Trip to Florida - Disney World and Sea World

Oh the drama!  Matt wrote a paper and got selected to present it at a conference in Orlando Florida.  'Sweet, we can make a family vacation out of it', we thought.  :)   So we bought our airline tickets together, the conference was at a resort so the hotel was taken care of and they were going to get us a rental car.  Awesome, this is working out well..........oh how life likes to throw curve balls!  :)

We were set to leave Monday about 11am, well Sunday night at around 7:30pm we found out via email that the conference was cancelled because 40% of the people suppose to attend would not be able to because of 'Hurricane' Sandy that hit the east coast.  AAHHH!  I got this sick feeling in my stomach and became stressed.  :)   We spent the next couple hours searching and securing a new hotel (thank you awesome sister Melissa!) and new rental car.  Because the conference was cancelled so was Matt's hotel and rental car (and the reimbursement for his plane tickets - bummer).  

Honestly it worked out so well!  We got to spend a lot of time together as a family and enjoy the parks together.   We all had a really good time - I'm so glad we went (it was an option to bag all of it).  The weather was great, so much warmer than Ohio, and the parks were a lot of fun.  

I'll warn you there are a lot of pics.  :)   Enjoy!!  :)

Monday- we got to our hotel and got settled.  Prepared for the upcoming fun!

Tuesday - we spent the day at Magic Kingdom in Disney World

 The castle is so cool!

 Connor did a lot of this.  There was a lot of walking.

 One of the shows outside the castle.

 Going on the Dumbo ride.

 Going on the Tea Cup ride.

 Going on Aladdin's carpet ride

 Mid afternoon parade through Magic Kingdom

 Briella wanted to be like her brother. :)

 Riding the merry go round.

Wednesday - we spent the day at Epcot in Disney World

 We did a fun clam-mobile ride in Nemo and Friends

 We got to meet Mary Poppins.  (Connor has yet to see that movie.) 

 Wednesday was Halloween so the hotel had a trick or treating event there.  Where we stayed there were 3 hotels together so we went to each hotel and got treats.  It was fun!  

Thursday - we spent the day at Sea World (it was AWESOME! You'll see why.)

 Dolphin Show - it was amazing!  We loved it!

 We got to pet Sting Rays (all of us did it, even Briella!)

 Shamu Show - it was cool!

 This flamingo was loving Matt.  He just kept 'nuzzling' his arm.  :)

 We fed the sea lions.  

The birds were crazy there.  You would throw a fish to the sea lion and the birds would swoop in and try to snatch it. Many were successful.  

 Then the best part of all.......We got to feed the dolphins!!!  Can you tell this was the highlight of the trip for me!  :)   It was soooooo cool.  

 The trainers taught us to hold up the fish with one hand and then with your free hand reach down and pet the under side of the their chin and then when you're done petting them drop the fish in they mouth.   It was so neat!!!  They have such soft skin.

 Connor did it too!  He just fed them, he wasn't to sure about petting them.  

 There's Matt enjoying the fun!

 We went on a few rides after that.  Matt and Connor did the Shamu express (rollercoaster).

Friday - we spent the morning and part of the afternoon at Hollywood Studios then that evening we flew back home to Ohio. 

 We went to a live Disney Junior Show.  

 Connor enjoying the show!

 Good job making it through all those pics.  :)  It was a fun filled trip!  

Halloween.....too much Trick or Treating

I was worried that Connor wasn't going to get to go Trick or Treating this year because we were going to be in Florida over Halloween.  Boy, was I wrong.  We went Trick or Treating at least twice the week before Halloween and then once while we were in Florida (at the hotel).   So we had a lot more candy than I thought we would.  This does not help the baby weight gain.  :)

Connor was a dragon and Briella was a fairy (or something like that.  Honestly we aren't sure what it was but it was cute!)  

Ward Trunk or Treat

 Donut game at the Ward Trunk or Treat.  They had games and activities in the gym and then we went out to the parking lot and did the Trunk or Treat.  It was fun and great to see everyone's costumes. 

 Relay race with daddy and Stephen Tice

 Connor the dragon and Samuel Fox - Thor

 Briella indulging in a blue lollipop.

Trick or Treating at AFIT (Daddy's work/school)

 We met our friends there. 

Madison (a cat), Caitlin (a ladybug), Briella (a fairy), Connor (a dragon), Michael (Dash from Incredibles), Brian (an alligator), and Peyton (an owl).  So cute!!!  

Ohio Caverns

One of the places on our Ohio Bucket List is the Ohio Caverns, so we finally made it up there mid October.  It's about 45 minutes north of Dayton, not to bad of a drive.  I was really worried it was going to be freezing but it wasn't bad at all in the caves (the caves stay around 50 degrees all year round), outside the wind was chilly.  :)    The caves were really cool.  Connor was so excited to be going in a cave.  The tour we took was about 45 minutes and went all through the cave.  Honestly, when we first walked in to the cave I got claustrophobic (which I'm not, or I thought) and panicked a little but was fine a couple minutes later (just to note...this was all in my head, I kept my composure very well on the outside!)  :)   

While we waited for our tour to start we bought a bag of 'dirt' that had hidden gemstones in it and we had to sift through it the old fashioned way.  It was fun!  And Connor found quite a few gemstones.  

Briella even joined in the fun! 

The results of our labor! :)

Then we started our tour of the cave.

 Connor didn't let go of my hand the entire time.  

 This was the path we walked with our guide.  It got very narrow at times and low clearance.  Poor Matt had Briella on his back in the backpack and his legs got quite the workout squatting from the low ceilings.   

 It's so beautiful.  The cave was completely carved out by water and ice over the years.  The only thing men did was scoop out the mud so there was a walkway. 

 This is the biggest stalagmite in the cave.  It took hundreds of years to form.  They call it 'The big white carrot'. 

What's funny.....right when we came around the corner to look at it a bat flew right at us.  It freaked us out! We hadn't seen any until then and I'd forgotten they live in there.  :)

I left there amazed at nature.  I'm so glad we went - I highly recommend it!

Funny/Cute memories!

These are just some fun pics from the last couple weeks - random pics.   One has a good story to go with it! :)

 Connor and Briella made a fort!  

 Chef Connor!

My mom made this apron for him for his birthday.  

This is the pic with the story!  :)

It was the morning of his field trip to the pumpkin patch with his preschool class.  It was chilly so he was going to wear his bigger/warmer coat.  Right before I went upstairs to finish getting ready I told him that we need to put his name in his coat just in case it gets lost.  So I went upstairs, got ready and came back down....I wasn't up there more than 10 minutes.  I came back down and his coat was like that on the couch. I'm not sure if you can see his name written in the middle of the inside of his coat!  I just started laughing.  He told me that I said we needed to write his name in his coat so he did it!  He said he pulled a chair over to where we keep the permanent markers, got one down and then wrote his name!    Honestly, he did a good job and at least it's on the inside!  :)  

The Pumpkin Barn

Last week we went with our playgroup to the Pumpkin Barn.  It's the same place we went last year and just as fun. They added a few more bouncy houses and slides.  The kids had a lot of fun and it was fun for us to hang out one last time before our friends moved (The Buschelmans).  :(   We already miss them!!   Good luck in Florida!!

 Connor and Will ventured into the corn maze by themselves and made it out alive.  :)  I was impressed they did it all by themselves.

 Connor, Will and Dom having fun on one of the slides there.

 Connor then took me through the corn maze and lead the way.  :)  Good job Connor!

Connor's so tall!  :)

Trip to Colorado Springs

At the end of September we went to Colorado Springs to visit our good friends April and Joseph Wahlquist and their cute kids.   We also spent some time looking at houses and areas to live.  Connor was so excited to see Jacob, Abigail and Benjamin!   He spent most of the week playing with them - it was great.  It was fun to see them and how much the kids have grown up. Time flies!   We can't wait to move out there and spend more time with them.   April and Joseph are saints!  They watched our kids quite a few times while we went to look at houses.  They are too nice!   We love them!!!  

While there, Matt and the kids made a cool tee-pee out of branches.  The kids had fun playing in it.  For awhile there was a sign that said 'No girls allowed'.  :(   But as you can tell that didn't hold up!  :)

 Cute Abigail!  

 Connor, Abigail and Benjamin

 Briella in her cute Sunday outfit.  I loved it, so I had to take a picture!  :)

And this pic is for my sister's!!  :)

Connor and Matt's first Father and Son Campout

Towards the end of my mom and Melissa's visit Matt and Connor went camping.  They went with the ward to the Father and Son Campout near John Bryan State park.  Connor was so excited to go camping with Daddy, he couldn't wait.  They just went Friday night so that was good but there was also a thunderstorm that night - it poured.  Poor guys.  But our new tent worked really well - Yeah!!  :)

 I sent 'light sabers' with them.  I guess all the boys have them and they chase each all over.  Connor told me that the adults (the daddys) were the bad guys!  :)  

 This is Connor's friend Samuel.

 Since our tent was huge they shared with Gary and Samuel Fox, friends from the ward.   

 So cute!!!  Matt said Connor did great.  I think Connor got so worn out by 'fighting off the bad guys' that he just crashed and didn't wake up until people were coming around in the morning announcing breakfast. :) 

Hanging out in the morning.  Matt said it was a lot of fun.  :)  Fun Father and Son bonding!