Christmas Carnival

Today was the annual Christmas Carnival at Xander's school. He was so excited to go. I was excited about the free coffee and Tim Horton's donuts because I didn't get a chance to eat before we left the house.

Cookie decorating had to be first.

Carnival games....


Face painting...




And Jordis' visit with Santa. She told me she wasn't going to pose for a picture, but I thought this would actually be funny when she's older so I had them take it anyway.

I also gave the kids money and BaDee took them to the Secret Santa shop to help them spend it to buy a gift for Jason and myself. I used to get my mom the most horrible things at my elementary school's Secret Santa, so I can't wait to see what she helped them buy.

Florida - last day

Our last day in Florida was the only chance we had to get to the pool. I love going to the pool in Florida in November because I always seem to get a great tan, quickly, with no burning. We were out there only 3 hours wearing SPF 45 (not Jason, of course) and had a really decent tan. Jordis still has strap marks from her bathing suit. They formed an "X" which Xander thought was awesome. Had I known how much fun we were going to have I might have tried to fit in a pool visit early in the week before it got cold on us.

My bathing beauty!


We spent a LONG time in the lazy river.




Xander even got adventurous and went by himself.


He even asked Jason to help him swim.



Jordis loved the little kids pool area. She even made a little friend who was younger than her and practically swimming already. The benefits of living in Florida and having a mom who used to be a lifeguard I guess. I liked the little kids pool area because it was gated.



Erma's sister and brother-in-law drove a few hours to visit us from their permanent Florida home. We went back to Downtown Disney and attempted to have dinner together at the Rainforest Cafe.





Jordis wanted only Uncle "Twoy" to hold her up to see the birds.


Shortly after this picture was taken....

...Jason and I took the kids and high-tailed it out of there. We were having a lack of cooperation and didn't want to spend that much money to eat only to not enjoy it. So, we walked all the way to the other end of the complex where at that point we all had calm bodies and could try another restaurant. Being the perfect parents that we are (ha,ha) we let the kids eat sweet potato fries and corn bread at the House of Blues. It was our last night there and we wanted to enjoy ourselves. That ended up being a quick meal as well but we got to eat all of our food, so that was good enough for us.

A little more shopping for last minute souvenirs and it was time to go back for bed.


Had Jordis been a better traveler the ride home would have been pretty good. She whines and cries the whole time which makes overnight traveling still the best option for us. But what a beautiful trip it was. In Tennessee the leaves were just gorgeous. We weren't quite at the Great Smoky Mountains but close enough that it was stunning. I've never seen such magnificent foliage. I tried to take pictures in the car but they don't do justice to the beauty of it.


We could barely get Xander to have his picture taken the whole week but when we stopped for lunch at Subway he requested to pose for this picture.

Jordis finally took a nap when we got to Columbus.


I think traveling with kids is like having a baby. The whole time you're doing it you swear it will be a while, if ever, before it happens again. But soon after you forget about how bad it really was. I'm already working on Jason for 2009. For a trip, not a baby.

Thanks Dad and Erma for taking us on vacation. We had a great time!

Gobble, Gobble!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Apparently this is still not the year my kids will enjoy the Macy's Parade. Maybe next time.

Magic Kingdom

What a beautiful day it was when we went to the Magic Kingdom. Sunny and in the low 70's. I would have loved two days just here, as we didn't get to see as much as we wanted, and I was sad that we had to miss the Peter Pan ride. But it was fun anyway.

We rode the tea cups first at Xander's request. Jason went with the kids and my dad and I was in the non-extracurricular-spinning cup with Erma and Troy.


In line to ride the race cars.




It's A Small World is one of my favorites. I think I took the most pictures here (don't worry, I won't post them all). Jordis liked to wave and say hello to all of the dancing ladies.





Of course we had to ride Dumbo.



Xander scaled this house in no time while Jason took Jordis to meet some princesses.

The kids wanted to ride the train so we took it around to another part of the park.


After Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which Xander loved, he begged to go on Splash Mountain. We weren't sure how that would play out since he doesn't like getting wet but Jason took him and said he had a great time. Unfortunately, the picture I got of them on the ride is really blurry because I can tell it would have been really cute. While they did that the rest of us went to see the Bear Jamboree show.



It wasn't long before nightfall. The kids opted to skip the parade, so we rode a few more rides, got burgers and fries and they rode the race cars again with Grandpa, Grammy and Uncle Troy while Jason and I rode Space Mountain. Watched a few fireworks and then stuck around for awhile to let the crowd thin out.


They had put up the Christmas decorations the week we were there and I loved the Mickey-shaped wreaths they had on the lightposts. They also took out the usual flowers out front that form Mickey's head and replaced them with poinsettias.


Are you noticing a theme yet with how all of our days ended?