Disney Characters

Of course, you can't go do Disneyworld with kids without "meeting" at least the main Disney characters (I could probably do without it, but the line was short, so I agreed!). Brayden LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse....it's literally the only thing that gets his attention on the TV. So, logically, I figured he'd be excited to see Mickey, Minnie, Donald, etc in person. WRONG!

Yes, there are a few more pictures, but they all pretty much look like the ones above. It was absolutely HILARIOUS!!! I know, I'm a mean mom. But seriously, this was great entertainment! The only way we could get a picture without Brady freaking out was if George or I held him!

Yes, I realize an "upshot" of a pregnant woman is not exactly the most flattering picture!

 We went to each Disney park twice, with the exception of Animal Kingdom (you definately DON'T need to visit it twice....it's about a half-day type of park!). We did the Epcot fireworks, which was great! Koda and George went on virtually every major ride at least twice....and Brady and I lingered around the Disney shops most of the time. Koda's favorite Disney rides were the Tower of Terror and the Aerosmith Rollercoaster (both at Hollywood Studios), Splash Mountain and Space Mountain (at Magic Kingdom), Everest and the Kali River Rapids (at Animal Kingdom), and Soarin' and Mission: Space (at Epcot). He really is our little daredevil, and would probably ride the craziest rides if they let him...I'm talking the ones at Six Flags and Busch Gardens! He's fearless!

Now on to some good stuff.... :)

Since I started out with the horrors of our vacation, I suppose I should pick it up a bit with the highlite of it: Discovery Cove! We rescheduled it for later in the week because George was sick, which really was a blessing in disguise for 2 reasons!! The first being that when we rescheduled it, the reservation guy surprised me with a refund of over $50 because the "fare" was lower for the day we rescheduled it!! AND....once we got to Discovery Cove and had our quick "orientation" talk, they let us all know that it should be a great day...not only because the weather was *perfect*, but also because they were booked at LESS than HALF capacity, so there wouldn't be very many people in the "park"!!! As it is, they restrict the number of people so it's never crowded, but this was really nice as literally, it was DEAD there!

We checked in just after 8am, and they gave George and Koda a dolphin swim time of somewhere around 10:30 (I think!). You have to be 6 (or at least LOOK like you're at least 6!) years old to do the swim, and no pregnant ladies could do it either, so Brayden was my little buddy for that part of the day! We walked over and got our wetsuits.....which was interesting in itself. I wasn't so sure that I'd be able to squeeze my belly into a wetsuit, but the ladies there assured me that it could happen. After all, George pointed out, look at some of the guys with big beer guts....not much different than a preggo belly! Thanks, honey.They look at me up and down, and then give me 2 to go try on. I get into the dressing room, take a look at them, and realize that they're both regular women's sizes....XS and S. Seriously, an XS??? I try to squeeze into it anyways because, hey.....they should know their stuff.....they do this everyday. It wouldn't even fit over my thighs. I manage to get the size S over my belly and zipped up, and really, it wasn't too bad. I was comforted by the sounds coming from the other dressing rooms....grunts and such of other women trying to get their butts into the suits as well! :)

We started out trying to get Koda to snorkel in the "reef" they have there, but he kept complaining that the water was too cold. Seriously, the pool at the AK Club here at home is much, much colder. He was just being a wuss. So then we venture over to the stingray area, and again, he complains he's cold. It's like 90 degrees outside, sun beating down on us, wetsuits on, and he's cold?? Then we realize his wetsuit is a tad too big on him....it's kinda hanging off of him. So George takes him to switch it out, and they guy takes one look at Koda and says "looks like he needs a much smaller suit"!! Duh. They gave him a suit like 2 or 3 sizes smaller, and worked like a charm. Koda still wouldn't actually swim in the colder water, but he did enjoy the stingrays, even getting the courage to try touching them after a while!

George and I had done Stingray City in the Caribbean (just a big sandbar out in the middle of the ocean that is famous for stingrays!), so we were pretty comfortable around them. Probably the coolest thing about the rays was that they had a baby ray born just a few hours before opening that morning, and he was swimming around as well. Too darn cute! I'd say it was only around 6" or 7" wide at his "wings".....he was always the one Koda was looking for in the ray area!

The next thing was Koda and George's dolphin time. Koda had SO been looking forward to this since we watched an episode of Kate Plus 8 (where they were at Discovery Cove) and he discovered that the dolphins there would make a farting sound when you pressed the "imaginary" button inbetween their eyes. Literally, it was the first thing Koda tried. HILARIOUS! Here he and George is giving some love to their dolphin:

 

 



 

 And even though technically Brayden and I weren't supposed to be in the water with the dolphins, the trainer snuck us in to get a family picture :)

The other really cool thing at Discovery Cove was their aviary. There were three different sections, all with different types of birds. While we didn't realize it, the first area we were in was the one with the largest birds, and they would almost swarm you (because we had bird food). They were very tame and gentle, but Brady wanted nothing to do with them. He literally freaked out, screaming and crying...which only occasionally caused the birds to fly away! It really was pretty funny!! After a while, Brady would tolerate birds landing on George (who was carrying him), but only if they landed on the opposite arm or shoulder from where he was!

Koda, George, and I LOVED, loved, loved the aviary! These birds were amazing, and it was such a cool experience!

Here's a quick picture gallery of Brady's day:

All suited up and ready to go!

Not much of a fan of the water....and it was literally the temperature of bath water! Sooooo warm!

This pretty much was the highlite of his day. Nice and cozy and sleeping in the stroller!

He's also not a fan of sand.

Brady finally zonked out with George in the water. Once Koda and I got back (from around the lazy river), they were both submerged in the water by the waterfall, and George and I switched out with Brady. I propped myself against the rocks next to the waterfall with Brayden, and *almost* fell asleep myself! It was heaven!!!

One of the other really, REALLY nice things was that Discovery Cove was all inclusive. That meant no $14 or $15 parking (like Disney, Seaworld, etc), and food was included! And it was GOOD food! Breakfast was great, but lunch was even better! Koda especially enjoyed it because they had all three of his favorite foods: Mac-n-cheese, grilled salmon, and chocolate cake. For him, the only thing missing was halibut! They also had great little snack shacks around the park, which was great. They had lemonade and cherry slushies, which was Brady's favorite thing (besides sleeping) of the day!

The Discovery Cove day was literally the best day of the trip. We had such a great time, and although it was also the most expensive part of the trip, I don't think we'd have traded it for anything! Well worth the money!!!

Family Vacation!!

We left for a very long awaited family vacation to Orlando, FL the night of the 29th of September. While I would like to say travel was uneventful, it would be a complete lie! Therefore, I will split up my posts into a few categories. IE: Travel, Disney, Discovery Cove, etc. Here's the first installment:

The night before we left, I was horribly sick, throwing up ALL night. Plus, it was bad on the other end as well (I know, some might say TMI, but hey, you don't get the full effect of how sick I was unless you know!). Thankfully, it was over by morning (thanks in part to some left-over preggo meds to stop vomiting from the first 3 months!), but I was exhausted! I had grand plans for the day we left. IE: changing the bed sheets on all the beds/crib, making sure all laundry was done (so there wouldn't be anything to come home to!), taking out all the trash, last minute packing, getting some cash from the ATM, and lots and lots of general house cleaning. I love coming home to a clean house. Needless to say, I didn't even do a fraction of it. Things got packed, the trash was out, and I was alive. We left that night, and thankfully, the kids slept almost the whole way to Seattle, so even though I can never sleep on the plane, I could at least relax :)

We got to Seattle REALLY early in the morning (4am or so) and didn't catch the flight to Orlando until 8am, so we got some breakfast and let the kids play in the coolest airport play area ever (it's at the beginning of concourse A for those of you flying through there with kids!). Unfortunately, I seemed to have given whatever was ailing me to Brady, because he threw up mainly chocolate milk all over. And, in my fog of the day before, I failed to put an extra set of clothes/PJ's in the carryon for Brayden. So he STUNK until we got to the hotel in Orlando than night! However, another silver lining is that he was ok in a few hours, didn't blow the diaper out, and by the time we got on the plane again, he seemed fine.

Phew...only a 5.5-6 hour flight until paradise and SLEEP! The kids were great the first 4-ish hours of the flight to Orlando also, which was nice. Then.....Koda says he has to go to the bathroom. Everything's fine until about 20 minutes later when he says he has to go again. And then 20 minutes later, again! Poor little guy! And then the puking started. For an entire hour and a half. And the first time he threw up, he missed the sickness bag altogether (or should I say he just failed to have one accessible), and it ended up all over the floor, the strap of the diaper bag, and on his crocs. Gross. And being the most helpful hubby he is in times like this, George was about to throw up just at the sight and smell of it. So I got to squish my pregnant butt inbetween the seats to try and clean it up as best I could while I sent Koda to the bathroom to spend some time throwing up/going potty. This pretty much lasted until final approach when we absolutely HAD to take our seats! We get to Orlando, get the bags, the car, and find the hotel. The kids and I stay in the car while George goes to check in, and of course, Koda has to throw up again. Thankfully, he opens the car door to do so, and it's just on the pavement. The night is spent peppered with Koda running to the bathroom. But, again, by morning, he feels better and good enough to venture out to go to Downtown Disney.

We have a great day....but alas, 2 days later, George is hit with being sick. His is probably the WORST out of all of us, but I'll spare you the details. My poor hubby was up all night in the bathroom, and it lasted into most of the next day. That was also the day we were scheduled to go to Discovery Cove (the only thing we had set in stone because you have to make reservations with them!), but upon calling when they opened (and when we were already supposed to be there), they let us change the day to later in the week, which was great since it was the highlite of our trip, as well as the most expensive thing we did, and it would have been horrible to make George go while feeling so cruddy!

Then, about a week into our trip, Brayden started getting some serious eye goop. Koda liked to call it eye snot. Seriously, that's what it looked like. Neither of my boys have ever had pink eye (and neither have George or I), so I'm so unfamiliar with it. Technically, it was only snot. He didn't have pink, irritated looking eyes, wasn't fussy, they weren't itchy (or at least he wasn't itching them!), etc. Just the eye snot. Regardless, we found a "doc-in-the-box" (after I had confirmed that it was definately bacterial pink eye with the help of the internet on the Iphone!), and 20 minutes later, we left with a prescription for eye drops. By the next morning, Brady's "eye snot" had diminished greatly. I was like a crazy nazi the rest of the trip though, making us all wash our hands a billion times a day!

Our travels home were relatively uneventful compared to the trip itself. No sickness, no puking, etc. However, Brayden decided he REALLY didn't want to sleep on the Orlando to Seattle flight, and proceeded to SCREAM at the TOP of his lungs for about 2 hours until he finally passed out! We spent a couple days in Seattle, which were "bad-news uneventful", as well as the flight home from Seattle (the kids were ANGELS on that flight!). While we loved our trip and the weather, we were really glad to be back in our own bed. Nothing beats a tempur pedic and your own comfy pillows!

Kick off the End of Summer!

Every year for the past few years, the beginning of summer is kicked off with camping at the cabin on Memorial Day Weekend, and the end of summer comes to a close with being at the cabin over Labor Day Weekend. This year was a bit challenging at the cabin with Brayden being mobile (but not quite walking) at the beginning of summer, and toddling all over (but clumsy) towards the end of the summer. We had to hold him A LOT....and with my belly growing at an exponential pace the last month or two, it makes it hard sometimes! But, Brady LOVES it out there, and so does Koda! We're now up to 5 different swings for the kids....a baby swing for Brayden, a tire swing, regular swing, the ring swing, and the hammock (if you call that a "swing"), so there's plenty to do for the kids. Not to mention the 4-wheelers, which is always the highlite of the weekend.

The past 2 years we've grown potatoes at the cabin. Labor Day weekend is when we "harvest" them, and the kids think it's like hunting for Easter Eggs or treasure!

My mom bought this hat at the fair earlier in the day, and Brayden had a blast playing "dragon baby" with Koda and the twins!

Alaska State Fair 2010

This year we all managed to head out to the fair twice! Because we're heading to Florida (Disneyworld, Seaworld, Busch Gardens, etc) at the end of the month, we warned Koda that there would literally only be 2 or 3 rides for him. BUT....the 2nd time we went was buddy day, and we broke and bought a pack of tickets, and Koda, Curran, and Tristan spent well over an hour or two on rides! This year the petting zoo was awesome because Koda wasn't afraid of all the animals, and Brady was big enough to enjoy it too!

This was Brady's preferred method of being held for a good 5 minutes! He thought it was hilarious!

Dakota turns 6 years old!!!

Today is Koda's 6th birthday!!! I can't believe how fast time flies, how big he is, and how much older it seems I am when HE has a birthday (as opposed to when I have a birthday)!! Regardless, his party was yesterday. The big thing last year apparently was to invite the whole class (which we didn't do last year), so I promised him that he could do it this year. Thankfully, his school all has very small class sizes (the max is 18), and there's 14 kids total in his class. Add that to his 4 cousins here in Anchorage, and it's over 20 kids (including Brayden!). Needless to say, there was absolutely NO way that we would be fitting (or wanting) all those people in our place, so we had it at the Alaska Club (a fitness center, for those of you who aren't in AK), and had a pool party. He wanted a Batman theme, so I made a cake with a fondant Batman logo on it (my first homemade fondant creation):

Blowing out his candles

Having a bit of fun in the rockwall room before cake and ice cream!

Time for presents! It was funny...I didn't mention legos to any of the parents, but somehow over half of the gifts turned out to be lego sets, which is great since he REALLY has been into building things with legos. I'm talking playing legos at least a good 30-45 minutes every single day!

Brayden's not much of a water baby, but he does enjoy it as long as he can cling on to someone!

Some Auntie Lizzie lovin!

Dad and Brady.....he's in LOVE with the slide. Once he's down and the water is out of his face, he usually looks at George and does the sign for "more". We're trying to teach him "again" instead, but we know what he means!

Koda on his way down!

Tristan literally HATES the water! It doesn't help that he has virtually no meat on his little bones, and the water is fairly chilly sometimes, but even when it's warmer, he's not too much of a fan. Regardless, Heather forced him to ride down the slide with her, going so far as to pry his little hands from his death grip on the bar at the top of the slide! Too funny!

Koda's birthday party was a great success, and everyone had a blast! We were all wiped out afterwards, and Brady ended up taking a 4 hour nap! Dakota made out like a bandit, with lots of Legos, books, and a couple Wii games and accessories. From most of the family, though, he mainly got $$$ to use for our Disneyworld trip! He's been saving the past few months, and with his birthday money, he now has a little over $100 of his own money to spend on vacation. We leave in 10 days, and we all can't wait!!!

Campbell Creek

Only about 2 miles away from our place is Campbell Creek Park, which is such a great place when it's hot enough outside to enjoy (which isn't very often!). Koda was gone for a little over 2 months this summer in Kodiak, so he missed most of the Anchorage summer (which wasn't much anyways!). However, once he got home a couple weeks before school started, we waited for a really nice sunny day, and went for some fun! The part of the creek where the park is situated is really shallow, so even though the water is FREEZING, the kids can wade fairly well and have a blast!

Back to School

Dakota's 1st day of 1st grade was Wednesday, and he was so excited that literally, for the entire week leading up to the first day, that's ALL he could talk about! He was/is so excited to be in 1st grade! I can only hope that the excitement doesn't diminish much over the next few years.

completing his "whiteboard" task-a question each morning is on the whiteboard that each of them has to draw or write their response to!

Doing his very first assignment of 1st grade!

I, for one, am conflicted about back-to-school. On one hand, I feel like we didn't have a summer because Koda was gone all but 1 month of it, and in terms of weather, Anchorage DIDN'T really have a summer! We broke the "Consecutive Days of Rain" record this year (July and August), with 32 strait days!!! But, today is the 3rd day of nice weather in a row, so we're celebrating by taking the kids to Campbell Creek Park for a dinner picnic and to play in the creek and playground!