Powerade!

A few weekends ago, right in the middle of our arctic weather, we were scheduled to volunteer at the Disney 1/2 Marathon. There was about 40 people from our ward all working at Water Stop 6 - the half way point (sort of).

We all bundled up (see picture of my friend Dina below, she looks like she belongs in Alaska!) and braved the cold weather, showed up at Disney at 4:45 AM!!! and had a great time filling cups with Powerade and handing them out to runners as they jogged by.

I was a little worried about someone sloshing juice all over my gloves but stuck my arm out anyway. I definitely got sloshed on a few times, but oh well. It was fun.

Brady was making us all laugh with his shouts of, "Get your Powerade here! My long arm comes to you! Easy hand-off right here!" And sure enough, most people came to him. He's such a salesman.

The perk? Free Disney tickets for the two of us, that awesome orange jacket, Disney rain ponchos (because it was predicted to rain, but gratefully didn't. It did sleet though, just slightly but it reminded me so much of snow!), and Toy Story T-shirts. It was a lot of fun and made me want to be one of the runners next year (maybe the one in the Snow White dress...?).

Farewell Frost

Last night was supposed to be the last time we'd see a hard freeze...at least for this cold snap. The high is supposed to be back up into the 70's by the weekend.

Brady went to Atlanta last week and sent us this picture of him holding SNOW! Jordan was wishing he had been a stow-away in Brady's suitcase.

How handsome is this guy? I love this picture.

So, here are some pictures of our car this morning. Thank goodness for one in the garage that I could take the kids to school with. (Brady wasn't so lucky at 5:00 a.m. when he left to go visit an early morning seminary class. He had to scrape with a credit card.)

Courtney scraped together all the ice off the roof of the car and made a little snowball out of it.

I took this picture of her, then I put the camera away and left to take the boys to school. I left Courtney practicing the piano. When I finally had a few minutes to download these pictures to the blog, I found the following pictures of Courtney. She is the queen of the self portrait.

And she'll probably die that I posted all of these...good thing she's so cute (and forgiving)!

What Freezing in Florida Looks Like

Last night's temperature in Oviedo was 26 degrees - the lowest temp recorded in Central Florida.

It's cold...and I mean cold! The oldest two boys came to me tonight after they'd gone to bed with sore, red, cracked hands and lips. It's cold and dry and their bodies aren't used to it.

Here's the scene you can see at most any house or business around town:

Plants covered with sheets, tarps, whatever you can find to protect them from the cold. Hopefully all those pineapple plants and our robellini palm will survive.

Brady is headed to Atlanta tomorrow where it's even colder and a SNOWSTORM is predicted for tomorrow night. I sure hope he gets to see snow again!

Annual Canoe Trip

Over the Christmas break we made our annual canoe trip with the Shepherd and Bateman families. It's always so much fun - beautiful scenery, beautiful weather, delicious lunch - it doesn't get much better than that. Well...if someone would paddle my canoe for me it might get better. (Brady is probably thinking, "Wait a minute, I DO paddle the canoe for you!)

Enjoy some pictures from our float down the Econlockahatchee River:

One of about 2 turtles we saw. The gang in Tucker's canoe also saw two alligators!

Starting a fire to fry up some mean burgers and dogs for lunch.

Finding relief - the natural way.

Brady roasted these mallows to absolute perfection - then gave them to me on a s'more. Now that's true love (and it was the best s'more I've ever tasted).

It wouldn't be a canoe trip without playing on the "bouncy palm tree." Sight of this tree means we have arrived for lunch!

We call this canoe the "Beauty Barge." Those four girls had a great time together.

Look at the reflection of the trees in this picture! Gorgeous.

My view in front

My view behind. I'm not sure which is better!

The whole gang (minus photographer Kent). Notice - I'm the only wife! How do I get roped into these things???

Christmas Morning Hightlights

Yesterday I spent about two hours trying to organize, name, file, order prints from all the pictures we've taken since Halloween! I ordered about 320 prints - now that's a lot of filing into photo albums to do when they all arrive! Thank goodness I have five kids who can help me.

Here are some highlights from Christmas morning:

Meghann was surprised and THRILLED to receive a new cell phone in the bottom of her stocking.

We loved the mugs and hot chocolate from the Bottema family

...and the Skookie maker from the Nixon family!

One of Courtney's favorite gifts was a new pair of CONVERSE tennis shoes (that makes three pair now! This girl is a fan of Converse).

I realized that I didn't have many pictures of Brady (probably because I was sitting next to him on the couch, hard position to take a picture from) but he was excited about these new tools he got.

Spencer loves this new Nerf gun. I'm not loving the 70 "bullets" to keep track of, but a week after Christmas Spencer was happy to report that he still had all 70. Woo hoo!

Tucker has become a fan of "Robotix" - some toy from the 80's that he's been doing at an after-school club. Thank goodness for ebay - Tucker is now the proud owner of a plastic robot roaming around our house.

Brady surprised me with a vinyl letter cutting machine. Thanks for your help with the gift, Liseanne! I can't wait to figure out how to use it (and I wish you could fly here and give me a lesson).

Jordan loved this Florida Gators blanket I made him. He's definitely fan of the Gators.

A little snuggle time with dad and the blanket.

It was a great day with lots of relaxing and enjoying each other's company. Why does it have to be over already??? Tommorow it's back to reality...ugh.