Spring Break in Florida

Thanks to pneumonia?!?!??!, this blog is getting done much later than I would've liked because I feel like I have already forgotten parts of our wonderful vacation!  I am just SO THANKFUL that I didn't get this on vacation.  Makes me leary to book another vacation with as sick as I've been this year. 

Marie was very excited to "fwy on a big awepwane to Flowida."  She talked about it all the time.  She really didn't understand, once we got to Florida, that she had been on an airplane because of the "tubes" you walk through to get on the airplanes, she didn't even know we had gotten on an airplane!

The plane was about 40 minutes late when we left.  Chris' anxiety jumped into full gear as the kids took out every car, airplane, marker, etc and made a huge mess of our area.  

Up since 5:30am, but were not going to take a nap.  Chris sat with the big kids, but I eventually stole the Ipad.  

We didn't eat lunch, we just ate a bunch of snacks grandma had bought.  They were having trouble eating these, spilling all over the place and such.  Then I realized how I opened them in typical Erika fashion.  Just for you Sue!

It may have been the first day ever that the Hansons had not eaten lunch.  Chris and I needed beer; kids needed food.  Hooters for our first vacation dinner!

Off for a day at the Magic Kingdom dressed in our Bison gear.  Kids get weirder as they get older...thus the peace sign Travis holds up in many pictures.  

First person to help us on our first ride at the Jungle Cruise is this gal from Sam Houston State.  I was glad she didn't push any of us in the water.

Mimi showed Kimberly her Bison horns, just to rub some extra salt in the wound. 

Riding Alladin's magic carpets.  This was one of the Diney movies I made them watch this winter before we left. 

Waiting for the parade, which I think was my favorite thing.  Now, it's not like I have naked kids very often....OK, that's a lie.  My brothers like to see if they can ever make it through a day when we are together without seeing a naked a Hanson kid.  Never happens.  But, Marie took a nap in the stroller and got extremely overheated and her face was bright red.  She did not look good.  So I stripped her and swabbed her down with water.  A Disney worker quickly asked me to put her shirt back on, which I did.  But, it was either a dead two-year old, which was really going to affect their parade, or a shirtless two-year old for 10 minutes. 

Peter Pan was a movie I rented and made them watch as well.  I was surprised that this was their favorite!?  They watched it over and over again and were so excited to see anything Peter Pan/ Captain Hook. 

This was the best of 10 photos we took.  Ridiculous.  

Riding the people mover in Tomorrow land.  The closest thing to a rollercoaster that Travis rode.  

I bought an extra large Sprite and pumped Marie full of it while we sat in the air conditioned bathroom for 20 minutes and she came back to life and had a great rest of the day.  The neigh-neigh's were definitely a fave for her!

Luke might have been the first 4 year old ever to be 48" tall and able to go on Space Mountain.  Luke is always so calm and well-behaved when we do things like this because it is just what his system needs.  Lots of loud and wild!  Everytime he looks up in the night sky now he says "I went on that ride."  

We would've needed to leave by 9pm had we not had this giant stroller.  But, Marie and Luke went right to sleep after the electrical parade.  They slept through the super loud fireworks/castle show!  They slept through me buying them these balloons and through the ferryboat ride back to the van.  Thank goodness for the stroller!

Now, for those of you that are, financially, like the Hansons and going to Disney is a financial hurdle, did I think the $500 day was worth it?  Worth it to have to staple gun and glue the kids' dressers back together instead of buy new ones?  I did.  Chris may not agree.  The kids probably would've had just as much fun at Valleyfair.  But, Disney was magical for ME.  It's not just about the rides.  There are so many other things to see and do. 

We headed to Seawatch the next day.  Seawatch is timeshare: A Hilton resort that our friend's family, Karyn and Kevin Hoffman, own some weeks.  Chris had gone with them back in college and I visited with Karyn last fall.  Karyn helped connect us with people who had weeks for rent during Fargo School's spring break.  Chris had the flu the day we got there. 

 Luke is always content to just play toys.  He got right to work setting up a club house on the lanai. 

Travis, of course, found legos to buy at Disney World.  He didn't even look around when we got to Seawatch; just started building.  

The view out the lanai.

Eva was not content to play toys while I unpacked and Chris went to bed.  Luckily, I could see the pool from the lanai as well.  

Heading to the beach.  The kids found so many great shells the first morning we were there.  Luckily, Chris' flu...and later Travis' flu and Eva's flu....only lasted 18-24 hours.  Marie was not a fan of the beach.  She liked the "big sandbox", which she called the start of the beach, right off the pool deck.  But, she never wanted to go to the beach.  

Stick in my hair looks like a torture device...Marie's swimsuit is way too big.  But, anything I bring home for her to try on will never make it out without the tags being ripped off and her wearing it the rest of the day, so we kept it.  

Eva and Travis swimming in the gulf.  The water was very, very warm.  It looks like they are very far out there, but the tide is high now and it is up to the knees until where they got to.  They swam and swam, until we saw sting rays!  There were quite a few of them.  I didn't want to tell them because I knew they wouldn't want to swim anymore, but someone else pointed it out to them. 

We fried poor Lukey this first day.  He spent so long building this sand castle with me and his back got it.  When I say we, I mean Chris; he was in charge of sunscreening this kid.

Grandma Lois and Grandpa Clint drove to Fort Myers beach and stayed with a friend for a few days while we were at Sea Watch.  Grandma Lois went fishing the day before, so we had a wonderful, fresh fish fry!

Grandma and Grandpa took the big kids with them for a night.  The little kids loved using Eva and Travis' bedroom in the condo with a TV in it!

The flu struck Travis the day Grandma Lois was going to take them both fishing.  Lucky to have such a nice grandma, she took Travis the next day instead when he felt better.  Eva and Travis loved it!  It was a long day, and they both really liked it and had a great time with Grandma.  She also let them bring Lunchables for lunch, so that was crazy awesome to them.  

Chris bought me a hot stone pedicure massage for Valentine's day at a spa across the street from Seawatch.  It was lovely.  Chris hung with the kids.  

Chris went golfing the next day.  Fair trade I'd say!

Luke somehow decided that he needed to have this "boat" of the green and yellow noodle on him over his lifejacket for the first day or so.  This was quite the fight with every other child in the pool, of course.  Then, he got a better idea.  If you use just the green one and blow into it, it's your "farter" and you can fart water on people.  I was glad because he really couldn't shoot the water very far and people couldn't understand that he was saying "farter" because his R's are so bad.  One young girl figured it out and said "we can't say fart."  I said "neither do we," and smiled and thought "but, I've got a pina colada in one hand and a beer in the other and I really don't care as long as he's not drowning or soaking anyone." 

The same girl I thought would never swim with as scared as she was as a babe/toddler.  

Marie started the week just sitting on the stairs where she could touch.  But, by the end of day 2, she was jumping in with her life jacket and swimming all over the place.  This defintiely improved her parents drinking ability by being able to just sit on the side of the pool.... and walk around and guard other's from Luke.  

Did Beth Otterness come to Seawatch with us?????????

They did some kid activites during the day.  We built a snowman with playdough on the day I was getting calls from Casselton and Northern Cass that was school was cancelled due to snow.  

Crab races!

Chris sporting the hat that Eva made.  

Because we were lucky enough to hit the weather jackpot on this vacation (record highs, above 85 degrees every day) Chris grilled burgers and dogs many days and we had picnics on the pool deck. 

Since Chris and I started each day with Kahluah in our coffee and had pina coladas for lunch, I thought it only fair to let the kids decide what they wanted to eat on vacation.  They said lots of hot dogs and macaroni and cheese out of the box. 

Picnics on the lanai. 

On days that the little ones took 3 hour naps in the afternoon while we laid by the pool, we had to find something to do at night.  The kids loved going down to the Pier and wandering around, looking for ways to spend their saved allowance.  

Not appropriate, but funny.  Travis pretending to drink a....rootbeer.....like this statue.  

We wandered around Sanibel island one day after naps.  Luke liked the adventure of it; Eva was not impressed.  

The girls having a very serious conversation at the Island Cow.... where everyone ordered macaroni and cheese that came out of the same box I had been making and then didn't eat anything.  That's why I was happy to cook most of the week!  However, Chris and I had our favorite meals of the vacation here and the kids loved the place.  

Continually playing lifeguard and keeping Luke from annoying, pestering, drowning, splashing, etc, people in the pool got to be exhausting.  We went to see the Twins Spring Training, about a 30 min drive from Seawatch.  It was awesome!  I could've gone every morning. 

This is Justin Morneau .

Gardenhire.  It was so nice and quiet with all the retired folks there watching, you could hear every word they were saying on the field.  

Joe Mauer.  These older ladies come up to where Mauer and Morneau were doing infield practice at first and they giggle and jump around and say "Oh my, they are so cute!!!!!"  As were they!

Justin Morneau?  Joe Mauer?  They got nothin' on the celebrity that Travis and Luke followed around for 1 1/2 hours.  This kid had his own Ipad!  That his mom let him bring out of the car!  Luke even spent some of his allowance to buy cracker jacks and still follow this kid around.  

And to Chris, those guys had nothing on this guy from the Vikings, Matt Birk (I think?)  He was there with his family and SIX kids that all looked to be under 9 or 10 years old.  Chris was as happy as the boys that followed Ipad kid around!

I believe this is some ESPN guy that Chris was very excited about.  Since he watches ESPN like it is energy to sustain life on, it is pretty exciting I guess.  

We were not impressed by the traffic trying to go anywhere.  So, we tried to pick things to do that were as close as possible.  Someone recommended this "Everglades Tour."  The review Chris read said "This is the kind of place your dad took you as a kid."  So true.  You walked on a hanging bridge right over the alligators!

They let us touch the baby alligators too.  Luke was the only one who wouldn't touch them? The kids were happy to come back to Sheila's for daycare and it was safari week!

Our last day at the beach.  We could only convince Marie to come down to the beach if we promised she could "chase ducks."  

There were some very good sand castle builders down the beach from us.  Travis got deep in plans of how we could then make a sand castle even better and the job each one of us would have to make it happen and how inferior mine and Luke's castle had been.  

"Sand angels, duh!"  as Luke would inappropriately say.  

The family.  

Sunset at Seawatch was a big deal.  Fun to try to guess how long it would take to go away.  Oh yeah, and OF COURSE I found a babysitter by asking around on the pool deck.  We put the kids to bed and Chris and I went out to supper one night.  Worked out great!

Miromar!

We flew out of Orlando, so we stopped at Downtown Disney Saturday afternoon.  There was a legoland there!!!!!  That killed 2 hours.....

Chris was not impressed by downtown Disney.  So, we drove somewhere to find GOOD pizza.  This gave the kids an education in driving too fast and the F word, courtesy of my husband.  First place we found was delivery only.  Second place was like a JL Beers type place; we would've waited all night for a table to 6 to open up.  Finally, after over an hour, we found Flippers Pizza.  It had beer and was well worth the wait.  CHEERS to a great vacation!

Surprise, surprise who the last one is to be eating.....

All about Luke.

Luke and Marie helping me get the rugs to shake out.  Really, I complain about this dog?  Poor thing.  

The sour cream container contains homemade ice cream, so it's not as gross as it could be.  Luke made himself an ice cream, milk, maple syrup, chocolate syrup, and popcorn... thing.  And ate 2/3 of it.  Obviously, when he was done, I threw it away.  He came back about an hour later and said "hey, where's my popcorn ice cream?  I was going to eat that?"

And then, as in the above picture, I was again gone and this "diaper party" occurred.  Puzzles, blocks, dolls, small magentic pieces, >40 books, all the clothes and blankets from the closet, all the clothes from the hamper, dress up things, etc were dumped into the center of the room.  They missed one thing; the dresser in the corner.  They did help clean it up... only took slightly over an hour. 

And somehow he has made it to 4 years old!  (Bison horns, of course.)

How great is this cake?  Bison Hotwheels was his theme he decided.  I told the cake lady and this is what she created.  Love it!

Grrrr.  I forgot to do the group picture on the couch. He had so much fun and loved all his presents.  

Surprise, surprise that the last 2 kids eating would be Hansons....and that hand at the bottom is a Hanson also, but she came in late. 

No snow, no crib.

I have had a crib in my house since I've had a house.  This is a scene I've watched many times, but usually getting ready for another baby and moving rooms.  This moment was like the first day of kindergarten for me.  I was crying like a baby!

I can remember a time in my life with no crib.  But, I can't remember a January in my life with no snow?

Although, if the snow has to come, this is a pretty cool sunrise to see with the ice skating rink of my neighbors.  We are all wondering if he'd get to fill it this year?

National Champions: Bison 2011

We were in Frisco 36 hours.  Who knew so much fun could be packed into such a small amount of time?  I also have to admit, it is very fun to be making an entire post about ME, ME, ME and the fun I had and not the kids (thanks Grandma Tree!)  Was I in a coma for 7 years?  We partied hard at Sambuca 360 the first night.  Saw tons of people from NDSU that I hadn't seen since I graduated in 1999.  This is Jamie Evans, a friend from Hankinson.  Jamie and her husband, Jason, drove to Frisco from Valley City. 

Then off to tailgating by 8:30am.  According to Chris we were much too late.  This is standing on one end looking down at all the Bison Tailgaters...at 9 in the morning. 

It was COLD!  Only colder tailgating I attended was Georgia Southern, and they were very similar temps.  The day before was a high of 71 in Texas; this day was 51.  The boys made so much fun of Jamie and I for the 3 layers I have on and her mittens.  They were just jealous.  

Chris peeing on a truck with everyone in the bus next to him knocking on the window.  This is not the last time of the weekend I would refer to him as "Luke." 

The people who didn't want to pee on cars or stand in line freezing to wait for porta-potties went to this bar and stood in line.  Smack talk with Sam Houstoners was getting started.  Luckily, everywhere you went there were way more Bison fans that had your back. 

Walking in to the stadium.  The crowd was pretty quiet on the march in.  Nerves started to kick in I think.  

View from our seats.  

Sam.  It was Bison fans in front of us and then one more row of Bison behind us.  The rest of the rows up were Sam Houston fans.  Chris and Sam talked smack like they had waited their entire life to be that vulgar.  Not words any children should hear.  Perhaps thats why the people with a 5 year old little girl left at the half.  I was so nervous about sitting near their fans.  However, since we came out on the winning end of this, it was actually awesome!  Their fans were bascially quiet the entire 4th quarter.  We all shook hands in the end. 

Trophy presentation down on the field.  Brock Jensen.  

Chris cried.  Yep.  I'm telling everyone.  

I thought there was no way I was going to make it out another night after drinking all day.  We went and took a 20 minute nap and went to dinner.  

We headed to the shops in Legacy where all the partying occurred near the hotels and stadium.  

We headed here for dinner. Authentic Mexican food that was delicious.  However, not everything is bigger in Texas.  We each could've eaten 2 plates full of food.  Instead, we just drank more.  I also had the most embarrassing name aphasia happen to me here.  Not embarrassing like Marie shitting in a pool or anything, but pretty embarrassing.  I couldn't remember this lady's first name I saw here.  So, I thought I'd be all fancy and call her Mrs. Last Name.  I went up to her and chatted her up because I know her so well; we've tailgated together 3 times now.  I had made a new friend!  Introduced her to my friends....as Mrs. Last name because I couldn't remember her first.....WRONG last name.  I had no idea who she was married to.  Guess I didn't make a new friend.  I'll be tailgating alone next year. 

Then hit up the Ringo Pub, entirely filled with Bison fans singing cheers together.  At one point, a Sam Houston guy walked in.  Poor bastard.  

#93, Cole Jirik's dad.  They had these great shirts.  

So, I did manage to get a 2nd wind... and a 3rd... and a 4th.  We danced and partied all night.  I had another horribly embarrasing name mix-up that I can't even mention on here because everyone would know who I'm talking about from a local celebrity and.... I'll just blame it on the booze.  Some unknown girl came up to Chris and said "I'd better not hear about what a fun-hater your wife is on the air anymore because I can see that's not true."  HA!!!!

The Syllings must bring this out in me because I haven't danced like this since the Hankinson street dance this past summer with these two.  



So, I'm sure the players were sore.  But, Chris couldn't stop whining about this scrape, that got all swollen and puffy on the way home, from when I gently guided (he says I pushed) him down from standing on his seat and stopped the lady a few rows up who was yelling vulgarities at him.  Funny thing, Jason had a matching scrape on his shin from a little over-zealous celebrating on the touchdown after the interception. 

And, just to continue with the hilarities, we return the car and the guy asks Chris "was this on the vehicle when you picked it up?"  Can't believe Chris didn't say yes and launch into some sarcastic monologue, but I think his voice was too far gone like the rest of us.  He just showed the guy how it wiped off.