Disney -Day 3

Boys up at 8am. To MGM- now called Disney's Hollywood Studios. Arrive 9:30am

Day full of shows. While one of us rode the bigger rides with Samuel the other would take Benjamin to shows.

The boys have been collecting those stamped pennies from each park. Very fun.

Rides/shows: Tower of Terror- Samuel and kim
Rockin roller coaster- chris only
Star tours- Samuel and Chris
Little mermaid, Beauty and the beast, Indy jones stunt show, Star wars demonstration, muppet 3-D movie.

Home for a brief nap at 3:30.

Back to MGM at 6pm for the evening show Fantasmic. Ate at the show. It was so wonderful. Everyone loved it.

In Bed: 9pm

Pics below- including some from our cabin. It had a back bedroom with bunk beds and a full bed. Bathroom, full kitchen and murphy bed. We ate breakfast each morning there and took a packed lunch into the park. Dinner was all Disney!

Disney- day 3

Disney- Day 2

Up at 7am- breakfast in cabin- off to the Magic Kingdom

Beautiful day. Sunny and in the 70's. With the holiday over lines are much shorter. Longest wait was 20 mins. Will be the longest wait of the week!

Rides today: Peter Pan, Dumbo, Pirates of Carribean, Space Mountain, Mickey Philharmonic, Big Thunder Mountain, Its a small world, Poohs ride, Carosel, Transit Authority, Speedway, Carosel of Progress, Train, Buzz lightyear, and Goof Barnstormer.

Favorite memory: While riding the train around the park the boys got to be honorary conductors. They rode in the back of the train with the conductor and gave the "all aboard" and their names.

Characters seen today: Pooh, eeyore, Mickey, Piglet, Tigger

Samuel's favorite ride: Big thunder mountain- roller coaster
Benjamin's favorite ride: Goofy Barnstormer- roller coaster
Kim's favorite ride: Big Thunder mountain
Chris' favorite ride: Big Thunder mountain

Cool disney feature- rider switch- one parent goes up and rides with Samuel who is tall enough to ride that ride, the other parent gets a rider switch ticket and sits with Benjamain. As soon as they get off, the other parent plus up to 2 more people get in the fast pass line and wait a max of 5 mins. to ride the ride. Samuel rode many coasters back to back with us.

Dinner: Crystal Palace- character meal buffet dinner. Chef came out and walked us through the line to tell me what was safe for samuel to eat.

Favorite dinner memory: Benjamin is waving and bouncy in his seat at Pooh bear, waiting for him to get to our table. Just as Pooh arrives, Benjamin falls out of his seat with excitement and hits his head on the ground. Note the picture of him sobbing with Pooh. Once he recovers, we find Pooh is more than willing to see him again. Benjamin dives into his arms as Pooh bear rubs his head.

Bedtime: 8:30

Pics below

Disney- Day 2

Disney- Day 1

We left Grams house and raced to get the rental car back in time- no sweat, 30 secs. to spare.

We took the shuttle to the cabins, unpacked the food and hit the road to the Magic Kingdom (4pm).

The lines were long today. While waiting we saw some friends the boys know from Adventure guides. Go figure.

Rides: Pooh ride, Pirates of the Carribean, Haunted Mansion

Dinner: Whispering Canyon in the Wilderness Lodge

Bed: 10pm

Pictures from Day 1 below

Disney Day 1

Florida 2008

I thought I would try and get some information regarding our trip on the blog for all to enjoy.

We started out trip with a stop at Great Grandma's house. What a great time. We were quickly joined by Frank and his family. The cousins had so much fun together. It was a fast but wonderful 48 hours.

Those we got to visit with include: Great Grandma, Grandma, Uncle Keith and Aunt Salli, Joshua, Frank, Katherine, Olivia and Elias.

Florida 2008

Christmas Day

11:51- We are done opening gifts. It has been a wonderful morning. Everyone was so generous and the boys and I are crazy happy with the wonderful things we got.

Some hightlights from our family:

Samuel: DS Lite gaming system from Santa and Legos, legos, legos
Benjamin: Trucks, building toys, books, keyboard
Daddy: Santa brought him (us) a Wii. He also got a DVD burner- here come more awesome videos
Mommy: An ipod nano from daddy- WOW! A navigational system to be shared with daddy.

Santa brought us all fishing poles!

Thank you all for the awesome gifts. We truly love them. We wish you could be here to share with us.

A link to some Christmas pictures below.

Christmas Day 2007

8:00am- Everyone is up. Santa has come. They are savoring their stockings. Samuel is just like uncle Frank, taking FOREVER to look at the collectors cards he got in his stocking. Much more later. We are just getting started.

Christmas Eve Day

7:54pm-
The boys are in bed! Since our last post this is what we have done. We had our traditional fondue dinner, yummy! After cleaning up, we made some sugar cookies and the boys decorated gingerbread cookies for Santa. We lit our last Advent candle and read the Christmas story in Luke. Next was sprinkling our reindeer food (oatmeal and glitter) out on the lawn. Finally to our favorite tradition, the Christmas Eve book exchange. We concluded the evening by tracking Santa on Norad- he was in Novia Scotia. Now to straighten up the house, finish wrapping and get the gifts out. Good night!

Christmas Eve 2007- click on picture above for more pictures from the evening

3:42pm- home from church, getting the boys settled with a Christmas movie. Here is a family picture.

1:23pm (CST)- Spent the morning on the playground. That helped burn off some energy. Now we are off to church. Let the celebration begin!

9am

We will attempt to put up photos and brief descriptions of our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day activities to keep you all posted. Kim will be doing most of the typing so don't look for too much clever stuff! Look for continued updates to this post. We will label a new one Christmas day for tomorrow.

Merry Christmas- We miss you all.

Jingle Bells 2007

Some video of the boys getting into the holiday spirit.

Click To Play

Click here for a larger version.

Enter the Matrix

Here is a little video I put together while goofing around with Adobe Premiere Elements and Photoshop.

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Click here for a larger version.

Schlitterbahn waterpark

Galveston now has a Schlitterbahn waterpark, which we have been meaning to try out for some time. We finally got around to it a few weeks ago, and it was worth the trip. Benjamin and Samuel went on all of the rides/slides with us. Benjamin even went down a pretty fast slide all by himself. Woohoo! It rained in the middle of the day for a short time, but stayed in the covered section of the park and waited it out. Next year -- season passes!

Garner State Park

Last month we made the trek across Texas and camped at Garner State Park. It's so popular that you have to make reservations a year in advance, and we found out why. There was so much to do. We hiked, biked, and played in the Frio River, which runs through the park. The river has a nice current, so you can float down it on tubes. We did this twice, and everyone had a great time. We also hiked the trails in the surrounding hills and "discovered" two small caves. Benjamin has been telling us every day since we got back that he wants to go camping again. We're already planning our reservations for next year.
I've posted some pictures of the trip here:

Garner State Park

And a few photos of us playing on the river here:

Frio River