rest and catch up,Maybe

Thursday we stayed low, we meet up with Hannah, Ella and Madeline for about 30 mins. Ok it was just Bella and I because Max needed a nap badly. He was still catching up from being gone. Well Bella wasn’t herself either, but thought it was just from the trip. WE came back home and a few hours later, she got a fever and threw up. It wasn’t much and she felt better afterwards, I think she had a coughing fit and gagged herself. Neverless I just let her lay low the rest of the day. I think Max and I hung out outside and we all just sat around watching tv. WE had brought the warm weather with us, so that didn’t’ help matter much.

Friday was so much busier. I kept Bella at my mom’s house as much as possible and kept her fever at bay with medicine that she hated. (she hates it all btw ..so opposite of Max who will take any willing) Thankfully my mom was willing to watch my two, so that I could go in the morning to help decorate the hall for Tori’s wedding. That was a lot of fun setting up.

Josh arrived around 3 while my mom was out and about getting a break from the kids. I actually got both kids to nap at my mom’s house. Before I knew it, we had to get ready for rehearsal at 5. We took both kids with us, even though only Bella and I were in the wedding. Bella wasn’t a happy camper at the idea of walking down with Cooper, but we had to try to remind her it wasn’t like she had to touch him or anything. 

We took the kids back to my moms before joining the wedding party at the blew inn for supper. We sat with Aunt Jeanne, Elizabeth and Abbie, so it was a great conversation.

Once we left there, it was home to put Bella to bed and bed for ourselves.

they use to fit side by side in a car..now they have to do front and back

IT was fun to watch them play around

OH this little guy.. always messy with something

Yep I gave them cupcakes for breakfast

I took a few flower shots while waiting to get into the reception site

Decorating

Photo by Bella

Also photos by Bella

He was not happy.. he wanted both his parents together and was’t letting go of Daddy for anything.

Bride to be and JOsh

May 29th Goodbye Florida Hello Wisconsin

So we were worn out. To be honest when I got up at 7am I was really wondering if we would make it for the 9am shuttle to the airport. Our flight didn’t leave until 11:40am, but the hotel shuttle only went on the hour, so we didn’t know if 10am would be pushing it with two little kids.

So Josh went down and got us breakfast while I started to get ready and pack. We had to get all of our 9 bags down to 5 that we started out with.  While Josh was gone the kids started to wake up. The next hour was a whril wind! How we got it all thrown together is beyond me, but it worked and we were downstairs with 10 mins to spare.  The other family that was staying at the hotel was also going to be on the same shuttle. 

I wish we could have hung out at the airport more with the other family, but they were flying a different airline so we never saw them again. We did curb side check in with our bags and got our seats switched since they has all of us in different row. Then we set out security to find our gate. We made a pit stop at the Disney “Earplane” store to pick up one last thing, then we found our gate.

Once at our gate, I went to get a snack for me and the kids. We didn’t eat at much breakfast as Josh did. So McDonald's it was , I really wanted Chick a flic but that wasn’t on our end of security.  So the kids and I enjoyed that while we waited at gate 1 for our plane. JOsh and I both took turns wonder with the kids while we waited

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  I took Bella to one of the little shops to get a bigger shell then what we found at the ocean, she was very happy. We got back to our spot to find out that our gate had changed to 5. Ok so we move. It was next to a nicer foos spot so JOsh went to go food there..he got his big ol’ turkey leg. Well while he was gone they changed our gate to 6, right across the way from 5. So I moved the kids. Bella suddenly had to go potty and when we returned our gate changed to 5 again. THis was all in 30 mins. So annoying, but finally we were able to start boarding. We got Max in the stroller and went to line up.. well had the lady our tickets and Max was passed out. 

So Max slept for the first hour of our 2 hour plane ride.. well part of that was just boarding . IT was nice and sunny skies, we worried bc it was raining when we got to the airport. Bella again did great the whole way…even better then the way down because she was between Josh and I. Max was not a fan of just chilling in the three seats, so it was tricky because I didn’t want to the parent of the kid who was crazy on the plane

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Once we got on the ground in Milwaukee, I played phone tag with my sister to find her. She got a spot right by baggage claim, so that was perfect. We took the kids to her and got them in the car, went in got 1/2 of luggage took that out and got the other 1/2.  My sister got us to her house and unloaded then left us to figure out what we wanted to do. Josh and I sorta of unpacked to have him take some stuff home and me to take some stuff to my mom’s. The Kids and I would be staying there until after Tori’s wedding on Saturday.  He left to go home and left me with a sleeping Bella and a running around Max.

My sister’s family slowly started arriving around 3pm and everyone was home as was my mom by 5 I think. We had supper and cake to celebrate Elly’s birthday. We bought her gift in Florida so we all set.

After the celebration it was load up my mom’s car and back to her house we headed. I’m not sure what happened after that, but I know we were all tired and ready for bed early!

Seaworld May 28th

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Seaworld was our day with out volunteers so most of the pictures are the animals.. we also didn’t do any “ride” there bc we were limited with time and we wanted more of a relaxing day.

May 28th

IT was a late wake up, we were all so tired after the day before. I think I was up at 7am which was the first one up. Somehow though, we all got up and packed up before 8am when we went downstairs for breakfast. Bella was not happy at the idea of leaving, so she was a bit moody. Max was his normal grumpy self. Josh and I ate quickly then it was back up stairs to grab all our stuff. Our lovely helper Gabby, came with and did most of the work of carrying all our bags down.

Once we got down stairs we had a closing ceremony. We were able to thank all the wonderful people who helped give us an amazing 5 days. Then those same people created a scrapbook of pictures for each family and presented those to us. We were also watched a slideshow of everyone’s pictures from the trip. It was so cool to see all the memories that were created in just a few short days. Then the kids were able to go in their groups while the parents were able to hear from the co-founders of Inheritance of Hope.

After that was done, we waited for our box lunches to head to SeaWorld. IT was so strange for us to go as just our little families and not have our wonderful volunteers. We got to SeaWorld and had to wait for our tickets, which was annoying, I'll admit since it was hot. LOL Also the poor kids were so tired from the last four days. Despite that once we entered the park we quickly made a plan and tried to stick to it.

Bella wanted to see Dolphins and Josh and I agreed the shows would be nice instead of rides. So we decided to see the Shamu show first. On the way there, we stopped at the dolphin Nursery. Max wanted to go in so badly. Bella probably would have sat there all day. But we moved on.. took in a shop where Bella found a flowered dolphin stuffed animal and max got a truck. These were the entertainment while we waited for the Shamu show. Josh also got us slushies and a pretzel shaped like a killer whale.

The show was awesome and amazing. I have always loved Killer whales and to just sit and relax was nice too. We then headed to see the another animals on the way to the dolphin show. We saw Sharks, macaws, and Antarctica . We got to the dolphin show and it was already pretty busy. Josh got us ice cream treats to enjoy while we watched the show. It was a bit different than Shamu bc it was a lot of people action and a story. Not enough dolphins for Bella, but still pretty cool.,

Once on the way through he park we found the manatees, alligators and sea turtles. Then we attempted to touch a Dolphin. Bella was just too small and even i had troubles, but we were so close to them it was amazing. Totally something i’ll never forgot.. being sprayed by a dolphin’s blowhole.  Bella was sad she couldn’t touch one, but quickly made up for it by touching a lot of sting rays.

We rounded out the trip with a meal , where we ran into some friends from the trip. Ironically enough the smallest of the parks we and barely saw anyone. Then a trip to the gift shop, visit with some flamingos before heading otu for our bus. We were worried about our timing, but turns outs the bus was late. At least we were all miserable together one last time. It was nice to hear about everyone’s day since this would be the last time we were all together.

On the bus everyone got a second wind..the kids were happy, the adults were chatty. Our bus driver was so nice and friendly. It was just a great way to end the day. We were taken to the Comfort Suites with two other families. We got to the room and vegged out. We snacked on food we had gotten from our gift bags and just let the kids do whatever. We did go to the hot tub until we saw lighting and headed back to the room. We were also attempting to do laundry but waiting for the dryer still as we speak. The kids were out cold in like 2 mins.

Tomorrow we leave this wonderful vacation and go back to reality…sort of, but we have taken away so many memories, made many new friends and just renewed.

Universal Studios and Date night May 27th

 

So I don’t have as many pictures, but I know we did just as much, since we got up at 7am and didn’t go bed until 10:30pm ish

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May 27th: Universal Studios

This morning was hard to wake up. Max was up a few times in the middle of the night. We didn’t get to bed until midnight. I took a shower, then got a bath ready for our kiddos since they needed on badly. Thankfully Bella woke up while i was in the shower and max shortly after that. He ended up in our bed and thus crappy sleep for Josh and Me.

We went down for breakfast , which went a little better then the day before. Then off to the Disney store in the hotel to try to find Max a Mickey Mouse. Instead we got me a shirt, (i ran out) Bella princess Minnie mouse and max a train and car with Mickey and Minnie. Then a quick run to the room to drop our stuff off and it was back down for our morning meetings. We then discovered that we lost all of max’s nuks. So after our meetings we had to spend way too much for a nuk at the hotel marketplace.  Then it was it was back to our room, while Josh got lunch. The kids and i snacked on food in the room.

We thought we were late for the bus to Universal studios, when in reality we were the first ones.  We got loaded up on the bus and headed on the way. Once we got there we walked in and decided to to the regular park first. we had never been there and to be honest wasn’t sure what to expect.  we went to find the Fevial’s play area for the kids while Josh and i went to the Simpson's ride. It was so fun to do some adult rides.  Then we did ET with some other members of our group. Then we went back to get the kids. Bella wanted ice cream, and it was hot, so we got dipping dots for us all. IT was fun to try to share them among the 4 of us while we walked over to Island of Adventure. We decided to hit both parks since we were done on the one side.

IN Island of Adventure, we went to Dr. Suesse area. First up was the carousel . At this point Max fell asleep in the stroller, so Josh sat with him in the shade, while Bella, Gabby and I went on the ride. It was fun, but we didn’t discover the animals moved until the ride got over. LOL  I should mention we had passes to get us to the front of the line again. Universal was great about them. They actually took us to the front of the line for all the rides and so very helpful and nice. Then we went to a tram ride with another family. They had a little girl Bella’s age, so the girls got to ride together. My baby is growing up. Next up was One fish, Two fish..which Max was up for. We got wet on that ride though. It was great fun though. Then we all went on the Cat in the Hat ride. Bella and Josh rode behind Gabby, Max and I. Max loved it. Gabby offered to watch the kids again so Josh and I could go on rides. Well We only did Spiderman, but it was a good time.

Our time at Universal was cut short, so the kids could have Kids night out. This meant Mommy and daddy got a date night out. While Bella and Max hung out with their kids group watching Cars along with meal of chicken nuggets , fruit and mac n cheese, Josh and i went to Downtown Disney. We ate supper at Plant Hollywood, Josh picked it. We had a VIP pass so got seated right away and a coupon for free appetizer. They were slow at getting us our food, but it was good. I had a chocolate shake drink, bqq bacon chedder chicken sandwich and fries. Josh had crab cakes and mashed tators. After we were done eating we went to find Disney gifts that i missed. We found “ears” and got our names put on them. We also got an ornament for the tree and post cards.

We waited for our ride to pick us up as we had a meeting with a child’s counselor. Then a chance for Josh to make a video should anything happen to him. Things ran late, so i left to get the kids while Josh stayed behind. Getting the kids to bed was tough, but once in bed they were out like a light!

It’s hard to think that our time hear is almost done. We have had such a blast and made so many wonderful memories.

Magic Kingdom May 26th

 

Sunday was probably the busiest and picture heavy days..so I’ve added a few slideshows to break it up

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After we did what Bella needed to do …see Ariel it was off to get Max’s hair cut

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