Orlando...Part Two (Late)

Well, I know these are a bit out of date, but I wanted to get them posted nonetheless. In the latter half of our trip to Orlando, we went out to dinner as a family at a fun, little German restaurant in Sanford. The food was very good, the dessert was even better, and the memories are the best. We were able to get some really great photos of TMR and my dad.

On Wednesday night, my older sister, Molly, her boyfriend, Jamie, and my two nephews, Troy and Justin, flew into town. They stayed for two weeks, but our trips overlapped by a day and a half which was awesome! On Thursday, Doug and I took all of the boys, CCR, Troy and Justin, to the Orlando Science Center. We had a blast!! We went to most of the exhibits and took some really great photos. I know Troy and Justin love hanging out with their cousins, and CCR really looks up to his cousins!

I'll have to do another Orlando post because these pictures are only the ones I caught with our camera. My mom and dad got some really great photos and video of the kiddos. Once I get those from them, I'll be sure to post them too.




Pops at his finest.


Munchin' on TMR's hand.


I absolutely love this photos! She loves her Pops!!


Just hangin' out...


Goofing off in the restaurant.


What a great smile, TMR!!


The best of the photos of us.


Justin hanging out with CCR.


Troy was so helpful by entertaining CCR!


Listening to the dinosaur expert.


The kids really enjoyed playing around in the planes, trains and automobiles room.


Changing the oil in the car...


Too funny!!!


This was at the frog exhibit. You could get under the tank and look up inside the "bubble".


All four of the boys in the hurricane simulator.


Climbing up the stairs to the treehouse...



Justin hanging out in the treehouse.

We had such a wonderful time with the cousins!! Thanks guys for the great memories!!

Orlando...Part One

Well, since our kids are so close in age, we thought it would be fun, and cost effective, to fly one time before we'll have to pay for a ticket for CCR. Since my older sister was already planning to take her family to Orlando to see my parents and sister, we thought we'd schedule our trip to coincide with hers for a few days. So fast forward to current day, and we're all hanging out in Orlando. It was both CCR's and TMR's first plane ride, and our first time to fly with kiddos, so needless to say, it's been an adventure so far. We did got on a road trip with CCR when he was almost a year to Big Bend National Park in West Texas, but this has been completely different. Let me start by letting you know that our household has been sick, in one form or fashion for the past 3 1/2 months. We've had viral infections upon viral infections (all four of us), severe bronchiolitis (TMR), strep throat (thankfully only me), and to top things off a ruptured ear drum (CCR). So we knew the plan ride would be challenging already because we had to make sure CCR's ears were taken care of. We made arrangements to have a successful plane ride - related to ears - and hoped for the best. Well, it wasn't half bad. CCR was oblivious at the Austin airport, and had a few meltdowns on the plane, but all in all, he did great! TMR had two little fussy episodes, but was also wonderful! We planned for us to take the kids to the zoo and CCR to Disney World while we were here. We stacked those trips early so we could spend the rest of the time relaxing with family.

The zoo was a lot of fun. We took the kids to the Central Florida Zoo which is a smaller zoo (closer to my parents' house) and great for little kids. They have just enough animals to keep a child's interest but not too many that you can't get to them all before the kids lose interest. We wanted CCR to have a chance to see some of the animals he's learned from books. We were able to snag some great photos, and the kids were champs! We dipped the kiddos in the pool when we got home which helped to cool them off quickly. They both enjoyed that!

The next day we took CCR to Disney World. We started at Magic Kingdom which was a complete madhouse. It was blazin' hot by the time we got there, and everyone decided to go on the same day as us (I think everyone feels this way when they go in the summer). We took CCR to ride the Aladdin Magic Carpets which he enjoyed, ate some much needed lunch and rode It's a Small World. I would've preferred to take him on Pirates of the Caribbean and Peter Pan, but the lines were approx. an hour, and in case you've forgotten, CCR is not even two...not a good combination. And since our reasoning for taking him to DW was really about exposure to facilitate hands on learning, it wasn't worth it. So we took the monorail over to Epcot. We took him on Spaceship Earth, Nemo and the Imageworks Figment ride. We also took him to meet the main Disney characters that we watches on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in the mornings. He met, most importantly, Mickey Mouse (Miee Mouw), Pluto (Pwuto), Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck (Donal - Cack Cack), and Goofy (Goocky). He even got so excited to meet Goofy that he went running to hug him and ended up in another family's pictures...oops! The highlight of the entire trip, and the primary reason for going to Epcot was to go to the Aquarium at The Seas. CCR loved it! He was running around saying Hi to all of the fish and the two dolphins. It was precious to see him be assertive in finding a front row seat at the window and running back and forth across the walkway to look into the two different tanks. It's been a lot of fun watching him come out of his shell and grow his vocabulary.

Please know that taking a two year old to DW is challenging, and a lot of people told us we were crazy and that he was too young, but he really had a great time seeing a ton of new things, observing a ton of people (young and old) and thoroughly enjoyed meeting his Disney friends, and most of all checking out the aquarium. If you have the right focus when taking little, little kids, you can have a successful trip and not waste your money. Our trip was worth every penny. Will we be taking TMR when she's two? Probably not, but that has more to do with the logistics of coming back to Orlando than regretting our decision. Gaga (my mom) is already making arrangements for us to come back next summer, but that'd be too early for TMR. Maybe we'll come back in two years when TMR is 2 1/2. We'll have to see what's in the plan for us then...

Please enjoy the pictures:



CCR at the airport - checking out all of the "big trucks"


The glazed looks once we landed in Orlando


Checking out the frogs, spiders and other critters


Playing around with the theater at the Discovery Center


Using the magnifying "glass"


Checking out the monkeys...can you see him lounging on the branch?


It's not easy being a "big kitty cat"


Gotta love the elephants


CCR and Gaga posing with the porcupines


Checking out the bald eagles


A llama was the first sound that really stuck with CCR - from an early age when Jen was teaching her kids animal sounds. Here we got to make the sounds and see what the animal actually looks like.


CCR in his Handy Manny mechanic's shirt leaving Gaga and Pop's house for DW. With sweat and spilled water, the shirt didn't last long, but I got it on clearance online so it was great for the photo op.


The Aladdin Magic Carpets


Riding the monorail to Epcot


Meeting Mickey Mouse was a really big deal!! With all five characters, he would go up to them, hug them and walk away as if that was the only reason he was there. We had to remind him to go back and pose for photos. It was very cute!


Hangin' with Goofy...


Following the fish at The Seas aquarium


Running around making noises from different instruments by stepping on the squares with the pictures.


Zonked out after 7 1/2 hours at DW. As many times as I told him he could rest his head while we were moving around or waiting in line, he was completely engaged in everything we were doing until he knew we rode the last ride. We told him we were going to ride one last ride and then go home to see TMR. He and Doug shared a frozen, chocolate covered banana, he had some water, handed the bottle back to Doug and was out! He slept the entire way home, woke up long enough to eat a little dinner, take a bath and head to bed. He slept 13 hours and woke up a new boy! We had a blast!! We are so thankful for this experience and have thoroughly enjoyed being in Orlando with family. Tuesday is a German restaurant, Wednesday possible the Atlantic Ocean and a hibachi style dinner, Thursday we're bbq'ing at home and Friday we're flying home.

A few random shots from yesterday...

We ended up lounging around most of yesterday which was actually really nice. I just love this first picture because it shows TMR's two teeth!! Yes...she has two teeth! She cut her first tooth when she had just turned 4 months old. Her second wasn't too far behind. So for the past few weeks she's been testing them out on bottle nipples (she's bitten through two so far).


Someone noticed that the dog was up on the hearth so he climbed up there to join her. Can you see his shoes? They are shark Crocs! We got those for him on Saturday since he's outgrown his other two pair. They are super cute...


For the past six months, I have let CCR "push the button" on the camera so he could hone is photography skills. He's really enjoying being behind the camera and seeing his snapshots on the screen of the camera. Below is a picture he snapped yesterday while hanging out at the house. He sure is getting better...I better watch out or else he's going to take better pictures than me...

It's Been Forever...

I know, I know...it's been forever. I can't even explain how crazy things have been over the past few months. Work has been crazy for me, Doug's work has been crazy too, and the kids are growing like weeds! I'll try to grab all of the pictures we've taken over the past few months, but I wanted to get these pictures posted right away. They're so cute so I couldn't resist. If you're not from Austin, you may not know about Kiddie Acres. It's an amusement for children. They have all sorts of rides and the admission is free. You buy tickets and use those to ride the rides. For years, Doug and I have driven past this place and wondered who actually went there. It's not the most glamorous of places, but it's got what the kids love! Here are some pictures from our adventure at Kiddie Acres...

Bluebonnets

We decided to head to La Grange Easter weekend since we're going to be pretty busy for the rest of April. We asked if Noel, Jen and the Safari wanted to join us for the trip. We met in Bastrop for lunch at Guadalajara which was good and then headed on south to La Grange. We got there and the are that we took photos at last year wasn't as full as the other side of the highway. So we headed over there instead and started shooting away. All of a sudden, TMR started crying uncontrollably...we both tried to console her but nothing was working. Then I noticed that her legs were bright red...and the rash was spreading up her legs. We all decided it was best for us to either head to a hospital so she could get some antihistamine or home to get a warm bath. We weren't very far into our drive north when I noticed that her legs had significantly improved. So we headed home and gave her a warm bath. I guess her skin had a sensitivity to something in the air or in the "weeds" so we'll have to keep an eye on things as she gets mobile and starts going outside. Enjoy some of the photos we were able to snap in the 5 minutes we were there...

A Follow Up

I wanted to provide an update on a few earlier posts. CCR and I made some bird feeders in an effort to bring birds (or squirrels) closer to the windows of our back porch so we could check them out. Because of the cold fronts and TMR's age, we couldn't just go for walks every day. So at first there was not much interest in our homemade attempt at a feeder. Then there was a squirrel...but he spent most of his time trying to figure out how to get up to the feeders and not much time actually eating them. He ended up just licking our dust pan clean. Then we caught one bird on our feeder. It was so quick which was amazing that we were able to capture it on film. Well, this is the finale of our bird feeder posts. I knew one of them was done when I found two of our dogs were fighting over the remnants of the twig wreath. Well, this squirrel got the last of our feeders. And it was very cool that we caught it on film as well. I have more supplies so I think we might continue to keep our back yard stocked because now CCR loves watching the squirrels either eating from the feeders, hanging out on our back porch (looking for more feeders) or scurrying along the back fenceline.

A New Hat and A Very Smily Baby Girl

Doug loves buying T-shirts on sale online. Well, he was shopping recently and found a very cute Nike hat on sale in CCR's size. So he got it. I was a little nervous because CCR doesn't really like hats (or socks for that matter). Well, there's something about this hat that exempts it from the anti-hat sentiment he has...so here's a few pics of him sporting his new hat.

And here's a few photos of TMR just smilin' away. She's is always smiling (unless she's sleeping, eating, or not...tee hee). My point is that compared to CCR she smiles a whole lot more...and I just love the roundness of her cheeks!

Addiction

My name is Kerri and I am an addict. I am an Etsy user. For those of you who don't know about Etsy, it's a shopping website that showcases (typically) homemade items. I was first introduced to the site when a very dear friend of mine who makes and sells nursing cloaks had be purchase one for a friend through her store. I didn't really understand the site and just went on to make the purchase and that was it. Well, a blogger that I follow posted a link to a friend's store which I was interested in. So I went to her store and was immediately hooked! So now I'm a shopaholic, but only at Etsy. While I love my favorite stores, I can't help but shop Etsy when I get free time. I can now relate to my mom's addition to Facebook games because my vice is Etsy.

What's crazy is Etsy has a function where you can "pounce" on new stores. So while I was pouncing (which is really where my addiction lies), I found a posting for a beautiful baby blanket. It is hand-stitched in the same way as CCR's "woobie" which was a gift from my mother's best friend Mrs. Hamdorf. So I sent a note to the store owner to see if she could make one for a little girl. She sent me a note right back. I was so surprised that she was so prompt. Well, it turns out she was in the middle of creating her store and getting her blankets posted. So here I was pouncing her at the same time she was getting started. I was sure to let her know that the pounce function works because she only had one blanket listed when I found her and halfway through our conversation, she had all five listed...just crazy timing!

Anyway, I need to get off of the computer because regardless of all of the cool tabs that are open, I'm stuck in Etsyland...