Disneyworld 2011

The Anniversary/Birthday/Trip to Disney World was a success! Everyone had an amazing time and I can't stop talking about how awesome the Animal Kingdom Lodge it. If you ever go, you need to stay there and request a room on the Savannah because you can't beat these views.

I think I was more enthralled with the animals outside than the other members of the family. On the second day (the second day), I run outside to see the three giraffes 50 feet away from our balcony. I yell into the room, "you guys have to come and see this!" The boys look outside, shrug their shoulders and go back to whatever it is that they are doing. "Really? Really? You are here for a day and a half and already you are bored with giraffes outside your window? REALLY?" I enjoyed it immensely. The entire hotel is a wonder. Two pools, a kiddie pools, two hot tubs, three restaurants and a movie on the Savannah every night. Get this, we watched "The Lion King" at the "Animal Kingdom Lodge" on the Savannah. Get it? Awesome.

Disney really does attend to every single freaking detail. There were mouse ears on the shower curtains, on the carpet, on the bed spreads...EVERYWHERE. Even in the roses Mark gave me for our anniversary.

It's the attention to detail that really gets you. It's everywhere. It's what makes Disney World such a paradise. There are no false facades, which makes it even more magical to me.

Epcot is our favorite park but I have to admit I would have liked to spend more time at the Magic Kingdom. Epcot is more for the adults. George and Henry had a fantastic time at Epcot but their eyes really lit up when we went to the Magic Kingdom. So I will start there.

The first order of business was to get Mickey ears for the entire family. We went to the Magic Kingdom on Halloween and if you ever have a chance to do that you should take advantage of it. It is incredible.

Mark was obviously the Mad Hatter.

I was a more lady like version with a much pinchier hat.

Dumbo for Henry. The hat didn't have a string so this was the longest he would keep the hat on. Oh well.

George picked Gingerbread Mickey Ears. 

We spent two days in Epcot running around riding the rides and eating the awesome food.

My mother found these passports that the kids can take to all the countries and get it stamped. Each country had someone there to write a phrase and give a stamp. It was incredibly addicting to the point where the adults took over after the children were tired.

This is Sweden In Epcot. I took this picture to remind me of Alexsander Skarsgard. Yeah, I did that.

Moroccan Coffee. So small yet so powerful.

We spent one single day in The Magic Kingdom which was kind of a mistake because there were things we definitely did not get to do. But that's just an excuse to go back when they open Bell's Castle :)

I absolutely love this picture of the boys. The cleaning ladies loved us.

Yep, this is the best picture we could get in front of Disney World. 

Look who slept through their first ride on "It's a Small World."

George, at the end of the night, in his candy coma.

Mary Poppins! EEEE!!! The boys could care less.

Henry was fascinated by all the ladies.

Here's his kiss from Belle. Hey Girl!

George's, at six years, hand in a 6 year old male gorilla. 

The entire time we were there, George kept asking for room service. We finally relented and ordered a dinner one night. Uber expensive but worth it.

We spent one day at Universal since Mark gets free tickets from Comcast. I was super excited to see Harry Potter World. 

So, I have to say this. Being a Harry Potter freak, I was a little disappointed with Universal's take on Harry Potter's world. Don't ask me what I was expecting because I don't know. Maybe for one, I didn't expect it to be so small. Two, I kind of expected Hogwart's Express to actually run. Three, I expected Hogwart's castle to actually be a working castle that you could explore instead of it just being a ride. I don't think these things are unreasonable but for free and I can't complain....any more. 

They did get the butter bear right...boy did they ever.

And that does it, I want to thank my parents for giving us this incredible vacation. It truly was a wonderful experience. 

HOTlanta - 2011 SCTE Cable-Tec Expo

Did you know that my husband, Mark is a super nerd? You probably did know that but in case you didn't, he is. Besides being insanely smart, he is very talented when it comes to games. So much so, that he has been on the Comcast Jeopardy team for the past three years. Comcast Jeopardy, you ask? It's like it sounds only with questions about cable, electricity, physics...other crap that my mind tends to glaze over. It's a big deal at Comcast. It's a way to get technicians excited about their job and to weed out the gifted and talented. The extremely gifted and talented get to go to Charleston and play in the final competition. The Richmond team has been to finals two out of the three years my husband was on the team. They were jeopardy champions in 2008. It's like the Superbowl...for nerds.

Every year each team that gets to the finals, picks a MVP to go to the SCTE Conference  as a way of showing appreciation for being awesome. Mark was voted MVP for 2010 and thus we received an all-expenses-paid trip to Atlanta for the conference.

This year, one of the vendors rented the Atlanta Aquarium for dinner and drinks. If you ever have a chance to go to the Atlanta Aquarium, go. It's the best aquarium I have ever ever ever seen.

This room involved a moving walkway under an arch that allowed giant fish to swim over you. It was an incredible experience.

Just as you thought you were just going to see fish, this giant whale shark swims above you and all you can do is gasp.

90 lb grouper anyone? Insert plenty of drunken fishing jokes here....

They had three or four touch pools where you could feel just about anything.

Anyone get the "Finding Nemo" reference below?

The expo was definitely for the tech minded. I swayed from being incredibly bored to overstimulated. There were plenty of freebies to be had and this photo just made me giggle. Do they have RodoRepel for the pumpkins on my front porch?

Thank you Mark, for being the awesome nerd/husband that you are. It has taken us so far. The trip was fantastic.

Carter Mountain Apple Picking - 2011

Every year the Roeders and the Starkeys go to Carter Mountain in Charlottesville, VA to eat donuts  pick apples. There are other attractions like apple donuts, hay rides, apples donuts, pumpkin picking, apple donuts, wine tasting, apple donuts, etc. You get the picture.

Carter Mountain is exercise. Good fun, cool air exercise but it's a work out. Every year we go we seem to add another member of the family that wants to walk instead of just ride in the stroller. So this year it literally took an hour to get up the mountain. If we were adults by ourselves we would have booked it to the top of the mountain and worked our way down in a timely manner. Instead, we have children wondering off into the orchards. Babies rolling downhill. Children complaining of being tired (George). It's like a G rated Benny Hill cartoon. It's almost like the good people at Carter Mountain know what kind of ordeal it is for families (or lazy people) and have apples that have been picked at the bottom of the hill. Every year I am only half kidding when I say "Why don't we just get these apples?" Not that I am too lazy to go up the mountain, not at all. The view is incredible.

But because I know I am going to look like this when we get to the bottom. 

BTW, Mark still had a back issue so he was doing all the awesome picture taking while I was doing the heavy lifting.

Every year, one of us decides the process of going up the mountain is going to effing slow so they pull a "hazel" (private joke) and just book it up the mountain and wait for the rest of us. This year it was Greg. Can't say that I blame him. 

Now, I may sound like I am complaining but I don't intend that. It really was a ton of fun. It always is. It's so beautiful up there. We get pictures of the babies every year and watch them grow on that mountain. It's like a rite of passage for parents. And if you don't go, you don't get pictures like this.

It truly is a beautiful experience every year. We are so happy to have wonderful friends to share it with. 

Mawwage - 7 years

I am working up to the Disney World post. Trust me, it will be epic. I just need to prepare myself for the epicness (yes spell check, I realize that's not a word.)

"By no means is this women a piece of property to be given away." 

While in DisneyWorld, Mark and I celebrated our seven year anniversary which happens to coincide with my 28th (cough cough) birthday. It was awesome to spend our day in Disney World. We got the Happy Birthday/Anniversary Buttons which we wore proudly. We received well-wishings from loads of people and even got serenaded from the German band in Germany at Epcot. I think Mark could have eaten there every day, morning, noon and night if we had let him.

Mark had roses in our room when we got back from the park. We walked around the park, just like we did seven years ago on our honeymoon. All lovey dovey and gross.

The past seven years. WOW. It has been a trip. Right out of the gate it has been a roller coaster. Pregnant on our honeymoon (yes, it was planned), being laid off while pregnant, starting a business, economy imploding, another baby, cancer scares, new jobs, surgeries, etc etc etc. It's so easy to name all the stressful stuff but it's harder to name the great stuff. Why is that? It's sad that the harder, stressful stuff sticks in your brain easier than the happy, wonderful stuff. Enough with the word "stuff."

With dating + marriage, we have almost ten years under our belts and it doesn't feel anywhere close to that. It has been amazing. I was writing a list of all the wonderful awesome things that have happened and some of them are too intimate to share but just know, the list of awesome/fantastic/wonderful things is 100 times longer than the stressful list.

To many more years together, to many more children (hopefully), to many more laughs, loves, arguments, hugs, kisses, and irritations. I love you, Mark. So so so much.

"No fate but what we make."