Celebrating our 10th in Cozumel

We had lots of fun celebrating our 10th anniversary. We had some great meals, met great people, went scuba diving for the first together, went snorkeling, and just had some R&R. We only had a day and a half of sunshine, but we still had a super time!!

The beautiful water!

Two new friends; Cara and Patti . We met some awesome people on the trip.

I hope we can all travel again together!

The welcome home sign the kids made (with the help of my sister) Thank you to Dave's parents who took care of the kids while we were gone. We SOOO appreciate it! We know they are busy :)

Animal Kingdom & Magic Kingdom 2nd Round

Animal Kingdom is a smaller park, and has shorter hours than the other parks. Here are some of the rides we did; It's Tough to be a Bug, Kilimanjaro Safaris (Very Cool!), Expedition Everest (I was totally freaked to do this ride, but LOVED it, Jake went on it twice!) , TriceraTop Spin, and Dinosaur.

Regan absolutely LOVED all the parades! She was waving and blowing kisses at all the characters. Her and Mickey had a moment of two or three straight blowings back and forth.

We did Magic Kingdom for a 2nd day. It is just so magical and there are such fun things to do there! We spent hours in "Tomorrowland"; mostly at Space Mountain, luckily we got some extra "Fastpasses" because the Carousel of Progress broke down while we were sitting there watching the show. We did Space Mountain several times, Indy Speedway, Tomorrowland Transit Authority, Buzz Lightyear's Space Spin, Stitch's Great Escape (we'll pass on this one next time...boring). We walked through Mickey's Toontown Fair for the first time, the kids seemed kinda a over it. We took Sydney and Jake on Goofy's kiddie coaster because had become a little afraid of the rides after going on the scary Dinosaur ride at Animal Kindgom. She was upset on Goofy's coaster with her face buried into mine. Poor girl...We stayed for the fireworks, and they were absolutely amazing. We were right down by the castle and had a great view!

On one of the cloudy days we went and walked around Downtown Disney for a bit. Seems like most of the stuff wasn't open for the day. We ate at this cool, but very overpriced Trex restaurant. Ice caves and Dinosaur bones were lit up all around us. The kids thought it was cool. We hit the Lego play area and a fun disney shop with faux princesses outside.

Magic Kingdom & Epcot

We got a late start today, but we headed to the Magic Kingdom. We made it through about half of the park. We went on Swiss Family Treehouse, Magic Carpet of Aladdin, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion, Its a Small World, Peter Pan's Flight, Snow White's Scary Adventure, Many adventures of Pooh, and the Teacups. The Parade was great, the kids really liked it! Regan was so happy to sit with Papa and watch. We stayed for the fireworks, which were great! Not bad for a half a day! January is definitely the time to hit Disney, that is barely any lines. But the weather is always questionable.

Epcot was great! I love how the parks are all different in their own way. We had arranged to surprise Sydney with lunch with the Princesses. She was thrilled! Just started out nervous, and didn't want to meet or have her picture taken with Belle. She quickly warmed up to the others though.

Jake was not interested in the Princesses at all. Kind of surprising. Regan was happy to look at them and smile, but would not them get close to her for a picture :)

These are the rides we went on in Epcot:

Reimagined, Mission:Space (I'll NEVER do this one again, made me sick, weird), Test Track (D&J), Finding Nemo & Friends, Turtle Talk with Crush, Living in the Land, Circle of Life, Missed: Soarin' (which I totally LOVE). We went to a watch a Belly Dancer, which was kinda cool. And we stayed for the Fireworks, which were absolutely AMAZING!

It is FREEZING in FL right now!!! Waiting for fireworks...

I cannot believe how long the lines can be for some of these rides. The roping setup for many of the popular rides (the roping wasn't needed when we were there) was just unbelieveable. The Nemo ride for example looked like it could hold hundreds of people in line at a time, taking probably 2-3 hours....for a 2 minute ride! Glad we only waited 5 minutes. Crazy! I'll never go to Disney during peak season, that is for sure.

Pool Day

The first full day we had was supposed to be the nicest and warmest, 75 and sunny. So we decided to make it a pool day. Jake and Sydney had a blast, but Regan probably was the most excited to be in the pool. I don't think she remembered being in a pool before, she was only 6 months last time. She had NOOO fear (kinda scary) and would just keep walking into deep water. Dave and I took turns holding her hand and keeping her in shallow water.

Dave spent a lot of time reading.

Disney 2009 Begins....

We were all so excited for our trip to Orlando. The airport portion is always challenging with 3 kids, and all the luggage, car seats, strollers, etc to bring along. But we made it. Regan had the hardest time on the flight, as I suspected would be the case. Being 18 months confined in an tiny space for 3 hours is tough. She is too young to stick to doing the same thing for more than a few minutes. Upsetting her neighbor Sydney was much more fun, and LOUD!!! But hey, we made it. Picked out our mini, the Sienna, and headed to the resort. I would definitely recommend this resort; Orange Lake Resort Orlando, FL. We were lucky to score a 3 bedroom condo. We had a room, the kids, and Dave's Parents. It was huge...I couldn't get over how much space it had.

This is how I found them mid-morning after our first night sleeping in our place, it was pretty cute.

Getting Back in the Routine

This week I am trying to get back in the routine. Dave and I were on vacation for a long weekend last week. We had 4 days together! It was fantastic!

Thank you to my friend Shawn, who bravly offered to watch all three kids. She posted some cute pictures from the weekend on her blog. She was so happy to have them, so I wasn't concerned about them while we were gone. I knew they would be well cared for, and having fun. I did hope Shawn and Kurt were handling 5 okay, and that their energy reserves didn't need to be tapped. It sounds like things went well.

Sydney wanted to stay at the Johnson's when we arrived to pick up the kids :)

Alexandria Pictures

11 Kids and 4 Moms! Good times....

We tried to get a picture of all the kids, well, that didn't work very well. There are quite a few missing from this one :)

The Beach was a big hit!

Jake learned to kayak, and was confidently cruising around after Drew gave him a quick lesson!

Campfire and Smores...

A quick movie will we got dinner ready for the masses....

Thanks to the expert meal planner Jess, the kids all stayed full and happy!

What a fun way to spend a week during the summer! Thanks girls!!!