Happy Halloween!

We had a great evening welcoming home my dad from Buenos Aires, Argentina and doing Halloween-ish stuff with Charli and Claire. Charli had a little trouble deciding what princess to be and today finalized her Rapunzel decision. Claire got to be a purple fairy but I joked all day that she was going to be the brown fairy because of the number of blowout diapers in the last few days. (Teething isn't fun for any of us!) We took the girls trick-or-treating in mom and dad's neighborhood. Claire made it to one house then went back to help Pop hand out his tradition of tracts and candy. Charli did great and said "trick-or-treating!" at every house. Adorable. Her love of candy outweighed her fear of strangers. She even fell down a couple times but got back up and pushed through the pain. Mom, the ever-faithful republican, persuaded many a kid to vote for Mitt ;)

I taught Charli me and Lee's tradition of dumping out your goods when you get home and she promptly began "organizing" it. Love her so.

It was such a fun time with our first real trick-or-treater.

Girdwood, Alaska

Amazing hike at The Hotel Alyeska. We were hoping to hike The North Face Trail but there was too much snow. The best part of this hike was an incredible icy waterfall. After the 5 mile hike we got in the hot tub (indoors of course) and then got cleaned up for dinner. We ate at the Double Musky Inn and I had Salmon, yummy :)

Made it to Alaska!

After a long travel day, I arrived to cold, but not too snowy Alaska! I was greeted by my BFF and her almost 4 yr old; a very happy reunion!! We went and had dinner at a yummy pizza place/brewery called Moose's Tooth. Here's a couple photos so far...

Milestone

I haven't talked much about this but I've been trying to lose weight since I stopped nursing Claire. (Unlike most people, weight loss and nursing do not go hand and hand for me...) since March, I'm down 20+ lbs and today marked a big accomplishment: the last pair of jeans from the too small stack! They are no longer too small and I'm sure gonna keep working hard to make them too big. I'm smaller than I have been in 4 or 5 years and I'm really feeling proud of my hard work. And it has been hard. Here's to keeping it up, and getting healthier and happier in my body.

That feeling

Have you ever been on an overseas trip or cruise where you had to leave your phone at home or off for a few days? I've done it a number of times and I'm always amazed at the freedom I feel from not being tied to it. I think this is the third time I've mentioned my Facebook departure but obviously it was a big deal to me. (I was on it for 7+ years...) Well, that feeling I had with no cell phone in China for 6 weeks is the feeling I've had from deleting Facebook. Free. Cut the ties of the unnecessary, de-cluttered my time a little, and found new depth in some of my friendships.

Do I wonder where you're eating lunch today? Nope, never cared in the first place. Are you dying to know the weather at my house? Doubt it. And I guess if we're actually wondering about those things or more important things we can use our phones to call instead of posting pointless statuses in the hopes of what???

The answer to that question has been precisely why I've gotten off Facebook. It's ambiguous and I do hate assumptions.

Home

After a LONG travel day with two flights, we made it home. Brandon and dad went their separate ways off on business trips. I always try to clean the house so that getting home is a relief and not a chaotic mess. Thankfully, the house was clean and we made a quick can of soup and I put the girls straight to bed. They both slept like champs! Over 13 hours each! I slept great too and we've all enjoyed being home on this cool, fall morning today.

Vacation was great but we are glad to be home!

Orlando

We just spent a few days in Orlando with my parents & Brooks. We went to Disney's Magic Kingdom and Sea World. Charli, of course, loved all things Disney and surprised us all with her bravery! She rode the rockets in Tomorrowland and laughed her head off the whole ride. Claire loved Sea World and all the animals she saw in the shows and exhibits. Mom and Das kept C & C one night so Brandon and I could go out too, what awesome grandparents my girls have! We drove down to Orlando so that marks the longest road trip my kids have ever made 12 hours in 2 days. Thankfully, we are flying (not driving) home tomorrow. Enjoy the various phone pics and hopefully I'll do a follow up post with more pics from the real camera.

A better blogger & Alabama

I am still off Facebook and surprised at how many times I've mindlessly opened my phone to check it. (All the more confirmation of my decision!) So, with less time on there I'm hoping to be a more frequent blogger. Have I mentioned I print our blog into a book every couple years? It's a fun family keepsake.

So here I am, in Troy, Alabama in a Hampton Inn blogging when is rather be in the gym but the baby is asleep in the crib in the bathroom and there's noooooo way I could go to bed sweaty. Gross. Charli is on the hidabed finally asleep after a hyper hotel arrival. (The cookies from Emmy probably didn't help either, but hey, this is vacation!)

Tomorrow we'll drive the rest of the way to Orlando. So far the girls have done pretty well. More to come from Florida!
(Pics: about to leave and we're excited & Troy, AL on the map... About half way there!)

Bye Bye Facebook

Today I deleted my Facebook account.  It's something I've been contemplating for awhile.   My main reasons are because I would hate for anyone to think I am showing off, not being real, etc.  It is also not a way to foster real relationships.  Is it convenient? yes.  Do I  love seeing pictures of my friend's kids? yes.  But for me, the cons outweigh the pros.  My real relationships will not be affected by this change, in fact, I have a feeling that they will be enhanced.  I might actually have to call friends to see how they are instead of checking what they put on Facebook today and vise versa.   I feel freed.  I don't need it, it doesn't add anything to my life, and I don't think I'll even miss it that much.

Self Family Portrait

Occasionally Rarely we are ready early for church and not running out the door spouting off the morning checklist. (while running back inside to grab numerous forgotten necessities) When we are ready, all looking presentable, I feel we should document the occasion with a picture.  Last Sunday was such a case.  The girls were extra cute in their fall clothes, so we set up the camera to click away and did our best to get them to look at the red blinking light.  There were also about 15 pics of us waiting for Brandon to set it up and most of them included Charli picking her nose.  Luckily for her, I deleted them, although now I'm regretting not cropping one and saving it for a high school graduation photomontage. ;)