Spring Break 2015

Ah I had made such good progress catching up my blog last fall, but it's been a few months again and now I'm in danger of the time lapping my posts by a year!  So, I'll be making another push to catch up!  LAST spring break we went to Baba and Grandpa's house again.  It was a very fun, busy trip.  Our annual pass to Universal was still valid, and Grandpa had started working at Disney World, so we got to help him take advantage of some of his new employee perks!  Also, Joe went a few days before us and our trips overlapped for the first time ever.  We also took in a Spring Training game and had dinner with the Gorondy Family!  

A well timed perk for us was the Disney Employee Spring Fling that we got to attend with Dad.  It was held at Mickey's Retreat, which is an awesome park facility just for employees.  For the event they offered face painting for free for the kids, carnival games which only cost fifty cents per ticket, inflatables, food trucks, and they had an easter egg hunt!

Tyler's turned out so cute and went with his sweatshirt, he actually had employees asking to take photos with him!

check out the bottom right photo closely, made skills by Timmy for making the shot, and by me for getting this picture!

Also special for the event, some favorite characters showed up!

The canoes and paddle boats are always at Mickey's Retreat, and only cost a few bucks to rent.  Neither Timmy or Tyler had ever done anything like this before, and both really enjoyed it!

One last character sighting!

The next day we took in a Nat's Spring Training Game.  Baba and the Gorondy's came to the game too, but I guess we were pictured out from the day before!

I'm finding this a little hard to believe myself, but according to the dates our phones put on our pictures, we made our way over to Universal after the game!  We caught the tail end of a parade, and rode the Woody Woodpecker Rollercoaster over and over again, mostly all by ourselves!  Both boys absolutely loved it, and Timmy even asked to ride in the seat alone!

The next day we were right back at Universal and Tim got Timmy to ride Do-Right Falls, and Timmy loved it!  Thanks to rider swap he got to do it a few times.  Tyler was waiting so patiently in the rider swap room, that a universal employee noticed and asked how tall he was.  When I told them, they said, "That's tall enough for Spider Man.  When you go there, tell them that Ashley at the Falls says Tyler doesn't have to wait in line because he was so patient here."!  Unfortunately Spider Man was closed during this trip, but we told them the next day and we didn't have to wait in line, all thanks to Tyler!

The next day we were back at Universal again.  Tyler was tall enough for both Spider Man and Transformers this trip, which he had been dying to ride for a full year.  I rode both of them with Tyler, with my arm wrapped behind him and back across his chest.  I thought his little heart was going to beat right out of his chest, but after the rides he said he liked them.  I think he especially liked Transformers, as he talked about helping Optimus Prime, and about Bumble Bee saving us, for a while after the ride was over.

Tyler was also tall enough for the Simpsons ride, and I was shocked that we talked Timmy back onto it too since he was pretty traumatized the first time he rode it.  Timmy still dislikes it, I think Tyler liked the ride okay, but they are both afraid of their Krusty the Clown stuffed animals that they had won on a previous trip now!  This trip was also our first for riding the Minions in the moving cars instead of on the stationary bench.  It's so fun!

The next day we took it a little bit easier, with pool time and coloring Easter Eggs.  That evening we met up with The Gorondy's for dinner.  I didn't get good pictures, but you can see they are fond of Parker!

Before heading to dinner, the boys posed with Grandpa as he was getting ready to head to work!  At the time, he was a deckhand on the Ferry at Magic Kingdom!

The next day Dad took us all to Epcot on free employee passes!  Dad had met another Deck Hand who is retired from Chevrolet, who offered to meet us at Test Track, let us check out the Chevrolet Lounge, and get us fast passes for the ride!  It was neat to get this behind the scenes peek!  We also completed the Easter Egg hunt around the Country portion of Epcot, and met Princess Aurora for the first time.  It was a full day!

Test Track Chevrolet Lounge and Meeting Spaces, great view!

On our last full day, Mom and Dad treated us to an awesome meal at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  While we waited for our table, we got to go out on the "plains" and watch Zebras, Giraffes, and other African animals roaming around!  We could see a lot of them through the window once we were at our table too, especially the bird, who hung out by the window almost the whole time!  The food was SO good too!

After lunch we went over to the Wilderness Lodge to complete a scavenger hunt for Hidden Mickey's!  The boys got pretty good at following the clues and we found them all!

When we woke up on Easter morning we checked out our baskets to see what the Easter Bunny had brought.  Then it was time to head home!

Christmas 2014

I'm officially on the last post for 2014: Christmas!  We went to Ohio the weekend before Christmas.  When we first got to Ohio we left the boys with my parents at Ron's, and Tim and I went out to have dinner and drinks with Darren and Erika.  It was such a nice visit, and the food was delicious!  The next day we went to our favorite Ohio place for watching the Redskins games, and the Shultz' all came to watch at least part of it with us!  Then we all went to Marleen's house for dinner and more visiting.

The next day we did some shopping and took Mom and Dad to the same restaurant Darren and Erika had taken us to!  Later we had dinner, visited, and opened presents with Dale, Paula, and M&M.

On Christmas Eve we attended church service at UCP, both boys chose to be shepherds this year.  I was pleased at how intently they paid attention to the service.

When we got home I started setting up cookies and milk for Santa, Timmy had the great idea to put out carrots for each reindeer and water for them, and Santa as well.

Then something really awesome happened while Timmy was getting ready for bed.


Poor Tyler was using the toilet when Timmy spotted Santa, luckily Tyler saw him on his way back up the pipestem!

On Christmas Morning we made the kiddos wait for us to go upstairs.  Timmy rushed up and checked to see how much Santa ate.  Tyler was dragging, he was not feeling very well.  They both waited, reasonably patiently, for Uncle Chris to arrive before starting to open gifts.

After presents and a delicious breakfast we went to Tim and Susan's.  The pictures do not show the extent of wrapping paper strewn about!

After present opening, Jenny and family went to see the Hedges, and Tyler and I went home for a nap!  We rallied in time to get back to Tim and Susan's for a delicious Christmas dinner.

The evening of December 26th, Mom and Dad arrived at our house from Ohio, and Joe came over too to open gifts.  (Tyler had been napping on the recliner before they arrived, but was wide awake within moments!)

The next day, we went to see VT play in the Military Bowl in Maryland, as part of our Christmas gift from my parents.  It was a wonderful Christmas!

Summer Vacation - Ormond Beach

The next day we headed for Ormond Beach, and Mom and Grandma came with us as well.  Ormond Beach was beautiful, with fairly calm water and white sand.  Our hotel was perfect for us, beach front with a private pool that had a lazy river and water slide!  We spent the first day bouncing between the ocean and the pool.  Later we went to dinner at a place with all you can eat crab legs!

Timmy playing paparazzi, and Tyler so over it!

So, Timmy turned the camera on himself, there are a lot more of these!

While pulling his beach toys on the boogie board he jerked it a little too hard and the toys fell over and off., then I heard Tyler's first curse word, "Shit." !!!  Luckily it's the only one I've heard out of him!

The next day was more of the same, floating around the lazy river and splashing in the waves!  Timmy loved boogie boarding again this trip.  Tyler reluctantly took a few little rides too.  He got to be comfortable with us holding him in the ocean, but he preferred being in the sand, and Baba was happy to entertain him there.  That evening we went mini-golfing.  We hadn't been since Timmy was about Tyler's age.  Timmy was pretty good!  Tyler understood the concept, but he would hit it, then run and pick it up and put it right next to the hole to hit it again.  Luckily, Timmy just laughed about it and wasn't worried about Tyler's score.

Look at these Beach Bums! I am still in love with their outfits from this outing!

I just could not get enough of these tan cheeked cuties!

More of the same on our third day, except it was Baba and M&M's last day with us, and just about when they were leaving around lunch time, Grammy and PawPaw arrived!  (PawPaw was starting a week of work in Florida so they came a day early to hang out!)  We spent the morning in the Ocean and building a sand castle with Baba.  Around lunch time we headed back to the pool, and Grammy and PawPaw showed up shortly after.  Later that afternoon we took our good camera down to the beach.  We went out for another nice dinner that evening.  It was the perfect way to wrap up a great vacation!

The water was calm enough that Tyler floated in the Ocean on his own a little and swam between us!

Timmy's happy place is fighting with waves.