Fun in the Sun

A couple of weekends ago we made a trip up to Waldo to help my brother celebrate his birthday. He shared his party with his best buddies daughter, Autumn. They were both celebrating milestones: Chris 30, Autumn 1. The party was held at my parents house so we had access to the pool, the lake and they even setup a slip-n-slide! John tossed Connor down it once and the next thing you know all of the other kids wanted him to do it to them. There was fun to be had by all. Strangely enough, I don't think I knew even half of the people there. Strange only because it was at my parents house. Autumn had lots of her family there which I had never met. The food and drinks were plentiful and everyone had a great time. And it seems Connor has really come out of his shell as he was talking it up to any and everyone. After the party we enjoyed some family time. Connor had fun with a horn he found and Addie had fun with the sprinkler :p After dinner we had more cake :) this time we watched Chris blow out his birthday candles.

 

 

 

 

The next day we enjoyed another day in the sun. Addie found the doggies water bowl which thrilled her to death. She isn't allowed near the doggy bowls at home as she'll eat the contents in a heartbeat. The kids both enjoyed Popsicles and another dip in the pool....as did Jackson! His ball 'accidentally' dropped into the pool so of course he had to go in and get it. Then we took the boat out. I even got to water ski, something I haven't done in years (and years and years). I was a little surprised when I got right up on my first try. John has never water skied so my dad was excited to get him out there. He got up after a couple of tries and looked good out there! It was so much fun and something we definitely need to do more often.

 

 

It was a really nice and relaxing trip. We even got a quick visit with Nana who came out for Chris's party for a bit. We didn't get to see everyone but we'll be back soon :) You can see more pictures from our trip here. Happy Birthday Chris! Glad we could be there to help you and Autumn celebrate your big milestone birthdays.

Disney

We’ve been wanting to take the kids to Disney for as long as I can remember. But it isn’t exactly in our budget. Especially now that Connor is 3 and no longer free. But good ‘ol Uncle Andy hooked us up with his roommate who works for them. She was able to get us in for free! We knew we wanted to go before it got too hot and too crowded with summer nearing so we decided to go this past Monday. It turned out to be a perfect day for it! By the time we left the house and dropped the doggies off at the kennel it was almost 9 am. Disney is just over an hour away so we were making good time. We had decided not to wake the kids up early or anything because we figured the chance of them napping later was slim to none. I’ve been so consumed with making sure we had everything we needed for the park that I hadn’t really stopped to think about the car ride there. Yep, you probably guessed it. Addison cried almost the whole way there :/ not a great way to start our day but thankfully she quit after a quick stop at a rest area where we let her get out and run around for a bit. She is something else ;) We had some insider information that if we made a reservation at one of the Disney restaurants we could park for free. So we made a reservation at the Polynesian Resort and it worked! We had no issues parking and were able to get on the monorail right from the hotel. Connor was excited just to ride the monorail! We met up with Andrew’s roommate, Virginia, outside the gate where she got us into the Magic Kingdom. There was a parade going by as soon as we entered and from there we just made our way around the entire park. John and Connor had checked it out online so we had a list of a few must sees. We also got suggestions from our friends that go there frequently. The first ride we went on was Buzz Light year which was a lot of fun. Connor loved zapping the aliens and spinning our car around. Addison seemed to enjoy it as well. Then we headed straight to the speedway where Connor could ride in a race car. Daddy had to drive of course but he was in heaven. They did it twice in a row. Addie and I parked ourselves on a bench in the shade and had ourselves a little snack. After the cars we rode the Tea Cups and then stopped to eat lunch.

After lunch we hit up It’s a Small World. It was one of the longer waits we had, about 20 minutes which isn’t bad at all, but it was right after lunch and the kids were getting tired. It was their normal nap time after all! We got on the boat and made it through one country before Addison was asleep. Kind of a bummer as I think she would have really enjoyed the whole ride. She transferred to the stroller after the ride and napped for the next hour or so. In that time Connor and I rode the carousel, he and Daddy climbed Swiss Family Robinson tree house and we rode the Magic Carpet ride where a camel spit on us!

We got off the ride to find Addison awake. We stopped to change her and have a snack. We notice another camel spitting on people walking by. These weren’t real of course but fun to watch as many weren’t expecting it! After our snack we headed to Pirates of the Caribbean. We had no idea what to expect on this ride. I had completely forgotten that my friend told us her daughter was scared on it because it is so dark. Connor was a little scared but even more so was Addison. I felt so bad and just wanted the ride to be over quickly. She was clinging to me dearly! We rode the train around the park next and as we were getting off we spotted Winnie the Pooh and Tiger! We waited in line (forever) for the kids to get their picture taken with them. Connor was excited and said he was going to give them both high five. Addie seemed very interested too and kept pointing at them and smiling. When it was our turn I put her down and she started running toward them but as she got closer, they got bigger and she changed her mind. She practically jumped into my arms and was shaking in fear! Poor girl!

After getting Connor’s picture we noticed it was already 5 pm so we decided to call it a day. On our way out we caught the tail end of a show going on at the castle. They shot a few fireworks off at the end which thrilled Connor. We rode the monorail back and headed straight to the pool at the resort. We thought it was worth a shot. No one gave us any issues though and it was so nice to get in a cool off. A nice, refreshing end to our day. We had dinner at their café and then headed back home. The kids were spent. By then it was 8:45 pm. An hour past Addison’s bedtime and Connor had had no nap so he was done. They were both asleep before we left the parking lot. We had a such a fun and memorable day. You can view the rest of our pictures from our magical day at Disney here J

Florida Aquarium

My friend, Tiffany, invited us to join her and her boys for a play date at the Florida Aquarium a couple of Sunday's ago. We’ve been wanting to check it out since we moved here so we jumped at the opportunity. Connor and Andrew were cute running from tank to tank to see what was in it. Even Addie seemed impressed by what she could see. I was expecting fish and sting rays, similar to what we’ve seen at Sea World, but this was impressive. The sharks were really cool and they swam right by us! Connor loved the sharks. My favorite were the sea turtles. It was so neat to see them swimming under water.

After seeing everything in the aquarium we had lunch outside. Then we hit up their water park/splash pad area. And the sandbox…can’t forget the sandbox. We knew Connor loved the sand but it would appear Addison is just as big of a fan J After the sand Connor and Andrew ran off to explore the water area. In the center is a huge pirate ship to play on. They had so much fun! Addison couldn’t tear herself away from one of the water spouts. She would wave her arms over the water, then walk around it, then walk away….only to return and do it all again.

We stayed a little longer than we had anticipated as we wanted to be home for nap time. But they were having so much fun! We ended up leaving around 2 pm. Connor and Addison were asleep within minutes of being in the car. They both transferred to their beds when we got home without waking and slept 2 hours! They wore themselves out! We didn’t do anything else the rest of the day, except pack and get ready for our trip to Disney World the next day J I'll post separately about that next. You can view more Aquarium pictures here.

Doggy Days/Carnival

Both of our doggies celebrated birthday’s this past month. Jackson turned 11 on the 20th and Zoey turned 5 on the 27th. And how else can you celebrate but with cake?! My grandmother recently gave me her Kitchen Aid mixer and several boxes of cake. Connor loves to watch it in action! He helps me dump all the ingredients into the big bowl and then turn it on. He also likes to taste the batter. But who doesn’t?! Clearly we were looking for an excuse to make a cake. So each doggy got a special birthday cake on their birthday. Happy Birthday Dogs!

    

We attended a Carnival a couple of weekends ago at Christ the King church here in Tampa. It’s an annual fund raising event for the church and they go all out! I was expecting a few small rides and some of your typical carnival foods, but this was a full on fair! Every ride you can think of, from a Ferris Wheel to the Gravitron, you name it they had it. We met up with Marti, Jessica and her girls. Connor had a ball, going on all the toddler rides he was big enough for. Until his tickets ran out that is. We didn’t want to spend too much since we knew we were going to Disney on Monday. So we only bought him 1 sheet of tickets which got him about 6 rides. Poor Addie though didn’t have anything she could do there but sit and watch. And it was hot, so we left as soon as Connor ran out of tickets. He was not happy about that decision but it turned out to be good timing as it started pouring on our way home.

There are more doggy and carnival pictures here.

Whitman Wedding Weekend

Erin, one of my best friends, got married a couple of weekends ago in Melbourne Beach, FL. As part of the wedding party we had to be there Friday for the rehearsal dinner. We were originally going to bring the kids and the dogs as the hotel was pet friendly....but our loving parents offered to come to our house and watch them all. Two nights with no kids? At the beach? Okay! BeBe and Grandpa took the first shift and arrived Friday morning. After a quick rundown of what to do (and what not to do :p) we left town. This was our first weekend away since we had Addison. We were excited…not only were we going to see our friends exchange wedding vows on the beach, but we've also been craving the sun...and a tan! Unfortunately the weather didn't exactly cooperate. Not only did it rain on and off throughout most of our drive there, but it poured that night. Erin and Justin were bummed to say the least. Their wedding was supposed to be right on the beach, in front of the house they rented. They improvised and setup in a tent and made the best of it though. Saturday was very overcast but not raining. It was coming from the west so we knew we were getting it, we just didn't know when. The forecast predicted 90% chance of rain…not good. Papa and Grandma arrived at our house to take the second shift. They all went out to eat together at Beef O’Brady’s and had a great time before BeBe and Grandpa left to head home.  They also said it poured in Tampa. Erin and Justin decided to have the wedding under the tent just to be safe. And wouldn't you know it, it never rained. Not one drop. It was such a beautiful wedding. Another one of my best friends, Tim, married them. They had a steel drum player for the ceremony and then a DJ later to kick the night off to dancing. Such a fun night! The next morning was gorgeous, hardly any clouds in the sky. We headed straight for the beach after checking out of our hotel and parked ourselves there until we got hungry. After a late lunch we headed back home to the kiddos. The grandparents enjoyed the kids, the kids had a blast, and John and I had a fun, memorable trip. An overall fabulous weekend.

Congratulations to Erin and Justin Whitman!!! Click here to view a sampling of our weekend/wedding pictures. Sorry, none of the kids this time!