Our trip to FL

We flew down on Friday, the 4th (We took Jim out of school for the day so we could fly at ideal times!). We drove up to BWI, a little worried we weren't going to make it past security since Ben didn't want to tell the TSA guy his name, but he finally said it and we were to our gate. We got some lunch and the boys enjoyed watching the plane show out the window.  No problems with the flight down there (one slight problem - all the stations on the plane weren't working right, so Jim was a little bummed he couldn't watch the sports channels!). We got our luggage, and since I did online check-in for our rental car, we got to walk down the aisle & pick whatever car we wanted!  Of course the boys picked an American car, a Dodge Journey, and we were off to the hotel.  The parents were all there & checked in, waiting for us.  We had pizza for dinner that night & took a walk around the place checking everything out. And then it was off to bed to rest up for our first day at Magic Kingdom!!

On Saturday, our first full day there, was a park day!  Mark did a great job planning everything out - which helped us ride all the rides we wanted to by 2:00!  We got an early start, and we were riding up in the monorail just as Mickey was pulling up on the train.  It definitely helped to have an early start to the day, as we walked up Main Street and over to the Buzz light Year ride, and pretty much walked right onto that ride with not much of a wait.  We had planned out all our Fast Passes, but since we had an early start to our day, we ended up switching them all around, which really helped minimize our wait times!  Here's a list of the order of rides we did on Saturday:

Buzz Light Year
Tomorrowland Speedway
Attempted little mermaid but it was closed down
Peter Pan (longest wait!)
It's a Small world
carousel
Goofy's Barnstormer
little Mermaid
Ice cream break
Mickey's Philharmagic
People Mover
Winnie the Pooh

Lots of fun on our first day there. Both boys loved the Buzz light year ride, Ben loved the race cars, and neither were a fan of the rollercoaster (Goofy's ride). Walking out of the park we did catch the end of the parade in front of the castle & watched that. Ben loved seeing Pluto - I loved seeing his face light up when Pluto came by on the parade. As we were walking out Main Street was pretty packed as they were having a Cubs parade, but we made it out, took the boat to the parking lot, and got to ride the caterpillar (aka the tram) to our car.  For dinner we sat by the pool & ordered from the restaurant.  The boys walked around in the water and played some video games in the activity center. We thought they would crash after such a busy day, but they had a ton of energy!

Sunday we did Downtown Disney & a pool day.  We walked around downtown Disney (I guess now it's called Disney Springs, spending time in the Lego store, watching the amphibian cars, and picked out a souvenir (which was a process but Ben got a Car and Jim a new Lego set). We tried to get lunch at Earl of Sandwich but the place was packed!  We ended hooping to a brewery and eating there!  And Jim lost his 2nd tooth!!!!  It was super wiggly and I wanted to pull it out for him but he wouldn't let me. He went to play some foosball and when he came back to the table he looked at me and goes "my tooth is gone!"  We think he swallowed it!  After lunch we went back to the pool. It was a little chilly,  it the boys had fun swimming!  After that we walked to the basketball courts for some b-ball!  And just did dinner in the restaurant at the hotel. A good way to spend our Sunday!

Monday was another day at Magic Kingdom, with the 8 of us!  The boys enjoyed riding the caterpillar again, and then we took the boat to Magic Kingdom and hopped on the train to start our day!  Splash Mountain was the first ride of the day and we had no wait at all, which was great!  It was a great idea to get to the park as close to opening as possible!  (It was an earlier opening day, 8:00) but we were there around 9ish. The boys did not love that ride. Ben was more concerned about being wet, even though we didn't get that wet!  And neither loved the hill, but I'm glad we went on it!  Ben wasn't a huge fan of the darker rides, but all in all it was a fun day!!!  The list of rides from our 2nd day were:

Splash Mountain
Pirates of the Caribbean
Tiki room show
Shooting Arcade
Tom Sawyers Island
Country Bear Jamboree
Swiss Family Treehouse
Ice cream snack
Haunted Mansion
Carousel
Popcorn snack
Buzz Light year
Walking out - parade & dapper Dan quartet

We caught the end of the parade again as we were walking out. And Ben again got very excited when he saw Pluto!!  We took the monorail back to our car & ended the day with dinner at the hotel restaurant.

Tuesday we went on an air boat ride.  The place was about an hour away, but they had a cute little animal park so we got to walk around that for a bit and check out some of the animals.  The boys really loved the boat ride!  We were successful and got to see a couple alligators on the ride, as well as a bald eagle, which was pretty cool!  The ride may have been their big highlight of the trip!  After we got back from that we spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool!  It was a little chilly again, but still had a fun day!  Played some poolside bingo, and enjoyed some ice cream.  Tuesday night was beer tasting night, so the boys hung out with Grandma in the activity room and playground while the rest of us did the beer tasting!  Followed by dinner at the hotel restaurant.

And then it was back home on Wednesday. Got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, and had a good flight back to BWI. We did hit rush hour traffic on the drive home, so that slowed us down a bit. But all in all we had such a great trip!!!!

Spring Break

I'm trying to get caught up on things that have been going on.  I love looking back through this to see what we did at different times throughout the year.  And I'm going to be disappointed to see big gaps in the blog.  I'm really trying to be better, but haven't been all that successful. 

For Jim's spring break we made our way up to NY!  And were able to meet Avalon!  The timing all worked out pretty much perfectly.  Since she was breach, they scheduled for a C-section on Friday the 18th, and we were planning to head up on Monday!  That gave them their time in the hospital, and we got to meet Avalon when they were home!  And got to spend the week with her! 

Pretty much my whole goal of that week was to spend as much time with her as possible - and my parents were great that week, watching the boys. 

Allison came down on Saturday (she couldn't leave Friday after work because she wanted to meet Avalon before she drove down!)  And spent Saturday & Sunday with Chris.  And then Monday morning we got up bright and early and drove to Buffalo - driving straight to Ashley's!

Both boys held her for a couple of minutes, I was very surprised that Ben wanted to!  But they both did great!

Jim and Ben got to spend a lot of time with Grandma & Papa, and we were all very thankful for that!  They took them to Paula's donuts, to the park, and to Chuck E Cheese one day!  I think everyone had a lot of fun together!  Can't forget how awesome Aunt Ali was, staying at home at times to entertain the boys and then coming to Ashley's later on.  It really was an awesome week, and it made me realize how thankful and how awesome our family is!

 

The boys got to spend time with Blake & Brody too! As they came up to Buffalo during that week.  We had a little Easter Egg hunt at Ashley's, which they all seemed to have fun with!

 A picture of the happy grandparents with all their grandkids!

 Trying to get all 5 kids to smile and look at the same time is a challenge!

Mark drove up on Wednesday night, and came to Buffalo on Thursday spending the day with us.  Then he took the boys up to Castile on Friday to build the retaining wall.  I made my way up to Castile Saturday afternoon, and it was back to VA on Sunday! 

Summer Overview

I really wish I was better at keeping up with this.  I love having something to look back on.  But I just never can seem to find the time to keep up with it.  So here's a brief overview of the Summer of 2015:
*********************
We spent our fair share of time at the pool this summer, having lots of fun there.  It was a little limited, first with Jim's fractured collarbone...then Ben's procedure...and Jim's Bridge to Kindergarten program.  But everyone seemed to have lots of fun when we went!
*********************
Jim attended a 3 week Bridge to Kindergarten program at his school.  He got to ride the bus, which he absolutely loved!  I think that made the first day pretty easy for him because all his excitement was about the bus & not about going to school.  He had a great teacher/assistant, met some new friends, and did great!!!
*********************
We spent 2 weeks up in New York. Aunt Ali flew down here for a couple of days & then helped us with the drive up to Buffalo.  Lots of fun there including a walk to Pautler's for ice cream, Paula's donuts, fun in the hot tub, a trip to Niagara Falls, car show with Papa, a bounce house place, playing outside, water balloons, the zoo.  We attempted to go downtown to the food truck Tuesdays, but we got rained out & had to settle for Anderson's instead.  Mark flew down on Thursday, and we wanted to go to canal side, but Friday was a rainy day.  He did get to enjoy wings @ anchor bar with every one!  Jenna spent the week up in Buffalo too, so it was a lot of fun having the 4 boys playing together!

Saturday morning we drove out to Kevin's land & spent the night there.  The boys loved it, gators, tractors, fishing, campfire w/ marshmallows, it was perfect for them!  Sunday we drove to Mark's parents & had a great week there with hiking @ Letchworth, splitting wood, visiting the fair for the fireman's parade, the tractor pull, riding rides, sitting on tractors, seeing animals, we took the canoe out again!  All in all it was a great 2 weeks. 
*********************
Lots of fun with our weekly drinks in the driveway with the neighbors!  Love that it's become a weekly tradition with everyone. 
*********************
Jim learned how to ride his bike with no training wheels!!!!  He's a pro at it now.  At one point we took the pedals off his bike to make it a balance bike...he was doing great with that, but then fractured his collarbone so he took some time off from riding his bike.  Then he got back onto it, and one day I told him we should try putting his pedals back on, it took him about 10-15 seconds, and then he was off!!!!
*********************
Lots of playdates and fun with friends, whether it was at a park, playground, or going on a nature walk. We were busy, busy, busy & definitely enjoyed our summer!!!

A look into the past month

A whole month since I've last posted.  I feel bad that I haven't been keeping up with this, but with 2 busy boys, I don't really have the time.  Everything is going great though - the pool is open so we've been busy spending time there...also been very busy meeting friends at playgrounds, or nature parks, or their homes.  Been very busy on the weekend, boys are always helping Mark do his jobs.  They sure are busy little boys.

Hard to believe that it's the middle of June already & that Jim will be starting kindergarten in the fall!  He seems to be pretty excited about that. 

The last time I did post it was Jim's birthday...Let's see a quick recap of what we've been up to. 

We drove out to Burnside Farms - to check out their daffodils & tulips! 

 We spent a long weekend at Lake Anna with our neighbors - lots of fun!

The following week we met Mom & Dad in Ocean City for a couple of days!  It was a little chilly when we were there, but we all still managed to have a great time! 

They came back to VA with us, and spent the weekend hanging out - it was a great time! 

Sure do love these happy 2 little boys :)