Disney Part 1: Finally Posting from May- Epcot & Animal Kingdom

I have been waiting until things slowed down to post our May trip to Disney. It's been a busy couple of months with the move and things haven't completely slowed down yet but I am finally finding moments to sit down. This has been the first trip that we have ever taken to Disney that we visited all 4 parks on the same trip. The boys had a blast and we were exhausted by the end of the week. Mimi rode down with us and everything went smoothly until Caden threw up :-( After stopping to get the car seat cleaned up, get his clothes changed, and finding a pharmacy for some Dramamine, he felt much better and we were back on the way. Thankfully, we were staying in a villa for the week and I was able to wash the car seat cover when we got there. Once we arrived, the boys were ready to put on their ears and explore.

And the first thing we did was check out one of the resort restaurants. This was our first time to stay at Saratoga Springs and we LOVED it!

After eating, we walked around the resort for a bit before heading to Downtown Disney. This infamous picture below that I took the day that we arrived is the beginning of the end of the trip. The boys climbed over the side of the carriage after I took the picture and got stuck. So, I sat the camera down to help the boys off of the carriage...completely forgetting about the camera and walking away. It wasn't until we were at Downtown Disney a while later that I realized that I no longer had the camera. And at that point, I did not remember where I had left it. I was devastated but tried to make the best of it. I had the point and shoot in my backpack as a back-up and I had my phone but it wasn't the same. When we returned to our villa that evening, I called the front desk and Lost and Found at Downtown Disney but no one had turned in a camera and I still couldn't remember where I had left it.

So, this Disney trip probably had about 2,000 fewer pictures than any other vacation we have been on :-(  Either way, we headed on to Downtown Disney and checked out their favorite place The Lego Store. We also checked out almost every other store down there but without my good camera our visit was not well documented :-( That evening, we returned to our villa to get some rest and get ready for our big day at Epcot!

The next morning we hopped on the bus and headed to Epcot!

This was also our first trip to Disney that we used Photopass. It was really nice to have someone else take pictures for us!

 

The boys loved the park and had a blast! This was our first visit to Epcot and there was way more for the boys to do there than I truly thought there would be. We really enjoyed the park!
Seabase was awesome and we totally could have spent more time there. We loved Journey into the Imagination with Figment, Imageworks, and Innoventions! The boys loved Soarin' and Spaceship Earth. They thought Turtle Talk with Crush was amazing and Ben and Ethan enjoyed Test Track more than anything else in the park.

Even our tour through the World Showcase was fun :-)

Unfortunately, I didn't take as many pictures as I normally would have including our night at La Hacienda de San Angel eating dinner and watching the IllumiNations fireworks. It was a late night but we finally got back to the villa to rest and get ready for our next day at Animal Kingdom.

We started with breakfast at Tusker House the next morning.

Goofy was ABSOLUTELY hilarious and the boys thought he was the best thing ever! He would do a quick tap dance and Ethan and Caden would laugh hysterically!

After breakfast, the first thing we did was the Kilimanjaro Safari

We had a light rain but we trudged through and took the Wildlife Express Train to check out Rafiki's Planet Watch and the Affection Station.

After that, we saw the Festival of the Lion King

which was amazing!

And kept everyone enthralled

I love that Ethan didn't want to miss anything with his binoculars!

Then we went to The Boneyard to dig for some bones before we headed over to watch Finding Nemo which was probably my favorite show of the whole trip!

The Triceratop Spin was not working so we skipped it and Ben and Ethan decided not to do Expedition Everest so we headed back to the resort. Even though we could have spent more time at Animal Kingdom and we definitely missed a few things that we would have liked to do, we were tired from the previous last night and ready to relax. Again, the Photopass was awesome and we got some pics of all of us!

After returning to the resort, we hopped around to several of the pools for a few hours then ate a little dinner and rested up for Magic Kingdom!

Drama Camp and Patrick School Tour

It has been a busy summer starting with Disney, selling our house, staying with friends for a couple of weeks, getting settled in a new house, and preparing to transition to a new school. Throughout this time, Ethan has stayed busy with VBS, science camps, and drama camp. Last week, he finished his last camp of the summer; drama camp at The Actor's Scene. They did showcase on Friday and Ethan showed off his Superhero skills...

 Complete with a shield

After drama camp ended, we went on a tour of his new school.

 Their mascot is a Dalmatian, super cute!

 And the school was named after a local firefighter lost in the line of duty

  Since Ethan missed Patrick's Pup Camp for incoming Kindergartner's, Ms. Karen was sweet enough to take us on a tour.

After much anxiety, I finally feel peace that we made the right decision and this is going to be a great year to look forward to!

Ethan's 6th birthday

I repeat...my last couple of months of picture documentation has been extremely poor. Sadly enough, that even impacted Ethan's birthday. The week after the 4th was Ethan's birthday and my entire family decided to travel in for the occasion. It was also the first time any of my family had seen the house so I was in a mad dash to get everything done. The day before Ethan's birthday my brother, Morgan, flew in from Virginia. He was a tremendous help while he was here! He and Ben took Ethan and Caden to see the Minion movie for Ethan's birthday. Then Mimi and Uncle CJ drove in that evening.

 The next day Uncle Chad and Aunt Ashley drove in with Collier. We had planned a small pool party with family and a few friends to celebrate Ethan turning 6. Everything turned out cute but the camera didn't make it past the counter until after everyone had left and we opened presents. Uncle Chad's gift was the highlight and he was excited to present Ethan a new remote control boat for the pool.

 Morgan had the perfect position to check things out!

 Chad got the battery ready to charge while Uncle CJ put together an airplane...

 and Collier munched on a foam cube :-)

 We had a wonderful weekend together and it ended all too soon. I am looking forward to the next time everyone comes for a visit when things are a little more calm and there aren't any more to-do's for the house.

4th of July

The 2nd weekend in the house was the 4th of July. Ben was supposed to run the Peachtree but we were all exhausted. Although we had officially been in the house 2 weeks, we truly had only had one week to get the house put together since the painters, electricians, and I've forgotten who all else were here the first week. At the last minute we decided to spend the 4th at home with our friends Jeff and Jenn. They brought Kaylynn and sweet baby Ansleigh and we swam and grilled. Ben shot fireworks let the kids do sparklers. These last 2 months of picture documentation are pretty poor and somehow I don't have any pictures Jeff and Jenn much less Kaylynn and Ansleigh :-(  

 

The Rest of June

The day after we moved out of our old house we headed to Alabama for my 20 year reunion. Mimi kept the boys and lent us her Mustang convertible for the weekend. After the previous stressful few weeks, this was a much needed getaway and we enjoyed every minute of it!

 When we picked up the boys on Sunday afternoon, they were sporting their new pool gear for the pool at our new house. I think they were a little excited!

 Unfortunately, we had a 2 week hiatus before we could move in to the new house so we kept busy with other things while we waited. I had a laundry list of changes of address and other things to do to get ready for the next phase of our move but we tried to sprinkle in some fun for the boys. We went to story time at the library one morning and the boys had free reign to pick out books to keep them busy. As a result, I believe we came home with 32 books. We also spent some time at the neighborhood pool...

 ...and then a couple of days at the mall. As always their favorite was the carousel.

 Then one hot afternoon we hung out at Chick-Fil-A getting ice cream and playing on the playground while Mommy worked on her list.

Then, finally it was time to move in to the new house! Ethan started camp at the Gwinnett Heritage and Environmental Center on moving day so that he could stay busy while we moved scheduled several contractors to do work in the house. It wasn't until the end of the week that we finally had the house to ourselves to actually clean, take the drop cloths off of the furniture, and start putting everything in place. It has been a slow process but I finally see light at the end of the tunnel. We are left with a few boxes that I need to deal with but it looks like our home now.

The Beginning of Summer...Chaos

Summer has started off in a blur and it's not slowing down yet. 

In early May, Ben and I began to talk about moving sometime over the summer. If we moved we wanted to do so before Ethan starts public Kinder in the fall. But we weren't sure about anything. He called our realtor and spoke with her about the possibility and talked about everything that we needed to do to get the house ready to go on the market and the next thing we knew she called us to say she thought she had a buyer. What?!?!?! Our house wasn't on the market, we weren't even ready to put it on the market, we didn't even have a price for it yet. We had literally just spoken to her about staging it the previous day. We didn't even have a prospect of a house to buy. Either way, the family came to look at the house. The house wasn't clean, the beds weren't made, I was making cupcakes to send to school the next day, and we had swim lessons that night. I spent 10 minutes doing the best I could and they saw the rest. They liked whatever they saw, though, because they made an offer and that was it. This all happened pretty much the last week of school, then we left for Disney the Friday after the boys got out, and we came back to pack up and move out of our house. Can you say chaos??? And to make it even better, the house that we thought we were going to buy fell through while we were at Disney and the day that we returned from Orlando, we jumped right back in the car to start another house hunt. Fun times! We quickly found another house but the homeowners did not have a place to move to, so we had to put all of our belongings in storage for 2 weeks, stay with our fabulous friend, Julie, and live out of suitcases in her home until they moved out and we can get moved in. Can you say chaos?

In the midst of the stress of everything going on, Ethan had VBS and we were able to toss in a couple of trips to Lake Lanier Islands. Hopefully, soon we can have a real summer!

Ethan loves the wave pool

But Caden has decided the wave pool is not for him

 Because he much prefers the water play area best

 Caden is disappointed that he's not tall enough to ride the water slides with Daddy and Ethan yet, so he and I hang out while they do the slides. It's definitely more relaxing!

The week we moved out of the house, Ethan had VBS so that was a huge distraction for him. It definitely helped the days go by faster!

 With the move, I didn't get to volunteer this year or take pictures, so I am grateful for this shot that Ben took. I wish I had been around to take more of him. They had so many great experiences that week!

I still have to post about our awesome Disney trip but that will be slow to come. Part 2 of the move is about to begin. Thankfully, one week from now everything will be different. I am praying it all ends soon and that life can return to a normal pace :-)