From Florida to Tennessee

These are some sweet photos from our drive back from Disney.  We drove back by way of middle Tennessee, not because that's more convenient, but because that's where Nan and Poppa live.  We just had to pack in every minute of fun possible on this trip.  The kids LOVE Nan and Poppa's house because it's nonstop food, popcorn, movies, games, Ipad and FUN!  They couldn't wait to get started!

My kids disappear into the world of the Ipad for many hours a day while we visit.  They LOVE it, but I'm glad I don't have one so that I don't have to fight the "Get off the Ipad" fight every day!  We eat REALLY healthy food while at Nan's house!  Tristan couldn't get enough of this cereal!

Brent hadn't seen his family since sometime in September, so we really enjoyed catching up with them.  Sherran and Chuck are so proud of their soldier!

Sherran and Chuck's small group met at the bowling alley that weekend.  The kids remembered bowling at Ava's party, so they were all about it.  I just KNEW someones toe was going to get crushed by a falling bowling ball, but we made it through OK.  Tristan and Maura fought over this florescent ball the whole time, and LOVED rolling it down the ramp.

Nan THANKFULLY detained my ball loving boy.  I KNOW he would have crushed his toes because he insisted on trying to lift the heavy balls.  Instead, Nan took him off to the blinking oasis of the arcade.

SO sweet.   Bennett is hugely attached to Daddy now that he's home and I'm pretty sure that Brent will never be able to escape from his sight again!

We visited with Great Grandmother Chambers.  Bennett wasn't too sure about being held by this lady!  We attempted to take a photo.  When  I say we attempted, I mean we took at least six photos and not one was any better than this one!

Love these babies!!  What a wonderful end to a wonderful trip!

Animal Kingdom

Ahh, these photos are making me miss Disney!!  There's just something about that last Disney day--the joy of the day, mingled with the sadness of the realization that it's going to be a LONG time before you can return.  We had such a wonderful vacation, full of fun, food and family.  The family time was the best part of the trip.  The boys were absolutely GLUED to Daddy and wouldn't let him our of their sight.  I think they might have cried every single time that Brent went off to the buffet at the hotel without them.  Every. time.  I love that they love their Daddy so very much, but it got a bit ridiculous!  We had breakfast and dinner at the hotel every day as it was included in our hotel package.  This often meant we were eating breakfast WAY early and dinner WAY late.  We closed out the restaurant nearly every night when we arrived to start our dinner at about 9:30.  Lets just say that the waitstaff LOVED us.(Not really.)  Our noisy children, mess on the floor and constant demands for refills certainly made us the one table they wanted to pass on!  Anyway, I'm glad I took these photos in the restaurant, scene of some of our more notorious Disney memories.

On our last morning, we had the additional stress of having to pack up the room, check out and load the van, all before breakfast.  Fortunately, my husband is Super Man and he had it all in hand so that we could go enjoy Animal Kingdom.  This was my least favorite park when we visited a few years ago, so I was anxious to see if it would redeem itself of this visit.  Fortunately, we started the day with Nemo, so we started on a high note.  I honestly think that this stage show rivals anything I've ever seen on Broadway.  All the kids, even Bennett, were mesmerized.

After leaving the theater, we headed directly to the Dinosaur dig.  This is something we skipped last time, so I wanted to make sure we visited on this visit.  I knew Maura would love it, but I wasn't prepared for how much all my children would enjoy it, or how quickly they would all scatter.  It was impossible to keep track of everyone at the same time, so I found myself wondering around the playground praying for a glimpse of a shirt, head, shoe, anything that would convince me that they hadn't been abducted from the playground.  Fortunately, we all exited in one piece!

I couldn't wait to take the kids on the Safari ride.  I knew they were going to LOVE it!  I remember riding this ride WAY back in 2003, right after the park opened.  It was incredible then, knowing you were actually IN the Savannah of Africa with the animals all around you.  I couldn't wait to share that fun with the kids.  We all squeezed into one row of the Jeep and the kids didn't know where to look first!

We say Elephants and Zebras and Cheetahs, OH MY!  Maura was particularly excited about the cheetahs, her current favorite animal.  We could barely see them, way back by the fence, but she was SO happy!

This guy was pretty cute...a pygmy hippo with an admiring swarm of fish just waiting to eat some poop.

I remember the Animal Kingdom being terribly crowded the last time we visited.  We had a gigantic stroller, which made it almost impossible to navigate the narrow walkways that were clogged with other Disney-goers fond of stopping dead in the middle of the pathway.  I hoped we'd have a different experience this time, but alas, we are cursed at Animal Kingdom!  Apparently, there was some type of Dance Team competition going on at Disney that week.  We had the good fortune to be at the park with all the teams at the same time.  Just imagine thousands of teenage girls, all of whom seem to be unable to just walk.  They bounced, they toe-touched, they jumped in the air, they almost fell across the stroller.  It was awesome.  We managed to make it through the throng to Bug's Life.  They looked cute in the glasses, but Bennett did NOT like the 3D bugs flying in his direction.  I took the 3D glasses off him soon after the show started because it was a bit intense.

My resident entomologist loved finding a bug's head to pretend with. We actually traveled on a lot of lesser trod paths on this trip, searching out stamps for a passport the kids were given.  They had a lot of little education stations set up with enthusiastic Disney cast members waiting to teach my kids about nature and environmentalism.  Soon it was time to reenter the world of commercialism and we went to ride the Dino Whirl(which you have to be 48 inches to ride.  REALLY?  Disney--this is in the kiddie section!)  We contented ourselves with this dino spinning ride, which the kids loved, which also broke while we were riding it.  No biggie.  It gave us time to take photos.   I'm actually not sure where Bennett is while we were taking these!

All in all, it was a really fun trip to Animal Kingdom.  The kids were exhausted as we were leaving.  Check out Tristan in the photo below.  He was DONE with photos.  As much as we needed to get on the road to start our return trip, I was NOT ready to leave Disney for good until we took in the Lion King show.

It was pretty spectacular and probably one of the things Maura has talked about the most since we've been home from Disney.  So glad that we didn't skip it.  Otherwise Maura would never have had a chance to change her future profession from "entomologist" to "spandex wearing twirling bird dancer."  And with that, we waved our goodbyes to Disney and headed back to reality.  

Fun times at Hollywood Studios

I'm back at it.  I MUST catch up before we start homeschooling this fall or all will be lost.  Here are the last two day of our Disney adventure.  I was SO excited to take the kids to Hollywood Studios.  It was my favorite part when I visited as a middle school student MANY years ago.  I remember really enjoying the stage shows and I have WONDERFUL memories of riding the Tower of Terror with our friends Michael and Hannah WAY back before we all had kids.  I wasn't sure how the kids would do with the stage shows, but I KNEW that they'd love the Toy Story ride.  With that in mind, we got to the park early and rushed to the Toy Story ride before it attracted a huge crowd.  I'm so glad we did this first.  The kids just loved it and they BEGGED to go again.  Thankfully, we'd grabbed some Fast Passes, so we were in luck!  Bennett did his best to fire my laser gun, significantly decreasing my opportunities for scoring(at least that's what I told Brent when we compared scores).

Soon after, we wondered on over to Disney Junior and slipped in as they were closing the doors for the Playhouse Disney stage show.  I knew that Bennett would love this, but wasn't quite prepared for his level of total absorption.  He was glued to that stage, until they started sprinkling confetti, at which time he became a confetti grabbing fool!!

We ran into this interesting figure outside the Toy Story ride.  I remember seeing a similar photo with a friend's child several months previously and this faceless character really freaked me out, but he wasn't so bad in person.  We went in to meet Woody and Buzz.  Thought this would FINALLY be the character that Tristan would be into meeting, but I was wrong.  He felt much more comfortable in Brent's arms.

Next, we had the most fun and highly anticipated event of the day.  We had lunch with the Disney Junior characters.  When Maura and Tristan talked about our trip prior to us leaving, they never failed to mention that they'd be having lunch with Jake(Of Jake and the Neverland Pirates).  They were SO pumped.  Unfortunately, Jake was nowhere to be seen as we entered the restaurant.  Maura was OK to content herself with meeting Manny.  Tristan...not so much.  He spent the first part of our lunch trying to escape from and get as far away from Manny as possible.  Poor Manny!

Suddenly, it was parade time and Maura helped to lead the parade around the restaurant.  She loved dancing in the parade with all the characters.  Next up was Oso.  For some reason, this huge bear didn't scare Bennett as much as some of the more human looking characters.

JAKE!!  JAKE!!  My kids yelled at Jake from across the restaurant.  When he finally got to us, what a difference in my little big man!  He was THRILLED to meet him.  The kids immediately started handing Jake the gold doubloons(paper confetti) we'd gathered at the Disney Junior show.  Apparently they don't go over that particular happenstance in Jake costume training.  He had no idea what to do with this confetti.  Eventually, he tucked it into his waistband and went on about his business, but not before we got some great, SMILING photos of Tristan with his hero!

I'm so thrilled that we were able to give the kids this opportunity.  They loved it so much.  It was one of their favorite things we did at Disney and was my favorite character lunch that we experienced.  Even Bennett really seemed to enjoy himself--or maybe it was just the unlimited lemonade!

We rode several rides and eventually found ourselves in the Hall of Animation because Tristan just HAD to meet Mr. Incredible.  Thinking that we'd had a breakthrough with Jake, we foolishly agreed to take him to meet Mr. Incredible.  At which point he melted into Daddy's chest and refused to give so much as a high five!  I had a similar experience with Bennett, who spied Mickey in a corner and tore off to see him.  I managed to wrestle Bennett into the line and we waited a moment to meet Mickey again.  Remembering our last Mickey experience where Bennett threw himself into Mickey's arms, I prepared myself for something equally memorable.  It was not to be.  Bennett would not give so much as a high five to his hero.  Oh well!

We got the inside scoop on where to wait for the parade from a Disney cast member and stationed ourselves right at the entrance to the parade route.  The kids were thrilled to see the characters from UP.  Tristan and Bennett took a much needed rest on their equally exhausted daddy while we waited.

And THIS is where the obsession begins.  Brent took Tristan and Maura to ride Star Tours, which they wanted to ride again immediately.  We indulged them and they came out for a jaunt on this Star Wars vehicle.  That was all she wrote.  Tristan has been obsessed with Star Wars since that moment!  He enjoys playing with Brent's "Darth Bader" and "Luke the Skywalker" ever since!

Tristan's other obsession was easy to please.  We went to the car stunt show, and Lightning McQueen showed up!  Tristan was thrilled!  Lightning zipped all around the stage, dodging fire and other cars.  Tristan's eyes were HUGE!  He also loved meeting his heros, Lighning and Matar RIGHT outside.  This time, he had NO fear!!

It was a crazy day at Hollywood Studios, but a crazy FUN day.  I can't wait to take the kids again someday when they can actually enjoy the stage shows a bit more.  I did take Maura on the Tower of Terror. It was a bit intense for her, but she showed me her bravest face, and then told me that she was NOT going to ride that again!  In a few years, my little adrenaline junkie.  In a few years...