Anniversary Trip to Disney

Charles and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary on March 3rd with a camping trip to Disney with the kids. We spent Friday and Saturday at Disney's Fort Wilderness campground and then Sunday we spent the day at Magic Kingdom. Friday night we went to the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue dinner show that's held at the campground. Before the dinner show started we took Cameron for a pony ride at the stables, which he really enjoyed. The food & dinner show were great but not really aimed for younger children so the kids got quite antsy. After chasing Olivia around for 20 minutes, we left 10 minutes early. Saturday we spent the day swimming, walking around the campground & playing at the campsite. After an early morning thunderstorm (6:00 am), the skies cleared for a beautiful day at the Magic Kingdom. Once we arrived into the park, we rode the train & then headed to tomorrow land where Cameron & Charles rode the race cars. Then we did the tea cups, waited a long time for the Winnie the Pooh ride (which scared Olivia at the end), watched a 3d mickey movie, rode on it's a small world & then ate lunch while both the kids slept in the stroller. After lunch we went to the country bear jamboree, swiss family treehouse & watched the parade before heading out. Some of the rides (like Dumbo) were closed due to an expansion at the park. We definitely did a condensed visit to the park since the kids were tired after a long weekend at the campground and also because we had to pick my cousin Graham up at the airport on our way home. Graham stayed with us for 5 days while on spring break from college. He spent the time visiting my grandparents & playing with the kids (who loved him!) I'm so disappointed I don't have pictures from Graham's visit!

Charles walking Cameron on the pony

 Olivia giving it a try :)

The family at the dinner show

 Olivia dancing to the music

 Eating lunch at the camper

 Love to play in the dirt!

 Family photo in front of Cinderella's Castle

 On the train

 Charles & Cameron on the race cars

 On the tea cup ride

 Playing in Winnie the Pooh's village (while waiting in line for the ride)

 Wiped out at lunch time (Olivia fell asleep while I was holding her in line for it's a small world)

 Waiting for the parade to start

 Giving Pluto a high five



Trip to Oregon

At the end of January we took at trip to Klamath Falls, Oregon to visit my older sister (Heather), her husband (Phil) and three sons (Jackson, Emmett & Reid.) Phil is stationed at the Oregon Air National Guard base as an instructor for the F-15 planes. Cameron & Olivia did surprisingly well on the 7 hour flight; we flew 4-5 hours to Salt Lake City, had an hour layover & then flew 2 hours to Oregon. The last hour was the hardest, Olivia was over it & very antsy. Then she decided to practice her happy screams which drew not so nice looks. I almost cried tears of joy when we landed.

We had a great time & the boys had a blast playing together. We spent 3 days at their house in Klamath Falls (a very small town) & the other 4 days we all rented a house in Bend, Oregon a beautiful city about 2 hours away. While in Bend, Charles & Phil went snowboarding & skiing while Heather & I stayed with the kiddos, playing at the house & nearby parks. It was so worth the long plane trip to see them & it meant so much to me to have the quality time with Heather. Thank you Heather for being such a great host & for the love, support & encouragement you give me all the time!

Cameron playing in a pile of leftover snow

Emmett, Cameron & Jackson. They got to be such great buddies. They played together so well all week, not fighting once!

Olivia & Reid playing at the house in Bend

The boys playing with playdough

Cameron entertaining Olivia & Reid

One of the days in Bend we took the kids to a public pool to swim. They had a little kids pool that was 2 feet deep with a slide & water toys. The kids all had a great time!

Cameron on a water raft

Heather with Olivia

 Cutie pie Emmett

 The four of us walking to the grocery store in Bend. The house we rented was right in downtown Bend so it was nice to walk to the stores & we even walked to dinner one night. 

Charles & Cameron even got to go to the base one day & watch the jets take off. I think Charles enjoyed it more than Cameron did :)

Checking out the F-15's

Those jets are loud!

Phil showing the boys his gear

Heather reading to Emmett & Cameron

My beautiful sister & I on our way to enjoy a dinner together. As you can probably tell in this picture, Heather's house is beautiful & every inch is stylishly decorated. Seeing her house encouraged me to work on a few things at home, with her help of course! :)

Olivia & Reid getting into trouble :)



First Trip to Disney's Animal Kingdom

The weekend of January 14 & 15, Charles and I took the kids to their first official trip to Disney. My parents even came along for part of the trip, which was really nice for us! We stayed at the Animal Kingdom lodge which was just beautiful! We had a one-bedroom suite so Charles, myself and the kids stayed in the bedroom and my parents slept on the pull-out couch. We drove down Saturday & spent the day walking around downtown Disney. We ate lunch at the Rainforest Cafe which is such a neat place. Later that evening after giving the kids a bath, my parents stayed with the kids while Charles & I enjoyed a nice dinner out :)

Sunday we woke up & headed straight to the Animal Kingdom theme park & my parents headed home. I wasn't sure how long the kids would last, especially with Olivia in the stroller (and her only taking a 20 minute nap during the Lion King show) but they did great & really seemed to enjoy it. We were able to cover pretty much the whole park (at least what the kids could do, minus the big roller coasters) & left about 2:30 pm. The best part of the trip was Cameron getting to meet all the disney characters (& we didn't have to wait in a long line to see them!) All in all we really enjoyed it!

Olivia watching zoo keepers feed the animals at the Lodge

 Look at her crazy hair!

 My mom & Cameron at the Rainforest Cafe

Charles & Olivia at the Rainforest Cafe

Cameron riding the train at downtown Disney

Mickey! (That's Cameron smiling real big) So silly!

Goofy!

Giving King Louie a hug :) I still can't believe that Cameron wasn't scared of any of the characters!

 Pluto

(You can see Olivia trying to get as far away in the stroller as she can. She wanted nothing to do with King Louie or Pluto.)

Donald Duck

 Chip & Dale

 Thumper & ? not sure what the other bunnies name is

Minnie

Looking at all the fish. Olivia loved the animals, especially the birds & fish!

Cameron looking at a gorilla sleeping upside down

Playing the drums :)