Animal Kingdom

Our first day we went to Animal Kingdom.  We had an early reservation for Tusker House.  You will notice a theme for my Disney Trips.  It involves getting to the parks early.  It is so much less crowded in the mornings.  It make it so much more enjoyable.  Then we just stay until the kids get tired or overwhelmed.  So we our back before dinner, Amelia naps, we get to swim and everyone is happy.

The kids were super excited to get going to a park.

So anyways... we made it to the park.  Tried to get a picture with the tree but it was foggy.

We gave Amelia a little pig tail.  She looked like Cindy Lou Who from How the Grinch stole Chrsitmas

We checked into the restaraunt and got to meet Donald.  Amelia was screaming his name while we waited.

Then we were seated and enjoyed a great breakfast with tasty jungle juice (orange juice, passion fruit and guava juice mix).  I enjoyed Tusker House and it was a great way to start the trip. 

The kids loved meeting the characters and marching around with them
 

We then left the restaraunt and saw the opening crowd coming towards us so we quickly got out of there and to the safari ride.  We got on right away and saw tons of animals. 

Giraffes were everywhere and right near our car blocking the way.

A rhino and her baby were near our car too.

We got a great view of the lion which is often hard to see.

We took the kids to see the Christmas Characters.  Not sure why they are at Animal Kingdom but the lines are short no complaints from me.

We saw Mickey...

Minnie

Chip N Dale

Santa goofy

and some other characters.

We rode dinosaur.  Hayden rode it in May and hated it and told me leading up to this trip that he didn't want to ride it.  But when we go to the park he wanted to ride it so we did.  I have a love/hate feeling about the ride.  It is a great ride but it scares me every time.  I freak out the entire ride b/c I know what it coming.  So I am sure I didn't help. Hayden hated the ride and was ready to cry when he got off.  He bought a hard hat with a light on it to cheer himself up!

Here is the picture from the ride.  You can see Me cowering in the corner.  Hayden is crying.  Kennedy is just frozen.  Ryan and Lauralynn look scared and Paige does too.

Here is Hayden's hat.

After that we rode some rides and the kids got to go dig for dinosaur bones and play in the playground.

We also saw Winnie the Pooh

Tigger

and Eeyore

I didn't stay much longer. My kids were tired from our long travel day.  So we went back for a swim.  Everyone else in the family hung out a little more 

The rest of the pictures...

Christmas 2012

We had a nice Christmas but one that wasn't without some mishaps.  Poor Hayden was sick during Christmas so that was sad.

For Christmas Eve we went to my sisters house.  Everyone from my immediate family was there (minus sister in Florida) and my Gram.  Mom made a Mexican feast. 

We played Kinect. Everyone played the Just Dance game.

Even the kids enjoyed it.

Poor Hayden got a bad fever and didn't do much.  I knew it was bad when he kept asking to go home.  He loves playing with his cousins and would never ask to go home.

He did open his presents.

Amelia did too and they were so spoiled and got tons of great stuff.  Amelia loved her magic princess mirror.


 Hayden will be excited to play with all of his new toys when he feels better.  He was excited to leave milk and cookies for Santa.

The next morning Hayden was up at 6am due to a huge coughing fit.  He was ready to see if Santa left him gifts.  It sure is fun having little kids be excited for Santa even if I was tired.

Hayden enjoyed opening his gifts.  He was very happy to get his leaf blower

Amelia was very into opening her gifts.  She loved her table that you can write on with dry erase markers.

And her beauty and the beast tea cart.

It was a great morning but poor Hayden then threw up.  And continued to do so.  Poor guy.  Here is a sad picture of him watching the Christmas parade with the garbage can to puke in.  FYI he doesn't throw up in the can.  Just anywhere but the can! :(

He was so sick he even took a nap!  Had to get a picture to document that miracle.

I took Amelia with me to visit all the rest of my family.  She was a little ham all night.  So cute.  She had cookies, bread, pop, and strawberry cheesecake.  No dinner!!!!

Hayden and Mike stayed home.  He is doing better now and has opened all of his presents. 

Here are the rest of the pics:

Our Disney Trip

We took a trip to Disney for the Holidays... Just me and the kids, and Grandma and cousin Paige.  We met up with my brother and sister and their families also.  We got a great deal.

 I love Disney at Christmas time and will not go in May ever again.  We had great weather, great crowds (not bad at all), and I love all of the extra things going on for Christmas.  We had fun in May but this was better.

Our flight there was uneventful.  Amelia didn't nap of course so it was a lot of work for me.  Before we took off she wouldn't sit still and freaked out the lady next to us.  She asked to be moved so Amelia got her own seat.  Nice.

 We stayed at the all star sports resort  Our hotel was a little crazy for the first night b/c Pop Warner football was staying there.  So we didn't get much sleep the first night.  They would run the halls and bang on the windows late at night.  It scared Amelia.  But overall the kids did great sleeping in our crowded, tiny hotel room. 

The weather was great.  It was almost 80 degrees most days.  Only our last day did you need a long sleeve shirt or sweatshirt.  I had bought the kids some cute disney christmas clothes that were long sleeve so they did wear them during the week.  Because it was warm we got to do a lot of swimming.  That made Hayden happy.


We visited all 4 parks and got to do a ton of stuff which i will post as I upload the pictures.  When it was time to go Hayden said he didn't want to leave ever.  When you see the pictures Hayden doesn't smile in most of them so you would never know that he was having a great time.

The kids did pretty good.  We had some meltdowns and other issues but overall they did well.  Amelia and Kennedy got the stomach flu and threw up.  Hayden got it when we got home and I had some sort of illness when we got home.  I was exhausted.

Amelia was good most of the time.  But she loves to get out and walk on her own.  She would get out and walk with such power/authority, not girly at all.  Very linebacker like. 

This was one of my favorite trips.  I have a ton of pictures to share.  We ordered their photo pass (they take your pictures for you all week) so I am waiting for that.  Between all of us using it we have over 800 photos!!!

Hayden's Party

Hayden turned 4 and we had a birthday party for him.  Our house doesn't have enough parking so we just had it in the food court at the mall.  I made cupcakes and cookie cake (Hayden's choice) and we also brought ice cream.


Amelia really enjoyed her cupcake...

and her ice cream (and some cookie cake too)

Hayden and the cousins had fun together.

Hayden hit up Pap right away for money for the crane machine and the merry go round.  He is not so shy anymore!

We sang Happy Birthday...

and opened presents...

Hayden loved all of his presents and was so excited.    It was the year of Avengers Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Batman, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!!  He played with all of them when we got home.  By bed time he was so overwhelmed that he had a big meltdown!  Oh well it was still a good day.

Thanksgiving

We had a nice Thanksgiving.  Amelia took a huge nap (Nice!) so we were the last to arrive for dinner.  Everything was yummy.  The kids had fun playing together.   Amelia kept drinking everyone's pop and stealing desserts.  She was wired!

Don't you just love her cheesy grin right now. 

Hayden made this turkey napkin holder for Grandma Barb at home depot.

(Hayden is the opposite of Amelia.  She gives nice cheesy grins...he gives attitude)

My sister, niece and I went Black Friday shopping.  We got tons of stuff and good deals.  I pretty much finished my shopping and It wasn't too bad at all.

I can't believe it is December already!