Welcome to our familiy blog. The purpose for this blog was mainly for the kids to see what happened during our family trips. Then, it became just a place to record great memories of what happened in our life. Later, as our girls grow up, they can come back here and see all the fun they had.
Today is Kianna's first day of third grade. She woke up early as I did and we both got ready. Not too soon after, Madison woke up. These girls are definitely on east coast time. Anyway, Kianna was eager to go to school because she's attending a new school with new friends to make. Luckily she's the kind of person that gets along with everyone.
When I got to work, I texted Tito to take pictures of her on her first day but this is the one and only picture that he could get out of her. He said that she was too cool for pictures.
I'll have to pick up a cupcake/cake to celebrate a new school year. I got this tradition from my aunt who always started and ended a school year with a celebration cake for my cousin, Gio.
Here's the big 3rd grader after school. She looks happy and the first day of school was a success!
Summer is coming to an end and so is our 2012 summer vacation. The girls wanted to soak up the sun in the resort pool for the last time while Tito packs the rest of the luggage.
Today is actually Kianna's first day of school. She'll be going to her new school tomorrow and I have to head back to work as well but on a good note, we have a three holiday weekend. We plan to relax and recover from our vacation. Although this trip was tiring, it was sooo much fun!! I'd do it all over again. My planning was successful and now I'm excited to plan the next trip, a family road trip to Cali with the girls cousins, JD and Alexa, next summer.
We've enjoyed our vacation and it's coming to an end. What better place to eat at our last character breakfast than 'Ohana' restaurant at the Polynesian Resort. I hope the girls remember all the events that happened, the good ones not the meltdowns.
It's our last day here at Disney World to visit the theme parks and we're heading for a second day to Magic Kingdom. Hope these memories will last forever with the kiddos.
After all the rides and shows, we are ending the night with fireworks at Cinderella's castle. Goodbye Disney World! We've had a wonderful time here and we hope to come back when the kids are older and capture more memories. (I know so cheesy but, I like that stuff.)
We woke up late this morning, which probably was a good thing. We needed to catch up on some needed rest. We are now headed to the last park here, EPCOT. At lunch we will be dining with the princesses but for right now, we are waiting in line for our bus to come.
We rode the Nemo ride and talke with Crush. This was the coolest exit ever. Once you exit, you enter into an aquarium. (Sorry forgot to take a picture. I was too excited.)
We've been almost around the world which most of the time was spent at United Kingdom because of Kianna. She wantes to go to UK for our next family vacation but we told her we would go there when she turns 18. Anyway, we did half of the world and headed back to Soarin by boat to future land, just in time to use our fast pass. After going on most of the rides in that area, it started pouring rain. I had to run and get the stroller and by the time I came back to them, I was drenched. Tito and the girls put on their ponchos and then we headed towards Norway to eat dinner with the princesses. The girls also greeted their uncles a happy birthday.
By the time dinner was over the park was closed and we headed outside to the bus and now we are stuck in this crazy line waiting for a bus back to the hotel. We are definitely going to drive tomorrow. Thy already filled up 3 buses and hopefully we'll get on the next one. Tomorrow will be out last day and hopefully we get better weather. Next time we come back we can do the other half of traveling the world.
It's pouring rain and were getting the edge of hurricane Isaac over Lake Buena Vista but the girls are ready to brave the storm.
We got our fast passes for toy story mania and visited Buzz and Woody. We did a backlot tour and now were having lunch with playhouse Disney characters (June, agent Oso, Handy Manny, and Jake from the Neverland pirates).
After eating lunch, the rain pretty much stopped and it was humid but still bearable. I'd rather have this weather than the sun beaming down on us. For as long as we've been here, this is our first time experiencing Florida rain.
Madison rode tower of terror for the first time. She did really good too! As a matter of fact, she rode it twice.
We really enjoyed the great company with other people in line and the conversations we had. Kianna met a 6 year old girl from Houston, Texas on Rocking Roller Coaster. That little girl was too cute because she had her souther accent.
While Tito and Kianna were waiting in line for Rocking Rller Coaster, Madison and I waited for a seat to watch Fantasmic. It's such a great show. Here's Madison waiting patiently for the show to start. Mind you we were there 2 hours prior to the show and we got really good seats.
Here we are at another character breakfast at the Grand Floridian. This time the girls saw Tigger, Pooh, Alice, the Mad Hatter, and Mary Poppins. After this, we're on our way to the monorail to head to the Magic Kingdom. We got a Filipino hook up because our server was Filipino and she gave us free placemats! lol
Here are the girls on 'it's a small world.' We're trying to do all enclosed rides so we can avoid the rain. The rain isn't bad at all. It's only sprinkling right now and hopefully it stays this way all day. Today, at this park, there is magic hours and the park closes at midnight. That means it going to be a long day for us.
Here's the grils on Teacups. Dumbo was a fun wait too. It's like dining at a restaurant. When you come in the circus tent they give you a pager and have you wait in a play area where kids can climb and not be bored waiting in line. Once the pager goes off you go to the "ring master" and they put you in line for the next flight on dumbo. Pretty cool idea.
The day is almost over for us. We rode all the rides and watched the shows in tomorrow land fantasy land. That took most of our day. Kianna rode space mountain three times. We then watched the finale, night time spectacular (firework show) in front of Cinderella's castle. By this time Madi said she was sleepy but, the night isn't over. We're here until midnight. We are now in line for the fairies and Madison's is conked. The princess needs her beauty sleep.
We're here at Animal Kingdom, our first day at Disney World. We woke up early and packed our luggage and checked out of the timeshare. Then we drove to Disney Pop Century Resort to check in. We were rushing a little trying to make sure we made it for our character dining reservation. The girls had a great time during their breakfast. The girls got Goofy, Mickey, and Daisy's autograph and danced around with them.
We went on a safari and now Tito and kianna are waiting in line for expedition Everest while Madi is knocked out with a cloth around her neck. Thank goodness I purchased the cooling cloths. It keeps you cool without wetting it every time you need it. All you need to do is shake it and it's cold again.
To end our day, we watched the Lion King Show and attended worship service. We saw an old friend, T.J.
We're finally heading back to the resort to eat dinner and try to get in some pool time.
We're here at Clearwater Beach and the girls are ready to play in the sand. This is our day 2 of relaxation. We're not going anywhere for awhile and we'll be dark by the end of the day!!! Aya! Anyway, we chose a perfect day to go before hurricane Isaac hits this coast.
It's Thursday and that means we only have a week left in Florida. To start off the day, we went to worship service in the locale of Orlando at 5:30 this morning. We saw our godparents. They were here on vacation with their kids. It was nice to see familiar faces.
We headed back to the condo for a quick nap for another long day. We're doing LEGOLAND today. This place is more popular for kids Madison's age. I do hope she enjoys it. On the way there, while driving on the free way, we saw a Mickey Mouse head shaped power pole. From our condo it takes about 50 minutes to get to LEGOLAND but we finally made it!
We had a blast on the roller coasters. Madison was allowed to ride some too. Kianna and Madison rode their first wooden roller coaster and we rode it 5 times in a row. There were no lines at all at this place. Tito and I loved it. We took our time and rode several rides once or twice. We were able to head out early and head back to the condo for our last dinner at the condo before we head to Disney Pop Century Resort. We will need to clean up the condo tonight and get our things together because tomorrow we may not have time to do this because we're heading to St. Petersburg Clearwater Beach. Our original plan was to head to Cocoa Beach but there will be thunderstorms because of Storm/Hurricane Isaac. My grandma of course called and was worried about the storm hitting us but, it'll miss us and brush Florida's west coast and the other nearby states. We'll just pray that nothing bad happens to us. Here's to another successful day in making great memories for our kids.
Here we go, our second day to go to a theme park. This time we're heading to Island Adventure. We're going to head out early and try to hurry to the Harry Potter Rides. The girls are excited to get their wands.
The girls are having a blast at Dr. Seuss land. Island adventure is much more fun than the regular universal studio. They have more children rides here.
We are now in Harry Potter land and in line for butterbeer while dad rides dragon challenge. This better taste good because this line is long.
We couldn't miss out on the adult rides. Here's Tito on the incredible hulk.
Out of our 12 day vacation, we have two days to relax and today is out first day of relaxation. Pool time and outlets and do whatever comes our way. The girls are set and ready to swim for the day. Swimming lessons paid off for Kianna. Madison still has to use her floaties but at least she's not scared.
Our first theme park for the vacation will be spent at universal studio Orlando. Here's a picture of the girls ready to face the hot weather with camelbaks and misting fans.
Our first attraction was shrek and now we're in line on the worst ride ever, E.T. A few people know that I hate aliens and extraterrestrial things. I'm getting goosebumps. Anyway, the girls are having fun they saw a few characters like Lucy, Popeye, Lisa and marg Simpson, and hop the rabbit.
We arrived at the airport, Tito and I. Our good friend, Ron, dropped us off. The girls were with my mom. We checked in and waited for the girls to arrive. They finally got to the airport and Titocrept up behind them with a camera trying to record the moment. But it was not so much a surprise trip forKianna. She was playing us all along andknew the entire time. She told me thatshe had a clue because she glanced at my phone calendar. It’s a backfire of being so organized. I guessI can’t really hide it. I seriouslythink that I should change my password to my phone. I'll have to upload the video later. I'm having technical issues.
The flight was tiring. Well, I was tired. Tito grabbed aburger and fries before we boarded the plane and we scarfed that down. As soon as we got on the plane the girls tookabout 30 minutes to settle down. Madison, Kianna and I sat in the same row (madison at the window) withTito right behind us. Tito was lucky tonot have a smelly person sitting next to him. The movie on board was ‘Avengers’ Kianna watched part of it but wasfalling asleep after 15 minutes of watching it. Madison slept well. Tito keptwaking up because he caught himself sleeping with his mouth wide open. As for Kianna and I, it seemed as if we keptadjusting ourselves to get comfortable.
The girls woke up after the plane landed. We arrived at ourlayover airport, Atlanta and it was 6:46am. The girl’s wide-awake and hungry. Luckily I packed lunchables. While waiting for our next flight at 7:50am, we needed something to keepthe girl’s occupied. I packed theirbackpacks with Paper, books, color crayons, pencils, 3DS and games. On our connecting flight, Kianna had a turn tosit at the window.
We safely arrived in Orlando and our first thing to do was go to church. We were late for church because it started at 9:30am instead of 11am. I got the wrong information. So we headed to the condo to check in and went grocery shopping. I cooked lunch and had the kids relax. They wanted to go swimming but they found something else better to do.
The kids and Tito are now resting and waiting for a dinner surprise to Medieval Times.
Sooo.... I didn't get the reaction I was looking for when we arrived at Medieval Times. They fell asleep in the car and were cranky. We're about to enjoy our dinner. We're on the yellow team!
Here we are on another adventure with the family. We're heading to Florida and it's gonna be a doozy! We're leaving tomorrow after our friends wedding. Excited and yet the girls don't know about the trip. Well at least I don't think they know. I have a feeling Kianna may know what's going on because her dad gave it up a few times and my response is, "what are you talking about?" We got our clothes, swimming suits, and electronics packed and ready to go. Speaking of electronics we purchased this camera (Canon t3i) and a JVC camcorder.
BAD IDEA! I have no clue how to use a t3i and our camcorder isn't Mac-friendly. I should have bought it a few months ago to practice with it. We got a good deal on the JVC because it was refurbished and only $112.00. I'm so glad I have a brother who know's his technology I can ask him to convert the video's for me. Now that we have our new gadgets, we can get video of the girls doing their activities. I'm excited to make our family video's and take as many pictures as I can (Once I get use the camera).
In preparation for our Florida trip, I thought it would be a great idea for the girls to have swimming lessons. So four weeks out of the summer break they swam everyday, Monday to Friday. The first session, Kianna swam and passed with flying colors and went from youth 1 to youth 3. She skipped a lesson. As for Madison, she didn't pass but, don't get me wrong, you can see the determination on her face that she wanted to learn how to swim. She was just stiff as a board. After finding out she didn't pass, I decided to go to family swims with the girls and practice Madison to float. All I said to her was, "relax and pretend your sleeping in bed on a pillow" and a few seconds later she was floating. She was so proud. She couldn't wait to tell her dad. So on to the second 2 week session, of course little miss fishy, Kianna, passed again and this time so did Madi! Just look at her face!!! She was proud of her accomplishment and so were we.
