Our Magical Family

Just a few shots of our family around the Magic Kingdom. 

The Disney mountains, AKA, Thunder and Splash

It’s nice having a little boy who is tall.  He gets that from his dad, not me.  (Like that really needed clarification, right?)  Anyway, with him being as tall as he is, he’s able to ride Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain, both of which he absolutely loves.  If Space Mountain had been open (it’s under construction), I’m sure that he would have loved that, too. 

It’s a little difficult to see, but Jim and James are in one of the middle carts.  You can click on the picture to enlarge it. 

I was very pregnant with Thomas during our last trip to Disney so I didn’t get to ride any of the rides.  We traded off a lot with James and Thomas.  Both were very enjoyable, riding with James, and playing with Thomas.  This picture is me and James. 

James and Jim are in the very back row of this boat on Splash Mountain. 

Jim caught us rounding the bend.  This ride is really cool, and you don’t get that wet, either. 

The ferry counts as a ride, right?

I wasn’t done posting about our Disney trip, but I had to do our Halloween post.  Here is a little bit more about our Disney vacation.  Because we were camping, we had to ride the ferry each morning from Ft. Wilderness to the Magic Kingdom.  James just loves anything to do with a boat, so he was very cool with this. 

Thomas thought that it was pretty cool, too. 

On the way back from the Magic Kingdom to Ft. Wilderness, Captain Chris was well aware of how much James liked the ferry.  He gave James his very own Captain’s hat. 

Talk about one excited little boy. 

This is Halloween, Halloween, Halloween

Happy Halloween! 

Today we have for you a gruelful dude, a cowgirl momma, a happy little fireman, and a sweet little tiger. 

ROAR!!!!!  (It’s more like, “Meow!”)

My sweet little fireman at his school parade.  This was the last picture taken before my camera battery died.  I was so sad. 

Under the light of a full red moon. 

Thomas’s First Visit to Disney World

This past week we decided to take two of our favorite vacation activities and combine them into one.  We hitched up the camper and headed down to Disney World. 

James knew that we were going camping, but he had no idea that we were camping at Disney.  He asked a few times during the nine hours it took us to get there, but we were able to divert his attention to other things.  It wasn’t until we pulled onto Disney property and he saw a few Mickey heads when he realized where we were.  His surprise and excitement made the trip totally worth it. 

We arrived Monday afternoon and as luck would have it, Monday night was Magic hours at the Magic Kingdom.  We stayed until 12:30.  Thomas crashed around 9:30, but James stayed awake the whole time.  He had a blast with his dad going on ride after ride with no wait. 

The whole park is transformed into fall with pumpkins everywhere.  During Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, they have a lot of Halloween decorations out.  It’s amazing how they can transform the park to each season. 

We walked into the park just as the parade was finishing up.  We saw the final floats, and both kids loved the lights.  Shortly after dinner we saw the fireworks.  Both kids loved those, too. 

Jim and James found just about every color in the rainbow during the fireworks. 

Thomas’s first ride ever at Disney was Buzz Lightyear.  He did great. 

His second ride was the Transit Authority people mover.  It was here that he crashed for the night. 

James LOVES  Thunder Mountain.  It’s his favorite ride. 

Because we stayed at Ft. Wilderness Campground, we got to ride a ferry to and from the park each day.  James loved this. 

under construction

That is the theme this week at school for James.  Part of their assignment was to bring in a picture of their house by Wednesday (that’s today) so they could compare how all of the different houses were constructed. James was quick to note that our house was made of bricks, just like the third little pig in The Three Little Pigs. 

Me, being the ever prepared mom that I am, planned on going though all of my pictures and finding the best looking picture of our house.  I was thinking something along the lines of a picture taken when all of the flowers were in bloom and the yard was freshly mowed.  I was thinking of a bright sunny day, preferably in the spring or summer, when the lighting was perfect.  Yep, those were my thoughts. 

Instead I woke up this morning in a panic because I forgot to find my perfect picture and knew that time was running out.  I’d never find that picture.  Instead I was going to have to take a picture, drive past CVS, which is not exactly on the way, run inside with two kids, insert the little memory card from my camera into the self print scanner, wait patiently for the lady to come enter some code because for some reason printing one single 4 x 6 picture first thing in the morning is alarming, pay for the picture with the change from my change purse, run back to the car, (did I mention that it’s raining), and drive behind the slowest driver that ever existed, just to get to car pool line in time to drop James off safely at school. 

Well, this picture is anything but sunny, springlike, and full of bloom. It’s more along the lines of wet, dreary, rainy, and full of goblins, ghosts, skeletons, tombstones, and doom.  And I could have put the trash can in the garage first, but that would have required forethought.

 

Did I mention that he goes to a Catholic school?  I hope that I don’t get a call from Father John today.

I foresee the future

Or is it the past?

Did you know that I can look into the future, specifically Thomas’s future?  I have this really cool feature on my computer where I can take a picture and age someone.  (Well, something like that.)

I predict that Thomas will look just like this right around Christmas.  I also predict that if a man is holding him, lets just use Pop for example, he’ll look just like the man in the picture (with slightly less hair).

I also imagine that the following year Thomas will look something like this if I dress him up in a puff-a-lump suit. 

 

Something like what his brother looked like a few years ago, but with more of the face in the other picture.

 

And when he gets all of his teeth and sits still for a portrait, this is what he’ll look like. 

Who is this mystery baby? 

the actual apple picking

These trees are dwarf apple trees, which makes it easier for little ones to pick them. 

See?  He did it all on his own. 

But using daddy as a ladder is so much more fun!

Even Thomas got in on the fun. 

And since Thomas eats anything that we give him, he enjoyed his first apple, straight off the tree. 

This was his favorite apple.  He still laughs at it. 

It doesn’t get any fresher than this.  This one is still attached to the tree. 

They were out in less than five minutes. 

apple picking activities

Be prepared for picture overload. 

James loves tractors.  What four year old boy doesn’t?

I can’t get enough of this little one. 

Just loves them, plain and simple. 

Jim and James did the petting zoo.  Thomas and I stood on the sidelines. 

I am not sure that I would have picked up the baby goat, but Jim said he was sweet. 

I loved sliding down the big slide with my kids.  This ranks high on my list of favorite mommy moments. 

My sweet family. 

I told you… I just can’t get enough of him. 

My mom really enjoyed the pig races, just like last year. 

Thomas loved playing with Aunt Joey. 

a road less traveled

When my mom and aunt were in town we loaded up the car and went apple picking.  We’d been to this place before and it is pretty easy to get there.  Even so, I still put it in the GPS to make sure that we didn’t get lost. 

For some reason, TomTom decided to take us on an adventure.  I was driving, and Aunt Joey kept me company in the passenger seat.  My mom played on her iphone in the middle row, while the boys watched a movie.  Jim sat in the way back doing some work on his laptop. 

We were about half way there when TomTom told me to turn off of 575 onto some small two lane road.  My aunt, mom, and I enjoyed the beautiful houses that we saw as we drove through some neighborhood in north Georgia.  You’d think that would be our first clue, right?  We just enjoyed the ride. 

When we turned onto a gravel road, that’s when the laughter started.  Like I said, I was driving, but it really was a good thing that I was driving slow because I was laughing so hard that it was difficult to concentrate.  TomTom actually took us right into someones drive way.  Their dog came running out, soon to be followed by a concerned home owner.  I politely rolled down the window and said that we were just lost and got out of there as soon as I could for fear that a shotgun was hiding behind his small stature.  We were in the middle of nowhere. 

I had Aunt Joey take this picture as we were leaving the home in the middle of the woods.  I really wish that we took a picture of the house.  It was beautiful.  It was totally isolated, but beautiful. 

This was one of a half dozen gravel roads that we took to get there.  In the end we arrived, but not without the help of Google Maps on Jim’s blackberry. 

Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches.  It was a great ride, and I’m glad that TomTom took us.  Like Robert Frost suggests, if there is a fork in the road, take it.