Six Flags

I was a little disappointed with the Six Flags day. I think all of us were really. They are in their "off-season" which means only open on Saturdays and Sundays. You would think that since school has started back and not many people take vacations then, it would be safe to go....WRONG!!! There were SO many people there. We still had to wait in line for the big roller coasters for over an hour. It. Was. Ridiculous. We spent the money to ride only 3 rides.....I was a little perturbed! The only good thing about going this time of year was that the weather was nice.

The kids had a lot of fun riding rides. We rode a big train around the park and Presley loved that! She is crazy into trains right now! We brought Presley with us in line for Superman and then just swapped her between the four adults riding. But people were staring us down and whispering "that baby can't ride this!" No duh people, she kinda doesn't meet the height requirements! Haha! But she probably would if she could.....this kid LOVES to be scared!

Here she is on a ride all by herself! She looked scared to begin with, but once it started going, she was all smiles and would wave to us as she went by!! (it's crazy bad because it's a cropped cell phone pic.)

These were swinging boats that actually went pretty fast. Jaden was in the boat in front of us by himself. He was constantly turned around telling us that we were super spies and what kind of mission we were on. He's so silly! Kole was raising her hands up the whole time and Presley was holding on to one of my fingers and grinning like a monkey. Life with these munchkins sure is interesting! :]

TRAIN!

At least it was a day spent with the people I love! Minus Jeremiah, he had to work....boo for being an adult!

baseball and a teddy bear picnic

On Friday we left for Atlanta. We packed food to have a picnic lunch on the way there. It saved us some $ and also let Jaden have his "teddy bear picnic" that he missed at school that day.

We got freshened up at the hotel then went to the Braves game. There were SO many people there! I've been to about 5 games before and I have never seen that kind of a crowd there. We had really good seats at the end of a section that allowed the kids to get up and move around. It was Star Wars night so there were all kind of characters roaming around the stadium. It was also fan appreciation weekend and they had fireworks after the game. These fireworks were better than Milton's 4th of July fireworks!

Presley was killing me with the Braves chop. When the music would play, she just popped her little arm up in the air and went to town! :) She would also cheer and clap right alongside us. It was pretty funny!

She needed the binoculars to get a better view! Notice that coats got broken out? It was so chilly that night. We had checked the weather and brought them, but we weren't fully prepared for it to be low 60's. It was nice but would have been nicer with warmer clothes!

We didn't get back to the hotel until almost midnight. Granted it was really 11:00 in our time zone, but it's still the latest Presley's ever been up. She didn't fall asleep until close to 1 and then we had to tackle Six Flags the next morning.

Women of Faith - Imagine

A few weekends again, my Mom & I headed to Atlanta to attend the Women of Faith tour, Imagine. The tickets were her birthday present. Really it was just as much a gift to me as it was to her....no kids for 3 days! ;) We left on a Thursday morning and got back really late Saturday night.

We went to Ikea for the first time on Thursday. I love that store immensely! When I got home I realized they charged me for an art easel I bought Presley 3 times. I called them and got $3o refunded with no hassle. That was super impressive to me! You have to go there as soon as possible. The one in Atlanta is easy to get to but plan on spending at least 3 hours there. You definitely need that much time to see everything!

I love this kitchen. I want it now. Is that possible?

Love this dining room too...these are my dream colors!

We stayed at the Best Western Plus Inn at the Peachtrees right downtown. I was pretty impressed that the rooms actually looked like the pictures! It was really nice and at only $80/night with a full breakfast buffet (including make your own waffles) AND in walking distance to everything, it can't be beat!

The view from our room. I have always wanted to live downtown in a big city and for 2 nights I got to! ;)

The conference was exactly what I needed. Amazing women speaking the word of God. I laughed and cried pretty much the entire time. And didn't feel a bit out of place with 8,000 other women doing the exact same thing! We saw Sheila Walsh, Nicole Johnson, Lisa Harper and Angie Smith. They are all so gifted in what they do. Google them and fall in love! Mary Mary and Natalie Grant both sang. All extremely talented ladies who can belt out some songs! I wish I could see the conference in every city they go to; it was just that good!

The conference focused on Ephesians 3 :20, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine". I need to remember that! ;) I think it was Shelia Walsh who said that "peace is not the absence of trouble, it's the presence of Christ". Amen sister, amen!

Anniversary trip

For our anniversary this year, we decided it was time for a get away! I, well we both, really wanted to go back to St. Lucia, but it just wasn't in our budget right now. So we settled for going back to where we went on our honeymoon, Indian Shores. It's right between St. Petersburg and Clearwater. We really enjoyed going back to places that we went to 5 years before; it was pretty nostalgic!

We left Wednesday night and got there Thursday around 3:30 am I think. So obviously we slept in that morning...who are we kidding we didn't get up any morning earlier than 9!! We went to Walmart for a few groceries because our room had a mini kitchen. Which I loved because we saved money by eating lunch there a few days. But we watched some TV and movies that afternoon then went to eat at the Salt Rock Grill for dinner. It was delicious steak and seafood, even better than I remembered. Isn't this a lovely photo? Ha ha! With junk all over the bed! It was raining that night and I'm pretty sure I remember that it rained on the night we went on our honeymoon! Weird!

On Friday morning we woke up to this.

Great weather for a vacation! We actually didn't mind too much! We went to Tampa to meet my friend from nursing school, Amber. We met her at the Cheesecake Factory for some yummy cheesecake and then went shopping at the International Plaza. It's a crazy big 2 story mall that has restaurants on the outside of the mall building and they all have open seating outside. It looks like a chic nightclub...way cooler than anything Pensacola would have!

Then Jeremiah and I headed back to go shopping and eat at John's Pass Boardwalk. It's kinda like Pensacola's Boardwalk. Just a bunch of shops and restaurants. We ate at Bubba Gump's....they have the most yummy seafood! I just recently found out that there's one in Destin. Do yourself a favor and go eat there! :) I think we had seafood every day we were there! And I found the old picture of us in front of the same sign at the boardwalk!

Saturday morning we woke up to much sunnier skies. We went to lunch at Frenchy's, a little beach bum place that has the best grouper sandwich on Earth! And then relaxed in the pool and at the beach. Of course I forgot to take a picture of the beach on a nice day. South Florida sand is so much different than ours. It's like a finer grain and it kinda feels like Moon Sand that's impossible to shape! I much prefer our sugar white fluffy sand!

J at Frenchy's...I promise we actually did talk to each other on our trip. I actually think it's the most we've talked in the last 2 years! I know we'll look back on this time of hectic parenting with great memories and wish our baby was still little. But it's nice to get away with just each other and reconnect without a sippy cup flying by my head or hearing "Mommy" screamed at me 25 times in two seconds!

And of course no trip would be complete without a dessert stop! It's the Candy Kitchen and it's wall to wall sweets! My Heaven! The store is not much bigger than what you see on the right. They make their own fudge, ice cream and italian ice. They also have every kind of candy bar, sucker, cotton candy, hard candy (well you get the idea) that you could think of! So that was our treat Saturday afternoon! And then we went to see Transformers in IMAX 3D that night. I was a little skeptical especially with the $46 price tag for 2 tickets and popcorn and drinks. But it was awesome! I'm glad we splurged on it!

Sunday morning we packed it all up and headed home. We missed Presley like crazy but I'm pretty sure the feeling wasn't reciprocated! ;) She LOVES spending time at her Nana and PawPaw's house with everyone! We skyped with her a couple of times so she could see and hear us. I know she missed us, but I'm glad she didn't ever get upset over being away from us.

THANK YOU so much Mama for keeping P for us! We couldn't have made this trip without you! Love you!

Exploreum

We took the kids to Mobile last Tuesday to the Exploreum; it was Presley's first time going. She loved it! Well, they all loved it! They have special exhibits that come visit for a short time and this summer it's a space exhibit. That's right up my alley, I'm kind of a space nerd! Kameron and I saw "Hubble" on the IMAX they have there. It was awesome! They also have permanent exhibits that include a ton of hands on stuff.

Presley hitched a ride from everybody! On this you had to use a pulley system to get to the top of the pole. Some of them were really hard to do. Especially with 25 extra pounds! ;)

The three floating heads! :) Notice Presley in Jaden's picture? She was concerned about where his body was! Ha ha!

One of the exhibits was all about the body. This is the 12 foot tall beating heart. It was super cool! Jaden couldn't get over that this is actually in his body! In this exhibit you could 'perform' surgery and test your ability to jump, your strength and how long it takes to burn off a cheeseburger! It also had a station where you could push up and down on lever to 'beat' your heart...it was way harder to do than I thought. Makes me appreciate my heart a little more!

Kole loved this snake. She kept petting it. Looking at the picture gives me the heebie jeebies. I'm not a snake person at all! Presley even touched it, but my mom was holding her. Thank goodness!

My mom let Jaden, Kole and Presley play at the Wharf of Wonder while we watched the movie. It's a play area for the smaller kids and we knew that they would rather play than see "Hubble". I know they had a blast!

I'm sad that we didn't get to do a lot of the things that we had planned on my vacation from work. But at least we got to pick blueberries, eat at Lambert's and go to the Exploreum. Oh and Jeremiah and I went on a much needed anniversary trip! Thank the Lord I got sick before then! Glass half full, right? ;)

Lambert's

I started feeling a little bit better on Saturday night from my mutant strep throat. (turns out if you take your antibiotics the wrong way, it makes you suffer longer! who knew?) But by Sunday, I was bound and determined to get out of this house! So we went over to Foley and ate at Lambert's Cafe. I'm sure we were the only people left in the Florida Panhandle who hadn't eaten there yet! We've lived here close to 13 years and it was our first time going.

It was a really fun atmosphere and priced great for the gigantic portions, but I have to say it wasn't the best food I've ever eaten. I got the meatloaf and immediately wished I had gotten the fried porkchops upon seeing them served table side in a huge skillet! I would go back for lunch if shopping in Foley or if out-of-town guests wanted to go back, but I probably wouldn't truck it over an hour to go wait for an hour and twenty just for their food. But hey, to each their own! I am proud to say that our table, and by that I mean Kameron & Jeremiah, caught all 5 rolls that were thrown to us! Those things are sizzling hot flying by your head!

We tried to stay outside and let the kids play on the train at the front of the restaurant, but we were about to die because of the 9,0000 degree heat after an hour. I had the bright idea of walking over to Chick-fil-A and getting a drink and let the kids play in the cool play area. Well, that was a good idea except it was Sunday and they aren't open on Sundays! So we just went and sat in our air conditioned cars until it was time to eat.

Safari Ride

The Safari ride was pretty awesome at Animal Kingdom. You get on this big jeep thing and take a drive through the African plains! It's probably the closest I'll ever get to a real safari so I enjoyed it!

Here was the first view as you pull out from the pavilion where they pick you up.

This tree's trunk holds thousands of gallons of water. I can't remember what it's called.

I think this a gazelle, but I could be wrong! It's hard to keep track of all of them after a while!

The huge dirt pile in the next picture is actually a termite mound. They were scattered all throughout the safari and they were huge. The driver, I mean tour guide, said they are hard as rocks.

Longhorn cattle. Look at how close we were! That is Jeremiah's hand. The tour guide said that their horns aren't heavy at all. They are actually hollow except for blood vessels.

My favorite......a giraffe!

An elephant who was putting on some sunscreen....throwing dirt on its back. They can burn as easily as we can from the sun!

Young flamingos that are still mostly white. Apparently when they around 2 years old they have eaten enough shrimp to get their famous pink color.

A lion who was taking it easy in the shade!

Animal Kingdom

We've been to all of the other Disney parks before. And I generally like them all. (I much prefer Universal Studios because I LOVE rides, roller coasters especially!) But I must say, I did not care for Animal Kingdom. We got 4 free tickets to the park of our choice and we chose AK because we had never been there before. The park hours are from 9-5. We were told that on Fridays and Saturdays they do a "special after hours thing" and stay open until 8.

Anyway, we were running behind as usual that morning and poor Jaden woke up with a fever. So we had to run to Walmart to get some motrin. On the way to the park, he started throwing up, so we had to pull our caravan over on the side of the road to let him puke. Poor thing! He was a trooper! He started feeling better once we got there and had lunch. So we got into the park at 12, which was ok we thought, because we had until 8 that night to do everything....wrong! We found out that "special after hours thing" is only for Disney resort guests, aka not us! So we only had a few hours to cram everything in. I'm sure that tied in to my feelings of dislike for the Animal Kingdom!

{The tree of life, not real, but huge nonetheless!}

{mom & kole on the triceratops spin!}

{Presley LOVED it! She said "yay" the whole time! Ha ha!}

Our friend Karri had told us that it was a small park in comparison to the others, but geese, it didn't hardly have anything to do! I really think that they should charge admission prices based on height because there was nothing for Jaden and Kole to do. We rode one ride with them and Presley called the Triceratops spin, which was kind of like the flying Dumbo ride. Anyway, that was the only thing they got to do beside seeing The Lion King show. Well, we all got to go on the Safari which was a jeep ride through an "African plain" to see native animals, and that was really cool. Still, not enough to justify the ticket price for children....in my opinion. Jeremiah, my dad and I rode Everest, which is the only big coaster there. It was pretty fun. But I would have probably been more disappointed and frustrated if we had to pay for our tickets!

Ok sorry, I didn't really want this post to be all negative. I realize how blessed I am. We did have a good trip to Orlando...a great time a the T-Rex restaurant, a break away from work (!), and we were able to spend time with our family who we love dearly. That's all that matters anyway! Thanks Mom & Dad for letting us go with y'all! =)

I'll post the Safari pics separate because there's so many of them!