DISNEY: DAY 2

DAY 2: POOL AND EPCOT

Since we knew that Tuesday was going to be a very long and busy day, we decided to make Monday our "chill day" at Disney.  The plan was to sleep in and enjoy the pool and then after naps, head to Epcot to enjoy the scenery there for the late afternoon into evening.

The resort pool was very cool.  Big enough to accommodate plenty of folks, but they also had tons of games and prizes throughout the day poolside.  One evening, we came home and they were showing a movie poolside.  That was very cool!  We wanted the day to be a day of just relaxing and enjoying the cool water.  I was especially looking forward to it with my knee.  Water is great rehab!  The swimming was fun and the lounging was even better.  Check out the boys below: :)

After pool and naptime, it was time to go play at Epcot.  Although Epcot is not one of the more playful parks, it still has lots of cool things to see and do.  We used a lot of our time here to go "Princess hunting." :) And we found plenty of them.

Once Princess hunting was over, the kids were able to run and enjoy the best purchase of the trip.  Water bottles with fans.  They had a blast squirting each other and many times it was nice for us the adults to get blasted from inside the stroller.  Although I will say that the bottles produces their own fair share of timeouts and trouble.  But in the end, well worth the purchase!! :)  

We were not able to ride a lot of rides but we did ride a ride called Test Track.  It was very awesome.  It was a simulator that takes you through the tests they put cars through to make sure they are durable.  Funniest part for us was that the ride broke during while we were in the car.  That was not a very good feeling.  But after a brief delay, it was up and running and we were off to the races.  I have a video of Caden during the ride.  He had a blast.  Lala and mommy were behind us and at one point you can hear mom kinda scream because Lala lost her gum in Shannon's hair!! LOL 

Of course, we finished the eveing with fireworks and a lightshow and then rode the monorail for the fun of it. Unintentional fun, but it was fun.  And then called it a night.  Although it was probably our shortest active Disney day, it was very much needed in order to survive the onslaught of Magic Kingdom Tuesday. 

HOORAY FOR DISNEY!!! PART 1

DAY 1: HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS AND MAGIC KINGDOM

OK...So I thought about cramming the whole DisneyWorld blog into one set but what fun would that be.  You cannot describe your children's first run at the most adventurous place in the world in just one blog.  So this may take 2. :)  Let's start by prefacing that we have a 5 year old and almost 4 year old who have been looking forward to this trip for so so long.  Mom and dad have been excited as well, but really more excited to see it through their eyes.  And oh what a blast it was! So here is a recount, as best I can do, of our wonderful 2011 summer (first trip) to Disney.

We were blessed to go on our adventure with the Clarks and their twins who are all but blood related to us.  They have family in Orlando and Linc's dad actually works for the park driving a ferry boat.  So we were very excited to be heading down with folks who knew the lay of the land.  We drove all Friday and spent all Saturday at Linc's parents house.  The kids were so wired and so pumped to be there, but I thought they did very very well. On Sunday, we headed on over to the park to check into our hotel and thanks to Linc's dad Ed, we had the opportunity to go into a couple of parks that day. YES!!!

We began with Hollywood Studios:

As we entered, they were just beginning the Star Wars parade down mainstreet.  So we were already in a little bit of a pickle because we needed to get strollers but Caden wanted to see the Stars Wars folks.  Let me side bar and say this.  If you ever need to challenge and work on communication in your marriage, go to Disney.  It will force you to.  I will be honest and say that we were not always the best with each in other in how we communicated or what we wanted to communicate, but I assure you that you don't make it through any of those parks without communicating. LOL.  So strollers are good and we head towards Beauty and the Beast.  Our very first experience and show of DisneyWorld.  Laura Grace was captured.  It was so wonderful to watch. You could just see the amazement in her eyes and we knew that this was going to be so much fun!!!

We then rode the Tower of Terror.  This was pretty funny because we had no idea how the kids would do.  I have a couple of pics of them towards the end and a video that is hilarious.  Caden jumps off loving it, but when asked if he wants to ride it again, he responds with "Not right now or I will throw up!!" LOL
We walked around a little bit more at Hollywood Studios but didn't ride anything else.  We decided that we needed to go nap in order to survive a little bit of Magic Kingdom that night.  So we headed back to the hotel.  We stayed at All Star Sports Resort.  Very cool place and would recommend it to any folks thinking about going.  We rode buses all week to every place we were going and it was just a pleasant experience.

So nap is over and it's time to experience Magic Kingdom for the very first time as a family.  It was very very cool.  We took pictures out front and then I wanted to get the perfect picture of Lala seeing the castle live for the very first time.  I think I did a good job.  How bout you?

Since we came in to Magic Kingdom kinda late, we were limited to what we were going to see and do that evening.  We decided to head over towards Splash Mt and Thunder Mt.  Great choices.  The kids loved Splash Mt, yet I will say that Lala was not a fan of the characters in Splash Mt. Caden and I somehow ended up on the front of most every ride we rode, which had it's advantages and disadvantages.  I don't know if being soak and wet would be considered an advantage. :)  The best pic from this ride is at the very end, after the big waterfall and the ride is pretty much over.  Shannon goes to take a pic of her and Laura Grace and Lala sees a character behind the camera and freaks!!! This is one of our favorites of the trip. Bahaha!!

We then rode Thunder Mt and that was it for ride riding that day.  They enjoyed Thunder Mt as well, but you had to make sure you kept an arm around them so they didn't go shooting out the side on the twists and turns. :)  Then came a defining moment of Disney for our kids.  As we began to move towards the exit, it was firework time.  They were captured and just stuck in amazement watching the fireworks over the castle and then they did a light show on the castle which was unbelievable.  I will have to say that I was pretty captured as well.  It was a wonderful moment.

The end of day 1 had arrived and I knew what was coming.  The 3 year old was whooped and ready for the bed.  The 5 year old (boy don't forget) was just getting started.  He was ready to go see this and that.  Ride this and ride this.  Meet them and him and her.  It was not stopping time in his brain.  So I pulled him aside and we had a daddy-son talk about how much more time we had to do so many more wonderful things, but if we were exhausted without rest, we couldn't do any of them.  Needless to say, if you look below, you will see the before and after of that conversation. :)  Day 1....good times. 

LIFE RUNS FAST!

As I sit in my comfy little chair taking a second to stop with the "crazy life" that has engulfed us over the last few weeks, I can't help but smile. My last post was June 3rd. Life has not stopped for us since then. I am using this blog to preface things to come, but glad to finally have a chance to write about princesses and Mercy Me and what it's like to experience those things with a bad knee! :) I still stick with my FB post from this morning being that even when life gets crazy, it is good, and God is better. Here is to blog updating... :)

COURAGEOUS

I had the blessed opportunity last night to go see a screening of Sherwood's new movie Courageous.  It will not be released into theaters until September 30, but I know the Lord's hand is all over this film and He is doing great things with it and through it already.
The movie is a movie to challenge husbands and fathers to rise up and be men of courage. Courage in being a Godly husband and courage in being a Godly father takes a willingness to every day lay down selfish motives and put those others first. To look at time wasting habits we have and decide to do what God calls us to do in rearranging our priorities. We need to be willing to show our kids and our spouses that we love them, not just by our words, but especially through our actions!

Another theme to the movie that I believe is essential in our growth in Christ is brotherhood/accountability. It was very cool to have been able to see this movie with the first guy God ever put in my life to help me with and show me what Christian accountability actually looks like. Although the pace of life has somewhat drifted us apart, I know this movie has impacted and challenged us both to strengthen our accountability with each other, and also with other guys that God has brought into our circles. One of Satan's favorite tactics is to make us think we have to battle through life alone because opening up and being vulnerable is just too risky and too scary.  I assure you that in attempting to do life alone with no accountability, you have a higher risk of Satan being able to keep you in a box and ultimately take you down one phase at a time.

Please also know that I am not saying that other people are the answer.  Jesus Christ is the only answer and the only way to have complete freedom from sin and live a purposeful life by following His footsteps. Accepting His blood and His sacrifice, and choosing to live a life wholeheartedly committed to being more like Christ each day is our calling. No family member, friend, or brother in Christ will ever be good enough to help you through life on their own accord. But there are family members, friends, and brothers in Christ that God has intentionally sent into your life to help check and challenge your thoughts and your actions. If you don't have this in your life right now, then begin praying that God will send those folks your way.  It will take somebody having enough courage to say, hey we need to do this. We need to meet and start building a bond and a trust so that we can do life together and be trusting enough to share the ugliness in our lives, yet also be one to speak Truth when Truth needs to be spoken.

So again, Sept 30th. Mark your calendar and I recommend all husbands and dads go see this movie! Take a buddy with you. I assure you that you will leave the theater challenged and motivated to not just "be good enough", but "be the best" that you can be because it's what God expects and commands. 

Being courageous with your life is just one more element of trying to live more like Jesus. Where are the courageous men willing to step up? Will you raise your hand and say "I will?"