30 Days About Me (Somewhere I’d Love to Travel)

Oh Geez, EVERYWHERE!

But seriously there's just a few places I would love to travel:

• London, England
• Alaska
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Kauai, Hawaii (already been but REALLY want to go back!)

• Paris, France
• Christchurch, New Zealand 
• Brazil
• Salzburg, Austria

• Cairo, Egypt
• Tokyo, Japan
• Orlando, Florida (I'm always up for a DisneyWorld trip)
• Athens, Greece

• Amsterdam, The Netherlands 
• Sydney, Australia
• Morocco
• San Marino, Italy (All of Italy for that matter!)

• The Atlantis, Nassua Bahamas 
• Fredrikstad, Norway
• Las Vegas, Nevada 
• Edinburgh, Scotland

That's like 10% of the places I want to go :)

This was a fun trip around the world! Now I am all ready for a vacation. Where do you want to go?




au revoir, adieu, ciao, till next time...

A Beachy Kind of Weekend

Last week the kids and I shoved off for Myrtle Beach, SC. Both of them have been so good and doing so well at school i thought they deserved a special night with me at the beach. They had a great time exploring the aquarium:

The next day my parents came and picked the kiddies up for some fun at their home. Thus began my girls weekend away! And what do most ladies do when they are alone with out their hubby's or kids??? They go to Alligator parks of course :)

Well OK, there may have been a few fruity cocktails and mischief mixed in as well ;) One can not go to Myrtle Beach with out a stroll on the sand... (we even found sharks teeth!)

It was a a nice weekend away. We all had fun. Now I'm back to reality, my son is home sick... so am I :( Good thing I had a little mini-vacation to break it up a bit.

What is your favorite place to go for little mini-vacations?

au revoir, adieu, ciao, till next time...

Epcot Day

Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know I am WAY behind on adding the rest of our family's Orlando vacation on here. Sorry life just never slows down around our house and since summer is in full swing I am on permanent "mommy, entertain us!!" mode with the kiddies.

Epcot was a lot of fun. Sure it's more educational than the other parks, but don't think it is any less fun! We had a blast.

Favorite things break down:
*my son: Test Track, Turtle Talk with Crush
*my daughter: Mexico, Mission to Mars
*my hubby: Mission to Mars, Test Track
*me: the aquarium, The Worlds

One thing we all enjoyed was a band called "Off Kilter" in the Canada land. They were awesome! Very cool Irish bag pipe music set to drums and a rockin' show.

It was another scorcher. We spent a good deal of time splashing in the many fountains around Epcot to cool off. I for sure want to come back here again. I feel like we weren't able to see even half this park has to offer. One more park to go!!!

au revoir, adieu, ciao, till next time...

Disney World Featuring The Magic Kingdom

On to our next installment of all things Mickey...

The most famous (and my favorite) of all the parks is The Magic Kingdom. I could easily spend the entire week at this 1 park. If you have ever been to Disneyland this is very similar. A lot of the same rides are shared between the two, the main difference is that MK is bigger and more spread out.

It was a scorching 5 million degrees Fahrenheit on the day we went. Thank goodness for breathable clothing and frozen water bottles!!

Favorite things breakdown:
*my son: Buzz Lightyear, Splash Mountain & Pirates of the Caribbean
*my daughter: It's a Small World, Dumbo, Peter Pan's Flight & Goofy's Barnstormer
*my mom: The enchanted Tiki Room, It's a Small World & whatever the grandkids liked
*my hubby & dad: every ride that made the kids happy
*me: Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, Mickey's Philharmagic & The Tea Cups

We took a break mid-day to cool off and take a short rest back at our cabin. Armed with some new "get up and go" we were able to stay and enjoy the park till late in the evening. I am also shocked and pleased to report that both kids were happy without 1 hissy fit ALL DAY! Wow, Walt Disney sure is a magical guy ;)

We've done MK quite a few times over the years and here's what I've discovered about crowds:
* Halloween is an amazing time of year to go. Trick or Treating with your favorite Disney characters is just so cool! And there are hardly any people, you get the park pretty much to yourself.
* Christmas and Thanksgiving are decorated to the max! The crowds are moderate, but nothing too crammed to enjoy yourself.
* Mid-June is HOT!!!! The crowds are big, but they were not near as bad as I expected.

We hope to try February/early spring next time around. Hope you've enjoyed your little tour of the Magic Kingdom :)

au revoir, adieu, ciao, till next time...

Disney World Featuring Fort Wilderness

I have hundreds of pictures from our fun filled family vacation, there is NO WAY i am going to be able to talk about all we did in 1 post. So I have decided to break it up for ya'll :) This first installment is all about where we stayed: Disney's Fort Wilderness Campground.

We loved it! We opted for a cabin instead of tent camping.

My daughter took pony riding lessons, my son took archery lessons with the rest of our family. We swam, explored, watched the wonderful Hoop-Dee-Doo Review, enjoyed S'mores with Chip n Dale and made amazing wonderful family memories.

We rode our bikes all over the campground, and also rented a golf cart to tootle around in. It was so nice to wake up and head to the parks via boat too! It was a wonderful place to stay especially since we had a large group. I highly recommend staying here to anyone, even those that don't like camping. It's very magical, Disney magical. 

au revoir, adieu, ciao, till next time...

My Big 7 Year Old!

My munchkin is growing so fast! He recently turned 7, I am in shock at how fast time truly does fly. We celebrated the occasion by having a Mad Science birthday at the South Carolina State Museum. Friends and family joined us for the festivities. I love that my son enjoys science so much, something he did not get from his mother :)  I was always the artsy type while my husband has always been the math/science kind of person. I like to think the mud pies and day dreaming are thanks to me, ha ha.

The kids at the main entrance of the museum, ready to PARTY!

Munchkin and Mini-munchkin making science goggles

 
science experiment time with daddy!

no candles were allowed so grandpa used the lighter on his iPhone, so funny :)

All the party kids


being attacked by JAWS!

my hubby, myself, lala & papa with the kiddies

It was such a nice birthday party. The museum did a fabulous job. We had a scientist do cool experiments using the kids as willing volunteers. I always love when you can mix in some learning into the fun.


au revoir, adieu, ciao, till next time...

Museum Collages, Too Much Fun!

The Children's Museum of Phoenix.
"Crazy Camera Lady" came along, I took a million pictures.
We all had a fabulous time playing together.
Click for larger collages, Enjoy!

The ceiling was decorated with thousands of paper origami crane's.
The kids loved catching the scarves that fell from the sky.
Huge crawl through tubes made everyone giggle.
Daddy even played with some of the "air experiments."

At the art studio the munchkins created painted bugs.
The tricycle obstacle course was a big hit by all.
My girl created her own flower garden.
We learned about gravity!

Time for some grocery shopping at the market.
Fish made from recycled laundry bottles hung on the walls.
We loved running through the Noodle Forest!
The kids were our chefs at the kiddie cafe.

My favorite part of the day.
A quiet nook perfect for a good book.
Tired kids enjoyed snuggling with mama.
A perfect end to a perfect day!

au revoir, adieu, ciao, till next time...

To The Lake We Go

My friend Melissa over at "Spoiled Mommy" took her family fishing last week and it inspired me to take my munchkins for a fun outing! We found out the fishing lines were tangled, our fishing licenses were expired and we didn't know where the tackle box was... go figure.

We decided we could still go to the lake and play. Want to come along?

Let's hit that open road!

Look we made it! And no one complained the entire way!

I see water, how exciting! (you can tell we've been in the desert too long)

The water was a perfect temperature, time for some swimming.

Let's relax and enjoy the scenery!

Here's what we see from our lounge chair, so pretty.

I think the munchkin is enjoying himself :)

Oh look! A mermaid washed up on shore!

It was such a nice afternoon relaxing in the sun.

What did you do this weekend? Today the munchkins and I are off to the movie theatre to enjoy some air conditioning! My hubby will be home nursing the nice red sunburn he got from our day at the lake :( We had such a good time playing up there that next weekend we're going back with a BBQ and some friends! Hope you all have a wonderful week.

au revoir, adieu, ciao, till next time...

Dog Dayz...

My dogs are learning to adjust to the HOT weather. We had hot before we moved but it was south-eastern humid. Now we live in south-western dry, very different. Each dog has their own method of dealing with it, let's check it out!

Meet the characters: (oldest to youngest)

Louie LOVES splashing in his "puppy pool" and will actually play till he almost passes out! We have to dump the water out after awhile so he doesn't hyperventilate. He's such a weirdo.

Sammy, the strong silent type. He just wants a nice cool shady spot to nap. No frills, no tricks. Just concrete.

Jackson isn't sure what he likes yet. He enjoys checking out what the other dogs are doing and copy them. (as long as mommy is close by though)

Here they all are splashing around and keeping cool.

I wish my life was as simple as a dogs. *sigh* Maybe that's why we have 3, I'm secretly living vicariously through them, Ha Ha.

au revoir, adieu, ciao, till next time...