Mickey & Shamu

So last week our little family ventured out on our first family vacation! We've been on vacation before, but not just the four of us - we've always had a set of grandparents with us during previous trips. But this time, it was just us. We went to Orlando to visit Mickey Mouse and Shamu. Here's a recap of our week.

Saturday morning I had to wake up the kids at about 4:00 a.m. Why I scheduled our flight at 6:30 a.m. is still a mystery. I swear I don't remember doing that, but I must have because I did the same thing for our return flight. Anyway, I whispered to Addi as I knelt over her that today was the day we got to go to Florida. She had her eyes closed still, but smiled great big and then jumped out of bed. She has NEVER been so easy to get out of bed. So we got everyone packed up and got to the airport. We flew Continental on the way there, which was less than a pleasant experience. First they didn't give us seat assignments from Indy to Houston. Then they didn't even have us on the flight from Houston to Orlando. Ike told them they had better get us on board since we had booked it back in March. Well, they ended up getting us on the flight and all was right with the world, other than the fact that Continental doesn't even give you peanuts or pretzels without charging you for them. Geesh.

So we get to Orlando safely, and get to the rental car place. Enterprise was super great. They saw that we couldn't fit our bus stroller into the trunk, so they upgraded us to a small SUV at no extra cost! We also rented two carseats for the week, and due to liability, the driver has to install them. So poor Ike was installing the car seats while I corralled the children. I had to keep yelling at Addi to get down from the pole that she kept climbing and swinging from. It was one of those concrete poles that are used as barricades in parking lots or gas stations.

So we got to our condo and my mom really hooked us up. We stayed at a Bluegreen condo, called The Fountains. Two bedrooms, full kitchen, living room, screened in balcony. We went to Publix to pick up some groceries for the week. Then that night we hung out in the indoor pool and hot tub. It was nice to finally relax.

Sunday morning we got up to go to Sea World. I have a love/hate relationship with Sea World. I love seeing and petting the dolphins and whales, but I feel sad that they are in captivity. That being said, we had a great time seeing the dolphin show, Shamu show, and all the other animals. Some funny stuff happened while we were there. Addison and I went to pet and feed the dolphins, while Camden went with Ike to look at the sting rays. Here's some pictures of Addi and me with the dolphins.

Love this!

I love dolphins

Looks like they're having a conversation

 
Now here's the back story - Cam has an arm on him. I swear that boy is going to be a pitcher or quarterback someday. He has been taking his binky out of his mouth and whipping it across the room since he was 5 months old. And he does it without warning, he does it so fast that there's no way to stop it. Okay, back to the sting rays. So Ike was holding Cam above the sting ray tank when all of the sudden Cam whips his binky out of his mouth and throws it into the tank! It was a feeding tank, by the way. Luckily the torpedo binky didn't hit any innocent sting rays and they all swam down to the bottom. Ike thought quickly and reached out to grab the binky so no sting rays choked on it, or developed a pacifier habit. No sting rays were harmed in this story.

We then went to the dolphin show right after the sting ray incident. Camden decided to throw his shoe while we were there. He whipped it down a couple aisles and it hit a lady. Poor thing. Luckily she was nice and smiled as we apologized. Ike and I decided we are going to tape his binky to his face and his shoes to his feet.

Cam approximately 2.2 seconds before winging his shoe

Monday, we hung out at the resort pool and went to Downtown Disney for dinner that night. We went to T-Rex, which was neat, but Camden didn't like it one bit. There was a "meteor shower" every 15 minutes and the lights flickered, the dinosaurs roared, you get the drift. The food was pretty good. I just wish Camden would have liked it, and felt better. He ended up spiking a fever that night. Not only that, but we watched the news when we got home as Tuesday. We saw that the weather on Tuesday, our first Disney day, was to be a washout - 1 to 3 inches of rain! A tropical storm was headed towards Orlando. Go figure. We had to go on Tuesday because that was the day we had breakfast booked with the princesses at Cinderella's Royal Table and you had to have park admission. So we just decided we'd go, make the most of it, and probably leave early.

So Tuesday morning, we got up and got the kids ready. Addi was all set to go as Ariel. The skies looked ominous with the threat of storms. Addison also looked ominous as you can see below. I think she was mad because I didn't let her wear her red wig. More on that later.

Angry Ariel

Threaten to leave and look how quickly her attitude changed!

The breakfast was a lot of fun. Addi loved it and I think I had just as much fun as she did. Camden didn't seem to like any of the princesses, except for Ariel. He tried to get away from all of them, except for her. He watched her the whole time she was at our table. Maybe he's going to have a thing for redheads.

Trying to escape from Snow White

Apparently Aurora doesn't do it for him either

Wait, he's not trying to escape!

Love at first sight

Once we left the breakfast it was super cloudy, but not raining yet, so we decided to do as much as we could before the monsoon arrived. Well, it ended up completely missing us! We checked out the radar later that evening and it went right around Orlando. We got sprinkles a few times through the day, but that was it. I'm chalking that one up to my dad. I think he put in a good word with God for us. He was supposed to be there with us, and I think he still was, just in a different way than originally planned. Thanks Dad - we had a great time! Plus, I think the threat of the rain scared people away, so we had little to no lines all day. It was just perfect. Perfect and exhausting.

This is a random picture of Camden, but it makes me smile

Wednesday, we totally relaxed and did pretty much nothing. Needed some recovery time. Here's a super cute picture that totally shows how tired we were on Wednesday.

Sleepy time

Thursday was the day we had tickets to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom. We got to the park at 4:00 p.m., as this was the earliest we could get in without also paying for park admission. My sweet mom bought us tickets to the party and it was so fun! Thanks Mom - you're the best! We were able to get some more autographs and pictures before the festivities began at 7:00. Most importantly - Mickey & Minnie!

Waiting to meet the mice

Minnie poses like a Colts Cheerleader - she's got the toe pop down pat

All day Addi had been asking to put on her red wig. If you've read my previous blog about this wig, you'd know how much she loves it. I promised her after dinner we would put on her red wig. We also decided we'd get Cam ready after dinner too since he gets everything all over himself. So we finished dinner and got Cam ready. He was The Incredible Hulk. I kept calling him Hulk Hogan and Ike kept correcting me. Well, they both have the word Hulk in them. Close enough. We put Addison's wig on her, and it was like she transformed into another person. She walked differently, posed differently, acted differently. She had an alter ego. Hey wait, I think that's the same thing that happens to strippers when they put on wigs. Crap.

Who knew a wig could cause so much happiness?

Hulk Hogan The Incredible Hulk

 

Check out that pose

We stayed for the Villain's Show and the Boo-To-You Parade. It was so fun. The kids got pretty worn out, so we left around 9:30. Here's a favorite pic from earlier that day. I broke down and wore ears. It's amazing how you become brainwashed at Disney. But I loved it. Don't worry though, I won't be sporting Mickey Mouse shirts around town or anything.

We love Magic Kingdom

Friday we went to Sea World one more time for a few hours, then went to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. It was so good and so fun! The kids were in great moods too, so that always helps make any experience more enjoyable. We asked Addison what her favorite part of the week was and she said, "Just being with you and Daddy and Camden." It was so sweet - and I really think she meant it! However, earlier in the week I asked her the same thing and she responded, "The donuts!" So who knows?

Saturday we had to leave early and come back to Indiana. None of us wanted to come home. We would have missed our flight since the line at Delta was ridiculous. Luckily a worker lady asked if anyone was close to the 45 minute cut off for luggage drop off and we were so we got pulled out of line and sent on our way. Thank goodness. As much as we wanted to stay, we didn't want to stay in the Orlando airport.

We had a wonderful time and cannot wait to go back!!

A Favorite from my Hubby's Blog

From August 2010.

Having two kids is not that far from living back in the fraternity house

I have been blessed with two beautiful kids — two kids who are already throwing me back to the days of Delta Tau Delta at Ball State.


There is always a body function happening. At first there is the innocent and often, “I can’t control my gas” infant stage. People laugh and think it is cute because it is a baby. This is not the case when a guy, nicknamed “Dirt”, breaks wind after drinking malt liquor all night and eating a burrito the size of your head.


Spitting up is so common I now have no sense of smell or a desire to eat. I have a burp cloth on my body at all times because I never know when Mt. Cam will erupt and spew whatever he just ate all over the place. In the fraternity house the only thing funny about spewing was the occasional dry heave. I still don’t why that is funny. Maybe the eyes welling up with tears or the fact I always think of Jim Carey.


Streaking. Yes, sometimes it is nice to set yourself free. My three year old finds great delight in streaking around the house after a bath. You can see the sheer joy of being clothes- and worry-free on her face. This look was also found many a night when someone would casually walk through the house sans pants, sit down on your couch, and act as if this was normal. Thank you creator of the slipcover.


Nose picking is an Olympic sport. I guess until now I thought the nose pick was merely done out of necessity. Nope. I am not sure what the fascination is with having your finger two knuckles into your nose, but the kids dig it. Yes, pun intended. I am worried more about them being able to hide a grapefruit in their nostril than do it in public. And at the old Delt house you had guys who were the Michael Phelps of nose picking. After each victory they always wanted to show you their medals. Remember the dry heave part? My eyes are still watering.


Being tired is the norm. I am up at all hours, I don’t ever feel like I sleep through a whole night, and when I am up, I have to be on. There is always something to clean up (see above), someone to entertain, and someone getting into something they shouldn’t. Hmmm…this one didn’t change.


Time for me to go, I think someone just made his underwear into a headband.


Check out more at www.theike.wordpress.com

Lions, Cows, and Pumpkins. . . Oh My!

Another week down. Some fun things happened this week. Addi got her Halloween costume all set for the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at Disney World. She is going to be Ariel, the Little Mermaid. She has the dress, the wand, the shoes, and the wig. A long red stringy wig. She absolutely loves the wig and wants to wear it all the time. I hope she never finds out that strippers wear wigs a lot. Maybe I'll inform her that actresses get to wear wigs before she finds out about strippers. Yep, that sounds like a good plan. Whenever she sees a picture of Katy Perry in her blue wig on my iPhone/iTunes she always says, "She's so pretty with her blue hair." I'm getting a little worried about her teenage years already.

Cam saw Addi in her get-up and decided he wanted to play too. He grabbed a tiara and a wand so he could be like his sister. Notice he's holding the wand upside down. He hasn't taken Princess 101 yet. Again, notice the stringy red wig. This picture is much more true to the actual look of the dead animal wig.

We're still trying to figure out what Cam is going to be. Ike doesn't want him to be anything too "babyish." I keep informing my hubby that Cam is indeed still a baby. I want him to be something cute like a cowboy or sock monkey or something like that, something he won't want to be when he gets to choose. Ike wants him to be Spiderman or Buzz Lightyear. Maybe we'll go with Addi's idea of him being Flounder. Ariel does need Flounder or Sebastian, right?

We had dinner with some family from Pennsylvania on Friday night. They were in town for the Penn State game. Cam was being pretty cranky and didn't want to eat anything. That boy loves an audience though. He can turn on the charm like he's turning on a faucet. Well, maybe that's a stretch because he's only 17 months and can't turn on a faucet yet. But you know what I mean. I posted a picture of him. Notice how they put us in the far back corner. It was well deserved since Cam started throwing his unwanted food within minutes of getting there. Doesn't he just look ornery?

Addi got to go to her first Penn State game Saturday with Ike. It was at IU. I stayed at home all day with Cam. But we all met up after the game. Addi got to meet the Nittany Lion at the game. I asked her to show me the picture that Grammy took of her with the lion and she said, "Ok, but I got one with the cow too." I had no clue what she was talking about because IU's mascot is the Hoosiers, not the Cows. I found out she got her picture with the Chick-Fil-A Cow which apparently is just as exciting as the PSU Nittany Lion.

Chick-fil-A Cow

Penn State Nittany Lion

We also made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch on Sunday. We had fun, went with my sister and her boys. I got my elephant ear fix. Not helping with my anxiety about being in a bikini in a few months, but my soul needed it. I feel like everyone is entitled to at least one funnel cake or elephant ear a year and since Ike won't go with me to the Indiana State Fair, this was my only chance to fill my quota. Addi picked out two little pumpkins, one for herself and one for Camden. Ike and I will just get some at the store that we can carve. It's too hard to lug around two children and two giant pumpkins.

On the Hay Ride out to the Pumpkin Patch. Cam sure looks comfy, huh?

Searching for the perfect pumpkin

Pumpkins by the truckload

I found my two pumpkins!

Hey, hey, HAY!

Mi Familia

Seriously, when do I get my elephant ear?

After the pumpkin patch we had to run to our favorite spot, Super Target. And no, we didn't get dinner there. . .this time. However, Cam did sing a song with both fingers in his nostrils in the car on the way there. I posted a lovely pic that I'm sure will be wonderful blackmail someday. Enjoy!