Walt Disney World

Last year, we went to Walt Disney World with Margaret, Matt, Anthony, and Michael.  We are just now back from WDW with Cecilia, Maggie, and Ingrid.

Our first Disney meal, at Columbia Harbour House in Magic Kingdom.

On the monorail. The first 2 days were rainy.

Dinner at the Coral Reef restaurant at Epcot in the Seas pavilion.

The girls LOVED Spaceship Earth (aka the golf ball).

Nap time.

At Magic Kingdom.

 In a teacup.

Toy Story Mania ride at the Hollywood Studio Park. Richard's favorite.

Sorting dinosaur bones at the Animal Kingdom Park.

The girls enjoyed the pool at our resort, Disney Pop Century Resort.

Dancing the polka at the Biergarten restaurant in the German pavilion.

Group photo at EPCOT.

At our resort, waiting for the Disney bus back to the Orlando airport.

Disney World trip

Our room at the Disney All Star Movie Resort - with mouse towel art in the foreground.

Our first dinner was at the Grand Floridian Resort.  Here is the lobby.

The next day we were at Animal Kingdom.

Then on to EPCOT.

In England.

Mulan, in China.

Italy.  My flat feet gave out and this rented scooter helped a lot.

Sleeping beauty.

Then we lost our camera.  But, amazingly, Disney lost and found returned it it us.  But, then, we forgot to take it with us on the last few days of Disney.

Richard made a trip to Tampa to see his brother and his family.

Mulch, birds, and Harry Potter

This year's mulch pile was just delivered.  This is the 'before' picture.  It was steaming when delivered.

Just about every evening, Cecilia reads a chapter of Harry Potter to the girls.  She is now in book 4 - a thick one.  Plus, the girls are watching the movie of book 3.

The bird feeder has been doing a great business.  It has to be refilled almost every day.  Most of the customers are goldfinches.  It is not unusual to see a dozen goldfinches at the feeders - unfortunately they were camera shy today.

Christmas 2013

First thing Christmas morning.

Jane and I opening gifts.

The grandkids.

Everyone.  All our kids and grandkids made it except Matthew and Lindsay.

 Our visit to Monticello.  Thomas Jefferson is the tall one.

Loop Chain

With a little help from Jane, today the girls used our old Christmas cards to make a colorful loop chain.  It was longer than I could get in the camera frame.

Then we hung the chain around the dining area.

First Winter Weather

Not much snow, but plenty of ice and freezing rain.

After the picture above, the girls had an accident when their sled ran into a tree.  Ingrid made a visit to the emergency room, but they did not keep her.  We think she will be fine.

The roads are fine, but our driveway is covered in ice.

Grandparents Day at School

Today at the Staunton Montessori School was Grandparents day.  On the way there, I was asking Jane if we would be the only grandparents there.  How wrong could I be?  The parking lot was full to overflowing and the classroom was mobbed.  The girls showed us some of their learning tools, sang a few songs (as a group), and mostly spoiled their lunch by eating large portions of the snacks.  Here are a couple of pictures taken after it started to thin out.

Day Trip to Shenandoah National Park

We drove into Shenandoah National Park through the Swift Run Gap entrance, and drove south along the Skyline Drive to the Loft Mountain area, where we took a moderate hike for a bit over an hour.  Here we are setting out.

There were lots of small boulders.

And bigger boulders.

 And a great overlook, looking west.

And yet more rocks to climb on.

And a really big boulder.

Farm visit and slider-glider

This morning Nanny took the girls to a farm, where they saw lots of real animals and a real cowboy.

And a maze.

Yesterday, we finally put up the slider-glider that Aunt Margaret gave the girls.