Day Two at Disney World

Cartwheels started off day 2 into the Magic Kingdom.

Can you tell Bean was happy to be back?  All smiles while waiting for the monorail to come pick us up.

Day two was warmer, sunnier and more crowded.

We caught a parade and loved the people on tall stilts.

We saw the Genie and Mr. Incredible, as well as many other Disney characters.

Last time we missed going to the Haunted House, so we made sure to go to it this time.

Although the line constantly moved, it was long and had plenty of fun things for us to see.

Owen was trying to make serious and silly faces just like the statues.

This was supposedly a tomb, but was really cool.  The instruments would play when you touched them.

This spooky organ breathed out steam from the skulls.

Once inside, we were on a bucket ride and saw ghostly footprints walking down the stairs.

We saw many lights and apparitions on the tour of the Haunted House.

We made sure to ride the carousel for Chloe as this was one of her favorite rides.

Owen and Daddy even rode with us!

Chloe and I broke off from the boys to go ride the Mad Hatter's Tea Cup ride and she made silly faces for me while waiting in line.

She also spun us around super fast once we were in the teacup.

The wheel was hard to turn, so she had to work really hard to make it move and get us spinning.

After the teacups, we walked back toward Fantasy Land and met up with Daddy and Owen.  Chip and Dale were out walking around and danced with Owen.

And with Chloe, although she was more interested in just getting hugs.

The People Mover ride is one of our favorites and we were happy there wasn't a long line.  It is a relatively slow moving ride that takes people on a tour of Fantasy Land and Tomorrow Land, weaving in between rides and through the middle of Space Mountain where you can hear people screaming on the roller coaster.

We saw another parade and waved to Minnie.

And Mickey.

Prince Charming was with Snow White.

Snow White was the first of the princesses coming through and she waved specifically to Chloe and said 'hello'.  With each princess who followed, Chloe was yelling to me "She knows me! Snow White knows me! Cinderella knows me, too!"  With every princess.  It was so sweet.  Owen tried to argue, saying that the princesses most certainly did not know Chloe.  But Chloe stood her ground and remained adamant that the princesses knew her.  All of them, with the exception of the Princess and the Frong.  But the Princess from the Princess and the Frog would know her soon enough!

After the parade passed and the streets opened up, we headed to Splash Mountain so the kids could get soaked.  They looked pretty happy at the start of the ride.

It was quite awhile before I saw them start their descent down the falls.  They are in the very last row in the back.

At the top, Todd was smiling, Chloe was starting to scream and Owen was already ducking his head.

Smiles are gone and both Daddy and Chloe are starting to scream and Owen is still hiding.  

Chloe is starting to look a little terrified.

Now Todd screaming, it looks like chloe might be crying as her hair flies straight up and Owen is still hiding.  After they got off, they told me they loved it!

It was toward the end of the afternoon and we were ready for a rest, but not quite ready to leave the Magic Kingdom yet.  So we hopped on the railroad and took two spins around the outskirts of the whole park.

The kids picked out two large lollipops as we walked down Main Street on our way out to the ferry.

They had the prime spot for seeing where we were going as we approached the dock at the travel center with trams leading out to the parking lots.

There was a little grumpiness leaving the park.  It was a long day of fun and listening ears weren't working so well anymore.  A lollipop was taken away and a chat was had before we agreed we all wanted to return in the evening to see fireworks and the Electric Parade.

Our First Day at Disney World

This was our first day back at Disney World.  We arrived a little after 11am because it was a three hour drive down to Orlando from Jacksonville.  They chose the monorail over the ferry to get from the parking lot to the Magic Kingdom.

The kids wanted to hop on the train as soon as we walked through the gates.

First ride up was the Thunder Mountain Railroad roller coaster.

Chloe had been pretty scared after riding this roller coaster over Thanksgiving, but decided she had grown up enough in the past six months to ride it again.

As long as she sat next to Daddy, so he could hold her in and keep her safe.

I couldn't resist having my camera thrown over my shoulder for most of the ride to catch their faces.

I was happy with what I caught over my shoulder while I looked forward with my boy.

Such silly kids.  Always wanting to show their big mouths.

I like it when I get sweet smiles.

As the day wrapped up, we decided to take the train around the park a time and a half before we hopped off and headed to the parking lot.

We left in time to check in at the hotel and have dinner before going to the hotel swimming pool to burn off a little more energy.  The water ended up being a bit too cold and the sun was setting, so we headed up to our room to get a good night of rest before our next full day at Disney.  We were already planning on being at the Magic Kingdom on day two to see the Electric Parade at night and the fireworks.

Roadtrip to Jacksonville

We got home late Monday afternoon and made a quick trip to Target after unloading the van and starting a load of laundry so we could get food for dinner.  The night was filled with thunder and lightning storms.  We had originally planned on getting up early, but after a sleepless night we decided to sleep in as long as we could and take our time getting up, ready and out of the house.

While being better rested was much needed, we ended up getting into Jacksonville much later than we had planned. 

The kids had fun running in the sand and getting their feet wet.

They didn't wade into the water very far, but still jumped the waves as they rolled in.

 Chloe worked on building a sand castle.

And Owen wrote messages in the sand to us about how much he loved us.

Between the time, the chill and all of the jellyfish that had washed ashore, we left after only 30-45 minutes on Jacksonville Beach.  We headed to a restaurant called Salt Life for dinner and Todd was really the only one who ate.  He ordered a low country boil and thought the crab legs, shrimp, sausage, corn and potatoes in Cajun seasoning were quite tasty.  The kids were grumpy about leaving the beach so soon and Kelley still didn't feel up to eating, but it was a nice restaurant close to the beach.  Kelley's friend Suzie met us there with her sister and a friend who had just driven into town.  Even though Suzie had been busy packing and getting ready for her trip to New York City with her sister and friend to hear her son play his instrument (drums?) at Rockefeller Center with his college, she still found time to bake some killer banana bread for us.

The kids loved the hotel room once we checked in because there was a bedroom and then a living area with a couch and a little kitchenette.  We told them to sleep fast because we'd be leaving early the next morning for Disney World.

Camp Strongrock

We left home early, before the sun was even all the way up.

We needed to be at the camp by 8:30am.  So we left our house before 7am.  Yawn.

After we arrived, we had about 45 minutes to get checked in, find our cabin to unpack and then high tail it down to the field for warm ups.  Kelley had been sick with a 102+ fever for most of the week and was still not feeling well, so she sat on the sidelines and played with her camera. Kids were past the adults.  Look close and you will see a Bean jumping in the middle.

Look at how high he can kick!

Grand Master Lee arrived and everyone was bowing to him.  He was a very young 70-something!

There was a little pond for canoeing.

The adults were asked to take a break from exercising and practicing Tae Kwon Do to row the Tiny Tigers (the littlest kids all under 5 years old) around the pond.  Shoes and socks had to be removed before getting in the canoe.  Todd said the water was freezing!

Owen got to go to the riflery range with his squad and got two or three turns firing a rifle at little spinning targets.

He was really happy that Paula was in his squad and that they got to sit next to each other during many activities.

How grown up does he look wearing the ear muff protectors and laying on his belly holding a rifle.  He also had protective eye glasses.  The camp counselors spent a lot of time talking to the kids about using proper gun safety and kept a close eye on everyone while they were firing at the targets.

Grand Master Lee walked up while the adults were at the shotgun range and got a quick lesson on how to fire.  He did not hit the skeet targets as they went flying and joked with the others that it was not easy and to not feel bad they couldn't hit the flying targets since he missed.

Never thought I would see my honeys holding and firing a gun.  Never.  He did great on his first shot and hit the target.  Then a camp counselor came over to instruct him on how he was standing incorrectly and how he should be holding the shotgun differently.  Todd didn't hit the next skeet targets that went flying.  They should have left him alone to do his thing! ;)

Chloe was so excited to stand in line at the canteen to get a snack in the afternoon.

Parents handed over money at the start for kids to use at the canteen.  It appeared to be a free-for-all with many kids walking away with multiple cans of soda and candy/chips/junk in their arms.

Before dinner time, there was a team building exercise to use just masking tape and drinking straws to construct an egg catcher.

The eggs were dropped off a second story balcony and most fell through the catchers to splat on the ground.

After dinner, there was more practice and exercising going on back out on the field.

 They practiced until the sun was almost gone.

Saturday night brought a big bonfire, as well as stories from Grand Master Lee about his journey to the U.S. and how he became so good at Tae Kwon Do, as well as a proposal from one of the karate instructors to his girlfriend who was in attendance at the camp.

Sunday came and Kelley was very worn out and spent much of the day sleeping in the cabin.  From the porch of our cabin, we could see Chloe canoeing with Ms. Kandrick and another child in her squad.

Chloe thought it was pretty cool to sit in the front of the canoe AND paddle to help steer and move around the pond.

Owen really liked the breaks between activities when he could kick a soccer ball around.

And Chloe would find the nearest teenager to latch onto and carry her around.

Late Sunday, adults practiced a skit they created that they would perform on Monday afternoon at the closing ceremony.

Some long-necked creatures flew over us before we headed up to the dining hall for dinner.  There were tears after dinner when we went back to the cabin and told the kids we would not be going to the movie (Kung Fu Panda) because we thought they needed sleep.  It was already after 9pm and they were so tired from being up late (way past 10pm!) the night before with the bonfire.

Kelley found a family care physician in Helen on Saturday morning who said she had the flu and prescribed antibiotics and steroids.  She missed all of the fun morning activities, including Sock Wars.

There were close to 200 students (adults and kids) who attended the karate camp and were there to line up for pictures during the closing ceremony with the Grand Master.  The largest attendance ever!

Each squad performed a little skit that related to their particular focus word.

Our girl child was so sleepy.  Her eyes were red and she could barely keep them open.

Owen's squad was up next.  His had a few more kids.

Before this weekend, Todd had decided he was not going to attend Tae Kwon Do classes anymore.  His back was in constant pain and it just wasn't worth it.  After the weekend, Todd was filled with new excitement about participating in this sport and was happy his back didn't hurt at all.  Started wondering if sit ups during the lessons were the cause of his hurt back.  The kids were thrilled Todd decided to continue with lessons.  Go Todd, you can do this!