Cocoa Beach

I am SOOO glad we took a day to go to Cocoa Beach. It was nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of Disney and just relax in the ocean. The kids had such a ball. Todd and Matt rented boogie boards for "the kids" to ride the waves.....but us adults had just as much fun. I was such a chicken that Drew was trying to show me how to do it. I braved a few waves though and it was a blast. Seeing the pure joy on their faces as they rode a wave to shore was priceless. It was definitely a good day for all.

Everybody is testing the waters.

Noah contemplating something. He's often in his own little world.

Ty and Aiden getting ready to tackle the waves!

Noah caught a wave!

Time to play in the sand and hunt for shells!

Aiden catching a wave.

Blake boogy boarding in....

Ty is the master of the waves.

And....thats it. I know I took more beach pictures. I was going to check my memory card today to see if I didn't upload everything and all of my FL pictures are gone...replaced with 500 triathlon pictures. Not a happy mamma. I wish I had more from this wonderful day but happy that Beth and Mom had their cameras out too!

Hollywood Studios

Disclaimer: My pictures aren't in chronological order and I just grouped them together by theme parks. I didn't feel like messing with all of that. Sorry


Hollywood Studios was one of my favorites besides Magic Kingdom. I don't know if it's all the references to TV and Movies, the shows and rides, the awesome shops, or all of the above. I just like it. Some of my boys' best moments were here. (of course they said that everywhere we went!)

Aiden could NOT wait to meet Buzz Lightyear and Woody. It took me back 7 years ago when we stood in the pouring rain with a 3 year old Drew to meet Buzz and Woody. I was hoping they'd be out and about. (I tried to convice Drew to do a picture with them so I could put it with his 3 year old one but he said no).

Noah was strapped to a firecracker while they were waiting in line.

The big moment!

The Pooh characters at the Playhouse Disney show.
The Klauser family with Sulley. I wish Mike had been there! I would have loved to throw that little one eyed green guy in there.

Ty sliding down a big leaf in the 'Honey I Shrunk the Kids" playground.

"Posing" with a Power Ranger

Watching the Jedi Training Academy. My nephews wanted to be picked so badly to be one of the kids that get to go up and "train" to fight agains Darth Vader. It broke my heart that they didn't get picked but they handled it like big boys. I think all of the kids enjoyed the show though. Drew,Ty and Blake all custom made their own light sabers after the show.

My mom and I just hanging out in the shade.

The 4 youngest grandkids getting their picture in front of the Mickey's blue magic hat.

My boys talked Uncle Nate into riding the Tower of Terror with them and their dad. He rode it 7 years ago and said he'd never do it again so they started calling him "Sally". He rode it. What a great uncle! My boys loved it!

***Magic Kingdom and Epcot/Downtown Disney Posts below***

Epcot and Downtown Disney

For some reason I didn't take many pictures at Epcot, maybe because we were there only a half of a day or maybe because it involved a lot of standing around and waiting. But I did get a couple of cute pictures.

Aiden and Noah with Stitch

"You're Never Too Old To Get Your Picture With A Character" Nate and Stitch

The Finding Nemo ride was fun and afterwards we got to walk around and look at all of the aquariums. Ty, Aiden and Ellie got eaten up by a big shark.



That night we went to Downtown Disney, our of our main places to hit down there was the Lego store and all of the Lego sculptures. We saw that last time we were there and with our boys being Lego fanatics, I knew they'd love it. Noah and Aiden both spent some of their vacation money at the Lego store.

A Sea Serpent made out of Legos. I love this one. There were so many cool things made out of thousands of Legos, just amazing.
Everything in these pictures is made out of Legos. We enjoyed walking around looking at them all.

Can you spot Todd with the Lego family and their dogs??

A beautiful sunset on a beautiful night!

***Magic Kingdom pictures in the post down below***

Magic Kingdom

I have SOOO been procrastinating on my blog. I have over 600 pictures from the month and a half. I just get too overwhelmed when I sit down with them. Good news, all are edited and now I'm finally gonna start randomly posting.

Today I'm starting with our first day at the Magic Kingdom in Disney World. This is one of our family pictures at the entrance. I had posted this one earlier but I just love this picture.

The afternoon parade we caught by accident on our way out. It had so many of the favorite Disney characters, the boys just loved it and we must have too since we stood in the sprinkling rain for it!

My brother Matt is enjoying his magic carpet ride a bit too much.

My mom look so happy as she videotapes the Grandkids.

Aiden was soooo excited to meet Pooh,Tigger,and Eyeore all at once. He had to hug every single one and he scored all of their autographs.

Another family picture when we saw the castle for the first time. I swear everytime you walk into the Magic Kingdom for the first time, you can't help but get all swept up in the Disney fantasy world.
My brother's family. I didn't get one of my parents and other brother and I wish I had.

My niece Ellie was happy as a clam!

First Day Of School

Eagerly waiting for the bus.

Noah 2nd Grade/Drew 5th Grade

Seriously when did they get so big??

Aiden starts preschool next week on Thursday so I will have more first day of school pictures. I know this will be a great year for all 3 of them. They have a great teachers, a great school, and a love for learning that I hope they never lose. I look forward to hearing about their first day (and filling out the millions of papers and reading through all of the notes!) Tonight we are using a gift certificate to Kelly's to take the boys out to eat to celebrate the first day.

Guess What Came To OUR House Tonight???

The Ice Cream Truck!

"C'mon Out Kelly"

How long has it been since you were sitting in your house and heard the magical music of the ice cream truck coming down your street?? I've only heard it one other time in the 14 years Todd and I have been married. But I've heard it hundreds of times as a kid.

The 5 of us were exhausted from our weekend so far and decided to pick up Taco Bell for supper (our kitchen sink is in an unfixable state right now...that's a whole other story) and rented a movie for family movie night. We were sitting there enjoying it when we kept hearing music. It wasn't coming from the TV, it wasn't coming from one of the kids' toys. I happen to look out the window and see an ice cream truck. Todd and I jump up with giddy excitement and he runs out to wave to the ice cream man while I grab my camera. We both knew this could be a once in a lifetime memory to share with our kids. (ok, so we are WAY cheesy) The boys had never seen anything like it.

Check out this yummy menu. Most of this stuff you can't even find in the store! Note: don't eat the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bar, it's sinfully delicious and I was 2/3 of the way through it before I saw it had 21 freakin' grams of fat in it. My chest started tightening up just reading that.

The ice cream guys said the city of Quincy had called him to come through and he had been here for 3 weeks. Todd asked him how long he had been doing this and he said 5 years. I certainly hope we see him again. I even got a little teary walking into the house (yes, I'm , sappy, you should know that by now) The sight and sound of that little ice cream truck totally transported me to another time and place. I was a little girl living in Hazelwood Ct. and I heard the ice cream truck coming around. Dianna, me, and our siblings would run in and beg for money for a popsicle or ice cream. On our lucky days, we would run out with a couple of quarters clenched in our fists trying to make the big decision of what treat we wanted. (time flies, we spent $12 for our 5 treats tonight) I had to run and and leave a message for Dianna. I knew she would get the significance of the night and how exciting it was to share that with our boys.

Thanks Mr. Ice Cream Man!

Zippidy-Doo-Da

We are back from our vacation to Orlando with my whole family. 13 people living in a 6 bedroom house is a lot of fun but don't expect it to be quiet! I have a million pictures to go through and am weeks behind on blogging about our summer but I went ahead and pulled out our two family photos from the trip. Aiden was so excited to meet Sully on our last day in Disney. We decided to give the family pic a go and it didn't turn out too bad. I think Sully was getting a little fresh with me though. Who could blame him?? I'd been sweating in 90+ heat all day and I was looking and smelling goooood. I love how Aiden is holding Sully's paw. Meeting all of the characters was so fun for him, they were all real in his eyes. Noah was upset with us for letting Aiden believe they were real instead of telling him that it was just a guy in a costume. This coming from the kid that still believes in Santa!

The garden outside of the Magic Kingdom. We hadn't started sweating yet so this might be a better family picture!

Many more pictures to come once I actually get around to unpacking, buying some groceries, cleaning the house, and getting organized for school next week. Today was a lazy day, we needed one!! We also had Aiden's preschool orientation tonight. So hard to believe my last baby is going off to school

Finally....Six Flags Pictures

Too much to blog about, too little time. We had a great time with Dianna and her family and I have a million pictures from their visit to post but I still have Six Flags to do also. And of course we leave in 2 days for Disney and I work all day tomorrow and play volleyball so today is laundry and packing day. Here I sit on the computer, makes sense right?? I'll post as much as I can. I will be without internet most of vacation ( I feel withdrawal already setting in) so I'll miss my bloggy world and Facebook.
Six Flags was a blast and the kids loved it. They are adrenaline junkies that's for sure. Noah surprised me as he is the only timid one but he rode every roller coaster he could! Even Aiden rode the Mine Train which amazed me.

Aiden and I posing.

The whole family on the train. It's hard to see everybody back there but we're all there!

Aiden won a Batman cape and thought that was so cool.

This is a funny story. We had a suite so Todd and I had our own room and there were two double beds in the other. It started out with Drew in one bed and Noah and Aiden in the other. Aiden kept goofing around and bugging Noah so Noah got moved to Drew's bed and Aiden had to sleep alone. It was quiet after that. When I went in to check on them before bed, I found all 3 of them asleep in bed. When I asked them about it the next day, they said that Aiden had asked to climb in bed with them and they didn't want him to get in trouble so they let him and told him to be quiet and go to sleep. I thought this was sweet as they usually love an opportunity to get one of the other brothers in trouble. How sweet is this picture???

I posted pics of Scooby and Aiden and Noah earlier but found the one with Shaggy too. Aiden still can't get over that they are really real! :)

The kiddie version of Tower of Terror. LOL (Noah and Aiden are the two on the far right) Drew and Noah said they will ride it at Disney.

I don't like ANY ride that spins so you can only imagine how proud of myself I was to let Aiden and Noah go on this ride.

We finished the second night off with their light parade after dark. It was so amazing and I loved watching the awe on Aiden's face.

"You mean Batman is real too???"

Fun trip. I wish I had pictures from the water park but didn't want to take my camera in there! They had some awesome water rides too that we all enjoyed.