The End of Interviews

We have spent a lot of time since last July traveling for interviews. The last interviews took place in Gainesville and St. Augustine, Florida, and in Houston, Texas. Since I had not been to northern Florida before, the whole family tagged along. I mean, if we were going to end up living there, I should at least know what it is like, right? And if we end up someplace else, I've at least been able to see a lot of different places.

We spent a lot of time in Gainesville looking at real estate, but we took some time out to have some fun. While Dan was interviewing, the girls and I went to the science museum. At all of the locations we go to, it seems that we either end up going to a zoo, a children's museum, or a science museum. The one in Gainesville was small, but rather impressive for its size. Here are Alyssa and me checking out the aquarium.

They had a visiting exhibit about the amazon. Here is a replica of an anaconda, I think. The snake is thicker than Alyssa! And definitely much heavier.

Here is our little baby Abigail in front of the mastadon fossil. She does provide some perspective on size, doesn't she? Poor Abigail. At six weeks she had to do quite a bit of traveling. Most of it she spent asleep in her car seat or the stroller. She is quite a trooper, though.

The museum has a butterfly exhibit, but because we were there during the cold snap, the butterflies weren't really moving around. So, we didn't visit the butterfly exhibit, but I thought this sculpture was beautiful.

We didn't spend a lot of time in St. Augustine, but here is a picture of the oldest fort in the United States. It was built by the Spanish sometime in the early 1500's. St. Augustine is a cute little seaside town about half an hour south of Jacksonville.

So, after traveling to something like eight different states, with a search spanning almost eight months, we finally have Dan's job settled. We are moving to Greenwich, CT, about an hour from where we live now. Isn't life fun?

Disney World

The beginning of January, Dan had interviews in Orlando, Gainesville and St. Augustine, Florida. The rest of us tagged along, so we took the opportunity to visit Disney World. This was our first trip to Disney World. We were there during a cold snap, so it was about forty degrees out. We were cold for most of the day, but it was so empty that we could pretty much walk onto any ride. That was a lot of fun!

Even though it was January, they still had all the Christmas decorations up. That was a lot of fun to see. Alyssa is just getting into holidays, so she was really excited to see the Christmas tree.

People commented on how brave she was with all the characters coming up to say hi. I have to admit, she is pretty fearless. When we went on Pirates of the Caribbean, she covered her eyes a couple of times, but that was all. She really liked seeing Mickey on the float in the parade.

We didn't really plan on watching the fireworks, but we couldn't help but stop and watch them. There really is something magical about taking your kids to Disney World. Alyssa was wide eyed and thrilled all day long. Poor Abigail was just bundled up sleeping in the stroller all day. Hopefully the next time we go she will enjoy it more.

I love how the colors on the castle kept morphing. Dan captured this great moment when the colors were changing.

Here we are in front of the Walt Disney statue. Alyssa keeps asking when we are going back. Maybe next year we will go with the grandparents.

Alyssa is Two!

Isn't amazing how time flies? Our Alyssa is now two years old! I really wanted to plan a great party for her birthday, partly because it is so close to Christmas. And partly because we didn't really want to acquire more stuff, so her party was her main present. She chose a ladybug theme.

I wanted to have as many ladybug activities appropriate to two year olds as I could think of. First we colored ladybugs on leaves. In the back you can see the "tree" that we taped our leaves onto.

Everyone loved decorating this cute bug with some spots.

This is the first time I have really attempted to decorate a birthday cake. But how could we have a ladybug party without a ladybug cake? I have to admit, I really had a lot of fun making the cake and decorations.

We got the book "The Grouchy Ladybug" for Alyssa to go along with our theme. We also made ladybug antennae to wear at the party. Alyssa was really funny. She loved them on everyone else, but refused to wear them herself. Anytime I prompted her to put them on, she would choose someone else, declaring "Momma wear them", or my favorite, "Daddy wear them". I wish I had gotten a picture of that. Happy birthday Alyssa!

Big Girl Bed

Alyssa is so much happier sleeping in her big girl bed than in her crib. The headboard has a cat, which she calls Hannah, and a dog, which she calls Sophia. She loves to look out the window at the moon and the stars. Notice the card on the window sill? It is a card from my parents that she wanted to look at as she fell asleep. So sweet....

Christmas Morning

Who doesn't love Christmas morning? Abigail was of course a little clueless. Alyssa on the other had, was very excited. Last year was fun, but we were excited to see how much more Alyssa would understand what was going on this year. We had a great time with the girls.

Here is Alyssa sharing her excitement with Abigail.

Prior to present time, Alyssa takes one last survey of her forthcoming gifts.

This is one of Abigail's presents, and one that I was very excited about. I didn't realize when I bought it that it has some squeaky parts. Hence, Sophia's uncanny interest. Anytime I get it out for Abigail, I have to quarantine Sophia.

This is Santa's present for Alyssa. We kind of prefer wooden toys to electronic. But alas, Alyssa is too smart. She recognized the Ikea logo on the packaging. I'm not quite sure how that will affect her belief in Santa, but she is convinced (and rightly so) that her train set came from Ikea.

Abigail and Alyssa are enjoying Abigail's present. Sophia is quarantined on the other side of the gate.

This turned out to be a favorite gift. Alyssa loves the legos from Grandma and Grandpa.

I decided to get Alyssa some simple musical instruments/rhythm tools for us to play with together. Here she is enjoying her "jingle bell stick".

Here is another present from Santa. Alyssa recognized it as coming from Babies R' Us, which she calls the "baby store". I guess we have to do better with Santa gifts next year!