vacation Monday: Typhoon Lagoon

Today we went to Typhoon Lagoon!  Since we were riding all the rides we don't have as many pictures as a normal day because we relied on others.

Joshua was one of the first people up every day (and the other person went out for a run).  

We got there at the right time: a bit before the opening but not much.  There was also some shade to wait in which was ideal as it was already hot at 10am.

The start was a bit crazy.  We had to stand around in the sun for about 10 minutes and it didn't go well.  Then our party got separated (and we didn't have all phones) as we were trying to find a shady spot.  Katy found a great spot and we all found each other fairly easily in hindsight.

Ben had spent some time figuring out our plan for the day and told us we should start with the MisAdventure Falls.

Then we did the water coaster.  Isaac rode by himself and I rode with Joshua.  There were three different coasters; over the course of the day we did them all.  Banana was the most exciting one, but you could ride by yourself only on coconut.  They were definitely Ben and Isaac's favorites of the park.

After this there was a large section were we were separate from others.  There were some non-raft slides that we did (storm chasers?).  I liked the middle one the best because it felt a bit longer and went through a dark section.  The one on the left was boring and the one on the right was fine.  Ben and Isaac took a brief detour to a different slide that was only a steep drop in the dark and came back with poor reviews.  It was splashy and Isaac couldn't wear his googles.  It made Ben's back all red and was really bumpy.  I wasn't sure if I really wanted to do that one anyway, so I was glad they had checked it out.

We had lunch next.  I had packed a lunch for all but Ben, who trekked all the way to the other side of the park, waited a long time, and then trekked back.  We were finished eating by the time he was back, but just barely.

We hit the wave pool next!  The kids were so excited about this.  They enjoyed a few big waves so we kept going a little deeper.  Then both of them went under poorly at the same wave and they were done.  Luckily, Ben was coming in at that moment so the boys stayed in a little longer too, albeit quite a bit shallower.  Ben and Ryan went way up to the front and enjoyed riding a few really big waves, although I don't think they got the gigantic wave.

We found some friends at the wave pool and hit the remainder of the tube rides.  There was one that started slowly and got faster; I really liked that one.  It wasn't a thrill ride by any means, but it was fun.

Then we started going around on the lazy river.  Joshua and I went in a tube together and I was lazing it up.  Suddenly Joshua is screaming almost bloody murder...he had been stung by a bee.  I found it rather odd because the bee must have seen him and gone right to stinging as there was no movement from Joshua ahead of time being scared by the bee.  I tossed the bee away and then I pulled out the stinger.  We stopped by the lifeguard station because Joshua was still crying, although at least not screaming anymore.  Long story short, Joshua and I visited a very nice first aid station but didn't get to see the waterfall on the lazy river.

It might seem like that was the beginning of the end, but we were getting close to being done anyway.  We had our dole whips, because that's really the best medicine for bee stings.  We went down a few more of the first rides.  The lines to everything were really good throughout the day and I think the longest we waited was 15 minutes.

Dinner was Mexican.  Since we were flying Southwest, we all got two free bags.  Laura loves the no-salt chips that can only be found at Meijer, so I brought a suitcase full for her.  I had a really fun time with it. :)  (Turns out it was good to have that extra bag because we bought quite a few Legos throughout the trip.)

The kids got in the pool after dinner (slightly surprising all the adults) and enjoyed the arcade room.

Once the kids were asleep we played Space Base with Heather.  

Sunday: kids

 Today Isaac made me a house!  It was a fun house.

Then he added a nice green lawn with a river an foliage.  Why yes, I would love to live there.

But it turns out it is also surrounded by lava that is noisy and sometimes lights your house on fire.

And there are steep mountains with lots of monsters that always watch you.

And the only way out, to get groceries and such, is past the monsters, though a narrow crevice filled with spiders and loud chipmunks.

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Ben: You're running a race and you pass the person in second place.  What place are you in?
Isaac and Joshua think.
Joshua: Oh!  I know!  The desert or the forest!

That one is still cracking me up.

Saturday: boat

This afternoon we went out with Travis and family on their boat.

The boys had fun on the tube, but didn't like going really fast.

So after a pleasant ride with them Scarlet and Autumn joined me and then we got to go fast!  I haven't done much tubing since I was 10, but I remember the best part was being thrown in the water.  (I managed to hang on the whole time, but I think it helped that I was in the middle so Scarlet fell off first.)

Ben went wakeboarding.  He looked like a pro.  Maybe not a pro but he did get up on his first try and knew what he was doing.

Isaac tried for the first time and got right up too!  Unfortunately, his hands hurt so his ride was only about two seconds long.  But he was definitely up.

After this we brought the lily pad out and the kids played on it for a quite a while until they noticed snacks were available.  Isaac tried playing some more but was too cold, so we headed back in before too long.  It was pretty good timing though, as it was dinner time by the time we were home.

Look at this cool picture I got too:

Friday: wildlife

This morning we went on a little hike.  We saw so many chipmunks!  But no bears.  We also saw a green butterfly.

Joshua had (has?  It's still in process) a friend come over for a sleepover.  His mom and I have been working on a puzzle for a few months and it was a hard one.  It was kind of blurry and there were repeat patterns.  But we finally finished it today!  Phew.  I have another one from Mother's Day that I've been excited to get on the puzzle board.

The boys played outside for a while.  The mulberry tree is dropping it's berries right now and the ducks are cautious but very willing to get close to people to get the berries.

vacation Sunday: meeting

Three of the four families were all in the same hotel, so we slowly met each other throughout the morning.

The women had a plan: a year ago we had all bought the same shirt (albeit in two different colors).  We wore them today to see how long it would take people to notice.  Violet was the first person to notice and did a good job of staying quiet.

We all met in the same place same time a bit later for mini golf at Disney.  We thought we were going to need to pay (a lot) for parking, but we didn't!  It was a great start to vacation.

Eva noticed our shirts right away and announced it to the families that were there...which was almost everyone but not quite.  (This is important for later.)

Mini golf was great!  It was a little hot, but we moved through the course well.

At the end of mini golf we were all standing around waiting for everyone to finish and we talked about the shirts.  Ben and Isaac both had their *aha* moments that we were wearing the same shirt.

Then we went to the Florida mall.  The girls went to have lunch at the American Girl store and the guys hung out in the mall and went to the arcade.  The (male) employee at the American Girl store noticed that we all had the same shirts and asked for the story.  It was rather funny that he noticed when we weren't even all standing together.

Ben and I took Marshall and skipped the shopping.  (It was probably a good choice...Costco was apparently a mass of humanity and didn't need five more people.)  Unfortunately, our house took an extra hour to get ready and they have some serious parking/towing rules.  We ended up by a shaded playground for a bit and Ben stayed with the car.  Katy and the girls joined us for a bit (Ryan stayed with the car) and then we got to the house.

It was a lovely house!  Tons of bedrooms, clean, and large.  The ninja room was an instant hit and the arcade room was free.  The fun bedrooms were fun.  The kids were instantly gone exploring.

Isaac and Joshua ended up with the Mario room to themselves, although no kids had luggage or anything in a fun room.  There were enough rooms that every family had two rooms, plus the fun rooms, plus a spare.

There was also a candy room, a pirate ship (not pictured yet), and a ninja course room.

One of the reasons we chose this house was due to the private pool, which got used a lot.

Thursday: this and that

Today was the last day of VBS.  It went well.  I showed up because it's important.  I engaged.  And I can be glad that it is finished.

Joshua and I had a few hard times today.  He also decided to use one of his "skip a chore" coupons so that he didn't have to do his writing.  I then ripped it so that it didn't get mixed back into all the coupons we have in this house.  I came back from karate to the following note.

"Dear mom, as you can see I wrote for 10 minutes.  I taped the coupon back together.  I decided that it was not worth it to use the coupon.  I put it in my room.  It was not worth it to skip 10 minutes of writing.  After all, I only have 2 left why waste it on only 10 minutes of writing.  And this was [oris] the chore as you probably figured out.  Why did you rip it?  When you can reuse it.  From Joshua. *heart*"

Wednesday: a little work

Another day of VBS!  It went fine.  I never love VBS like some people do, but it's important and the time goes by quickly.  The kids are fun.  Joshua wore a bunch of bling from this year and last year today.

A pretty normal afternoon: nap, World of Warcraft (Joshua is getting better but still sometimes runs in the opposite direction), rock climbing.  We got home and I had to do some outside chores.  That was probably a mistake because it was so hot out.  Luckily, Isaac was helping so we got through pretty quickly.  We also have a bunch of mulberries on the ground right now and the ducks are not very afraid of us.

Joshua had wanted a weekly chore list like Isaac gets this summer, but realized today that it wasn't going all that well.  He wasn't really behind, but it does take more effort to manage a weekly list than a daily list.  So we went back to a daily list today and that really seemed to work better for both of us.  Isaac is doing a nice job staying on top of his list, although it's also only the first week of summer.

I also managed to get a few things done from my to-do list.  However, "think about dinner" was not a good choice of words.  I thought about the dinner.  How it is nice to eat.  How I should make some food.  And then I ignored it until dinner was soon and I actually had to decide what to make.  I'll be honest...I expect to say I didn't get many things off my to-do list a lot this summer.  There are other fun things to do and most of the stuff will wait until the kids are back in school, even if it drives me nuts a little bit.

Tuesday: normal day

It was a pretty normal day, all told.

It started with VBS.  It went fine.  Isaac had a better day.

The power was out for about 45 minutes this afternoon.  It went like this:
*The fan turns off*
A: oh shoot, there goes my nap.
J: ISAAC! CAN YOU GET ME SOME PAPER TOWEL*??  I'M OUT AND DON'T KNOW WHERE IT IS.
A: YOU MEAN TOILET PAPER!
J: Oh yeah.  That
I: Why can't you get it yourself?
J: The power went out.
I: Ohhhh. **

*Joshua can't seem to remember it's called toilet paper and not paper towel.  Every time.  It makes me laugh.

**I think Isaac was in a bright room and that's why he didn't realize, but I was still a bit surprised.

Monday: VBS

 VBS started today!  They shortened it significantly this year: both from 2.75hrs to 2hrs and it isn't on Friday.  It did make it feel much faster!  The group was good.  My helper is an 8th grader.  She was good but rather cute as she transitioned from being in VBS to helping with VBS.  (The adult snacks are 100x better than what the kids get!  And you can get more than one cookie!)

After that we quickly went grocery shopping.  Isaac carefully choose a new hairbrush for Ben for Father's Day.

Our total was under $100!  It seemed weird for the grocery trip after vacation, so I'm sure we missed a lot of things.  Both kids got a treat.  Joshua picked out DingDong cupcakes and Isaac chose two watermelon.

Sunday: Happy Father's Day!

It was a very nice Father's Day, although since we just got back from vacation there weren't any gifts.  We went to lunch with Larry.  

The "big" news is that we finally got World of Warcraft up and running again, and the whole family is playing it.  Isaac seemed to be doing very well.  Joshua was also doing well, but coordinating everything was a little tricky.  He wasn't that far behind Isaac though, so things were going pretty well.  I expect within a week he'll have no problems.

I did want to call out Horizon though.  He was in the rafters meowing away.  For our silent cat, it sounded like he was completely stuck.  I eventually went to go get the ladder and as I was putting it up he was watching me.  Just as I got it up he comes walking by on the floor.  Dumb cat.

Saturday: the curse

Today we had to leave.  The trip was so much fun and went by so quickly.  I was up way to early; I always am nervous of flying days.  We decided to leave at 8 and were out of the driveway at 7:58.  Ben and Isaac took a quick swim before we left and realized they were also swimming with a snake!  They saved it.

The trip to the airport was fine.  I4 has been quite backed up for us during our travels, but we were in a different section at a different time today.  We did a reserve an appointment to get through security and that was pretty slick.  (We would have been fine without it, but it was one less thing to worry about.)

We got to the gate and proceeded to have lunch at 9:30am.  It was supposed to be a second breakfast but it ended up being lunch and the boys found this rather funny in the end.  So...we were waiting for the plane and wondering if it would actually be on time when it was delayed 20 minutes.  Ok, Ben's flying curse kicked in but 20 minutes isn't a big deal and we had a non-stop flight.  Then there was lightning.  Again.  We boarded pretty late, but I wasn't really watching the time.  Maybe 45 minutes late?  Then another storm segment came through, and then we had to wait for the other 20 planes to go that were ahead of us.  I was dozing in and out at this point, but we ended up getting in 2.5hours late.  Annoying, yes.  But at least it wasn't stressful.  We didn't have a connection, we didn't have any super important plans, and we knew it was only due to weather.

We finally got home around 5:15pm, only having a small snack or two after second breakfast.  (We did pick up food on the way home, so we could eat right away.)

I was honestly rather done that that point.  I putzed through the suitcases and dealt with some clothes.  The kids were finally settled and so I went in the basement for some alone time.  

Isaac: I'm cold.
Amanda: We're at home.  You can figure it out.
Isaac: but then I'll be hot.
Amanda: eye roll

And now I'm about to go to bed super early.  I can barely keep my eyes open.

Saturday: travel

We flew to Orlando today.  As always, Ben makes traveling an adventure.

The first adventure was neat!  Larry was on our flight.

The second adventure was normal... The flight left about thirty minutes late.  Benand Joshua sat by Larry.

The third adventure was a new one!  We landed just as a lightning storm started.  We had dinner before looking for our bags.  When we finally got to baggage claim we learned that ground services was shut down.  We waited for an additional 1.5 hours as they slowly opened up.  We were the third flight to get our luggage out of about 10 in the queue.  We had small bags and so they came out quickly.  Ben had already gotten the car and so we zip zipped out of the airport.

We got to the hotel without too much effort and found our room.  It was huge!  There was an extra empty spot in the middle of the room.