Third time is the charm...I hope...

In December of 2010 we spent a week at Disney with AG seeing all the holiday splendor and it was so beautiful. It was a great trip but it was also hard because all three of us were sick. (I was also 3 months pregnant with Avi-Kate.) Since then we've tried to go back to do all the Christmas stuff again just not sick. And the last two years we've had to cancel for various reasons. As it is last year everyone but Avi-Kate came down with a stomach virus...so I was grateful we ended up canceling. I told Andy that I can't keep planning on a Christmas trip and then having to cancel it. So here's hoping that this year we actually make it to Disney! Once again the kids don't know this trip exists but they have been asking daily when are we going back to Disney so the timing couldn't be better! For this trip we have a voucher to try Wyndham's Vacation Club at Bonnet Creek and we are curious to see how it stacks up next to Marriott's. Then we'll finish the last two nights at one of Marriott's Vacation Club resorts. We are going to try a new to us Marriott by staying at Harbour Lake. (At some point we plan to do a trip and stay here when it is hot so that the kids can take advantage of the amenities...they have a pirate ship water feature, putt-putt course, etc.) This will be the first trip where we have to pay for AG and I'm sad that our kid free days are numbered. Oh, well it had to happen sometime. Avi-Kate has another year of being free before we have to pay for her too. Our plan is to take advantage of this and get our monies worth out of the fact that we have to pay for AG while Avi-Kate is still free. 

This trip is going to be really low key and we are going to do everything that the kids want to do. Andy and I will be back in January for race weekend so we'll get to ride our favorites then. Also, it looks like we'll get to overlap with my dear friend, Evan, and her crew for a day. Last fall our trips lined up like this and we had an absolutely perfect day together. I'm really excited about getting to spend some time together with all our kids in one of our favorite places. I've booked a few dining reservations and analyzed the crowd forecasts to maximize our park time so the kids get to see everything they want. We are trying to really hard to prioritize trips like this right now when they are so little because they LOVE everything about it and get completely wrapped up in the magic of it all. Avi-Kate is going to be beside herself because in this last year she has come to love all of the princesses. Andy and I can't wait to see their faces and watch them take it all in. So here's hoping that in less than fifty days we'll all be at the happiest place on earth enjoying some much needed family time with our gingers.

Every year we go I pick up an ornament with the date on it...this is a special one from 2011 because it commemorates the Magic Kingdom 40th anniversary. And we also pick up an ornament or two for each child based on what they've loved that year.

I love seeing the castle like this. And I love the fact that we get to see it lit up in January for Marathon weekend. It's so beautiful to run towards it as you are running down Main Street U.S.A. 

(Sigh) Is it time to leave yet?!? These pictures make me wish we could pack and go right now. Thankfully at the rate that the weeks are flying by it'll be here before we know it. :)

Weekend at Hilton Head Island.

I can't believe that we are now in September and more than that I can't believe how little I've blogged this year. I've pondered a lot why that is and why I have been so apathetic. I love it and I love being able to look back on past seasons in our lives...and yet, most days this year I have yet to document our life in this moment. 2013 has been a hard year. It has been an emotional year with some pretty deep moments. Some of these moments in time I may be able to blog about and other moments might not ever get recorded here. If you are still reading this know that we are good and the kids are good. It's been a hard year but God has been gracious and has sustained us. 

This past weekend we went with Andy's mom and sisters to Hilton Head Island. This was the first time our immediate family had been to Hilton Head and we LOVED it. We stayed at Marriott's Barony Beach Club and it was fabulous! Within the last year they had remodeled the pool area and it was AH-Mazing. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more the kids or the adults. It will most definitely be on our list of Marriott places to return to. (I seriously wouldn't mind if we went back yearly.) I loved that it was only 5 hours from Rome and that it was easily doable for a long weekend. For this trip we went Thursday night to Monday afternoon. I left wishing that we had been able to stay a full week. Next time! :)

 We took advantage of the lower crowds and spent time each day at the beach and pool. I loved that our room overlooked the pool. In the afternoons we were able to leave the little girls up in the room napping with an adult while the older two swam all afternoon. I even managed to read an entire 400+ page book cover to cover over the weekend. Which is quite the accomplishment these days with small kids. I remember the trips we use to take to the beach before kids and I would read multiple books in a week. One day again...when they are older, right? :) Here are some pictures on the beach and at the pool... 

Whew...

...slowly, ever so slowly, I am getting caught back up. I am in the process of finishing up a looooooong runDisney post about the half full of pictures and our experience. It's over half way done and I should be able to finish it up in the next few days. (I hope!)

We spent the weekend here and it was nice. Friday we stayed home due to AG being contagious and I put the kids to bed. Andy went up the street to our friend Wilson's birthday party and I enjoyed watching The Young Victoria in a quiet house. Saturday we woke up to dreary weather. I ran to the grocery store to stock up on stuff that was on sale/use coupons. After that we loaded the kids in the car and headed north to Calhoun. We went to the outlets to look for a few things and to specifically buy pjs for the kids. I always buy their pjs at the Carters outlet at the end of the season for next year. The main reason is the cost it's much, much cheaper to go this route. And it's nice to have them stocked so when our crazy GA weather decides to get cold I already have them. I saved $190 dollars by buying pjs ahead of time. Nice chunk of change...I was proud of myself. AG ended up with 4 pairs of fleece footed pjs and Avi-Kate ended up with 5 pairs of fleece footed pjs. Next fall all I will add is their Chritsmas pjs and they should be set. It was somewhat sad buying them this time because this is the last year AG will fit their footed pjs. Next year I'll have to buy him 'big boy' pjs and that was somewhat surreal. I can't believe how big he is and how much he's changed over this last year. (Even just since he started school!)

Today we went to church this morning and then came home for lunch. After that I headed to Berry for a 4 mile run...it could have been longer but due to the Super Bowl Party at church I needed to get home to get cleaned up. We headed back up to the church for a nice low key party and I brought the kids home to put them to bed while Andy stayed to finish the game.

There you have it low key weekend and hopefully a good week. I'm hoping to tackle some projects around the house and get some blogging done. Need to update things like my background and my blog roll. (If you want your blogged to be linked leave me a comment and I'll add you!) We also have Avi-Kate's ear surgery on Wednesday and we are also having students over that night for Family Dinner. (Which I am really looking forward to since it has been forever since we've had everyone around the family table.) Next week is Andy's 30th birthday! He's still deciding on what he wants to do to celebrate this year. We are still talking about several possibilities...I'll be glad when he finally settles on something. :) I hope everyone had a good weekend and I'll update again, soon.

It's a holiday-ish kind of day...

...really, it is. I found my mind focused on the upcoming holiday season today as I went about my day.

I was finally able to book the kids visit with Santa. You have to pre-register in the summer and then in the fall they start sending out special links so that you can sign up for your time slot. Well, it's done randomly and this year I was at the bottom of the list to get my link. My friend, Evan, got her link a week and a half ago! Anyways, most of the times were booked up but I made do and was able to get it set up. I'll take AG out of school for the day and we'll take a day trip down to ATL. We'll go see Santa at Phipps Plaza and then hop next door to Lenox for lunch. After that if we are still good on time we'll take a quick spin on the Pink Pig at Macy's. An Atlanta tradition since the end of WWII and one that I can remember doing each year growing up. 

This evening we took family pictures at Berry to use for our Christmas card and to update the family photos in the house. I have a huge frame that sits on the mantle in the living room that I would like to update with either a shot of all four of us or a picture of the kids. Our photographer is amazing...phenomenal, really. She got some great shots tonight and I can't wait to see the end result. The kids were troopers and we were able to take pictures in two locations. The first was Old Opportunity Drive aka the original entrance to the school. It's one of my favorite spots on Main Campus and has been since high school. The second spot was out on Mountain Campus and we ended up at the WinShape Retreat Center. (Which is where we were married 6.5 years ago!) There was a herd of cows in the pasture next to Old Opportunity and Avi-Kate kept pointing the ENTIRE. TIME. at the cows. (And mooing, of course.) I'm hopeful we were able to get at least one picture of her looking at the camera and not the cows. Which by the way AG properly identified as angus cows due to their black coats. Can you tell we have cattle farmers for relatives? :)

October is zipping by and the holidays will be upon us soon! Have you started thinking about the next few months as we round out 2012? 

Take me out to the ballgame...

...And may the force be with you! We took Avi-Kate to her first Braves game at the Ted on August 3rd. Andy's cousin, Jennifer, joined us. She and Kyle have a son, Grant, that is a couple months younger than AG. We had a great time with them and thankfully the rain held off. It drizzled just a bit but we were fine because we were under the overhang. This game also happened to be Star Wars Fan appreciation night. It was hysterical because there were all sorts of costumes, Star Wars music, etc. throughout the night. Even the Friday Night Fireworks were Star Wars themed. All the music for the show was Star Wars at the end of the night. Not going to lie the music of Star Wars is perfect for a fireworks show. Avi-Kate did great but she's not in to it the way AG has been since he was her age. He loves everything about the game and the park. Avi-Kate was happy to graze along all night and finally took a nap at the end of the 7th. At the end of the night we put pjs on at the car and then headed North. The kids slept the whole way home and we got them in their beds without a peep.

Here's some fun from our night:

 Darth Vadar taking the field before the game.

 AG's favorite part of the park the Cow and Coke bottle.

 In between innings they have the Home Depot Tools Race...this night half way in to the race Darth Vadar came out for a battle.

 Grant and AG showing off their Choppin' skills.

 'Welcome to the Jungle' and Craig Kimbrel came out to strike out all three batters in the 9th. Let's face it, if you follow baseball, he's ridiculous. Almost every pitch he threw was around 97+ mph. 

A fun night was had by all. We'll need to do another game with the boys next year...maybe Ronnie and the Perkins will join us. As far as the rest of this season, we have plans to attend Chipper's last regular season homestand. It coincides with the UGA vs. UT game and so we'll make it a sports weekend.

We'll be seeing you very soon...

...Disney! Yes, we now have another trip on the books. Last minute but we are actually really excited about it and it's come together quite easily. Here's what happened. Andy's mom has a timeshare with Marriott and each year she has an allotment of points to be used/banked well they also have a shelf life and expire after so long. This summer we were looking at things and there was a bunch of points slated to expire at the end of this year. So, we booked our girls trip to Williamsburg at Christmas time and that chipped away at the total but didn't take care of it completely. Everyone else was available to go somewhere in September but due to schedules and UGA's football schedule we weren't able to go away with them. They booked a few nights at Hilton Head for late September and there were still a few points left. Andy's mom, very generously, gave them to us to use in October. I was able to book us for four nights and use up the last remaining points! We'll be there the week before my 29th birthday. We decided that if there was availability at any of the resorts during AG's fall break that we would go then since we'll be pulling him out for a week to do our surprise Christmas trip. 

We decided that since it will still be warm in October that we wanted a Marriott that has a great pool setup for the kids. Our first choice was Marriott's Harbour Lake because of their Pirate pool and splash areas geared towards smaller kids. (Click on the photos in the above link and you'll see what I'm talking about.) Plus, they have a putt-putt course on-site for us to use which we knew AG would love to use. They had exactly what I wanted and for the dates that I wanted so I booked it without delay. We're excited to try this resort out since the last two times we've stayed at Marriott's Grande Vista...just to see how they compare/try something different. We have an afternoon/evening built in to our trip to be able to just hang out at the resort doing whatever the kids want to do.

We plan to spend lots of time in Fantasyland this trip. Avi-Kate has yet to ride Dumbo and AG missed riding it last trip since it was closed due to the remodel. We are also hoping to get AG on his first roller coaster aka The Barnstormer since he'll be tall enough. We'll see. We are already talking it up. If he's tall enough we may attempt Splash Mountain with him...we know he would love the actual ride thru scenes...we just aren't sure about the huge drop at the end. ;) I have no doubt that if AKs was tall enough she would do it hands down because she is fearless!

 I was able to get all the dining reservations that I wanted for the trip. We have plans to eat at the Liberty Tree, again, because it's one of our favorite meals in the Magic Kingdom. The rest of our reservations will be new to us. We are trying out Garden Grill and Hollywood and Vine. Both are character meals. Hollywood and Vine will be for breakfast and includes Disney Junior characters. Garden Grill is in the Land pavilion at EPCOT and actually overlooks the ride Living with the Land. This ride was probably one of AG's favorite rides from the last trip. Which we found slightly humorous since it's all about gardening and you ride around a hydroponic greenhouse. AG likes to call it the Vegetable Ride...I figured he might like eating at the Vegetable Restaurant this go around. They actually serve food produced on the ride in the restaurant. The other place we are trying out is Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom. AG is all about Animal Kingdom and 'jungles' so we thought this might be a great fit. I've eaten at the Rainforest Cafe in Texas but never at Disney. It'll be a first for everyone else. Lots of great eating this trip plus we have our sites on several quick serve locations. We love Cosmic Rays and the last two trips we've not made it there so we are planning to eat there for sure this trip.

Lots of time in the jungle and a full day at Animal Kingdom since AG has really become quite taken with it. This trip we are planning to spend very little time at Hollywood Studios. A breakfast before they open and then a ride on Toy Story Mania...that'll be the extent of our time there this trip. I did this on purpose since I have us spending a huge chunk of our Christmas trip there to see all the holiday lights. We'll have two days at MK, a couple hours at the Studios before hopping over to Animal Kingdom for the rest of the day, and one day at EPCOT. Obviously this is all flexible and we can hop around if the kids would rather do something else. We are also planning to try Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party one night. It's a big trick-or-treat extravaganza that they do on certain nights during the fall. AG has requested a Peter Pan costume and that Avi-Kate needs to be Tink so that's what we are going to do. They should be really cute.

 I'm really excited to see everything decorated for the fall season because it's suppose to be the next best thing to their Christmas decorations. My dear friend, Evan, absolutely LOVES going in October and so we are ready to try it for ourselves. We'll actually be arriving the day that they are leaving to come home from their fall trip. One of these days we'll actually have a trip planned together...right Evan?! :)

So, there you have it. Disney for AG's fall break. Should be pretty inexpensive since we will only have to pay for our food, gas, and the few souvenirs we buy every trip. I think a perk of being an annual passholder is we don't feel compelled to buy every single thing we see because we know we are coming back. We tend to pick up a few things but that's really it. I'm planning to start scoping out things for Santa to 'pick-up' while we are there for gifts for the kids. I can't wait. This summer has been a roller coaster and we need a few family days at the happiest place on earth with our kids. We'll see you soon Mickey!