Sunday, October 25, 2009

Scavenger Hunt!

We were in invited by our neighbors to join their team for an adult-only scavenger hunt last night. We met at George's sister (George is our neighbor) and at 7:30 we were given our lists and 2 props that had to be in every picture (the cat mask and the beanie hat) and 2 hours to get as many of the assignments done. There were 6 people on every team (5 teams in all). We had a BLAST!

There were 34 tasks all worth different points. We first went to Great America and had to take a picture with an employee at the exit turn style. Check. One of the other tasks was to take a picture inside a hummer. While we were at Great America, we saw a pink Hummer limo! We begged the driver and the two people inside and they agreed!!! Off to Sears Grand!



Another task was to have the women dress in boxer shorts and the men in women's robes. Check.


Mark got us 125 points for climbing up a flagpole and touching the flag.
One of our last completed tasks performed just shy of the two hour mark was wrapping one of our team members in Saran Wrap and we all had to hold her. Too funny.
We had so much fun all night, and these are only 4 of about 20 photos!Our team won by over 200 points! woo hoo!!!


Thursday, October 22, 2009

A Halloween Preview





Annie and our neighbor, Andrea, came home from school today and decided it would be a great day to try on their Halloween costumes. Andrea is a bride/flower girl (she is still unsure). Annie and Sam borrowed costumes this year from their cousins (Jordan and Kyle) and are Beauty and the Beast. They took this role very seriously and Sam walked Annie down the stairs and danced with her gracefully throughout the family room. Notice Sam's very serious face while he is dancing. He is in a very good mood here, but is trying to play the role of the Beast to perfection.
They are cracking me up!





Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Disney: Day 8




Not sure why my pictures are laid out like this, but I can't seem to move them around, so oh well! Our unexpected night in the airport Hyatt went smoothly. We let the kids finish watching their movie and they were asleep by 9:30. After they fell asleep I took a much needed relaxing bath and Mark was on the Internet trying to make sure we were all sitting together on the plane. The kids really are asleep in these pictures! So cute!
The vacation was amazing. Traveling with kids is not romantic, not relaxing and not smooth sailing. Traveling with kids is fun, is exciting, is magical and I would (and will) do it many more times!






Monday, October 12, 2009

Disney: Day 8

Our flight home on Saturday wasn't until 4:30 pm, so we promised the kids a morning in the pool! They were so excited to not have to run off to another park or ride the bus! They played so well all week and were both swimming under water for over 30 seconds by the week's end.
Sam really enjoyed the little kid's pool area. It had a couple of slides and lots of sprays. He didn't even need anyone to come with, he just played happily for an hour.

Annie enjoyed swimming in the pool with Daddy and having Mark catch her after she went down the water slide. My kids are fearless!


Our way to the bus for the airport, Mark took many pretty scenic pictures of our resort, but I am posting this one with the kids pointing at our room number.



Our flight ended up being delayed two hours and then cancelled after we were already buckled and in our seats. By 9pm we were in the hotel room (thank you United), and had $60 of food vouchers for the next day (Thanks again United). It was a LONG night and evening in the airport, and we should have been home. Fate gave us another night in Florida though. Roll with the punches, though, right?!





Disney: Day 7

Friday was our last full day of vacation, and our last day with park access. We went back to Magic Kingdom in the morning to try and get on some rides that we hadn't been on yet and get one more fill of all the characters. We met Rafiki, Mary Poppins and Pinocchio! If you can't tell from these pictures the kids are more than exhausted this morning as we had gone three days without naps. We stayed just a couple hours, all the lines for the rides were under 5 minutes thankfully.
Thankfully we saw a short, but fun, afternoon parade on Main Street USA before we left for naps. We ended up missing the lights parade at night because I had saved it for Friday night but the park was closed to only the people who had paid for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party (which was $250 a family and we were not about to fork over any more moolah at this point!) It was bummed about missing the lights parade, but now I am glad for something to look forward to next time we are there!

Our last Disney dinner was shared with Pooh and Friends! I didn't realize when I reserved this dinner that it was another character one! It was a great surprise, the kids, especially Sammy, really love Pooh Bear and friends! This picture with Tigger cracks me up!


We were practicing out facial expressions during dinner (sounds weird but the kids enjoy it). They practice making happy, sad, angry and surprised faces. Like we need any practice with drama in this family! Above is Sam's surprise face, below is Annie's cute face.







Disney: Day 6

On Thursday we headed off to Epcot late morning, after sleeping in and swimming. We met with some more characters first. This was the first time we saw Mickey! How could we pass it up?
They had a little interactive movie at Epcot called "Turtle Talk with Crush." It looked like a regular movie screen but Crush talked back and forth with the audience, it was very cool, Dude! While we were waiting for this the kids were mesmerized by the sting rays swimming in right in front of their faces.

We had a special dinner planned along the Disney Boardwalk on Thursday evening. The name of the restaurant is the Flying Fish. It has received awards every year for being one of the best restaurants at Disney. Mark and I thought it was fabulous! The service was great, the food delicious! This picture is of the kids dessert- edible pain with white chocolate puzzle pieces, and a cupcake! It kept them entertained and it was tasty- what more could you ask for?!

We walked back to Epcot after dinner and decided to stop by all the Kidcot stations set up around all the countries. We got back to Epcot late, so we had to literally run from country to country to get all the paper attachments for the mask. This was a fun activity for the kids. Each country had a representative from their own country. At each station they stamped the stick and added an extra piece to the kid's mask. If there was a different written language from that country, they would write the kids name on the back of their mask. Annie was excited because she already knew how to write her name in Japanese! Sam was excited to color his mask!



Monday, October 5, 2009

Disney: Day 5

What can get better than starting out the morning with Goofy?! We had a wonderful character brunch (buffet!) at the Beach Club Resort Wednesday morning. We met Goofy, Minnie and Donald. The kids really enjoyed having meals with the characters! Mark and I really enjoyed watching their faces light up as the characters approached our table.
We spent the majority of the day at Hollywood Studios. We rode rides, watched a fun parade full of Pixar characters (isn't Mr Potato Head cute?!). We also stood in line for an hour to ride the new Toy Story ride for the second time (since it is AWESOME) and then waited in line for another hour to meet Woody and Buzz. The kids were really good waiting in line and we treated them to some evening pool time.

Here is Annie and I (and her new Baby Pluto of course) waiting for the Toy Story Ride.

After 4 nights of sleeping with the kids they decided on their own Wednesday night to make their own beds on the floor. Mark and I could hardly contain our giddiness! They continued to sleep on the floor for the rest of our trip at Disney. They were very proud of themselves that they each made their own bed. Mark and I practically had a parade when we realized they actually fell asleep on the floor and we had the bed to ourselves!!







Disney: Day 4

Tuesday we had planned to spend the whole day at the Animal Kingdom since our guide book said it can easily be done in one day. Here we are at the entrance (got there before the gates opened up!). Another family offered to take a picture of us and we did the same for them.
We made a mad dash towards the safari ride as soon as we got in the park. A couple of co-workers advised us to do this since the animals are most active first thing in the morning. It was awesome to see so many animals in a natural habitat-like setting. We saw giraffes, hippos, rhinos, ibex...all the animals were very active

As were were just walking down a path through Animal Kingdom we just happened to bump into Baloo and King Louie from Mark's favorite movie The Jungle Book!

We went to see a live 20 minute production of the movie Nemo (they made this one into a musical which was pretty cool). The kids enjoyed it. This picture doesn't give the play justice.

The kids had been begging us all morning to get their faces painted, so of course being the awesome parents that we are we said yes. Don't they look cool? Annie kept her paint on until we went swimming that night, Sam had his off by 2pm because he just couldn't help touching it!