Old Times

The other night we had a get-together with some of Dayne's old buddies from the good old days. These boys used to "play" together growing up and are all still good friends. I didn't know any of them then, but it's neat to see who they are now. They are all great guys, and they did a pretty good job at picking out wives. And they all still reside in Texas. Something about this state either keeps you here or brings you back.

This is how it used to be.

This is an example of the wonderful fathers they've become.
And this is how they are now. Family men... My how time flies.

No baby yet...

I know everyone is on pins and needles about information on the new baby. Well, there is nothing yet, so instead...

I'm going to blog about my fabulous SIL Leana. She left almost 2 weeks ago now for the MTC. She is then headed out to Indiana for a whole 18 months. So far she loves every part of the mission. Her letters are really uplifting and I can't wait to see how she does in the field. Here's to Sister Leana Ram.

Memorial Day

DisneyWorld

Last month we went to DisneyWorld with Heidi, Travis and the kids. We were really excited for a vacation and DisneyWorld is always a fantastic place to go. The parks are amazingly clean and detailed. I can only imagine the amount of planning and work that goes into it. The trip began with an early morning flight that went well until Leilani threw up her all her OJ and then some on the descent. Luckily she was still in her PJs and it didn't seem to bother her at all. Dayne and I were much more disgusted then she was. We met up with the Jeannerets and headed to our hotel, Pop Century, where Leilani was given her first pet; a rock named Rocky. Apparently it's a tradition for that hotel because the hotel represents all the pop phenoms of the last 50 years and pet rocks were a thing of the 70's. And then it was straight to Animal Kingdom.

Leilani's first character greeting. She was scared to death, but after a few more times she warmed up to them. The second character she met was Meeko from Pocahontas, but none of us could remember the poor guys name. We had to wait for him to autograph Leilani's book. Poor, forgettable Meeko...

Dayne and Leilani in the middle of a jungle walk.
In front of the Tree of Life. They have a very good 4-d show underneath this tree that is based on "A Bug's Life". Needless to say, at some points you were kind of grossed out.
The next day at Magic Kingdom. The kids had just finished defeating Zurg in the Buzz Lightyear ride.

Leilani met a couple of characters this way. She woke up just in time for Buzz Lightyear.

She is so spoiled. Aunt Heidi would have carried her anywhere.

Getting ready to ride Dumbo's Flight. She loved this ride and Alladin's Magic Carpet. She showed no emotions during the rides, but the minute they ended she was immediately wanting "more". And she would get a little upset that we had to get off...

The amazing fireworks show at Magic Kingdom. Probably better then most 4th of July shows and they do this every night!

Next day at Hollywood Studios.

This person was part of the noon parade. We know they are supposed to be a girl, but we're not for certain...

What Dayne wants to be for Halloween.

The whole gang with Mickey Mouse. We did really well at meeting most of the characters. We got Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, Goofy, Buzz Lightyear, Stitch, Meeko, Frozone and all the Princesses including Mulan. I might be missing some.

Leilani with Belle. This girl earned her spot as a Disney Character. She was probably the best we met the entire time.

At our Princess Banquet in Epcot. Very nice sit down dinner where you meet all the princesses. The boys weren't too keen on posing with princesses but we promised that nobody at church or school would ever know.

Example of Tyler's embarrasment.

Cinderella. We don't have this movie so Leilani didn't know who she was.

Ariel.

The kids on their Kim Possible mission.

View of our hotel room. Our hotel was surrounded by hugh replicas of pop culture like Big Wheels, 8-Tracks, rubik cubes, etc...

Getting ready to leave for the airport.

A great trip. It was hard and long days for an 18 month old but fun anyways. We probably won't go back for a long time because we don't want the "magic" to get old.

Official Start of Summer

The weather was good and the time was right. So Dayne took Leilani out for her first backyard-sprinkler adventure. She takes a while to warm up to any water source and is afraid of water near her face. Which is odd because her father comes from a family of fish. But sources say that Dayne didn't like the water when he was little either. By the end of the afternoon she loved the sprinkler so much she wouldn't let us shut it off even though she was standing there shivering and turning purple.

Camping

We actually do things at the Ram house. I'm just not the best record keeper. Many of you excel at that talent. However, last weekend was a big Moon get together. We haven't gone camping as a family in many years and so we headed out to Lake Tawakoni in East Texas and had a great time until we were rained out the next morning. Our weekend basically went - set up camp, cook, eat, clean, watch old Moon slideshow, "sleep", clean, cook, eat, pack up, rain, go home. The eating was good, we just wish we got to do some more of our other planned camping activities. As Anna pointed out, it was a whole 18 hours. We did make up for that by showering and getting together Saturday night for hot dogs and a movie.

Oh what a night!

Dayne and I finally drop into bed around 11 pm last night after a long evening of preparing our taxes - when you run your own business it gets that much more interesting. We're exhausted and as I lay down I notice some flashing light. Was that an electronic device or lightening? It continues - must be lightening. Then we hear the first rain drops fall and Dayne realizes he didn't cover up his prized grill. On go the lights and the robes and we run out to the backyard to cover the grill in the rain. Mission accomplished, we fall back into bed and try to fall asleep, the rain pounding on the roof. This is good because our lawn really needs water (we're trying to regrow some of it).

We hear thunder approaching which I don't mind because who doesn't love a good Texas thunderstorm? A few gigantic cracks of thunder later and our power goes out. Just as I'm thinking that it's going to be a little warm without the fan on and hope that the food in the refrigerator doesn't spoil, the power comes back on. Phew. But the burglar alarm also comes on. The previous owners had it installed and we have never tried to mess with it. So it starts beeping harmlessly at us and we try to figure out how to stop it, when lo and behold we set off the actual alarm. An ear splitting siren starts reverberating through the house and I start mashing the control pad trying my darndest to shut it off while Dayne holds a pillow over the siren trying to muffle it, while we both wait for Leilani to wake up. After mashing the pad does nothing, I start ransacking the house for some Brinks alarm information that I know I saw once somewhere... An eternity later Dayne finds a phone number and I start calling. A few different numbers later I get a hold of Shalonda. Wonderful Shalonda. She sends me scrambling for some screwdrivers and puts me on the hunt for the Brinks power source which should be in one of our closets. It's one of those things you barely notice when you move in and never think about again. I find it in the master closet behind a shelf and start un-screwing, vehemently. Yanking out a black cord later, it mercifully stops. We drop everything and get back into bed at midnight. And now we're so worked up we just lie there.

Sweet Leilani, she never woke up and has no idea what happened.