Bottom most level from the rear. The sub-basement if you will. Or, just the real, true undergroundish basement.
Then we saw this the next week:
That is the walkout basement. Or lower level. Reverse level? At this point, I don't really know what to call it. This is what you go downstairs to from the main street level. Rear-facing shot. And then you would go out sliding doors and down some stairs out the back to get down to the sub-basement/basement-basement.
Last night, we drove by and saw this!
Up top, ya'll! Facing the front at street level. Whoop!
...will slow down our building progress, bah humbug! BUT, there has been a bit of progress coming into the first part of April, at least. We have concrete walls! For the sub-basement. Oh? You haven't heard of a basement under your basement before? Well, welcome to our world.
Easter has just come to boot. Hooray for the Easter Bunny and cute kids!
From back of lot. The tree line is up near street level.
More concrete sub-basement action. And our friend Josh and son Waylan - our neighbors, eventually!
Looking from top of lot - street level. Perspective here is hard to grasp. And not just literally!
Oliver being King of the Gravel Mountain
Easter outfit and chocolate bunny.
Annual Easter get-together at Clothier house. With the addition of Caroline Gudgell (in bunny ears) for 2015!
What's new with us you ask? Well, only everything. Here goes: We are building a new house! Hooray! And, what are we thinking?! We are very excited and scared and nervous all at the same time. But, as nervous as we are never having built a house before, I have been dreaming of this day for a very long time, and am most excited that my husband has now jumped on the bandwagon. :)
We have a contract pending to sell our house. The closing date is April 30. What's that? When is our completion date for the new house? Yeah, not until like Novemberish. It seems to be changing by the week. Le sigh. So, yay we have buyers for our house! Boo that we have to move twice!
Where are we going to live in the interim you ask? (Man, you guys ask a lot of questions.) Well, as it happens, Matt's veterinary partner, Bill Bayouth, and his wife, happen to own the apartment over the veterinary office, and they are generously allowing us to rent it from them for a very decent rate. Yes, that's right: Matt will not be able to truly escape from work for awhile. And the size of this apartment, you may be wondering? Let's just say that 3 people plus a Great Dane are going to make it very, very cozy in this 1 bedroom space. I am choosing to be positive about this in the following ways:
1. We will grow closer together as a family (right???!!!).
2. We will be saving lots of money for a few months.
3. Who doesn't want to live within walking distance of a Dunkin' Donuts?!
4. These next several months will provide excellent material for my future award-winning star-studded biopic.
And, there you have it. Life is going to be more interesting than usual round these parts for awhile.
So, what's new with you guys? :)
Our lot before any action started.
Our lot post-clearing. It kind of looks like a fire tore through it, but I can assure you that is not the case!
Here is our lot on drugs. Just kidding! Here is our lot as of last week with the giant hole dug out for where our house will sit. Progress! And hey, who's that cute girl up top? ;)
It's finally here. The big Disney trip recap! Woohoo! Get comfy cuz this might gonna take awhile.
We had the best time at Disney World. We were so blessed to get both sets of grandparents there (and at the same time for a day and a half) and had the best weather. I do think late January is the ideal time to go for crowds and avoiding the heat. We stayed at the Yacht Club courtesy of a nice discount from Matt's veterinary conference, and the hotel was super nice and in the perfect location, IMO. We walked 5 minutes to Epcot, took a 10 minute ferry ride to Disney Studios and never waited more than 5 minutes to board buses for Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. And the Boardwalk area (where YC is located) is very scenic and had a great Italian restaurant we went to for dinner on our last night (Trattoria something - the wine flights are nice, oh-so very nice).
Four and-a-half is the perfect age for a trip like this, btw. Oliver could ride most everything save the mega roller coasters, and he wasn't scared of anything! Crazy kid! He LOVED getting his photo taken with characters and really enjoyed getting their autographs too. So, TIP alert: the purchase of a Disney autograph notebook is well worth it! He napped in the middle of Magic Kingdom but other than that did not nap until we were back from the parks at the end of the day - after pool time and before dinner. He changes his answer every time you ask him what his favorite ride was - for awhile it was Aladdin's Flying Carpets at MK, then it was the Tower of Terror at Disney Studios, and just this week when asked he said it was the Dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom. So, I think this means he thoroughly loved everything, and everything was "awesome" (cue the Tegan and Sarah song from the Lego movie).
If anyone out there is planning a trip to Disney and wants some solicited (and un-) advice, let me know! I spent 8-ish months planning our trip b/c I'm a freak like that and can tell you a thing or two about what to do and not to do.
Now for the proof! I could bombard you with all 260 photos taken, but I thought these few are at least fairly representative of the experience. :)
Hotel shots first up:
Now for Disney Studios. We spent a half day there both the first day and last day:
Green Army Man from Toy Story
Successfully survived the Tower of Terror
Loved Star Tours (Star Wars). We rode it a total of 3 times. Sidenote, this is the ride I worked on in college during my Disney internship. I think my child's love of Star Wars was always in the cards.
First Day with Grammy & Grandpa
Last day (and post-Tower of Terror) with Nana & Pa-Pa
Next up, Magic Kingdom:
First roller coaster - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Passed right out.
Chip & Dale were the first characters we ran into at MK, and luckily, they are Oliver's favorites right now. Seriously, he cracks up watching old Disney cartoons with Donald Duck cursing out these onry guys.
Both sets of GP's. Poor Matt was not in this shot.
We happened upon a dance party in Tomorrowland with the Incredibles. Needless to say, O got into the spirit. This is his "hip hop" if you can't tell. :)
Epcot was day 3 and this is the mother-load park for characters. Don't waste your time in line for them at MK. Just go to the Character Spot at Epcot and there are several all in one place. Glorious!:
Mickey hat O suckered Grandpa into buying. It lights up.
Dinner was at the Germany Biergarten in Epcot. Good food and entertainment for the kids. Win-Win!
Animal Kingdom was Day 4.
I loved the detail Disney took in the theming of AK. Really felt like we were strolling around some African and Indian cities.
Look at Nana being a good sport on the Dino-Whirl!
Disney magic!
And last but not least, Oliver got to experience another Disney dance party on the trip. This time it was with a ton of characters at Animal Kingdom. The expression of sheer joy on his face will stay with me forever! Long live little boys and dreams come true!
Hello,
Okay, we leave in 2 days for a week's vacation to sunny Florida and Disney World! WOOHOO! I absolutely cannot be more excited. I know you are already on pins and needles waiting for pics of this epic trip.
But first, here are some pics of our time spent at Nana and Pa-Pa's house in Oklahoma. We were there for several days over Christmas (Santa figured out where we were), and Oliver stayed by himself several more days! It was a great, memory-making visit full of family and fun. It even snowed on the day Matt & I headed back to KS. I can't tell you the last time I've seen Lawton covered with that much snow.
Santa brought a drum set per request. It was an electronic drum set with volume control. Santa ain't stupid. :)
Putting together a Christmas toy - that I don't think he's played with since.
Just eatin' some breakfast, readin' the paper with Pa-Pa. How we do.
Oliver made his snow man right after Mom and Dad headed out of town. Hence, we weren't there to supervise against the OU hat!
Wichita Mountains - rivaling the Rockies for sure. ;)
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