Family Fun: Magic Kingdom #2

My friend Megan, from Arizona, was here this past weekend for an event at Disney World due to her mom having a grandma blog. Her mom had the opportunity to bring Megan and her boys on a whirlwind, all expenses paid trip to Disney. When we found out that they were going to be here, we couldn't resist an impromtu day trip to Magic Kingdom.

Megan and company didn't have a whole lot of free time, most of their time was scheduled, but we managed to sneak in a ride together and a couple quick hugs and pictures. It was so the best part of the day and the boys were so happy to see some familiar faces.

We spent the rest of the day at the park, hanging out and having some serious family fun. We took the ferry to the park instead of the monorail which we usually take. The kids thought it was cool but not as cool as the monorail.

A quick meet up with Tinkerbell was first on our list of stops. 

Tinkerbell took a lot of time with Rowan and Cora (Cruz stayed far away, haha). She even played a mini game of hide and seek. The Disney characters are the best.

Swiss Family Robinson tree house.

Daddy's favorite ride.

Love his face- pure joy!

Princess Coco loves the carousel so much.

Roger stayed off this ride (lucky him) and I got to be the one the kids spun around. 

Hanging out by Cinderella's castle.

Just a little sibling love brought on by all the Disney magic!

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is super hard to get on. The fast passes (passes that enable you to move to the front of the line) for this ride book up months in advance and the wait is usually well over an hour if you don't have one. We ended up waiting about 90 minutes earlier in the day but when we got to the front both Cruz and Cora changed their minds and refused to ride. Rowan and Roger went on and then when they got back, the Disney workers let me ride with Rowan. As you can imagine, Rowan was thrilled to ride it twice. Even better though, the nice cast members gave us two paper fast passes to come back later if Cruz and Cora changed their minds. While the C's decisions never waivered, Rowan and Rog were able to ride two more times using those fast passes. This was a big highlight for Rowan.

We are just so thankful for the opportunity to spend so much time at such a fun place. We are making so many memories. I will never regret taking Cora as a preschooler either. Though she may not remember the experience when she's older, seeing her face light up now when she gets to meet the princesses she reads about is just so amazing. 

Quick Updates!

Rowan turned 7.5 on Wednesday! We celebrated with cupcakes and Pokemon cards, two of his favorite things. We are so proud of this boy. He transitioned schools seamlessly, making new friends and getting into new the routine quickly. His memory continues to amaze us as is flying through Awana books and his weekly school memory verse. Rowan still loves math, baseball, football and Monopoly. His newest interest is trading Pokemon cards with his friends at school. We are so thankful for 7.5 years precious years with him.

Little Miss Coco started at her new ballet studio about a month ago and she is loving it. The studio is a little stricter than her old one and very ballet focused. Cora's teacher requires that the little girls be disciplined, quiet and obedient during class. This has been so good for Cora both in ballet and other aspects of her little life.

Cruzy is becoming quite the reader! He loves it when Coco cuddles up with him and listens to his stories. I love listening to him too as his skills grow daily. 

We are going to meet up with some Arizona friends at Disney World tomorrow and we can't wait!! 

10th Anniversary Cruise

We decided to celebrate our tenth anniversary a little bit early this year. Our summers are busy and full of family fun and we didn't want to miss out on an entire week while our kids are out of school so we decided to celebrate in January. We had a blast on our first cruise a few years ago so we decided to go on one again. This time for us was so precious and packed with memories. I left my big camera at home so these are all cell phone pics- be prepared, there are quite a few! 

Our room for a week.

Leaving the port in Miami

Our first sea day was a little bit windy and chilly so we spent the day exploring the ship. We played mini golf, and I actually tied Roger, which has never happened! We played some Bingo but didn't win, we went to the shops, sat on the deck, got dressed up for dinner and went to a comedy show. 

We got off of the ship on Tuesday and spent the day (my birthday) on the island of Grand Turk. 

Our ship was called the Splendor.

We parked ourselves on the beach all day only getting up to go back to the ship for lunch. 

Port #2 was San Juan, Puerto Rico. We ate lunch on the boat before going to explore. Having the food included was so great. We only splurged on one dinner but the rest of the time we walked back to the boat to eat. 

Quick funny story, this morning they called my name over the loud speaker to report to guest services. When I went there, they told me that the Customs & Border Patrol had flagged my passport and I had to report to a room to meet with the border patrol before I was allowed off the boat. I have no idea what it was about but I had to show them my passport and they let me go. Roger found this much more amusing than I did.

We walked around the city all afternoon and evening. It was such a neat city with a ton of history.

We had dinner on the rooftop of a building downtown. It was a little chilly and super windy but so delicious. You can see our cruise ship in the background.

The ship showed movies almost every night which was so fun. We got caught up on a lot of current movies and the popcorn was a bonus.

Our last stop was St. Maarten. This was our favorite island and we would love to go back one day. The majority of our day was spent at Maho beach watching the airplanes but we also did a little bit of shopping too.

Living on the edge.

We were a little bummed that we had to miss the 747 KLM flight come in but it had been delayed that day and we had to head back to the ship. This was a seriously intense experience.

The first video is short and of a jet flying over us at the beach. The second video is long but it was so crazy. We basically stood behind a gigantic aircraft taking off. The jet blast was so strong in the end the I ended being pushed back into the water and almost falling over. The pilot took an extra long time on the runway. We think that was on purpose because as you can see in the video, he's waving out the cockpit window on the way to the beginning of the runway.

When we got back to the ship, Roger had an anniversary cigar. For our first anniversary I bought three of the top cigar of the 2006 (the year we were married). One cigar was to smoke then, one was to smoke at our fifth anniversary and the other was to smoke at our tenth. He debated smoking it now or actually waiting until July 8th but ultimately decided it would be more fun on the ship. This is actually one of my favorite gifts I've given him. I remember buying the cigars that year and thinking about how far away ten years sounded. I know you'll read this Rog so I'll stick in a bit of sap. I love you so much and would choose you again, no question. Thanks for making me laugh and loving me like crazy.

The last two days of the trip were days at sea. We hung around the boat, relaxed, laid out by the pool and ate more ice cream cones! 

Sad last breakfast.. but excited to see our kids! We stopped in Ft. Myers on our way home for a quick lunch and ice cream stop with Linda so that was special too. 

Mom and Dad held down the fort here. I don't have any pictures of that to share right now. I can't believe I didn't take any. We had a delicious birthday dinner for me before we left at Bonefish grill and Mom and I did some serious shopping. My parents handled stuff like a pro including an ER trip for Rowan, a fever for Cruz, homework, spelling, Awana and a million games of Monopoly. Thanks for making this possible for us Mom and Dad. Even when they were sick, I knew they were in the best hands! We love you guys. 

Our First Visitor!

We had our first visitor this weekend! Linda drove up from Ft. Myers to spend Saturday we us. We had so much fun going out to eat, relaxing and chatting. It was fun to give her a tour of the house and Roger even drove her by his office. Thanks for coming to see us Linda! We can't wait until next time.