We're home, darn it all...

Our trip to Disney World got off to a great start. We arrived on time, the weather was clear, and the flights were uneventful. On the first plane, the pilot allowed the kids into the cockpit before flight so they could see all the lights and dials. After waking at 3 a.m. we arrived in Orlando around noon, got our rental car, and drove to the hotel. We didn't do much that day but try to rest. Our hotel had an amazing elaborate display of a gingerbread village made almost entirely of candy! It was really detailed, too.

Day 1: Epcot. Right when we arrived there was a character greeting just inside the entrance, so we hopped in line and got photos with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, and Pluto! And we managed the one and only family photo! At the end of the day, we took the monorail for a little tour and we even got to ride in the front with the driver. That was one of Aidan's favorite parts of the whole trip!

While at the Nemo attraction, one of the scuba divers, who was cleaning the coral in the tank, swam over to wish Amy a Happy Birthday! Quite impressive. That evening we had dinner at Epcot with the Princesses. Amy was elated!!

Day 2: Magic Kingdom. During the opening parade, some of the characters came over and sang Happy Birthday to Amy. She was a little overwhelmed, but still wanted to wear her birthday button for a second day! Once Aidan found the courage to get on a boat ride, the other rides weren't so scary anymore and we all got to participate in most of the attractions at each park. That evening we attended the Very Merry Christmas Party for parades, shows, "snow", hot chocolate, and cookies. It was fantastic seeing the fireworks above the castle, lit up by Christmas lights and color changing spot lights.

Amy watches the parade from a prime spot.
Day 3: Disney's Hollywood Studios. After being at MK and Epcot, this was less impressive, but we enjoyed a few attractions and made it a short day. That means only 4-6 hours of walking instead of 8-10.

Day 4: Animal Kingdom. When we left the hotel after breakfast, the skies were threatening rain, but we'd always heard that that was the best time to be at the parks. So we enjoyed the safari tour and the Lion King show (amazing show!! The kids loved it!) before heaven's floodgates opened up on us. By the time we made it out of the park, off the tram, and into the car, we were all soaked, despite having 4 umbrellas! The rest of the day was spent in the hotel room, watching TV, reading, and doing a load of laundry!

Day 5: Kennedy Space Center. The drive was about one hour long to get to KSC. Will and Aidan got to see the shuttle land, live. It was so neat that they had that opportunity! We saw an awesome IMAX about the moon and did a few exhibits, then called it a day.

Aidan inside a shuttle exhibit.

Day 6: After a vote, we all decided that Magic Kingdom was our favorite park, so we spent our last full day enjoying attractions we hadn't seen the first time.

All in all, this was hands down one of the best vacations ever. The weather was great (the rain forced us to take a much needed break), the crowds were light (we hardly waited more than 15 minutes for any attraction), and we had planned plenty of time for everything. We are already talking about going back in a few years! Perhaps a cousin (or 2) might join us...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Texas welcomes "winter."

Aidan's class made bonnets and pilgrim hats to wear at the annual Thanksgiving feast at school.

Amy looks just thrilled to show off her Indian dress that she decorated with Sharpies. Don't let the scowl fool you- she had a great time, trying all the yummy traditional Thanksgiving food and eating THREE slices of pie!

Winter in Texas: Long pants... Long sleeves... Jackets... Hats... Gloves... and bare feet! Yi-haw.

This Sunday we travel to Disney World! Yes, we are all very, very excited!

Expect a new blog when we get back.

Another busy weekend...

This last weekend we took the family to the airshow at Lackland AFB to see the Blue Angels. Aidan has been passionate about being a pilot, specifically with the Blue Angels, for a few years now and he was THRILLED to get to see them in person! It was an awesome sight!

I managed to get a few videos of the jets, though by this time we had been at the airshow for 2 hours and Amy was using me as a jungle gym!

Check out this little guy in his Blue Angels Jet costume! He was so cute, but I bet he was melting inside standing on the pavement!

Halloween was fun. Will went to work as a blind referee (fitting). Aidan was a veterinary surgeon, and Amy was........................ a fairy princess!

Can you believe Amy will be six years old in a little over one month?!?!?! She is loving kinder now that she has settled in. She still LOVES to dress up. Here she's wearing a dress Granna made for her. They grow up fast...

Fishing Story

What a busy weekend we had! We went camping again at Garner, since we will likely not get another chance until after the holidays (life is too busy!). When we checked into the camp, we learned there was a junior angler fishing event on Saturday. I signed both kids up, but Amy wasn't interested in the actual fishing part- only the booths where she could get goodies (what she will do with 5 fishing lures, I have no clue)! The event ended up lasting most of Saturday (for which I was NOT prepared- food, water, sunscreen, etc.). Luckily Pop brought some fishing poles when he and Granny drove out to Garner to visit us. For 2 hours we took turns casting and reeling in, and once we even got a bite from something very big and very strong, but of course... "he got away." Finally, Aidan caught a huge Red Ear Blue Gill fish weighing 1 pound, 12 ounces- the biggest of that kind the fishing instructors had seen! And the best part was, we caught it in the last 5 minutes of the contest! I say "we" because I was determined he was not going to give up until they called "time", so I cast that worm as far as I could and within seconds, before I could hand the pole to Aidan, the line went tight! Aidan tried to reel him in while I used two hands to hold the pole steady, but Will ended up helping! He was a strong fish! Pop helped us get him under control and carry it to the weigh station. Aidan didn't win a prize, but we hope he learned about patience, persistence, and positive thinking! And I learned not to try to pick up a Red Ear because the dorsal fin will cut your fingers!

Isn't he beautiful!?!?!

On Thursday we brought home our "new" used keyboard. Aidan was beside himself with excitement! They are both looking forward to practicing on it with all it's buttons and fancy switches!

This past Sunday, Aidan had his first experience as an acolyte at our church. He takes his responsibility very seriously and we are very proud of him!

Quick! Let's go camping!

Amy and Aidan really enjoy taking keyboarding lessons at Jensen's Yamaha Music School. In fact, the school recently replaced half of their keyboards with the latest models and we bought one of their original models like the one Amy is playing in this photo. It was such a great deal we couldn't pass it up. The kids are looking forward to practicing on it!

Camping At Garner SP

In mid October we returned to our favorite nearby camping place at Garner on the Frio River. It's a favorite because it is very large, has sites with various amenities, has a playground, shelters, hiking trails, and of course, a river! We have camped there many times over the years, and since it's only about 1.5 hours away it's the perfect weekend getaway. This weekend we only had time to stay one night, which was hard for us grown-ups (pack up and go, unpack, pack up and go, unpack! whew!), but it was fun anyway!

Saturday morning we heard a strange, unfamiliar engine. We all looked up and saw this guy, enjoying the beautiful, clear, cool weather and birds eye view.
The park also has an 18 hole putt putt golf course. Amy checks the canon for her ball.
Amy waits her turn while Aidan putts... and putts.... and putts....and putts... and putts!

Will and Amy entertain themselves with a game of chase, but only after he had changed her two tires!

Another favorite thing about Garner is the Frio River. It is not very wide or deep, so pretty much anywhere you decide to wade in, you can. Some places are deep enough to swim, and some you can wade all the way to the opposite bank. That's when Maya discovered SWIMMING!

The final big event this weekend was Amy learned to read!

Here she reads from her favorite book, "The Best Nest."

And no, we hadn't read it to her in months, so it was not memorized.

More weekend updates to come... I'm awaiting a picture of Aidan on his first day of acolyting from a friend!

Don't count your chicks before they hatch...

Always game to let the kids learn through experience (to an extent anyway), they begged and begged us to buy them baby chicks. One day, after reading some library books about conception, etc., Aidan and Amy decided they would hatch some chicks of their own! Why not!? So they each picked out their egg, placed them in the dish, and set up a heat lamp to incubate the eggs. Days passed..... the kids dashed downstairs each morning, hoping to hear the peep peep peep of cute, fuzzy little chicks. Finally after a week and after reading a few more library books about fertilization, Aidan made the connection. It was a bittersweet moment for all: innocence lost. There would be no baby chicks after all... Mom and Dad breathed a sigh of relief and tossed the now odoriferous eggs into the trash.






Maya has officially been adopted as of last Friday (the 8th?). She and Molly are buddies now, chasing each other around the house, fumbling for traction on the solid surface flooring, sliding into furniture (more like "bump" and "crash"), and finally enjoying each other. Maya still loves her Kong and brings it with her everywhere, even sleeping with it. The hardest part is getting her into her crate. She likes to go limp on the floor, sometimes right in front of the crate door, so I have to lift 55 pounds of limp dog and urge her into the crate. If she'd just forget we even have a guinea pig, she could sleep without being crated.

School has started since my last posting. Aidan was less than thrilled (I believe his exact words were "Oh great" as he gave me the death look) and Amy was excited, staying up past 9 on the first night. They are still settling into their new routine (as am I) and Aidan is trying to get used to having homework again.
. One of the side effects of being in school all week is that they now enjoy each other's company and play together without fighting as much. One night they even dressed up and Aidan helped Amy with her clown face!

This is a photo of Amy at the garden center. She wanted to go with me to buy flowers and such, and she wanted to go in "style." She got loads of compliments on her outfit!

Aidan's Project Corner

Any idea what this might be? If you guessed the inner components of a residential furnace, then you are correct! Our neighbor recently installed all new heating and A/C equipment, and Aidan was the lucky recipient of the castoffs. I cannot tell you how thrilled he was, and it was FREE!

Laughter IS the best medicine!

Wii Boxing has led to some need for further exploration of the sport.

Mayan Adventures

What a week it has been with our new golden, Maya! Each day brought a new adventure. First, she and Molly had a "misunderstanding", mostly about who's boss. Then Maya decided to introduce herself to Lenny, the guinea pig, by shoving his cage off the table and scaring a few years off his already short life. Then, on a walk with the whole family and 2 neighborhood kids (we were babysitting a 1 year old and a 3 year old), Maya was confronted by a german shepherd who was off his leash and quite interested in greeting her. Maya proceeded to drag Aidan to the ground (flip flop skidmarks were left as evidence) and slipped her collar to befriend the new canine and his walking companion, restrained, thankfully, by the wife. Luckily, Maya was easily caught, releashed, and we cut our walk short. And THEN... today, after Amy and I read a few chapters in her book, I got up to get a drink and saw the front door WIDE OPEN! Yes, our foster dog was now exploring the streets freely. Again, luck was on our side and Maya has learned where her new home is, and when we called her name, she came bounding home like Lassie. It brings a tear to my eye (ok, not really). But other than that, she is settling in quite nicely. No, really, she is. Really.

Here's Maya, going after her beloved Kong. She is obsessed with Kong. It bounced under our deck one day and she was determined to retrieve it. She she shimmied under the deck steps and got her slobber and dirt covered lovey. Ya gotta laugh!

Art Gallery

Amy and Aidan picked some art they wanted to share on the blog. One is Amy's first drawing of baby cousin Maren, drawn the first week of her life (Maren's life, mom, not Amy's) as an angel.

The next is a picture she drew when she was mad at me. It was really funny because she was not supposed to come downstairs (again), so she dropped her "angry face" with the tongue sticking out from the top of the stairs and on the back of it she wrote "I love you."

Aidan chose a picture he drew of a "sea house".

More Gymnastics

A New Addition!

Yesterday afternoon, our new foster dog, Maya, joined our family. Maya is an owner relinquishment from a family in Austin. She is 2 years old and was raised in a family with kids the same age as Amy and Aidan and dogs similar to ours. So far she is settling in nicely. I took her for a long walk in the park this morning and she did great, but she pulls and is very strong. She is undersized for a golden, about 50 pounds, so I'm told, but still bigger and stronger than we are used to! My hope is to train her to be a therapy dog and take her to work with me, perhaps once a week.
Amy graduated from Kinder Gym Thursday and is now a Level 1 gymnast. Her coach is impressed with her recent progress. She suggested that Amy try out for team in December. We'll see how she feels about that when the time comes!

We got a substantial rain last week several days in

a row and Amy and her friends enjoyed getting

soaked!

Aidan's latest project. Can you guess what this is??

Schallas in SATX, est. 1999

Well Jere suggested we start a blog to post updates about our extraordinarily exciting life (ok, I added that part), so here we are. We have really enjoyed keeping current with the Schallas in WA, and I figured I could manage to keep up with this thing once a week at least!

This summer was a lot less exciting than the last, mainly because I worked more, so there were fewer trips out of town. My neighbor, who has 3 kids, ages 5, 3, and 1, agreed to keep Aidan and Amy two days a week when they were not in "enrichment" camps. It worked out really well. As you can see, Aidan always manages to find something creative to do with his time! This summer we have seen Aidan grow more than ever! He saw Kung Fu Panda, drove Pop's boat twice, played a group game at VBS, learned to play on our Wii, and learned how to bowl!
School starts in September. Amy is looking forward to kinder, but Aidan thinks third grade will be boring since he "already knows it all." This will be his last year at the small St. Andrew's school. He has done exceptionally well and we are very proud of him! He has developed a love for bowling, thanks to the Wii, which gave him the confidence to try "real" bowling. He entertains himself by drawing pictures of bowling alleys or making his own. We laughed at his latest creation, which included a Brunswick bowling pin arm sweep, complete with two bowling pins. When we stepped back and admired it, we realized it looks like a nativity scene, with Mary and Joseph! I hope God has a sense of humor!

As for Amy, she is doing very well in gymnastics, and got to ring the bell twice in one month, which means she has learned a new skill well enough to do it on her own. Her coach wants her on the team, which means she would get to attend meets and train more, but not compete until she is 7. Something to consider, in addition to tae kwan do and music and dance! Needless to say, she LOVES the Wii! Her favorite part is making the Miis or boxing with Dad and knocking him flat! She also enjoys real bowling and gets lots of air time when she releases the 6 pound balls!