Olivia's 1st MLB game!

For Father's Day, Duane wanted to take Olivia to a MN Twins game - he got his wish today! The stadium is fairly new and it's really nice but it's outdoors....so, I made him promise that he'd wait for a nice day. Today was beautiful so we knew it was our chance. Last night he bought the cheapest tickets he could find and read up on things you could take inside. Thankfully, we were able to take snacks and bottles of water - otherwise we would have spent about $200 on food alone. The game was at 1:10pm - Liv's naptime - so Duane told her that on our car ride to the game, she had to nap. We had lunch at home and by noon, we were in the car and Liv was fast asleep! She didn't get a super long nap but it was enough to tide her over.

With our snacks and cooler, we headed into the stadium. Olivia had just woken up so it took her some time to fully wake up and realize what was happening around her. As we walked by a face painting table, Olivia was quick to notice this....guess what we stopped to do before going to our seats?

We found our seats and thankfully they were in the shade. As soon as we sat down, Olivia said, "I'm hungry." And so it began.... She and Duane dug into the bag of peanuts we brought and she enjoyed throwing the shells on the floor. I think that was as fun as the whole game for her! She waited a few minutes and then it was time for another snack - Cracker Jack. After some Cracker Jack, she climbed onto my lap and said, "I'm still hungry. I want some ice cream." Ha! I offered up a hot dog so she and Duane went on a bathroom run and then got a hot dog. We were now going into the start of the 3rd inning!

 

 

Once the hot dog was consumed, then Liv started in on, "I want ice cream." She saw a group of young girls behind us all eating ice cream so of course she wanted some. About this time, the announcer called up the next batter, "Adam Dunn." Olivia piped up, "the game is done, Daddy?!" No, Liv, sorry, it's only the 5th inning! She sat and waited and then needed another potty break. I took her and then we picked up some ice cream. By the time the ice cream was consumed and she sat a little while longer, it was time for the 7th inning stretch. We stretched and then Duane decided we could end our baseball excursion. Liv said her favorite part of the whole game was the ice cream! :)

Duane grilled steaks, asparagus and baked potatoes and we ate on the porch. It was a really great day and we hope Olivia enjoyed herself at the game!

Oh, White Bear Lake, we've missed you!

Today was going to be the day that Duane spent getting the boat ready for the season. We were both ready for a day of swearing, frustration, etc. We did not get the boat out at all last year (because of the crappy "summer" weather and moving houses) and my Dad was worried we'd have trouble starting it back up this year. Not at all! Duane had it purring in about 30 minutes and then we had the crazy idea to take it out on the water and make sure it was running smoothly. Once that was decided, I was running around like crazy packing up a cooler, the boating bag, ordering Liv to pack toys, etc! We picked up lunch at Jimmy John's, ate in the truck, and by 1pm, we were happily cruising out on White Bear Lake....it was such a great day!

as soon as we parked the boat, she wanted out and in the water! Unfortunately, in our rush, we failed to pack enough toys and other things to entertain Liv but she did well enough with a random sprinkling can and "clam" shell found on the beach.

I hope she's thinking, "my life is good!"

A day spent on WBL is not complete without a trip to Cup-N-Cone! After a line that was about halfway down the block, we had our ice cream cones and thoroughly enjoyed them. We were about 4 minutes down the road, heading home, and Liv was faaaast asleep in her car seat! She woke up as we pulled into our driveway and had a hard time waking up - I guess that's what we get for skipping her nap. It was worth it!

not the most flattering of pictures but she was quite happy with her Kiddie Orange Cone! she even asked me if she could finish mine....umm....no!

Catching up on the blog yet again....

The last few weeks have been fairly quiet but I've been traveling a bit (Las Vegas and Vancouver) so I apologize for the gap in an update!

Memorial Day weekend was beautiful here in MN so we did as much outside as we could. Friday night we went to Punch Pizza and Grand Ole Creamery for dessert. It was the perfect way to start the weekend!

Saturday we spent (I should really say Duane) the day planting new flowers and getting the yard ready for warmer weather. Olivia played in her baby pool and was able to entertain herself most of the day! Duane grilled steaks and we ate dinner on our patio.

Sunday morning we went straight for the MN Zoo and had a really nice morning. The crowds were minimal and the weather was great. That night we met Jaron & Crystal in Stillwater and enjoyed dinner outside at Nacho Mama's.

Memorial Day morning we went for a bike ride to a neighborhood park and had the place to ourselves. We hung around the house and just got ourselves ready for the week.

Last week was pretty low-key but we did manage a trip to MOA. Saturday afternoon/evening was rainy so there wasn't anything to do outside. Olivia was in dire need of summer dresses (that's all she insists on wearing) so it was a good excuse to go. She helped me pick out some dresses at H&M and then she was off to go ride some rides. We had dinner at Tucci Benuch and then tried putt-putt. She made it to hole 7 and said she needed to potty....we called it a game and left. A quick treat from DQ and then it was time to head home.

Olivia's 1st Dance Recital

This Saturday, we had Olivia's 1st dance recital! Olivia takes "dance classes" through a company that comes to her school every Tuesday. They have a dance recital every year and it's optional but you have to at least buy a costume. I signed her up for the show in hopes that she'd wow us with her dancing skills.....I think it'll be a few years before those skills are known! Haha! For the last week we had been asking her to show us her dance and all she would do is point a toe....I had a feeling it wasn't going to be what I was hoping.

Her group had a time slot of 4-5pm. She went down early for a nap and we were out the door on time. Once we got to the auditorium, we had to buy our tickets (?!) and then I dropped Olivia off with the teachers. Duane and I grabbed our seats and the good ole Daddy set up the video camera. We watched 4 other groups of dancers "perform" and then it was Liv's group's turn. They all walked out holding hands and then she was instructed to stand on a taped "x." Duane and I waved and waved and waved but Liv never saw us - she was looking hard, though - her face had the cutest frown while she scanned the crowd searching for us. She took her "x" very seriously and did not move off of it the entire time. She kind of danced but mostly just looked around at the girls around her. During the last song, her tiara came off so she stood there and kept trying to fix it. I laughed so hard, I had a headache by the time it was all over. They brought everyone out at the end to do one last dance and it was funny again. We bought flowers for our little dancer and gave them to her at the end - she was pretty proud of herself.

Here they come!

Stand on the "x"

fixing her tiara

"oh no! where's my x?!"

"thank you, thank you!"

the group dance - she clapped at the right time here!

After her hard work, we met up with the Bowe's at a drive-in and all enjoyed burgers, fries and ice cream. It was a really fun way to end our night!

The weather on Sunday was absolutely beautiful! Duane and Olivia spent their morning outside and I stayed in and cleaned the house. We had lunch outside and then it was time for Liv's nap. Before she took a nap, she went to the bathroom. While I was getting ready to clean her up, I noticed a tick on her back. I can't handle ticks so I calmly told her to wait a minute, I ran outside and yelled for Duane to come in and get the tick off Liv. He walked in like it was no big deal, picked it off, and had enough sense to put it in a plastic baggie. (Meanwhile I'm standing in the kitchen gagging. I'm serious, I can't handle ticks!) Shortly after that, Liv ran outside to get something and accidentally slammed the patio door on her middle finger. Whoa - major tears! She finally settled down and took a long nap. Duane kept cleaning up the yard and I took a little time to lay in the sun. Surprisingly, 2 hours of this wimpy MN sun and my cheeks were pink! Well, either the sun is wimpy or I've lost my Indiana skin and have become wimpy....

We enjoyed dinner outside on the patio and then it was time to clean up and head to bed. Today it poured all day but the rest of the week is supposed to be sunny - tomorrow may be our first 80* day! Have a great week, everyone!

Mother's Day weekend

I hope all the Moms out there had a great Mother's Day! I definitely did! We finished up Olivia's room and Duane picked up her furniture on Saturday. She just absolutely loves her room, especially her "big bed." The mirror on her dresser is still coming as well as her desk. This week her blinds should arrive and then we'll hang her curtains. So, slowly but surely, it's coming together.

On Sunday morning we went out for breakfast at the same place we've gone since Olivia was born! It was a nice morning and we all enjoyed our breakfast. That evening we had dinner at our friends' house, the Bodkin's, and were able to eat outside! I know that may not seem like a big deal for a lot of readers, but to us in Minnesota, it was SO great!

Catching up on the blog

Hello, hello....I'm finally catching up on the blog! All in MN is going well and we're so ready for spring! Our trees and plants are FINALLY starting to bud as of this week and it's a very welcome sight. It's hard to believe it doesn't happen until May but we gotta take what we can get!

Our Easter was very low key and we stayed at home and had some friends over for brunch. Of course Olivia received an Easter basket with some goodies but we didn't do much, considering she had just returned from a week in Disney World. She hunted for the eggs the Easter Bunny set out and then she asked Duane if he would hide them so she could look for them again.

 

One of the many (many) gifts that Olivia received as an Easter gift was her first kite. There was a fairly windy Saturday about a week ago so she and Duane gave it a test run. She really had fun with it but didn't quite understand the concept; she just wanted to run with it.

The past couple weeks and weekends we have been busy painting Olivia's room. We finally got around to updating her furniture and so we're redoing her bedroom. We painted the trim, windows and doors white and her walls a pale pink. She has new bedding and Duane is picking up her furniture tomorrow with a U-Haul. She is SO excited for her big bed so you'll be seeing pictures soon!

Disney World 2014

What a magical week we just had at Disney World! Last December we thought, "What the heck? We had such a fun time in 2013, we should go again!" This year it was the 3 of us and we stayed at Port Orleans Riverside in a Royal Room. We arrived around 12:30pm on Thursday, April 3 and we took advantage of the Magical Express so we walked right onto a bus and it took us directly to our hotel - our luggage was taken care of and brought to our room later. As the bus pulled up to the entrance, we noticed 2 people standing outside with a board that said, "Meyer Family" - Duane and I were excited - we were imagining some crazy upgrade. While it wasn't an upgrade, I think it was because I did an online check-in and asked for a room to be ready right away when we arrived. Anyway, our MagicBands didn't work at the room we were given so we walked back to the lobby area for lunch in hopes it could be fixed while we ate. We walked all the way back to our room and found it wasn't fixed so I called for maintenance and Duane also walked back to the lobby. 25 minutes later, still no help at our room but Duane came back with good news - we were sent to the wrong room previously but we were given a new room with a pool view!

I had hoped Olivia would nap but we missed her nap-window during the room chaos so we quickly unpacked, changed and headed to Magic Kingdom! We had a few hours in the park and it was a great way to kick-off the week. Since we were on vacation, why not throw all cares to wind and get ice cream?! Olivia was a ticking time-bomb with no nap and having been woken up around 4:30am so the ice cream was our way of trying to 'control' her.

After our treat, we were ready to tackle some rides. We started off with the Indy 500 cars and Liv remembered that she could "drive." Duane took the car in front of us and took a few pictures. I was laughing way too hard as Liv cackled out loud each time our car jolted left, right, left, right. The Barnstormer "roller-poster" was next and we did a ride share so each of us could take a turn riding with her. I think she could have ridden that ride all day, every day!

Our next stops were Ariel's Grotto, Mickey's 3D PhilharMagic show and then it was time for our dinner reservations at Liberty Tree Tavern. Duane picked the restaurant and guess what the meal was? Turkey, roast beef, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, etc. Olivia ate a little and then all of a sudden she asked to sit in my lap. Before Duane could sign the bill, she was asleep on my lap. This is a rare occurrence so we knew she was wiped out!

passed out in the stroller as we wait for our bus

Day 2
The key to riding all the rides with short lines is to arrive at the parks before they're open to general ticket buyers. If you stay at a Disney property, you can take advantage of bonus park hours. The first hour is typically pretty quiet and then you don't have to use your FastPass. Unfortunately, we overslept on Friday and we didn't even wake up until 8am! After a quick breakfast in our room, we headed to Hollywood Studios. With our FastPass, we rode Toy Story Mania, watched the Disney Jr. show and then it was already time for our character lunch at Hollywood & Vine. Liv must have been hungry because she started out being more interested in the food than the characters!

the Princess having breakfast in bed

couldn't get out of her seat for Doc McStuffins, she had a plate of food afterall!

again, watching all the action from her seat and plate of food

after some food, she finally got out of her seat and danced a little bit

SO excited about the chocolate covered marshmallow

notice anything in this photo? One of her teeth is covered in chocolate and she kind of looks like a little pirate!

Once lunch was over, we walked around and then had Olivia's face painted. Duane used a FastPass and rode a rollercoaster while Olivia and I watched the Ariel show. She and I had talked about her napping in her stroller and sure enough, after the Ariel show, I laid down her stroller seat, she went to sleep! Duane and I each had a beer and walked around the park and waited for Liv to wake up.

Once Liv woke up, she was ready for a snack. It was pretty hot so she had a strawberry popsicle and then we headed to Honey I Shrunk The Kids. Liv had a great time running around. Duane dragged us both to the stunt show and Liv was quite the little girl about it. She had a hard time sitting still and kept covering her ears. Duane finally gave up and we left his show for the Beauty and the Best musical! (Poor guy!) We had a quick dinner and then headed back to the room. We surprised Liv with Anna jammies and she was SO excited!

Liv in her Anna jammies and her big bed! Notice the princess pictures?

Day 3
Magic Kingdom day! We started out our day in Fantasyland (again) and took advantage of being in the park an hour early than normal opening hours. Since we had this advantage, we rode Peter Pan's Flight, It's a Small World, Prince Charming's Carousel, met Rapunzel and Snow White, rode the tea cups, Dumbo, the Barnstormer (2 more times), Indy 500 cars and then it was finally time for lunch.

Cinderella's glass slipper

"talking" to Rapunzel....mostly it was just Liv nodding her head at everything Rapunzel said to her

"talking" to Snow White....again, more nodding

Since we had a big night ahead of us, we went back to the hotel so Olivia could nap in the room. I sat in the sun for a little bit while Liv and Duane rested. We surprised Olivia with an Anna dress and told her we were having dinner in Cinderella's castle - she was very, very excited! The dress turns her into quite a little princess and she gets a little bit of an attitude.... After dinner we watched the Electromagic Parade from the castle and then called it a day.

 

 

Day 4

Thankfully, we remembered we didn't have park passes for everyday of our vacation! Once we realized that, we decided to pick a hot, sunny day and spend it at the hotel pool. It's been a really, really, really long time since Olivia has been swimming (last "summer" was nonexistent up here in MN so we didn't get out the boat) so we weren't sure if she'd enjoy it. Boy were we ever wrong - she was a fish by the end of the day! She was really apprehensive at first and would only hang onto Duane, then he decided to try out the baby pool with her. She took all of her princesses with her and they all "swam" in the baby pool. Once that got old, they headed over to the big pool. I asked Liv if she wanted to try out the waterslide and she immediately said, "Yes!" She went down the slide twice, loving every second, but then declared she needed a snack.

 

getting her sea legs in the baby pool

here she comes!

snack time after the slide

taking a breather while Duane ran back to the room for drinks

our little fish swimming around, thanks to the lessons from her Daddy!

 





We ate lunch and then Olivia asked to go back into the pool. She swam some more and then it was time for her nap. We had hoped she would nap at the pool but the music was pretty loud and she was having trouble settling so she and Duane went back to the room. I went back to the pool near our building and laid in the sun some more. Our hotel had a boat that would take people over to Downtown Disney so we hopped on that in the evening. If you have kids, I don't recommend Downtown Disney; there are only stores and restaurants there and I think it's completely overrated. We had a quick dinner and decided to call it a night. Once we got back to our room, though, Olivia asked to go back to the pool. Duane couldn't say no so off we went!

 

waiting for the boat

standing in line for the waterslide

watching for the light to turn green so she could take her turn down the slide!



 

Snug as a bug in a rug!

Day 5

Animal Kingdom Day! Since we had a leisurely day before, we decided to be up early and at the park by 8am. Again, this gave us the advantage of riding the rides and not having to use our FastPass before the majority of the crowds arrived. We headed straight for the Safari ride and were able to walk right onto one of the jeeps. Liv's blood sugar must have been low because she was kind of cranky during this ride....spoiled much? (How many kids have done this ride 2 times before they are 4 years old and are grouchy?!) Anyway, Duane and I enjoyed ourselves and we got to see all the animals.

 





One of the park employees saw us aimlessly wondering and talked us into doing Rafiki's Expedition (or something like that) - she said we rode a train to it, there's a petting zoo, etc., etc. Umm....waste.of.time. The petting zoo consisted of goats and we can see those at the MN Zoo. We tried it but I don't think I'd ever do it again.

on the train (which was the best part)

being my little girl and complaining about rocks in her sandals! :)

Duane went off to ride a rollercoaster so Liv and I headed to DinoLand. She and I did a quick ride and then we found a playground built around a "fossil dig." She had a great time running around until it was time for our character lunch at Tusker House. I highly recommend this character experience if you're looking for one - the food is surprisingly excellent and the staff and characters are really good. (plus they sell beer right next to the check-in line!)

With our FastPass, we headed straight to Finding Nemo - The Musical. Olivia was really ennoying it and then halfway through, she was getting antsy. Sure enough, she needed another potty break. Ugh. By the time I took her and we got back to our seats, it was about 2 minutes from being over. I don't think she even noticed.... She made a deal with us that she'd nap in her stroller and she did! Duane and I parked the stroller right in front of one of the doors to a gift shop so she could have an air-conditioned breeze (it was the hottest day of the week!). We each had an ice cream treat and split a Coke - it was definitely needed! Once Liv started to stir/wake up, we headed out of the park and took a bus to Epcot. With the promise of a popcicle and a ride, Olivia was up and ready to go! Our first ride at Epcot was the ride in the big ball and she really liked it. Her favorite part was at the end when they take photos of each person on the ride and superimpose them into a video. She laughed and laughed and laughed!

Epcot isn't the greatest for kids but they do have some fun places to stop and see. It took her a few minutes to warm up to the water fountain but then it was hard to pull her away!

Wondering into the countries, we quickly jumped on Donald's ride in Mexico and then walked over to Norway. We saw where Anna and Elsa have their character greet and we also saw the ridiculously long line. I talked to some random people and heard over and over that the wait for them was about 3-6 hours. Seriously. Olivia saw them through the gift shop and that would have to do (or so we thought)! We had dinner in China and then headed back to the hotel. Duane and Liv got in the pool once more!

Day 6
Epcot and Magic Kingdom and Epcot (again) Day! The weather for this day wasn't going to be nice so we knew we had to pack a lot in to make it worth it. We arrived at Epcot really early and went straight for Soarin'. Sadly, Liv was too short so Duane and I did a 'ride share' and one of us stayed with Liv while the other rode. Liv was bummed she couldn't ride and kept saying, "I'll just sit on your lap." I wish it could have worked that way! Next we did Nemo's ride, Talk with Crush and some Imagination ride. The weather was holding out so we decided to walk into the countries again. I picked France for our lunch and it was probably the best meal all week! If you go to Epcot, you must go to the deli in France - their sandwiches and desserts were AMAZING! Liv specifically asked us to take her picture and we wouldn't deny her that.

 

napping in her stroller

While it rained on and off, we would walk a bit and then be forced to stop in a store to stay dry. Olivia found a place in Italy to color a picture and then we found ourselves buying chocolate in Germany. Olivia and I rode the Donald ride one more time and then she promised she would rest in her stroller. The rain let up just enough for us to walk to the Monorail and then we rode it a couple times. Liv started to stir/wake-up, so we jumped off at Magic Kingdom.

the promise of a snack will cheer this girl up in no time!

There was a parade at 3pm so we walked around until we needed to find a place to stand. Thankfully, the rain kept everyone out of the park and we found a great place to stand and Liv had a front row view. All of the princesses were in this parade - even Anna, Elsa and Olaf!

 

 

see the little hand in the bottom right-hand corner? that's Liv's!

 

 

Once the parade was over, it really started to pour! We headed to the exit and wouldn't you know, we got to see the end of the parade all over again! We dried off back in our hotel room and then it was time for Anna, I mean Olivia, to get dressed again for another princess dinner at Akershus House. Since it was so wet outside, I actually took her dress with us and made her wait until right before our dinner to get dressed. We did the ride in the ball at Epcot and then headed over to Norway. As we were waiting for our names to be called for dinner, Anna and Elsa came out of their little house and started to walk away. I yelled, "Anna!" and she turned and looked right at Liv and walked over to her! She gave her a little hug and said, "You have the same dress as me only you look beautifuller"! I could have cried - we were so lucky! (The "beautifuller" is from the movie, in case you're wondering why she's using bad grammer.) Of couse Liv's comment after that was, "Elsa didn't say hi to me." We can't win for losing with this one....

 

Dinner at Akershus was good but I thought the princesses were prettier and more authentic at Cinderella's caste. The food was better and you still get the "commenrative photo" with the experience, which is really nice to have.

notice the Anna doll? Duane loves his Amazon and ordered this doll and had it delivered to our hotel. Disney World doesn't have much of anything for FROZEN because it's so popular. She hasn't let this doll out of her sight since we gave it to her!

Olivia finally met Belle!

 

 

Day 7

Where else would we spend our last day but at Magic Kingdom?! (Us and everyone else that stayed indoors because of the rain the day before. The park was CRA-ZY!) The doors opened at 9am and we were there waiting. Our first stop was Splash Mountain for Duane and then we headed to Pirates of the Caribbean. Olivia didn't make much of the ride but made it clear that she did not want to ride it again. By this time it was around 10am and the lines were already getting long. For example, the Jungle Cruise was already at a 50 minute wait - even Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride was 40 minutes! Obvisouly we had a FastPass for the Barnstormer so we rode that again. I wanted to see the Carousel of Progress and we easily walked into that. I had to laugh out loud when I noticed the 80's kitchen had the same microwave that's in our kitchen! (If you've been to our house, you know we have an OLD microwave and can appreciate this.)

 

With our last table service meal, we had lunch at Tony's and we braved the cooler temps outside; Olivia really enjoyed eating outside and constantly kept asking if we could. A server chose her as the "junior chef" and they brought out dessert for her to make.

 

 

Our last FastPass for the day was for the Winnie the Pooh ride so we headed back to Fantasyland. We tried doing It's a Small World but the wait time was 60 minutes! Olivia wasn't too happy about us not doing it but we promised her we'd try again after her nap. One of our FastPasses didn't register when we used it so we just changed its time for It's a Small World later in the day. Liv napped in her stoller and Duane and I sat down and relaxed. She woke up in time for the princess parade again so we watched that. This time, however, it was so crowded and she probably didn't even see most of it. People are rude and will send their kids into any space that's remotely open; by the time the parade ended, there were 10 year-olds standing in front of her blocking the way. Good thing our time was coming to an end, I was starting to lose my patience. We used the FP for It's a Small World and then tried to walk our way back to Tom Sawyer's Island but Olivia asked for a popsicle and then Duane said he was done for the day. Last year we shared cotton candy on our way out of the park so we did that again. Olivia waved good-bye to Cinderella's castle and it was time to head back to the hotel. While I packed, Duane and Liv roasted some marshmallows and played on the playground.

 

 

 

 

Our trip was once again so wonderful and true to Disney - magical! Our hotel was wonderful, the weather was great, we were all healthy and we truly enjoyed every second. I feel like I've got a good handle on how to manage a trip to Disney World so if anyone is going and wants advice, let me know!

 

my favorite picture from the trip!