Tuesday: air quality

Today we ended up having a severe air quality day; I'm not sure I've been in one this bad.  It was due to some forest fires in Quebec.  The air was more than hazy all day and it smelled faintly of smoke.  The values peaked at 199 AQI around 1pm

Monday: birthday party

 We had Isaac's (half) birthday party today.  It wasn't big, just the grandparents.  But it was special.

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.