bright eyes + blue eyes

visitng my brother

When: Last week

Who: Abbie, Pumpkin, and Manzo

What: Visited my brother Joe at his home away from home (college)

Duration: We were there for a little less than 24 hours (1 night)

Summary: We had a wonderful time! Loved every minute. We stayed in a really cozy bed & breakfast close to campus. My mom is the queen of finding cool places to stay. We were in a little "guest house" behind the main house. Right when you walk in the door, you see a big, framed print of a tiger. Manzo spent lots of time pointing to the tiger (with excitement) and growling. He loved that tiger.

fun saturday visit

Hunter & Superboy had a great time visiting Joe & Khani on Saturday!

disney souvenirs

We went to Disney World in late November 2009 and loved it. Spent a week there.

Then, we went again in late November 2010. Spent another week there. Loved it again.

Here are some posts re-capping those two trips:

Disney Trip 2009

Disney Trip : Animal Kingdom

Disney Trip : Magic Kingdom

Disney : Africa in Orlando (Ellie was living in Africa during the time we visited "Africa" at Disney World. All during Ellie's residence in Tanzania, I *really really* wanted to go visit her there. Alas, it didn't work out for me to make a trip. I'll never forget the time I was researching trip possibilities to visit Ellie in Tanzania....I ended up on the phone with a Delta representative to ask about how close I could get to Ellie's location via Delta. The Delta lady kept calling it "Tay-knee-zay-knee-uh." Anyway: since it didn't work out for me to visit Ellie in Tan-knee-zay-knee-uh, I sort of pretended I was in Africa while I was walking through the Africa region of Disney's Animal Kingdom.)

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Souvenirs from Disney

In 2009 we told the kids, "Listen. We are not buying a bunch of stuff while we're at Disney. The things we bought are (1) tickets to the parks (2) a meal plan which includes 2 fun snacks per day {enjoy!}. We are not buying a bunch of additional stuff." Basically: please calibrate your expectations accordingly.

We knew that we'd be walking through gift shops as we exited most of the rides. Hunter and I figured it was just better to make it clear from the front end: we are not going to spend time in every gift shop along fielding questions like "can I get this? can I get this? can I get this?"

On a happy note, we told them they could do any penny press they wanted to do during our week at Disney. Disney penny presses are everywhere. Most of the major rides have a penny press in (or near) the gift shop when you exit the ride. The concept is: you put a penny and two quarters in the machine. The penny will be pressed flat and stamped with a design related to that ride, or sometimes stamped with a certain Disney character. (The two quarters are the payment.)

More about Disney Penny Presses can be found here: Park Pennies

We made sure that we had plenty of clean & shiny pennies with us. And also plenty of quarters. The kids ended up loving the process of building their little pressed penny collections.

In addition to the pennies, we told them that at the end of the week they could pick out one or two souvenirs to remember our trip. We gave them each a twenty dollar bill. And on top of that, my parents ended up giving them some money as well. So Superboy & Pumpkin were both pumped, and looked forward to picking out something memorable at the end of the week.

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We repeated the same souvenir system in 2010. (No drama in the gift shops. Put your focus on the rides and the fun experiences in the parks. Do lots of penny press machines. Purchase a souvenir at the end of the week.)

Here are the 2009 souvenirs they picked out:

Superboy (age 7): Build your own Lightsaber, Dragon puppet from Epcot China

Pumpkin (age 5): Princess Leia Polly Pocket set, Set of miniature princesses (Ariel, Belle, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty)

Here are the 2010 souvenirs they picked out:

Superboy (age 8): Build your own Lightsaber (yes, he wanted to do it again!), Goofy hat

Pumpkin (age 6): Disney bracelet, Princess outfit (Belle) for her American Girl

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More about these mini princesses tomorrow....stay tuned! (note: sometimes I intend to come back and write "part 2" of a post...and then I forget. Oops, sorry! I'll try to remember this time.)

 

 

 

 

 

spring break '12 : travel

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national museum of scotland

Edinburgh is home to the National Museum of Scotland. The kids and I visited for the first time last week.

Since it's an amazing museum, it's free, and it's near our flat, we'll be visiting the museum a lot in the coming weeks. They have a great hands-on science & technology exhibit. When Superboy saw that part of the museum, he was pumped. 

(Aunt Ellie, I know you remember bringing him to the museum when he was little! I was telling him all about it when we were there last week.)

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In 2006, Angus, Mairi, and Jonathan came to visit us in the States. It's the last time we've seen them. Hopefully we'll see them again--6 yrs later!--when we visit the Highlands in the next couple of weeks. 

sidenote: Pumpkin wants you to know that she has a really cute belly button. ha ha!

{posted by Abbie}

we're here!

We arrived safely in Edinburgh yesterday morning.

The plane ride was very smooth!

Manzo slept for 5 of the 7 hours.

Then, for the final 2 hours of the flight, he smiled and babbled.

And played with things like earbud cords.

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Today is our first "normal" day here.

The children and I are currently at the public library.

This particular branch is across the street from our flat.

(hooray for that!)

At the moment we don't have internet access in our flat.

My daily photo+sentence posts might not happen.

But in other news, the librarians let us apply for a library card!

That was such a surprise to me.

In the past, whenever I've applied for anything in the UK (bank account, job application, etc), there is a long list of requirements.

I figured that library cards would only go out to those who pay coucil taxes.

But I was wrong.

Apparently they let visitors apply for cards as well.

Good on ya, Edinburgh.

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My baby is starting to get fussy.

Not good in a quiet library.

Gotta run!

-abbie

p.s. not sure when I'll be able to post again

p.p.s. Mom, Dad, etc: I do have a pay as you go cell phone now. I'll sendyou the #.

we love Gram

Gram was with us for most of the week. (Hooray!!) Here's a photo we snapped near the end of the week, right before Hunter drove her to the airport to head back home.

{posted by Abbie}

it's here!

It's here!

At long last.

Now I know this is really happening.

Packing for this summer's trip has me thinking about 2002.

Here we are in Edinburgh right after we moved there in '02.

Jennifer R took this picture.

You can't really tell, but Arthur's Seat is in the background.

I can't wait to visit good ol' Arthur's Seat again.

 

{posted by Abbie}

national museum of natural history

Oops, the DC photo I posted yesterday is a repeat. I've posted it before.

Here are a couple more photos from the same day:

Me & Punkin about to go into the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

(which is definitely one of the most amazing museums EVER.)

Standing in front of the skeleton of a giant sea turtle.

Wow. That thing was huge.

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In other news, Hunter and I watched a redbox movie last night.

Man on the Ledge.

It was GOOD.

Definitely one to add to my running list of action/suspense movies.

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In other other news, we got news today that Hunter's work visa was issued. It's on an airplane at this very minute in it's journey to mi casa.

That's SUCH good news!

{posted by Abbie}

spring break twenty twelve

Last week was the kids' spring break.

FUN!

We took a trip to visit my brother and his family. Had a blast with them.

We also spent two days hitting the highlights in DC. I've got lots of photos to share.

Here we are in front of the Capitol, aka one of "the most architecturally impressive and symbolically important buildings in the world." (www.aoc.gov)

I confess that I'm a monument nerd...I really like reading about all the symbolism incorporated into each specific structure.

I like pondering the quotes which are etched into the granite.

I like admiring the symmetry of the various designs.

Also, I really like seeing a perfect row of enormous, strong, supportive columns. There's just something about gigantic columns that I love. Me, the ancient Greeks, the ancient Romans, and about a ba-jillion other people, too, right? To me, there's something about a row of columns that produces the perfect blend of mathematics and art.

So: for someone who loves monuments and historical buildings, DC is definitely a wonderful place to visit.

Especially when you have gorgeous weather like we experienced.

And especially when the cherry trees were in bloom, as they were last week. 

(Perfect!!)

More trip photos to come.

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From the bright eyes + blue eyes archives. More spring break posts:

Spring Break 2011

Monday Ten

Tuesday & Wednesday Ten

Thursday Ten

Friday & Saturday Ten

Sunday Ten

Spring Break 2010

SB Recap, Part 1

SB Recap, Part 2

SB Recap, Part 3

SB Recap, Part 4

SB Recap, Part 5

{This post was written and published by Abbie. I have temporarily lost my little photo/banner/thing that serves as the footer to my posts. I think I might've moved it to my external hard drive a few weeks ago when I was moving some photos over. Oops.}