Disney World (Part 2)

Day 3 was all about the Animal Kingdom park. We started off with an early lunch at a themed restaurant where the characters would come to the table.  Again, Charlie was so excited to see Mickey!

Graham hugged all of the characters that walked by our table:

Like I said, Disney has this down when it comes to making things happen for the kids!

Our first adventure at Animal Kingdom was the Safari ride. It was so much fun!  I think it was Bob and my favorite part of the entire trip.  We rode in these large vehicles:

It was neat being able to see the animals up close:

And we also discovered these "upside-down" trees.  They are called that because it looks as if the roots are the ones above ground.  Supposedly these trees don't have any leaves on them for 9 months out of the year. How interesting!

By the way, there is a similar tree in the middle of the park that Disney created. The trunk has carvings of all sorts of animals. Just amazing and perfect spot for a family pic!

After the ride, it was time to meet Mickey and Minnie.  I'm so glad we didn't skip this one as the line did not move very fast the first time we were there.  Another great family photo!

Snack time! And who knew they had Edamame at Disney as a snack. It was so helpful in occupying Charlie. He loves them! 

And Graham of course, went for the Mickey shaped ice-cream.

Again, the boys skipped their naps 3 days in a row, but it was just too much for Charlie. So it was naptime in Mommy's arm:

As for Graham, it was naptime in the stroller on his new turtle (which he proudly won in a ball-tossing game in Dinoland):

We were so thankful to finally be indoors, in an air-conditioned theater for "Finding Nemo The Musical":

At first it looked like a date just for Mommy and Daddy, but I'm so glad the boys woke up when the music came on:

What a great and colorful show!  And at the end of the day, the boys actually stayed awake during the bus ride home.

4th and final day at Disney was our trip to Magic Kingdom.  I think the boys really enjoyed this one.  We decided to go to Epcot first and take the monorail.  The boys were so excited about that as they had noticed the monorail during our time at Epcot:

And then, we took a little ferry to the park.  The boys enjoyed that ride too:

We caught the last bit of the show that was at Cinderella's castle:

We took a little stroll around the park and when we heard the show starting again, we decided to park the stroller under a little shady area on the side. Well, the view was not good enough for Graham, so off Daddy & Graham went - into the sun.

You should have seen Bobby's face and shirt and they both got back!
Anyhow, it was then off to the Winnie the Pooh ride and also It's a small World ride.  Both rides were very kid friendly for Graham and Charlie's age group:

And then, it was all about waiting for the parade. It was SO HOT!  By then, Charlie was just completely out and sweaty and heavy too, of course!

Thankfully this nice cloud showed up to cover the sun just before the parade started.  Phew! It definitely made things better.  Either way, Graham really enjoyed the parade.  We're glad we got to see the cast of Frozen.  Can you believe that it was a 180 minutes just to line up and see Elsa and Anna that day???! Crazy!

It was a Thursday and just look at the sea of people.  Bobby and I were actually quite glad we were leaving the next day:

Our last thing of the day was a meal at the Crystal Palace where Pooh and his gang would make an appearance.  Again, Disney did not fail us!  Here's Pooh bear:

 Eyor:

Piglet:

Daddy being silly, as usual:

And Tigger, of course!

We caught the end of another parade at the end of the day, so it was the perfect way to end our trip at Disney:

What a memorable trip!  Definitely a must-do again when the boys are older :-)

Disney World (Part 1)

We decided to head out to Disney World before seeing Bobby's family in New Jersey.  What an awesome plan it was! Bobby and me and especially the boys had such a great time.  The FastPass bands were awesome and was really worth the extra bucks.  So were the extra bucks for the Memory Maker.  These people at Disney sure know how to make these family vacations work.  We finally have some good family photos!

We arrived at Disney on Monday, June 2nd and checked into our hotel at Animal Kingdom.  What an awesome lobby!

And after ooh-ing and aah-ing over the animals that we could see from our balcony, we headed over to Hollywood Studios. We had an appointment with a Live Mickey Mouse clubhouse show and boy, did the boys enjoy that!

And then, it was dinner at downtown Disney.  By the way, we learned that there are no buses from the parks to downtown Disney.  You have to take the buses back to the hotels first and then, take another bus from there.  To make our dinner reservation, we decided to just take a cab.  It was the boys' first cab ride, so they were both so excited.

Graham was not too excited about his dinner but was happy to help mommy with her crab:

Of course, Charlie wanted to help too: 

But after a while, he just wanted to try out the corn.  Not too bad for a first timer!

We ended the night with the Fantasmic show back at Hollywood Studios.  Bob and I thought it was a little bit scary but thankfully the boys weren't too bothered or scared by it.

The show started pretty late so needless to say, the boys were beat by the end of the night.

Day 2 at Disney and we were off to Epcot.  I'm not too sure how Charlie felt about the idea. Can you?

Lunch was pretty spectacular with the view of the large aquarium.  There were lots of sharks and turtles to see, which kept the boys quite entertained:

The boys finally had a chance to meet Mickey Mouse.  Graham and Charlie were so excited!

Charlie wasn't too sure about Goofy:

They did like Chip and Dale. By the way, we found out that Chip is the one that has the chocolate chip nose. Ha... who knew!

Another good family pic, thanks to Disney!

And how about these special effects!

And how about Graham and Charlie getting their faces painted.  Graham wanted to be a panda bear:

Here's our panda bear! I love the little sugar cane stalk at the edge of his mouth:

And Charlie was our Canadian bear. He did so well for his first time as well with face painting. He sat on my lap and I held his head up a little.

The paint did get a little messy though as the paint was water-based and that didn't help with us being out in a muggy day. A misting fan didn't help either... nor did some crying from a couple of tired boys. Yes, very tired boys.  They were completely out again by the end of Day 2!

To be continued (day 3 & 4)...

Charlie is 22 months old

2 more months before Charlie turns 2 years old!  I think the terrible two's have already started though.  He still loves to just lay on the ground when he throws his temper tantrum:

And he is such a little parrot.  Charlie would mimic everything and anything that his big brother says and does.  For example, back during our time in Phoenix - Graham would put stones into this little hole of the ceramic stool.

Charlie followed but decided to grab a shovel of gravel.  Too funny! (and so focused!)

And at 22 months, Charlie has such a sweet tooth.  He can already say "dessert, chocolate, and m&m.  The sweets do come in handy during long road trips, but what a mess!

Lollipops are a little better:

But funny enough, Charlie really likes apples, so that's always a good alternative as well.  His one apple lasted from Virginia to Florida!

And Charlie was too cute during one of our recent drives.  On our way to Florida, we had to drive further into the night than usual.  Charlie had one of these toy torch lights shaped of a dolphin and he had a blast with it.  He was aiming it at me and Bobby and also at "ta ge" / his big brother Graham and saying " Gotcha!".

Charlie is turning into such a little boy. He is learning to give lots of hugs and kisses, which is so nice.  Just need to work on that temper tantrum!

Moving day - Good bye Tulsa!

Well, we finally moved out of the Tulsa home on Saturday, May 31 :-(  We are really going to miss this house!  And also all the neighbors and friends that we've made during the 5 years that we've been here.
Looks like I'm going to have to make another height chart for the boys:

Let's see... as of May 30, Charlie is 32 1/2" tall at 22 months:

And Graham is 39" tall at 4 years old:

I'm also going to miss my garden.  We had our first blueberry right before leaving:

All my flowers bloomed so well this year. I'm so happy about that and hopefully the new buyers will be too!

And I could not believe the number of blooms on the daylily that I had planted for my mom a few years ago. What a comeback from when Bobby had pulled it out of the ground when he thought it was a weed.  Thankfully he missed pulling the actual bulb out!

Goodbye Tulsa home and off to our new adventure in Abu Dhabi!

Actually, off to Disney World first.  Can't wait!  I hope the car makes it there with all the extra luggage!

As for the dented bumper, we had to reinforce it with some more duct-tape during the drive down to Florida.

And funny enough, I discovered that straws and sticks (available at any McDonald's) can be a pretty handy replacement for screws.  The stick had to be the perfect size though, which was a little tricky.  I had to break a few extra branches from a plant to find the perfect fit!

By the way, we logged over 2,600 miles driving from Oklahoma to Florida and finally to New Jersey.  And crazy enough the stick, straw, and duct-tape held the bumper up really well despite all that heavy downpour we had along the way!  Bobby actually called me "MacGyver" :-)

And oh, I also found out that plants do not last long in a car without water for 4 days straight in 90+ degree weather:

Let's just say we have replaced it with some pretty lavender that can be found at a hotel parking lot close to Swedesboro, NJ. 

I know, sticky fingers! He he...

Happy Birthday, Bobby!

We were so busy during Bobby's birthday (May 30th) that I even forgot to wish him Happy Birthday when we woke up that morning!  Oops!

Again, we had to "borrow" our neighbor's home to celebrate a birthday:

Thank you neighbor for all those cupcakes too!

YUM!

And then it was back to moving and packing. Thank goodness we got the bigger storage unit!

And another oops of the day... I backed into our neighbor's SUV in their driveway :-(

 Hopefully Bobby's next birthday will be on a less hectic day.  Love you, honey!

Last day at soccer

The boys had their last day at soccer a couple of Fridays ago (May 30).  I wasn't sure if we were going to make it as the movers were at the house and we were leaving Tulsa for good the following day.  We were a little late but we made it and I'm glad Graham and Charlie were able to see their friends and coaches for the last time:

Charlie is quite the little charmer:

I think Graham's favorite is Coach Simba eventhough Coach Simba calls him "Graham Cracker" :-)

And of course, I think Graham is a charmer too:

We'll miss everyone at Soccer City!

Hopefully the boys will have a chance to continue playing soccer in Abu Dhabi.  Well, now we will have to start calling it "football"!