Florida Vacation!

This October Jon and I finally got to go on vacation together!  We left the kids with Jon's parents in MN and flew to Orlando, FL to spend the week together!  It was long past due and so much fun!  We're already looking forward to the next time we can go somewhere together!

We quickly discovered that the travelling part is the worst part of travelling.  It seems like half of your vacation time is taken up by the travel!  However, it was nice to just spend time alone together and have some quiet time to read and relax.  

Day 1: Traveled to Florida from Minneapolis Airport.  Checked into hotel-- nice two-bedroom Marriot Jon earned for free from points while travelling for work!  Discovered that Orlando is chuck full of toll-roads- totally ridiculous and unavoidable.  Grocery shopped for the week.

Day 2: Spent the morning at Cocoa Beach.  Drove past Cape Canaveral- got super jealous seeing all the huge cruise ships docked for loading.  Ahhh....some day.  Cocoa Beach- beautiful view, long walk on the beach (loved it!), reading and relaxing on the beach, picnic in the sun,  swimming in the ocean.  Discovered waves crash a lot harder and the water is a lot saltier than I imagined!  Still, lots of fun to play in the waves!  Back to hotel and clean up for dinner at Macaroni Grill (yum!) & movie at the Theater!  Totally loved the never-ending date night!

My model shot...

My dorky jumping skills

I title this picture, "But the sun is just so bright!"

Day 3:  Got a late start- drove to Universal- stood in long lines- got stressed that we weren't even getting into the park until lunch time- bailed and went to Seaworld instead!  Seaworld was a lot more fun than we thought it would be.  We LOVED the dolphin show, it was amazing!  Wish we could have seen it multiple times.  The Shamu show was decent but not near as good as the dolphins.  There were a few fun roller coasters and it was cool to see all of the animals.  I think I waited in line for 2 hours to see the penguins because the ride kept breaking.  Finally, they decided to just let us walk in a few at a time to see them instead of riding the ride.  the penguins were cool and I'm glad I got to see them- just wished they would have let us walk in 2 hours earlier!  We found a good deal for all the food and drinks we could eat while we were there so we enjoyed taking advantage of that!  

Finished off the day at the World of Chocolate Museum.  Honestly, it was a little overpriced but it was cool to see, and I took full advantage of the taste testing at the end!  

Yes, this is a chocolate castle...every girl's dream :)

Jon by the American chocolate counterpart of Russian architecture!

Day 4:  Got an earlier start and went to Universal/Islands of Adventure and stayed!  Islands of Adventure was by far our favorite.  Lots of fun roller coasters and themes.  Our favorites were Jurassic Park, Harry Potter World, Spider Man, and the fun log-type water ride in Toon Town.  The automated dinosaurs in Jurassic park were pretty cool and realistic!  Harry Potter world was awesome- yes, we are total nerds but we loved it!  The castle was totally amazing and the ride inside the castle....INCREDIBLE!  I've seriously never experienced anything like it- it was the coolest 4-D experience ever!  It took us on this broomstick adventure with Harry, Ron, & Hermione and it actually felt& looked like we were flying with them!  It was unlike anything I've ever experienced- so cool!  We also got ourselves some butterbeer and rode the Hogwarts express- which was pretty fun, but we were a little disappointed with the other half of Harry Potter World in Universal- all we could see was a London Street made after Harry Potter likeness and a park area with the Knight Bus and a couple other Harry Potter sculpture type things.  As it turns out, we later discovered we had somehow missed most of it, and it was probably about as cool as the Islands of Adventure half.  We are very frustrated about that to this day...   We weren't incredibly impressed with Universal (probably cause we missed the coolest part) but that's likely because I think it's geared more towards kids.  I did get a picture with Curious George for my kids- they weren't too impressed either.  We finished off the day back at Islands of Adventures and loved it.  Big discovery??  Apparently, I'm not too good with roller coasters and Jon is a lot better with them than he remembers.  I was loaded up on dramamine and could still only handle the high G-Force rides once before I started feeling sick.  I felt about 80 years old as I sat at the bottom while Jon rode them 2nd and 3rd times.  Oh well, it was still fun :) 

Welcome...to Jurassic Park!

The T-Rex bent down trying to eat us, right when we went down the waterfall, so fun!

Harry Potter World!

Hogwarts Castle!

Me & George- friends since I've seen all episodes about 50 times :)

Day 5:  Second Beach Day!  We drove back to Cape Canaveral/Cocoa Beach and stopped at a souveneir shop for some shopping.  Got some fun clothes (which, of course, most of which would later shrink), and a cheap floaty body board to play with.  Lots more fun playing and relaxing.  Walk on the beach-- this time full of beached JELLY FISH!  YIKES!  There were seriously tons!  Made us kinda nervous about going back in the water :/  We staked out a spot on the beach and watched a rocket launch from nearby Kennedy Space Center.  It was pretty cool!  We were further away than we thought we would be but it was still cool and interesting to watch as it just got smaller and smaller and then disappeared...into space!  Space is so hard for me to realistically imagine, but it's out there people!  Went out to dinner that night at a nice Steak House.  Jon got the hugest steak I've ever seen.  

Nasty Jelly Fish!

The Giant Steak

Day 6:  Woke up early and headed to airport.  Shopped in airport shops for more souvenirs.  Spent the day travelling and winding up back in freezing cold MN!  The kids were happy to see us and loved their Seaworld stuffed shark and whale!  Grandparents said they were great- success!!  

Pumpkin Patch & Updates

We had quite a fun weekend this past few days celebrating and getting ready for Halloween.  Friday night the kids and I met up with a friend to go trick-or-treating at the mall.  It was a fun (but crowded) event and the kids really enjoyed dressing up in their costumes and getting all the candy.  Colton has a dragon costume this year and he LOVES dressing up and totally gets in character.  It's awesome.  Katie has a couple of costumes that fit her so I went with the most simple (pirate) for this event- she'll be an adorable little bumblebee for actual Halloween!  Colton took it upon himself to teach Katie how to get in character- he kept saying, "Katie, you're a pirate.  Say 'arrrr'!"   So, sporatically throughout the night Katie with bust out with, "Pi-yet, rrrrrrr".  Basically, my kids are adorable :)   After the trick or treat we got to go pick up daddy from the airport!  Jon was just getting home from a two-week work trip to Canada.  The kids were thrilled to see him and had lots of fun demanding daddy play all sorts of games with them when we got home.

The next morning, we went as a family to the Pride of the Wapsi pumpkin patch.  It was a bit chilly but we all had fun spending time together and doing seasonal activities!  Katie apparently really loved the barrel train because she started bawling her eyes out when we took her off and, unfortunately, took awhile to settle down so she is totally sad in several of our pictures we took.  Saturday night we had family pictures taken, and it was fun to get out in nature and spend more time together.  The kids weren't too fond of smiling but did pretty well overall.

Tonight we painted pumpkins for Family Home Evening.  Of course, the kids made a mess but it was fun!

Updates:
Colton is getting to be quite an intelligent little boy.  He picks up on almost everything he hears or sees and is quite impressive in the things he learns and remembers.  He is, of course, still obsessed with dinosaurs and dragons, but he also really likes trains, cars, baseball and most of the other typical boy stuff.  He can be incredibly sweet with us and Katie- always patting Katie on the head saying "You're such a good girl, Katie", and giving kisses and hugs all the time.  It's definitely one of my favorite things when he runs over randomly to give me a big hug and says, "I love you Mama!"  He is currently refusing to potty train.  He cries every time I try to put him on the toilet and no matter what incentive I give- he just keeps saying, "I'm not ready yet."  I guess I'll wait for him, but I hope he's not 10 before he decides he's ready!  We are done eye patching for right now so we are enjoying not having to deal with that battle!

Katie is quite the little girl- full of personality!  She in incredibly obstinate and enjoys saying "no" or doing the exact opposite of what we want, just for the sake of doing the exact opposite of what we want.  She thinks it's quite funny.  She also enjoys egging her brother into chasing her- she'll run up and steal one of his toys and run away until he's chasing after he and trying to tackle it out of her and soon they're both crying.  It's great.  (sarcasm)  She also loves making fun faces and just laughing out loud and being silly.  She is always bringing a smile to our faces.  She is speaking really well and can tell me what she wants most of the time.  She says, "poopy, pirate, snack, dinner, grapes, milk, hungry, Colton, push (usually those two together) mama, daddy, baby, blanket, kitty, doggie, drink, banana, swing, climb, stinky, diaper, belly, nose, hair, feet, mouth, what's that, there it is, where are you, and lots more common phrases.  The last xray on her hip was great and everything is forming correctly.  Prayers are definitely anwered!

Jon and I are doing great.  Jon's been traveling a lot with work this year, which is difficult on me and the kids but it also helps us appreciate each other and our family time together a lot more!  I'm in Young Women's now- the Beehive adviser.  It's a lot different than Relief Society but the girls are fun and it's definitely forcing me out of my comfort zone.  Overall, all is well and we are enjoying a beautiful Fall season in Iowa!