Thursday & Friday in FL

On Thursday we didn't do anything special. We spent most of the day at the playground and playing outside at my mom's house.

Zak's new shoes and anklet

Ryder's new shoes and anklet

Zak hanging on the monkey bars

Ryder swinging on the low bar

Zak & Piper fighting over who goes first with the t-ball

This is how Ryder spent most of the trip

Piper dancing with the bubbles

Zak loved using Piper's roller skates. I have wanted to get him a pair, but was not sure if he would be able to do it or not. This week Zak showed us all he is very capable of doing it and loves it. He was skating all over the garage, driveway, and on the curb in front of the house. Ryder wanted a turn, but he did not enjoy it at all.

Zak telling me to put down the camera and get out of his way

Playing with Cooper

Enjoying Popsicles after dinner

The boys loved sitting out front and watching Brandon play basketball at Aunt Kathy's house. So we took them over one evening to play with Brandon. Zak thought it was so cool when Brandon would pick him up to shoot the ball, but Ryder was pretty nervous and only did it once.On Friday we went to Bed, Bath & Beyond to pick up some chocolate for the chocolate fountain and then stopped at the mall for a bit. The three kids ran around and played in the play area for a while. Then they saw the train go by and they all immediately asked if they could go for a ride. Ben got on the train with the three kids while my mom and I went into a few stores looking for a pair of shoes I want (we never did find them).

Piper in her Jasmine outfit

Friday night we had dessert at Aunt Kathy's to celebrate Katie & Devin's graduation from college. We had the chocolate fountain with lots of yummy things to dip in it along with ice cream sundaes. I was so excited when we got there and I saw that Amie, Justin, and baby Abby (6 weeks old) were there! I was not able to get a really good picture since she was trying to sleep so the lighting was not all that good, but here she is. She has a head full of hair and is just so cute. I was even more excited when I got the chance to hold her for a quick minute before they had to leave.

I have two more pictures I wanted to post from earlier in the week. Piper loves to dress-up in her princess outfits and Zak got very jealous when he saw this. He wanted to dress up as well so I grabbed the first outfit I found which happened to be Snow White. I thought Piper only had princess outfits so I figured we would have to just let him play pretend as a princess with Piper. Well, Zak LOVED it and didn't want to take it off, but Ben was very unhappy about it. Then all of a sudden my mom remembered she also had a Spiderman outfit so Ryder got to put that on.

Magic Kingdom

Today we all woke up and got ready to spend the day at Magic Kingdom at Disney World. Ben was very convincing that he was not having any issues with his 2 teeth which were pulled yesterday morning so he went with us. I think we all had a really good time. The weather was perfect because there was a slight breeze and it was only in the 70's or so. The park was not overly crowded so we were able to ride lots of rides with the longest line being about 20 minutes long! The rides we rode are: Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, It's A Small World (has always been a favorite of mine), Dumbo the Flying Elephant (I remember riding this with my mom when I was little so it was so neat being able to take the boys on it!), Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan's Flight, Pirates of the Caribbean, Snow White's Scary Adventure, The Haunted Mansion, and then Zak & Ben rode on the Goofy Roller Coaster because Ryder & Piper chose not to.

We had lunch and dinner at the park and we were able to watch the parade at 3pm. On our way out of the park we did some shopping of course and the boys got spoiled by "Grammy". We had told the boys they could choose one small stuffed animal which they did. But then they both grabbed a second one so I took one away from Zak, but Ryder was not giving up his second choice. So my mom decided to buy them both two stuffed animals. Zak picked Daisy Duck (his girlfriend) and Mickey while Ryder chose Pluto and Mickey. I also picked up a little gift for baby Kyle which I hope to take to him later this week (I need some cuddle time with the cutie!). We then headed out of the park and took the ferryboat back to our car and got back to the house around 9pm or so.

Time for pictures!

Mom & Piper on Buzz ride

Ben & Zak on Dumbo

Mom & Piper on Dumbo

Ryder making Dumbo go up & down

Ben and Zak on Buzz

Ryder on the Jungle Cruise

Zak & Piper finding animals on the Jungle Cruise

Ryder hugging Piper while waiting for the parade

Everyone waiting for the parade

Zak was not so happy waiting for Piper & my mom

Ben & Zak on the goofy roller coaster

Eating Dinner

Duck trying to steal food from Zak

Sharing the double stroller

Showing off their stuffed animals

Sitting on the Ferryboat in matching outfits from Grammy

Castle at night from the Ferryboat

I took a ton more pictures which you can see in this photo album

Like I said, we all had a great time. We did have to give my mom a hard time about one thing though. Zak wanted to see Daisy Duck so badly! As we walked into the park Daisy Duck was there with a massive line waiting to see her so my mom said they would get to see her in the parade and even in another area of the park so we moved on. Well, Daisy Duck was no where to be found in the park the rest of the day AND she was not in the parade at all! Although, Zak is very much like his mother and seems to be pretty scared of the characters once we got up close to them. Most pictures from my childhood show Chelley hugging them and I am on the side crying my eyes out!

Dentist

Tuesday morning the boys had an appointment with the dentist that Grandma Mary works for. This appointment was just for the boys to see the office, sit in the chair and let the dentist look at their teeth. They both did very well! The dentist said that Zak's teeth looked great and he is just missing his two bottom 2-year-old molars. Ryder has an under bite and his teeth are small, but the dentist said all baby teeth can look different. He also said Ryder is missing all four of his 2-year-old molars along with 1 eye tooth. He is currently getting in the three other eye teeth so he is delayed in the tooth aspect which we already knew. The dentist even said it is a possibility he may not even have the fourth eye tooth baby tooth because that can happen so we will just wait and see. We are supposed to just watch the under bite and should follow-up with a pediatric dentist in a bit to see if anything needs to be done to help correct it, but they said usually it is fine with no treatment.

As for me, I was a nervous wreck the whole time. I have had some very bad experiences with the dentist office so I am always very stressed when walking into any dentist office. When I was little I had my 2 front teeth pulled out and then lots of visits to the dentist for work on my bridge (fake teeth in the front) along with various cavities and what not. The dentist has always been extremely traumatic for me to the point that I get sick to my stomach as soon as I walk in the door. I am even known to actually throw up while in the waiting room! I require a very heavy sedative to be able to sit in the chair for an exam. My mom did make fun of me because while sitting in the waiting room I started to panic when I heard the noises from the suction thingy and drills.

Ben also had an appointment with the dentist because he was having trouble with one of his top wisdom teeth. He has been having trouble with it for a year or so now because pieces have slowly been breaking off of it and causing pain periodically. While in TN last week for work it started to really hurt and by the time we got to FL he was in a lot of pain. The dentist did an x-ray and decided the one tooth was infected and needed to come out. He also said the other top wisdom tooth should be pulled since it was starting to fall apart as well. The dentist also said Ben has 1 bottom wisdom tooth which has not come in yet and he could pull it as well. So Ben chose to have the top 2 wisdom teeth pulled.

After we were home from the dentist Ben stayed home and the rest of us went out for some shopping. I will be very honest and admit that I was not happy with Ben. He has been having trouble with his teeth for a long time and then decided to have something done about it while on vacation. It did not make me happy at all. I also need my wisdom teeth pulled because they are coming in at all angles and causing most of my migraines, but have not done anything for many reasons. I just wish he had not done it during our vacation with my mom. This put me into a bad mood for a few days which really didn't make the vacation as good as it could have been, but I just couldn't help being a little selfish while visiting my mom who lives pretty far away from what I am used to living from family. He has been taking antibiotics for the infected area of the tooth along with Advil for pain, but he swears it has not hurt other than immediately after the teeth being pulled. He was ready to go out shopping with us, but I was just in such a bad mood that I made him stay home for the day.

Saturday, Sunday & Monday in FL

On Saturday morning we left the house around 8am to head to Laura's house. We got the dogs settled in, had some Chick-Fil-A breakfast and then loaded up in her car to head for the airport. The boys were so behaved while checking in at the airport, going through security and for most of the wait at the gate. The last 20 minutes before boarding Zak went into a complete meltdown, but once on the plane they both fell asleep soon after taking off. They slept until about 25 minutes before landing so it was really a good flight. Here are a few pictures from the airport...

On Sunday we had Piper's birthday party which was fun. I was able to see most of the family who live in FL while the boys had fun playing in the bounce house my mom rented. I didn't get to see baby Noah or baby Abby (or Jesse, Kimberly, Christian, Amy, Justin) though. Here are some pictures from the party...

There are a ton of other pictures so here is the photo album with them

On Monday we spent the day at Sea World watching all of the animals and getting on a few rides. The boys loved watching all of the animals! They also had fun on the few little rides in the kid area at the park. The boys got to pick out oysters and get a pearl. The pearls were my Mother's Day gift from them so I had them both put onto a ring together. I will try to remember to get a picture of the ring and post on here later.

Piper & Grandma on the roller coaster in the kid area

(right next to the big green pole)

I have a bunch more pictures of our day at Sea World in this photo album