Our Disney Adventure

On Halloween, Steve, Jill, Megan, Nate, and Evan traveled to Florida (by plane for the first time) to go to Disney World. We were there for a week and had a wonderful time at the parks, swimming, and watching Phillies games. The weather was beautiful and it was such a nice break from the routine. We stayed in a timeshare which had plenty of room and gave us the ability to cook for ourselves and relax at the end of the day. Great, great, fun!!!!!

We went to Epcot the first day and believe it or not, Mickey Mouse was the first character we saw. What luck!!

The next day was our only day at Hollywood Studios. We found out that some of the rides were a little scary for Evan. But he started the day off with Tower of Terror and insisted that he wasn't that scared on it.....check out the photo and see what you think..



We also checked out the Nemo exhibit........



and the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playgroud. Nathan and Evan loved the playground, while Megan and Steve saw an opportunity to get a little rest.

Later that day, Evan tried his hand at the Jedi training academy. He did fine until Darth Vador appeared. After some coaching by the assistant, Ev finallay got her to help him off with his robe and he made an early exit. I guess being a super tough guy only goes so far.

Our favorite ride, by far, was the Toy story interactive ride/game. It was a new one since we were there last. Afterwards, we got to meet the famous Woody and Buzz. Funny story, apparenty Woody is a big Phillies fan and Buzz is a BYU fan...Who knew?

The third day we did a fun character breakfast at the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom. The Winnie the Pooh characters were there....here are just a couple of the pics from breakfast. The food was phenominal!!!

Our fourth day was Animal Kingdom. We got to go to the Lion King show and the safari and met some great characters, again. Everest was a big hit with Meg and Nate while Evan really enjoyed digging for bones in DinoLand. We even got to be a special helper family during the Lion King show with scored us front row seats. COOL!! A great day.

Since we had been to each of the parks once, we had to decide which ones to go to for a second day. We had onoly spent about 1/2 a day in Epcot the first day, so we went back there for another day. This time we spent some more time back in the area with the different countries. Also, we were very excited to see Daisy Duck at the entrance that day. For some reason, she was the character that Evan most wanted to meet before we left. We had caught a glimpse of her on our way into the magic kingdom, but were hurrying to our breakfast appointment so we couldnt stop. We were so happy when we saw her as we headed into Epcot. Whew!!! We sampled a little bit of food from a lot of the countries as we went around instead of buying a lunch at one place. It was delicious.

Our last day was spent in Magic Kingdom. There just wasn't enough time to see all we wanted to in one day. When we arrived, we noticed that between Tuesday and Friday, they had totally decorated for Christmas. What a transformation. I am sure they will continue to add to the decoration, but the amount of decorations that had taken place in that short time was amazing. We got to see the fireworks that night and just had a wonderful day. All in all a wonderful trip that we will remember for a long time.

Happy Fall and Halloween?

Fall has always been my favorite time of year. Living in the woods makes for a lot of leaf raking, but it sure is a pretty setting in all the colorful trees. Walking in from the bus the other day, I was struck with how beautiful our home looked so I snapped a quick photo.

Halloween at the Foulk house was a little scaled down this year. When we scheduled our trip to Disney and planned to leave the morning of Halloween, we thought our children would be understanding since we had a ward Trunk-or-Treat scheduled for the Wednesday night beforehand. But then the ward changed their event to actually be on Halloween and our kids ended up with no trick-or-treating this year :( They do have special trick-or-treating down in Disney, but at 70 bucks a kid.....we decided to take a pass. We just bought a huge bag of candy and everyone shared. A little lame, but it had to do for this year. Evan did get to participate in the annual elementary school Halloween parade. Meg dressed up for school, too, but I neglected to get a photo. So here are a few pictures of Evan in his mighty knight costume.

Happy Halloween 2009!!!

Janelle and Alan Come to New Jersey!!

We were so excited to have Janelle and Baby Alan come visit us in early October.
Evan and Nathan were especially excited to finally meet their little nephew.
And Grandma Foulk got to meet her first great-grandchild, too.


We went to the Apple Festival, the Cape May Zoo,





and the Jersey shore.




It was so fun to be able to give Alan baths and just play with him.

He was a very good boy. We really hated to see them go back to Utah....but I think daddy was pretty excited to have them back.
Keep cheering for those Phillies, Alan, like we taught you!

Happy Birthday, Meg !!

It was the big 16 for Megan this year.

She was especially excited that Janelle and Alan came the day before and were able to be here for the various celebrations. (Looks like these two might have done a little too much partying!)


The hit gift was, of course, her PHONE.....(finally!..right Meg?)

Happy Birthday-
Sure love you !!

Some Fun Family Travels

It was such a blessing to have my parents come and visit us at the end of September. It has been almost two years since they were here for Janelle and Scott's wedding. On Saturday, Grandpa Tucker helped us cut down a tree in our yard that had a big dead area in the top of it.


That evening, Mom got to come with me to the General RS Broadcast which was a wonderful thing. Living so far from family means that you don't get to do things together like that very often.

After church on Sunday, the whole family, including Grandma Foulk, left for Gettysburg.


It has been many years since we have visited there.

Our kids still at home had never been there and mom and dad said it had been about 40 years since they were there last.

We got caught in a little rain, but for the most part had a wonderful trip and really gained a greater appreciation for those who served during the Civil War.

We were able to stay until Monday night because the kids had a day off from school.

We celebrated Grandpa Tucker's 72nd birthday on Tuesday (a day late because of our trip).....another thing we don't get to do very often.
Thanks so much for letting us be involved in that special event with you, Grandpa.

On Wednesday, we traveled to NYC to attend a temple session at the Manhattan Temple and maybe see a matinee Broadway show. Well, things don't always turn out like you expect. We got caught in a terrible traffic jam on the NJ turnpike and ended getting into New York in time to go to the temple, but not in time for any show. But never fear.....other tender mercies were in the works. We stopped by the office of Pres. Corbitt (he works in the temple building as the public affairs director for the church in this area....he is also our Stake President)so that my parents could say hello and an amazing thing happened. As he was coming out of his office to meet us, two interns came out with him and the young man got this amazed look on his face and just ran over and hugged my mom and dad. Well, myself, Steve, Pres. Corbitt, and the other intern just kind of stood there like....."OK? What's going on here?" Turns out that this young man had served with my parents on their mission to Novosibirsk Russia. It was a wonderful reunion and we all agreed...much better than any matinee.

We then headed out to see some sights via subway (Ground Zero, Times Square, Grand Central Station, Lincoln Center) and as we came back to pick up the car and head home, a TV crew from ABC News stopped us and asked if Grandpa Tucker would help them with a shoot they were doing. They needed someone who looked like Warren Buffet from the back, to represent him in a piece they were doing for NIGHTLINE. We figured..."Why not" and went with them and did the shoot. Very fun!!! It was also fun to be able to call everyone on the way home and tell them to watch NIGHTLINE that night so they could see Tom Tucker the STAR!!!! Steve also made it into the filming. The day turned out nothing like we planned, but boy, was it ever fun.

We also made a trip to Columbus Market (kind of a tradition) and then to a Phillies game on Thursday night.

The Phils lost, but we had a fun time anyway. All in all, a really fun time with Grandma and Grandpa Tucker. Thanks so much for coming, Mom and Dad!!

A Whole New World

On the way to a Phillies game....GO PHILS!!!

Well, it's officially that time of year where things start to cool down and the schedule starts again. The schedule is always hard to get back into, but everything else about fall...I LOVE!! It is definitely my favorite time of year. This year has a lot of changes to get used to. I am now setting the table for five (maybe six when we can occasionally talk Meredith into eating breakfast with us after seminary.) It's pretty weird. But since we have downsized our table, we are at least not dealing with empty spots. Even though it was hard to see Emily and Stephanie go to Utah, I am so glad that they are out there with Janelle and her family and are able to spend time together there.


Around here we are trying to get used to school and seminary. It is a whole new world for Evan. He started kindergarten this year and is really loving it. Our school has an extended day schedule where the morning and afternoon sessions overlap. He is in the afternoon session so he catches his bus at about 10:40 and gets home a little after 3:00. I think it is the perfect length of time for him. He loves taking or buying his lunch.
His bus driver is the same woman who has driven each of our kids to kindergarten. She said, "I saw that last name on the bus lists and said...' I have to have that route...I have driven all of their other kids!'" Good old Mrs. Esch. If you ask Evan what he did that day when he first comes home, he usually tells me one thing like, "we went to gym" or "we had art". But as I watch and listen to him during the rest of the day, I hear him singing new songs or telling Nate or Meg about someone in his class. He was so ready to go to school...it is so fun to see him enjoying it so much. Here are the traditional "first day of school" photos.