You say "Georgia-Florida"...I say "Florida-Georgia"....but whatever...it's "THE GAME!!!"

Anyone and everyone who knows us knows that David and I are HUGE SEC football fans and for about 51 weeks a year we live a very peaceful co-existence but there's that one week....happens every year around Halloween...when all bets are off and we are each out for blood when it comes to the other's team. David of course being a loyal Georgia Bulldog and I, the obsessed FL Gator. Noah even has a bib that is half orange/blue and half red/black and it is embroidered "Mommy's Gator" on one side and "Daddy's bulldog" on the other side. He is going to be so confused. He doesn't know whether to bark or do the gator chomp. However, while I hate to bring this up on a post that probably should be bi-partisan...I would like to mention that God gave Noah orange hair and blue eyes which should technically mean that he is 100% Gator...and I don't think David actually reads my blog so that was probably safe to say.

Whenever we make it down to Jacksonville for "THE GAME" and we walk around together each dressed in our clashing team attire, we get several strange looks and questions like "How does that work?" so we just laugh and say "It's easy, we both HATE Tennessee!" and that usually quiets them down. This particular year David was still feeling pride from Georgia's (rare) win over FL and I was on the lookout for revenge. We spent the weekend in Jacksonville Beach with some friends who were gracious enough to include us in on their awesome tailgating set-up. We got to the stadium BRIGHT AND EARLY Saturday morning (tailgating at this game is serious business!) and got to work setting up the 2 tents, tons of chairs, generator, satellite flat screen TV, full size grill, tons of coolers and a ton of food. We were ready for a perfect day. Unfortunately with the two of us, we always know that one of us is going to end the day heartbroken and no matter how strong the rivalry, it is always tough to be happy about something at your spouse's expense....but this year it was me that got to be happy so all is well!! hee hee. :) The much anticipated game--between 2 top ranked schools--ended up being a blow-out with Fl winning 49-10. Sorry David, there's always next year...but don't get your hopes up!





















This must be when Georgia was winning....oh wait...they were never winning! David must just be deliriously in shock at the outcome of the game, right?

Fun times at UF Homecoming and Family reunion

Each fall we head down to my mom and dad's for a small family reunion tradition that is always held the weekend of UF Homecoming. This year it was the weekend of October 25th. The tradition has been going on for well over 40 years back when my parents and aunts and uncles were newly married, fresh out of college (most at UF)and no kids. The weekends used to be nothing but UF gator activities but now the focus is mainly a (quite competitive!) family golf tournament, large family dinners, lots of shopping for the ladies and some Gator fun as well. There are now 2 more generations attending. It is a BIG deal in my family. You are excused if you can't make it home for Thanksgiving, Mother's Day or Christmas....but don't think about missing Homecoming. There is no excuse! The Homecoming weekend always seems to fall either right before or right after the FL-GA game so poor David has to deal with all the good-hearted Georgia Bulldog bashing from my Gator-biased (obsessed) family but he is such a good sport about it. And...every 4 years it always seems to fall just before or after the presidential election so there are always some good-hearted political debates at the dinner table. It is a very fun and important weekend that I hope the 2nd and 3rd generations in our family can manage to carry on for many years to come. Here are a few snapshots of the weekend. I wasn't very good at getting any group family pictures this year as I normally do :(


During the drive down to Gainesville, we had my 2 nieces with us and we stopped in Valdosta to visit one of David's job sites. It was a "working" vacation for David. It is an enormous Home Depot distribution center. The kids got a kick out of playing with the hard-hats and exploring the construction site.



Will Noah follow in his Dad's footsteps???



Fun with the hard hats



More fun



The obligatory bathtub picture




Noah was so worn out after playing with his cousins he actually fell sound asleep on the floor while playing!



Noah and one of his cousins "Mia". They look "dressed for success" in my mind



Well I had to buy him a football jersey--we were there for homecoming!



Noah and Nicholas played well together...except when one of them wanted some attention from a grandparent and then the jealousy set it! They had to both be on the lap simultaneously!



Some good old fashioned kid wrestling

DISNEY!!!

Being a FL native where growing up it is possible to go to Disney every year (no hotel needed since it was driving distance) I could hardly wait for Noah to have his first Disney experience. David didn't share that same "dream" since he's really only been to Disney once and barely remembers what it is like and in my opinion he thinks it is merely a slightly nicer, more expensive version of the county fair. Anyone that has been there in recent years especially, with a young child knows how amazing and how magical of a place it is. Words really can't describe it so I won't even try. It's just that kind of place. But I digress. Anyway, since my sister was going to be in town for so long with her family we decided to drive to Disney for a couple of days so my parents could be there with all of their grandchildren at the same time. David didn't get to come with us which makes me very sad but we went during the week and he was already back in Mexico working hard as usual. I was soooooo anxious and worried about going to Disney with a 2 year old and not having David there to help me wrangle him! I had visions of temper tantrums in the long Dumbo line, losing him a few times near or in the castle and a huge fear that I would go through all the expense and exhaustion of taking him there only for him to be scared of and hate all the rides, attractions and characters. Luckily for me none of these fears came true (well except for the meltdown in the long Dumbo line but I have gotten over that by now).

We got to Orlando on a COLD Tuesday afternoon and walked around the area near our hotel known as "Downtown Disney" which is an event in itself with awesome shopping, restaurants, hotels and even a few attractions for the kids. We then checked into our hotel and enjoyed the heated pool and put the kids to bed early to prepare for their exciting day at The Magic Kingdom. We got up bright and early and after a bus ride to the park, a monorail ride into the Magic Kingdom, buying the tickets, renting a double stroller for the boys and renting a wheelchair for my mom (we didn't want her to tire out at the park--she had grandkids to take care of after all) we were ready to start exploring and having fun. I couldn't wait for Noah's FIRST DISNEY ATTRACTION! I was so afraid of him being frightened at some of the rides so we carefully chose "It's a Small World" to be our first ride because we assumed Noah would not only not be afraid of this benign boat ride full of happy singing dolls, we assumed he would be completely enthralled by it. Actually what happened was HE FELL ASLEEP. SOUND ASLEEP. We couldn't wake him up. So, at that point my fear of wasting tome and money to take him to Disney and having him be afraid turned into a fear of me wasting all that time and money for him to be BORED! Not to fear--after his 30 minute power nap he was ready to go...and go we did! We rode as many rides as we could safely take Noah on and even all the rides that I thought I would have to miss out on due them being too scary for him (The Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc) he even loved those. He actually waved "bye bye" to the ghosts on the Haunted Mansion ride. I was stunned. I took him on a kiddie roller coaster that he was just barely old enough and tall enough to go on and in all honesty, actually scared me a little bit..but he loved it and when the roller coaster stopped he said "GO choo choo GO!" I thought for sure it would terrify him but he was upset that it was over. Go figure. The only thing he wasn't too interested in was the Electrical lights parade at the end of the day...i thought for sure he would love that over anything but, you never know. Maybe next time.

He of course wore himself out and fell fast asleep on the monorail ride out of the park. The next day we had brunch reservations at The Grand Floridian Disney hotel with the characters so we had a blast dining with Alice in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter, Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh and Tigger too. Noah was especially THRILLED to see Pooh and Tigger and squealed with glee every time they came near him. He couldn't stop hugging them. It was the cutest thing ever. All in all it was a blast but I can't wait for David to come along the next time so I can finally replace his distorted image of Disney that he has in his mind! After all, he's married to a Floridian Disney frequent flyer!



Does this picture say "I love Disney!" or what??



I couldn't believe how excited he was to see Tigger and Pooh--I didn't even know he knew who they were before Disney but he spotted them from across the room and started jumping and yelling "Pooh! Pooh!" and begging them to get closer to them.



Well of course I had to buy him BOTH Tigger AND Pooh after his adorable reaction to them!



Family pic, getting ready to go wait in some lines! Stacy took the picture so she is not in it :(


Noah was even more excited to see Tigger than Pooh but he kept calling him "Pooh" and was a little confused





I think this is the best picture ever of my dad and Noah. They are riding the carousel





Playing around in teh carriage and the old time cars at The Grand Floridian



Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too!



Alyssa was happy to see Mary Poppins but the boys were not...they much preferred Pooh and Tigger to the nannies and the princesses



Playing at the Magic Kingdom



Piggy Back rides all around



What's not to love about riding the classic rides---Cinderella's Carousel" and "Dumbo the flying elephant" although some things never change....no matter what, every time I go to Disney, Dumbo has the longest line in the park!



Yes, he got stuck there



Family fun



OK, I survived and Yes, we WILL go back!

Halloween...Star Wars Style

I haven't posted in three weeks and when I explain everything we have done in the past 3 weeks it will be obvious why there has been no blog activity! First we made a trip to Baltimore for David's cousin's wedding the weekend of October 18th. We had a nice Nelson and Hollis weekend family reunion up there and I will post pictures from that as soon as I catch up on other postings. Then we returned on October 20th, repacked, re-grouped and left on the 23rd to drive down to visit my family in FL and we were gone for 10 days...during that time there was a trip to David's job site, a Fitzgerald family reunion, UF homecoming festivities, a trip to Disney, Halloween/Trick-or-treating and then after all of that David and I went to Jacksonville for the famous Florida-Georgia football game. The 10 days were a whirlwind and we are still not recovered but I have soooooo many pictures and postings from all of those trips that I have to start somewhere so I am starting with Halloween....so I don't end up so behind that I end up posting Trick-or-Treat pictures in December!

Since my sister's family was also in FL for Halloween and the kids all wanted to do a Star Wars theme, we went along with them and Noah was a little "Yoda". Nicholas was a little Darth Vader and Shannon and Alyssa were....I'm not sure...some characters from Star Wars...they told me several times but I can never remember who they were (Jedi or something). Anyone that knows me knows I am NOT a Star Wars expert or even really a fan (Sorry David) so it was really hard for me to even agree to let Noah be Yoda when I had envisioned him being a cute little monkey or fireman or something like that for Halloween!

We were worried at first Noah would not want to keep his costume on and would not wear the Yoda hat. We were worried he would have no clue how to say "Trick-or-Treat" and the whole process would be a waste of time. Not to fear--he was an expert after one house. He LOVED every minute of it and it was truly a blast to get to see him trick-or-treat for the first (real) time and to do it with his cousins, parents and Papa!







An action shot. He meant business!




Yoda and Darth Vader taking a rest before the candy hunt







He loved getting to have his Papa help him Trick-or-Treat



After the first house he totally got the hang of it and is showing in this picture what an expert trick-or-treater looks like. Look who's first in line...








David expressed concern that this might mean his son is a "tree hugger" :)