More Gifts!

Logan missed out on the present exchange the night before but we saved his gifts and he brought some to share with his cousins. It made everyones evening!

Aunt Kate & Uncle Mark bought a truck load of dart guns. They were a huge hit but watch out!!! These little guns had some kick!

Watch out Uncle Eric!

Logan was more interested in his cool new toys than the flying darts.

Uncle Bill armed and dangerous!

Enjoying our stocking stuffer gifts.

Mini Donut Maker...looks like a new tradition brewing in our home! Any good half way healthy donut recipes out there?

Some of us decided to put more emphasis on "White Elephant" aspect of their gifts than others. Grandma discovers one of these gifts. To her surprise there was a hidden gift card to Ghirideli to make up for the cheesey gift. The half eaten box of chocolates was also a surprise to Aunt Kate but she quickly figured out that there was more than meets the eye! The highlight from Grandma was a flip video recorder.

Grandma losing her favorite gift!

Special time with Aunt Kate & Uncle mark assembling new lego kit.

Kid Present Swap

After coming back to find half of the crew under the weather, we still pressed on with the kid present exchange for those awake and feeling up to it. The half sick crew opted for porch seating.

The next day we spent time at the pool, painted in the activity center, watched some movies and walked to 7-Eleven for a slurpee. It was cool out with the wind but that didn't stop us from having fun. :) Grandma felt better so she was able to join us too.

Very cool activity center. The boys painted their own wooden animal and one day we made sand art necklaces.

Off to Disney Hollywood Studios

We as a family, had to break the schedule of going to parks Mon & Tues, resting on Wed and back to parks Thurs & Fri. Daddy had to drive home Wed evening so he could be at work the next morning so we broke away from the group and headed to Disney Studios on our own. The rest of the crew planned to take a nice relaxing rest day back at the hotel.

My feet were jealous!

However, we had been planning on signing up Lucas for the Jedi Training for months. Daddy was so excited and we woke up early to be sure to secure one of the limited spots. Well, to our surprise, Lucas wanted nothing to do with it. We did convince him to at least sign up for it so if he changed his mind so he would still have an opportunity to do it. He was adament and DID.NOT.WANT.TO.DO.THIS! Daddy was half devistated. Come to find out, Lucas was scared of getting up in front of all the people. This shocked us coming from a boy who on numerous occassions sang songs in front of 100's of people at Rocktober Fest! Times have changed and I'm sure it won't be the last time we get surprised by our children moving in and out of different life phases.

Daddy's heart was a little broken but I reassured him that there would be other chances...maybe when Axel is 4 years old, they both could do it together?! Seemed like a great solution to me. :) We moved on to other cool rides and shows and left Star Wars for another year. Sorry Daddy.

We made sure to watch Beauty and the Beast. It's another must see show at Disney Studios. That and the Aerosmith Roller-coaster AND the Tower of Terror! Speaking of Tower of Terror...Lucas LOVED IT! I have to admit, watching his face as we dropped numerous times unexpectedly sure said a different story. He looked scared out of his mind but when it was over he loved it!

We didn't wait in line for an hour but we did get to see Phineaus & Ferb so Lucas was excited.

Had to stop by the Honey I Shunk the Kids Park. Lucas was pretty much over it but Axel could have stayed all day.

I think he did this slide about 20 times.

We love watching the stunt cars!

Lightning McQueen even made an appearance which was pretty cool. It got the boys attention real quick!

Axel was telling Daddy all about those cool cars.

3-D glasses...gotta love them!

This was typical for Axel while waiting in line. Our little climber would climb anything climbable...rails, stairs, fences, etc.

We watched some street performers after getting free Micky Cookies for being "too cute!"

We had not stayed for the big Fanastmic Light Show so we decided to commit to the long wait and see what it was all about. It took 30 minutes in the crowd to get to our seats and another 60 minutes to wait for the show. Luckily, Axel befriended everyone around and before long he was having a ball. He played games, sang songs and shared his treats with anyone in reach. Lucas opted to play on Dad's phone for most of the time.

The show was very scary and really draws out the nightmare aspect of the story which I thought was not necessary. You can get the point after a few minutes but after 15 minutes of scary images and creatures it got old. Our kids did fine but there were many crying and hiding their faces. The last five minutes was the best but it was not worth the wait in my opinion. A better option would have been to go to Main Street and watch the Christmas Light Show which Uncle Mark said was AMAZING!

Pretty lights and boats during the nice part of the story.

We headed back to the hotel and Daddy headed down the road back home for the night. Thursday was going to be our rest day at the hotel.

Little did we know that a few people back at the hotel had come down with the stomach bug! Great day to miss at the hotel!

Animal? Kingdom

The only animal (besides the kids) I managed to take a photo of was a bat! Did I mention that bats are some of my favorite animals in this world? I have no idea why they intrigue me so much but they do and I could watch them for hours. I love their wings, hooks for hands and feet, cute little fuzzy faces and how they can spend their days upside down. I also love that they love fruit and veggies. Call me weird...

All the adults decided to hit Mt. Everest in the morning before the lines got crazy. I volunteered to baby sit ALL the boys. It was tough work, a true sacrafic by me right?! HA! Look at these sleepers!

These were the non-sleepers.

Eventually Logan woke up and just watched us for about 5 minutes not sure what to think.

We hit all the good rides and shows like the Nemo Musical. Dinoland was also a huge hit but the favorite was the parade. We watched this one right before heading to the Lion King Show another must see.

Wave, wave, wave!

And more waving!

They are cute parades!

The Lion King Show is very impressive and short enough to keep everyone happy.

Here we go again with annoying photo flip issue. Anyways, this is Grandpa babysitting while everyone hits Mt. Everest one last time. Great job Grandpa!

We asked Lucas in the morning if he wanted to ride the Mt. Everest ride and he wasn't sold. It's very intimidating when you watch people being hurled up and down the mountain screaming.

At the end of the day, he decided he wanted to try Mt. Everest after contemplating ALL DAY long. Guess what?! He did it and...

HE.LOVED.IT!

I was so happy he was brave enough to give it a try and even happier that he loved it and didn't hate us for suggesting it. :) Way to go Lucas!!

We are ready for Hollywood Studios!

On the way home we accidently stopped at Downtown Disney with a little sweet treat in mind.

We had to follow the tradition of stopping at Ghiridelli for some brownie sundaes. They were a little disappointing this time around. Too little ice cream and way too much hot fudge. The result was melted ice cream, soggy brownie and a huge drippy mess. With that said, it was not so horrible that we couldn't finish them. :) They were still very tasty, just not as dreamy as we have had in the past.

Exactly one year ago...