Sunday, August 31, 2008




Here are a few pictures from the Ohana restaurant in the Polynesian resort in Florida. Check out those goofy poses. We had never eaten at this restaurant before and the kids had a lot of fun. The hotel was very pretty we all decided that someday we would love to stay there. But for now we will stay at cheaper accomadations. We still had a fun and don't spend a whole lot of time in the rooms anyway. Zach is back in school. Last spring he was selected to test for the accelerated program and was one of only two in his grade in the whole district that was chosen to fill the openings. We are very excited and he is loving his class and new teacher, however this did mean a school change. He will now be in a different school then Jacob. This is still ok just means mom has to drive to two different schools for pick up and drop off. We were hoping to get Jacob in the same school but they were full. Maybe next year. Jacob will still be at a really good school. He starts school on Thursday of this week and is very excited to start also. We have spent this week cleaning bedrooms and rearranging them so that we could move a desk into each of their rooms for homework. As all moms know this becomes mostly a mom chore. Zachs is finally done Jacobs desk is in but his room is now a big old mess again. Whats new though. I am told it is an easier process to choose the toys to play with when they are spread out on the floor so that you can see everything that you have. Doesnt work so well in the dark in the middle of the night for the big people in the house though. We also have just recently discovered IKEA.
Love it. Hoping to add a couple of wall shelves and other orginazational tools to each study area. And it shouldn't cost to much.  Maybe I need a job there do you think I would get a discount. Better yet maybe the boys need a job there. Hope everyone is having a good holiday weekend thanks for looking.


Thursday, August 21, 2008

hotel


We took some pictures the day that we left the hotel. Wednesday morning it was really overcast and drizzly I don't remember that it was foggy but maybe it was I thought that it looked this way because of the drizzle it was thick. We should have taken pictures before this but by this point we had no choice and the kids had seen this tennis court next to our building and wanted to have their pictures taken on it. We decided that our best option to get home was to connect through Austin from Orlando to Longbeach. We could have gone through New York or D.C. and tried to get home in one day but after we got to New York or D.C. we were afraid that we would be stuck overnight and didn't want to risk being stuck there we decided that it was cheaper to get stuck in Austin or plan on spending the night in Longbeach then being stuck the other way. We made it all the way to Longbeach on Wednesday but then the next flight to salt lake wasnt till this morning so we did spend the night there again. Just outside of Texas after we had left Austin we hit some bad turbulence (spelling) I have never been through anything like that in my life. They had already passed out snacks and drinks and they all went all over the floor. The plane was a mess I looked back in the back galley and there was a ton of stuff on the floor back there as well. The flight attendants were both in the aisle and they ducked down and grabbed on but one did get slammed into something and cut his eye. Other then that it was ok it did happen very quickly though and was very scary I honestly thought that we were going to die. I have never felt that way before but it was scary. The flight crew was very good and handled it well and so were all the passengars. But it was a little unsettling. Jacob was a little scared and a little nervous to get on the plane this morning.  Zach was so focused on the cartoons that he was watching that we arent sure that he even noticed what was going on he wasn't affected at all. We were wondering if he even noticed or if he just went to grab another chip or sip of his drink and noticed that someone had already cleared them away for him. There were drinks dripping from the ceiling and everyones snacks and beverages were all over the floor. I wish now that I had taken a picture but at the time we were all shaky and I didn't think of a picture. Zach was sitting on the row in front of me but the woman sitting next to him said that he did great. She was more shaken up then him and he didn't even react. I still really wonder if he even noticed he is a smart kid but when he is focused on something he is oblivious to everything else around him. We did have a lot of fun and are so grateful for the flights and for the trip. We had a lot of fun and we are grateful to daddy for letting us take this trip while he was in Vegas even though he didn't want to miss the trip and wanted to be with us. I do have a couple of more pictures that the kids want to add that I will add over the next couple of days. Thanks for looking and we love you all.

Blizzard Beach again

Here we are back at blizzard beach. We were here on Tuesday Hurricane Fay was supposed to hit on this day but they had downgraded it to a tropical storm. We still went to the water park and spent the day there until they closed the park early and kicked us out at 6 pm. We were one of about 100 people in the park. It was awesome we hardly ever saw anyone and as the day got later there were even less people there. We spent most of the day in the lazy river. The park employees thought that we were crazy they all had on jackets over their suits and then rain jackets on top of that but it was warm. It just rained all day we were wet though anyway. It was really cool in the river cause with all of the trees hanging over the top of us and all around and then the constant drizzle it was almost like being in a real rainforest. Or what we think that it would be like. It was fun. A lot of the employees came to know the kids by name and spoke to them every time that we went by. We only rode the family raft ride one time on this day cause the ski lift was closed due to winds. We had to climb the side of the mountain and it was a long climb. Jacob said that he would be willing to go up and ride it again if someone would carry him. No one was willing to take him up on the offer so once was all that we rode. We had a lot of fun though.

Typhoon Lagoon


Typhoon Lagoon, this park was a lot of fun but it does seem to be geared a little more towards older people. We still had fun but Jacob spent most of the day crying. He didn't like most of the rides there. The kids are very limited anyway on what they are willing to go on but at this park it was even more limited. We convinced them to try the family raft ride, they really like the one at
Blizzard Beach. The very first thing that we did was run into a wall that had a waterfall shooting down from it and it was were he and I were sitting that we ran into it. The water completely ran over the top of us. He couldn't have gotten any wetter if he had gone under in the pool. But he doesn't like the stuff that gets his head wet so this really upset him. And that was just the start it wasn't a very long ride and didn't really go down hill. You just ran into different things that got you wet. Zach never got hit by any of them but it was always Jacob who got wet with one of the rest of us.   He was screaming mad when we got off and sobbing, and the mean mother that I am I just laughed. We still had alot of fun though crying and all.

Blizzard Beach



Blizzard Beach, we didn't get a whole lot of pictures this trip since we were at a waterpark. Who really wants pictures like that anyway.  We went to Blizzard Beach first since we were planning on buying an annual pass and I wasn't sure if it was good at both parks. The kids really wanted to go to Blizzard Beach the most so we decided if it was only good at one that is the one that we wanted it at. It was cheaper to buy the annual then a three day pass though and we are now hoping maybe to fly down and use it again since we have the passes.

Hotel

Yeah, here we are at the All Star Sports hotel in Disneyworld. So glad to be here I do have to admit that at this point in time I did try to convince the kids to stay in the room and just take a nap but they were excited to get to the waterpark. I can't really blame them and I am glad that we went now.

Washington Dulles

Here we are in Washington D.C. at the dulles airport we took an overnight flt to D.C. and then from there to Orlando Sunday morning. Because of weather problems in the New York area flts filled up on us so we had to take the round about way to get there but who can complain. Right it was still fun we saw a few places (from the airport haha) that we had never seen before and it is one more adventure for the kids. We are just so very grateful for the ride.

Oakland



ok we are home I meant to update this in every airport but after longbeach they charged for internet. Or we didn't have enough of a layover to get the computer out. We had so much fun though. Saturday we flew from longbeach to oakland here are the kids in the oakland airport. We decided to buy postcards and take a picture at least in all of them.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Longbeach airport



ok here we are. We flew into longbeach last night hoping to fly to Orlando through Austin. But the flight filled up on us and we didn't make it on. Here we are at Longbeach having a fun adventure and waiting to go to Oakland. From there we are off to D.C. and then onto Orlando. Hopefully by morning we will be singing about what a small world it is after all. Yeah. Orlando here we come. Just remember life comes at you fast, but it is never boring. We love you all.