The Rock N' Roller Coaster by Caden

If you like fast, noisy, roller coasters full of twists and turns then the Rock N' Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios is for you!  When I got there, there was almost no line.  I got into the "limo," then I yanked my hard leather safety harness down.  Rock and roll music started blaring in my ears as it started to count down, 5....4....3....2....1....goooooo!  It shot me off like a bullet.  I felt the pressure of the wind.  And with a flash we were on the highway exploding passed neon signs.  I heard people screaming with joy, and I saw people waving theirs arms on the scary loops, turns, and stomach dropping corkscrews.  I was screaming so much the air was drying out my mouth.  The "limo" jostled me around so much I could not feel my brain.  Then the limo came to an abrupt stop.  I raced through the mob of people to see my funny face.  "hey, it's right there."  This is my favorite ride and it will be yours too.

This and That

Last week was truly insane.  I wasn't sure which way was up most days.  Jaelyn, Allie and I had new patient doctor's appointments.  Meeting a new nurse practitioner made me miss our Missouri NP who was so wonderful.  I think this will be good too, a vast improvement over our Woodbridge Doc.  I'm thrilled to say Allie has her ADHD medicine again (did I already blog about this?  I'm too lazy to go and look).

Anyway, the kids all had orthodontist appointments on Wednesday.  Jaelyn is ready for Phase II.  The ortho wants to study Jaelyn's models before she gives us her plans, but she'll probably have to have something called tension springs to help make room for her canines that are high and out.  We've known Allie had a narrow arch, but no one has suggested seeing an orthodontist before now.  Dr. B wants to try to expand Allie's palette.  That growth plate closes at puberty.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that we are still within the window for an expander to work.  Caden has two molars that aren't touching in the back.  His issue is a wait and see.  Apparently, when a top tooth doesn't have anything to hit on the bottom, it can come down.  If that starts to happen, he might need a retainer to help it stay in place until he's ready for real braces.

We started our sports and science co-op on Thursday.  Jaelyn was really shy, but the other two jumped right in and made friends.  Another mom told me she introduced Jae to another girl in her group who is shy as well.  They seemed to hit it off.  I think I'm really going to enjoy those 4 hours of me time.  I found a quilt shop, a book store and a Ben and Jerry's ;).  Next week, I'm going to hike the Monticello trail.

In addition to all of that was school, laundry, grocery shopping...we took a break on Friday morning to ride our bikes to the tennis courts and hit balls around for an hour.  I'm still feeling it.  I need to get moving again.

I'm working on downloading pictures from my cameras (shake your head, roll your eyes).  On our trip, I took my big nikon for Pensacola, my small nikon for disney, and I bought an underwater camera for Discovery cove.  In addition to those, we bought the disney photo pass, I have a thumb drive with our family photos from my friend, and Dan took photos with his phone.  I probably have about 2000 "good" pictures from our 16 day vacation.  LOL.  I'll weed those down and make a slide show since I know you all love other people's vacation slide shows :).

Swimming with the Rays

I continue to be impressed with the kids' descriptive stories.  When I push them hard, they are capable of amazing work.  Here's Jaelyn's:

Today was eight hours in paradise.  I spent it up close with the amazing stingrays and smelly fish at Discovery Cove.  The rippling water froze my toes down to the bone as I stepped in.  When I dove in, the shock took my breath away.  The surprise of my first stingray made me breathe in the nasty, salt water through my snorkel.  The shark fins scared me until I realized that the fins were just stingray wings coming up so they could turn corners to fly away from the kids swimming after them. When I chased after the rays to touch them, I realized that they felt like wet sponges with pricks on them.  I noticed that they have their own special markings just like people do.  When I saw their different markings, I was amazing because of how unique each stingray was.  I talked to a guide who was feeding the stingrays, and got to feed seven of them.  They made little buzzing sounds with their mouths because they were happy.  She  talked to me about their names and answered about fifty of my questions for me.  Later it rained, and half the people at Discovery Cove left.  After that, we had the stingrays to ourselves.  There was a wonderful peaceful silence as I stalked the stingrays on the reef.  When I grow up, I hope I can do it again.  I think that you should stop by Discovery Cove and experience what I just experienced.

Expedition Everest

Getting back in the swing of things is harder than I thought.  I also booked way too much stuff.  There are 3 doctor's appointment, 3 orthodontist appointments, new dance class, church youth group, our first week to co-op, Caden's baseball practice. And let's not forgot grocery shopping, laundry and just general unpacking and household stuff.  Let's just say I can't wait for Saturday to get here. 

Anyway, I assigned the kids a descriptive writing assignment based on one thing they did on our vacation.  Praise the Lord, Allie is back on  her ADHD medicine even if I had to pay way too much for it yesterday (Tricare and I are going to have issues).  While Jaelyn and Caden have only completed their brainstorming, she's done her brainstorming, rough draft and published paper.  Honestly, I love the way she writes.  Did you know excitement had a smell?  This is all her.  I corrected two spelling mistakes and added 3 commas. 

Expedition Everest by Allie

"Let our expedition to Mt. Everest begin!," I said running to get in line for the roller coaster, Expedition Everest. We walked through this amazing, out of this world passage of sightings of the Yeti! When we got on the ride, we put our things in the bag, pulled down on the bars, and headed off on our expedition ride.  We went zooming backwards in the pitch black darkness at the speed of lightening.  Then we went forwards with the wind rushing past my face with my hands up screaming in joy.  There was a rush of excitement in the air which smelled like the aromas of Asia.  Then the ride halted to a stop and slowly, as in turtle running speed, went to the drop off stop.  After we bounced off the expedition, we went on it again.  It was so amazing.  I can't wait to go again when I am older.

On the Road Again

What a whirlwind the last two weeks have been. After our great week in Pensacola, we packed the kids in the van and took them to Orlando!!!

Our first stop was Discovery Cove where we got to swim with Dexter and Roxie...two bottle noses dolphins! It was an up close and personal, once in a lifetime experience. As neat as those 30 minutes were, they were only 30 minutes. We spent the rest of the day snorkeling on the "reef" that was home to hundreds of tropical fish and 44 sting rays. Amazing doesn't begin to describe the feeling of swimming along side a ray wider than I am tall. It rained mid afternoon sending lots of people home. We persevered and got to spend the last hour of the day practically by ourselves. I was especially impressed with the amount of time Jaelyn spent with one of the guides asking question and learning all sort of facts about sting rays.

Next, we checked into the Port Orleans Hotel and headed to the happiest place on Earth...Walt Disney World. We spent four fun-filled, crazy hot days riding every ride we could find at Magic Kingdom, Animal kingdom, And Hollywood Studios.

We've had a lot of fun, but after two weeks, it's definitely time to head home and get back into our routine of school, work, co-ops, baseball, and dance...not to mention sleeping in my own bed.

We'll spend the nigh tonight with my Uncle Clifford in Atlanta and be home late tomorrow night.

Be prepared for a major photo dump some time next week after grocery shopping, doctor's appointments (finally), orthodontist consults, and of course, school.

Family Photos

Literally for years, I've wanted to do family photos like the ones you see of other people's families. You know the ones. Everyone is color coordinated like an LL Bean ad. They are posed perfectly to give that relaxed not posed look. It seems I'm lucky if I get my kids to brush their hair and wear clothes without holes or grass stains on the legs.

My friend is improving her photography skills and offered to take pictures for us. My mom and I spent a mad hour running around Kohls trying to find coordinating clothes because all we have are vacation shorts. I think we did pretty good. Jen's parents let us use their farm as the background. I absolutely love all of the pictures I've seen so far, but these are my favorites. Excuse the black lines and arrows. They are screen shots from Facebook. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jen! You are amazing and I'm so blessed to call you a friend!

Did I mention our Vacation?

After a LONG day driving to Pensacola last week, we have had an absolutely amazing time visiting with family and friends.  The week has gone too quickly.  I'm going to let the pictures speak a thousand words.

Dinner out with our friends is not complete without hunting some geocaches and krispy kreme donuts!

We finally got to see Dan's parent's new house.  They have a pool table the kids loved.  We didn't know Dan's dad had been a pool shark back in his day.

Grandmother enjoyed showing us her new dock.

In order to add a little "school" to our vacation, we visited the museum at Ft. Pickens before we hit the beach.

Dinner out with my parents and grandparents at our favorite place that we have missed since moving.

We had so much fun playing at the beach two different days.  The water was rough.  I had to really pay attention to the kids, but it was worth it for the bigger waves and awesome boogie boarding.

I bought a waterproof digital camera.  I loved being out in the water with the kids to capture precious memories.

Dan enjoyed hanging out under his umbrella.

There are more pictures to come as we have more adventures.  Stay tuned!