of course, almost like part of the family.

Disney recognizes that five year olds today know Belle and Rapunzel and Ariel and Jasmine and Tiana so they are building a whole new section. I guess we will go back. If we have to.

We were just talking about needing to trim the bushes at our house. Not positive our gardener has these skills.

Kirsten didn't want to go on the scary rides like Splash Mountain or Thunder Mountain but she did anyway. She was such an agreeable girl unlike some hmmphgeeoffcoughcough and the infamous Splash Mountain incident of the 1990's.


Not sure why Emily has her mouth open. There isn't any tea in that cup. This is the official before picture of the circular torture. No children were harmed on this vacation.