Animal Kingdom - Day 2

On Tuesday, we hit Animal Kingdom. This was definitely a more laid-back day than the previous one at Magic Kingdom. We got our fast passes for the safari ride and then headed straight to see The Lion King show.

Hughes practicing his wart hog face and snort. We were in the wart hog section for the show.

This show always entertains me.

After the show, we were ready for our safari.

The boys loved it.

Hughes kept telling me at the beginning of the safari that his favorite animal was the Eskimo. I kept asking him to repeat himself and explaining to him that an Eskimo is a person not an animal. After going back and forth several times, he finally pointed to a picture on the ceiling that had a whole slew of animals and he pointed to the antelope. I said, "antelope" and he said, "oh yeah, antelope".

Giraffes are so cool.

We saw all of the animals except for the lion. We could only see the tip of his tail swaying. Otherwise, it was a huge success. We saved the baby elephant from the poachers. The boys were concerned about the mother of the baby elephant. I didn't have the heart to tell them that it was only pretend. I love their innocent hearts.

On our way to DinoLand. We tried to get fast passes for the Yeti rollercoaster but they were all out. Mom & I were ready to take it on. Oh well, I'll settle for a dinosaur ride.

Playing in the dinosaur playground. The boys needed this running, climbing, sliding time.

Collins really, really enjoyed the dinosaur playground because he had been in the stroller all day the previous day and finally we were somewhere that I would let him really play around. He climbed these little rocks for what seemed like forever. He also has mad climbing skills.

One of the workers came up to me and told me that he had never seen a kid scale the rope ladder as fast as Hughes had done it. He was quite impressed. Maybe I should sign Hughes up for rock climbing? Just kidding - over my dead body is he going to scale the side of a mountain! Does he know what I went through to have him?

This is when Banks told me he was "sweatery". You gotta love it!

After the playground, we went around the corner and found the below dinosaur tucked away in the trees to have our lunch. We packed our lunch daily and treated ourselves to ice cream & snacks in the parks.

Of course when you're in DinoLand, you must hit the dinosaur gift shop. Not surprising the boys went straight for the dinosaurs that we bought two years ago when we were there. I steered them away from the "already purchased" dinosaurs. Hughes picked two geodes/crystals. He is really into rocks lately and will collect any and all. Banks picked two race cars - Mickey and Tigger.

We ended the day with the Nemo show. The boys were entertained with their new toys and Collins was entertained by the sweetest 9-year old boy sitting behind us. Thank heavens for him because otherwise it would have been me wrestling a greased pig for about an hour. But when the show started Collins was totally enamored. In fact, he did really well in all of the shows we went to. Well, except for the car show but that's for another post.

So, Day 2 ended at the park with 3 happy boys. Did I mention that the weather the entire time we were there was in the mid-70s? It was awesome weather.

Magic Kingdom Day 1

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving with Mickey. David stayed home to focus on finals and the boys and I headed off to Orlando with BecBec and PopPop. I'm thankful this year will be the last year that holidays get interrupted because of law school.

On the monorail heading into Magic Kingdom.

Welcome to Disney World!

Love some brotherly love! Hughes immediately said upon getting into the Magic Kingdom that he was not riding any roller coaster rides. Guess we scarred him last time with Goofy's Barnstormer. I thought Banks may be my roller coaster kid but the area with the Barnstormer was closed so I guess I'll have to test that theory next visit.

The Teacups with Pop Pop.

I wanted to throw up midway.

Collins and PopPop waiting outside of Dumbo. I also realized at this point that my boys have not seen a lot of the old Disney movies. I was trying to explain Dumbo and Hughes looked at me like I was crazy - baby elephant, huge ears, flies. Can't say I blame him.

BecBec and Hughes up in the air.

Buzz Lightyear time.

Definitely a family favorite.

Look who is having fun!

Total concentration.

Total Domination!

Jailed with Zerg or Zorg.

Something like that.

Winnie the Pooh

Sword in the Stone

Woo Hoo - Ride'em Cowboys!

Another Dumbo ride.

Goodbye Magic Kingdom!

The boys were troopers. We were at the park until 9pm.

Labor Day Wkend

We headed up to York on Friday to spend the weekend with David's family. We spent Saturday at the lake. The kids swam, built forts, played hide-and-go-seek, and had snow cones while the adults watched football. I have no pictures of all this fun because the manual switch was flipped and I couldn't figure out why all my pictures were blurry so I stopped taking pictures. Thankfully on Saturday I noticed this and, voila, my camera was back in business.

Dad and Collins hanging on the back patio at Dawa & G-daddy's house.

The face typically behind the camera.

Collins & Dawa

Making silly faces while they eat there birthday cupcakes. So far, all of the Holman grandchildren have Fall birthday between the end of August and October 9th - that's 5 grandchildren's birthdays to be exact. So, we always have one big family birthday dinner. Think of it like a mini-teeny-tiny Christmas. The kids love it and everyone gets a present.

4/5 of the grandchildren - Charlotte (2), Hughes (5), Banks (3), and Kate (4)

Dawa & Collins - Collins was blowing raspberries and thinking it was hysterical.

My Boys

Giving Gigi kisses and thanking her for the Batman and dinosaur birthday gifts.

G-Daddy and Collins checking out Collins' new smartphone - thanks Fisher-Price!

Shooting webs in their new Spiderman pajamas complete with slippers that Dawa & G-Daddy got them as part of their birthday present. The other portion was Transformers that only David can figure out how to transform. I'm steering clear of those things because I know what will be asked of me - 100 times a day!

The weekend was great and was made even more relaxing because we had Monday to take our time getting back to Charleston.

Hilton Head

The boys and I just got back from a week in Hilton Head with BecBec & PopPop. We had a great time. We did lots of swimming in the pool - the boys would rather go to the pool than go to the beach. Hughes is doing great with his swimming and Banks is, too. Besides the day and a half of rain and early wake-up time from Collins, I would say the week was perfect.

We climbed to the top of the lighthouse at Harbor Island in Sea Pines.

They had a puppet station set-up from The Sand Box for the kids to entertain themselves. We tried to stay for the man under the oak tree but were just too tired.

Showing off their puppet skills.

We played putt-putt in the drizzling rain. The boys were a hole ahead of us while BecBec, PopPop, and I had a serious competition. BecBec was leading at the turn but choked on the back nine. PopPop held strong in the middle and I came from behind to win by 5 strokes - woo! Competition runs strong in our family.

One morning after I went running, we took the boys out to the beach for Hughes to practice riding his bike.

Excuse my sweaty self but a family pic was a must.

PopPop and Banks about to hit the waves.

I created a new game at the beach for the boys. It's called "stick the sand shovel in the ground and try to throw the dive rings around the handle". This was a great fun, allowed me to sit down, and kept the boys entertained.

We also played hop-scotch - also something that allowed me to sit down. I surely missed David and the entertainment he provides the boys on the beach!

One afternoon, we went to Caligny Public Beach Access where they have these fountains. The boys loved it and ran themselves silly.

One morning Collins got up so early that we went to see the sunrise on the beach. It was beautiful but, man, that was early.

Hanging at the beach in BecBec's tent.

BecBec and Banks jumping the waves.

He discovered the sand and decided he liked the way it taste.

Collins had another early morning. I guess he thought the first sunrise was so beautiful that he wanted to see another one.

This is what he looks like at 6:15 in the morning - turkey!

We saw some turtle nests which was pretty cool.

And, one last sunrise picture.