Islands of Adventure
Fritz catching his own kind of hot air balloon ride.
My dad thought it was so clever that he bought all the grandkids Rudolph noses, complete with a blinking light inside. They liked to see each other wearing them.
The boys and their hats they found.
Clay got some cool shades, that were sadly broken by Cody the next day.
Surfin' the waves
Face Painting
"Venom"
"Wonder Woman"
Happy Faces
Loved Dr. Suess's "Grinchmas" and "Whoville".
Such a cheeser! You have to tell him to "show me your teeth!" to get a good smile out of him.
Stylin little dude
Universal Studios
More hats...
Not really sure what kind of hat this is...
My favorite childhood character, Grover.
Horton
Thursday, late afternoon, Chris left to go home. He had to work the weekend at his second job and wasn't able to get all the time off. I was a little sad but sometimes you do what you gotta do, right?
Recovery Day
Friday, was kind of our day to relax and recoup. We were so tired from park hopping the previous 4 days that we all really needed to just sit still for a moment. Plus we had lots of packing to do.
Ayden is obsessed with Woody's (from Toy Story)hat. He puts it on everything, including his little brother Kayson.
Mom and Kayson
Mom and Cody
Aunt Erin and Cody
Gifts from Aunt Melba, Uncle Joel and Aunt Patti.
Dr. Seuss/Chalkboard placemats
Cody was so interested in Clayton's super hero book.
Aunt Patti made me a beautiful quilted christmas ornament.
Decorating a Ginger Bread house.
It looked pretty good...til it collapsed. So we ate it.
We did facial masks. We needed to be beautiful for the end of the world. :)
Saturday, we had to be out of the Tiger house by 10am. So after packing and cleaning up after ourselves, we left and headed out to lunch with my Grandpa.
This is where Fritz was found the morning we had to leave.
I'm not sure why the boys were so fascinated with this stuffed fox. (this was at the restaurant where we ate lunch with Grandpa and Grandma Phyllis.
Clay doesn't get to see him very much but he just LOVES his Great Grandpa. He wanted to sit next to him and hug him and had to tell him everything he could think of. Every year my Grandpa gets a new Hess vehicle-he collects them. Sometimes my dad gets it for him, sometimes he picks it up himself. Well this year my Dad bought it for him and gave it to him at our lunch on Saturday. But apparently Grandpa had already gotten the one for 2012-2013. So he turned to Clay and gave it to him. It was like he had given Clay the world. His eyes lit up and you couldn't wipe the smile off his face for the longest time.
At the airport getting ready to go home.
The flight home was crazy annoying. With two hyper little boys? Yea, very tiring. However, I was grateful that I wasn't the woman sitting in front of me with 3 hyper boys and a husband that was completely passed out sitting adjacent to her, offering no sort of help or relief. I was so happy to be off the plane and going home.
Every year my mom gets us all a christmas ornament to remember our family vacation by. This Mickey/Santa Belly was our ornament this year, and by far my favorite.
We had a fantastic Christmas vacation. I love being with my family and it's always so sad to leave them. I'm so very grateful though to my parents for all their hard work and generosity. For giving my kids wonderful, wonderful memories, and ones that I certainly can not afford on my own. Thanks Mom and Dad. We love you and miss you already!!
