Animal Kingdom - Part 1

We took the kids and Grandma Bette to Animal Kingdom today.  The weather was perfect for going to a theme park.  It was a very busy day and I tried to capture the moments with my camera.  It was our first time taking the kids there and while I don't think we will go back until we go to all the other Disney theme parks, I'm glad we went. It wasn't very crowded but there weren't a whole lot of rides for the kids to go on. There was however a lot of different shows to see.  We saw The Lion King, Nemo, and It's hard to be a bug (4D show) which was fun! Scott and I went on the Expedition Everest Roller Coaster which was really fun!  We can't wait until the kids are a bit taller so they can enjoy everything!

Arrived bright eyed and bushy tailed 30 mins. before the park opened.

Someone doesn't like to get his picture taken.  About to go in!

The tree of life right as you enter!

Here we go!

Our first ride.

Katie and Grandma.

Cuties.

Scott, Mikey and Grandma on the rapids.

The park is so elaborate with themes everywhere.

Family photo in front of the Tree of Life.

Watching the monkeys swing behind them.

The huge Christmas Tree decorated with all animals at Animal Kingdom.

She has her Disney gear on.

Katie's hairdo for the day.  It kept it out of her eyes and face and I didn't have to touch it once.

The smart and short one.  We waited for Scott, Grandma and Mikey to go on the rapids ride.  I didn't want to get wet and Katie was to short.

While we waited everyone who came off just had a sprinkling of water, but Mikey, Grandma and Scott were soaked.  Can you tell from their stance?!  Scott was damp the rest of the day and I had a change of clothes for Mikey.  Grandma wasn't as wet as the boys.

A little snack on a rickshaw.

Wake up Tiger!

Thank you!

After a few rides and seeing animals it was time to hug it out.

And more hugs.

Banging on drums.

He loved it.  I got great videos of him banging away.

And more hugs.

Silly time with Daddy while waiting in line to see The Lion King show.

These two are so cute!

The best thing at Animal Kingdom!

The show was great, but was even better was Scott and I staring at Mikey's face the whole time.  It transformed him.  He will tell you that was his favorite part of the day!

Safari ride time!

Lots of hippos hanging out in the water.

Do you know they can hold their breath for 8 minutes?!

A huge amount of crocs.  

Lots for little Katie to see.

Lots for these two to see too.

Giraffe!

Pretty amazing to see them reach up and eat the leaves off the palm trees.

:)

So thankful to be able to take trips and make memories like this.  Makes me one happy Mama!

I spy.

Lots of elephants.

A cheetah.

An ostrich and half a dozen eggs (to the right).

Zebras.

Florida Bound

We flew down to Florida to enjoy a week of vacation, take the kids to Disney and celebrate Thanksgiving with family.  The kids were beyond excited to go to Disney!

This big girl gets her very own seat on the plane.  Which means that Scott and I do to!

Look, our own plane!  Well that or we just had priority boarding.

My travel buddy and I are getting sleepy.

Fresh air and lots of space to run and play.

Grandma Bette brought over 3 bins filled with toys.  This was Mikey's favorite.  A transformer that Scott used to play with.

The house we rented came with a golf cart.  The kids loved going for rides.

We did a bit of coloring and playing Angry Birds and sitting and talking.

Mikey and Uncle Dave had a lot of fun on the ipad and tablet.

Angry Birds are so funny.

Katie and Grandma Bette reading Clifford.

A Katie selfie with Aunt Barb and Great Grandma Ruth.

The kids were captivated every night by The Big Bad Wolf.

Holiday Shopping

I have been trying to get in some holiday shopping while the kids are at school, however it's always more fun to shop with a buddy.  I took Katie with me today while Mikey had school.

I love her to bits.

The huge decorations in the middle of the mall.  We will have to come back to see Santa.

She picked out a pink cake pop at Starbucks.

Saying Hi to a stranger.  She is very social.

Mikey's first play date with friends from school

We had a play date at our home with the girls in Katie's 2 year old class a little while ago.  It was a little chaotic with 4 little girls in our home so I didn't get any pictures.

It's usually really busy during drop off and pick up that I can't really have a lengthy conversation with any of the moms.  We communicate more through email, phone calls and texts.  So I finally scheduled a play date with Mikey and one of his friends from school Parker.  It was a last minute type of thing so  I'm glad we could make it work!

It was so much fun watching the boys play together and see how much different it is than when the girls play together.  I have to laugh at the pictures I took because they are all blurry.  The boys were all over the place and of course they didn't sit still for a second.  They loved colliding into each other on the couch and saying "Cannonball!" before jumping onto all the pillows they threw in a heap on the floor.

They would each start at the opposite ends of the couch and run towards each other.

They could have really banged heads so many times but they had fun and there was lots of laughing so we just supervised really closely.  Katie got in on the action too....just a little.