Our First Family Vacation

Disney is offering amazing discounts for the military this year. We were able to go to Disney World and get Kevin's admission free, mine dirt cheap, and 40% off of our resort stay. We had promised Joey that we would take him to Disney since my bed rest caused him to have such a boring summer last year and we had to keep our promise.

It was our first official family vacation where it was only the 4 of us hanging out, enjoying each other's company. We stayed at the Pop Century Resort and enjoyed their great food, fun heated pool, and Joey loved the toy store there. We went to Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Sea World (for free as well). Hollywood Studios was great because Joey met all his Pixar heroes- Buzz, Woody, McQueen, Sully, Mater, Mike Wizeow...something. They had a great new Toy Story ride that we were able to shoot lasers at different Toy Story theme stuff (I don't know how to explain it) and Joey really liked that.

We went to Magic Kingdom twice. Once on Thursday night for the parade and than again on Monday to do the tea pots, we met Buzz there again, and did a Monsters INC comedy show. Joey was so cute when he met Buzz all those times. He was such a good boy during the whole vacation. One morning, he woke up and immediately jumped in the stroller (pjs bad breath and all) and said "Lets go guys!" It was so cute. Just seeing how happy he was made it all worth it. And Emma was a doll too. Poor thing was so sweaty because I carried her in the baby carrier 90% of the time, but it guaranteed us that she would be happy so she didn't mind and neither did we. But as you can see in the pictures with Goofy and Minnie, she was star struck. She never cried when the characters came around, just stared in awe. It was darling.

Animal Kingdom was great because we saw some great animals really close up. We probably saw a dozen hippos and crocs just hanging out in this safari ride we took. It was really fun. Sea World was amazing! I love sea animals and Joey was so thrilled to get wet by Shamu- Emma not so much! It was pretty cold. But she survived.

All in all it was a great vacation. We felt so blessed to have our children behave and the weather as well. It was always a beautiful day and than when we had enough and were on our way back to the resorts, the heavens opened and it poured big time. So we felt lucky. If you go to Disney definitely get the meal plan. We were able to have character breakfasts with Lilo and Stitch and Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and the Little Einsteins which we would never have paid for individually. We will be back in Disney in January for my first ever Marathon! Wish me luck. If you want to see WAY more pictures go to the blog (if you get this by email) and there is a slide show there.

Milton, FL

If you got our posts as emails, be prepared to get a few emails in the next few days as I catch you up on our new adventure.

This is our new home in Milton, FL. Its about 45 minutes outside of Pensacola. We decided to live here because Kevin will be working in two bases and this was somewhat in the middle. Its a cute little neighborhood that is behind a golf course. All of our streets are named after famous golfers- go figure. But I have to say that we really love it. The house is 4 bedrooms and 3 baths. Our master bath is as as big as a room on its own and we each have our own closets. Kevin was thrilled to have a place to finally spread his clothes out. I guess I wasn't giving him enough space. I don't ever see how that is possible :) What I really love is our dinning room. If you know me for a long time, you know how much I love our dining room table and how much I love to entertain, so now I get to keep it open and have beautiful pictures on the wall- its just great.

The kids are adjusting really well. It was sensitive there for a while because Joey really missed his friends back in MD but we are keeping him busy and have set up all his toys and he is happy. He is potty training. Not fun at all! He does better with Kevin than with me, but I have to be patient. I just say- "No PooPoo on Thomas" (thanks Amy) and it works out sometimes. I just have to watch for the PeePee dance and the hiding when he poops.

Enough about Poop. Emma is great. She is 7 months and such a cutie if I say so myself. She sits up and I started to make her her own baby food. My friend Luz introduced me to the concept and I actually enjoy it. Yesterday I made her 14 jars for about $5.00. The cheapest I ever saw baby food was when Dad got some for Amy in CA for .25 and I never saw that again so hopefully this way I can save money. She really likes them so far and I get to be creative. Hopefully this will help her not be as picky as Joey.

Kevin is THRILLED to say the least about this training. He is excited to learn to fly and meet new people and get more of the Navy experience. He really loves the area too. He was great at getting the house unpacked and has been so patient with Joey and his potty training.

Me, well, we only have one car so I get to stay home lots, but my Mom is here which has been really nice. And I am going to start Joy School with Joey at home in the middle of August so between that, the kids, and some projects, it will be fine to stay home and not spend any money ;)

Well gotta go put Joey to bed so I will be back to update you on Disney World!!!! PS- that picture of us in a box was while we were putting together our patio set, this big thunderstorm hit and Joey was so scared of the thunder he hid in the box. It was pretty loud.