Disney World 2011!!!

June 5th we left blazing hot Indiana for blazing hot Orlando, Florida and Disney World!  We stayed at the Pop Century resort and had 7 days of Disney fun, including all four theme parks, 28 rides, 5 shows and 2 parades!  All I can say is sheesh, what were we thinking it was a great time!  :)  Here are the pictures from our most excellent, albeit hot and exhausting, adventure:

Our first night there we scored a great spot to watch the Electrical Parade on Main Street.  The boys loved the floats, although I had that catchy music in my head for 2 days!



The boys really liked this float in particular--Captian Hook's pirate ship!



Then it was onto the rides!  Here is Alex getting eaten by Bruce from Finding Nemo...

So many of the rides are 3-D now, which is awesome!  Here are the boys sporting their 3D glasses to watch Star Tours...

Here is Pirate Alex sailing his ship on Tom Sawyer Island...

On a leisurely riverboat cruise on our last day...

The awesome fireworks show at Magic Kingdom as seen from our fantastic vantage point at the Mainstreet Railroad Station, looking down toward the castle.  (For those contemplating going to Disney, this is the BEST place to view the parades and fireworks--great vantage point and you miss the tsunami of people coming up mainstreet to the exit after the show is over.  Perfect!)

Andrew and Nick on the Peoplemover in Tomorrowland.  (For those that have been to Magic Kingdom, can I just say that I inexplicably LOVE this ride?!  It has everything--it's partially air conditioned, you get to see all sorts of cool stuff, it's dark much of the time so you can "rest your eyes" and you get to sit down.  What a wonderful combination!)

Here are the boys in jail with Emperor Zurg from Toy Story after the Buzz Lightyear ride.

Nick and Andrew on the Peter Pan ride, one of my favorites...

On the magical Disney bus that whisked us to and from the parks all day every day.  (Best part of staying at a Disney Resort, by the way!)

A rare picture that includes me.  I'm looking particularly fetching after an ultra hot and humid day at Epcot, no?  Anyway, this is us waiting for the Illuminations show.  Very cool.

Right before the fireworks show at Magic Kingdom they project these amazing images onto Cinderella Castle.  I still can't figure out how they do this.  Magic, I suppose...

After our day at Animal Kingdom.  You can't see very well in the picture but we are all soaked after a raft ride on Kali River Rapids.  That cold water was most-welcomed after a hot day!

And of course, there are the all-important character greetings!  Here are my three princes charming with the "Real" Prince Charming...

Not too far behind him was Cinderella.  That girl's complexion is entirely too perfect.  I'm reasonably sure that she was a robot...or at least that's what I'm going to tell myself...

Here are the boys with one of the wicked step-sisters from Cinderella, who was by far my favorite character encounter.  She was hilarious and informed Alex that he was marrying her.  Being the gentleman that I've raised him to be, he said "Of course!"...

After he said he'd marry her, she gave him a big fat kiss on his forehead!  Too funny!

I love Alex's reaction when he saw Mickey!  So excited!

Here is Andrew kissing Minny's hand.  Check out Mickey--he looks like he's about to square up on the boy making a move on his best girl!

We inadvertently booked our trip over one of Disney's Star Wars Weekends, when they turn the Hollywood Studios into Star Wars-apalooza.  The day we were there the guy who played Chewbacca, the guy who played Darth Maul and the voice of Yoda for The Clone Wars were there.  Pretty cool.  Here are the boys in front of a life-sized AT-AT.  They were speechless!

Andrew on a speeder...

Andrew as a StormTrooper...he wouldn't smile, telling me "Mommy, StormTroopers are mean, they don't EVER smile."

We signed boy boys up for Jedi Training, where they get to dress as Patawan Learners and get taught some real Light Saber moves by a Real Jedi.  Their class was also taught by Ahsoka from Clone Wars, on the right.

Here is my little Patawan Andrew checking out Ahsoka.  He was really into her!

And then the Light Saber training commenced!  Andrew is toward the front on the left and Alex is toward the back on the right.

Shockingly, Patawan training was interruped by Darth Vadar himself!  You can see video of Andrew fighting Vadar at the very bottom of this post.  So cool!

After each Patawan got to fight Vadar, he invited them to join him on the Dark Side one last time and they all showed their Light Sabers as a sign of unity in The Force...

And Vadar took off, vowing this was not the last we'd see of him.  (I guess he hasn't seen Return of the Jedi yet.)

Each Youngling got their own diploma and a bag with fun Star Wars stuff.  So very cool!!!

Of  course there are about 50 millon other pictures and stories I could tell you but those are the highlights!  Great trip and wonderful memories as a family!

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Our Andrew Joseph turned 4 this weekend!  None of us can believe our baby is getting so big but, then again, that boy was ALWAYS big!

Here's Andrew opening one of his tamer gifts, a kalidiscope from mom and dad.  Those things are just cool AND they don't require batteries!  Woo hoo!

Big brother Alex got Andrew a Buzz Lightyear dart blaster, which, of course, makes the most annoying and persistent noise.  I only WISH this one didn't require batteries...

And of course the best gift of the day was the much wished-for Red Lightsaber.  (As you may remember the Darth Vader costume is from Christmas.)  Please note the bare feet.  When you're with The Dark Side, you don't need shoes.  Everyone knows that.

Another gift was the Spiderman mask, which quickly became a Darth Maul mask.  Does EVERYTHING have to be Star Wars???!

Then it was onto the cake, which, of course had a Darth Vader candle holder...

Trying to decide what to wish for...

Happy Birthday Andrew!!!

Cincinnati Zoo

So I could say that we did something fun over spring break, Andrew, Alex and I headed to the Cincinnati Zoo for a day trip.  The weather was gorgeous and Cincinnati is just enough far south that all the spring flowers were in bloom--so pretty! 

As those of you who have read our blog before know, getting adorable shots of my family is a universal impossibility.  Like gravity and Murphy's Law, the Idiotic Family Photo Law is fixed and immuable.  It simply isn't going to happen.  And yet I try.  Like a moron.  But whatever, SOMEDAY there will be an awesome shot that will make it all worthwhile.  Here is the best of all my tries:

This one was the best but to get it, I had to make Andrew cry.  That is his fake smile after I said "Smile.  NOW!"  (Great parenting, no?)



We loved watching the polar bears swim!  There were three of them and they were very alert and interactive.  Shortly after I took this picture, the bear stopped and took an enormous poo right in front of us.  All the kids in the assembled crowd went "EWWWWW!  Gross!!!"  Except Andrew who calmly said "You know, everyone goes poo.  You go poo.  I go poo.  Even my mommy goes poo.  It's very normal."  Hysterical.





This is a case full of, wait for it--GIANT COCKROACHES.  Major heeby jeebie factor.  Big time.  The whole insect exhibit was great, though. 

This is a giant sea eagle that was super-interested in people.  He would hop right up to the glass and look at us.  The boys had a great time "talking" to him.

Of course there was a huge reptile house, including this enormous python.  Ew.

No visit to a zoo is complete without lions.  They were mostly napping--as I would have been if this had been a real spring break--but did wake up momentarily for this picture.  Andrew was very disapointed that they wouldn't roar for him and told them so.

Our last stop was the gorilla exhibit, which I had been looking forward to since I heard that Cincy Zoo had them.

I could seriously watch these dudes all day long.  This one kept playing peek-a-boo with us and I think he also may have been using sign language.  (Like, seriously, he was making these movements with his hands that looked like sign.  I'm betting he was saying "Whata yous lookin' at??!")

I didn't see this sign when we were there but as I was looking through our pictures I noticed it.  When they say "clumps of dirt" I'm guessing they mean poo.  Nice.

Alex is Seven!

Our Alex turned 7 on March 23rd! Can you believe it??? I certainly can't. He got a brand new bike for his birthday along with a few other goodies. Happy Birthday Alex!

Here is Alex's face when he looked out the front door and saw his new bike!

 

Alex on his new ride:

Andrew got Alex a new basketball. He even picked it out himself, which I thought was awesome.

Here's the birthday boy making his wish before he blew the candles out--check out the missing front tooth! :)

There happened to be storms that afternoon and Alex told us that God painted him a rainbow in the sky as his gift. I mean, come on??!! How cute is that??