Our Trip: The good, The bad

This trip is something I've been looking forward to for 2 years. I thought I was younger, but I was 7-8 the first time and 11-12 the second time. I remember a few rides, our hotel being football themed, and asking goofy if he was pregnant. That said, If I was that old and didn't remember anymore than that, I didn't care about the kids being "old enough to remember." I wanted to see them excited about the "magicalness" of Disney World and seeing several characters and shows and just having fun. They loved it!

It didn't start out exactly how we planned. The week prior, I took Zane to an after hours clinic twice. First I thought he may have the flu and second time croup. Each time there was no virus or infection. The night before leaving for our trip, Avery looked like this...

She said everything hurt and she wouldn't eat anything and had a little fever. After stickers and a sucker from the nurse, she miraculously felt better. Of course...

So then we made it, and went to Downtown Disney the first night but I didn't know they get your luggage from baggage claim and take it to your room. A process that takes around 2 hours, so we went to Downtown Disney in our Pj's! Things we liked here were the food at Planet Hollywood, lego statues, and an awesome hot air balloon ride we will do next time!

Next day was Magic Kingdom. We all wore the same color everyday. Wes thought it was totally lame and Avery wasn't real excited about not being able to pick out her favorite clothes! However, it was very handy when we'd split up or lose someone and need to find them! After the first day, Wes said it was a good idea! Our favorite's here were seeing Cinderella's Castle, Dumbo ride, It's a small world ride, going into Mickey's house, the Carousel, Mickey's PhilharMagic 3-d show, and Dreams come true parade. Avery was scared of the Peter Pan ride (seeing the pirates), and sat under the bench seat with eyes covered during Pirates of the Caribbean ride!

Next day was Hollywood Studios. We got bad luck in that we went during a week that was record highs. Heat index of 106 nearly killed us on this day. Wes and I were feeling faint and were going to go home but decided to eat at a drive in place and eat slowly/lay our heads down! After a good hour rest, we were able to stay. Avery also hid under the seat during the Great Movie Ride at this park (lots of shooting). Our favorites were the Muppet 3-D show, Little Mermaid show, Beauty and Beast show, the Indiana Jones Stunt show, and High School Musical Pep Rally. The Toy Story 3-D ride and Fantasmic night time show were AMAZING.

The next day was Animal Kingdom. It had the most shade so that was nice, except our first ride was the Kali River Rapids and Avery and I got completely soaked. The shade ended up being bad because we never got dry :(

Our favorites here were Expedition Everest (only Wes and I), Lion King show, Finding Nemo musical, and awesome Safari ride. That night, we ate with all the characters from Cinderella. Wes's sister made these adorable outfits for the occasion. Avery is Tinkerbell, and we have two Prince Charmings!Next day was Epcot. Favorites were Nemo ride and the attached aquarium, Soarin', Mission Space: Advanced, and visiting the little countries and eating food from them! Last day we went back to Hollywood Studios so Wes and I could ride Rockin Roller Coaster (great!) and I could ride the tower of terror with Avery! She actually did pretty well on it. We also liked the Back lot Tour although I sat on our banana peel and got it all over my bum. Wes was very disappointed we missed the Lights, Motors, Action stunt show. Kids LOVED the Honey I shrunk the kids playground!

Our trip back home was also not exactly as we planned! The flight from Orlando to Atlanta was an hour delayed so we missed our connecting flight. We had to stay the night in Atlanta (on us) and wake up super early to make the flight to Tulsa. We made it to Tulsa at 10 on Tuesday, but our luggage didn't make it until about 1! We got home at 2:30. I was looking forward to having Tuesday with both kids in school so I could rest and do laundry! Oh well! All in all, it was still a nice trip :)

Random thoughts I have about the trip:

If you fly, make sure layover is 2 hours in case the flight is delayed!

Take every kind of medicine you have! I had a bad headache one day, and very nauseous another day.

Double strollers are ridiculously bulky, heavy, hard to manuver, and annoying to break down and get in and out of busses with (we didn't have one, just witnessed others!) If you think 5 year olds are old enough to walk the whole time, you may be very very wrong especially in extreme heat! I wish I would have bought a sit and stand stroller.

Go when you get a free meal plan. Food is so stinkin expensive and all the dinner's would have been $130+ if we were actually paying for it. Even breakfasts and lunches were all at least $35 for our family.

I saw families there with screaming babies and frustrated parents! If you have a baby, it is great to have grandma's or aunts/uncles with you and probably don't go when it's hot! I personally would never take a baby at all.

If you have a child under 3, it is free to go to DW (saving around $150) Under 2 it's also free to fly (saving even more). I would have taken an easy going 18-23 month old because it probably would have been just the same as it was with my 3 and even 5 year old! When hot and tired they will fuss, but we found bribing, and going to shows during this time helped them fall asleep or be less cranky!

We didn't go back to the hotel for a nap because walking out of the park, catching bus, walking to room, getting them to sleep, then going back later would take a good 3-4 hours and we wanted to see as much of Disney as we possibly could.

Should we get a pet turtle or will it die if it's dropped?

This last Friday was another busy busy day. We started at the zoo and stayed there until after 1.

Staring contest!

Zane loved this turtle. He kept wanting to hold it which made the worker very nervous!

I'm sure she was relieved when he told her to put it down and let it walk under the tunnel.Out of 10 tries, this had the most eyeballs!

We went home for a quick nap while I did some laundry. Got Avery and ran to Walmart to pick up Kay's birthday gift and then to Amy's to get ready for the party! We had about 30 mins to cook the dinner and cake! Amy prepared the potato soup, but I stirred it and it was MY recipe (which was AMAZING!)!! The 10 minute microwave cake she learned from a Pampered Chef party! I dunno if it won points Amy...The kids gave her the gift which was...
THIS!

Then it was off to CR followed by bedtime.

My weekend was full of packing, cleaning, eating icecream, and an after hours doctor visit that said nothing but congestion. Today, is freak out day where I run around the house with icecream in hand worrying about what I am forgetting for our trip. We leave tomorrow morning. I'll be back next Tuesday :)

Family Math Night

Avery's school puts on such neat activities. Thursday night, we rushed from soccer practice to her school to play some math games. I think I'm going to make a homemade version of a couple of them. Like the way she dressed herself today?! I love family activities. I'm rarely at home anymore these days. Henry and my messy house don't like this, but the spiders do. I guess I can't please everyone...

Bubble gum saved my life...

Avery's school has a fundraiser going on right now and since she sold (I bought) 5 items before a certain deadline, she got a yard stick of bubble gum. Here it is wrapped around like a belt (yes she dressed herself, bow, headband and all. She will be a trend setter or horribly made fun of!).

How it saved my life you wonder? Five minutes prior to her coming home from school, I was gathering sheets off all the beds to wash. I had put them in the washing machine but hadn't turned it on when she came in the door squealing with excitment wanting to know if she could have some gum along with share it with Bella and Zane. I said yes, but let me get a picture of how long it is first! I looked around for the camera and couldn't find it. I had just taken a picture of this hooded towel I had finished during Zane's nap prior to ripping off sheets...(previous one I did had pointed edges and looked like poo. Round is much easier!). Anyway, where in the world did the camera go? It came to me...maybe it's in the sheets in the washing machine. It was. If Avery had not walked in excited about gum that I needed to take a picture of, our camera we just got would be gone. I wonder if it would have ruined the 8 gb card full of pictures and videos too?

Saved on that one...but then this nearly killed me...

It is huge and was found in the laundry room which is conected to the garage. It's like a teenage tarantula. YUCK YUCK YUCK.

Know a 45 year old who acts like a rebellious teenager!?

The other thing my mom wanted to accomplish when she came down a couple weeks ago. And people wonder where I get it from... :)I wonder if my dad has seen it yet!? It is supposed to look like an anklet and the three crosses are for us three kids. Brittany got one too

You should get a tat on your foot...all the cool people are doing it...

Gymnastics and Soccer

We recently tried a new gymnastics. We liked Metro but a new one closer to home started up, so we thought we'd try it. I like how I can see the whole gym from my seat and the coaches seem great. Avery is a level 2 or 3? I don't remember. The kid to coach ratio is small so that is nice.

Avery doing kicks while walking across the beam...My camera was taking horrible pictures. It would probably help if I read the manual...
She LOVES doing handstands...

Kinda resembles a frog doing a cartwheel...

Saturday, Zane had his first soccer game. He actually did pretty good. The definition of good in this house is not crying and not needing his hand held during the game!! It may even be considered excellent as he made contact with the ball a few times!!Look at him running TOWARDS the ball! Such a proud soccer mom here. So he bent down and used his hands for a second. No biggie... Uh oh, did he lift his foot while throwing the ball!!?

Here is Zane in his class at gymnastics! Not sure I like the preschool class as well as Metro...still observing.

It is so hard for me to sit and watch and not be able to participate. I loved sports and miss it terribly. Love seeing the kids having fun and gaining confidence though.

Crazy Busy Friday

Friday started like every other day. I take Miss Isabella and Avery to school and her mom brings them home. Avery usually dresses herself, but occasionally I'll make her wear things she never picks out. You would have thought I was making her wear a garbage bag. I guess black is terrible and not fashinable. She insisted it didn't match. I won. Even got a smile.

Zane and I went to a playdate at the park.

Then it was Music with Susan at the library.

Came home, ate, put Zane to bed, and scrapped for a little while. Then Lisa's parents came to visit me. Lisa was a good friend of mine in HS who died in a car wreck 5 years ago. Her parent's will never get to see her wedding or her kids, so they are always traveling to see her friends wedding's and kids. Very dedicated and amazing.

We then went to the zoo for Family Fun Day. All the rides were free and there were lots of fun activities. Here they are enjoying free Krispy Kreme right before the moonbounce! I really wanted to see the Magic Show at 7 but had to leave and meet Wes at Light the Night. Too bad after we left, he called and said it's tomorrow night. Oh well, we dropped the kids off and went on a date instead. Very tiring day. Very messy house.