That's What She Said

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Day 1 - Animal Kingdom

This is a continuation of the post below of pictures from Animal Kingdom.

Adam and Abby at the Lion King show. Doesn't he look happy? Keep in mind, he had gotten up at 4:30 a.m. that morning so it had been a long day!

Lion King show, which is supposed to be the best show in Disney. It was pretty good. Abby really liked it.

Abby, Adam and Minnie Mouse.

Abby, Adam and Mickey Mouse.

Abby and Brer Rabbit.

Us with Goofy.

Abby, Adam and Donald Duck.

Mid-day parade in Animal Kingdom.

Adam had finally had enough. This was the first of a number of naps for Adam. He would just go and go until he couldn't go anymore.

Seth and Abby on the Triceratops ride.

Abby, Pluto and Goofy.

At the end of the day, Adam was sleeping and Abby was too tired to walk. Seth propped her up on his shoulders for the long walk to the bus that would take us to dinner.

This is the view from our dinner table at Sanaa, a restaurant inside the Animal Kingdom Lodge, one of the hotels near Animal Kindgom. It was pretty cool to watch live animals right near your table. The food was really good, too. What sucked was getting there. We had been give wrong information about three times as to where this restaurant was actually located because it is new. It took us three bus rides and about an hour and a half to get to dinner. We were very frustrated but it was worth it.

Abby and Adam being goofy at dinner. Even though Abby's birthday was the next day, Disney let's you celebrate whenever you want. Some African ladies who worked at the restaurant sang Abby an African birthday song with drums that was pretty cool. She liked that.

Animals fighting at dinner.

Abby and Adam fast asleep after a bus ride, a long walk back to our resort, and a bath. You can see Abby's two ballerina Barbies and Adam's two stuffed dogs, Buddy and Bo, tucked in with them. (Jess, recognize the blanket? Still goes with us everywhere he goes. :) )

Stay tuned for pictures from the rest of the trip!

Saturday, June 20, 2009

The Big Disney Vacation

After months of planning, our Disney vacation has come and gone. On the one hand, it was a much-needed break from sress and work and everyday life. One the other hand, it was hotter than hell and we were constantly on the go so it wasn't really relaxing. But having all that time with the kids and Seth - time together that we don't usually get - was really great. We are very blessed to have a wonderful and beautiful family. For as hot as it was, the kids were SO good, really didn't complain too much, and had a great time. Hearing Abby say, "This is the best birthday ever!" and seeing the smiles on thier faces all week long made it all worth it.

I have a TON of pictures - 775 to be exact. I can't believe we took that many. I will not be posting all of those on here, but hopefully over the next few days I will post a little from each day to give you a sense of what we did. So...here is the first installation.

I took Thursday, June 11, off work to get ready for the trip. I literally spent all day cleaning, packing, doing laundry, and running around trying to get last minute things. I swear I spent so much time on this vacation it was exhausting. Thursday night (after the kids took baths) we started celebrating Abby's birthday a bit. We wanted her to be able to open some presents so she opened a couple from us and some from Seth's family.

Abby got a lot of books this year, which is great because she loves to read.

Adam helping Abby open her ballerina Barbie.

We had the kids get to bed shortly after because we had to get up super early on Friday, the 12th. I think Seth and I had our alarms set for 4 a.m. and we had to leave the house by 5. Our flight was at 7 - so early.

This is Abby and Adam on the plane. You can see Abby was all smiles and Adam, not so much. This will be a recurring theme throughout the vacation pictures. Adam will not smile on cue so it looks like he is miserable the entire time, but I guarantee you, he was not. I think he's just stubborn! Abby, though, will smile at anything!

We brought our little DVD player so the kids could keep entertained on the plane. This is them watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

This is Seth, Abby and Adam on Disney's Magical Express, the bus that takes you from the airport in Orlando to the resort.

Abby and Adam on the bus. There's one of the few smiles you'll see out of Adam that we actually caught on camera. After we checked in our resort, The Boardwalk Inn, we went to Animal Kingdom.

Here is the entrance.

This is the tree that is the centerpiece of the park.

Abby and Adam at the park.

Me, Abby and Adam in front of "Mount Everest" (way in the background - this is part of the big roller coaster there called Expedition Everest. We didn't get to ride it - it's hard to ride the big rides when the kids aren't tall enough or don't want to ride them).

We went on a "safari" ride and here are some hippos under water.

A rhino.

An African dancer.

Me and Abby in the Lion King show.

Seth and Abby in the Lion King show.

More from Animal Kingdom in my next post...

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Abby's Birthday Party

We had Abby's 6th birthday party on Saturday at Monkey Joe's, a place that has bounce houses and slides. Abby loves it and it was a good time. For the money, which is a bit pricey, the kids got to play for a long time and Seth and I were relatively stress-free, which we really needed the weekend before our vacation.

Abby and Adam climbing up to a slide. The last time we were at Monkey Joe's Adam could not do this and Abby never would have been able to get herself up at this age. He is such a boy and so good with his gross motor skills.