::disney fun 2::

More fun to report on!
We got to visit all the parks on our little jaunt, though we didn't get to ride or visit everything that we hoped to. The Soarin' line was so long that we had to give up at Epcot, and the Peter Pan ride in the Magic Kingdom was hopeless.
We did get to do the Toy Story one though, and the new Star Tours (which was awesome enough to make me carsick!)
We got to eat a lot (too much) decent to good food and the weather was PERFECT. It didn't rain on us once and it was never warmer than 80 degrees.

We got to introduce Grandma to the fun of pin trading. Max got to ride the Rocking Roller Coaster for the first time and he was brave enough to go right back on again after.
Here we are hanging out waiting for one of our many meals to show up.



Probably the best part of the whole trip was getting to spend time together doing stuff that had absolutely nothing to do with work!
And the second best thing was undoubtedly the weather. It was so nice to have weather like that in the middle of our winter.

The sad news is that Sandy got sick the night of our second to last day. He got a big fever and was so miserable. So he was up half the night and then slept most of the next day. Kris went home that morning to get some work done, and the rest of us were supposed to play. I sent Kathy and Max to the Magic Kingdom and watched over little Sandy.
Finally he woke up and we all met up for lunch.

The poor little guy did his best to be a good sport. Then Grandma took him back for more napping and Max and I got to play for a while. This is a picture she sent me later that night.

He felt a lot better by then, thank goodness and was actually eating. You can see his little pink cheeks though--they're the give away that he's still a little sick!
Why do kids always get sick on trips?
The flight home was a bit trying with a slightly sick exhausted baby, but Max was perfect.

But that's getting ahead of myself.
Max wanted a churro the whole trip and we had such a hard time finding one. But finally on the last day when Max and I were exploring the Magic Kingdom I spotted some people enjoying churros. I stopped them and asked where the heck to find them. We finally found them and snarfed them.

(Check out Max's awesome pins. He did some good trading on this trip.)

And last for now, but not least I have a picture of Sandy riding the ant at the "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" playground. Max LOVES that place.

Sandy liked it too, but the uneven-ness and texture of the ground made him feel a little weirded out.
I will leave you with a pretty awesome video of the crawling that resulted. True Mowgli crawling. He also fell on his little head several times because he got so unbalanced. I think that's what happened right when I stopped the video. Wish I would've gotten it documented. It was hilarious.

I'm going to report on the running later!

::disney fun 1::

So all the racing and running and such aside, we had some classic Disney World fun with our leftover time.
We took Kathy to the Animal Kingdom--she'd never been. I loved that Max was still afraid of the 3d Bug's Life movie under the big tree.

The safari ride was as neat as usual. Seeing all the different animals is always so fun.

The baby elephant was A-dorable.

Max was dying to go on his "most favorite" ride, the river rapids one where you get all wet. Of course the best opportunity to do that came up at like 5PM when the sun was almost gone. I'm a nice mom and I went with him anyway.

I definitely got wet and cold--and evidently the ride also caused me to make ugly faces.

On a different day we ate at the German buffet in Epcot. This is Kris's favorite thing to do. The food is so good. The little band that plays is great too, and Max loves to dance and goof around.
Besides the fact that we got seated at a communal table with a cranky old man and a lady that wouldn't stop talking, it was a good night. Actually the lady was really nice, though was too loquacious after a stein of Germany's best bier. And the cranky old man just turned out to be lonely. He talked to Max a lot during the meal and won a lot of points with me.


You can see Germany behind us. And how amazingly flexible the Sand is.

Here we are waiting for the bus so that we can visit our resort pool. The resort was fun, but so spread out that you had to take an internal bus everywhere.

It was a fun pool with a big water slide and a really cute toddler area that Sandy hated.

You can see that Max is set and ready to take some serious underwater videos.

Now this is funny. I have one child that ADORES the characters. I've never really liked people in big costumes that like. I still don't really like them. But Max loves them to death. He gets so excited when he sees them.

At this dinner he was essentially jumping up and down trying to be patient while the characters made the rounds.

BUT
I have another child who HATES the characters. Turns out he thinks they are terrifying, weird and creepy.


And those darn characters won't take no for an answer. They expect to be adored and are dismayed when it doesn't happen. Most of them just kept trying and trying until Sand broke down and I had to send them away.

No babies were harmed in the course of the evening, but he did get really mad. The rest of the restaurant thought he was pretty cute.
I think he's over it by now. I hope anyway.

::unpacking::

So we went to Orlando to join in with thousands and thousands of people for the Disney World marathon weekend. Kris and I ran the half marathon and Max did a kid race. Kris's mom came with us and saved the day by taking awesome care of the kiddos.
Anyway, I have stuff to post about that, but I'm going to have to go backwards--starting with the unpacking.

Finally five days after getting home I'm getting unpacked. I hate hate packing for trips, but unpacking is SO much worse.
But at least there was a cute baby keeping me company.

I've got to get my pictures in order and then I'll report on our fun.

::even more san diego::

(this flower was growing on a bush downstairs from our little condo--so pretty!!)

The next day we spent time hanging out in the morning while it was misty and grey (it was misty and grey and a bit chilly every morning until about noon, it was nice.) Kris and I went for runs--separately. Max watched a movie and Sand took a nap. Then we walked to Rubio's and had fish tacos for lunch.

Max threw a big fit about something at lunch--I don't really remember what it was about now, just that it was ridiculous. That's why he's not in the picture.
After we got back it was all beach for the rest of the day!
Kris stayed home with Sandy while Sand napped. Poor Kris has a board exam coming up in Sept, so he was glad to have some study time.
Max and I went boogie boarding. The waves were pretty huge.

(this is the wrong day but the right beach)

I haven't been boogie boarding in AGES. It was really fun and I think Max was having a blast with me out there. We rode a few waves in together and it was rather thrilling. Rather thrilling that is until my nice nice sunglasses that Kris got me for Christmas were ripped off my head and dragged off into the deep blue sea.
I was pretty bummed about that and Max and I spent a while looking for them. It was a lost cause. Max was sad and tried to make me feel better with more boogie boarding, but the savor had gone out of it. (I still boogie boarded more with him of course, but it just wasn't the same.)
Later Kris came out with the Sand and I tried to get Sand to enjoy sitting in the sand. He did NOT like it. I sat him down with just his feet in the sand and he was so disturbed. SO mad. Then later I tried to stand him in the sand and he refused. I would lower him down towards the ground and the lower he would get the higher he would tuck his feet up. He just would not touch it.

But of course, he would eat it. I sat him on a towel so he could look around safely. He like that pretty well, and of course decided to start eating the sand. Such a dork.

BLAH.

A sandy Sandy eating sand.

It was such a fun afternoon. Everybody had a good time (maybe even my sunglasses escaping their drudgery on my head.) Nobody got sunburned, though I had a close call. I wish we could do it again tomorrow.

::today in san diego::

We are escaping our normal lives for a couple of days this week in San Diego at the beach. We found a little condo right by the beach (thanks to a recommendation from a patient parent at the office). It's really amazingly close to the beach--probably less than a block away. We don't have to cross any real streets to get there. It's perfect because Max can spend more time playing in the water, and the baby can take the naps he needs, and all that is within a quick walk back to our place if we need it.

I just wanted to share a couple of pictures from today before I got too sleepy.

We went to a fun little shopping area downtown called something like Seaport Village for lunch.

The view of the water was lovely from our table.

And I had another lovely view if I looked to my left--happy babies.


He is so darn darling!
There was a seagull stalking Max's lunch the whole time. Luckily he was behind glass and too big to slip through the cracks.

After lunch Max got to ride on a historic carousel, which of course he loved.

After we walked around the shops for a bit and headed to Target to pick up all the stuff I forgot to pack, Max and I went out to the beach while the baby napped and Kris studied for his upcoming board exam.

Max did some seriously awesome boogie boarding.
Then he had to bury himself because I refuse to get that sandy today.


Poor deprived child. He even wrote RIP in the sand next to himself. Weirdo.
Kris and Sand came and joined us for a few minutes at the end.

Sandy thought the waves were very interesting as long as I didn't dip his feet too much, but he HATED the sand (ironically). He hated it so much. He would hold his feet and legs up as high as he could any time I tried to have him stand in it. We'll see how it goes the next few days.

THEN, after dinner we took a long walk to go and get some ice cream. We saw a cool sunset over the ocean.

We saw a lot of interesting vegetation, chief amoung them this weird succulent black rosebush looking thing. So cool.

Max wore himself out running the first half mile and could hardly make it the rest of the way, but we did finally make it back for bedtime.


I'm going to bed now, sand in my hair and all. Tomorrow we're planning for SeaWorld. It should be fun!