Thursday, January 16, 2014

Vacation Part III - Christmas with the Johnsons

After a couple of days in the park, Mike went to the airport and rented a minivan for our one hour trek to Dad's winter place. I had only learned the week before our vacation that Bob and Drew were coming down and I was pretty excited about it and then I realized that I would be spending Christmas with almost everyone on my side of the family - then I was beyond ecstatic. We left the hotel pretty early so that we could get to where we needed to go and spend time with family. It was Christmas Eve and I still had to wrap gifts and do a load of laundry or the boys would have been naked for Christmas Day.

Christmas Eve Bev and Dad started a new tradition, the planted seeds (breath mints) in sugar before the boys went to bed.  In the morning they grew to be large candy canes - the boys thought that was the coolest thing ever.
Christmas morning for me started at 5:22 a.m.  I tried for 40 minutes to keep the boys in bed and at 6 a.m. I gave up.  We slept out in the living room with the boys and Aunt Brenda and the Christmas tree so that I could contain them if they got up early and got up early they did.

Dad and Bob

Drew refusing to show her face!

The Scott kids
After opening gifts we moved on to breakfast about the time normal people actually getting out of bed at 6:15 a.m.
While Bev was making breakfast for all 11 of us, Dad was outside hanging with us Johnson kids and the boys thought it would be cute to stick their butts out the opened sliding door.  Dad was quick with the rake and then it became a game to the big kid and the little boys.


Then we headed to the beach.  It was high tide and the water was cold but fun was had by all.
Johnson kids minus one (Katie)

uh oh - looks like trouble

Grandpa and his granddaughters

Ian in the ocean - this kid was soaked 2 minutes after getting his feet wet.
The vacation started a little shaky with whining boys at the cruise terminal and tired voices were heard throughout the vacation but what a vacation.  The boys still talk about the cruise and park and want to go back.  I had a wonderful time with my husband and kids and the big bonus was for us to spend Christmas with my side of the family.  I know this family is loud and obnoxious at times, but dang it we made some memories.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Vacation Part II (Disneyworld)

After getting off the cruise we headed to our hotel via a 10 passenger van. We were 5 minutes away from getting to the hotel and I hear from the back seat, "I'm going to puke" and if I've learned anything in these last 5 1/2 years it's when Logan says he's going to puke he is going to puke! I had nothing to catch it, the first wave hit him and the floor and then I grabbed the industrial sized trash bags that held the car seats and gave it to him. The poor lady that was driving just took it all in stride and I'm waiting to see the cleaning bill on my credit card.

Some of the characters that were around our hotel.
Once we got our luggage into our room, we grabbed some snacks headed to the park.  Just as we were getting on the bus to take us to Magic Kingdom Lauren fell ill. So I had to make a decision to either go with Mike to help with the boys or to take Lauren back to the room.  She said she could go back herself and I watched her walk back to the room while awarding myself "the mother of the year" award.

The boys were so excited to see Alice and luckily the line was quite short.

Lauren texted me about an hour after we got to the park and said she was feeling better and was on the bus to meet us.  There were apparently no other pictures taken from the first one in the park (above) until later that evening...I'll have to check with Mike to see if he took some.

The boys started to get tired after riding The Runaway Mine train so we headed back to the hotel and ate some dinner and put the boys down for the night.  Lauren and I headed back to the park as Mike wasn't feeling well.
Girls' night at the park

The castle at nightime and Christmas time!



There's a Starbucks at Disneyworld!
Day 2 of Magic Kingdom started at about 9 a.m.  Logan noticed the kids having the characters sign books so he came prepared with a pen and a small pad of paper.  We stopped right inside the park to pick up some some souvenirs; Logan got an autograph book, Travis got a Mickey pen, and Ian opted for a Mickey hat.


One of my favorite pics from our trip!




The boys were so excited to ride another roller coaster, but Mom was feeling a little nervous about it.  They barely made the height requirement; but looking at the pics they loved it!
 
Ian



Travis in front, Logan in back
After riding Space Mountain I got a text that Brenda was in the park and we came up with a place to meet.  Lauren had some idea that Uncle Bob was coming (because Mom talks without thinking sometimes) but she had absolutely no clue that her cousin Drew was coming.  When these girls saw each other I wish I had a picture of it - it was priceless!

The Scott and Johnson clan!

Another one of my favorite pics - Ian and Uncle Bob
After a couple of hours after meeting the Johnson's we had to take the boys back to the hotel as they were getting tired.  I left Lauren with Bob and Brenda and I headed back with Mike.  We took the boys for a quick swim and then dinner.  Once back at the hotel Mike cut me loose to go back to the park and spend more time with my family.

Drew, Donald and Lauren

Love seeing the castle like this!

Logan with his autograph book!
So after saying so long to Bob, Brenda and Drew at about 10 p.m that night  as they headed to go to Dad's place, I headed back to drop off Lauren at the hotel and pick up Mike.  Yes, I made three trips to the park that day and walked a total of 12 miles per my pedometer.  Mike and I got to see some of the sights without a huge crowd (make no mistake there were still plenty of people there at 11 p.m.).  We also got in some shopping and found the shirt that he had been looking for for two days.  It was a nice way to end the last night at Magic Kingdom.



Monday, January 13, 2014

Vacation PART 1 (Disney Cruise)

We left a day before our cruise actually started just in case we ran into any delays. We picked Lauren up from school a few hours earlier than we told her and took her to TopGolf before we got the boys out of school.

She has a pretty good swing!
Whenever we travel we attempt to get seats so that each one of us gets a kid to be in charge of.  That way no one is having two kids to handle on a plane - I've had one of those plane rides, and luckily it worked out for me.
Mike and his travel buddy, Travis and pipsqueak (photo bomb by Lauren)

Lauren's travel buddy - Logan
My travel buddy - Ian

Disney Cruise Line


On board there was a kids play area that had a section of computers, dress up, crafts, etc.  They had one room that was a Andy's Room from Toy Story and another room from Monsters, Inc.



My pretty girl at the first night's dinner.

Mickey dessert bar was a hit.

Some adult time - Mike just said that I'm looking really tan here!  (he got kicked)

Travis at our pirate night dinner

All the kiddos after dinner getting ready to watch "Villians" at the Walt Disney Theatre.

Castaway Cay with Chip N Dale
The boys at their very first ocean beach!





Lauren with her very own non alcoholic tropical drink!
That pretty much ends Phase I on our trip - our last night on the cruise ended with a "dressy" dinner which also included me falling down since I missed a step - leave it up to me to fall in a dress!


Friday, January 10, 2014

Christmas Card 2013

My holiday cards didn't come in the mail before our vacation so our cards were later than usual this year. I didn't send as many has I have in the past...next year I will tho.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Icepocalypse December 2013

Three days after putting Brenda on a plane back to Michigan to enjoy some winter weather, we were subjected to 12 hours of freezing rain and drizzle.  We woke up to what looked like snow.  Not a snowflake fell but a ton of freezing rain did.

all the trees/bushes were covered in ice.

sliding down into the sand trap on hole #6

Ian and Travis

Travis and Logan

who's who?

I think I captioned this on Facebook as "I'm glad I was taking the picture"

This was our driveway - we started there and the moved to the golf course to slide.
Two days of school missed and we have those days to make up.  The kids had fun with it, but I sure wish it was snow so it was somewhat more enjoyable.  After the first day it was so slick that we couldn't even get out to slide because it was too difficult to get back up the hill.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...