No tissues necessary, pinkies!

I just haven't blogged for awhile so I figured - what the heck?! I'm just waiting for some DELICIOUSNESS to be done in the oven. Caribbean Beach Bread if you must know. I'm having a little Tastefully Simple party tonight - well, actually a friend from high school is hosting it and I'm "consulting" on it. I'm a consultant. Makes me sound knowledgeable in the technical sense. Not so much. I can tell ya LOTS about Tastefully Simple though.

Anyway, on to other things. The youngest parts of the allbluezoo have been with me in Indiana for the past few days and we'll be joined by DevilDoc tomorrow - insert a HALLELUJAH here! - afternoon. He's bringing Nani girl too; *heart thumping* Not sure who I miss more - him or her. Don't tell him that *wink* Seriously though, the kids haven't really been THAT bad it's just that the weather has been LESS THAN cooperative to being outside! Have you ever taken a beast from it's habitat and caged it somewhere mostly unfamiliar and without it's normal comforts? That's what it is like with the ZOO - we are are gammaw's house (my mom) and bopping around to P-Paw & Julie's (my dad/his wife), Matt & Sassy's (my brother/his wife) and other assorted extended family members. Note none of the above people have anyone under the age of 10 living with them full-time, severely limiting the toys and other junk that occupy said children under the age of 10. Thank goodness for the couple of days of good weather that allowed us to hit the pool. Even today, overcast and all we tried for the park. Made it about 10 minutes before it started raining. Ugh. Back inside. Ugh.

My "stuff" is already in San Antonio. Too bad we won't be for another somewhat long while. But, we have things to tend to like Centennial Celebrations at the Navy's only bootcamp and a 4th of July bash that promises to go down in the record books. And then that small concert. U2. YES I AM GOING TO THE U2 CONCERT - F.i.n.a.l.l.y! I swear it feels like we've had tickets for years. Well, that is of course, if we actually had tickets. I accidentally kind of forgot to get them out of the safe before we packed it up and sent it to San Antonio. Woopsie. Yay for Ticketmaster and their infinite wisdom that there will be dummies like me who WILL lose, misplace, send away their show tickets. They are holding another set a will call for us. I figured that was best, God forbid they mail me another set and I leave them in Indiana when we head back to Chicago-land. Duh.

Now you are all caught up on what has been going on around here for the last .... 5 days? Close enough. Whatever. This weekend we have a family reunion. Mmmhmmm, I said it. Family reunion. It's pretty cool actually. It's my maternal grandfather's side of the family and HOLY HELL there are a LOT of us! I'm pretty stoked for the annual BINGO game - those little kids better watch out - I'm hungry for the prizes. Word has it that granny scored BIG on Walgreen's Register Rewards stuff this year and I have my eye on more toothpaste.

JUST KIDDING, sheesh - I have like 1,000 tubes of toothpaste b/c I coupon. Duh.

I really DON'T have 1,000 tubes of toothpaste. But I would be all over some more lip balm or sunsreen. Hope she got in on that deal.

I left half the zoo behind

and went to Charleston, SC last week with DevilDoc. It was kinda like the honeymoon we never had, except for I wouldn't pick Charleston, SC as a honeymoon destination typically. But, it served it's purpose for a charming and warm place to spend some kid-free time with my husband.

I won't bore you with pictures, you can head over to Facebook and check them out.

Suggestions if you plan to visit; 4 days was enough to do what we wanted and see the sights. Any extra days could have been spent at the beach or taking day trips to Savannah or Myrtle Beach.

Eat at S.N.O.B. (Slightly North of Broad) at least one, 3 or 4 times if you can fit it in! Our meal there landed in my top 3 dining experiences. Other good eats: Jim N Nicks BBQ, Amen Street (KICKIN' sweet tea!), Market Street Cafe. Get some sweets from Kilwin's too :)

AVOID O'Hare and Flynn wine bar. Crappy service - actually non-existent service. Apparently we weren't the right "type" to be in the establishment as everyone around us was helped, chatted up and delivered their check while we sat and waited to be acknowledged. We had our one glass of wine and left. I really wanted to try the cheeses, meats, oils and breads - oh well. Their loss.

DO walk the streets and take in the history. Market St., King St., Meeting St. and Broad St. Stroll along the harbor and watch the boats come and go. Visit a historic home (we went to Aiken-Rhett Home) or take a carriage tour. Eat local foods, you can have Bubba Gump and BW3 at home. Enjoy a drink, or five, from a rooftop bar.

Oh, and if you are in to INK be sure to check out Blue Gorilla tattoo on Meeting Street. I hear they do some good work *wink*wink*

Dear Parms in Paradise

I promise I am going to update the blog with the remainder of our Disney adventure. Baby A may be driving by the time I get around to it, but I promise nonetheless :)

Allbluezoo vs. Hollywood Studios

Monday July 20, 2009

Remember how I said I wanted to be up and at the park at 8am? Yeah, so much for that. We did arrive at our new Disney Resort (Caribbean Beach Resort) at 0745, but by the time we got checked in and put all of our stuff in the room it was 9am when we walked through the gates at Hollywood Studios. Not too bad if I do say so myself!

When we checked in I picked up a stroller that we are using this week from a www.disboards.com stroller swap. It totally rocks, if you need a stroller for a vacay but don’t own one (we got rid of strollers awhile ago, but Disney would be HELL without it!) look into a stroller swap. Lots of them are free or have a nominal charge ($5-$10). Our main goal at DHS was getting Pookins into the Jedi Academy for Jedi training. If you have met Pookins you know that this is a MUST DO, no ifs ands or buts about it. Well, we went for the first training and they chose every single kid around him BUT NOT HIM! My poor baby was crushed, I was crushed and DevilDoc was crushed. It totally broke my heart to see him so upset. We assured him we would come back and try again. Yeah, well….it started raining. No Jedi Training in the rain. CRAP!

I was ready to do a sunshine dance so that he could do the training! Lucky for us we had lunch reservations to divert our thoughts and we headed for Sci-Fi Dine In Theater. It’s a really neat concept; all the seating is in convertible Cadillacs. Some seat 6 some 4 and there was even a stretch one that seated 10! Our server was AMAZING (Ask for Tony if you ever go!) and the kids really enjoyed it. We are using the Disney Dining plan during our visit so our meals are paid for up front. The kids got to choose an appetizer, entrée, drink AND dessert ALL INCLUDED! We adults get an entrée, drink and dessert. OMG, so much food it was unreal! I took some not so great pics, it is REALLY dark in there and the plate was white so I got a horrible glare with the flash. Just pretend you don’t see that part.

Earlier in the day we had gotten a FASTPASS for Toy Story Mania so we went to enjoy a ride while we waited for the next round of Jedi Training Academy…it stopped raining! Lemme just tell you that the next two attempts at Jedi Training were unsuccessful. Pookins was seriously devastated. I was trying so hard to cheer him up and keep him motivated to keep trying.
We decided to split up because Magoo wanted to go to Playhouse Disney Live! But there was another Jedi Training session starting at the same time. We decided to meet at 50s Prime Time Cafe where we had dinner reservations. I guess I was some kind of bad luck charm because on this trip to training he was selected!! I am so sad I didn’t get to see it in person, but my wonderful DevilDoc got it all on video for me.

***I tried to upload the video but it was taking forever and a day...I'll try to put it on YouTube if I can figure that out-then I'll throw the link in here later.***

They joined us for dinner as soon as they were done and we had a raucous good time! Prime Time Cafe is like a cross between Ed Debevik’s and I Love Lucy. You are seated in kitchenettes decorated from the 50s and the servers get on you for “having your elbows on the table”, “getting up from the table without asking to be excused” and for “not eating your vegetables”! It was a hoot. Our server Debbie was awesome and she got the boys to eat more by holding their ice cream sundaes hostage. She also kept giving DevilDoc a hard time about having his elbows on the table (I get on him all the time too)!

We had FASTPASSES for Tower of Terror that were open during the time right after dinner. I thought it would be better to do something low key to let our food settle first. We went over to Prince Caspian’s Adventure…don’t waste your time. I won’t.

Off to Tower of Terror, which Pookins has ridden before at Disneyland. Magoo passed the height requirement so we all trudged along with our passes. Pookins kicking and screaming the whole way that he was scared and Magoo not even flinching. We all made it out alive and although Cameron wasn’t scared on the ride at all he did declare afterward “I do not want to stay in that hotel tonight mommy, there were cobwebs on their lights”. Good to know.

By the time that was all over with the clock was striking 8pm and it was time to get our tired rears back to our Pirate Room so we could be rested for the next day’s adventures! I threw in some laundry, the boys hit the pool and now I am gonna hit the sack and hope they remember to get the laundry out before they come back.

I leave you with a picture of us under the hat...it's rare that I'm in a picture so now you know I really went on this vacation!

Disneyworld...installment ONE!

Oh goodness, we aren't even CLOSE to being at Disneyworld yet but I've already got enough material for a blog entry!

Day ONE by the numbers-
4-McDonald's 96 gallon sweet teas consumed..okay, they aren't 96 gallons, but darn close!

7-number of times Magoo asked me when we were going to be at the airport, even after we'd been in the car for 8 hours! Poor kid thinks when you go on vacation you HAVE to go on a plane (island baby!)

4-number of times Pookins asked me if we were "at" Florida yet. He asked for the first time at 6:32; we left the house at 6:11 :)

1-entry into the "unintentional porn" portion of MAXIM; we passed by Cox Smoker's Outlet...say it out loud..but not around kids!

1-phone call from friend's 3yo son while she and daddy were "taking a nap". Learned all about his new Storm Trooper gun :)

2-random thoughts from DevilDoc that cracked me up (1) Me-"honey, I think the speed limit is 45, that is why we are FLYING by everyone" Him-"chickens!" and (2) In downtown Atlanta while stopped under an overpass bridge "ahhhh, we're in a 'shady' part of town" hardy har har!

2-viewings of Xmen on the DVD player

3-potty stops

Lastly, not by the numbers but quite a coinky dink if I do say so myself...while driving through Louisville I had my iPod on shuffle and it played Ministry, Depeche Mode and Bjork in a row...10 points if you can tell me WHY that would be a coinky dink?!

I did take some pics but I'm way to lazy to find my camera and do all the work involved, so I'll share them later...k? K!

Last day on the Big Island

On our last day we steered clear of hiking and volcanic activity and enjoyed more of the "touristy" stuff! First stop WINE!



I won the mommy of the year award while at the winery; with the car parked right outside the window I strapped my kidlets into their carseats, rolled the windows down and put a movie on the computer for them to watch! I know, I know...don't shower me with accolades. P.s. I only had 3 sips of wine but Jai and I did walk out with 6 bottles!

Next stop, Mauna Loa macadamia nut factory. The entire time we were driving there I couldn't get the jingle from their local TV commercial out of my head!! Mauna Loa, Mauna Loa, Mauna Loa...ACK!!!!



We headed over to the Rainforest Zoo...it was FREE! However, I think they should start charging admission if it means the poor white tiget gets to eat! That thing looked emaciated...



Pretty picture of lily pads and some neat flower


After the zoo we headed out to take in some more scenery at a couple of waterfalls


That's Akaka Falls. We also visited Rainbow Falls but it had NOTHING on Akaka Falls...so, no picture :)

Our time in Hilo was drawing to a close so we headed to the retail shopping area of town and grabbed a bite to eat. We also made a pit stop at the local ROSS because as any good bargain shopper knows all ROSS stores have something different..you should ALWAYS stop!

We headed out to the airport; Hawaiian Airlines departing terminal had a really nice waiting area. There was a local group playing Hawaiian music and they also had hula dancers! It was VERY relaxing.

Then, we were off to O'ahu...




Thanks Jai for going with us, we had a great time and hope you did too!