Start of School

The girls started school on August 24th (so I'm 3 weeks behind). Riley is now in second grade and Kamryn is in Pre-K4. We are lucky that both girls like school and were looking forward to going back. Riley didn't have any friends in her class, but she certainly has some now. This teacher doesn't believe in warnings, so Riley has already gotten in trouble twice for talking. It might be a long year! Kamryn already knew her teacher since she went to that school last year (plus Riley had that teacher when she was this age). She has two best friends that are back and they are pretty much inseparable. Luckily, they don't sit anywhere near each other. Also, Kamryn is super quiet and polite at school (so not like her sister or how she acts at home). We were all up early this day. Both girls knew what they were wearing, but both had requested that I straighten their hair. Luckily, it went well and we got everybody where they needed to be on time.

Our Second Grader...notice how her shoes match her shirt...totally styling in her words

Getting in the car

(this was the only day she has ridden in the car as she prefers the bus)

Our sassy preschooler with her favorite hip hop pose

Getting in the car with her Hello Kitty backpack and lunchbox

Here's to another school year!! We can't wait to see how much and what they learn. It is always an adventure. Go Kamryn and Riley!!

Water Parks and more water parks...

Since we bought those water park annual passes, we decided to take advantage of them. So, just a few short days after we were there with Doug, the girls and I went back one afternoon. Then, the next week, we all went to Typhoon Lagoon for a few hours. Again, it was tons of fun!! Doug and I did Shark Reef (the girls were a little scared) and Riley and I went on Crush'n'Gusher (a water roller coaster type thing). Because we got there early, we were able to get on everything before the lines were too long.

The Saturday before school started we headed back to Blizzard Beach. This time, we met some friends, the Palfreymans, and had even more fun. They have girls similar in age to ours so they had fun going on all the slides. Riley even got to go on Slush Gusher (not the super tall one, but the one right next to it) because Morgan was willing to go down too. We're really thankful he did that and Riley loved it. She can't wait to go back. Hailey (their daughter) missed riding by a hair and Riley really wants to go back when they can ride together.

I know these are all of Riley, but she was doing all the big stuff when we had the camera (well, actually when Stacy had the camera)

New Calling

While I was away for my birthday weekend with the girls, I got a new calling at Church. I am now Young Women's President. I was quite shocked when I was extended the calling, but I'm also excited! For those of you who aren't of my faith, that means I'm over the girls ages 12-18. We meet together on Sundays and have mid-week activities, plus there are dances every now and then. It should be fun!! I'll let you know how it goes!

More Birthday Fun!!

Birthday Hat Fun!!

After having a wonderful girls weekend, I came home and we had birthday fun as a family. Doug and I had wanted to go to Disney with the girls and spend the night (they love that) so we used my birthday as an excuse to go (plus we wanted to go before school started). So Tuesday (Aug. 4th) we headed to the Magic Kingdom. We knew it would be crowded and it was. The kids weren't too keen on the lines (we usually don't go when it's going to be super crowded), but we did ok. Riley and Kamryn both wanted to see Tinkerbell and her friends so that is where we went first. Well, we were in line for a LONG time (Doug actually took the girls somewhere else and came back) but we finally got in. Both girls loved it. They got to see Tinkerbell, Silvermist and Fawn. We hadn't been there since they opened the meet and greet area...it was really cool.

The girls and Tinkerbell

We left the park around 3:00 and went to check into the hotel. We had thought about staying somewhere nicer, but settled for All Star Sports. The kids don't really care as long as they know we're on property and since you only sleep there, we went for the economy option. We spruced up a bit and then headed to Doug's restaurant (Boma) for dinner. like many of our friends, we LOVE to eat at Boma and even though Doug works there, we don't do it nearly enough. We also took some time to go and check out the animals (a favorite pastime of the girls).

What do you see?

The Magic Kingdom was calling our names again, so we returned. It was still crowded, but we got to do some of our favorite rides...Buzz Lightyear, Big Thunder Mountain, Carousel, etc. Riley was sad because Space Mountain is down for rehab and Pirates was broken. Oh well, we still had fun. We even manged to take them to the Hall of Presidents so we could see all the changes (I don't think I've been in there since the added George W so we got to see two new figures). We tried to leave before fireworks and stuff but did get caught in Spectromagic crowds. We stopped and watched for awhile, but it's hard to hold both kids up so they can see.

Yes, that is my (Lori's) score for Buzz Lightyear...Doug thinks I cheated somehow

After making it back to the room we hit the sack. Wednesday morning we were up early and went to Blizzard Beach. We had these tickets we were going to use, but found out when we got there that we couldn't. The girls were sad but handled it well (we actually left and were heading somewhere else). So well in fact that Doug had us return and we bought annual passes. They weren't that much more than buying regular tickets for all of us and we knew we would use them. We had so much fun at the park. We usually do, but it was even better this time because Kamryn would ride everything. The only things she didn't go on were those that she wasn't tall enough for anyway. It made the day much more fun because we could all stay together. I think our favorite is still the family raft ride! Once the afternoon showers came in it was time to head home.

I'm so lucky that I have such a wonderful family! I love my husband and kids and really enjoy spending time with them. I'm glad we could have such a great time!!

Catching Up

I realize I am behind on my posts, but I will catch up. I should be able to get everything caught up in the next few days. Plus, I finally learned that collage trick so I can post more pics at once. We'll see how I do. Hope you are all doing well as summer comes to a close.

Birthday Weekend

OK, for my birthday, Doug wanted to send me away somewhere (to Jamaica actually), but I couldn't find anyone who could go with me. So I changed my plans and was able to get 3 of my friends to go to Amelia Island (just north of Jacksonville) with me. We rented a condo at Amelia Island Plantation and all left kids and husbands behind. It was a fun weekend of laughing, going to the pool and beach, reading books, and watching chick flicks. It was nice for all of us to actually relax at the beach and pool...no kids to watch or tug on us to go do something (not that we all don't love that too).

Here is a pic of the condo from the front door. It had a great couch and sectional that we could all lounge on while we read or watched tv or a movie. It actually backed up to a golf course which made it super quiet. I don't think we actually saw anyone on the course while we were there, but there were several courses people could play.

This is a picture of a frog..one of those tree frog types I think. Somehow it had snuck in and we had to try and catch it. It was the funniest thing ever watching us try and move furniture and catch this frog before it jumped on us or into one of our bags. We finally caught him after chasing him out from behind a credenza and was able to take him back outside where he belonged. We also had a lizard in the condo one day and a palmetto bug. the area all around the condo was trees and stuff so I guess we shouldn't have been surprised.

Lisa, Lori, Emily and Kellie outside Plae

Getting ready to eat dinner...yum!

The girls as we headed out for my birthday dinner. Most of us had gotten too much sun that day while we were relaxing. We didn't plan out outfits, but it made us laugh as we took pictures...this was our reverse oreo design. We went to a neat little restaurant in the shopping area at Amelia Island Plantation called Plae - People Laughing and Eating. The food was good and we laughed tons. Then we ran an errand or two before heading to the Ritz Carlton Hotel for dessert. I decided I wanted a souffle for dessert so we headed there. Lisa and Kellie and never had one and Emily and I kept saying how great they were. We sat in the lounge area of the nice restaurant at the Ritz (called Salt) and ordered our souffles. We had already warned Lisa and Kellie that it would take awhile and the server confirmed that (20 minutes) when she took the order. We're not sure what happened, but it took like an hour. At least they did taste great. Plus, when it came time for our bill, they said they were taken care of. We were all surprised since we hadn't complained or anything, but who is going to turn down free desserts. On our way back toward the entrance of the hotel, we stopped by their game room. This was no arcade like you find in most hotels... it is the Ritz after all. No, this place had x-boxes with games (at least 4 of them), a wii, board games, a small movie theater with cushy seats, a fuse ball table and an air hockey table. I think we saw a sign that said it was for kids under 19, but we didn't care. There weren't any kids in there at the moment (there might have been some watching the movie but they were behind a curtain) so we decided to play. Kelli and I played some Guitar Hero while Lisa and Emily played air hockey and wii bowling. We were all laughing so hard!! Finally someone came by and said that it was time to go.

On my actual birthday (Sunday), the girls had gotten some kind of lemon cake since it was my favorite. Since we didn't have any candles, we decorated the cake with the rest of our peanut m&m's. the cake was yummy and very unexpected! It's great to have such wonderful friends!!

There were so many cool big trees around the property that we decided we had to climb some. So, before we headed home, we did just that. This tree was outside the pool/beach club where we spent Friday. We all thought of our kids and how much fun they would have with those trees!

We also went up to the north end of Amelia Island different times to the town of Fernandina Beach to walk around and go shopping (we took pictures of each of us with a "pirate" but I don't have those. All in all it was a wonderful weekend with friends. It was the best way to spend a 40th birthday!

Thanks friends for celebrating with me!! It was awesome!!

Central FL Zoo

Riley's pics from the zoo

We were invited to go to the zoo with some friends. We've never been to the Central FL Zoo and had heard it was small, but decided to give it a try. The girls had fun walking around. I even let Riley bring a camera so she could take pictures on her own while I took pics with mine. We met Pam, Ben and Jonah there and soon after Kellie, Aubree, Lacie and Peyton joined us. We had fun walking around and checking out the animals. We saw elephants, giant tortoises, kangaroos, tigers, monkeys, an owl, and more. It was small, but the kids didn't seem to care. Afterwards, the kids got to play in a splash park that was there. My girls rode a little train that was out front and they saw a ropes course they want to go back and try. It was a fun day (or morning) with friends!!

Lori's zoo pics