It has been a year...

It's hard to believe that it has been a year today since I was able to hold my Daddy's hand and tell him how much I love him. It seems unreal to me.

I am coming off of a fantastic week with the kids only to be entering what might be a difficult week. I am realizing that I have a terrible denial side to me. I am not sure that I have every really grieved for him. I still have his picture on the fridge and in my office. I have spent the last year getting used to looking at them without crying...until this month. Last week would have been his 60th birthday. I think I missed calling him on his birthday more than I missed him calling me on my birthday. Not sure why that would be.

But, this too shall pass. I can still hear him talking to me, mostly when I am doing to much or not taking the time out that I should to just live in the current moment. I did learn that from him. Life is about so much more than our jobs and the next place we have to be. I know that I get frustrated with the kids because I have so many self-imposed demands on my time and I am really trying to just "be". That has been a tough lesson and not one that I think I will ever master.

I love you Daddy! And to anyone else, please take care of yourself (no one else can do it for you) and treasure every moment that you have with your loved ones.

Walt Disney World

It has been so long since I posted. We decided to actually attempt another family vacation this year and so we ended up at Disney World in Orlando, FL for Spring Break. It was AMAZING! Neither Jeff nor I have ever been so I had no idea what I was doing when I booked the trip. There were so many choices but it turned out great. I did learn some things so if anyone decides to go, I would be happy to let you in on what we figured out.

All of the kids had fun, including Jeff and I. Amy thought she was too big for the characters and in spite of my encouragement, she refused to get up and dance with Prince Charming! Brad was just beside himself with the whole thing...characters, rides, junk food, you name it! And then Connie...she has amazing stamina.

We left here on Saturday morning and drove to Mariana, FL. Then we got up about 5am on Sunday morning. We met up with a friend of Jeff's from high school and had lunch. Then shortly after arriving at the resort cabin, we decided to go check out Magin Kingdom. They had extra hours for people staying at the disney resorts, so we ended up staying until 3am! I still can't believe it. Everyone had a blast but as soon as we got into the car, Amy and Brad were asleep. But not Connie! She was still going strong. We hunted up something to snack on and about 5am we were pretty much begging Connie to go to sleep.

We slept in the next day since we pretty much were able to do all of the rides at the Magic Kingdom. Then we had to find a camera store because Connie got excited and bounced our camera off the stroller and broke the lens. But I suppose it worked out since I now have a much better lens even if I wasn't planning on spending that money during the trip.

We had several character dining experiences and several mornings Connie fell asleep just after breakfast and slept until lunch. On Thursday she actually slept until about 4pm. Thank goodness it was our last day.

We finally got home this afternoon and we are thankful for the chance we had to go. We were able to spend some great family time and we made some great family memories.

Here are some pics of the week.