Animal Kingdom

Today we ventured over to Animal Kingdom. It was fun but it was crazy. The place was just so packed. The big draw is the safari ride. We waited for 1.5 hours. Did I mention it took us an hour just to get into the park? I don't know how Cam made it through it but he did. It was mostly worth it as we saw some amazing animals. Cam was more into riding in the truck thing. You would've thought the kid was on a roller coaster.




Giraffes are my favorite :-)


There's a Bug's Life (I'd say Cam's fave movie) thing, it's a movie called It's Tough Being a Bug. Well, it's 3D and was kind of scary. Cam was petrofied but O.G. thought it was a riot. He kept laughing every time the bugs would yell and throw things at us.


Mary cracked me up in the 3D glasses. She totally reminded me of the bug husband on Miss Spider's Sunny Patch (a kid's cartoon). I'll have to find a pic for comparison.

It was a neat place but I'm so not into crowds or waiting hours in line. There was a line for EVERY THING even a big highlight, seeing Mickey.



Now we are back and O.G. is finally sleeping. The poor guy probably slept for about 5 minutes at Animal Kingdom. He just wanted to see everything. He is so funny.

Celebrating in Celebration.

Last night we went to dinner nearby in Celebration. I love Celebration. Disney created the town and it's similar to a New England style but WARM :-) Anywho, the houses are adorable and it has a great downtown. Mary's mom met us and we had a fancy New Year's Eve dinner. Of course, it was early since we have the kids. We walked around and took a little train ride thing. And Cam played in the fake snow - it snows every hour, the snow is soap or something like that.



(it cracked me up since someone made a snowman out of the fake snow)


We went back here to "party" though we didn't make it up until midnight. I heard fireworks going off at midnight but just couldn't get myself out of bed to go look at them.




Today didn't feel like New Year's day as we were running around most of it. First we saw Mary's aunt and uncle and cousins. Then we went over to see our new niece Gracie Rose and meet our 1-year old niece Lily. Then it was over to her mom's for dinner. Tomorrow is hopefully just our family as we're going to Animal Kingdom.

We Made It! (and a random post)

So we had an awesome time in D.C. We were only there for one day but we did quite a bit. In the morning, we met up with Reinventing Motherhood. We did a museum and then lunch.

We had the same due date though the babies are 2 weeks apart (Lexi was a week early, O.G. was a week late). Lexi is adorable! And their son Tyler is another cutie pie. After Cam got over his shyness, he was thrilled to hang out with big boys (Ty and his friend). Even Mary who was very hesitant about meeting "e friends" had a good time.





Later, we attempted to go to the Botanical Gardens which lasted all of 10 minutes, the place was unbelievably crowded. So we walked around a bit until we met up with one of Mary's friends at another museum (museums are free in D.C. which is an added bonus). Cam was way more into it as it was all animals and dinosaurs. Mary wanted us all to go to dinner but I convinced her that she and her friend should go alone. That worked out as I took the kids back to the hotel and we ordered room service. Mary took advantage and stayed out until almost midnight. Hey, you're still a mama with a bedtime. Hahahaha.

D.C. was great. We definitely think we'll have to take a longer trip at some point since it's a great place to take the kids and not super far from Boston.



Yesterday we left D.C. and yet again hit traffic everywhere we could and everywhere we couldn't. Needless to say, we made it to Savannah where we planned to stay the night.

This morning, my plan was to wait in line at the Lady & Sons (Paula Deen from the Food Network's restaurant) to get a lunch reservation. They start taking names at 9:30 a.m. It was a few blocks away and I planned to leave the hotel at 9. I looked out the window of the hotel at 8:45 and saw a line wrapping around a building and knew it must be the restaurant.



Before leaving, I learned that the power was out in the hotel. Little did I know, it was out in most of Savannah. Needless to say, I did get a reservation but the restaurant wasn't able to open due to the power outage. We finally found a place that had power so we could eat breakfast (at close to 11:00) and then headed out to Orlando.

We arrived here around 6:00. The ride felt like a breeze since it was only about 5 hours and with little (though of course some) traffic. We are staying at a resort in Orlando that is AWESOME. It's basically like an apartment, it's fairly new and we have a great master suite with a hot tub and Cam has his own room and most importantly t.v. LOL. The kid has done nothing but watch t.v. this trip but whatever, it's vacation. I just saw the Disney fireworks from our balcony. Tomorrow we'll head down to see Mary's family and meet our new niece (or rather 2 since we have never met Lily who turns 1 tomorrow) Gracie Rose who was born a few days ago.

Found it!

My sis doesn't take very good pics' and what is Cam doing?


Jane, tell us the way...and why didn't we invest in the traffic receiver?


angry that I made him use the headphones




our driver

This cracked me up. I had to bribe Cam with 4 orange tic tacs to lend O.G. his DVD but it was worth it :-) O.G. + Baby Einstein = Heart


O.G.'s first hotel stay

Hanging in D.C.

We arrived in D.C. at about 8:30 last night - it was a LONG day. The kids did amazingly well especially O.G. who I was very worried about. He generally hates the car so taking such a long drive was risky. But he did great. Aside from whining quite a bit, Cam did great too.

Of course, all was not great. What was to be an 8 hour trip (we figured 9 with stops) turned into 12. The traffic was insane getting through NY and on the Jersey turnpike. Then when we thought we were finally in D.C., we hit more traffic. Needless to say, we made it. We stayed the night and will stay tonight with some sightseeing today. We are going to be meeting up with Reinventing Motherhood (see sidebar) so we can arrange Lexi and O.G.'s marriage ;-)

Well, I was just going to upload some pics' but I don't have my USB cord. I'll definitely have to invest in another memory card.

Happy Christmas!

Cam probably enjoyed it the most. For me, I'm just happy it's over :-) I do enjoy Christmas with the trees and lights and songs but this year just seemed extra stressful. With trying not to raise 2 spoiled brats, I also hate the materialism of the holiday. But it was fun and now it's over :-)







Last night we had a lot of fun going to church and to a party at my aunt's. O.G. also had his acting debut in the part of baby Jesus at our church. He did GREAT. He's a good baby in general but I was worried with the late start time (7:00) and sometimes lately he does get freaked out by strangers. But he laid in the manger and let the Rev carry him around. It was SO cute. Mary also got to act as Mary. They wanted us both involved but somebody needed to watch Cam and I'm so not into being in front of so many people. It will definitely be a lasting memory and something cool to tell him about when he's older.






Tomorrow we're off on the road trip from hell, I mean a fun family vacation ;-) We'll be away for about 2 weeks and we're driving (I know, we're crazy) to Florida with stops in D.C. and Savannah. Once in Florida we're staying at a resort townhouse but will meet up with Mary's fam throughout the trip. We're staying close to them but not too close which is key to my sanity.

I hope everyone had a happy Christmas!

Bits and Pieces

I've been a bad blogger. There's just not enough hours in the day, I feel like I'm constantly rushing. Here's my week in review and some more random bits...

Monday: The chimney sweep man cleaned our chimneys so "Santa wouldn't get dirty"

Tuesday: Cam was home after not behaving at school on Monday in our attempts to get him to behave at school and in general

Wednesday: Cam's school had an odd potluck. I brought a fruit bowl and cookies.

Thursday: Mary went to D.C. on a train for business stuff

Friday: School was cancelled even though the snow didn't start until 1:30. I brought both kids to the mall, everyone home from school was there.
We lost a member of our pet family: Superman, Cam's fish. BoBo (the cat) ate him. Yes, he ate him, all I found was part of his tail. Poor guy. He was such a cool fish.

Saturday: Cam turned 4

In other news, O.G.'s 2 bottom teeth came in (last weekend), now we wait for them to grow. At least the screaming in pain part seems to be over. He turned 5 months (today). He sits in a high chair (an early Christmas gift from my dad). He's SO cute. On Wednesday night (Christmas Eve) he has the starring role at our church, he will play baby Jesus.

And some random pics :-)




This was from his cousin (my nephew) Seamus Jr. When he opened it, he screamed, "I always wanted one of these!". Kids are so funny.