Our Disney World Vacation

Day 1

My wonderful wife Janet is truly amazing. She was able to find us non-stop tickets to Orlando for the same price that would have had us stopping in Houston or Chicago. So no disembarking and waiting around for our connecting flights or having to repack everything in the overhead bins. We took off Saturday April 12th at about 10:00am. I think the flight was about five hours long.

When we got to Orlando we were picked up by the Disney World shuttle. That was another great idea by my lovely wife. No rental car to park. No fighting for parking spaces. No worries. They whisked us off to our resort, the Polynesian Resort, right there in the Disney World complex. It was one of the first resorts when the park opened.

When we got the resort we still had a couple of hours of sunlight and we were hungry. We hadn't eaten since our bagels for breakfast and some peanuts and pop on the plane. Again, Janet to the rescue. She had gotten us reservations at a restaurant in the EPCOT park. We hopped the monorail and went to the EPCOT Center and found our restaurant. It was a revolving restaurant with some of the cartoon characters roaming around to entertain the guests. And entertain they did. Amanda and Sarah bought autograph books on the way to the resaurant and we were visited by Pluto, Chip and Dale. Chip and Dale had a thing for Amanda and fought for her affection. Well, not actually fought. Chip started by writing in Amanda's book that she was cute and she should call him. He forgot to write his phone number, though. Dale found out and wrote in her book that Chip was dumb and less handsome and she should write him instead and wrote his number 555-DALE. When it was time to leave Chip escorted Amanda to the door and was about to leave with us when Dale showed up and rebuked Chip with hand gestures and stomping feet, when suddenly Chip knelt down and proposed to Amanda. It was all quite fun and entertaining. We joked mosted of the night that it was too bad that the characters were played by girls because of the diminutive size of the actors...HA HA...

I'm sorry. I'm having problems getting the pictures from my camera do download. I'll work on it and update this post later....Strike that! Well, I've obviously fixed the problem and have downloaded some more photos. I failed to mention that Mickey Mouse was there as well. You see him in a photo with Eric.




But I did get this photo from Janet's camera. It was a long day of flying and playing. And it was just the first day...

OUCH!!! That's gotta hurt...

I was watching a rugby match on the tube the other day. I can't believe this guy actually got right back up and finished the game. Rugby players are tough.

PRESIDENT'S DAY WEEKEND

Every President's Day weekend we go to Cedar City and spend the weekend with my sister and her family. We go on a hike, eat lots of good food, plays games and generally have a great time. This year was no different. Thanks so much for your hospitality Linda. You're the greatest.

My lovely sister

Eric, Mandy and Sarah

The canyon in Washington County where we took our hike

Game night: Boggle was the main game, but we tried Scattergories, Apples to Apples and Farkle

DOG PILE!!!

Loving sisters

King of the hill...Eric on top and Mandy just below on the left

They were thinking, "Hurry up so we can Boggle."

Don't know what they were playing

On the way home from our hike I heard snoring

You can see the Virgin River in the background. The Sandstone Arch is at the bottom of the hill right behind Amanda. Isn't she cute.

The gang under the Sandstone Arch

Sorry the pictures are out of order. They are hard to get in order on this webpage.

It's Winter here in Utah

It's been a cold winter so far. It was just as cold last winter, but there wasn't all the snow that we're having this year. So far I think we've had at least 2 feet of snow. It melts in between storms a little but this past couple of weeks it hasn't had a chance to melt. Right now I think we have 1 foot in the back yard. Here are some pictures of Sarah and her friends having fun in the snow...

Janet doesn't like ice on the back steps, so she got out there and chisled it off.

Sarah and I nurtured the icicles off the back of the house. One of them actually grew to 6ft 2in in length....

CHRISTMAS

It's the most wonderful time of the year!!!






Santa Clause made a special visit to Grandma and Grandpa Schmalz's house.










It seemed everyone was happy with what they got for Christmas.













Shiny new clothes.














Eric made it over.









Jessica and Justin made it over later in the afternoon for dinner. We spent the afternoon and evening eating and playing games. It was a lot of fun!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

THANKSGIVING

Thanksgiving was a great time. Everyone came home but Tiffany. But that's okay because she was just here a couple of weekends ago. I'll put up some pictures that we took.

Janet outdid herself again. She cooked a 20 pound turkey (which was moist and wonderful) and ham and mashed potatoes and all the fixings that you can think of.

And thanks to Mom and Dad for the wonderful pecans. We've made at least four pies since getting them. I've enjoyed them raw and in the pies both. They're delicious.

All the family plus Charlie and JoAnn showed up around 4pm for the feast. Sarah and Amanda helped set up a beautiful table for us to enjoy. Janet brought out that beautiful tableclothe that she bought in the Virgin Islands. We ate quite a bit and then adjourned to the front room to talk and visit and open birthday cards and presents for Janet and Jessica. I always thought I was picked on because my birthday was close to Christmas. Every once in a while Janet and Jessica's birthday lands right on Thanksgiving. That's the pits. Thanks everyone for the nice cards for their birthdays.

Alas, poor Janet overdid it and got sick later that night. I think she was just overstressed about trying to make everything perfect. So while Janet rested up in the bedroom the kids and I played games in the kitchen. Amanda's boyfriend, Alec, came over and we played boggle, farkle and ended with some rousing games of mexican train that Janet came out and enjoyed. I guess we were making so much noise that she couldn't sleep. Everyone was gone by 10pm.

One of the presents that I got Janet was a retreat at a scrapbooking store. They called it "Crop Intstead of Shop." It started at 10am Friday morning (so you could really still go shop the early sales) and ended at 10pm that night. Janet actually went to Roberts Craft Store early Friday morning and bought one of those Cricket machines. So she loaded up her machine and went out to the craft store for the day. The kids and I just layed around and watched movies and relaxed. I think Janet finally made it home at about 9pm. She had a blast and is looking forward to the next retreat that she can go and show off her cricket machine.

Saturday was the BIG GAME! BYU vs. Utah. We went next door to our neighbors house and watched it on their huge television projector. I'll bet it's more than 70 inches. Anyway, we took over our leftover veggies and a fresh bowl of guacamole and chips and had a feast as we watched the Cougars beat the Utes 17 to 10 on a last minute play. It was a lot of fun.

Saturday night Nick came to stay with us and he and Hali came to church with us on Sunday.

A long and happy weekend.

I hope that everyone else had a Happy Thanksgiving!

I GOT HIM....I FINALLY GOT HIM....

HIM is a gopher. I've been tormented by him this summer. He first appeared, or at least evidence of him appeared, in July. It was the ever-recognizable pile of dirt in the flower bed. I thought that I could drown him, so I put the hose down his hole and let water run through his tunnels for 30 minutes and the water was bubbling up in the gutter. I thought, "That ought to do it." Ha! The next day he had a new pile a few feet out in the lawn. Another dose of water will take care of that, I thought. Another 30 minutes of water and I let it alone. He was gone for a month or so. The great white hunter moves to the top of the food chain again.

Nope, he was just sneaky and didn't push up a pile to be seen by his adversary. He got a little cocky around Labor Day weekend. He decided that the thtreat was gone and pushed up a new pile of dirt closer to the house this time. I was pretty disgusted that I'd failed, so I let him have his day and I brewed over it. I did take a look at rodent poison at WalMart and I talked to Dad about what I should do. He actually offered to send me some magic beans. Actually castor beans. They're supposed to be poisonous to gophers. Don't know the biology or chemistry of it, but Dad swears by it. Being the cheapskate that I am I again stuck the hose down the hole and flooded his tunnels. This time he'd pushed up closer to the house and the water trick was better suited because of the downhill slope from the house. My thoughts were that it would fill his tunnels and really get him this time. Don't remember how long I let the water run this time, but it was a while. I finished up and watched for gopher hills for a few days. No signs. I got him this time. The great whited hunter to the summit again!

Nope. About a week ago I was walking out the front down and looked into the flower bed and noticed a fresh pile of dirt. Could it be? Naw. I killed him last time. I took a closer look and sure enough...I'm mad now, but still not willing to give up on my water method. I put the hose down his hole and turned on the water. Two hours later the water finally bubbles up in the gutter. Two hours? That's one ambitious gopher. Sure enough all the old holes are wet or flowing with water. He's got to be dead this time. I put enough water in there to fill a couple of kiddie pools. I must have flooded every nook and cranny of his system.

Nope!!!! Just before I took off for Park City for the weekend I noticed that he'd pushed fresh dirt into the hole that I was using to flood his residence. I didn't have time to deal with him before heading out for a long weekend. I just put him out of my mind and enjoyed my weekend with the family (we'll do a seperate post for the weekend in Park City.)

Monday, October 15th, 2007. I got home from work. It's a beautiful day. Sunny and warm after a rainy cold weekend. The birds are singing and the kids are playing and laughing. All is wonderful. I get to the front porch and look to the flower bed. There it is. The fresh pile of dirt. I grabbed the hose and went to work. I pushed the hose into the hole and started the water. I went around back to do something and about five minutes later I returned to the front yard and noticed that the water was already running down the road. Darn it!!! I walked down to the hole that I was using to flood the tunnels and looked in. While I was bent over I saw something move in the corner of my eye. I looked up and...EUREKA!!!! There the little booger is. Not little really. He was about five inches long and fat from eating my tulip bulbs. I ran over to him and thought that he would run away. Nope. He started coming at me. I was ready for a chase and he wanted to take me on. I raised my boot and he bared his teeth and raised his front paws. YIKES!!! He wants to fight. So, I dispatched him. One quick stomp and he was gone. I couldn't believe how quick it was over. I was kinda disappointed. I didn't have anyone to tell. Mandy was downstairs on the computer and Sarah was over at her friends house. Janet was at work, so I called her and let her know my good news. The great white hunter IS the victor.

Amazing what a fuss I've made over such a small animal, isn't it?