All posts by ML

Another once in a lifetime trip – Disneyworld, FL!!!

October 9, 2017 ML 1 Comment

Well, Grandpa, you crazy man, you’ve done it again, and I don’t think you can ever one up this one! =)

For those of you who have been following this blog, you’ll know that 3 years ago exactly, we took a trip to Disneyland that was orchestrated and completely funded by Grandpa. He told us when Henry was born that he was going to take him to Disneyland when he was 6 years old but ended up taking all of us for an unforgettable trip! It was AMAZING and we had an absolute ball. Well…after that, I guess he decided that he couldn’t do that for Henry and not Will, so about a year and a half ago he started toying with the idea for a trip to Disneyworld for Will’s 6th birthday. We told him he was insane, but he absolutely insisted and if you know Grandpa, once he puts his mind to something, it’s pretty impossible to derail him. So our plans were set to go to Disneyworld for the first week of the boys’ fall break and now that we’ve returned, I can say without hesitation that it was the funnest trip we’ve ever taken, hands down.

Needless to say, Grandpa had his share of heartburn – the beginning of September brought Hurricane Harvey and a 2 weeks before our trip, Irma tore through Florida and ended up actually doing some damage to DW. Hurricane Maria also spawned a week before we left but she was too busy annihilating Puerto Rico so we thought we might be safe. After pouring over weather info for breakfast, lunch and dinner, Grandpa decided to take a gamble and said the weather should hold for our week – and boy did it ever! It was raining the night we got into Orlando but was clear, sunny and hot the entire time we were there. And believe it or not, it started raining the moment we walked out of our last park on our last day – talk about providential!

This trip was absolutely amazing and “Thank You” doesn’t even begin to express our gratitude to Grandpa for such an incredible adventure. A vacation to Disney World and Universal Studios was never something we saw ourselves taking simply because of the distance and cost. I think we also thought we’d end up murdering the kids – but they did really well and even though Will was too short to ride on some roller coasters, it didn’t even matter. It was a much needed vacation to a really cool place and it was all because of one man’s INSANE vision. Grandpa – we love that you are in our lives and that you are still plucky enough to take us on a kick ass vacation and ride crazy roller coasters with us even at 84! We adore, love and cherish you so much. You spoil the CRAP out of us and we are so grateful. Thank you thank you thank you for giving us something that we never would have taken for ourselves. You being there made it so much better. =) LOVE YOU!!!!!

The morning we left. Went and picked up Grandpa at 5:30am and Will couldn’t contain himself.

At the airport, he decided to take a nap

So…we had 2 layovers on the way to Orlando but weren’t allowed to de-plane. So I told William to help the flight attendants clean up while we were waiting for passengers to board and they were just blown away by his helpfulness. 10 minutes before we landed in the next city, they made an announcement over the PA calling him out and saying what a sweet boy he was and the whole plane clapped!! It was awesome. They made him a goodie bag full of snacks and a crown made out of pretzel bags. Hahaha!

The day we arrived was exhausting. We got into Orlando around 7 I believe and then drove about an hour to our condo. We arrived and were completely blown away by our digs! Grandpa hit the jackpot with this place.

It was a 3 bedroom, 2 bath condo with a full kitchen on the second floor. The best part was that Grandpa got it for $90 a night!!! Wow!!

Our bedroom, complete with a huge bathroom, walk in closet and a balcony.

Boys bedroom. They were THRILLED that they had their own TV…

First day! Striking a pose before heading out to Magic Kingdom

Me and Grandpa on the ferry across to the entrance

Walking down the main drag toward the castle. Pretty cool

The Halloween parties for Disney started in September so a lot of people were dressed up. We saw this gal in a HeiHei outfit and I couldn’t resist.

Here’s a little preview of what we have in store for us in about 7 to 10 years! UGH!!!

Tommy taking a pic of me taking a pic of him….that didn’t turn out of course

Our first ride was on a space simulator. They boys loved it

We had to take the boys over the Norway area while we were there. We picked up a Norwegian treat called Lefse – a potato tortilla stuffed with butter and cinnamon sugar. Not too bad. Way better than Lutafisk!

Tommy was so pissed. They replaced the traditional Norwegain ride that included a Viking ship and trolls with the whole Frozen crew. We boycotted it to show our disgruntledness.

There weren’t a lot of pictures from Epcot. First off, it was HOT and we had to walk a lot because the park was huge and things were so far apart. Henry ended up leaving his hat on one of the rides but thankfully someone turned it in and we got it back. Epcot was our third day on. The second and 4th day we went to Universal Studios. One of my very good friends was also visiting Orlando with her family and so we rendezvoused with them on the days we went there. It was SO FUN!

Here are the boys posing with Gru’s crazy car. We got on the minions ride and it was pretty fun

BB (my girlfriend) took this pic of the boys while we went with HER boys on an adult roller coaster that almost killed me.

Out of all the different parks we visited at Universal, Harry Potter world was by far our favorite. It was truly magical and the butterbeer they served was to DIE. FOR. This is the dragon from one of the last movies…So freaking cool

We bought the boys wands and there were places throughout the park where they could practice magic. They loved it

The whole crew! We had so much fun and it was so wonderful to hang out with them

Walking down the main drag with our posse. BB and I served on the schools PTA together. You can see why we would be so close. Hahaha! But what’s also cool is that she has two boys who are 3 years apart as well and my boys adore them. =)

Playing Ding, Dong, Ditch at one of the doors in Harry Potter land. William was killing me here. He thought Voldemort was going to come out so he was ready to cast a spell. Hahahaha

On our way to the Hogwarts Express and platform 9-3/4!

The Hogwarts Express taking us to the castle!

This ride soaked us, here’s a look at the kids taking a shower while some other poor fools do the same ride:

BB and Darrick took the boys on the Cat in the Hat ride while we went with their boys on The Hulk. That ride was CRAZY but probably my favorite one there

Striking a pose with the Scooby and Velma

Getting a pic with one of their favorite characters

BB invited us all over for dinner. Even the pitcher looked at the camera

Hanging out at their pool that night. They boys had to be wrenched away.

Our second to last day was spent at LEGOLAND. It couldn’t have been more perfect. We rode on every ride and were done with the park in about 6 hours. Super fun

All these sculptures were made of legos. It was pretty impressive

When I took this picture, William asked, “Is this Donald Trump?” Bahahaha!

One of their favorite characters and the star of the new Lego movie, Lloyd. We went and saw it and it was great!

Doing the firetruck simulation. I almost died of a heart attack

Henry and I pumping the water and Will trying to put out the “fire”

The boys went through driving school and somehow got their licenses. Shows how much LEGOLAND knows…

Mini-land – So frickin cool

We waited for the launch of the Space Shuttle! Pretty anti-climactic…but I guess I was expecting to fly to the moon?

Grandpa getting whiplash on one of the rides…

Last day on. Went to Animal Kingdom thinking we could somehow get on the Avatar rides, but they were shut down to everyone’s disappointment. I thought there were going to be riots!

So we went on the Animal Safari. It was really fun. Look at this beast.

The king of the jungle acting pretty chill

I named this guy Captain Hook. He was missing his foot. Tick Tock Tick Tock

Riding the tram back to the car after the Heavens started dumping all over us the very last day

Anticipating a total rainout, Grandpa bought the entire stock of rain ponchos from Amazon. Hahaha! We only used 5 and gave some away to people at the park. It was hilarious

House, Projects

Our brand new guest bathroom!

July 16, 2017 ML

Well…we FINALLY got around to a real renovation of the guest bathroom but it’s only because I lost my mind one Sunday night after seeing little boys crusty pee all over the toilet that made the whole room smell like an outhouse! This reno was a long time coming and we ended up going all out. I wanted to keep it as cheap as possible but after dealing with that foul tub, I found a claw foot one that I had to have which of course skyrocketed the overall cost. Tee hee! This was a total gutting from top to bottom. We had to rip down most of the sheet rock, throw away that bacteria infested jet tub and replace ALL of the Saltillo tile. Of course, with all remodels, there were some major hiccups along the way but nothing Tommy couldn’t handle and in the end, it turned out better than I expected. We decided to try some new tricks, like a faux brick wall and a concrete counter top and I think they both turned out fabulous. We probably won’t be doing another brick wall, but we will be installing more concrete counter tops – they’re awesome! I’m so happy that I don’t have to be completely embarrassed when someone comes over and needs to use the bathroom. Our renovation itch has been scratched but I’m thinking it won’t be for long. Haha! Poor Tommy! I’ll keep you posted. =)

We had repainted a little while ago and added cabinet but I still wasn’t satisfied. Plus, it always smelled like pee. Ugh.

Getting everything ready. They just can’t resist the camera

Let the demolition begin. This was around 4 or 5pm on a Sunday afternoon and it was completely spontaneous. Tommy was NOT thrilled. Hahaha!

Making sure they have all the proper gear…

Ok they SHOULD have gloves, but no one lost a finger so it’s ok…

Ok…fast forward to 2 days later. We removed all the tile which actually wasn’t too bad thanks to our good friends Martha and Chuck who told us about a tool we could rent at Home Depot to make it faster. We got it all out in a couple of hours! And of course, Grandpa’s Caliche Killer saved the day again. Tommy had to hammer out the concrete surrounding the pipe because when he ripped the tub out the pipe was completely destroyed. FUN!

Sink pipes. You can see black mold down in the corner. Charming.

Working on the plumbing for the new tub…

Filling in the hole with the new drain and concrete…

I just wanted you all to know that I helped too. By taking pictures…

So…I wanted a contrasting wall in the bathroom to kind of offset the white ones…thinking we were going to have white walls. My initial thought was to buy faux copper panels like the ones we put in the laundry room but when we priced it out, it was more that we wanted to pay. (Be quiet, B!!) After thinking for a while, I realized we could just rip the wall out completely and expose the exterior brick wall like we have in our kitchen and it would look awesome! However, Tommy informed me that there is a water heater closet behind this wall so we couldn’t get to the exposed brick. I had my heart set on this option and wasn’t giving up so easily so I decided that we would “make” our own adobe brick, because…of course I did. How you ask? Well, I watched a crap ton of youtube videos and read a couple blogs and decided this was the option we were going with. Tommy was NOT amused. However…he will be the first to tell you that he loves the way it turned out. I love it too and think it adds a lot of character to this room. It doesn’t look like what I intended because it is way too clean and pretty to be real adobe brick, but it works for this space and gives it a ton of charm.

Using a paint brush to give the wall a texture that mimics sandy grout…

After texturing it, we painted it this base color which was meant to be the grout so we wouldn’t have to paint it in, but it ended up being a completely useless step and waste of time. We had to paint in the grout anyway. So if any of you out there do something like this, just start with a plain white wall and save some paint.

Making it nice and thick. This step was kind of stressful. Being the first time we ever did something like this, we had no clue how it would go.

Our outside wall inspiration. We put this picture into the color app and it spit out 5 or 6 colors to choose from. We ended up using 4. You see what you think…

We spent about two days just painting this ONE wall.

William reading “The day the Crayons Quit” to us while we worked. Such a sweetie.

Painting the walls. I wasn’t sure what color I wanted but threw this one up and loved it.

This stuff was cool. A very nice sealer…

Putting the feet on our new tub! These were originally chrome colored but Tommy spray painted them and they looked amazing.

Drilling the holes to install the brackets that would hold the tub down. One of the great things about this tub is that because it’s fiberglass it only weighs 30 pounds! It was so easy to maneuver in and out unlike a legitimate claw foot tub that weighs upwards of 800 pounds!

Getting it perfect was kind of a cluster…

The oil rubbed bronze option made it MUCH more expensive but I think it looks much nicer…

The next big undertaking was our concrete counter top for the vanity. We’ve never made one but our good friends showed us the ones they made and we absolutely loved them. I wanted something that would be rustic and imperfect…and we definitely got that! Tommy and I were both happy with the final product and because it was custom made, it fit like a glove and really tied the room together. (Name that movie..)

Concrete mold made of melamine with sink cutout. It was made foam and wrapped in tinfoil for easy removal

Rebar around the outside even though in hindsight Tommy said it was probably a little overkill

Concrete poured. The first batch was a little too thick and the second batch was a little too runny! Haha! Well…you only learn through mistakes

We left this in the mold for about 7 days to let it cure and kept it wet with a spray bottle the whole time

Here’s what came out of our concrete mold. Because the first batch was too thick it was hard to get all the bubbles to the surface…but again, it’s imperfections made it so cool.

Sink, vanity and countertop installed! The backsplash had to come a week later because of Tommy’s trip to see his dad in MT…

And that’s a wrap folks! The only thing left is the shower curtain but I’m not taking a picture of something so boring. Bahahaha!

Misc

Ronald McDonald Night

July 16, 2017 ML

So…after being sucked in to the black hole known as PTA for the last two years, I’ve finally been set free from the depths of Hell!! I can’t tell you how AMAZING it feels to not have to worry about that stuff anymore. However…my volunteering efforts have not ended and one of them was being chef for a night at the Ronald McDonald house downtown last Friday. My good friend Martha is an angel in disguise and volunteers there on a regular basis. She asked me if I’d be interested in helping out one night and I of course said “yes!” I never knew much about this place but was told by Martha that they help out families in need who have to stay for long periods of time at hospitals because of treatment their loved ones are receiving.

The house is huge and can accommodate up to 30 families all free of charge for however long they need to stay. ALL the people that work there are volunteers and there are a lot of them. It was very humbling to take a tour of the facility and hear what it has to offer. All the food in the kitchen was donated by volunteers or businesses around town and there was a TON! One of the things we were told was that families really appreciate the fact that they don’t have to worry about buying or preparing food. When you’re stressed to the max taking care of a sick child, the last thing you want to have to worry about is making something to eat. The volunteers are able to at least help ease that particular stress and I think that’s just so awesome.

We started preparing dinner at about 4pm and served it around 6. We cleaned up and headed home around 8:30pm. All in all it was a great experience and one that I will probably do again. The lesson I walked away with was how lucky I am that I don’t have to utilize services like these. I’m so grateful that my family and I are all healthy. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to have a child in the hospital for a long period of time and have to stay here. Places like this are amazing and can really restore your faith in humanity. =)

Common living room area for families. There’s a huge TV in here too…

One of the upstairs kitchens that is utilized by the families

The cooking crew! Andi, Martha, Miranda, me, Carrie, Christine, Emma, Katie, Claudia and her son Josh.

Emma and her harp. She played it at dinner that night.

Kate giving us the details about the house and then taking us on tour…

Katie battling the grill. A huge storm was whipping through and the made the flames go crazy

Emma and Judy – the sweetest lady on Earth! =)

Getting our picture with the man himself!

Climbing

Bouldering getaway up on Lemmon

June 18, 2017 ML

We decided to take a break from our bathroom and head up the mountain for a little climbing getaway. Our old friend from a LONG time ago hit us up and asked us if we wanted to join him. We haven’t seen Kevin in almost 3 years and since that time, he got married and had a little girl. It’s so crazy to see our old friends and see the changes that have happened in their lives. We were so young when we got married, that’s the only way people have known us. It was fun to see him again and hang out. His little girl is adorable and the boys fell in love with her. Haha!