2024 is off!

I am not sure how to describe the start of 2024. Good? Bad? A mix I guess. First, remember how I said that I hoped that this would be a year with no big house expenses. Well, we already have a $3800 plumbing bill due to blocked pipes and tree roots and the need to do a power flush. I know I have said it before, but I'll say it again--if we ever buy another house, I am looking for new construction! 

The kids didn't go back to school until January 9th. Thomas took off their entire break and I took off a good portion. I still have a few years until I get the more robust time off, so I have to be more careful with taking extended periods, especially with the two vacations we have planned this year. Thomas and the teens went to a movie at City Walk one day while I was working. The girls saw the Hunger Games movie and the boys saw Aquaman (Luke stayed home with me). They all enjoyed the movie they saw. Friday we all went to Epcot, but it was very crowded and we didn't stay long. I don't remember if we did anything over the weekend. 

Monday, January 8th, the last day of winter break, the girls and I went to Magic Kingdom. We had a very fun day. We ate lunch at Columbia Harbour House, which would never be the boys first choice (seafood), but we liked it. The only bad part of the day was the line for Jingle Cruise. It said 35 minutes, but it ended up being over 70.  I understand they are estimates, but that was crazy. The first 40 minutes the line moved well and then it just stopped. I think someone else must have taken over the Genie+ line and had a higher ratio of Genie to standby. I kept texting Thomas that I thought it would be another 10 minutes. I ended up sending 3, "probably just 10 more minutes" texts before we actually got on the ride. It was not worth it. But, other than that, the day was fun. And, we actually had fun playing games in the line, so it wasn't all bad. After we were done at Magic Kingdom, we decided to walk around the Polynesian. I thought they would still have their holiday decorations up, since the park was decorated, but they did not. We still enjoyed seeing the resort.

Magic Kingdom was still decorated.

Back to school/work has not been fun. I wish we were independently wealthy and could do volunteer work instead of a regular job. I know that we are fortunate and I have no reason to complain, but it is definitely hard to go back to work after a nice break! 

The girls are gearing up for lacrosse tryouts. Last year they took everyone who tried out, but there appears to be more interest this year and a new coach, so they don't know what to expect. We keep saying the only guarantee is that if they don't tryout they won't make it, so what's the harm? They have been spending a good amount of time trying to learn the game.

Everyone was off for MLK Jr. day and we enjoyed the long weekend. Friday night, the girls, Thomas and I went to Universal. It was very quiet. We rode Hagrid's with just a 30-minute wait (posted was 50). I think we just hit it at the right time, because we thought about riding again, but the time had increased to 70 and the line was much longer.

Hanging out with Milhouse

That Saturday, I took Jack and Kara to the library. We love the massive library in downtown Orlando. I was surprised when we got there that a bunch of streets were blocked off. We had to finagle our way around to find parking. It turns out there was a parade. It didn't occur to me that the MLK parade would be Saturday and not Monday. We got our books and then watched most of the parade. It was pretty fun and maybe next year we will go intentionally. The most interesting part was the coca-cola float. They gave us a 10-pack of some limited edition soda, 2 small bottles of ginger ale, and a cranberry sprite zero (loved it!). It was random, but fun. I did enjoy seeing the floats with the MLK Jr quotes and feeling like we were doing something to honor his memory on his weekend. I wonder what he would think of the United States today?

In really big news, we bought a car! A Tesla. They had an end of the year deal and with the tax credit, we decided to go for it. It is a Performance Model 3, which Thomas thinks feels like a sports car. It is definitely different, in a fun way, to drive. It has one pedal driving, where you never really have to use the brake. If you lift your foot off the gas pedal, the car comes to a stop. It will take a little getting used to, but I like it. The best part is that there is no noticeable shift as it moves through gears, it is super fast and super smooth. We kept the Clarity, which will be the kids' car. We are a three car family now. Fortunately, we were able to pay off the van before buying the Tesla, so still just one car payment. It would have been nice to have no car payments for a while, but yolo right?

Picture to end, Luke finally got a haircut. We went to Tijuana Flats one night and one of the kids noticed he looks a bit like Eleven from Stranger Things :)