Florida 2012 with the Wade Family Part 1

This year we decided to do a big family vacation with Nick's side of the family.  We have done weekend trips together with them, but we haven't done a family vacation for that length of time since we have been together.  They went to Hawaii the week before I met him (I was bummed I met him to late for that one), but since then we haven't been able to coordinate every one's vacations and life events.  So when we began thinking about what we wanted to do Disney came to mind because Kenan and Easton were starting to ask to go there(thanks Disney channel and the hundreds of commercials I see lately).  We also wanted to go to the beach if we were going to go to Florida, so a combo trip is what we came up with.  Five days/four nights in Disney and three days/two nights at the beach in St. Augustine.

Our immediate family decided that it would be best if we drove through the night on the way down to Disney since it would be the kids first major road trip and we wanted to shorten the amount of time they would think they were in the car.  The problem with this was that our Disney stay didn't start until Sunday because of the dates the free dining plan was available and we didn't want to arrive that morning with no sleep and have to go to a park.  If we arrived Saturday though we would have to book a separate night for a hefty price and we didn't want that.  So we decided to still arrive Saturday, but stay off property for one night at a close hotel.  The rest of Nick's family drove part of the way Saturday and finished the drive on Sunday.  They didn't plan on doing a park that day so they didn't need to get there as soon.  We planned on leaving at 10:00 so the kids would be nice and tired and hopefully fall asleep immediately, but we ended up leaving closer to 11:00 pm.  I know many people would say their kids had already been asleep for hours, but ours are night owls so it worked great.

Ready to go

Dad and the kids

Mom and the kids

So, I have decided if we have anymore kids we will have to invest in a cargo carrier for the top of the van.  Even though we have enough seats for everyone, we were a full vehicle with just three kids let alone more.  There is so much stuff you have to bring when traveling with young kids to keep things running smoothly.

The kids did great with driving through the night.  They were excited so it did take them a little bit to fall asleep, but after that they slept until the sun came up which was about all we expected for the evening duration.  I drove the first leg and it was tough.  I knew Nick wasn't as good at night and I wouldn't sleep anyway if I was worried about him so I might as well.  At one point I called my sister in California because I knew with the time difference she was probably still up and she talked to me for about an hour.  That really helped rejuvenate me for a couple more hours.  I felt good about making it to Georgia before switching with Nick.  When the kids woke up a couple of hours later we needed to stop for gas so we got breakfast at a Burger King because they had a play area.  It was nice to let the kids run for a bit before getting back in the car.

We continued on into Florida where we stopped one more time at the Florida welcome center. From there it was a little under three hours to Orlando. I am pretty proud to say we made it to Orlando with three kids and only three stops. We couldn't have timed it better because check-in at our hotel was 3:00 and we arrived a little after 3:00. The hotel was a couple of minutes from Disney and was called the Seralago. It was an older hotel, but had two pools, a hot tub, playground, and was only $55.00 for the night so it was all we needed. We had decided to not do lunch so we cleaned up and walked over to the Red Lobster that was right by the hotel. Not a local place we had intended to do, but we were hungry and didn't want to venture far. After that the boys wanted to swim so we headed down to one of the pools and played on the playground, swam, and took a dip in the hot tub. Bedtime came early for our family that night because Nick and I were exhausted and we wanted to get going early the next morning.

Sunday morning we woke up and ate breakfast at the hotel before heading over to our Disney Resort, Coronado Springs.  We decided when we chose Disney that we wanted the full experience which included staying on property and getting the dining package.  Luckily they had extended the free dining package to the week of spring break if you stayed in a moderate resort.  I loved the look of the Coronado, so that was our choice.  We will totally do the resort and dining package again the next full Disney trip we take.  It was a great way to go and so convenient for a family.

After checking in at the Coronado, our first park was Animal Kingdom.  Although I would consider it a glorified zoo, we had a great time and there are a number of attractions not at your typical zoo along with a handful of rides.  Since we were by ourselves at this park our biggest problems with doing the rides or attractions was height restrictions and having to choose who got to go and who stayed with the smaller kids.  The whole week Kenan only wanted to ride with Nick, so if he was the only one tall enough to go Nick was the one who got to ride.  I tried to do the rider swap a few times, but he didn't want to go with me :( We could have stayed at Animal Kingdom longer because we were enjoying ourselves and had a few attractions yet to try, but we wanted to get cleaned up for our first dinner so we left around 5:00 to go back to the resort.

My cousin's wife Alicia made them these shirts for the trip

This was a highlight of the day.  They also met Donald as well.

Our first dinner reservation was for the restaurant O'hana at the Polynesian Resort.  I highly recommend going there.  The food was family style and awesome and we also had good entertainment luau style.

Enjoying the noodles

My sister in law Tina and I learning a Hawaiian dance

After dinner we headed back to get some sleep because Magic Kingdom was next on our list and our plan was to be there from 9 am- 11pm.  We had high hopes.  Well we didn't make it at 9, but we arrived at Magic Kingdom around 10.  The whole time in Disney we rode the buses and it was nice to not have to drive.  At Animal Kingdom we had just brought our double umbrella stroller for the two youngest, but we decided to take the single umbrella to Magic Kingdom as well in case Kenan wanted a break.  Good thing we did because he used it a lot that day as well as the rest of the week.  Magic Kingdom was a blast.  For some of the attractions we hung out as a big group, but for the majority of the day we split into smaller groups.  Even though we had to wait 30 minutes or so for a number of rides it didn't seem that bad.  As the day went on we realized we weren't going to hit everything I had hoped for.  We decided then that we would come back Wednesday instead of doing Hollywood Studios.  This helped keep us from feeling rushed.  It was nice that Easton could ride a lot of the rides along with a large quantity of the rides being family ones we could all enjoy.  Kenan's favorite was Space Mountain.  We even bought the picture of our ride because his expression in it is priceless.  For dinner that night we met up with everyone at The Crystal Palace, a fancy buffet with character greetings.  The kids got pictures with many of the Pooh characters here.  Although they are not huge pooh fans, they just thought it was cool meeting any Disney characters.  After dinner, Nick's brother's family decided to go back to the resort while we continued on at Magic Kingdom.  It was the perfect time to ride on the attractions because the lines had diminished significantly and we were able to quickly ride some we hadn't made it to yet.  Our night ended shortly after the fireworks around 10 pm and we were beat.  I was thankful that so far Langston and Easton had been able to nap in the stroller for a good amount of time which enabled us to enjoy the parks as long as we did.

In front of the castle

All the kids wore Mickey or Minnie shirts at Magic Kingdom.  I even made a Minnie hair clip for Langston.  I never do characters, so this was big.

I love that Easton is trying to do Eeyore's ears

Ally, my sister in law's daughter, her boyfriend Keaton, Tina and Gary, and Mike and Pam

Tuesday we decided to sleep in a little so we didn't get to Epcot until around 11:30.  First on the agenda was finding a restaurant to eat at.  This wasn't easy considering the choices and the large number of people we had deciding.  We ended up going to a couple of different places.  Our group settled on Chinese.  After Magic Kingdom, Epcot was nice because it was relaxing.  We didn't rush around trying to get on certain attractions, but instead wandered through the different countries of the world showcase and rode a few things that had short lines.  There were two rides at Epcot we had wanted to do that we didn't get to, Soarin and the Nascar Test track.  The fastpasses had already been given out for the day by 2:00 when we went to get them and the lines for normal wait never got below 90 minutes.  Dinner was at Coral Reef where we got to sit in front of a huge aquarium and see fish and sharks swim by.  There was even a group of divers swimming in the water at one point.  After dinner we continued to leisurely enjoy the park until it closed with a cool show in the middle of the lake.  By time we left all three kids had fallen asleep in the strollers.  The long days were catching up.

In Norway attacking the troll

In Mexico greeting Donald after riding the three caballeros boat ride

In front of the World Showcase

The last day in Disney Gary and his family stayed at the resort and hung out because they hadn't wanted to go to parks every day, while Pam and Mike joined us for another day at Magic Kingdom.  Since we had already been on Monday we were more relaxed this time around.  We enjoyed the breakfast buffet at our hotel with the family that morning and then arrived at Magic Kingdom around 11:00.  The bummer of the week occurred shortly after arriving in Magic Kingdom, I lost my camera.  If I had not just uploaded all of my pictures of the trip so far the night before I would have been devastated.  Instead, I was upset but didn't let it get to me.  We finished up riding some attractions we hadn't gotten to on Monday and really enjoyed the day.  From there we left to head to Downtown Disney for dinner at Wolfgang Pucks.  This was a stressful trip.  Since the buses just pick up for downtown Disney at resorts we took the monorail to the nearest resort to catch a bus.  This took only 5 minutes so we thought we were doing good on time, wrong.  A bus for downtown Disney took 30 minutes to arrive and then it had to stop at another resort before heading that way.  Once there we got off at the bus stop farthest from Wolfgangs(I had asked someone to avoid this and they told us wrong)and had to take the ferry across the lake.  By the time we arrived we were almost an hour later than our reservations.  Thank goodness the other half of our group had gotten there on time and the restaurant had held our reservations.  I was a bit frazzled, but dinner was awesome and it was all good.  We ended the evening by going back to the resort and enjoying the pool and hot tub, something we had not been able to do much of because of our busy schedule.  The next morning we ended our stay at Disney by having the breakfast buffet again with the family and packing for our beach part of the trip.  For the first trip to Disney with the kids I couldn't have asked for a better experience.  The kids ask daily to go back because they had such a good time.

The Boys

Since anytime I am catching up on the blog it is putting posts for each of Langston's months on there, I feel I am neglecting my guys.  Here is some of what has been going on with them.

Kenan:  He started kindergarten this year at Scott and I couldn't have asked for a better year.  He is doing so well in everything at school.  His teacher says he is a delight to have at school and he has excelled in all subjects.  I am so proud of his accomplishments because I am not working with him near what I should be.  It is funny how quiet he is in school compared to home though.  People will comment that he is probably out going at school and he is actually opposite.  I know he says he doesn't really talk to any students and he barely talks to the teacher unless called upon.  I think he is afraid of getting in trouble.  I have asked about lunch and recess and he says he like playing by himself.  Last week he was so cute when he came home and was excited because he talked with two kids at lunch that day.  They get green tickets each day if they have good behavior and he has had one every day and sometimes he gets double green tickets.

Even though his fall soccer season was a bit rocky and Nick decided he wasn't ready for basketball socially, we signed him up for baseball this spring.  The big difference this time around is that Nick is not coaching him for this.  Right now he seems to do better with another adult in charge and us just watching.  I am glad we did sign him up though because I think he would just be getting farther behind skill wise if we had waited.  Some of these kids are already in their third year and they are just 5 and 6 year olds.  He has his first game this Saturday.

Easton:  This year has been fun with Easton because he has been able to be home with me and Langston away from Kenan.  Not that being around Kenan is bad, he just wants to do everything big brother does and this way he can be himself more.  He is such a big helper and quite a character at times.  He just cracks me up.  He is so smart and I am afraid he may actually be bored once he is in school and could become the class clown.  We shall see.  He is excited to start preschool at Friends Forever next year.  It is weird because he is about 6 mnths older than Kenan was when he started and is more advanced.  It feels like he should be starting preK instead of preschool.  He won't be old enough for any sports in the fall, but we will probably sign him up for things a bit earlier because he gets so sad wanting to be able to do everything Kenan can.  Some of the things we have done this winter consisted of library class, walking the mall, the nature center, and he would go to the playcenter at ECLC.  He really likes Miss Amy and she does a good job of doing crafts and learning activities with them.

My sweetie

Ice skating for the first time.

Balloon fun

In front of one of the drama scenes.  This was my last year and even the boys will miss it.

Most of the time Langston takes a bath by herself, but they were getting in while she was getting out and I had to take a cute pic.

7, 8, and 9 Months (Way Late)

Love it!!!! She could finally sit up with her sign.

Nick thinks this is one of her big bows.  I said she had to have at least a few.

I am just not good at blogging, but I am really trying to at least get pics of Langston for each month as well as new stuff she is doing.  This post I am catching up on 3 months so here goes.  At the beginning of her 7th month (right after she turned 6 mnths old) she started sitting up on her own.  She was so good from the start I think she could have done it for awhile, we just forgot to practice with her.  The woes of being third.  She loved sitting.  She could sit and play for over an hour content.  We went to a lot of basketball games since it was January and she was a hit with the girls on the team.  Once Kenan said "how come they don't like us?"  I felt so bad.  I told him they did, it is just girls love babies and when he was a baby they did the same thing.  I left out the part that Nick was coaching boys when he was a baby and they don't have quite the same reaction.  She also got to experience a few drama practices.  Not as many as the boys did because I tried hard to find babysitters since three is hard to handle while leading a practice.  Sleeping continued to be around 10 hours at night with two good naps during the day.  At the end of this month we started rice cereal.  This was almost a month later than we did with the boys, mostly because she didn't need it yet and I was lazy.  She did a great job with her food at first.  Stay tuned in the next months though.

She tore the sign up this month.  All she wanted to do was play with it.

At the beginning of the 8th month Langston cut her third tooth.  It was another bottom one which now gave her three on the bottom.  She continued to love sitting and playing.  She started playing with toys a lot more this month.  She would take things out of containers and put things back in.  She loved to grab things and pick them up, still chewing on them as well.  As we started to introduce some new foods like avocado, peas, and green beans that I would make she continued to eat well but started to have problems with bowel movements.  I don't like to give juice so I gave her some prunes even though I didn't plan on doing fruit yet.  It worked a little bit, but still not as well as I hoped.  She wasn't even getting that much food, one meal a day.  Some days we would skip the food then just to get it out of her system so the breast milk poop could kick back in.  This would work, but I think it caused her to be disinterested in her food.  She started to not care if she ate much or not.  Basketball ended this month so it was nice to have dad around more.  I was bummed I didn't get any snow pictures with her this winter because of our lack of snowfall.

I thought it would be fun to do a different sign for this month since we were on vacation

Tiny footprints in the sand

As the 9th month rolled around Langston started to move more than she had before.  She still loved to sit and play forever, her personality the first 9 months has been awesome, but now she wanted to lean and reach for things more.  She would scoot around in circles and could reach things far away from her just by stretching.  Still no attempt to crawl or stand against things much.  She is happy and content so much of the time I don't think she is in a hurry.  Sleep got a little crazy because I think she was starting to cut the top teeth and those bothered her more than the rest had.  Many nights she would wake up and I am sure she was in pain.  Once the teeth cut through the gums, she started sleeping better again.  They always seem to be bothered right before they break through.  Naps continued to be two a day if we were home for them.  I was teaching a lot of Truth Talk this month so many days Langston and Easton would be at the play center at ECLC.  Miss Amy did a good job of getting her to take some kind of nap, it is just hard with other kids around to sleep very long.  I am glad my kids have always done well with being flexible and adjusting.  With our crazy schedule sometimes this is a lifesaver.  I continued to add some new foods to the mix, this time the orange colors such as sweet potatoes, carrots, and butternut squash.  She loved these.  Since she continued to have trouble with her bowel movements I tried some other fruits, but she was not crazy about fruit.  Even the prunes she had started to refuse.  It was about this time I started trying a few organic premade baby foods because we were getting ready to go on vacation and I didn't know if I was going to be able to bring much of my homemade stuff.  She was not a fan.  Once again it was because of the fruit.  Many of the ones I liked had a fruit mixed with them such as green beans, peas, and pears.  Or another was spinach, mango, and broccoli.  Any hint of the sweet and she didn't want it.  The organic brands I liked didn't have very many first ones to choose from where they weren't mixes.  Oh well, I guess I would have to make due with my stuff somehow.  I also began to give her some puffs so she could begin to feed herself.  I love that they now have some better ones like kale and collard greens or purple sweet potatoes with blueberry.  I know they are still like baby junk food, but in moderation I like them as a snack for the kids.  Well she loved to feed herself.  So much so that by the end of this month she had started to refuse pureed veggies because she wants big people stuff.  More on that in month 10.    Weight at her 9 mnth appointment was 17 lbs 9 oz and she was 27 1/4 in long.  This is around 30-35% for both areas.  At the end of this month we went to Florida and spent some time at Disney world and the beach.  I know she won't remember her first time, but we had a lot of fun.  I plan on at least getting a post about the trip(hopefully).  For the trip we moved her to the bigger carseat rear facing so she would have more room.  Although we never moved the boys this soon and she could have continued in the carrier, we have just kept her in the bigger one.