Our anniversary

So as my last post said, I bought a Divequest trip at Epcot for a combination anniversary and Father's Day present. Divequest is a dive at The Living Seas(or now as it's called The Seas with Nemo and Friends) at Epcot. It features a six million gallon indoor aquarium with more than 65 species of marine life.
I had booked this over a month ago. I had the early afternoon to evening babysitting all set up a month in advance but last minute I realized that we may actually be able to make a day out of it. My cousin, Kelly, just recently started an internship at Epcot so she hooked us up and got us into the park so we could enjoy the day there. So Jen, Doug, and Baby Ben Liebler spent the morning and early afternoon with Parker and Sydney and then Papa and MeeMaw came over to pick up the early afternoon to night shift.
I can't remember the last time I have been to a theme park, let alone Epcot. It was so much fun! She even hooked us up with some fast passes so we could ride the rides with very little wait. It was our first time on the Mission Space ride and we got to do it three times.
We met at the front gates at 4:15 for our dive. It was so fantastic to get back underwater.
The marine life was incredible. Not sure we would ever be able to experience so many types of marine life in a single dive in the ocean. We swam with sharks, turtles, eagle rays, sting rays, Goliath groupers, and all kinds of other fish. It was strange not feeling frightened of the sharks. I have seen sharks in the ocean and I remember being curious but definitely nervous. In there though, you know they are well fed and cared for. I felt a great respect for the sharks but I was not fearful. There were actually a few times that they came with in arms reach and I just sat back and watched. It was one of those things I will check off my list of things I want to do in life and it was definitely nice to be back in the water, but is nothing like an open water ocean dive.
We are planning to make a trip to West Palm next month.
After the Divequest experience, they released us back into the park. We had not had a chance to visit the World Showcase, so we decided to travel around the World for our anniversary.
We ate dinner in Mexico and then stopped and had dessert and coffees in France. Then we found out that the Magic Kingdom was open until midnight and our passes were park-hoppers so we decided to hop on the monorail to Magic Kingdom. As we were on the monorail leaving Magic Kingdom, we got to see the Illuminations show at Epcot. When we arrived at Magic Kingdom, every one was on the street waiting for the parade. We walked right onto Pirates of the Carri bean(our first time since they changed it). Then we went to Splash Mountain and practically walked on. When we were on Splash Mountain the Magic Kingdom fireworks began and I swear we had the best seat in the house up there on that ride.Then we made our way to Thunder Mountain where we also walked right on. We attempted to make it onto Space Mountain but that was an hour wait. Instead we road some kiddie ride where the Delta ride used to be and then decided we were "done". It was already an hour past our bedtime(11pm). HAHAHA
We caught the monorail back to Epcot and by the time we got home it was after 1am. Can't remember the last time we were up that late on purpose. I am adding a picture of Patrick at the end of the night. On our walk through the parking lot, he hopped in wheelchair. The other picture I am adding is a picture we took of ourselves when we were leaving when Epcot around 9pm. Can you tell how tired we were already??
Here is a video of a part of the late night parade at Magic Kingdom before we left.

Father's Day 2008

Here is how it went....
Each part of this poem(Clue) was in an envelope marked
with a Blue paw print which led him to next the Blue paw print.
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Happy Daddy's Day!
Today we have something special to say,
Happy Happy Daddy's Day!!!
Blues Clues is our favorite show,
So on a Treasure hunt you must go.
-
First you need to find Clue #1.
It's with your glasses you wear for sun.
-
Next you'll have to think and think.
#2 is underneath a sink.
It is hidden in a place
With what you use to protect your face.
-
Now its time for clue #3
Oh how anxious you must be.
Where do you put a special date?
So you'll remember and not be late?
-
This present is a two for one
For Father's Day and anniversary fun.
June 21st at 30 minutes 'til five
You and Mommy will scuba dive.

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I know, I know, it's cheesy but hey it was fun. Anyway, as the poem suggested this gift was a two for one. We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary a day early and went to dive the Living Seas at Epcot.

Will tell you all about our Divequest experience on the next post.

A Trip to the Beach at 14 months

Ok...so this morning we woke up and had the idea to be spontaneous with our 14 month old twins and go the beach for a little bit. So we quickly fed them breakfast, packed up, and headed east to Cocoa Beach. While definitely not our favorite beach it was the closest and we had a prior commitment to pick up friends at the airport.

As soon as we dropped our gear and the kids onto the sand, I realized we had made a terrible mistake. We had not "pre"-applied the sunblock. Yes, we are responsible parents, we did not forget the sunblock. I just failed to think about how each one of my little ones would react when they hit the sand. They started digging in right away. Needless to say, sand and sunblock...not a fun mix. Well, we managed to get the kids rinsed off enough in the ocean to apply the sunblock but by that time they realized what the ocean was--a GREAT BIG SWIMMING POOL!!!! Sydney was more cautious as always but Parker he couldn't get enough. When we were finally able to drag them away from the oceans edge, they continued to play in the sand. At one point, Parker actually picked up his shovel and started"shoveling" some sand right into his mouth. It didn't bother him one bit. They were covered from head to toe in sand. We brought snacks and drinks along and I tried to place the dried apples in their mouths to avoid more sand in the mouth, but then they would push the snack into their mouths with their sandy hands. After playing in the sand, they got up and started running--in opposite directions. And now it was time to go. So then there was the whole..."how are we going to get our kids and all of this stuff back into the car?" Oh and you know that whole spontaneous thing? Well spontaneous with 14 month old twins means you may just forget something important like say, an extra pair of clothes--you know some dry and non-sandy ones. So our babies spent their ride back to Orlando in diapers. Hahaha!!!

The kids had a great time! Mommy and Daddy were whooped!

The best thing about experiences like this are that they teach you so much about what to do and what not to do. Guess sometimes you have to learn the hard way.

Enjoy a little video and some pics from our trip to the beach!

This blog is dedicated to GRANDPARENTS.....

Grandparents are meant for kisses and hugs,
For watching rainbows and catching bugs.
For baking all of your favorite things,
For books to read and songs to sing.

~Grandparents~

Few can bring the warmth
We can find in their embrace,
And little more is needed to bring love.
Than the smile on their face.

They've a supply of precious stories,
Yet they've time to wipe a tear,
Or give us reasons to make us laugh,
They grow more precious through the years.

I believe that God sent us Grandparents
As our legacy from above,
To share the moments of our life,
As extra measures of His love.

GRANDPARENTS


Grandparents bestow upon their grandchildren the strength and wisdom that time and experience have given them. Grandchildren bless their grandparents with a youthful vitality and innocence that help them stay young at heart forever. Together they create a chain of love linking the past with the future. The chain may lengthen, but it will never part.....