Bon Voyage!

This morning started out with 9 people getting up and ready, packing two rental cars with all of our luggage, cleaning the condo, heading to the airport to return the cars, taking a taxi 15 passenger van to the ship and finally loading onto the boat- all before lunch!! Once on the boat, we headed straight for a buffet, of course! After a scrumptious lunch, we went back the room for naps before heading to the safety drill. Then came the fun send off party on the deck. The kids had fun seeing the characters, dancing to the music and Hadley and Joel thought the streamers were a blast! We all ate dinner together at Triton's that night on the boat. The kids did pretty well for sitting through an almost two hour dinner. After dinner, we all hit the Mickey pool, where we spent most of the time in the ears (because they had the warmest water). Before we called it a night, we headed over to the hot tub to warm up and watched Cinderella on the big screen over the pool. When we got back to our room, our bed displayed the first of nightly towel animals- a stingray.

Family Vacation- Day 4

Attempt at a family photo shoot-oops!
Good job, Drake for being the only one actually looking at the camera!

Today we decided to stick around the condo most of the day, except for a little venture out to play a round of miniature golf. Drake had been wanting to go back to the same place we had played the year before because he wanted to try the course we didn't play last spring break. (The kid's memory is unbelievable!) It was a very warm day with some intense sun so I was glad we went about 10:00 am, I can't imagine what it would have felt like in the afternoon! After having lunch back at the condo, we spent more time in the pool- ahhh! The combination of Hadley's floaty suit and water wings was awesome- she got to be independent and I didn't have to worry that she was drinking gallons of pool water. After doing some laundry and re-packing we were about ready to head out to the big boat the next morning!

Family Vacation- Day3

Today we headed to Animal Kingdom. The morning was a little rough with a cranky almost 2 year old girl, but she pulled it together after lunch. We saw a really cute live Nemo musical that the kids LOVED and also saw the Lion King show. We all went on the Jungle Cruise as well and got to see lots of cool animals. The kids got to hit a couple of rides as well. We managed to avoid most of the rain showers throughout the day by timing our shows pretty well! We headed out around 3 and the kids were zonked when we got in the car. Hadley continued to sleep for a few hours and Drake and I headed to the pool when we got back to the condo. He is doing such a great job swimming and could swim the whole length of the pool by himself. After dinner, we all headed back to the pool and had a great time with the kids.

Family Vacation-Day 2

This morning we were off to an early start with some early waking toddlers, which did result in being ready early and having time to grab some Dunkin Donuts before heading to the airport. Once there, we got checked in super quickly and spent the next couple of hours keeping the toddlers entertained via moving walkways and the fabulous technology of video ipods showing this fabulous cartoon- Hadley's absolute favorite! Once on the plane, Hadley promptly fell asleep and made for a very relaxing trip for us. Once in sunny Florida, we picked up the car and headed to the condo. After some pizza for dinner, we headed to Downtown Disney to peruse the sights. The kids loved playing in the water squirters and got soaked. However, just as we were about to leave we all got soaked in the downpour as we went to the cars.

Family Vacation- Day One

Drake headed off to Florida with Papa and Nana. He got to fly down a day early and help Nana and Papa get a few things done at the condo before the rest of us arrived.

Gabe and I spent the rest of the morning in Bloomington with Hadley. We went to the zoo and park and enjoyed a leisurely morning to start off our vacation week. After lunch, we headed up to Chicago to stay with Josh, Jacki and Joel before flying out of Midway the next morning. Joel and Hads took a bath together to get squeaky clean before heading out.

We've got a swimmer on our hands

Drake finished up another round of swim lessons today. Which happens to be perfect timing for our vacation to Florida- Drake flies out tomorrow with Nana and Papa and we follow on Thursday. While we did have a few tears of fear throughout the process, he is doing a great job and will be jumping off the diving board in no time! It will be great to see how much he can progress over the summer. Hadley on the other hand, scares me to death in the pool! She has NO FEAR of the water and just walks into the water until it is over her head- no matter how many times she comes up sputtering. She is going to be quite a challenge at the pool this summer needing constant attention so she doesn't swallow up the pool.

It's beginning to look a lot like summer!

We welcome it with open arms! We have loved the warmer temperatures and the food that comes along with it.

Dirt and Makeup

Drake had his first baseball game tonight. It was slightly emotional as he tries to learn the rules of the game. I think throwing a bunch of little kids on a field to play a game that they don't really understand would be kind of like us going to a foreign country and being expected to play a game in which we didn't know all the rules. It was very comical watching how much the kids played in the dirt, kicked the dirt, filled their gloves with dirt, threw the dirt, watched the ball roll on by in the dirt. The dirt was obviously very entertaining! While the boys and girls on the teams played away in the dirt, Hadley couldn't be less interested in the dirt and more interested in Nana's makeup. Hadley sat contently with Nana and tried on all of the different kinds of makeup she had in her purse. Oh, the difference in my children! :)

One, Two, Three Strikes...

Drake has been doing a great job at baseball practice. He really is a good listener and is getting the hang of the hitting with the coach pitching. His first game is on Tuesday night, and at the least it will be entertaining. There is nothing like getting a bunch of 4, 5 and 6 year olds on a field and watching chaos ensue. Tonight, Gabe and Drake did a little more practicing in the backyard since many practices have been rained out lately. These pictures show a little of the action that took place.

Isn't that last face a perfect "Gabe face"- no denying whose kid he is! :)

Letter Mania

One of Hadley's favorite things to do right now is try to spell things. Mostly she just spells things "Y-E-O" because apparently those are the letters that stick out most to her. I got these fun letters at a garage sale and they have proven to be hours of entertainment! She likes for me to spell all of our names and then she will find the letters and lay them all out. She also likes finding the first letters of all of our family. The other day, she and I were looking at a book that had blocks in it. I asked her what letters were on the blocks and to my amazement, she told me correctly. So, we have been working on letters a little everyday and she's been getting pretty good at naming a lot of them. It's also really fun listening to her vocabulary and sentence structure expand a little more everyday. As the big two year old birthday (sniff..sniff) approaches she is learning more everyday!
**When we're on the last letter, she makes the comment, "other way", and it took me a few seconds to realize she was telling me that I was holding the J backwards to her- smarty pants!**

Love, Sweet Love

The video says it all...

We got to visit with both of our wonderful moms today. We are blessed by fabulous familes!

Planting

We are going to try our hand at a very small amount of planting this year. Drake really wanted to plant some sunflowers so we did plant several seeds to see what happens. I also planted just a few veggies. I am a completely inexperienced gardener, so we'll see what happens. I may enlist some help from some experienced gardeners next year...

Rain Rain Go Away

Gabe and the kids headed to the park this evening while I ran out to do a few errands. They thought it was safe since one rain storm had already blown through and the sun was out creating a beautiful rainbow. Unfortunately, shortly after they were at the park another rain cloud blew in and soaked them! So, they headed home in the pouring down rain and few hail stones. When they were about a block away, a neighbor stopped and drove them the rest of the way home, but I think most of the wetness was pretty soaked through at that point.

We are Family

This weekend we got to get together with lots of family to celebrate Joel's (our nephew's) 2nd birthday. It was a fun time with lots of yummy food. Joel had a music themed birthday and all the kids got to show off their mad skillz at Rock Band that was set up. Joel also got a drum pad for his birthday that he was super excited about. Happy Birthday Joely!