Friday: being loud

Joshua had a loud day today.

On our walk today Joshua barked at birds, trying to scare them.


And then we had a fight with Morro's Dragon.  The roars are at the beginning of the video.  We had to do this fight today because Bob's birthday is tomorrow.  (Bob is Ben's mouse.)  In order to fight the birthday fights tomorrow we had to do this fight today.  Joshua has reminded us about this several times today.


It was also a beautiful day so the doors were open quite a bit.  The cats thoroughly enjoyed it.

Anniversary picture

One last one...

Happy 15th Anniversary.

Vacation Saturday

We had some time at the resort before we needed to get ready to leave.  I took the boys to eat breakfast when they woke up so that Ben and Cheryl could sleep a little bit more.  Afterwards we looked at all the cars.  Joshua wanted his picture taken by every car!  It surprised me a bit since he is usually not one for pictures.

Make sure to check out the one in the top left...we saw that one by the playground and he wanted a picture with it too.

Around the time we were done with the playground Ben and Cheryl were done with breakfast.  Ben took them swimming while I packed up.  Then we joined them at the car pool as they were about to move to the third pool.  So we walked, and walked, and walked and finally reached the other end of the resort with the pool.  It was cool seeing all the sculptures of The Little Mermaid and The Lion King on the way though.

Then we went back to the room, had an early lunch and it was time to go.  It was a great vacation and rather sad that we needed to leave.  The airport and flights back went fine.  Well, they went fine because Ben had spent a half hour on the phone the previous night with them.  There was a flight number change and the airline didn't handle it all that well.  The screens never showed us the gate that we were supposed to go to and the gate never showed that it was the flight for Grand Rapids.  But we were surrounded by people that were in the same boat, and the plane came to the gate we were sitting at so it all worked out.

Vacation Friday

Today we went to Animal Kingdom! 

We started with the safari.

I always get several giraffe pictures due to Isaac's lovey, Giraffe.

Isaac did some of the explorer stickers.  The one about scorpions was very interesting; real scorpions glow in black light.

We had a yummy lunch with friends.

We ended up in Dinosaur land after lunch, and it was getting hot out.  We went on the little dino ride because the line was pretty short.

The big dinosaur ride wait wasn't too bad, so we went on that too.  It was maybe not the best option for Joshua since it was in the dark with scary dinos flashing you, but he was a trooper.  I think he just closed his eyes and endured.

Of course, the kids needed Mickey Bars.

We went to the Lion King show (which was excellent) and then could finally get on Avatar since they got it fixed.  Joshua was too small for the ride, so we did rider swap...but this meant that Joshua had quite a bit of wait time.   First he was with Cheryl and played with some bubbles and then he was with Ben and they had some ice cream.

I was going to let Ben join Isaac and Cheryl on the second ride, but Ben got a bit sick on the ride so I got to go twice!  It was pretty awesome.  I feel like the screen was out of focus a little bit and that was distracting, but feeling like you're flying straight down but still being able to breathe was wonderful!  They did a good job with it.

We finished up the day with dinner and going to the dino playground.  A lovely day again.

Thursday: playground

After a 50% (or less) chance of rain all day, it rained until about 1pm.  (This has been the status quo for the weather lately.  It just keeps raining.)

Anyway, I was a driver for Isaac's end of school picnic.  We went anyway, even though it was raining.  It wasn't raining too hard, just enough to be considered raining.  We ate under a gazebo and then Isaac's teacher decided that the kids could still play at the playground for a while even though it was drizzly.

I was on zip-line duty and helped about 200 kids with the zip-line.  Some could get on by themselves, some needed a lot of help.  But most had a hard time getting up the ramp because it was slippery.

Isaac's teacher called it about an hour and a half early.  It wasn't super warm out and half the kids were wet.  Isaac got to come home early with me and I think they watched a movie or something at school.

Wednesday: nap

During my short nap today the cats curled up between my legs.  It was cute.

We went out for dinner with Dad and Pat.  On the way there, Isaac asked the following question: "Pretend there was a building the size of a tree.  Are there more trees in the world or more quarks in the building?"  We get talking a bit and he clarifies that it isn't the thing that goes in a bottle. 

Amanda: oh, a cork?
Isaac: yeah
Amanda: They're different...cork and quark
Isaac and Joshua: HAHAHAHA.  You just said the same thing.
Amanda: cork and quark?
Isaac and Joshua:  HAHAHAHA

Tuesday: testing

Isaac and I tested for our orange belts in karate today.  I'm not sure anyone ever fails at this point.  So...we passed.

Also, in new reasons to not go to sleep...Joshua wants to continue coloring his Pluto pillowcase.  He was in tears.  I just told him we could definitely do that: just maybe at a better time.

Vacation Thursday

We took a "day off" in between park days.  We still did a whole bunch of stuff, but the pace was slightly slower.

We started by going to breakfast with Lilo and Stitch.  This was a rather happy coincidence, because Joshua was really into Stitch for a week or two prior.

(Obviously not Lilo and Stitch, but a ring toss by the front lobby.)

Although unpictured, after Isaac ate a ton of food he went around the table pretending to be a rooster.

Next we rode the monorail.  Partially to go pick up a Stitch T-shirt for Joshua, partially to just ride the monorail.  Ben was doing a great impression of Stitch that had Joshua cracking up.

Cheryl also got the boys some Stitch slap bracelets that kept them entertained for a surprisingly long time.

Ben got me this bracelet for our anniversary.  Appropriate since we were at the Epcot ball on our anniversary.

We made the boys take a nap.  Once again, Isaac couldn't wake up.

Then to the pool!  They closed the main pool for about twenty minutes, but the boys had fun in the splash pad in the meantime.

Then it was time for the boys to go learn how to be a pirate.  They played some games and got pirate names and hunted for treasure and found "a skeleton".  (Joshua always says this, but he means skull and crossbones.  While they are very similar, it turns out they tend to have very different contexts.)  They also went on a boat ride.  Overall, they loved it.

The adults went out to a fancy and delicious dinner.  I then stayed around the pirate hotel and read while waiting to pick up the boys.  Ben and Cheryl went to Disney Springs.

Oh!  And Joshua in his Nemo T-shirt by Nemo.

Thursday: Isaac's story

The teachers at Isaac's school put on a teacher's theatre at the end of every year.  The students write the plays and the teachers act one out.  Isaac was really proud of his story, so here it is.  (I had him dictate it to me in the interest of time.  The names are those of fellow classmates.)

*****

Once upon a time there lived Isaac, Paten, M, and Yahaira.  They were lost in the forest.  They needed to find their way home.  They remembered they had climbed a tree and come back down.  But there wasn't a good way to get back up again.  

Isaac said, "we're lost"

Paten said, "I put green berries down for markers on the way here."

Yahaira: "Let's follow the trail markers back."

Paten said, "I ranned [sic] out of them eventually on our way but there were some mysterious trees with carvings on them on the way too."

M said, "Let's find those trees with the carvings on them and then find our way back"

Isaac said, "Great idea"

Isaac, Paten, M, and Yahaira spread out in a little space to find the trees with the carvings on them.

M was the first one to find a tree with a carving on it.  So we found the other trees that lead the way to the trail but they got harder the farther we went.  When we found the trail of green berries, we followed it to the giant tree in the forest.  And then we tried looking for a way up the giant tree.

Yahaira found a big log that was easy to climb inside.  So all of us worked together to put it by the edge of the tree straight up and down.  There was a hole in the top of it that was big enough for us to fit through.  And then Paten found a good support for other things for us to get up with.  Isaac found a tree with a little ledge on it.  There were some stairs by the giant tree and M found a platform to go far enough to the stairs.  So we put the platform on the support and on the giant tree there was a little step big enough for each of us to step on so we each tried doing the structure we built by the giant tree.  It worked but now how would we get down?

Isaac found a tall tree that was very light and had a little ledge by the bottom that was the right spot to replace the piece of tree that had broken when we came to the other side.  And then all of us came down.  And then we just went through a few more trees and we were out of the forest.

Yahaira saw an army guarding the entrance of the cave that we had to get through next.  And Yahaira said, "How will we get through that army?"

So we went back into the forest, but not past the giant tree again.  And found something that we could use.  Yahaira found a log that has a stairs shape to it and a long piece of wood.  Isaac found some very strong supports and some of them were thin enough that we could fit between the army.  Paten found a log that was too short but it was easy to get down through.  M found a piece of wood that looked like it has been carved.  It had a hole in the top and a hole in the side that was big enough for all of us to fit through.  We put the stairs in first and then we put the long piece of wood and then we put the supports with the thin on the bottom and then we all were carrying and slowly lifted the piece of wood that looked like it had been carved until it was at the floor with the hole on the side facing away from the army.  And the hole on the top facing up.  And they put the log that was easy to climb down through down on the piece of wood that looks like it has been carved.  Then we all went on it and went to the other side of the army.  And then we figured out our way through the cave again using the green berries.  And then we saw home and walked to home.

Wednesday: prep

I've been working on getting a class ready for next semester.

I'm on day 5 (out of 24). 

While I was somewhat expecting it to take this long, I was hoping that it wouldn't actually.

Tuesday: normal normal

It was just a pretty normal day today.  I got all caught up with grading this morning, did a bit of house work, took a nap, and then picked up the boys.

Last Wednesday: epcot

Today we went to the park with the big ball.  In trying to get us to go to Disney earlier in the week Isaac mentioned that he wanted to go to the big ball.

Excitement!

Under the big ball.

We got in early due to an early breakfast.  There was a penguin sculpture and since it is Ben's "favorite" animal we had to take some pictures.

It was also our 15th anniversary!  We got special buttons and people said "congratulations" all day.

Breakfast!  Delicious as always.  (Side note: Isaac must be going through a growth spurt because he's been eating a TON.)

With Dale:

 With Pluto (the favorite):

And Mickey:

Then, since we were finishing up right as the park was opening, we headed to Soarin'.  I wasn't sure how well Joshua would do, but I think he enjoyed it...but once was enough.  We also went on Living on the Land since it was right there.

Then we went on Figment's ride.  This was Joshua's favorite of the day and he requested several times that we go on it again (we did, later in the day).  I think he liked the stinky smell.

We were waiting for Ben and Isaac and went to the water up.  Joshua didn't want his picture taken; I said too bad.

We did two missions for Perry the Platypus throughout the day.  The one in Mexico was nice because it was inside the whole time...just as it was getting really hot.  Both boys really enjoyed it and wanted to do another one.  So I did a Japan one with them later.  It didn't seem to work quite as well (maybe some pieces were taken out?) but it was still good.  For Japan Doofenshmurtz was making a babyinator that would turn everyone into babies so they couldn't run away from his bad robot.  Joshua asked me, in all seriousness, if it was real.

A shark picture to almost match last time we were here.  Joshua saw Bruce all over the place and always pointed him out to Isaac.

Both boys wanted a Mickey Bar.  (Of course, the messiest treat there is.)  But we had wipes, so why not.  Oh, it's hard to see.  Isaac's face is a mess here.

We finally made it to Spaceship Earth!  It broke down for about ten minutes.  There was a voice continuously saying not to stand up, which was rather annoying.  At least we weren't stuck by the voice that also said "you're car is turning around.  do not stand up"

Mickey pretzels!  They were delicious and just what I wanted.

We stopped by the drums on our way out.

Just kidding!  We decided to go on test track.  Joshua enjoyed it until the fast part, but he just hung on tightly.  He was a really good sport about going on rides that were probably a bit scary for him...but he'll be ready to enjoy them more next time!

Joshua made a car with lots of power.  Isaac made one in the middle.

Joshua saw the trucks on the way out and wanted a picture with the red one, because that's what he made!

Now we were done...at about 8:30.  We were at the park for about 12 hours!  The boys did great and the adults did pretty good too. :D