The tree is finally down. Not out, just down. Have you ever seen Stuff On My Cat? It is a mesmerizing website. I have a new one...Stuff In My Tree. This is all stuff I found in/under my tree. Mostly IN. At first I thought it was gross, then I got the giggles, then I got obsessed with recording it to blackmail the kids later. In case you can't see it properly, there is a baby bottle (that was stuffed between the branches), a broom made out of palm fronds (that I was swindled out of $6 by the neighbor kids for), a half-eaten cookie, a paper airplane (Tal made a fabulous paper plane that made it about 12' up into the tree, so of COURSE I couldn't remove it). The rest are coins, toys, batteries, and the usual junk. Yes, the broom was IN the tree.

Part of the tree (you Northerners may want to grab a paper bag and start breathing--it is fake) made it to the garage in proper bags. The bags, guaranteed to EACH hold a 9' tree, only held the first & second sections. The third section didn't even come close to fitting. So about 3/4 of the tree is back in the darn front room (now elegantly christened "Wii Room"). The tree was up for over four months. The tear-down should last another several. You know it is a problem when people are suggesting that you hang Easter eggs.

I will say that we finally got to enjoy Christmas in January.

I can't believe I forgot to put this photo in earlier. Tal's famous George Embarrassing night! He was dressed up as George Washington for a missions conference in his music group. My question was whether this was some sort of missions time travel. Tal said he was NOT going to wear wooden teeth. It was an honor to represent USA, but I understood why he hated it so much--some of the other countries had MUCH cooler costumes. He got to wear the Swedish costume for the Worship Quest photo shoot...much more his style.

On the Tal subject...he has tons going on. He has another froglet experiment going on in his bathroom (ewww), he is taking piano lessons, and he is going on a tour of the state capitol with Gramma in two weeks. Pretty exciting stuff!

Riley hit some amazingly good baseballs today--I'll have to get video to share. Reagan removed every tissue from a Kleenex box and lost my keys in Target. Cam was, as usual, very low maintenance. I'm waiting for him to turn on me. Tanner is recovering from his pizza dinner/heartburn episode. BONDISM!

Florida weather is just perfect right now. The picture on the right here is great because our friend who is a girl is teaching Tal how to hold a lizard. This after we caught him with medical gloves.

Tal and Riley are sort of fishing here on the left. I'm most amused with how rustic our landscape is!

Cam's favorite place on earth right now is his red car. The Rs fill it up with the green mulch. It is grand. I realize he needs a haircut, but Mom just isn't ready quite yet.

As most of you know, we sold our software. We had a little party to celebrate and remember how much work went into it. Tal and the Rs had a fantastic sleepover at Potter & Gramma's house....here they are in their jammies on the way to the big slumber party!

So Thursday Travis says it is time for a quick vacay. Not a real one, since we only have the weekend, but worth a try. By now you know the plan to sell Clinician, and you must understand that it is the hardest thing ever, even harder for him than deciding not to practice medicine (why do they call it "practicing," anyway). So we have work, not one but two busted cars to deal with on Friday, and park passes (I saved $200!), and we didn't get there until dark. There went Day One of the getaway. My dear friend Sandy once again came to the rescue with a Cast Member deal on Disney's Yacht Club Resort here. These hotels stay completely booked, but are priced WAY out of reach for most people--I just don't understand it.

I'm going to list the highlights below by kid, because that is just the most fun. I'll also get your big question out of the way and say now that Travis started relaxing about an hour after we got home Sunday afternoon. We need about a month off. Just to review, our last non-working vacation was August 1998.

Enthusiastic as always, Tal encouraged us to go to EPCOT. I suspect this was so that he could update his Test Track license. It was a great idea, both because we could walk there from our hotel and because we had the most enjoyable experience there in forever. Before we left the hotel, Tal and I played ping-pong on the lawn for a bit. FUN. If you ever spend time at Disney, I strongly recommend spending only every other day in the parks, and leaving plenty of time for relaxing at the resorts. They are just as interesting and amazing.

I inspected Tal's Buzz suitcase before we left. There were two pairs of PJs, one unmatched outfit (that I suspect was there from the last outing), four books, and giant Mario and Luigi dolls for the Rs. Very adorable, but not quite adequate for the weekend. I was dying.

I love how Riley's hair goes static-y on slides. The slide at the Lego playground, for some reason, is the worst, and crowds always gather to giggle over it. Seriously. The best is that Reagan's hair does NOT do it. The first photo is shown to demonstrate that. It is hilarious.

For some reason, Travis and Tal decided to watch the Harry Potter movies on regular TV in the room, despite the fact that we have them on DVD at home (with Pause, without commercials, no wasted vacay time). So at breakfast, Riley sees a scrawny kid with black hair and glasses, points, and starts yelling, "Heddy Podder!!" Of course we fell into giggles.

Shy no more, Riley is discussing the "SquareBob" Lego display with the creator. One of my favorite things is that in this shop, Riley finds boxes he likes (like the Duplo Zoo we got him for Christmas), usually as big as he is, walks them over to the Lego table display, and sits down. At the display table. He is so cute and at home there, in the midst of the crowds.

...is adorable. He shares so cute (at $2.50/Sprite, they better learn) and this map thing about did me in. He is at once so independent and so snuggly. I had PhotoShopped closer in on him, but it lost the impact of little Reagan in such a big place with his map.

Check out his face in the shark--EPCOT is getting more kid friendly, and the Nemo ride at the Living Seas is just one of the great new adventures. We actually spent the whole day in Future World, which just a couple years ago had turned into a big yawn.

This story makes the Cam Hall of Fame. I gave the Rs a bath, took them out, and turned around to give Cam his bath. Tal was yelling that Cam was already in the tub, fully dressed. This kid LOVES the water. It was hilarious.

Camden was a great sport, all things considered--he was in the Bjorn/stroller almost the entire time, and was just terrific.

Here is a shot of Cam coloring for the first time. Yes, we tried putting the crayon in his left hand. Yes, he switched it to his right hand. I have four righties, much to Travis' dismay.