Universal & Wet & Wild

Universal Studios & Islands of AdventureWet & Wild was the boys favorite day. They LOVED the water slides. Yes...that is Hudson coming down that HUGE slide all by himselfAnd YES..he is 3!While we were there it rained like crazy for about 20 minutes

2 days of parks an we were all beat! I have no idea how families come down here and park hop all week!

Night life!

On Friday Brett & I took the kids down to the hotel. They got a taste of the pool / water slide for a while. Then they got to check out the rooms. Connor & Hudson were so excited to see a hotel room. I think the exact quotes were "Yeah Baby!" and "Sweet!". Since Brandon & Erin had to work they met us there around dinner time. Then we took all of the kids to City Walk for dinner and some arcade fun.The boys loved this virtual rideWe had a great view of the fireworks from the hotel!Saturday night we hired a babysitter to hang out with the kids while we went out for grown-up dinner. Very good idea to get a short break in between 2 days of parks!On Sunday night we all went to the Alehouse for some chicken nachos (Erin's favorite food in the world!) The kids had fun learning to play pool.

Water slide FUN!

The hotel had a fun waterslide and kid area. Hudson & Olivia needed a litle help getting out of the pool.
The dismount contest

Vacation

This past weekend we took the boys on a little vacation close to home. We went to the Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando. It is only 40 minutes from our house. The boys have never slept in a hotel before so we thought it would be a good idea to stay close to home for our first try. The hotel was beautiful! There was a great pool and a fun water slide for the kids.Of course we went with BERO. We got adjoining rooms and the kids all had a blast. They played so great together.The hotel is made to look like Portofino, Italy. There were cute Italian cars and scooters all over the property. Plus, there was homemade gelato!The boys did great sleeping in the hotel. We turned them sideways on the bed so they would have more room. Hudson liked it so much he was sad that I wouldn't let him sleep in Connor's bed when we got home.

I have broken the vacation down into 4 posts since I had way too many pictures for 1 post. Plus, I am way too tired to write about the whole trip right now!

Speeding ticket

17 years of driving and I just got my first ticket. The boys thought it was pretty cool to see a police officer that close. I did not!

I don't even like pirates!

Let's just say that Connor's birthday party last year cost almost as much as Brandon's minivan. Soooo, I had a great idea on how we could save money this year. I planned for us to go to Pirates Dinner Adventure and let him bring as many kids as we could fit in the van. I figured it would be easy, entertaining and CHEAP! I tried my best to get Connor excited about it. It wasn't really working. Then I checked the prices. It was going to cost us about $400!!! WHAT??? I had no idea. Luckily the week before his birthday Connor said to me "Mom, I don't think the pirate show is a good idea for my birthday, I don't even like pirates". I asked him what HE wanted to do for his birthday (hmmm, maybe I should have started there) and he said "I want to go bowling, CiCi's pizza and have a dinosaur cake". DONE! A couple of bowling parties we have gone to the parents kinda get in the way and it seems more like a social event. So we decided not to invite any. Plus kids behave waaaaay better when their own parents are not there. We told Connor he could invite as many kids as fit in the van as we would be driving all of them. We had everyone meet at our house and then off we went for the least expensive party ever! I had free bowling passes I got by signing up for the on-line coupons at the AMF website. I only had to pay for their rentals. Erin came along with us to take pics and because Olivia is still 3 and kinda young to drop off at a party. Then Erin (our sister in-law) met us at the bowling alley to help us out as well.Next it was off to CiCi's pizza. Connor's favorite place to eat. Uncle Justin met us there as well! The kids were awesome. We were like a well oiled machine! I paid, Brandon & Erin sat the kids down, Justin & Erin got all of the kids drinks. No one wined, no one complained that we didn't offer soda. They all ate great! Plus we fed 8 kids and 5 adults for $50!Then it was back to our house for dinosaur cake & presents!Yes, we bought him a BB gun. No, I do not want your opinion!Right after cake the kids wanted to go swimming. They swam until it was time for the parents to pick them up. The boys had fun dunking!

Air Connor!Then Brandon showed them how to empty the pool! I wish that picture wasn't fuzzy and I wish you could hear the ROAR that comes out of his mouth when he dunks! The boys thought he was pretty cool!

It was a great little party and as usual I learned a lesson from our kids. just listen to what they want. Most of the time the best ideas are the simple ones!

5th of July

On the Sunday before Connor's birthday Grammy & Pops invited us over for a BBQ and some family time. Uncle Justin & Aunt Erin came along too. Erin is looking so cute all pregnant! She is one of those pregnant women that most women hate. You can't even tell she is pregnant unless you are looking right at her tummy. I love it! I am so excited for them to enter the wild ride of parenting and to have a cousin for the boys who lives minutes away!!

Grammy & Pops surprised Connor with a birthday cake & presents. It was cute how much it meant to him.

Someone looks guilty...may be because he just stuck his finger in the cake!Connor loved getting more pieces to his dinosaur racetrack!Then we had fun swimming with the boys. It was a great family day and the perfect end to a super fourth of July weekend!

4th of July

And now back to our regularly scheduled program....We spent the 4th of July at Bruce & Kathy's (& Tara's). We offered to bring over our water slide. The kids all had such a great time. They spent almost 4 hours on it! Aunt Kathy even got in on the fun...in her clothes!

Erin & I have noticed that Connor has started to make his move for Olivia's love! Check out the hand holding. She told us one night that she is going to marry Connor since he always does what she wants him to do. I told her that was a good quality in a husband!

And now Hudson has become Ryan's shadow. I don't think Ryan minds.I'm not sure how many times we said "BOYS..NO CLIMBING UP THE SLIDE!!!" But apparently it was not enough! Connor was so proud of this fish!The perfect castEven I fished...I did not however put a worm on the hook or take seaweed off of the hook Connor's first game of Twister...he loved it!Erin made cookies. Hudson LOVES Ms. Erin's cookies. Sometimes he hands me my cell phone and says "I need to call Ms. Erin". When I ask why he always says "I want her to make the cookies".We had a great celebration with our "other" family. Connor just about passed out in Tara's arms even before the fireworks started so we headed home early. The boys were so exhausted they slept right through all of the fireworks in our neighborhood. So did I!