What a Week in Florida!

This just may be the longest post ever, but I wanted to squeeze in everything I could about our trip to Florida and Disney World. We left Saturday, August 1 and were gone until Sunday, August 9. We had such a great time and it was great to be with ALL of my family. Yes, my sisters, brother and their families were in Florida with us along with my parents. My kids loved being with all their cousins and aunts and uncles. Definitely a memorable week. Here are a few of our favorite memories. (Okay, so it is a lot of favorite memories.)

As we flew in to Orlando, Kayden really wanted to see out the window. So Jaxon let Kayden sit on his lap so he could get a good look. It was a great photo opp.

When we finally arrived to our hotel, we let the kids go for a swim in the hotel pool while we waited for some pizza to arrive for dinner. Here Jeremy, Kayden and Josh are standing under one of the umbrellas that shoots out water at the pool.

There was a huge pirate ship in the pool with a slide in it. If you didn't go down the slide just right, you had to push yourself down. This is what happened to Josh in the above picture.

And then it happened to McKay.

Kayden loves being in the pool. He has turned into a little fish this summer and swims very well with his little floaties.

We had a big jacuzzi tub in our hotel room. The boys all hopped in one evening and took a big bubble bath.

Our first day at Disney was spent at Epcot. The crew that went to Epcot that day (From left): Aunt Debra, Grandpa Haacke, Lachlan, McKay, Josh, Marissa, Jaxon, Grandma Haacke, Alexa, Kayden, Jeremy and me. We are in front of the Finding Nemo ride. We also went to Turtle Talk With Crush.

McKay and Marissa on Finding Nemo.

Kayden checking out the sting rays just while waiting for Turtle Talk with Crush.

They had a great ride at Epcot called Test Track where you got to be test dummies for cars. It was one of our favorite rides of the whole trip. Josh especially loved this ride. Here is (from left) Lachlan, Marissa, Josh, McKay and Jaxon waiting in line for another turn to ride.

Josh on Test Track. He thought "those stinky robots" were pretty funny.

Riding up in the Epcot Ball on Spaceship Earth.

McKay attempting to hold up the Epcot ball.

Kayden, Grandma, Grandpa, Jaxon, Lachlan, me, Josh, McKay, Marissa, Jeremy, Alexa and Debra at the end of the day at Epcot.

My sweet family. Considering we weren't planning on going to Epcot, it was one of our favorite parks (even though we didn't see any of the World Showcase).
Our second day was spent at Animal Kingdom. This park was so spread out, we didn't get to see all of it. We just kept running from one thing to the next while sweating to death. Thank goodness we had ice cream to keep ourselves cool and our tempers cool.
There were so few rides that Kayden got to go on. But the ones that he did go on he loved. Here he is riding Triceratops Spin.

While Kayden was riding Triceratops Spin for a second and third time, we took a ride on Primeval Whirl. Here Jeremy, Grandpa Haacke, Marissa and McKay are just finishing their ride.

We then went on Dinosaur. This picture is worth a thousand words. On the front row left to right is my sister Caprice, Josh, Jeremy, McKay. Second row is Samantha, Sara (my niece), Grandma Haacke and Grandpa Haacke. Third row is Tyler, Marissa, Bryan and Shane. I think they were surprised.

Since we had to do a child swap, here is when Me, Debra, Lachlan (who is covering his face and slouching down--hehe) and Grandma Haacke rode on the front row.

McKay and Jeremy riding Kilimanjaro Safari. It was a cool ride. We got to see a lot of animals and also help stop some poachers!

Kayden and Josh riding the jeep of Kilimanjaro Safari.

Some of the many animals we saw. It was cool to watch these elephants play in the water.

Cousin Tyler and Kayden. Kayden had never met Tyler or anyone in my sister's family, but he took an immediate liking to all of them.

Taking a break and riding on the train. A lot of the cousins are pictured here: Becca, Tyler, Kayden, Marissa, McKay, Bryan and Josh. The rest of them were on the other side of me on the train.

Here they are. My brother-in-law Scott, Lachlan, Sara, and Samantha.

This is one of my favorite pictures. This is me with my two sisters Caprice (on the left) and Juli (on the right) along with Josh and Kayden. We had just gotten off Kali Rapids where Josh had failed to mention that he needed to go potty until just as we were stepping on to the ride. He started crying and panicking about needing to go potty. Suddenly he yelled out, "I am peeing in my pants!" Then he settled down and enjoyed the rest of the ride so Jeremy asked him "Do you feel better now?" With which Josh replied, "Yup!" We were all busting up laughing, especially because my brother Paul was sitting next to Josh. At least Josh got really wet on the ride so you couldn't tell he had peed his pants. It was the highlight of the day.

The next day we spent at Magic Kingdom. (We spent two days at Magic Kingdom, but I forgot my camera one of the days.) You can't go to Disney World (or Disneyland) without riding It's a Small World. Another ride that Kayden, Josh and my nephew Camron loved. They especially loved it this time because they were on the front row.

Here is McKay and Becca riding Thunder Mountain.

Jeremy and I finally got to ride something together--Thunder Mountain.

A good chunk of the gang at Haunted Mansion: Grandpa, Kayden, Lachlan, Josh, McKay, Jaxon, Grandma, Alexa, Marissa, Camrom, Meaghan and Juli. Jeremy told Jaxon, who did NOT want to go inside the Haunted Mansion, that if he got scared he would give him a dollar. Jaxon didn't like the ride and a dollar was handed over.

Jaxon and Lachlan on Splash Mountain.

Front: Grandpa and Grandma Haacke with Juli and Craig behind them on Splash Mountain.

Another picutre that is worth a thousand words. On the front row is McKay and Marissa. Behind them is Jeremy, Lachlan and Jaxon (who looks like he is about to jump out of the log). And behind them is Juli, Craig and Camron.

Pirates of the Caribbean. Josh thought this was Splash Mountain and suddenly freaked out as we stepped onto the ride. It ended up being one of his favorite rides.

A ride Josh loved from the beginning: Aladdin's Carpets.

Jeremy with Kayden and Craig with Camron on the Jungle Cruise.

Jaxon, Josh and I (and half of Grandpa) on Jungle Cruise.

We found this poster in the train station (behind McKay). We had no idea that McKay was a wanted fugitive. He was worth $300 dead or alive. McKay is doing his best to look evil.

Josh loved driving the cars at the Tomorrowland Speedway.

The next day (who knows what day we are on now...) we decided to take a break from the parks and go to Cocoa Beach. On the way there, we spotted this cool cloud with a rainbow in it. It was beautiful!

Kayden, my little fish, loved being at the beach. He loved the water, the sand, everything.

Josh jumping the waves.

This was Kayden's first time going to the beach.

Uncle Scott was so much fun. He had so many thing for the kids. At the beach he had a magic compass that told him where some buried treasure was. They started digging the hole before lunch and found the treasure after lunch. It was a little hard to dig in the hole with so many kids in there!

Josh, Jaxon and Marissa digging for treasure.

Kayden got buried in the sand.

Kayden and Sara playing in the hole where the treasure was found.

Marissa stood in the hole where the treasure was found and then we buried her. She was stuck!

Our last day in Florida we spend at Disney's Hollywood Studios. We had a great time at this park and I must say it was another favorite. Jaxon had his fill of roller coasters (he had ridden Everest at Animal Kingdom and Thunder Mountain at Magic Kingdom and didn't enjoy either of them--roller coasters are just not his thing) so he hung out with me (waiting for child swap) in the gift shop of Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Areosmith. He and Josh found these cool wigs and tried them on. Don't they look like hard rockers?
McKay loved every roller coaster and ride that he went on up until the Tower of Terror. He didn't like that one and didn't go for a second ride. Instead he bought a t-shirt as proof of him going on the scariest ride ever.

Kayden on Josh on the Star Wars Speed Racers.

Jaxon and McKay looking very Jedi like on the Speed Racers.

At Disney's Studios they had Jedi Training. Right up my boys' alley. Jaxon was chosen to participate in the training and then was able to take on Darth Vader. I know Jaxon loved every minute of it. However, at the end of it he told me that he had better moves than the Jedi Master.

Lachlan, Jaxon, Josh and Shane watching the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular of which I was chosen from the audience to be an extra in (below). It was a great deal of fun!

I am second from the right in a red robe and white hat. You can click on it to make the picture bigger, but there I am. It was fun. I got to point at and cheer on Indiana Jones. They had explosions (that they told me to plug my ears for) and cool stunts. They taught us how they "fake" fight and so on. I had always wanted to do something like that.

Jaxon, McKay and I took the back lot tour at the end of the day. Here is Jaxon watching a simulated rain storm and flash flood.

At the end of the tour we walked through a costume and props section where there were several villans from the movies. McKay and Jaxon posed in front of Darth Maul.

Whew! That is it! Our trip in a nutshell! There are several other rides that we went on and loved that were not pictured here (like Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story Mania and many others). It was a great trip full of many wonderful memories.