Day Four January 29th
We spent this day at Animal Kingdom. There wasn't anything really exciting here either except for Expedition Everest. I have decided that this is one of Disney's best rides. I would love to see it moved to California so we could enjoy it more. Alexis did get a free bear this day. While Luther and I were riding Expedition Everest Cheyenne and Mitch took Alexis to go play in the kid area. There was a boy that had won a lot of bears playing the carnival games and decided to share with Alexis. Alexis LOVED that bear. lol
We left the park fairly early this day (it closed at 5 anyway) and Luther and I decided that we would go on a date. We left Alexis with grandpa Clint and grandma Shannon and Luther and I went to Logan's Steakhouse. Luther and I had a fun dinner. I had a virgin daiquiri and we ordered appetizers and dessert. We pulled out all the stops. We even got to see a waitress spill water all over a customer. Oops.
Day 5 January 30th
Today Luther, Cheyenne, Mitch, Alexis, and I went to Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure Park. Luther, Lexie, and I spent most of our morning in Dr.Seuss Land. It was pretty slow and we were able to walk onto most of the rides. Alexis loved the caro-seuss-el the most. She had a lot of fun riding the elephant.
Later we met up with Mitch and Cheyenne again and we rode a "teacups" like ride. Poor Alexis HATED that. She did not like all the spinning, I can't blame her though, I wasn't to fond of that either. We rode a few more rides and then had our overpriced lunches. $10 for a hamburger and fries and then another $3 for a drink. Ridiculous!!
After lunch Mitch, Cheyenne, and I rode Jurassic Park and didn't get a single drop of water on us! YAY! Then we made our way to Harry Potter land!!
Alexis got to ride her first roller coaster EVER there. She was scared but I think she liked it. :P Journey through Hogwarts ride was SOOO stinking awesome. It seriously felt like you were flying a broom. And they aren't kidding when they say to stay away if you get motion sickness. It was wild!
Luther, Mitch, and I rode Dragon Challenge and we were told to grip the handles the whole ride because they were filming a commercial. There is a rare chance that our ride will be used but you never know. So keep an eye out for me(us) when you see Universal Orlando commercials here in the near future. LOL!
Alexis' favorite thing of the day was the talking fountain. At first she thought it was strange. But ended up loving chatting it up with a fountain. I enjoyed the fountain making fun of Cheyenne and thinking that she was Alexis' mom!
By the time we got home, I was exhausted. Luther's parents and his brother Jesse went to the Space Center and I am not sure what they did. :)
Monday, February 7, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
Florida Vacation Part 3
Day 3 January 28th 2011
After a slow morning we finally arrived at Epcot. Cheyenne, Mitch, Alexis, and I were the first group to arrive at Epcot. After taking a picture in front of the "big golf ball" and meeting Daisy Duck and Stitch, I sent Cheyenne and Mitch to go do their own thing while Alexis and I went on the Finding Nemo ride. Then we looked through the aquarium while we waited for Luther to meet up with us. We had to wait longer than expected due to Luther's dad heading to the bathroom while still having Luther's mom and brother's tickets. After that was all settled Luther and I met at the fountain and then proceeded to Turtle Talk with Crush. That is such a fun show. Alexis sat in the kids section and kept "petting" the coat of the girl sitting next to her. It was so funny to watch.
Luther and I really didn't enjoy Epcot all that much. We watched most of the shows and rode most of the rides but nothing really excited us other than Turtle Talk with Crush. So we went back to Magic Kingdom. There we rode The Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Haunted Mansion. The Jungle Cruise was pretty fun, I wish the speakers were a bit louder though, I could barely understand the guy. Pirates was fun but also a bit disappointing, Disneyland's version is much better! Alexis liked talking about the pirate's dirty feet and according to her the Pirates sing YO YO YO, so they are all aspiring to be rappers. Alexis was so funny at the Haunted Mansion. She told me that the ghosts play with their toys and not Lexie's toys. She was sad that she left them there and couldn't take the ghosts home. She loved talking about how the ghost "locked the key", at the beginning of the ride the "ghost" closes the door on the car and opens it when the ride is done. Alexis thought that was pretty cool.
After we finished at Magic Kingdom we met Cheyenne and Mitch in the parking lot at Epcot and decided to go explore Downtown Disney while we had an hour to kill. I don't know if it was because my feet were tired but I didn't really like downtown Disney. Maybe we weren't in the right area and maybe it was because it was late but it was more night-life/adult oriented than I would have thought. We did stop at a Disney shop a picked up a Princess Minnie Mouse doll for Alexis.
I was so ready for bed by the time I got back to the hotel. So I made dinner and then went to bed.
After a slow morning we finally arrived at Epcot. Cheyenne, Mitch, Alexis, and I were the first group to arrive at Epcot. After taking a picture in front of the "big golf ball" and meeting Daisy Duck and Stitch, I sent Cheyenne and Mitch to go do their own thing while Alexis and I went on the Finding Nemo ride. Then we looked through the aquarium while we waited for Luther to meet up with us. We had to wait longer than expected due to Luther's dad heading to the bathroom while still having Luther's mom and brother's tickets. After that was all settled Luther and I met at the fountain and then proceeded to Turtle Talk with Crush. That is such a fun show. Alexis sat in the kids section and kept "petting" the coat of the girl sitting next to her. It was so funny to watch.
Luther and I really didn't enjoy Epcot all that much. We watched most of the shows and rode most of the rides but nothing really excited us other than Turtle Talk with Crush. So we went back to Magic Kingdom. There we rode The Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Haunted Mansion. The Jungle Cruise was pretty fun, I wish the speakers were a bit louder though, I could barely understand the guy. Pirates was fun but also a bit disappointing, Disneyland's version is much better! Alexis liked talking about the pirate's dirty feet and according to her the Pirates sing YO YO YO, so they are all aspiring to be rappers. Alexis was so funny at the Haunted Mansion. She told me that the ghosts play with their toys and not Lexie's toys. She was sad that she left them there and couldn't take the ghosts home. She loved talking about how the ghost "locked the key", at the beginning of the ride the "ghost" closes the door on the car and opens it when the ride is done. Alexis thought that was pretty cool.
After we finished at Magic Kingdom we met Cheyenne and Mitch in the parking lot at Epcot and decided to go explore Downtown Disney while we had an hour to kill. I don't know if it was because my feet were tired but I didn't really like downtown Disney. Maybe we weren't in the right area and maybe it was because it was late but it was more night-life/adult oriented than I would have thought. We did stop at a Disney shop a picked up a Princess Minnie Mouse doll for Alexis.
I was so ready for bed by the time I got back to the hotel. So I made dinner and then went to bed.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Florida Vacation Part 2
Day 2 January 27th 2011
Luther, Alexis, and I go to our free breakfast and hear the schpill on how we should upgrade our timeshare package. Our breakfast was yummy but the sales pitch was exhausting. If any of you are suckered into hearing about a timeshare wait until you get to the last manager to accept (if you plan on buying of course) our offer went from 11,000 to 3,990 to upgrade. We declined, as nice as it would be to have more points to use for vacations we are not in a position right now to make anymore financial commitments. We are working toward being completely debt free. After July we will only have our house that we have a lien on. We didn't want to mess that up.
After we finished with the timeshare deal we got the first load of people, collected our $80 for listening to the timeshare pitch and then headed toward the Magic Kingdom. (For those who don't know, Disney World is made up of four parks; Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Disney's Hollywood Studios) Luther's dad and I got the tickets and Luther went back for the second load of people. (For the first few days we tried using one car for the 8 of us near the end of the trip Luther's dad decided to rent a second car.) While we were waiting for the second load, I bought Alexis an autograph book. It is a princess book that has slots for pictures. She was so excited to get her book and loves it so much.
Magic Kingdom is a lot like Disneyland. It has different lands; Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, Adventureland, Frontierland, Liberty Square, Mickey's Toontown Fair, and Main Street USA. Luther, Alexis, and I started our day watching Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. It was such a fun show. Part of the show they have a 2-headed monster named Mac and Cheese retelling the story of Monsters Inc. They would chose different audience members to play the roles of the story. Luther was chosen to be the Randal of the story and had to disappear. It was so funny watching him try to figure out how to do that. He then had the brilliant idea of scooting over to the empty seat next to him so the camera could "see" him anymore. It was so fun. After that we went and explored toontown, Alexis had fun looking through Mickey's house and Minnie's house. Then we stood in line to meet some princesses. We were able to meet Aurora, Cinderella, and Belle. Alexis talked their ears off. It was the cutest thing ever. Afterwards we went on all the rides in Fantasyland and watched Philharmagic. I LOVED Philharmagic. In the show Donald Duck gets sucked into some famous Disney movies after tampering with Mickey's sorcerer's hat. Alexis loved when Donald would splash in the water and we would get sprayed.
Cheyenne (Luther's sister) was nice enough to watch Alexis while Luther and I went on Space Mountain. Alexis was not too happy about that. She was so worried that she lost her mommy. Cheyenne was able to get Alexis to ride Peter Pan and tried to get Alexis on Dumbo. Alexis was not a happy camper. Alexis was so happy when her mommy and daddy came back and made me ride Dumbo with her. Silly girl.
We then went back to the hotel and I made hamburgers for dinner. They turned out to be pretty yummy. :) My feet were in so much pain but the jacuzzi helped ease some of that pain. Thank goodness.
Luther, Alexis, and I go to our free breakfast and hear the schpill on how we should upgrade our timeshare package. Our breakfast was yummy but the sales pitch was exhausting. If any of you are suckered into hearing about a timeshare wait until you get to the last manager to accept (if you plan on buying of course) our offer went from 11,000 to 3,990 to upgrade. We declined, as nice as it would be to have more points to use for vacations we are not in a position right now to make anymore financial commitments. We are working toward being completely debt free. After July we will only have our house that we have a lien on. We didn't want to mess that up.
After we finished with the timeshare deal we got the first load of people, collected our $80 for listening to the timeshare pitch and then headed toward the Magic Kingdom. (For those who don't know, Disney World is made up of four parks; Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Disney's Hollywood Studios) Luther's dad and I got the tickets and Luther went back for the second load of people. (For the first few days we tried using one car for the 8 of us near the end of the trip Luther's dad decided to rent a second car.) While we were waiting for the second load, I bought Alexis an autograph book. It is a princess book that has slots for pictures. She was so excited to get her book and loves it so much.
Magic Kingdom is a lot like Disneyland. It has different lands; Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, Adventureland, Frontierland, Liberty Square, Mickey's Toontown Fair, and Main Street USA. Luther, Alexis, and I started our day watching Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. It was such a fun show. Part of the show they have a 2-headed monster named Mac and Cheese retelling the story of Monsters Inc. They would chose different audience members to play the roles of the story. Luther was chosen to be the Randal of the story and had to disappear. It was so funny watching him try to figure out how to do that. He then had the brilliant idea of scooting over to the empty seat next to him so the camera could "see" him anymore. It was so fun. After that we went and explored toontown, Alexis had fun looking through Mickey's house and Minnie's house. Then we stood in line to meet some princesses. We were able to meet Aurora, Cinderella, and Belle. Alexis talked their ears off. It was the cutest thing ever. Afterwards we went on all the rides in Fantasyland and watched Philharmagic. I LOVED Philharmagic. In the show Donald Duck gets sucked into some famous Disney movies after tampering with Mickey's sorcerer's hat. Alexis loved when Donald would splash in the water and we would get sprayed.
Cheyenne (Luther's sister) was nice enough to watch Alexis while Luther and I went on Space Mountain. Alexis was not too happy about that. She was so worried that she lost her mommy. Cheyenne was able to get Alexis to ride Peter Pan and tried to get Alexis on Dumbo. Alexis was not a happy camper. Alexis was so happy when her mommy and daddy came back and made me ride Dumbo with her. Silly girl.
We then went back to the hotel and I made hamburgers for dinner. They turned out to be pretty yummy. :) My feet were in so much pain but the jacuzzi helped ease some of that pain. Thank goodness.
Florida Vacation Part 1
A couple months ago Luther's mom sent him a text message asking us if we would like to go to Florida with them in January. We crunched the numbers and decided we could do it. So we settled on a week where Luther wouldn't have to use vacation time and booked that week using our timeshare points.
Day 1 January 26, 2011
Luther and I wake up at 1:30am to get ready and drive to the airport. We leave our house around 2:30am and drive 3 hours to my parent's home. We drop off the bunny and pick up my dad's GPS and my memory card that I had left there the last time we visited. Oh and since I left my straightener at home I had to borrow one from my mom. (Thank goodness she bought an extra one when she and my dad went to Disneyland last September.) After we say our goodbyes we drive over to Luther's parents house so they could take us to the airport.
Being that we have never flow on our own we decide to get to the airport 3 1/2 hours before our flight. I admit that was a bit zealous. :) After checking our bags and getting our boarding passes we go through security without a hitch. Luther wasn't too happy with having to remove his hat, jacket, shoes, and belt but he complied. Alexis loved looking at the flight crew and their "pretty" uniforms.
While waiting to board Alexis managed to pee so much that her diaper leaked then after I took care of that we went to breakfast and she spat orange juice all over herself. So, we ended up having to buy her a new shirt at the airport. Geez! LOL!
Alexis liked looking out the window watching the crew prep the airplane and staring at the people smoking in the smoke box. The latter was a little embarrassing. I guess it is time to teach Alexis it isn't polite to stare.
The flight was uneventful. Alexis slept a majority of the time and I got a terrible headache. After 4 hours and a bumpy landing we were finally in Florida. YAY!
At the Orlando International airport you get to take a tram to baggage claim. That was pretty fun but Luther worried that we would have to take another 3 before we got out of the airport. Luckily he was wrong and it was just the one. Baggage claim made me stress out, our bags were the last to go around the carousel. Alexis started to cry because her car seat was gone. Finally, all our luggage appeared and we could go get our car.
Our rental car experience wasn't too out of the ordinary. Just paid for the car, got sold insurance for the car, went to the garage, and picked out our car. We chose a Kia Sportage to use for the week.
Florida has toll roads. Well a major toll road that happened to be the way from the airport to the hotel. It was exciting to try and find the change for all the booths and luckily we had just enough to make it to our hotel.
We stayed at Vacation Village at Parkway. We couldn't find the check in office. Vacation Village is a timeshare resort that consists of 17 buildings. I tried calling and there was no answer. I was NOT a happy camper. Finally we found the check in building and got our room assignment and keys. Oh and we got suckered into going to a presentation breakfast. They gave us free breakfast and $80 so I guess it was worth it. I will talk about that a little later.
Our room was nice. It have a full kitchen, a small dining area, a living room with a sofa bed, a master bedroom with a jacuzzi, and a bathroom. The other room had a half kitchen, dining room, living room (with sofa bed), bedroom, and a bathroom. They were spacious and allowed us to eat most of our meals out of the parks and in our rooms. Luther and I went to Publix (a local grocery store) and bought some food items to get us through the first few days. When we got back to our room Alexis fell asleep and I sat in the jacuzzi tub. It felt wonderful after such a long day.
Luther then went to the airport to pick up his family and bring them to the hotel. I made chili cheese dogs for them to eat. Then went to bed so we could start our real vacation.
Day 1 January 26, 2011
Luther and I wake up at 1:30am to get ready and drive to the airport. We leave our house around 2:30am and drive 3 hours to my parent's home. We drop off the bunny and pick up my dad's GPS and my memory card that I had left there the last time we visited. Oh and since I left my straightener at home I had to borrow one from my mom. (Thank goodness she bought an extra one when she and my dad went to Disneyland last September.) After we say our goodbyes we drive over to Luther's parents house so they could take us to the airport.
Being that we have never flow on our own we decide to get to the airport 3 1/2 hours before our flight. I admit that was a bit zealous. :) After checking our bags and getting our boarding passes we go through security without a hitch. Luther wasn't too happy with having to remove his hat, jacket, shoes, and belt but he complied. Alexis loved looking at the flight crew and their "pretty" uniforms.
While waiting to board Alexis managed to pee so much that her diaper leaked then after I took care of that we went to breakfast and she spat orange juice all over herself. So, we ended up having to buy her a new shirt at the airport. Geez! LOL!
Alexis liked looking out the window watching the crew prep the airplane and staring at the people smoking in the smoke box. The latter was a little embarrassing. I guess it is time to teach Alexis it isn't polite to stare.
The flight was uneventful. Alexis slept a majority of the time and I got a terrible headache. After 4 hours and a bumpy landing we were finally in Florida. YAY!
At the Orlando International airport you get to take a tram to baggage claim. That was pretty fun but Luther worried that we would have to take another 3 before we got out of the airport. Luckily he was wrong and it was just the one. Baggage claim made me stress out, our bags were the last to go around the carousel. Alexis started to cry because her car seat was gone. Finally, all our luggage appeared and we could go get our car.
Our rental car experience wasn't too out of the ordinary. Just paid for the car, got sold insurance for the car, went to the garage, and picked out our car. We chose a Kia Sportage to use for the week.
Florida has toll roads. Well a major toll road that happened to be the way from the airport to the hotel. It was exciting to try and find the change for all the booths and luckily we had just enough to make it to our hotel.
We stayed at Vacation Village at Parkway. We couldn't find the check in office. Vacation Village is a timeshare resort that consists of 17 buildings. I tried calling and there was no answer. I was NOT a happy camper. Finally we found the check in building and got our room assignment and keys. Oh and we got suckered into going to a presentation breakfast. They gave us free breakfast and $80 so I guess it was worth it. I will talk about that a little later.
Our room was nice. It have a full kitchen, a small dining area, a living room with a sofa bed, a master bedroom with a jacuzzi, and a bathroom. The other room had a half kitchen, dining room, living room (with sofa bed), bedroom, and a bathroom. They were spacious and allowed us to eat most of our meals out of the parks and in our rooms. Luther and I went to Publix (a local grocery store) and bought some food items to get us through the first few days. When we got back to our room Alexis fell asleep and I sat in the jacuzzi tub. It felt wonderful after such a long day.
Luther then went to the airport to pick up his family and bring them to the hotel. I made chili cheese dogs for them to eat. Then went to bed so we could start our real vacation.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Random thoughts
As a member of the online forum cafemom, I see petty arguments day in and day out. Whether it is over parenting practices or what people should be allowed to purchase on food stamps at the end of the day hours upon hours have been wasted becoming too emotional. I guess it is hard for me to picture grown women fuming as they type to strangers across the country. I understand being passionate about a cause but more times than not these "debates" result in name-calling and nip-picking by the grammar/spelling police.
I have had my share of being offended easily and then lashing out. I have since learned a little from those instances.
1. Nobody benefits from being mean. There are ALWAYS consequences for your actions. Whether it is the guilt you feel after being so rude, the embarrassment you have caused yourself by acting like a fool, or getting kicked out of a dance studio there are negative impacts.
2. 95% of the time you are overreacting. We as human beings base a lot of our actions on our emotions. When we are young our emotions are more difficult to deal with. Some (like me) are born with lower boiling points than others but with time we can try to better ourselves. I am learning to stop taking things so personal. I have learned the I am not the center of the universe and coming to grips with that has made me more calm.
3. Whatever you are yelling/fighting/being mean about is usually not worth the consequence you will receive.
4. Nobody likes an ugly attitude. Happy people are drawn to happy people. I would much rather have happy friends than negative downer friends.
If I had a time machine and could go back to my junior high and high school years, one thing I would do different is be kinder to everyone. For some reason I got this idea in my head that to be popular and liked, you had to be mean. (Most of the popular people were mean to me so maybe that is where I got the thought from.) It never occurred to me that having friends that treated me nice and I gave the same respect would be better than being well-known but hated. If anyone that I have hurt reads this, I am truly sorry. I was stupid and confused. I could go on all day about how it is so and so's fault for this and that person's fault for that. But at the end of the day I made that choice. It was MY actions that put me where I was at. We all have our vices and my temper is one that I am working on. I HATE the mean me, I HATE hurting people, and I HATE that negative feeling that comes when I give in and be a jerk.
In Relief society today we studied President Thomas S. Monson's talk during the Priesthood session this last conference. It was titled "The Three R's of Choice" President Monson teaches that we all have been given choices. These choices have three different aspects; right, responsibility, and result. We have the God giver RIGHT to make choices, the RESPONSIBILITY to make wise choices, and we have to live with the RESULTS of the choice we make.
I am going to make it a goal this week to ponder me choice. I am grateful for the right to make choices for me and my family, I will strive to be responsible in making my choices so they don't have a negative effect on myself or my family, and I will be aware of the results of my decisions this week.
I wish you all a fabulous week and hopefully will touch base with you again! :)
I have had my share of being offended easily and then lashing out. I have since learned a little from those instances.
1. Nobody benefits from being mean. There are ALWAYS consequences for your actions. Whether it is the guilt you feel after being so rude, the embarrassment you have caused yourself by acting like a fool, or getting kicked out of a dance studio there are negative impacts.
2. 95% of the time you are overreacting. We as human beings base a lot of our actions on our emotions. When we are young our emotions are more difficult to deal with. Some (like me) are born with lower boiling points than others but with time we can try to better ourselves. I am learning to stop taking things so personal. I have learned the I am not the center of the universe and coming to grips with that has made me more calm.
3. Whatever you are yelling/fighting/being mean about is usually not worth the consequence you will receive.
4. Nobody likes an ugly attitude. Happy people are drawn to happy people. I would much rather have happy friends than negative downer friends.
If I had a time machine and could go back to my junior high and high school years, one thing I would do different is be kinder to everyone. For some reason I got this idea in my head that to be popular and liked, you had to be mean. (Most of the popular people were mean to me so maybe that is where I got the thought from.) It never occurred to me that having friends that treated me nice and I gave the same respect would be better than being well-known but hated. If anyone that I have hurt reads this, I am truly sorry. I was stupid and confused. I could go on all day about how it is so and so's fault for this and that person's fault for that. But at the end of the day I made that choice. It was MY actions that put me where I was at. We all have our vices and my temper is one that I am working on. I HATE the mean me, I HATE hurting people, and I HATE that negative feeling that comes when I give in and be a jerk.
In Relief society today we studied President Thomas S. Monson's talk during the Priesthood session this last conference. It was titled "The Three R's of Choice" President Monson teaches that we all have been given choices. These choices have three different aspects; right, responsibility, and result. We have the God giver RIGHT to make choices, the RESPONSIBILITY to make wise choices, and we have to live with the RESULTS of the choice we make.
I am going to make it a goal this week to ponder me choice. I am grateful for the right to make choices for me and my family, I will strive to be responsible in making my choices so they don't have a negative effect on myself or my family, and I will be aware of the results of my decisions this week.
I wish you all a fabulous week and hopefully will touch base with you again! :)
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