Friends - new and old - at Disney!

As you know from my previous post, and if we are friends on FB, Evan and I have been with the kids here at Disney since Wednesday. The reason we went, however, was because of a conference I needed to attend for work - AHFE 2016, if you're interested in taking a look at it. My company had a booth there this year, and I was the one who got to go. Kind of nice that it worked out to do this family vacation before and after the trip, right? :)

The conference ran from Friday morning through Sunday afternoon (earlier today), at least for us vendors. Because I would be stuck in the conference area for those 3 days, Evan decided to take the kids up to see his parents in South Carolina. They left Friday morning and are due back...well, any minute now! It worked out nicely - I've been totally overwhelmed in every spare moment by a consulting project (that's due in one week), and so it was good for me to have nothing else to do in the evenings after the conference except for work on that. Now that they are getting back here, I can try to push this report I've been writing on out of my head, and focus tomorrow on our fun at Epcot!

However, I did manage to get a little bit of fun in both Friday and Saturday evenings. On Friday I met up with Jen and John of Epbot, a geeky blog that I follow. She's also the original founder of Cake Wrecks, which is really what made her famous. They're always up for meeting people who come to Orlando, and so when I reached out to them, we set a date! They picked me up at my hotel Friday evening, and we spent a good 3 hours over at Disney Springs - had dinner, walked around, and had just a blast talking. You never know how it'll go when you meet up with strangers, but they really were so much fun, and so cool to hang out with. I definitely hope to do this again if/when I'm in the area!

One of the things that I wanted to see at Disney Springs were the windows that Jen had posted about. They're displays in the World of Disney store, and really are something to see. She's right - it's next to impossible to get good pictures of them due to all of the glare, and I only had my iPhone, and it wasn't fully dark yet, so I did the best that I could. But I love everything about them, particularly this reading-inspired window!

I took a few other pics, but that one was my favorite.

As we were walking through the newly built shopping areas, I had to get a picture of the sunset. Absolutely gorgeous!

We then spotted one of the newest attractions: the Coca Cola store. We saw that there was a ramp up to the top (3rd floor) of the building, so we headed up there. It had a really nice view over Disney Springs, including the very cool building you see here (that according to John has been under construction for oh, let's say about 18 years now). It's supposed to be a cool planetarium when done, but who knows when that will be... I just like the old time-y feel of it, particularly at sunset and with the balloon in the background!

We then shared one of the most popular item at the Coca Cola restaurant on the top floor: the float flight. 8 different floats (you don't get to choose), all delicious. Between the three of us we couldn't even finish them - definitely not something to drink alone, unless you want to go to the hospital in a sugar coma. But wow, so tasty.

Then Saturday night my college friends Bryan & Erin met me at my hotel, also for dinner. I hadn't seen them in over a year, since they moved down to Florida for Bryan's job. That meant I had never met their adorable little guy Nolan, who just turned 1! He was so very sweet, and great through dinner. It was really nice to see them again, catch up in person, and hang out for a bit. They live over an hour away from here, so I really appreciated that they took the time to come drive out to see me.

With these breaks, I've been up until well past midnight every night since we got here...it's nice that I'm done working on the report (I think I've hit all edit points!), and can just relax tonight and really enjoy Epcot tomorrow. On that note...my family is almost here! Can't wait to see them :) 

SURPRISE!

Tonight we told the kids the big surprise we've been keeping from them for the past three-ish months...I'll let the video speak for itself :) We're all very excited!

March 28, 2013 - The Louvre

Argh! My plan to post March 28, 29, and 30 exactly 3 days later failed due to work travel! That's ok, I'll get them up now. I wrote that on April 28. And then planned to do this again on May 28. Then June 28th...and now, as I'll be traveling on July 28th... time to post! Better late than never right? Here's hoping that I have the time/energy to get the last couple of Paris posts done this month, but at last I can get this one in!

Our fourth day in Paris was spent at The Louvre. I'm not always a museum person, but with this being arguably the most famous museum in the world I was very excited to spend the day there. And oh my, do you ever need a full day! Between the acres you can walk inside, and the statue garden area outside, there is PLENTY to see. I'm fairly certain there were wings we never even really went to, or just did a cursory walk through as we went to an area we were really interested in seeing.

At this point, over 3 years later, I can't remember well enough to do a complete walk through of our tour of the museum (see, that's why blogging close to events helps!). But, I've got almost 200 photos that show all of the things that we saw. Obviously I can't post that many here, so I'll do my best to post my favorite dozen or so. I apologize in advance for failing to remember what some of these statues and paintings are - if I can't remember, just enjoy looking at the beautiful art!

Winged Victory is absolutely stunning, and placement in the museum is perfect. Your eye can't help but be drawn to it.

Even the ceilings in this place are works of art!

 

Hallways too. Of course, they know what they're doing, but to see it in person is something else.

We of course had to see the Mona Lisa. Do you see it down at the end of this room? Not quite what you would expect of it, right? Teeny tiny, behind bullet proof glass, with a crush of people.

We did get closer. Slightly underwhelming in person, frankly, which was what I had heard. I definitely was more taken by some of the other art!

Like, for example...the Venus de Milo!

Kathy and I figured we could hang just like these ladies of old were :)

This atrium, with its statues of Greek gods (I think, again hard time remembering) was just beautiful.

 

More gorgeous ceilings...such detail!

And then what turned out to be my favorite piece in the entire museum: Cupid & Psyche. First off, I'm a sucker for Greek myths (I went through a whole phase in middle/high school), and the emotion conveyed in this statue just got to me. Plus, the lighting was absolutely perfect. I took a ton of photos!

 

We then met back up with Kathy & Eric (after splitting up for a bit and wandering by couple), and headed outside. The Louvre is even gorgeous from the outside! And so massive. We definitely did not get to see everything, but I'm so happy with what we did get to see.

A little time at UVA

As always, on the Friday before Foxfield, Evan and I headed down to Charlottesville a bit early so that we could spend some time on Grounds. Unfortunately, it was a pretty rainy, kind of chilly day (as it was at Foxfield the next day as well!), but we were able to find a bit of time where it wasn't raining and do some walking around.

Our first stop on the way to the Lawn was at Hume fountain, so the kids could check out the whispering wall.

I wanted to get a nice photo of Henry, and he gave me both of these. Love this little face!!!

 

Any time this kid can touch water, she's a happy camper :)

We then headed over to the Lawn, where they obliged me with some super cute pics...this one being my favorite!

And then showed me some dance moves :)

Lastly, we went walking through a few Lawn gardens, and I grabbed these two photos. Loved the early spring tulips

...and I had a lot of fun editing this photo to make it look like the sun was coming through, even when it wasn't!

Memorial Day Weekend

On the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, we all headed to Richmond for the day. Unfortunately it wasn't for a fun reason - Evan and I were attending the memorial for my former advisor, Dr Craig Kinsley. It was a very nice tribute to him, and I caught up with some old friends from Univ of Richmond - it's a sad way to do it, but what often happens.

During the memorial, my sister kept the kids for us. She took them to lunch, and a local park, and sent me these photos. Adorable, and much happier to show than where Evan and I were (where I obviously did not take any photos).

 

 

Thanks again to Carrie for keeping the kids for us so we could say a proper goodbye to Craig.

On Memorial Day, Henry spent a little time practicing piano (as we had his "recital" coming up the next weekend). I snuck downstairs and recorded him practicing with my phone. He actually did better during this rehearsal than at the real thing, but at both he played from memory!

Spring Break 2016: Day 2 - Luray and Skyline Drive

Last post from our Spring Break trip! I had thought that this post would just be from our drive back up the Skyline Drive (where we made quite a few pit stops), but I forgot that I also took some shots outside of the Luray Caverns, where we walked across the street to the bell tower. Unfortunately we didn't get to hear the ringing of the bells, but it was a nice area to explore anyway.

And even prettier when the sun started to come out!

I was trying to get some close-ups of the kids playing, and they weren't being very accommodating of me with my camera. I did manage to sneak this one using a longer lens, so I wasn't quite as close to Natalie as it seems...and despite her not wanting me to take any photos of her, I got this beautiful one. I absolutely love it :)

We then packed everyone up and started to head home. Neither of us had been on the Skyline Drive in a long time, so we decided it was worth the $20 to take it at the uppermost part, from Luray to Front Royal. We knew we had lots of time, so we took our time stopping at overlooks.

And I even managed to get Evan to swing into a hiking area where we all got out and hiked around for a bit...even Evan, Mr. "I hate outdoors". He says I get him to do something like this once a year,so this was our 2016 excursion, I suppose! We all did enjoy our exploration time though!

And then more overpasses along the Skyline Drive.

Including a panorama that I took with my iPhone! Love this last one. Beautiful scenery exists in Virginia, that's for sure.

It was definitely a lovely way to end our two day trip!

Spring Break 2016: Caverns Day 2

And now, Day 2 of our spring break trip! After getting to see Dinosaur Land, the Skyline Cavern, and the Luray Zoo on Day 1, we headed to our main objective, Luray Caverns, early morning on Day 2. First in line for the first tour of the day, we were ready to explore! Evan got the kids a little something special to help them explore and learn in the cave: magnifying/binocular glasses from the gift shop! They were a huge hit, and really helped the kids enjoy the caves. Then, it was time for the tour to start, heading down, down, down into the caves!

 

Here are a couple of my favorite photos I took with my iPhone (not bad!)

And my favorites with my real camera (which I then edited to have a little bit of an HDR effect)

I absolutely love looking at, and photographing, the underground "lakes" that are in these caves. They're only a few inches deep, but the reflections make them look SO MUCH deeper than that. So beautiful!

And here we are as we are heading out of the caves. The picture on the sign cracked me up!

Really, a fun couple of hours. If you haven't taken your family there yet, I highly recommend! There are so many fun things to do in the area, as you saw from these few posts - it makes for a great couple of days.