The big saver

When told that going on vacation costs money, Zack said that he was going to contribute by giving us all of the money in his piggy bank. His goal is to get to ride on the Barnstormer roller coaster at Disney World again.

"I willn't!!"

You have to give Zack credit - he sure is a creative child. He's made up his own contraction. "I willn't" is a pretty popular phrase when he speaks. "I willn't spill the milk!" "I willn't break it, I'm just looking at it"

the Shape of Things To Come

Zack has been talking a lot lately about when he grows up - he's going to be a "Daddy". When I told him that a Daddy has babies, he told us that he was going to have 3 boys! One of them is going to be named "Dad". Not to be outdone, Sydney reported that she will also have 3 kids - two girls, named "Ashley" and "Chloe" of course.

Kindergarten!

Sydney started Kindergarten today. She was all decked out in her new outfit, complete with pink sequined head band and her Barbie wedding backpack. What a cutie!! We can't believe she's starting school already. Zack also just started in his preschool room yesterday. They really do grow up too fast. sigh

Rolf Water Park

The Rolf Water park was a big hit for the kids. I picked a day when it was supposed to be 89 degrees and sunny. Little did I know that thundershowers were also in store! Less than an hour after we got to the pool the clouds moved in and the lightning started. So that caused an hour and a half long rain delay and we left the park for a little while. Eventually it cleared up and we got to go back. We met our friends there and they all had a blast!

Put in Bay

We took a day trip to Put in Bay today. We rode on the Miller Ferry, which was as much a part of the whole experience as was being on the island. Zack is every so enthralled by boats as much as he is cars and trains so it was a great trip - Sydney on the other hand was starting to get very leary of the rocking of the boat, but she did relax later and enjoy the ride. No trip to Put in Bay would be complete with out pizza and beer at Frosty's, so that was first on our agenda. The kids enjoyed an ice cold chocolate milk. Since we went on a Saturday it was quite busy. We did get to rent a golf cart, although it was the slowest cart on earth! I guess we were lucky to get the cart, since there was a shortage, but it was a terrible cart! After riding on the cart we played at the playground, and went up to the top of Perry's Monument. We ran into our friend Dawn so we went out to dinner with her. It was a long day, and the kids stayed out until the last rays of light. Needless to say they were conked out by the time the car got rolling home. What a great day!

Enjoy the silence

This morning Syndey told me that she wanted to be a mommy so she could "do anything she wanted".
I asked her, "oh yeah, you know what I did last night? I went grocery shopping after you went to bed! Doesn't that sound fun? And I didn't get home until late - and I went right to bed afterwards".
She asked "did Daddy go too?"
"Nope, just me"
"well, I would go grocery shopping by myself too if I were a Mommy. So I could have some quiet time".
She'll make a great Mommy :)

Sydney's streamer

Sydney made a cool streamer today at school - she had a great time showing me how pretty it looks when it flies...

July 4th - Cedar Point!

For the 4th of July we went to Cedar Point. Many said we were crazy, but what the heck, we did it. The park actually was not super crowded. Especially in the kids rides, the lines were short. Zack was just completely thrilled watching the roller coaster. He wanted to go on every one, especially Top Thrill Dragster. He could have spent the whole day watching that ride go. He also loved the Ferris Wheel. Sydney loved the Tilt-a-Whirl ride the best, even though it made Mommy almost sick with the spinning - and made Zack almost cry. I can't believe it was in the kids rides, it was pretty fast!!

Both kids loved the Jr Gemini. There wasn't a ride that they didn't love. Well, Zack did get pretty bummed out on the bumper cars. For some reason he couldn't make the car go. I guess he wasn't pushing and holding the pedal down or something. He went on it twice and both times he was just a speed bump. Poor guy!

We got there at 10:45 am and didn't leave until 11:30 pm. We practically had to pull the kids off the rides. We also got to see some great fireworks.

What???

Zack often responds "What??" to us. Is it that Zack *can't* hear us really, or he just doesn't want to hear what we're saying?? I think it's the latter most of the time.

Hot dogs anyone?

Really, I'm not sure where he got this from!

Happy 3rd Birthday Zack!!

Another year has come and gone and you have transformed from a bumbling toddler, into a little preschooler in the blink of an eye! You are a very intelligent, inquisitive, and talkative little boy. I think 80% of your sentences begin with "why..." (and the other 20% usually start with "I don't want to..."!!). Although you can be very stubborn at times, you are sweet and sensitive also, unless you are stealing toys from your sister. Your birthday revolved around your 3 current loves: Thomas the Train, Disney Cars, and the latest love, monorails! You carry your monorail around with you everywhere you go, and of course it has a special parking spot in your bed too. You can spell at least 5 words, and read too - "Zack", "Sydney", "Mom" & "Dad". You share your Dad's love of cars and things that go fast and make loud noises - motorcycles are a favorite too. You can't wait to go to Cedar Point to ride on the roller coasters. You never want to to sleep, and wake up cranky in the morning. You are also quite sneaky and love to squirt people with water guns at the pool! Happy happy birthday!!

Mokencycles!

yep, it's those new fangled vehicles that Zack loves so much!! tee hee hee

Swim Lessons

Zack started his swim lessons today. He was actually not even shy about joining the group and getting in the pool. No surprise he was the smallest in the class, since the age range is from 3 yrs to 5 yrs and he just turned 3 years old when the class started.

Day 7 - I hafta go potty!

He's another travel tip from Mr Obvious - don't give your kids a bunch of juice boxes before you get on the airplane. Apparently it makes them have to use the bathroom - in Zack's case it was 5 times! well, after drinking 2 or 3 juices I guess I'd have to go too! Other than that, I'm happy to report that our plane ride was uneventful, just the way I like them. Landing in Detroit was quite a bummer though - back to reality.

Day 6 - Clearwater Beach

Clearwater beach was our desination today. We had first thought we might not go, due to Zack's sunburn, but decided it would be OK. I didn't learn until after the trip that the SPF factor for a wet t-shirt is only 3, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. We had great weather the whole trip, and today was another sunny beautiful day. The water temperature was in the 80's, it was almost as warm as the air, but just cool enough to be nice.
The kids had a great time playing in the sand and splashing in the waves. After hanging out on the beach, we headed over to the really cool playground they have there. On our way home it started to rain and storm, which was the first rain we had seen on this trip. It was the perfect way to end our vacation.

Day 5 - Gators and more

After sleeping in late this morning, we headed out to Gatorland. It was actually a cool little park that we could all get into for around $50 (unlike Disney at 70 plus a person!). We saw a great Gator wrestling show, saw lots of gators of all sizes, and rode the train. Then we headed over to the new splash park they just recently built. Although the kids couldn't stop talking about it before they got there, they were *very* scared to run around by themselves. Zack insisted that I carried him everywhere, and Sydney did the same for quite some time. They Sydney realized what fun it was and she was running all over by herself having a great time. Zack was still a little whiny, but I think he was also just very tired. He had a great time using one of the water guns shooting everyone in sight. We stayed at the park for about 4 hours.

For dinner we headed over to the Disney Boardwalk, and had dinner at the Big River Brew Pub. The food was good, but the tables were small and the whole dinner cost just about the same as the admission to Gatorland :( The kids caught their second wind after having some food and we walked around the hotels in the area. We also stayed for the Epcot fireworks, only because we were in the area - after vowing to get the kids in bed at a decent hour ;) Oh well, it is vacation after all.

Day 4 - burning up the night time

Today we went to a really cool beach at a park called Calidesi Island. We had to drive an hour and a half to get there and then take a ferry boat over to the island. They limit the time you can spend there to 4 hours, but that was just the right amount of time because by that time we were perfectly sunburned. Note to self, *reapply, *reapply, and *reapply!! We saw a big turtle just walking right in front of the concession stand and also gathered a lot of cool sea shells. Another important note is that you should always wear sandals when walking on boardwalks!! We had to run down the walkway and Sydney was screaming in pain because the wood was so hot. It was not a pretty sight. My feet still hurt hours after that event. Yikes!! The beach was beautiful and the water was so warm, it was a dream day.

After our long car ride home (and a good nap for the kids on the way) we went to Downtown Disney for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. That place is always busy, and I think Saturday night would qualify for the busiest night of the week. By the time we got there at 7:30, it was a 2 hour wait! But I still took the reservation time and we decided after a little bit to go to Planet Hollywood instead. We waited 45 minutes to get in there, by walking around the shops, and then when we got seated, the restaurant was way too loud and we left. Perhaps that is a sign we are getting old or something, but it was definately not the place we wanted to be. So we waited an hour longer and finally got our seat at the Rainforest Cafe. Despite the late dinner time (9:40!) the kids did really good.... until the end when Zack realized there was another "storm" coming on at the restaurant and he started to cry. We quickly exited the restaurant right as it was starting to rumble.

Day 3 - How I got that bad sunburn...

It was a lazy day today, due to the late night yesterday. We decided to go shopping, play golf and then Alan would be meeting up with his friends for dinner.
Let me just start by saying, despite how fun and adventurous the mini golf course promises to be, it will still be about 800 degrees in the sun. HOT HOT HOT It was so darn hot it was almost unbearable. Having said that, we decided that the Adventure Golf was for us, and we started playing at 1pm. Playing is really a loose term as the kids just rolled the balls along and I just tried to make it through the course without having heat stroke. We all had sunburns in the shape of our tank tops when we left.
When we went shopping, Zack decided to spend his Disney Dollars (he had earned $10) on a Car's canteen, that had a water ring toss game in it. Fun! Sydney got a Princess beach towel.
It was bath night and Alan went out to dinner with some friends that live in the area. He went to a Cuban restaurant in Celebration, and the kids watched Toy Story at the house.

Day 2 - Disney World!!

Since it was a weekday, we decided at the last minute to go to the Magic Kingdom in Disney. We got to the gates around 9:30 and it was even hot at that time of the morning. The first ride we went on the was the parking lot tram, then the boat, and finally made it to the park! Once in the park we headed to the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, spinning cups. Next it was the Winnie the Pooh ride, and Sydney started to cry about the Wuzzles and Heffalumps being scarey! She said "I never want to go on that ride again". Seconds later we were surprised in the gift shop by Disney employees telling us that we had all won Dream Fast Passes! They were pretty cool - we could go to the Fast Past rides at any time we wanted to (just once). Too bad a lot of the rides were for big kids, but still, it was a great prize. During that day, Sydney spent much time begging to go shopping and spend her "Disney Dollars" (she had $12) and Zack just wanted to go on the race cars!
We tried to go into an attraction called Mickey's Philharmagic, and found out that it was a very dark, loudy and scarey ride! In fact we left after just about a minute of it. I don't blame them, it was pretty darn intense. So we would be well rested, we went back to our house for lunch and rest, and then by 3pm we were back at the park. It was not crowded at all, and a picture session with Pooh was about the longest time we waited (20 mins). The kids loved the race cars, and Buzz Lightyear laser ride. Zack was a much braver kid than Sydney and his absolute favorite ride was Goofy's Barnstormer roller coaster! He also enjoyed the Dumbo ride and the People Mover. We did have a problem on the People Mover- it broke down in the dark area as you enter into Space Mountain. That would have been a total disaster had it not been for Alan's pocket flashlight, which kept the kids from being afraid. It seemed like we were stuck forever, but it was probably about 20 minutes.
When it started getting dark we headed to see the light parade. However, so did about a million other people and it was so crowded we couldn't see it. The fireworks went off right over our head, and they were pretty. We stayed until the park closed, at 11pm. What a busy day, we were all exhausted, but had a lot of fun!