Here We Go!

Let the walking begin.....oh, and for the record, she won't be 10 months old for another 8 days!!!! I have a feeling my life is going to change drastically VERY quickly!!! LOL

FYI....even though it looks like there's no video there, its there, just click the little play button on the bottom left of the square.

LOVE

I think we're making some progress around here!! I love when I catch Brady and Emily playing together and laughing and having a good time. I especially love when Brady is actually trying to make Emily laugh!!! I love these two kids!!! :-)

I'm guessing from this video that Emily isn't going to find Halloween or ghosts very scary since she laughs every time Brady says "boo"!!!

Unbelievable Vacation....

and not really in a good way!! Honestly, if this didn't happen to us, I would TOTALLY think someone is exaggerating!!! LOL

We left for Florida on Wednesday January 27th for a 10 day vacation, part of which was to be spent in Tampa and the rest in Orlando at Di$ney. The trip started off just fine but went downhill rather quickly.

We spent the first two nights at my parents house and even got out for date night!! We both had dentist appointments and I got my hair cut/colored and Alan made it to the eye doctor for some new glasses. On Friday we headed over to Tampa for the G@sparilla festivities. It was really great to see so many of our good friends and Alan had a good time "marching" in the parade. The weather wasn't so great so my mom, the kids and I were not planning on watching the parade, but it cleared up a bit so I was able to take Brady to see the last hour or so of the parade...we got to see daddy, so that was cool!!! And Brady got some really cool beads so he was totally happy.

On Sunday we headed over to Orlando to meet up with our friends Billy and Heather and their daughter Peyton. We had a fun filled week of theme parks and birthday celebrations planned. Monday we went to EPC@T for the day and other than the weather being a bit gloomy/rainy we all had a fun time, especially in Germany at the beerhaus (see pics in post below).

At about 4am Tuesday morning our vacation took a bad turn....Emily woke us up crying and she was burning up. Of course I had forgotten to pack a thermometer so my "mommy instict" told me that she was way too hot, so Alan took her to the hospital (which just happens to be next door to our timeshare) and found out she had a temp of 102.2. They gave her some antibiotics and diagnosed it as "a fever" and told us to give her the combo of Tylenol and Motrin and keep an eye on her....they were back home in an hour and a half! Alan stayed back at the condo with Emily on Tuesday while I took Brady to the parks. (Alan had purchased the 4 days/4 parks pass and I had a 6 day pass, so it made sense for him to stay back). Emily slept most of the day and seemed okay. Well by about 11pm she was burning up again so this time we both went to the hospital (we left Brady with Billy and Heather) and she had a 103.3 fever this time!!! They ran several tests on her and everything came back negative so they concluded she just had some virus that would eventually pass. We were to continue with the antibiotics, Tylenol and Motrin and bring her back on Thursday for a re-check. Alan stayed back with her again on Wednesday while Brady and I (and our friends) went to the M@gic Kingd@m. On Thursday I stayed back with Emily and took her back for her re-check...she still had a fever, but was definitely doing better. Meanwhile, Alan, Brady and I were all starting to feel sick!!! My parents arrived later Thursday night so they could spend Friday, Brady's birthday, with him. Well, my mom stayed at the condo with Emily and Alan, my dad and I took Brady to Anim@l Kingd@m for his Birthday. We had fun for awhile and then it started pouring so we headed back to the condo. We quickly ran out and got a cake and ice cream so we could have a "party" for Brady. On Saturday we decided that Emily was feeling well enough to go to the M@gic Kingd@m, so we all headed in, a bit late, for some fun. MAN, was the park crowded for February!! We didn't get to ride too many rides b/c the lines were so long, but we were having a good time UNTIL we got word that our flight home on Sunday had been cancelled because Virginia was expecting 10-20 inches of snow!!!!(I haven't even mentioned that the weather in Florida was HORRIBLE for most of our trip...it was either raining or cold the whole time we were there) We re-booked on a flight out of Tampa on Tuesday, but that flight ended up getting cancelled too!!! So we re-booked for Wednesday....yep, you guessed it, that flight got cancelled too!!! So we finally ended up switching airlines and booked a flight for Thursday afternoon, which FINALLY got us home....to about 2 feet of snow!!!! UGH!!!! So, what was to be a 10 day vacation turned into 15 days away from home!!! Needless to say, we were all VERY happy to be home!!!

(to see pictures from our whole vacation you'll need to scroll back to the previous page)

T-Rex C@fe

When we arrived in Orlando we first went to Downtown Di$ney to walk around and have some lunch. We decided on the T-Rex C@fe (think R@inforest C@fe, but with dinosaurs) and it was really pretty good. Brady LOVED it and Emily seemed to think it was pretty cool too. Of course it's a bit pricey, but the food was actually good, so we didn't mind and we'd be happy to go back again on our next visit! Apparently we were too focused on the dinosaurs because we don't have any pictures of the kids here!! Oops!! LOL Here's some dinosaurs to enjoy!!

EPC@T

Despite the weather, today was a good day. Little did we know that this would be one of only 2 days all 4 of us made it to the parks. We had fun riding rides and hanging out with good friends and watching the excitement on the kids faces was priceless!!

Brady and Alan on the Sp@ceship E@rth ride

Mommy and Emily on the Sp@ceship E@rth ride

Alan and Brady again

Peyton and Brady holding hands through the Nem@ line

Brady and Peyton checking out the aquarium at the end of the Nem@ ride

These are the only 2 pictures we have of all 4 of us from this vacation :-(

Petyon and Brady (could they be any cuter?)

Brady checking on Emily in the back of the stroller

In the German beerhaus....is this considered double fisting??? LOL

Cuteness!

Peyton and Brady dancing away in Germany

Alan (2nd from left) and Billy (far right) were picked (along with the other guy) to help with the cow bell demonstration...they did a good job!!!

Peyton and Brady with their masks they decorated in China

Di$ney H@llyw@@d Studios Part I

Today Brady and I met Billy, Heather and Peyton at DHS after sleeping in for a bit due to the middle of the night hospital visit. We had a good time even though we were only there for little while. It was nice for Brad and I to get some "alone time" since we haven't really had that since we brought Emily home. I KNOW he was LOVING it, not having his sister around!!! He loves her, but he's still mommy's little boy!!! :-)

With JoJo and Goliath...he has NO IDEA who these guys are, but he clearly LOVED them!!!

Brady was in awe of these army men from T@y St@ry...he really LOVED them too!!!

on the slide in the playground area...he and Peyton had a good time running around here, but it was pretty crowded so we didn't stay too long.

M@gic Kingd@m Part 1

Today started off with a character breakfast to celebrate Brady's birthday. He absolutely, positively LOVED it!!!! I wasn't really sure how he would react, but as you will see in the pictures, he was digging it!!! We were bummed that Emily and Alan weren't there, but we had a good time anyway.

The rest of the day was fun too. We rode lots of rides, ate popcorn and had a good time in general!!

Chip, Red(the bear) and Brady! ( I was REALLY surprised that Brady didn't mind that Chip grabbed Red)

Brady, Chip and Peyton

Chip, Red and Brady again

High fiving Pluto

Brady LOVED Pluto!!!

Brady, Pluto, Peyton and Billy

Minnie and Brady

Brady, Minnie and Peyton

Brady, Dale and Peyton

Mommy, Pluto and Brady

Brady blowing out the candle on the cake they brought out for him!

Brady with his cake!

Peyton on the carousel

Heather and Billy on the carousel

Brady on the carousel

Brady, Peyton and Heather on the tea cups....Brady LOVED them!!!!

Heather and Peyton on the teacups the second time

Even though I HATE the teacups, Brady got me to ride them with him!!! I LOVE that he had so much fun on the ride!!!

On the kiddie roller coaster

On the People Mover

Di$ney H@llyw@@d Studios Part II

Today Alan took Brady to parks while I stayed back with Emily and took her back to the hospital for her "re-check". They had a lot of fun and by far Brady's favorite ride was T@y St@ry M@ni@....they rode it 4 times!!!

On the backlot tour...Brady was a little scared of the fire!

With one of the army men from T@y St@ry again

On the T@y St@ry ride!

Watching the stunt show....he really liked this too b/c he's still talking about the smell of burning rubber!!! LOL

Anim@l Kingd@m

Brady's request for his Birthday was to go to Anim@l Kingd@m so that's what we did! My mom stayed back at the condo with Emily so Alan and I could both spend the day with him (my dad was with us too)! The day started off just fine but by about 2 or 3 in the afternoon it started pouring so we headed back to the condo.

These pictures are all from the safari ride, which Brady loves!!! It's great to go on this first thing b/c all of the animals are out and about!!

the male lion was even roaring for us...so cool!!!

Some more pictures from around the park:

The lady was "hiding" in the bushes on one of the walkways!!! Pretty cool!!

a silverback gorilla

the Dad's took the kids on the dino ride

Brady zonked out while he was hanging out with my dad while the rest of us rode the Jur@ssic P@rk ride. He woke up in time to see the Bug$ L*fe show, which he really loved and is STILL talking about!!! When we came out of the show it was POURING so our day was over!!