A Lot in 72 Hours

Every time we visit Disneyland we leave thinking about when we can next return. We love Disney, especially Danielle, she's a die-hard Disney fan. This year common sense took over and we contemplated spending our money on paying off student loan debt and other smart decisions, but Disney won out and we decided pretty last minute to surprise the kids and take them to Disneyland for the weekend. Dan could only take one day of leave so we left Friday evening and got home late Monday night.We didn't tell them where we were going until we got to the airport...I think they thought we were pulling some sort of elaborate hoax. It took a minute for it to sink in, then they were so excited! The excitement wore off when Danielle realized we would have to fly on a plane to get there, she was so nervous! She's been on a plane before, but she couldn't remember the experience, once we got past take-off she was fine. Our flight got into LA around 11 pm. We were so tired but made our way to the hotel and surprisingly the kids were up bright and early to go to the park. The weather was perfect! Dan, Rayce, and Avie went on the teacups. Danielle and I decided to sit out that ride! Makes me queasy just watching it. Day two we went to California Adventures and met up with some of our favorite people, The Callisters! I can't put into words how much we love this family! They are the best!!! Cars Land didn't disappoint. It was pretty amazing! Friends together again! Maj and Avie on the Ferris wheel. Danielle and Sophie picked up right where they left off! Cute girls. Day three it was back to Disney to get as much in before our flight left at 5, and apparently it was Minnie ears for all! Birthday girl Avie got some special glittery ears very befitting her personality. We got a lot in before we left about 3 for the airport to find our flight had been delayed! Dang we could have stayed longer! There were hard good-byes again, and tears (mostly mine and Danielle's), maybe next year I will be blogging about an excursion to Disneyland Tokyo!!!

A New Adventure

This came quicker than I was ready for but the Nelson's are moving to JAPAN! We are so excited for this next chapter in our lives, what an exciting adventure!!!

Up to...Nothing

Life in Omaha is becoming fairly routine, Dan goes to his residency, the kids go to school, I'm teaching five classes a week and keeping busy at home. I like routine, I like familiarity. It seems it takes a good six months to fall into familiar routine and in a short five-ish months from now I will be ripped from familiarity and routine to flounder until I can get a new routine going somewhere else that we don't know yet. Such is life in the Air Force and it's what we signed up for. Maybe I'll miss it when we settle somewhere? For now we are enjoying ourselves and making friends. Omaha is great (even in the winter), and has much to offer. I know I've said that before but I've been really surprised at how much I enjoy it here.

We've already made much use of our zoo pass, we've gone 4 or 5 times. It's a great zoo, so late in January when we had a bit of sunshine we went again.

Danielle is staying busy, she's still playing the violin and excels in her school work. She's also been participating in something called dancing classrooms, where they learn different ballroom dances such as the waltz, the samba and the swing. A couple of weeks ago they had a big showcase to show off their moves.

Danielle was mortified to have to dance with boys in the beginning but by the end they had all gotten used to it, and some of them even enjoyed it...ewww!

Rayce is doing well in kindergarten, he is getting really good at reading! I'm so proud of how hard he tries! We had another snow day a couple of weeks ago and he made all this awesome knight armor for he and Avie to pretend with.

I turned 32 on January 20th. It was low-key and so nice. I treated myself to some Kate Spade studs I had been wanting and then told Dan they were from him! He got me just what I wanted!

Speaking of Dan...he's good-looking and he cooks! Lucky lady!

We're anticipating a new base assignment soon, and I'll post when we know, but in the meantime life is good here.