Graduation day

On this day eleven years ago I headed to Iowa City with some friends to attend a graduation party.  I did not know the person graduating but agreed to tag along.  Little did I know that that day was permanently be part of my life from then on.  Later on in the day at the party I was introduced to a guy called Boomer.  We had a lot in common from a love for the Hawkeyes, Miller Lite, and Rusty Wallace.
Today December 20, 2014, we came back to Iowa City again for another graduation.  This time it was my graduation from the University of Iowa.  If you know me very well then you might know that I have attended multiple colleges and have put in a lot of time but with no degree prior to today.  When I decided to go back to school and stay home in 2011 I was committed to finally earning my degree.  It has not always been fun or easy but I have truly enjoyed many of my classes.
I am a proud college graduate and have my Bachelors or Liberal Studies with an emphasis in Human Relations.
It has been a very emotional day and I was super nervous about being feeling "old" but I am so glad I stayed with my plan of walking at my graduation.

Before the commencement ceremony.

Family picture after graduation, Nile was ready to go and Aubrey was not interested in pictures.

Christmas program 2014

Here is the video Jeremy took from the Christmas program at church.  It is 18 minutes long.

Christmas recital videos

Christmas dance recital

Aubrey had her first recital with The Dan Company this weekend.  They had a Christmas theme to celebrate the birth of our Savior.  It was really cute and all the girls and boys did a great job.  Saturday was a super busy day for Aubrey and it showed the next day!  We started with Christmas program practice at church in the morning for Nile, Aubrey, and I.  Our program only goes through 2nd grade so Hayden is done and this was Nile's last one.  The second graders have the acting parts in our program and Nile was a sheep with his buddy Lucas.  I will upload the video Jeremy took when I get it off his phone.
We headed to Grammie's house for a little while after practice so the boys could work on their Cadet cars with Grandpa.  Then it was home for lunch and to get things ready for the recital and a family Christmas we had that evening. 
I helped with Aubrey's class for the first recital and then watched with Jeremy for the second one.  It is so fun to watch the little ones just up their having fun and then to see the older girls dancing so beautifully!

my little angel

we had a little trouble getting the wings to stay up

Waiting for our turn!

ready to go home

all done!

Nile having fun with the centerpieces at the Van Wyk Christmas

Hayden and Treyson being silly

After the dance recitals were done we headed home to get Aubrey changed and get everything for our Christmas get together.  For the Van Wyk side we always eat and then play bingo for prizes.  Each person gets two presents.  We each bring two small gifts per person playing.  It is a really fun time!  The the kids go swimming in the hotel pool.  As always we had lots of yummy food  and a good time visiting with everyone. 

Florida day 7 - Legoland

On Saturday we went to Legoland for the first time.  It is a little bit of a drive from the Disney area.  The merchandise in the stores was very reasonable and each of the kids picked our a lego figure key chain and made a mini figure.  We headed our to try some of the rides.  The rides were ok but nothing too excited after Disney and Sea World.  We watched a Chima lego show that we all enjoyed.  It was really neat to see all of the things made out of legos around the park.  Hayden mentioned that they must have used a lot of kragle there, if you have seen the Lego movie this makes sense :).  I am not sure if we will be making another trip to Legoland or not.  I think the boys are almost too old for most of it and it was quite a bit out of the way.  After heading back to Orlando we ate a delicious supper at Long Horn and headed back to the resort to swim and pack up.  Aubrey's temp came back up so she skipped the swimming and watched some tv with Papa instead.  

We had a truly wonderful trip!  I was concerned about first time flyers, and my kids flying again, getting around in the big van, the kids getting over tired...but honestly everything went so well.  The parks weren't too busy and we got to do pretty much everything we wanted to.  It was a trip full of memories to last us all a lifetime and we are excited to go back again at some point in the future.

Florida day 6 - Sea World

We love Sea World!  This was our second time there as a family and it is so much fun.  The roller coasters are awesome and the shows are super.  This time it was warmer than the last time we were there but still not too busy.  We got to ride the rides pretty much as much as we wanted so we took advantage of that.  Unfortunately our little princess wasn't feeling too well this day.  She started with a temp in the middle of the night.  Luckily we were in walking distance to a Walgreens so Jeremy walked to get some ibuprofen at 3AM, such a good daddy!  We got her back to sleep off an on and her temp was still a little high.  In the morning she was still warm so we gave her medicine every 6 hours throughout the day.  At the park we were really glad we had her stroller because she napped off and on for most of the day.  She was able to watch a few shows and ride a couple of rides too.  I am pretty sure the Sea World is now on our list of things we have to do when we go to the Orlando area, along with Disney of course!

Florida day 5 - Cocoa Beach

making sand angels

we found a jelly fish washed on shore

Thursday we took a break from the parks and headed to Cocoa Beach to see the ocean.  It was my in-laws, niece, and nephew's first time at the ocean.  It was a little rainy and super windy but the water was 76 so it didn't feel too bad.  We ate a picnic lunch, in the safety of the van away from the birds, and headed to the beach.  We had fun jumping in the waves and collecting sea shells.  We even found a jelly fish washed up on the shore.  Nile had fun looking at it and poking it with a stick, dont worry it was dead long before we got there.  After a few hours we headed back to Orlando for some pool swimming and supper together at the resort. 

Magic Kingdom videos

Florida day 4 - Magic Kingdom

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 Day 4 was at the Magic Kingdom.  I was very excited to use our fast passes this day to ride a few rides we were not able to the last time we were at Disney.  I was also excited to ride the new Seven Dwarfs Mine ride they were building on our last visit.  We rode the monorail into the park and headed to the castle.  Aubrey really wanted to walk through the castle so after a few pics we did that.  Jeremy and the boys and Shauna's family headed to their first fast pass while Aubrey and I rode the Prince Charming carousel with Papa.  I noticed the wait time to meet Rapunzel and Cinderella was really short so Aubrey and I headed to that next.  Then we all headed to the big top to shop and take pictures with more characters. 

The rest of the group had two more fast passes to use for the Big Thunder Railroad and Splash Mountain.  We watched for them while decided where to head next.  Nile was a little nervous this time when it came to rides.  He didn't do the Tower of Terror the day before like he had in the past and skipped the Rocking Roller Coaster even though he was tall enough this time.  He did finally go on Splash Mountain but I don't think he loved it.

At the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor they talked to Nile so it was extra fun for all of us.  Aubrey had a blast dancing at the Incredible's Dance Party, I will add the video separately.  At Belle's Enchanted Tales Nile, Hayden, Aubrey & Grandma Cathy got to be part of the story and take a picture with Belle.

The castle looked so pretty lit up at night and the Frozen lights were great too.  We had a long day at Magic Kingdom and almost made it to the 11 PM parade but decided to head out after the 10 PM fireworks instead.  It was truly a magical day!!