in orlando...

 spencer showed great bravery by riding on all four plane rides even though it made him a little nervous.
you know, come to think of it, i am not a very good flyer either, and i was brave too. :)

i only wore my hair down for about ten minutes on the first day - then in a messy bun for the other six and three/fourths. even a pony tail was unacceptable because hair was still touching my too-hot neck.

we saw penguins (my favorite) and dolphins and whales.

tasted all kinds of coke from around the world, it was pretty gross.

rich channeled john lasseter.

spencer had the gall to tell me that the rockin' roller coaster was "just ok, mostly it was just turns". what the? it's one of my favorite rides of all time.

then i saw the photo and laughed at him because it seemed to me like he was having a good time.

woody gave ethan his hat as a reward for being brave enough to give him a hug. (he must have known that ethan was nervous.) that moment made the whole trip worth it.

taylor's long thick hair reacted so awesomely to the amount of humidity in the air, that it provided daily entertainment for us all. this photo doesn't even do justice to the sweet fro that it was.

allie purchased the ultimate pin and lanyard collection she's always wanted - with her own hard-earned cash.

we ate really bland, over-priced food at the famous planet hollywood. (we're smiling because we didn't know how bland and over-prized it would be yet.)

ethan was psyched to be just tall enough for most of the rides we rode.

the kids, little guy included, salivated over this sweet ride at epcot...

 we fed the dolphins and pet the sting rays.

we saw all the important people and took photos with most of them.

even in orlando, the teenagers managed to make time for texting. usually while waiting in the long lines or riding shuttles in between parks.

taylor channeled his inner viking.

 his fellow SBOs would be so proud.

all the people in our family INCLUDING rich, rode this ride. the photo was terrible or i would've purchased it as proof for rich doubters.

spencer managed to sneak into several photos without me noticing until reviewing them later. these two are my favorites.

we walked at least 100 miles over the seven days - seriously, and i had about sixteen blisters on my poor feet to prove it, i'll spare you the photos. with the heat and humidity, we were all pretty wasted at the end of each day - ok half way through each day.

 hot and miserable, but i still managed to get them to smile for me. ya, i got skills.

  we all loved chilling at typhoon lagoon in the water for one whole day to beat the heat.

there was one more part of orlando that we all loved, but it deserves it's own short post. so you'll just have to wait. but here's a little clue...

the big green monster dream

eight or so years ago when rich and i took a little trip to florida without our children, i rode the best roller coaster i have ever ridden in my life - and i'm a seasoned rider so you can trust my judgement. in fact i rode it several times just to be sure, and yes, i was right, it was awesome. from then on i started dreaming my kids being little adrenaline junkies tall enough for any coaster. and about some day bringing my tall adrenaline junkies to florida to ride this big green monster. cheesey? ya, i know. but i'm a simple girl, so leave me my joy.
well, of course, it finally happened, why else would i be typing up this story?
there we are on the front row - we waited extra long to ride in the front, it was worth it.

even better, is that it's still as awesome as i remember, and the kids agree. best. coaster. ever.
however, this photo doesn't possibly do justice to the pure awesomeness of this ride - check out this video and try not to get sick.



seriously, tell me that doesn't look like a blast and half.
everyone, needs this on their bucket list.
lucky for me, i have one more little guy to day dream about taking him here some day.

tons more stuff to post about florida, and all the great stuff that happened spring while my dang computer was down and out. but for now, the hulk is enough.

buenos dias!

it stunk big time to set an alarm last night. we moved to 9am church today, which, by the way, i think is cruel and unsual, but that's a soap box for another time. the point is, i haven't set an alarm for two weeks - TWO weeks! and it's been glorious. i have been relishing every minute of our two week break from school, homework, dance, piano, guitar, violin, scouts, mutual, blah blah blah. the best part is that rich has even been home from work so we've been hanging out in our pjs a lot. just enjoying board games and movies and a lot of competative wii time. we've also been very productive on a couple of house projects because nothing else is pressing for our time.

so this morning, when the alarm went off before the sun was up, i'll be honest, i felt a little ripped off. i shouldn't have to wake up early on the last day of my vacation right? to add to the confusion, the alarm was somehow set on a spanish station and for a few minutes i was dreaming about eating lunch at bajio. it's not a good thing to wake up thinking about yummy food on fast sunday.

so, the days of getting an extra hour of sleep in the morning, cleaning closests, getting caught up on the laundry, lounging in pjs and having no schedule what-so-ever are over. tomorrow morning i'll officially be back in the saddle again. and even though having a routine will feel kind of nice, i'm sure i'll be dragging my feet the whole way. especially when i send rich out the door to work and ethan looks at me as if to say, "where did everybody go?"