Toy Story 3 On Ice

I admit I am not a huge fan of Disney movies or any animated movies for that matter. But I loved all the Toy Story movies. So when Toy Story 3 On Ice came to Tucson, I decided to take whichever kids wanted to go. Eric didn't want to go but he would have enjoyed it. Mario stayed back with Eric.

We really enjoyed it. The Barbie and Ken scenes were by far my favorite. Those scenes in the movie were funny and they were equally as funny on ice. The toy soldiers and aliens were pretty cool too.

Sentimental Toys

I am not the overly sentimental type. But Mario is. He has toys and a blanket from childhood. He saved the last two pacifiers the twins ever used. He would still have the toy lawn mower that Eric used when we lived in Cocoa Beach if I hadn't sold it at a yard sale without his knowledge. Oops. Mario has such fond memories of Eric walking up and down the sidewalk with his lawn mower as Mario mowed our lawn.

Now that we know we will be moving at the end of the school year, I am starting to have the kids clean out their toys. The boys are almost 8 and have outgrown a lot of their toys, puzzles, and books. So yesterday they got a huge garbage bag and started throwing toys in it to be sold at the next yard sale. I found myself getting a little sad (sentimental) at some of the toys they were throwing in the bag. Many are from Eric that had been handed down to each child. There were a few things I just couldn't part with. One was this Millennium Falcon (I had to google to find the name of it-I know nothing about Star Wars.)

Eric got this for Christmas when he was six. Mario and I had decided to get him some walkie talkies that year. We thought he would have so much fun using them with his friends in the neighborhood. But Christmas morning, he could care less about the walkie talkies, he was so excited about this Star Wars toy. Mario and I had found it for 75% off at the NEX. We almost didn't buy it, but decided to at the last minute since it was only $10. Wow, was I glad we did. He loved it along with every other boy that came to my house for the next several years.

I had to save it from the garbage bag. I also had to save a Chevron car, Brio train tracks, a moose puzzle, and a car track. We had bought that car track for Eric when he broke his leg at 18 months. We needed something to entertain him on the floor for hours. He loved it. I put all the toys aside and decided to ask Mario to box them up so we can save them for our grandchildren.

I started thinking about what else should go in this "sentimental" box. I think Erin's little blue elephant stuffed animal that she got as a baby and her American Girl Dolls will go in. She has them all boxed up in her closet now. Makes me sad to think she has outgrown them. For Nathan it will be all his Legos and of course his beloved Pooh bears. Unfortunately I got rid of the original because it was so nasty from him taking it EVERYWHERE when he was a toddler. For Zachary, all his stuffed animal dogs will need to go in the box. He is very attached to them. I think his camera will have to go in the box also.

North Port, Florida Vacation Days 4-6

On Friday, we needed to leave Orlando early to get down to Englewood for Max's third birthday. I was afraid the kids would be disappointed to leave Disney early, but when I told them we were going to Max's birthday at the beach, they were all excited. After living in the desert for 2 1/2 years, the beach sounded even better than Disney World!

We stopped at the outlet mall on the way down and picked up some new luggage. Then we stopped by Billy and Kristen's home to drop off all our stuff. They were very generous to let us stay with them 3 nights. They were great hosts. I have always tried to avoid bringing my twins to their house because my brother has two sweet girls and I didn't want to subject them to my crazy boys. But since they have the largest home, we decided to take them up on their offer to let us stay there. They were kind to give us the entire upstairs. Kristen had gone shopping for groceries but Billy didn't think she had enough, so he got up early Saturday and bought lots more. He must have heard rumors about how much teenage boys eat. I wish I had t-shirts made up for them that said "I survived the Perez boys for the weekend."

After dropping off our stuff, we headed out to Englewood Beach for the party. Englewood was probably my favorite beach growing up. I spent many days there with family and friends. So it was nice to go back. It has been several years since the entire family has been together, so we were able to get a family photo that evening before Charlie had to take off early the next morning.

On Saturday, Billy was able to get 2 boats from his boat club and we went boating. The kids had a lot of fun tubing, swimming, and playing in the sand.

We got back to Billy's in time to watch the Saturday afternoon conference and have a nice dinner. On Sunday, we watched both sessions of conference and Billy made us a nice Peruvian chicken and rice dish. He and Kristen really went overboard making us comfortable and feel welcome. It was nice for the cousins to have so much playtime together. Erin played with Gabriella, Nathan with Justin, Zachary with Gina, and Eric enjoyed hanging out with Max. No matter how hard he tried, Eric couldn't get Max to say Eric is his favorite cousin. I think Max just likes teasing Eric. My mom took the kids for a walk.

Douglas Spring Hike

I'm still working on downloading all my Florida pictures. So I will continue with vacation pictures as soon as I finish.

Today, Eric went back to school. The rest of the family enjoyed a hike. I almost cried "a happy cry" that I made it the entire 6 miles. The first 3 miles were climbing uphill. After all my injuries, 6 miles was a great accomplishment. We hiked to a dried up waterfall. It was kind of anticlimatic at the top. But still worth it. This was the boys longest hike of their lives ( unless hiking Disney counts). They did great with no complaining.

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Disney

We just returned from 10 days in Florida. The kids had to practically drag me and Mario onto the plane to come back to Arizona. The kids grow very attached to each place we live while Mario and I always keep our focus on our favorite place, Florida. Well, Hawaii wasn't bad, but who can afford to retire there? We left when it was almost 100 degrees here in Tucson and we returned to the 60's. Apparently we came home the right day because friends tell us it was 96 degrees yesterday.

It will have to take separate entries in my blog to put all my vacation pictures. So today I will start with our four days at Disney World. Even with the half price military discount, Disney was still expensive. But we had a great time with my parents, Charlie, Melissa and her kids. We did discover that my twins have missed out on some classic Disney movies like Pinocchio. They had no idea who several of the characters were at Disney. They didn't even know Lion King until a couple weeks ago. I figured out why. We had all the Disney movies on VHS up until the boys were born. We switched over to DVD, and got rid of all the VHS. I didn't occur to me that they had never seen these movies since I never bought or rented them on DVD.

We started out by visiting Hollywood Studios (I know it as MGM). Mario, Eric, Erin, and Zachary enjoyed all the big, scary rides like Tower of Terror. Nathan and I enjoyed the less adventurous stuff. The highlight of his day was getting his picture taken with Winnie the Pooh. Everyone attended the car stunt show, Indiana Jones stunt show, and Beauty and the Beast. I loved the shows. That evening, Melissa and I took Nathan and her boys to downtown Disney to visit the Lego store. The rest of the clan spent a couple hours at Epcot. Apparently they weren't too interested in the "educational" park because they didn't want to go back another day.

The next day we went to Magic Kingdom. Nathan kept true to his word and headed straight for the Winnie the Pooh ride. The rest of the family headed to Space Mountain. Nathan eventually became brave (with a little bribery...like a new Pooh Bear to replace his worn out one) and tried Space Mountain and LOVED it. It was fun to be able to go with Melissa, Justin, and Max. Unfortunately the lines got long in the afternoon. Since they had only one day, Zachary, Grandma and I left in the early evening and headed to MGM so Melissa and her kids could see the cool shows too. By the end of the day, I had such bad blisters on my ankle that I had to walk barefoot. Apparently we were so busy that day, that we didn't get hardly any pictures.

Day 3 we went to Animal Kingdom. That may have been my favorite. It was very hot but the park had a lot of shade. It had a roller coaster that everyone tried to get Nathan to go on. But he wouldn't budge. We went on a water ride similar to the Conga at Busch Gardens. We didn't tell Nathan about the drop, but he actually loved it and went again with us. We got soaked but it was a lot of fun. The lines for the rides were very short. That always makes for an enjoyable visit to a theme park. I made my family pose with Mickey Mouse. This may be the picture on our Christmas card this year.

We had to choose one park to repeat on Day 4. I didn't really care for Magic Kingdom, and Mario and Nathan were the only 2 that wanted to go back there. So we went with the majority and went to MGM. There we tried the Toy Story ride that is so popular that you can barely get fast passes for it. When the park opened at 9 am, I think about 90% of the people ran to that ride. It was a carnival style ride and we loved it. Zachary bought Nathan some Winnie the Pooh lollipops and you can see how excited Nathan was when Zach gave them to him.

Running

I used to run several times a week, but then I injured my knee and had to have surgery. After recovering from that, my hip started hurting. So I have been in and out of physical therapy the entire 2 1/2 years I have lived here in Tucson. I really missed running. I love getting up early and going for a 3 or 4 mile run. I love coming home when everyone is just waking up. I am energized and hyper and I drive everyone crazy with my singing and dancing. They beg me to calm down. But running just makes me feel so happy. They are off to school and work before I calm down and then quickly realize I need a nap.

A month ago, I started feeling well enough to join a new gym near my house, my favorite class is body pump (weight lifting). The teachers are wonderful. It reminds me of being back at the YMCA in O'Fallon with my friends. I have been walking in the mornings with my friend, Ming. This week Ming can't walk because her knee hurts, so I talked Eric into getting up at 5:30 and walking/running with me. He runs, I mostly walk. But today, I ran the first mile with him. We ran it in just under 10 minutes. I felt great. My hips and knees felt fine. It was so nice to workout with Eric. It was nice to see him get up early and get his workout done before Seminary and then get ready for Seminary with time to spare. I love that I came home as hyper as ever and I was back to my old ways of singing and dancing and probably annoying the whole family.

I hope this is just the beginning. I hope I can get back to my 3-4 miles at least a couple times a week. I have forgotten how much I love running. I hope Eric will continue to get up early with me. I can already see the difference it is making for him. He actually seems to get excited about it.

West Side Story

I was so excited about seeing other Broadway shows after seeing Wicked. So I purchased 3 season tickets to the shows coming to Tucson. Mario wanted to take the big kids to see West Side Story, but Erin decided she would rather go to mutual. So I got her ticket.

I'm glad she didn't go. It was not something we would usually see. We almost walked out towards the end, but fortunately it ended pretty quickly. I knew the intended audience was teenagers and adults, but I thought because of the gang "stuff." But it had some other not so subtle themes too. I guess I should have known in today's world. The worst part was the audience seemed to enjoy those inappropriate scenes the most. How disappointing. Hopefully Shrek will be better since it is for kids, but Mario reminded me of some of the scenes we didn't like from the first two movies. Ugh!

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