365 ~ 2013: Day 120

Three years ago at this time I was checked into Boston Medical Hospital getting ready to meet our stubborn little guy who just had to be a May baby instead of the April baby we were expecting!  Today we celebrated with our Family Center Friends, by bringing in a cookie cake.  He was excited to have his friends sing to him!  Tonight I tuck in my 2 year old for the last time, tomorrow he wakes up a 3 year old!

365 ~ 2013: Day 119

The inaugural ride!

365 ~ 2013: Day 118

We are having a GIRL!!  And by we I mean my BFF is having a girl...but close enough!  I cannot even tell you how many reminders I have already received from Charlie that she in fact, is not really mine...but I'm just choosing not to listen!!  WE'RE HAVING A GIRL!!!!  I AM SO EXCITED!!!!

365 ~ 2013: Day 117

Up early this morning to catch our flight home.  Had some time to grab a quick bite to eat.  It was a fabulous trip but I'm glad to be home.

365 ~ 2013: Day 116

One last trip to Hogwarts!

2013 April Vacation - Orlando, Florida - Day 7:

Last Day

Today is our last day before we fly back home.  Since we were out very late the night before, we planned for this day to be relaxing day with no rushing or running around!  Of course my children were up early regardless so I had them get their suits on and hit the pool so they could let the rest of the house sleep in peace!

Loving the pool!

Even though we did not have a set plan for today, when we purchased our Universal Studio tickets, it came with a free day.  We decided to head back to the Island of Adventures (where the boys could potentially see Captain America again!).  It was the side they had the most fun on and they were excited to have a change to play in Seuss Land again and I, of course, was excited to have another chance to walk around Hogsmeade and get one last Butter Beer!

We planned to go after naps so it would give everyone a chance to relax and start packing.  We headed out late morning to have some brunch at MIL's favorite breakfast chain, Perkins!  We figured since we were going to be over at Universal anyway, that we would just plan to eat dinner at one of the restaurants at City Walk.  The grandmothers agreed to take the children so that Kristin, Charlie and I could have a grown up dinner!  I made all the reservations, we chose to try Emeril's and the kids and grandma's were going to go to an Italian place next door.  It ended up being a perfect end to our trip!  

Shaun checking out how tall he is!

David checking out his height, turns out he was just a 1/2 inch shy of being able to ride by himself...oh well...next time!

The first thing we did was head back to Hogsmeade.  Shaun really wanted a chance to ride the Hippogriff roller coaster again and I really wanted my Butter Beer!  Don't judge, it was HOT!  We get over to the roller coaster and everyone gets in line and I stay back with Evan.  That is, until he decided he HAD to go on it too!  He was tall enough, but since David wasn't tall enough to ride alone there were not enough grown ups to kids for Evan to ride...unless...I rode too!  ACK!  Have I mentioned yet, that I don't do roller coasters?  I know, it's not Incredible Hulk or Dragon Challenge, but still.  I wasn't very excited.  Of course, while Evan and tired to catch up to the rest of the crew, he told me over and over "It's not scary, Mommy!, It's not scary!"  You would think if my 3 year old was not afraid, then his 33 year old mother could suck it up!!  Anyway...while it wasn't awful, I was definitely not in a rush to get on again!

Me and the boys after our roller coaster ride!

Next we waited in line for our Butter Beers, and then headed back to Suess Land were we left the grandmothers and the little kids to play while Charlie, Kristin and I took my nephew Scottie over to Marvel Island.  He was excited to have a chance to ride his all time favorite ride of the week,
Spiderman.

Scottie's all time favorite ride!  I like it a lot too!

We still had some time to kill before we had to leave the park to make our dinner reservations.  So Kristin suggested that we check out the Jurrasic Park River Adventure.  I didn't remember it being that intense or getting very wet and Scottie seemed to be excited to try it and bonus, there was no line!  So that is what we did.  And then I regretted that choice!  Not only was the drop much more intense than I had remembered (ack!) but we got soaked!  Oh well, good thing we still had a half hour to dry off before our reservations!  The guy behind me joked that he only got as wet as he did because the person in front of him (ahem, me!) ducked at the drop!  I guess I forgot to tell him that I do that on the drops!  Ha!

Scottie on the River Adventure!

Yup.  Soaked!

This became his third favorite, after M.I.B.

We headed back to Seuss Land to meet up with the rest of the crew and head out to our reservations.  It was such a fun day, relaxing and no pressure since we had already done all thing rides we had wanted to we could just go back and redo our favorites!  Dinner at Emeril's was pretty good.  I wouldn't say it was the most awesome food ever, but it was nice to have some time to have grown up conversation and drink a glass of Sangria!

Fun in Suess Land!

And now it's back to the house to get the kids to bed and the house packed up, we need to be up early to make our 9am flight!

365 ~ 2013: Day 115

Magical!

2013 April Vacation - Orlando, Florida - Day 6:

Magic Kingdom

Today was the day that we planned to do the Magic Kingdom.  We anticipated it being our busiest day since we had plans to go to the Electric Light Parade and see the fireworks.  Before heading out though, the boys enjoy the game room in the house!  Have I mentioned how awesome it is having all this space to spread out!

We park the van and head over to the monorail and I told everyone that the first thing I wanted to do before we did anything else was get a picture of all of us in front of Cinderella's castle!  Even though my camera is pretty much attached to me at all times, I still opted to take advantage of the Disney Photo Pass.  They are all set up with the correct settings for the venue they are shooting in.  And it turns out that some of my images came out blurry because I forgot to change my ISO from 200 to 3200 when we went indoors.  So it's worth having the pass just in case!

Disney Photo Pass Image

After we took care of my must have image, we headed straight to the race cars.  We knew that the lines would get long and we knew that the boys would want to race!

David taking Daddy for a ride!

Even the grandmother's got in on the fun!

Next we headed over to Fantasyland to ride on the new Dumbo ride and the Barnstormer!  We would also make a stop to meet Donald and Goofy (who we did not get to meet at Epcot like we did the last time we went to Disney!).  The boys all LOVED the Barnstormer they rode on it twice!

Looks like Auntie Kristin is having the most fun!

Meeting Goofy!

One with all of us!

Scottie and Grammy pose with Goofy too!

The boys and Scottie with Donald Duck

After we did the pictures with the characters we started heading towards MIL's favorite ride, It's a Small World After All.  But first the boys needed to cool off a bit in the splash pad!

Since the lines were not long (yet!) for the Small World and Winnie the Pooh rides, we took advantage of the short line to meet Tigger and Pooh!  MIL's favorite character is Tigger so she made sure to get in this one with the boys!

And now it's time for the ride everyone loves to hate...but Evan thought it was just the best!  That was pretty much what is face looked like the entire ride!  So much to see!

After Small World we did Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan.  At that point we were looking at it being close to lunch time.  And it was HOT!  We had already picked up Milk Shakes to drink while we waited on Peter Pan.  So we decided to finish up then and we'd come back to do the rest of the rides on our list (like Splash Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean).

Daddy and Evan waiting for the plan!

Shaun and I take a picture in front of (my favorite princess!) Rapunzel's Tower!

Taking the monorail back to the van - ready for some lunch and a nap before we do it all over again!

After a nice long rest at the house, we headed back to finish seeing everything else we wanted to see before we would need to get in line for the Electric Light Parade.  Charlie went to get us a Fast Pass for Splash Mountain and while we waited we took some more pictures in front of the castle!  Evan was in the middle of a temper tantrum (which I was ingoring!) so he's not pictured.  Someday he will learn that he is not the boss!  Ha!  

After Charlie came back with our fast passes, we headed over to Adventure Land to ride on the Pirates of the Caribbean.  The boys love Jack Sparrow and all things related to pirates, so I knew they would love this ride!  And of course, it was not surprising, this was the store that they chose to spend some of their Disney gift cards they got from family at Christmas.

Evan tries on a Jake and the Neverland Pirate hat!

It was time to grab a quick bite to eat for dinner so that we could make it over to Splash Mountain in time for our Fast Pass.  MIL and GG, took Shaun and Evan back over to Fantasyland to ride on Small World again, and another ride depending on how long it would take us to ride.  We got over there a little early and decided that if the line for Thunder Mountain wasn't very long that Charlie could take David on before our fast pass expired.  But as it turns out it was shut down due to a mechanical issue so we just headed over to the Splash Mountain line.

Grammy and Scottie ready for the ride!

David is soaked after the big drop!

Soaked!

After we finished on Splash Mountain and saw that Thunder Mountain was still closed we headed back to meet up with MIL and GG.  We still had some time before we figured we needed to get over to Main Street, USA for the parade so we headed over to Tomorrowland so we could check out the Buzz Lightyear ride and as I expected, it was a big hit!

After the ride the boys saw Buzz Lightyear and so we got in line so the boys could get his autograph and picture!

We had time for one more ride, so the boys chose the race cars since it was so close and on our way to where we wanted to be for the Parade.  First they cooled off in the mister!

His Captain America pose, he's still pumped about meeting him during our vacation!

In line for the race cars!

And now it's getting dark, so it's time to find a spot for the parade.  But first we stopped for a family picture in front of the castle!

This was my firs time seeing the Magic Kingdom at night and I was so amazed!  I love how the castle is all lit up and it was really fun to watch it change colors.  It made me wish I had a tripod with me!  But this is good enough for our family vacation album!  

Almost time for the parade!

So pretty!

I am so glad that we got to Main Street, USA when we did because it was already packed.  Luckily we were able to find a spot that fit all of us and Evan's stroller.  I wasn't sure if he would make it but he did and ended up watching the whole parade with Scottie and his brothers up front!  I got them each a light staff to have for the show, which was very impressive!  And again made me wish for my tripod!

Captain Hook!  Evan's favorite!

After the parade we decided that it would be really tough to just sit for another half hour before the fireworks were to start, plus we all wanted to browse the stores.  So instead of waiting we headed over to the stores and looked around and let the boys spend the last of their money.  Evan ended up falling asleep at that point anyway.  As we were finishing up our shopping the fireworks started and we could still see some of them and we didn't end up having to wait in a long line for the monorail back to the parking lot!  It was a long and exhausting day, but totally worth it and the best part was that we planned in an R&R day so we would not have to wake up and rush out like we had been every other morning!

Magical!

2013 April Vacation - Orlando, Florida - Day 5:

Animal Kingdom ~ Walt Disney World

On Wednesday we headed to Animal Kingdom.  Like all the other days we tried to make sure to get to the park as soon as it opened.  We wanted to make sure to get into line first thing for the Safari before it filled up.  Plus the animals tend to be more active in the morning when it is not so hot.  And it was looking like it was going to be a hot one!

Scottie, Shaun & Evan ready to enter the park!

We went straight to the back got right in line for the Safari.  The boys loved it!  We saw lots of animals and even got to see a couple of giraffes running.  I have never seen anything like it and it was definitely the highlight of the "ride".

Scottie and David ready for the safari

Evan ready to see the animals

Shaun was in the Ergo the last time he went on this ride!

After the safari, we walked around looking for some other rides.  We decided to take the train over to where the petting zoo was and that is when the boys came across this fun scavenger hunt.  They each got a card and once they completed the search the got a stamp.  The idea was to visit each booth in each part of the park.  We ended up only getting to do a couple of these so they never filled their cards.     That is OK though because Shaun says they'll finish next time we go!

Scottie getting a lesson on the tree frog

At the petting zoo!

Meeting Raffiki

Scottie and Raffiki

Getting one last stamp for their cards in DinoLand

It was really hot!  The kids got to do a few rides and we had planned to head over to see the Lion King show, but after we ate lunch and getting an ice cream to cool off we decided to skip and just head back to the house and swim for the rest of the afternoon.  But not before stopping to meet Russell and Doug from UP!

The boys were thrilled to be able to meet Doug and Russell! 

Back at the house we headed straight to the pool!  Ahhh!  It was so nice.  The kids had fun enjoying the pool before heading to the Red Lobster for dinner.

Auntie Kristin teaching David how to do underwater handstands!

David wanted to try out the underwater camera, here is one of me!

Getting a toss from Daddy!

And my mother finally got her wish to eat at a Red Lobster.  She was so happy and she totally rocked the bib, don't you think?

It was back to the house and ready for bed, Magic Kingdom is on the Agenda and that will be a very long day.  We're planning to do the Electric Light Parade and Fireworks!