DisneyWorld Pictures

Blogger is giving me issues trying to upload pics into my blogs so here is a picture blog...the pictures aren't in any kind of order...I'll upload somemore tomorrow!

DisneyWorld May 2010

We just got in from Florida yesterday afternoon. We had a blast! We left the afternoon of May 22nd and drove to PCC in Pensacola, getting there at about 12:45 am. Me and Kyle and the boys went and visited Breanna and Steve for a little while since they were still up. We all got up the next morning and went to IHOP and then drove the rest of the way to Orlando.

Our vacation house was awesome. It had 3 king size suites, 1 queen, and a Mickey Mouse themed kids room with bunk beds, all with their own bathrooms. We also had a private pool and hot tub, a kitchen, washer and dryer, and a large playroom with a Playstation 2, toys and a large air hockey table.

Once we got unpacked we went and ate at Fudruckers, where they had a lady going around making balloon objects. Aidan and Jackson and Colby got balloon swords, which was a really bad choice for them to have in a restaurant...Tyler got a fishing hat and Gracie of course got Minnie ears. When we were done eating the men took all the kids home and the ladies went to Walmart to get groceries and snacks for the week.

We got up on Sunday and decided to go to Magic Kingdom first. That probably wasn't the best idea since I think it is one of the biggest parks with the most rides. If I had known I would have chosen a smaller park, like Animal Kingdom, to start off with so we wouldn't have been so tired the first day! But we had fun despite the heat and the crowds. I rode Splash Mountain with Jackson, who had never ridden a roller coaster before and did not like it one bit. There was a small drop in the middle of the ride and after that he was terrified. I felt so bad for him because I knew there was a big one at the end and I knew it was gonna scare him to death. So the rest of the ride was ruined for me because I just knew it was gonna traumatize the poor baby. He cried for about 5 minutes after the ride and was fine after that. Oh yeah! While we were walking around Colby stuck his hand into a bush and came out with a bird! Of course everyone freaked out and we fussed and told him he was giving the bird a heart attack and not to catch any more animals on our trip. I wish I would have gotten a picture! We were exhausted by that afternoon and decided to go home and rest a bit, eat dinner, and go back to the park. When we got back Beckie and the little ones wanted to watch the parade and everyone else (except me and Tyler) wanted to ride Space Mountain. So while they did that Tyler and I rode Buzz Lightyear 4 times! We had a blast!

Monday we went to Epcot, which was a little better because they had a lot of stuff to do inside out of the heat. My mind is blanking on what we did at Epcot, I know we were disappointed that Honey I Shrunk the Audience was closed. We did take some funny pictures in a photo booth. We also rode Nemo a couple of times with the little ones and took them to Turtle Talk. That night we went to Medieval Times. I had no idea what to expect. They told us to get there an hour early so we did and we ended up getting decent seats but we had nothing to entertain the kids with so it was kinda a rough wait and we were tired and annoyed by the time the show started but still excited. Our knight was the blue night, and he lost. The food was pretty good, and eating there was right up Jacksons alley since there were no utensils and we had to eat everything with our fingers! The kids were impressed and enjoyed the whole thing. Gracie got a rose from our knight at the end.

Tuesday we went to Hollywood Studios, which I think everyone agreed was our favorite. We rode Toy Story Mania, watched Prince Caspain, took the Universal Studios tour, and played in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. Kyle, Kayla, Colby, Aidan, and Thomas rode Tower of Terror, which terrified Aidan but did not stop him from riding everything Kyle rode. Colby also rode everything the adults rode and wasn't scared of anything. Tyler is like me, we hate the falling/dropping feeling so we hung back for most of the rides. We watched the Indiana Jones show and Kyle was picked to be in it! He was chosen with about 10 other people and was given his own death scene to act out in front of about 3,000 people. They acted as extras during the "show". He had to dress up as an arabian, with a turban and long tunic. He had so much fun, that is right up his alley! That evening we took the kids to the big pool at the clubhouse that had a 20 ft tunnel slide. I was scared to ride it (yes, I am a big chicken) but Tyler was scared too and I wanted to show him that I was gonna do it so he could too. Well, I didn't want to go down too fast so I sat up as much as I could and dragged my arms on the way down so that I would go down slower which worked...too well. Once I was at the bottom of the tunnel I still had about 6 more feet to go and I was totally stopped. The tunnel wasn't big enough for me to sit up in and scoot my behind down so I had to lay on my back and scoot myself with just my legs, which was very embarrassing. Thomas went after me and also got stuck but it was was funnier because he is about a foot and a half taller than me and had no leverage to get himself out and he was stuck further back. We laughed so hard that the whole pool was watching and clapped when he finally made it out.

Our last day we spent at Animal Kingdom. For me it was one of the best days for several reasons. One, we actually left on time and made it to the park early, which I had planned on doing for every park but that is something you have no control over when you don't have your own vehicle. Anywho, we made it there early enough to where there were basically no lines for any ride. So we rushed over to Expedition Everest where Tyler actually wanted to ride. They had watched a video of part of the ride at home and Tyler thought it didn't look so bad. I tried warning him, I could hear the screams for the riders going down the drop at the end of the ride but he was confident that the ride wasn't scary. So Beckie, Kyle, Kayla, Thomas, Colby, Aidan, and Tyler rode the first time. Tyler was alright when he came off, but refused to ride it a second time. Dave decided he was gonna ride it though and got off clammy, pale, and sweating. Everyone but Kayla rode the Rapids next which was very fun. I stayed mostly dry the first ride and Beckie and Dave got soaked. It was awesome, they did not have a dry spot anywhere! Tyler and the little ones wanted to ride again so we rode a second time and Jackson and I got completely drenched! It was fine though because it kept us cool for the rest of the afternoon. We rode the Safari and saw bats and tigers and a few other exotic animals. We watched a really cute show about birds that everyone enjoyed. We did several 3-d type shows which completely freak Jackson out. He ends up taking the glasses off. We did one about bugs and they turn off the lights and pretend to spray us with bug killer (smoke) and he was scared the whole time after that. We went to "Dinoland" after that and we rode Dinosaur and then Primeval Whirl, which is a close to a roller coaster as I am gonna get. The kids played in the fossil playground, which they loved.

Wednesday night Beckie watched the kids while us big kids went to Downtown Disney. We ate at House of Blues and shopped. I kept getting nauseated all that evening so when we got home I took some Phenergan and went to bed. The next morning I was still tired and the little ones wanted to stay home and swim so Kayla and Thomas took Tyler and Colby back to the parks, Kyle and I stayed home with Aidan, Jackson, and Gracie. Dave played golf. That evening we met everyone back at the parks and watched the fireworks at Epcot.

We left Friday morning and stopped on our way out and got a few last souvenirs, drove all afternoon and made it to Pensacola Friday evening after a few LONG stops. We spent the night in a tiny (but nice) hotel room and got up the next morning and headed to the Pensacola Beach. I had gotten this weird sunburn rash on my arms shoulders and chest so I didn't want to get anymore sun so I didn't swim but the boys all got to swim in the beautiful clear water, looking for shells and sand dollars. We stayed there for a while until I started getting too hot and then we ended up splitting with the family and heading home. Tyler and Colby stayed behind with Beckie and we took Aidan and Jackson home with us, trying to make it back in time for Aidans first T-ball All-Stars practice yesterday afternoon.

Whew! It was a tiring but fun week, I can't wait to go back!

Homeschool

I have been researching and trying to figure out what we are going to use for homeschooling next year. While the boys have been doing well with A Beka, I think using the Charlotte Mason method is going to work better for us next year. I am tired of fighting with them to get all their worksheets done and not doing school as a family. I love the idea of everyone sitting on the couch listening to me read Swiss Family Robinson and then counting that as school! I also love the idea of the boys learning from "living books" rather than textbooks. I think they will enjoy using Charlotte Mason methods as well. She encourages parents to have their children have a weekly nature walk which my kids will really enjoy. I cant wait to learn about different kinds of birds and trees and flowers with them!

The only downside I see to this curriculum is trying to get it all organized. Hopefully I can get Kyle to sit down with me and help me out with it. The kids will be studying history, math, geography, Bible, hymns, artists, composers, literature, science...I think that is everything. I think they are also supposed to study poetry, but I really hate poetry, so we might skip that! I am really looking forward to planning the new school year!

A blog for Grandma

My grandmother has fussed at me for not blogging enough...so this is for you Grandma!

Here's whats going on with us:

-I am looking forward to school being over with the boys. We still have about a month left to finish since we got started later than all the regular schools. I am looking into doing the Charlotte Mason method with them next year. I think the boys will really like it since she really focuses a lot on nature study.

-We are getting ready to go to Disney in about 2 1/2 weeks with my in-laws. I am NOT looking forward to the drive. My kids don't really travel well. They are super whiny and have to pee a lot. I think we are going to split them all up between 3 cars though, so maybe it wont be too bad. I'll probably get some good books and magazines to read and tune everyone out!

-We are also in the process of getting the house ready to sell. Kyle is actually cutting drywall as we speak. As soon as we get the ceilings done we can put the for sale sign up... I am so ready! I am tired of trying to keep this house clean!

-I go back to the dr tomorrow to see what he has to say about my headaches. I am still having them all day everyday. They are either sharp pains around my eyes or the dull achy pain at the top of my neck. Hopefully he will have something that will help. He gave me some samples of Maltrex which seemed to work but when I went to go pick up a prescription she told me it would be about $8 per pill! I was like, "No thanks!".

I guess that is all for now...I will try to have something more interesting for you later in the week Grandma!