Florida Trip, Walt Disney World: Day 1, Hollywood Studios...

Since I'm on a roll updating this blog, I better continue- especially since vacation is over next week

After we decided to head out to Florida, I spent several months researching Disney World. Blog... after blog... after blog... thanks to Pinterest! Although the information was overwhelming at times, I realized that with the amount of money we'd be spending, we needed to make the most of our time there. 

A crowd calendar was very useful in helping to decide which park to visit; we decided on Hollywood Studios first. When we visited about 5 years ago, we only spent half a day at this park; this time it was nice to be able to leisurely walk around. This park doesn't have many ride attractions; instead more shows. In hindsight, it was a good idea to start with this park to warm the kids up to the faster rides and ambiance of Disney.

 

Apparently Florida weather can be very temperamental; the high for this day was in the low 60's, which for our thin skin, was cold! Good thing it was sunny!

Similar to our trip to Disneyland, we used RideMax, a program that allows you to select what attractions you want to go on, then plans out a detailed itinerary for you. We were able to walk right on to attractions... except when they weren't working!

 

Jake and the Neverland Pirate!

 

Toy Soldier from Toy Story

 

 The kids are now old enough to express their dislike for rides- especially fast ones! The Tram ride, part of the Backlot Tour, was one of their favorites since it went slow!

 One of the more popular rides is Toy Story Mania. If you've been to Disneyland, it's very similar to the Buzz LightYear ride; expect instead of shooting a laser, you have to pull back a sling shot/ping pong ball toy. It's really fun and interactive, so we knew the kids would love it! We weren't able to ride this the last time we went, so we were excited there was a minimal wait time thanks to our Fast Pass and Ride Max plan! (Yes, there's really Disney lingo you have to learn in order to make the most of your time... one more term to become familiar with is "stroller pass"- I'll explain later!)

 3-D glasses you need to wear

Garrett LOVES roller coasters... I'll ride most. :) Lisa and I agreed that she would be my "stunt double" if I didn't want to ride with him. The Aerosmith rollercoaster was one we've been on before, so we didn't need to be convinced to ride. (Even Gammy has ridden it on her two previous visits to DW! I'll have to try dig up a picture of that! Ha ha ha)

 

This was our first roller coaster of the trip, so Lisa and I screamed extra loud and several octaves higher than normal- which confused Garrett. He claimed the thought he was sitting by high schoolers. I guess we can't lie, since by our faces, you can see we're having a great time! 

 

Family photo- Kenny is sleeping in the background!

 

We watched the Speed show and Cade enjoyed it!

 

Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater!

 

Took some convincing, but we got these two onto Star Wars! Kenny said it was "awesome"! 

(He's drinking hot cocoa, not coffee... I'm sure Aunty J is wondering!)

 

Hollywood studios closes around 9, and as we were winding down our night, Cade kept begging us to go back to the Toy Story ride. We had finished riding everything on our Ride Max plan, but when we went to see how long the wait was: 60 min!

 We decided to wait... and luckily, it wasn't 60 min... maybe 45 ish.

Goodbye Hollywood Studios... til next time!

Florida Trip: Part 1, Graduation...

We just got home from our cross country trip and are excited to share all the amazing and memorable things we did! It will take several posts to get through the 16 day trip, especially since we took thousands of pics! Don't worry, we'll try to narrow it down to the good pics and not bore everyone! :)

We headed out on Friday, December 13... yes, we aren't superstitious, but the date did make us cringe a little. All was fine. :)

 

We left Maui in the late afternoon and 4 1/2 hours later we arrived in LAX... half an hour early! This was AMAZING news, since we had to grab our luggage and recheck it in for our next leg to Dallas, then Orlando!

 

We are so lucky that the kids are fantastic travelers. Kenny slept while Cade watched iPad. Despite the next two turbulent flights, we arrived safely in Orlando Saturday around noon. We spent Saturday catching up on sleep and relaxing in our condo. 

We were up bright and early Sunday morning to drive 2 hours to Gainesville, FL for Lisa's MBA graduation. 

 We requested a van with a dvd player so the kids would be entertained during the long drive. 

 

Lots of farmland and overcast skies!

 

The graduation ceremony was in a large auditorium that looked like a church! It was beautiful!

 

Lisa's cheering section!

 

I had so much fun dressing Kenny up for the slightly cold weather. The day of graduation was about 60 F, so the boots, tights, and sweater were perfect to keep her warm! For a couple months prior to leaving for our trip, I frequented Savers and found a lot of new/barely used warm clothes for her and Cade, for very cheap!

 

Lisa's boyfriend, Brent, and the two Cades. Yep, Brent has a nephew named Cade as well! :) It was funny because anytime someone called "Cade", both would look. We eventually had to start using last names or initials. 

 

So proud of her accomplishment!

 

Nearly impossible to get all of us to look at one camera! Maybe someone else has a better pic!

 

The kids saw squirrels for the first time! Garrett and Kenny stopped to watch two squirrels "playing"... um, yeah... we quickly realized it wasn't G rated!

 

After graduation we walked to the arena area for a lunch reception hosted by the school. We passed the University of Florida football stadium and couldn't resist posing with the gator. 

 

The kids had fun running around together to get out some of their energy... especially since we had a two hour drive back to Orlando!

 

Garrett "needed" coffee and just so happened to stop at a Dunkin' Donuts! You'll see a lot of food pics this trip!

December... what happened to November?!

EEEEKKK!!! 2013 is zipping by and I need to play some catch up. The end of October and all of November just flew by us! 

Kenny took her first dance class during October Fall Break! 

 

So cute in her leotard and tights! 

 

Kenny the princess and Cade the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. He was also a fireman for another party... darn kid couldn't make up his mind this year! The TMNT costume is actually Uncle Thomas' one from YEARS ago!

 

Our GIANT pumpkin! Yes, it survived til Thanksgiving actually! 

 

Pumpkin was heavier than our two kiddos combined! Impressive, huh! I told G he needs to have a pumpkin patch next year. 

 

Garrett and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary with a dinner at Mama's Fish House! YUM!

 

We flew to Oahu the week before Thanksgiving to celebrate Sydney's birthday... but made sure to meet up with our old roommates from college!

 

Did we tell you Aunty Lisa also surprised Gammy!? Yep yep, we pulled off a surprise visit!

 

While we were on Oahu, we had the kids blessed at a special Japanese temple for their Shichigosan (7-5-3) celebration. Shichigosan is a traditional blessing for ages 7, 5, 3 because in the past, before modern medicine, babies didn't live long enough to often celebrate these birthdays. So, this special blessing was offered to help watch over them. As you can see, Cade needed some convicing: he wasn't the happiest camper that morning.

 

Then he warmed up and smiled for us! Don't they look so adorable!

 

Hanging out with Hoku, Marianne, Shawn, and Joy for Syd's party! Our snowboarding buddies!

 

The next generation of friends! :)