This weekend Steven decided to take an extended weekend. He was already given Monday off since it was the Memorial Day holiday, but he had enough hours already logged to allow him to take Friday off, as well. (One of the benefits to working this job with billable hours... I love this setup. We get more time with him it seems so I am definitely a fan.)
Anyway, because Steven was able to take off the additional day, we elected to move up our Animal Kingdom trip from Saturday. We figured that going on a weekday would be better and then we were also not going on the actual holiday weekend. We got up early and headed out for the park. Kenzie was super excited about the Tree of Life. She had no idea what it was, but we told her there was a big tree and she kept asking about it the entire way there. I don't know that she was as impressed as she thought she would be, but she still oohed and aahed over it once she saw it.
We had scheduled a couple of fast passes for the day just to be on the safe side. As it turned out, two of them were sort of unnecessary, but better safe than sorry. We headed straight for Asia and Mount Everest as that was our first fast pass of the day. The wait was only 10 minutes so it wasn't a necessary fast pass, but at least it let us walk right on so we could be on our way. Steven and I took turns riding since it is (obviously) not a kid ride. I forgot how much fun a roller coaster can be. (Sidenote: BC (before children) Steven and I had Universal passes. We had them for a few years and we would go at least once a month to ride a couple of the roller coasters at Islands of Adventure. We are sort of roller coaster fiends. We dropped the passes when I was pregnant with Kenzie because without being able to ride roller coasters, it wasn't as much fun. But back to the story at hand...) The best part of my ride was the girl behind me constantly saying "This is AMAZING!" She was seriously excited. It was cracking me up. She also wasn't aware that the coaster moves backwards. Her reaction to that was hilarious. Kenzie kept asking when she would be able to ride the "mountain ride" (she was way more excited with Mount Everest than the tree). I think we might have another thrill seeker on our hands. Wouldn't surprise me with her little personality to see her want to ride roller coasters alongside us.
After Mount Everest we went through the Maharajah Jungle Trek. Kenzie was super excited with all the animals. She loved the tigers. Also... a crow. Seriously. All these exotic animals around and when a crow landed on the ground in front of her you would have seriously thought she won the animal viewing lottery. "A bird! Daddy do you see the bird?!?" Yes, Kenzie. We see the bird. We can view its fellow feathered brethren in our back yard when we get home. She loved the bird section of the walk. She also attempted to chase many of the birds.
When we finished the walk we stopped to let me nurse Will. Have I mentioned yet that it was HOT? Not only was it hot, but this was Will's first real outside trip for a long period of time in his helmet. We were worried about them so we bought both kids stroller fans. Best investment ever for a theme park family. So happy we got them. Kenzie played with hers so we took it away a few times, but it did exactly what we wanted when it was needed. Will was a champ though and did as well as could be expected with the heat.
Next, we went over to Africa to ride the Kilimanjaro Safari. This was a major fast pass ride. Thank goodness we had it. The wait wasn't too long, but we essentially walked right on with a really short wait. The kids LOVED this ride. Kenzie took her animal spotting responsibilities really seriously and Will seemed to enjoy the ride. We saw elephants, hippos, rhinos, zebras, giraffes, and a whole host of other animals. It was hot so they were often hiding in the shady areas, but they weren't too difficult to spot.
After the safari we went to meet Mickey and Minnie at Adventurer's Outpost. Kenzie was super excited. She kept telling us that Mickey and Minnie went on a safari (we gave her that reason for why they were dressed the way they were). After taking a few pictures we grabbed pizza for lunch. It wasn't half bad.
AFter lunch we took in a show. The Festival of the Lion King to be exact. Kenzie was mezmorized. She loved every minute of it and clapped along. She would have been singing, I'm sure, if she knew the words to the songs.
We then headed over to the train station to ride the Wildlife Express Train. While on the train we were even able to see the momma rhino and her new baby. We happened to sit right next to the woman that was in charge of making the train's announcements so she pointed them out to us. We wouldn't have noticed them otherwise. We got off at the stop at Rafiki's Planet Watch. We walked through the Conservation Station before going to the Affection Section, aka the petting zoo portion of Animal Kingdom. Kenzie was initially quite excited with petting the goats and pigs. Until one pig grunted at her. She screamed like a crazy person but calmed easily. She wasn't as keen on petting those pigs anymore though. Poor kid.
As we left the Conservation Station on our way back to the train we happened upon Chip and Dale. Kenzie loves Chip and Dale so we stopped to take a picture and we ended up with what I think is my favorite family/character pic so far.
After riding the train back to Africa, we picked up a stroller and made a stop at the Baby Care Station so I could feed Will (don't worry... he ate numerous times during the day but in case you noticed I only happened to mention it at the beginning and end of this post... don't want anyone to think we forgot about him) and we could take a few minutes away from the heat. Did I mention that it was HOT?? We ended up leaving around 3pm so it wasn't too long of a day, but it was enough in the heat. I think this may be one of our final trips for the summer with the exception of Steven and I going to EPCOT for our anniversary to have dinner and possibly scheduling a night to see the fireworks with the kids. We laugh that the blackout times on the other passes is the summer... yeah, we know it is their busy time because tourists don't always seem to understand how hot Orlando can get but very few Floridians with annual passes are even going to want to go most of those days.
Saturday morning we went to the pool early in the morning. We always like to go early before it gets busy. Kenzie had a blast and showed Daddy some of the stuff she has learned in swimming. She even went underwater over and over again to get her diving rings. This is the same kid that last summer kept asking to get out of the pool after about 15 minutes. She seemed so much like a water baby her first year in the pool, then last year she was good at the beginning of the summer but as the summer wore on she wanted less and less to do with the pool. Now, we tend to have a fight on our hands to get her out. Will loved his water time too. He is perfectly content to lounge in his float, chew on a teether that we always bring to the pool (it floats so it makes a good pool toy at this age), and kick his legs in the water. Periodically he splashes whoever is nearby and laughs about it.
After the pool it was time for Will's nap, lunch, and then Kenzie's nap. We ended up going to Publix to get food to grill over the weekend. For dinner, Steven grilled up some turkey burgers and we had oven baked fries and an awesome salad. It was yummy! It was basically just a fairly lazy day at home. We even made it over to the park behind our house to walk around the lake before bedtimes rolled around.
Sunday we went to church in the morning before heading down to Bass Pro Shops and Ron Jon's Surf Shop. We were on a quest to find a sunhat for Kenzie. She has one but once we washed it, it shrank and her big head doesn't fit in it well anymore. We also have been needing to pick up a few new pairs of Reef flip flops and Steven needed new sunglasses. I'm proud to say we managed to get all of that without needing a list or forgetting anything. I'm fairly happy when we can do things like that because we always have our minds on these kids, it seems and we forget things easily. That night for dinner we grilled up some steaks. They were sooooo good.
We wanted to get another walk in but it started to rain. A lot. We ended up going to Rita's Italian Ice to get dessert before bed. Kenzie was super psyched about sharing a cotton candy Italian ice with me.
Monday was initially set to be a lazy day but we ended up doing a ton. We started with the pool in the morning again. When we left (we can't stay long because of the time limits that Will's helmet free time and nap schedule put on us), Kenzie LOST it. I'm fairly certain we experienced the most epic meltdown that she has ever had. Steven carried her out of the pool area so she wasn't within the fenced area and couldn't get back in and then we just left her screaming on the sidewalk because we knew she was safely away from the pool and we weren't going to argue with her. We didn't make it far before she was following us and crying. She followed us all the way home before throwing herself on the floor in the garage. Eventually she crawled into the house and threw herself on the floor in the laundry room. When she calmed down, we talked about why we had to leave and she seemed to understand... to a point. We ended up outside trimming the hedges around our house for the better part of an hour. After Will's nap we went to Target and Walmart before lunch and coming home for Kenzie's nap. If I haven't mentioned yet... Kenzie has decided that naps are overrated. We put her in her room and see her get out of her bed to read or play with her puzzles. We typically have been trying to get her back in her bed about 3 times before we eventually tell her that she doesn't need to nap, but she must remain in her room and have "rest time". We leave her for about an hour or an hour and a half before letting her come out. We can see her on the monitor so we can make sure she is okay but we guess she is just growing out of that nap. Doesn't surprise me that this is happening so early. She dropped to one nap a day or so after turning 1. It was just gone. She stopped taking it and we transitioned out of it. The problem we have is that while she doesn't want to take it, she tends to need it. She gets crabby and out of sorts later in the day but at least she goes right to sleep. Before now, on days she naps, she was playing in her bed for hours before finally falling asleep at night.
Anyway, we ended up having grilled shrimp for dinner. (Yay for actually grilling all three meals we planned to and not just ending up going out one night!) We tried to go for another walk at the lake at the park, but because of the holiday it closed early. It is a city park. We ended up walking around the "lake" in our development. We had to circle it twice to get a good enough walk in. Will cut his second tooth late in the day so his sleep was a bit iffy but both kids went down fairly easily and our weekend came to an end.
We like having Steven home and able to spend a lot of time with us so this weekend was a lot of fun and the kids relished in his attention. I'm excited for our vacation in a couple of weeks. That will be a full week (plus a couple of days) with all four of us together all day. Should be fun!
We hope everyone enjoyed the Memorial Day weekend. We also hope everyone took some time to reflect on the real reason for the holiday and remembered and honored those that made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. We are the home of the free, because of the brave. Thank you to those that laid down their lives to defend that right we are so blessed to have.
Anyway, because Steven was able to take off the additional day, we elected to move up our Animal Kingdom trip from Saturday. We figured that going on a weekday would be better and then we were also not going on the actual holiday weekend. We got up early and headed out for the park. Kenzie was super excited about the Tree of Life. She had no idea what it was, but we told her there was a big tree and she kept asking about it the entire way there. I don't know that she was as impressed as she thought she would be, but she still oohed and aahed over it once she saw it.
We had scheduled a couple of fast passes for the day just to be on the safe side. As it turned out, two of them were sort of unnecessary, but better safe than sorry. We headed straight for Asia and Mount Everest as that was our first fast pass of the day. The wait was only 10 minutes so it wasn't a necessary fast pass, but at least it let us walk right on so we could be on our way. Steven and I took turns riding since it is (obviously) not a kid ride. I forgot how much fun a roller coaster can be. (Sidenote: BC (before children) Steven and I had Universal passes. We had them for a few years and we would go at least once a month to ride a couple of the roller coasters at Islands of Adventure. We are sort of roller coaster fiends. We dropped the passes when I was pregnant with Kenzie because without being able to ride roller coasters, it wasn't as much fun. But back to the story at hand...) The best part of my ride was the girl behind me constantly saying "This is AMAZING!" She was seriously excited. It was cracking me up. She also wasn't aware that the coaster moves backwards. Her reaction to that was hilarious. Kenzie kept asking when she would be able to ride the "mountain ride" (she was way more excited with Mount Everest than the tree). I think we might have another thrill seeker on our hands. Wouldn't surprise me with her little personality to see her want to ride roller coasters alongside us.
After Mount Everest we went through the Maharajah Jungle Trek. Kenzie was super excited with all the animals. She loved the tigers. Also... a crow. Seriously. All these exotic animals around and when a crow landed on the ground in front of her you would have seriously thought she won the animal viewing lottery. "A bird! Daddy do you see the bird?!?" Yes, Kenzie. We see the bird. We can view its fellow feathered brethren in our back yard when we get home. She loved the bird section of the walk. She also attempted to chase many of the birds.
When we finished the walk we stopped to let me nurse Will. Have I mentioned yet that it was HOT? Not only was it hot, but this was Will's first real outside trip for a long period of time in his helmet. We were worried about them so we bought both kids stroller fans. Best investment ever for a theme park family. So happy we got them. Kenzie played with hers so we took it away a few times, but it did exactly what we wanted when it was needed. Will was a champ though and did as well as could be expected with the heat.
Next, we went over to Africa to ride the Kilimanjaro Safari. This was a major fast pass ride. Thank goodness we had it. The wait wasn't too long, but we essentially walked right on with a really short wait. The kids LOVED this ride. Kenzie took her animal spotting responsibilities really seriously and Will seemed to enjoy the ride. We saw elephants, hippos, rhinos, zebras, giraffes, and a whole host of other animals. It was hot so they were often hiding in the shady areas, but they weren't too difficult to spot.
After the safari we went to meet Mickey and Minnie at Adventurer's Outpost. Kenzie was super excited. She kept telling us that Mickey and Minnie went on a safari (we gave her that reason for why they were dressed the way they were). After taking a few pictures we grabbed pizza for lunch. It wasn't half bad.
AFter lunch we took in a show. The Festival of the Lion King to be exact. Kenzie was mezmorized. She loved every minute of it and clapped along. She would have been singing, I'm sure, if she knew the words to the songs.
We then headed over to the train station to ride the Wildlife Express Train. While on the train we were even able to see the momma rhino and her new baby. We happened to sit right next to the woman that was in charge of making the train's announcements so she pointed them out to us. We wouldn't have noticed them otherwise. We got off at the stop at Rafiki's Planet Watch. We walked through the Conservation Station before going to the Affection Section, aka the petting zoo portion of Animal Kingdom. Kenzie was initially quite excited with petting the goats and pigs. Until one pig grunted at her. She screamed like a crazy person but calmed easily. She wasn't as keen on petting those pigs anymore though. Poor kid.
As we left the Conservation Station on our way back to the train we happened upon Chip and Dale. Kenzie loves Chip and Dale so we stopped to take a picture and we ended up with what I think is my favorite family/character pic so far.
After riding the train back to Africa, we picked up a stroller and made a stop at the Baby Care Station so I could feed Will (don't worry... he ate numerous times during the day but in case you noticed I only happened to mention it at the beginning and end of this post... don't want anyone to think we forgot about him) and we could take a few minutes away from the heat. Did I mention that it was HOT?? We ended up leaving around 3pm so it wasn't too long of a day, but it was enough in the heat. I think this may be one of our final trips for the summer with the exception of Steven and I going to EPCOT for our anniversary to have dinner and possibly scheduling a night to see the fireworks with the kids. We laugh that the blackout times on the other passes is the summer... yeah, we know it is their busy time because tourists don't always seem to understand how hot Orlando can get but very few Floridians with annual passes are even going to want to go most of those days.
Saturday morning we went to the pool early in the morning. We always like to go early before it gets busy. Kenzie had a blast and showed Daddy some of the stuff she has learned in swimming. She even went underwater over and over again to get her diving rings. This is the same kid that last summer kept asking to get out of the pool after about 15 minutes. She seemed so much like a water baby her first year in the pool, then last year she was good at the beginning of the summer but as the summer wore on she wanted less and less to do with the pool. Now, we tend to have a fight on our hands to get her out. Will loved his water time too. He is perfectly content to lounge in his float, chew on a teether that we always bring to the pool (it floats so it makes a good pool toy at this age), and kick his legs in the water. Periodically he splashes whoever is nearby and laughs about it.
After the pool it was time for Will's nap, lunch, and then Kenzie's nap. We ended up going to Publix to get food to grill over the weekend. For dinner, Steven grilled up some turkey burgers and we had oven baked fries and an awesome salad. It was yummy! It was basically just a fairly lazy day at home. We even made it over to the park behind our house to walk around the lake before bedtimes rolled around.
Sunday we went to church in the morning before heading down to Bass Pro Shops and Ron Jon's Surf Shop. We were on a quest to find a sunhat for Kenzie. She has one but once we washed it, it shrank and her big head doesn't fit in it well anymore. We also have been needing to pick up a few new pairs of Reef flip flops and Steven needed new sunglasses. I'm proud to say we managed to get all of that without needing a list or forgetting anything. I'm fairly happy when we can do things like that because we always have our minds on these kids, it seems and we forget things easily. That night for dinner we grilled up some steaks. They were sooooo good.
We wanted to get another walk in but it started to rain. A lot. We ended up going to Rita's Italian Ice to get dessert before bed. Kenzie was super psyched about sharing a cotton candy Italian ice with me.
Monday was initially set to be a lazy day but we ended up doing a ton. We started with the pool in the morning again. When we left (we can't stay long because of the time limits that Will's helmet free time and nap schedule put on us), Kenzie LOST it. I'm fairly certain we experienced the most epic meltdown that she has ever had. Steven carried her out of the pool area so she wasn't within the fenced area and couldn't get back in and then we just left her screaming on the sidewalk because we knew she was safely away from the pool and we weren't going to argue with her. We didn't make it far before she was following us and crying. She followed us all the way home before throwing herself on the floor in the garage. Eventually she crawled into the house and threw herself on the floor in the laundry room. When she calmed down, we talked about why we had to leave and she seemed to understand... to a point. We ended up outside trimming the hedges around our house for the better part of an hour. After Will's nap we went to Target and Walmart before lunch and coming home for Kenzie's nap. If I haven't mentioned yet... Kenzie has decided that naps are overrated. We put her in her room and see her get out of her bed to read or play with her puzzles. We typically have been trying to get her back in her bed about 3 times before we eventually tell her that she doesn't need to nap, but she must remain in her room and have "rest time". We leave her for about an hour or an hour and a half before letting her come out. We can see her on the monitor so we can make sure she is okay but we guess she is just growing out of that nap. Doesn't surprise me that this is happening so early. She dropped to one nap a day or so after turning 1. It was just gone. She stopped taking it and we transitioned out of it. The problem we have is that while she doesn't want to take it, she tends to need it. She gets crabby and out of sorts later in the day but at least she goes right to sleep. Before now, on days she naps, she was playing in her bed for hours before finally falling asleep at night.
Anyway, we ended up having grilled shrimp for dinner. (Yay for actually grilling all three meals we planned to and not just ending up going out one night!) We tried to go for another walk at the lake at the park, but because of the holiday it closed early. It is a city park. We ended up walking around the "lake" in our development. We had to circle it twice to get a good enough walk in. Will cut his second tooth late in the day so his sleep was a bit iffy but both kids went down fairly easily and our weekend came to an end.
We like having Steven home and able to spend a lot of time with us so this weekend was a lot of fun and the kids relished in his attention. I'm excited for our vacation in a couple of weeks. That will be a full week (plus a couple of days) with all four of us together all day. Should be fun!
We hope everyone enjoyed the Memorial Day weekend. We also hope everyone took some time to reflect on the real reason for the holiday and remembered and honored those that made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. We are the home of the free, because of the brave. Thank you to those that laid down their lives to defend that right we are so blessed to have.
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