Homeward Bound

Morning came waaaaaaaay to fast!  Clearly we are not morning people...especially when we have a day full of traveling ahead of us. I need to keep that in mind next time I book us flights anywhere.

There really wasn't much blog-worthy activity, except that Alyssa was so stinkin' cute!!  She wanted to be big and do every thing by herself.  She refused to let us help her with her pillow and me...which fell off every 5 steps.  And, she was watching a show on Dan's phone with headphones as we walked through the airport.  Such a teenager thing to do.

Our flights were smooth and {thankfully} uneventful.  Grandpa picked us up from the airport and took us home...There really is 'no place like home', but I already miss Disney.  We are seriously thinking about joining the Disney Vacation Club.  Anyone else members? Thoughts??   

Only about 800 more days until we go back... ;)

Disney: T - 360 Days

Alyssa and Hannah have been dropping subtle hints that they want to go to Disney for a while.  Lately, it has reached an all time high.  At our block party a few weeks ago Alyssa drew this picture with chalk and announced, "Mommy! Daddy!  I drew the Disney World castle with fireworks!!"  They have also watched the Disney Vacation planing DVD multiple times and began forming a detailed itinerary ;)

Luckily, we had planned on taking them next summer anyway.  We thought 4 and 6 would be the perfect ages to remember it and still be captivated by the magic of all the characters.  Today, I made it official.  We booked the resort package!  We were originally planning on renting a house, but after talking with a couple different friends who are yearly vacationers of Disney and our totally awesome, FREE travel agent (Elyssa Antonelle at Mickey Travels) we decided it was better to stay at a park resort.  It seems slightly higher, but really after you run the numbers we broke about even.  The package includes lodging, tickets and the dining!!   Plus, we will be surrounded by Disney magic 24/7 :)  I. Can't. Wait.

Since we are driving, we are going to go through Charlotte and see some family and friends on the way there and back.  Plus, we are going go to Sea World while we are in Orlando since it is only about 25 minutes from the resort property.  Now that I am planning, it is actually a little overwhelming because there are sooooo many things to do and see, but our travel agent is going to take care of most of it for me...even down to making dining reservations and the girls' appointments at the Bippity, Boppity Boutique. A week is not really enough time. Some things are a 'must see', beyond that I am not too worried about it. It's Disney...the whole place is magic!  No matter what, the girls are going to L-O-V-E it!

I am praying the new 'Fantasyland' at the Magic Kingdom will be open by then.  It is set to have everything princess..including Belle's full sized castle, Ariel's Undersea Adventure and the Dwarf's mine; but the phased opening was recently pushed back from 'early' 2012 to 'late' 2012. Maybe they could get Ty Pennington to help out.  He can demolish and rebuild and entire house in 106 hours ;)  Oh well, I guess that just means we will have to go back another time! Darn.

So, this time next summer, we will be wrapping up our time at the Magic Kingdom with dinner reservations in Cinderella's Castle with the princess!  I don't know who is more excited, me or them!

Good 'Ole Carolina

We didn't really plan to go on vacation this summer, but decided to take a quick trip to North Carolina to visit some family and friends before the crazy Fall begins.  It was a fun trip!  The girls did AWESOME on the drive down.  Thank God for the inventor of the mini-van entertainment system because they barely slept!!  Even so, we only had to stop twice (one time because of me and once for lunch)!  They really rock on road trips...who would've thought!?!?!   Good thing because I am not a huge fan of flying.  Anyway, we stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Bender the first night, had dinner and watched 'Up' together.  Cute princess story of the night: Aly put on her Snow White dress after dinner and was looking for her crown to go with it.  After a few minutes of searching through the bag of 'essentials' she packed she settled on a different one.  Then she stood next to me and sighed, "I know I packed more crowns than that..."  She is such a diva!     

The next morning we went to Concord Mills, the best mall ever.  Seriously.  Easton is good, but this is kind of like that only all indoors...and with outlet stores!!  Dan and I got a lot of great deals on school clothes [which be both really did need and had planned on buying anyway] and I got a lot of clothes for Aly for this Fall and next Summer at unbelievable prices!  For example, I got her a really cute jean skirt at The Children's Place for $1.99!  After the mall, we went to see 'Despicable Me' with Grandma and packed up for our next stop.

That night we drove into Charlotte to stay with the Robillards.  We have missed them, and all of our other friends, since they moved down there!  They made a traditional southern meal at their new house - which is adorable - and surprised us with having our other friends to join us!  It was definitely a fun time catching up, laughing and watching a terrible movie just like old times ;)  Amie found a great library to visit in uptown with a ton of kids activities, so the next morning we hung out with Justin and Amie and took the light-rail to uptown.  The girls thought the train was really fun and exciting and the library was amazing.  Unfortunately, when we were getting ready to leave and I was changing Hannah she jumped up and slammed into my jaw.  I don't know exactly what she did, but my neck was killing me and I immediately got an intense headache so we went back to get ready for dinner and I took a nap.  Dinner was with more fun friends at a great burger joint...with the BEST sweet potatoes fries ever!  We topped it off with a quick stop by a park on the way home.  Then, I turned in early with the girls because my head was still aching and Dan watched another movie with Justin and Amie.

The next morning we had to leave to come home.  Even though my headache was pretty much gone, my neck was still hurting really bad (it seems to be ok now, but it took several days to feel better).  The ride home still wasn't bad either though.  It was a really fun trip overall!  Hannah has been asking to go back "to 'lina" ever since! 

A Walk On The WILD Side

We took the girls on an African Safari yesterday...right here in Ohio.  Neither one of us had ever been to the Wilds, but decided to try it out.  It was insanely HOT...too hot really, but we had a good time and got to see some really amazing animals, unbelievably close up.   

The Wilds is private, non-profit conservation center located just outside of Zainesville, Ohio.  Situated on nearly 10,000 acres, donated by the American Electric Power Company in 1986, it is one of five parks of its kind in North America.  Of the five, only three allow visitors.  Of those, The Wilds is the largest!  The land is a resurfaced mining area, which means they stripped all the soil away down to the rock, removed the coal  and replaced the soil.  Consequently, there is only about 6 inches of soil all over the park which is the reason grass is about the only thing that will grow and browns quickly in the heat giving the appearance of an African Sahara.  Pretty cool...who know there was something like this right in our own backyard?!?!?!

We went on the bus.  It was cheaper because of our Zoo membership and the buses were supposed to be air conditioned.  They also had an open-air tram you could go on.  We thought about it, but it is a good thing we didn't because the girls were scared enough with the animals coming to the windows of our bus!  We saw some rhinos, some endangered deer and very friendly camels on the first leg of the trip.  At the stop there was a big lake you could walk down to to feed the catfish.  It was a long walk down...in the blazing sun...with NO breeze.  But, the catfish were enormous and grateful for the snack.  Here are a few pictures of the girls feeding them:

 

The camels walked right up to the bus when we stopped.  Your can only see the back end of the one on the far left because her lips were against the glass!!

 

The rhinos were being fed so we got to see them really close.  They look like they are wearing a suit of armor.

 

Having a snack and waiting on the bus to come back and pick us up for the next part of the tour.  The background was beautiful!

 

The next part of the tour was probably the best.  When we started we were driving along along side a heard of giraffes.  Slowly they got in front of us and we were just crawling along behind them.  I think the giraffes were everyone's favorite...and we had to make sure to take lots of pictures for grandpa because they are his favorite too!  We didn't see much at the second stop, but the last bus was a nice relaxing ride! Truly a life-saver...it was air conditioned!  Overall, it was a unique experience and we definitely had fun!  Next time we will just plan to go in the Fall!!

 

See the wiper blade...this was through the bus windshield!

Rhino butts...it just seemed fitting for the last picture ;)