Let the Fun Begin!!

Well, the weekend came and went with its usual speed. Friday afternoon we had no plans for the weekend, other than watching the Alabama football game on Saturday, but that was soon to change. Allison and her friend covertly planned a sleepover. Around 6:00pm I talked with the mom, and she said it was fine for Allison to sleepover. I told the mom that I would feed Allison and send her over about 7:30pm (the mom already had four kids to have to feed and I figured I wouldn't add a fifth). Just before dinner, my sister called and asked us if we wanted to go to Disney's Animal Kingdom on Saturday. Her husband just started working there and get lots of free passes. The weather was going to be perfect, so we said count us in.

At 5:50am Saturday morning we get a call from Allison that she is not feeling well at her sleep over and she wants to come home. Allison is an anxious child and often gets overly excited about things to the point of nausea. A trip to Disney warrants such excitement. I drove down and picked her up, brought her home and put her in her bed. She feel asleep for a little bit and then got up and felt fine. I wish I could have gone back to sleep for a little bit too! Saturday morning, after Rachel's horseback riding, we headed to Orlando. We got to the park around noon. I had packed sandwiches so that we could eat before we entered the park, thus saving about $45 would we spend on lunch in the park! We ate our lunches in the car as we waited on my sister to arrive. With all the Disney passes, we just had to pay for one kid to get in-it was still almost $70, but to think we got a family of five in for that and it is a bargain! The girls had LOTS of fun. They worked up the nerve to ride their first real roller coaster, Expedition Everest. I was so relieved when we found out that Leah was indeed tall enough to ride it. They could not stop talking about it for the next 24 hours. Mike and I tried to keep up with the Alabama game via his iPhone. On the way home we were logged onto a site that kept sending in updates to keep us sort of informed. With three seconds left in the game though it decided to quit refreshing. My sister texted to tell us the game went into overtime. I called her to see what had happened and she told us about the blocked kick. We knew nothing until she texted Roll Tide Roll! With that, I had to call her and get the scoop on what went down. Go Bama!!!! Almost wish I could have stayed home and watched the game......almost.

Sunday we had to get back to the routine. We went to church in the morning, and I had to go to the grocery store in the afternoon. The girls talked Mike into dragging out the kayak and letting them paddle around in the lake behind the house. It turned out to be the excitement in the neighborhood and drew every child within a one mile radius to the lake shore to take a turn paddling around. After the kayaking the kids headed over to the neighbors to swim for a little bit. Whew! We made it through another weekend. Below are some pictures of the weekend.


Welcome to Animal Kingdom!Mike and Rachel at the start of the day.

The African Safari ride was really cool! The girls ride the train.
All the cousins pose with the elephants. Rachel pets the goats.

When this cow bellowed it was REALLY loud. Rachel did not like it at all! The girls at Dinoland. Sunday afternoon kayaking.