Disney World - Day Two

On our second day at Disney World we went to the Animal Kingdom. Jason and I spent the Millennium New Year there so I was excited to see some of the things we saw on that trip. We first went to show Zachary the big fake tree that is in the middle of the park. It totally looks real from far away. You actually go inside it to see a 3-D Bug's Life movie. It was pretty funny because Zachary kept trying to catch the bugs in the air. Here is that tree....

After that we walked around a bit to show Zach some of the animals they had there. He didn't seem as impressed with this park as he was with Magic Kingdom. That wasn't too surprising though. Magic Kingdom is really neat, especially if you are four years old. We were lucky enough to walk by a super model that was posing for people by a waterfall. See below, you may know her.

We headed over to where the new ride was, Everest, pictured below. Of course Zachary wanted to ride it but unfortunately he wasn't tall enough. Sadly, neither Jason nor I got to ride it so I couldn't tell you if it was fun. I thought this picture was pretty neat though with the sun rays.

We did end up riding the river raft water ride that was by Everest. But unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of it. Zach enjoyed it but not as much as Splash Mountain. Next we headed over to the Dino area where it was more kid friendly. We were heading to the Dinosaur ride and came across Goofy and Pluto.

Here are Zach and I in front of the Dinosaur ride. The ride is inside in the dark. It's got some pretty big dinosaurs that pop up. I wasn't really paying attention to it because I was so worried that Zachary was scared. I was basically holding on to him to make him feel better if he was scared. Jason had kind of the same idea. He was covering his eyes when there were big dinosaurs. Anyway, rides like this take your picture at usually the scariest part of the ride. You check the pictures out after the ride is over and we laughed when we saw ours. I am completely hunched over Z protecting him (as if the dinosaur is actually going to attack us) and Jason is also covering his eyes. People were laughing at it. We ended up buying it because it was so funny.

Here is another dinosaur ride in the kiddy area. It was pretty tame compared to the first one.

We decided to rest and eat lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. It's such a neat place to eat. I wish Gulfport would get one.

After lunch we headed over to see Mickey, Minnie & Donald. We had to wait in line for a while but Zach did so well. He was just so excited to meet them. He never once mentioned the fact that they don't talk.

After Mickey and friends we headed over to the safari ride. It's not all that exciting but we thought Z would enjoy seeing the animals. And it would give us a chance to rest. It was pretty humid that day. I won't bore you with animal pictures but I thought this tree was pretty cool. It looks like it's upside down. The top of it looks like roots.

After a very long bus ride back to the hotel Zach and Jason swam for a bit. They swam just about every day. I can't believe I didn't take pictures of the pool. They have a really neat volcano slide that goes into the pool. We decided to head to MGM Studios (which is now called Hollywood Studios, however, I still call it MGM) that evening because it stayed open later than normal for people who are staying at a Disney resort. We tried going on the Toy Story ride but the wait was 70 minutes. So we headed over to the Star Wars simulation ride. Z LOVED it. Lucky for us there was no line so we went a number of times. It was getting kind of late so that's all we did there. We decided to head back the next morning. Here are Jason and Z on our way up to the Star Wars ride.As we were leaving the park I thought this would make a good picture. It's really neat at night.

Disney World - Day One

Jason, Zachary and I went to Disney World last week. Addison stayed with Martin and Linda so we could really enjoy the time with Zachary. He loves Mickey and friends so I knew he was going to have a blast. And he did. Thank you so much Linda and Martin for watching Addie for us! We drove down on Saturday a little anxious because at that point we weren't sure what Hurricane Ike was going to do. One of the computer models had it heading straight for Florida. Most hotels will let you cancel within 24 hours of your arrival with no penalties but not Disney World. If there was an actual Hurricane warning issued then we could have gotten out of it but they won't issue one until maybe 48 hours before the hurricane is supposed to hit. So we went, crossing our fingers that Ike would head into the Gulf. Which normally, when we are home, we hope the hurricane will hit Florida! Here is Z on the way there.....

We get there Saturday early evening. We stayed at a random hotel that was near Disney World for the first night. I felt bad because poor Zachary thought we were going on the rides as soon as we got there. We let him swim that night so he got over his disappointment. On Sunday we got up and headed over to the hotel to see if we could possibly check in early. Normally check in is around 3 or 4 and this was 8:30 in the morning. We were lucky and they had a room available. One of the pluses of going in the off season. We stayed at the Polynesian. My dad told me that that is where we stayed when my family went when I was in grade school. Once we got there I remembered it. It is such a great place to stay with kids. Awesome pool and beach (where you can watch the fireworks from the Magic Kingdom), it is centrally located so very easy to get to the monorail which will take you to the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Here we are by the small beach that is at our resort (you can see the M.K. castle in the back ground to the right of me).

After we checked in we headed over to the Magic Kingdom. Zachary was so excited at the possibility of seeing Mickey. When we walked into the park they were doing at show at the castle. It was a neat way to start off Zachary's first experience of Disney World.

After the show we headed over to Thunder Mountain. This was one of the few bigger roller coasters that Z was tall enough to ride. He's barely 40 inches (which is the limit) so they pretty much made us measure him every time we went on a big ride. About a month ago Zachary had a nightmare about bats. I think maybe it came from watching Scooby Doo where there are bats in the opening sequence. Anyways, the first thing that happens on Thunder Mountain is you go in a cave and there are bats flying around. My eyes just about popped out of my head. He didn't seem to be scared by them though. He loved the ride so we ended up going on it a number of times throughout the week. Here are Jason and Z in front of Thunder Mountain.

After Thunder Mountain we went on Splash Mountain. This is the water ride that has a big drop at the end of it. Zachary LOVED it. We had to ride it again right away. Even though September is still kind of hot and humid it is a great time to go because there are hardly any lines. We never really had to wait in a line for the rides (at least not very long if at all). It was awesome. Here we are in front of Splash Mountain.

Zachary wanted to ride the Aladdin ride. It was a little hard to get a good picture because it moved up and down. Z lucked out because Aladdin actually rode in his "flying carpet." Which meant that he got to go to the front of the line to get his picture taken with him and the chick (can't remember the princesses name in that movie). The only thing we really had to wait in line for was to get a picture taken with the characters (which happened to be one of Z's favorite things to do).

You will see in most of the pictures Zachary is either making a funny face or looking away from the camera. He's in his 'not liking pictures' phase again. Those of you who know me well will not be surprised by my excitement when I discovered that the parks had frozen cokes. I was very happy that I didn't have to go through withdrawal from my coke icees. Here is Z enjoying one. He loves them as much as I do.

Zachary wanted to go in a race car and this is the closest thing they had. Jason said it was pretty lame because the car barely moved. Like I said, one of Zach's favorite things to do was meet the characters. Goofy was the first character Z got to meet (well besides Aladdin but he doesn't know who Al is).

You can request to ride up front with the driver of the monorail. We lucked out and got to do it on the way home that first day. Zachary thought this was pretty neat and called the driver a "Station Master" which is from Thomas the Train.

That night while I was engrossed in my book Jason and Zach went down to the beach to watch the fireworks. The Magic Kingdom shoots them off every night at 9pm. The beach was a great place to watch them. They also had water "floats" with lights on them that went around the lake.This is going to take me a while to go through all the days so bare with me. It may take me a while to get them all posted. In the mean time, have a nice day!

First Day of School

This is a little late but better late than never. A few weeks ago the kids started school. Addison's is really just Mother's Morning Out (once a week). Zachary is in Pre-K Four. He's going to be learning the computer this year and Spanish!

Addie was happy in this picture. When I dropped her off it was another story. She didn't want me to leave her. They said she had a pretty good day but when I came to pick her up she started crying as soon as she saw me. They said almost all of the kids did that so it made me feel better.

Hurricane Gustav

Hurricane Gustav was a little anti-climatic for us. Which is definitely a good thing. We spent a lot of the day on Sunday preparing for it. Jason brought everything that was outside into the garage (patio furniture, plants, toys, etc.). I spent the day vacuuming, doing laundry, and all the things that would need electricity just in case we lost power for a few days. It started raining Sunday night. On Monday we got up to more rain and some wind. We actually did lose power around 10a.m. Luckily we had borrowed a generator from Jason's parents so we turned it on and got power back in like three rooms. We were able to watch the news and see what was happening with the storm. We ended up getting our power back later that day so it really wasn't bad at all. Nothing like Katrina. I tried taking some pictures but they really don't show the wind and rain at all. I'll only post one. We still had some rain and wind today but tonight is pretty much back to normal. We are heading to Disney World this weekend, at least that is the plan for now. There is Tropical Storm Hanna, Ike & Josephine out in the Atlantic right now. Hanna won't really impact us but Ike & Josephine could really put a damper on our vacation. Anyhoo, here are a few pictures from yesterday.Our cat, Lainey, enjoyed watching the storm.
Zachary enjoying some cookies. What else is there to do besides eat when you have no power!
Addison likes Cheerios but only when she can get them out of the box by herself.

The Water Pad

Over the weekend we took the kids to the water pad that was built not too long ago. It's all the way down by the beach. I wish they would build one up by us because Zachary loves it. Addison decided to chill out, drink some water and eat some cookies before setting out to play.

Zachary wanted to play on the playground first. I guess he likes to get nice and hot before going over to the water part. It's a pretty neat play area although not really toddler friendly.
Having said that, our toddler will do just fine in a few months when she's a little bit bigger. Addison will climb on anything. She's still a little unstable but it won't be long.
Here is the water pad. It was a pretty hot Saturday so there were quite a few people there.

Here is Zachary pleading with Jason to get wet with him.

Jason finally gives in and they get soaked. Addison really wasn't that interested in getting wet. Which is weird because she loves the water. Jason finally picked her up to see what she would do. She kept on eating her cookie.

Cowboy Hat

Addison had on Zachary's cowboy hat the other day. I remember taking a picture of Z in the hat a long time ago. They definitely resemble one another!

Welcome with Love

I am so happy to announce the arrival of my niece, Carson Lilly Newkirk. She was born August 15th at 9:30 a.m. She weighs 6lb. 13oz and is 17.5 inches long. Look at how absolutely precious she is!! Both Angie & Carson are doing well. Barry is a happy papa and I'm sure Cooper is super excited about being a big brother. Congratulations Angie & Barry!! I can't wait to meet Carson!

More pictures

Here are some pictures that Martin sent me yesterday. They are so precious I had to share.