Tuesday, February 28, 2012

toy story mania




 This ride was by far the most popular. We were able to use the Fast Pass on it, otherwise we never would've stood in the line. But it was definitely fun shooting all the things.

Really I just wanted to show these pictures because Vannessa is in them and I didn't take many with her.




Tuesday, February 21, 2012

brock and the characters


I love how in so many of the pictures with characters Brock canNOT take his eyes off of them. And usually looked so confused. I guess Trey did it a lot too. :)

 


Sunday, February 19, 2012

minnie

  Trey's favorite character is Minnie. Even though he used to call her Mickey. He carries a little doll of her around with him everywhere - including the Blue and Gold Banquet last night.

Here he is getting kissed


 And here he is giving a kiss
 
Pardon my sister's hand in the picture. If I was better, I'd crop it out now before posting it, but I'm not. It will be easy to just crop it out when scrapbooking. And it looks like maybe she got a better picture of the kiss than I did. Perhaps she can email it to me. ;)

He just loves looking at these pictures!! It renews his love all over again!

Friday, February 17, 2012

the airport


 On both flights, we (or at least some of us) got stuck at the airport in New York. (Which is what happens when you fly stand-by, which is the only way we could ever afford to fly out there.) 

On the way there we arrived in New York at 7ish and were hoping to get on a flight to Orlando at 9. When they called our names, they only had 3 seats available and about 30 seconds to get on the plane. So Seth grabbed Trey and Cole and got on that flight. Seth's bag didn't have wipes or a diaper and Trey decided to stink up his diaper on the flight so Seth was stuck with nothing til they landed. Oops! Luckily all our bags arrived with them so he was able to change him them.

Easton, Peyton, Brock and I hoped to be on the next flight, 2 hours later. Well, that didn't happen. They only had 1 seat available. So we waited another 2 hours. She called my name and said they only had 1 seat available. I said I needed 3 seats so we couldn't get on that flight. She then called someone else's name and 2 people got on. (What the?!) Then she called another name and 2 more people got on. (Excuse me?!) I walked up to her and said "Excuse me. I'm not trying to be rude but you just told me you only had 1 seat available and now 4 more have gotten on." She very rudely said "No! I called them before you." I said "Um.... no, you called me before them." She responded "No, ma'am. I didn't. I called them before you!!" So I cried. Yep. Right there. 

So we walked down to the gate where the next flight would be leaving and waited 2 hours. Again. We didn't make it. The next flight left an hour later so we waited for that one. That one only had 2 seats available. Then an hour and a half later we finally made it. And I did have a good experience there, when people saw that the boys and I were going to have to sit apart from each other, (Peyton right in front of me and Easton across the aisle.) they offered to switch seats and not sit by their companion. It made me so happy. We arrived in Orlando at 7. If we had all made the first flight, we would've already been done with the 7 hour drive into Atlanta. Instead, we got to our hotel right before 3 in the morning. It was the perfect start to a vacation. ;)

 On the flight back, the first flight only had 5 seats available to begin with, so we were already planning on having to split up again. But by some crazy miracle, all 7 of us (we only needed 6 seats) made it on the flight. And I got to sit with Peyton and Trey with Brock on my lap. East and Cole sat by each other. And Seth was all alone. Lucky. ;) (For the record, I was actually going to get the seat alone, but as I was walking down the aisle to my seat, I realized I was going to have to nurse Brock squished in the middle of 2 strangers. No thank you! So I switched with Seth.)

 After making the first flight, we had a nine hour wait til the flight back to Salt Lake. Luckily the airport had a kids play area, which we sat in the entire time, unless we were eating. 

And now, to the whole reason I started this post... the pictures... Brock didn't seem to care so much for the things to climb and slide on, instead he kept pulling shoes out and then making a run for it. Unless of course he saw me taking his picture.

Friday, February 10, 2012

superheroes

 Part of Universal is all about Superheroes. And of course they have the characters to meet. Meeting them was actually pretty cool. They would ask the boys questions, show them how to pose, sign their autograph book and other things.

(the green backdrop is the green screen where you can buy their expensive pictures that look like you're from somewhere Spiderman lives)
showing the web hands

 Dr. Doom. Trey would NOT turn around for these pictures, no matter how much I screamed his name. As we were finishing up, Dr. Doom said to me "He knows better than to turn his back on me." (Haha. Good one. Bet you've only used that a hundred times.)
 Captain America

Here's a story about the lovely autograph book - My sister Vannessa bought it for Peyton on our first day in Disney. So we spent that day getting signatures, the next day in Universal getting more and then the following day back in Disney getting some. (We waited longer in those lines than lines for the rides. But since nearly every ride line was shorter than 10 minutes, that was okay.) Then we were getting ready to go back to Universal and we realized we couldn't find the book. I couldn't believe it. It was bothering me to think about all the wasted time standing in lines. We called Disney's Lost and Found and they didn't have it but took our address and said they'd mail it if they found it. I truly thought it was forever lost and they just say that to people but never really mail things. We bought a second book and spent more time in lines (although this time only really short ones) trying to get some signatures back. But 3 days after arriving home, a package arrived at our house with the first book in it. I was shocked and thought it was pretty awesome. Peyton thought I turned into Super Woman because when I showed it to him, he asked "How did you go to Florida so fast?!"

Cyclops signing the book
 my favorite superhero picture

Thursday, February 9, 2012

playing

 Universal Studios had a couple places for kids to just play. It was great for them to get some time out of the stroller and out of the hot sun.


Watching them play with the mirror was one of the cutest things.




Peyton was with us during this time but he was running around too much for pictures, except for this one

And this is what the older boys were doing while we were playing. Totally soaked! But they loved it and begged to go on it again. (Seth is also soaked, you just can't tell.) So glad I chose to skip that one.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

real kings

 So let me start off by saying a few things:
-there will absolutely be no rhyme or reason to the rest of the posts from our vacation. I'm just going to go thru the pictures and find any that I want to share.
-it may take me a month to get thru them :) (especially if my sister ever emails me all the pictures she took. hint. hint.)
-I may not even say much about the pictures.
-guess that's it.
-enjoy! :)


Trying to pull the Sword in the Stone. Some of their faces crack me up.





Wednesday, February 1, 2012

delivering the news

So, the boys did not know that after Georgia, we would be going to Florida to go to Disney World and Universal Studios. We decided we would tell them on the drive down (a 7 hour drive from GA to Orlando - which is where we had to fly into since that is the closest place Jet Blue flies in to, and thanks to my mom working for them, we could actually afford to fly). They thought we were going to the airport to come back home. 
We obviously didn't plan it well. Seth wanted to tell them and I told him I wanted it on camera. Besides that, we had no plan. So right after a bathroom stop, we told them. Seth told them to "go stand there, mom wants to take your picture", and apparently, they chose this time to be very obedient in standing there, looking at the camera and smiling.


Make sure to watch til the very end for proof that Easton (who most seem to think is perfect) can be a stinker of a brother. :)

Definitely not the reaction I was imagining.

I now know I should've been recording them without their knowledge. Oh well. Maybe that little bit of information will come in handy for one of you sometime.

visiting the Allens

 We finally made a trip out to see Seth's family. It was long overdue. His mom and brothers have come out a few times, but we had not seen his sisters in 8 years! How sad. I know.
It was so wonderful to be with them. And fantastic to have our boys play with their cousins. 4 of our 5 boys all have a cousin very close to their age in Georgia. I loved seeing them run around and play together. They were all automatically friends and after seeing that, I was definitely sad to realize it will be another long time before they can play again.
I sure wish I could magically make them all live nearby. I've often (selfishly) thought that it's nice to not have to split holidays and bla bla bla between 2 families, but after our time with them, I'm truly sad the boys (and us) don't get to have ongoing, close relationships with that side of the family.

Seth's 2 sisters, Heather and Jessica and Jessica's boyfriend
 
Seth's mom (Nana) and Zeke, 6 months old (lame he's not turned around, I know!)
 Easton and Gabriel, just turned 9, having a serious discussion ;)
 Lots of the group :)