Disney World AND Universal Studios

Our crazy crew of ten loaded up a 12-passenger van last Friday afternoon in anticipation of a weeklong trip to Disney World and Universal Studios. We stopped at a hotel in Georgia on Friday night and arrived at our resort on Saturday afternoon. The kids quickly wanted to explore the resort, taking a ride on the skyliner and swimming in the pool. The moms sat by the pool for a brief moment of relaxation before a very ambitious amusement park schedule for the next six days. 

On Sunday, we went to Hollywood Studios. We attempted to “rope drop” Rise of the Resistance but it was closed most of the day, making it the one ride all week that we weren’t able to check off the itinerary that Linds and I drafted on the drive to Florida. We quickly pivoted and headed to Slinky Dog and Toy Story Mania. Then, we came back to the Star Wars area for the Millennium Falcon and some family photos outside. We ate packed sandwiches for lunch while waiting in line for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. The dads got us coffee drinks as well, making for a great midday treat and caffeine boost! Then, we were given lightning passes thanks to the generosity of our Aunt Glenda. We got to ride Star Tours, Rockin’ Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror with no wait. We even rode Millennium Falcon and Tower of Terror a second time due to the passes shaving off wait times in the middle of our day. 

On Monday, we went to Epcot! Zack got us coffee drinks before we headed on the skyliner and we appreciated his part in keeping the moms happy and caffeinated to navigate a second park with all the rest of our party following closely behind. It would never fail that as soon as we would get off one ride, the kids would immediately ask “what are we doing now?” It is a good thing that Linds and I had a shared itinerary that we worked through each day. We tried to “rope drop” Remy’s but it was temporarily closed so we headed straight to Frozen. After checking off our first ride, we went to Guardians of the Galaxy and Test Track. Aunt Glenda joined us for the day at Epcot and met us at the Guardians ride. We were able to check off all the rides at Epcot (except Mission Space which makes most of our group motion sick so we chose to skip that one). Remy was back up and running and we got to ride it too! The adults decided to challenge ourselves to have a drink from each of the countries in the World Showcase. Between us, we were able to get all 11 countries checked off. We had Via Napoli pizza for dinner in Italy to conclude our evening. 

On Tuesday (Emmy’s 10th Birthday), we went to Magic Kingdom. We knocked out three of the big rides within the first hour and a half of our day in the park (Seven Dwarves Mine Train, Tron, and Space Mountain). We purchased Lightning Passes for this day and were able to walk on Pirates of the Caribbean, Dumbo, Haunted Mansion, Barnstormer and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We enjoyed some of our other favorite attractions from our childhood (It’s a Small World, Peter Pan’s Flight, Country Bear Jamboree, Speedway, People Mover, and the Carousel). We finished out our Magic Kingdom day by catching the Starlight Show on Main Street and the fireworks above Cinderella’s Castle. Something to note is that Disney was trying to film their annual Christmas Parade while we were there. This made for larger crowds and some closed areas as we were navigating around these sections since our kids are more about the rides rather than the musical presentations or character sightings at their current ages.

On Wednesday, we packed up our van in anticipation of moving to our Universal resort in the afternoon. We spent the day at Animal Kingdom. We were successfully able to “rope drop” Avatar Flight of Passage in Pandora and ride on the Na’vi River before heading to Africa for the safari where so many of the animals were active. We took the train to the Conservation Station where we were able to walk among wallabies and kangaroos. One of my favorite activities of the day was the Festival of the Lion King show. We ate lunch at Flame Tree Barbecue and had the most delicious sweet treat at Terra Treats (a Festive Cookie Dough Brownie Ice Cream Sandwich). We finished out the “shortest” day of our trip with Zootopia Better Zoogether in the Tree of Life and a ride on Everest!

Thursday and Friday were spent in Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios with the main attraction being the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The boys and I read all the books and watched all the movies in anticipation of this trip! We loved it all! We rode Hadrid’s Motorbike Adventure four times over the two days. We rode the Hogwarts Express both days and the Escape from Gringotts twice! The boys each got wands that they could use around the parks, casting spells and making objects move. We tried cold, frozen and soft serve butterbeer and ate lunch the first day at The Three Broomsticks. We are officially Harry Potter fans who loved walking around Hogwarts, Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley! We checked off most of the rides between the two Universal parks using our “park to park” pass for the last two days of our trip. The family enjoyed the slightly less hectic pace of Universal and opted for early evenings back at the resort; eating dinner, watching nightly fireworks outside our windows and getting to bed a little earlier. We were blessed with good weather, good health, good food, good entertainment and the best company for this memorable vacation!

 

Volleyball Season Has Started

Zander finished his middle school soccer season and promptly tried out for the school's boys' volleyball team the next week!  He started practicing the week after that and has already had two games!  Both games have brought decisive victories for the Hawks and Zander is loving his position as one of the two captains of the team.  He shares this responsibility with one of his best buds from school and I continue to be so thankful for what a positive middle school experience Zander is having, finding success academically, athletically and socially!  I had a "teacher workday" this week which means the three youngest cousins joined Grammy for a day at the Science Center.  Zander opted to play golf with his friend, Austin, and enjoyed fitting in 18 holes of golf in the beautiful fall weather!  I think both boys had a great day off from school while mommy tried to knock out the work tasks!  Just a couple pictures of Maddox to finish out this brief post!  He definitely keeps me on my toes on a daily basis, causing me to take deep breaths and pause before I respond most days.  However, he has the kindest heart and I can't help but appreciate his optimism in every aspect of his life! He enjoyed taking selfies on my phone while I was busy getting household tasks taken care of last night.  After he had his fun, he quickly fell asleep on our bed while I was still running around getting things checked off the to-do list.  He goes about 110 miles per hour throughout the day and crashes just as hard when the day is done! ;)

Happy Halloween and Celebrating #11

It has been the craziest month of the year but we were able to check off all our traditional Halloween festivities (pumpkin carving, trick or treating and costume wearing) in spite of a very packed schedule. Zander was a skeleton this year and Maddox was a shark! These boys love zip up onesies these days which made for an easy costume selection. Zander hung out with friends from school for dinner and trick or treating in Hampton’s neighborhood while Zack and Maddox went around our neighborhood. I held down the fort with Beau (SpiderPup), passing out candy to all the trick or treaters who rang our doorbell. This week we also had a cookout with Maddox’s soccer team, complete with a gaming trailer and inflatable! Zander got to have an afternoon on the links with Grandpa after school on Friday. Emmy was voted on as our school’s student council treasurer. Maddox came in 2nd in a very close race for the presidency. Fortunately, he was a good sport, congratulating the winner and optimistically planning for future leadership opportunities. We had curriculum night at school, handing out candy and prizes after students completed reading activities. We had book character day with our office staff choosing characters from Charlotte’s Web! Meghan and I were Charlotte and her web. We were able to celebrate Maddox’s 11th birthday at Partee Shack with his four best buddies (Austin, Jackson, Junior and Beckett) and his brother. The boys loved the unlimited miniature golf, indoor go karts and arcade activities. We continue to fit in soccer games, home and away. As you can see, we are busy but also incredibly blessed to be able to do all we fit in this week!

Happy 11th Birthday Maddox!

Dear Maddox,

I cannot believe you are 11 years old! We were watching an old video of your two-year-old self saying your name ("Maddox Whoston") and I just cannot believe how fast these years are flying by!  You are doing awesome in 5th grade, getting all As for the first quarter of school and representing your class as a student council representative (such a great leader for your class and within our school).  I appreciate how well-behaved you are and see other 5th graders not making the right choices and continue to be thankful for your discernment and patience with your classmates.  Some of my favorite things to do with you right now are looking at old pictures and videos as we cuddle before bed, practicing your lines for our children's choir Christmas performance (that will be a whole separate post in December), discussing the books you are currently reading as you are practicing for the school's Battle of the Books team, going on car rides with you to soccer practices/games and cheering you on at each sporting event (right now you are currently playing all the positions in soccer and are such a leader on your team-- giving directions to teammates and following the coach's advice during the game, within the next month you will be getting back into basketball). You have finished all the verses in AWANA to successfully earn the Timothy Award at the end of the year (being the first fifth grader within your cohort to do this).  You continue to be a leader at church as well, helping as a media operator on Sunday mornings for the audio visual team. You recently ran for student council president and I loved that your speech focused on being a leader who is kind, encouraging, respectful and smart.  You shared how you would help get additional recess equipment for the playground areas and create a Book Buddy program to help students make new friends.  You have such a tender heart and continue to show empathy to others (sharing anything you have and helping to ensure others are having a good day).  You had a lot of sugar on your actual birthday- cinnamon rolls for breakfast in bed, ice cream and donuts (thanks to Sage having a birthday the same day) at lunch (and thanks to Grammy for bringing Chickfila since daddy had a meeting), ice cream with dinner at the Loop and donuts with your soccer team at the end of practice to finish out the day.  This year's birthday was on the same day of the week you were actually born.  I kept thinking about what I was doing that day, leading up to your birth.  As I waited for soccer practice to end, the moon was full and huge in the night sky.  I decided to research the name of this particular full moon.  It was called the "Hunter's Moon" (supermoon) and I thought I remembered there being a full moon on the night you were born.  Sure enough, after a quick Google search, there was a "Hunter's Moon" (supermoon) on that same day 11 years ago! The weather was perfect for your 11th birthday and I think you had a blast from start to finish!  You even got a surprise the night before your birthday with a Happy Birthday sign in our front yard (thank you Grammy).  I love how you still enjoy the magic and mystery of moments like this, spinning a whole story of how a fairy could have placed those letters out front like the tooth fairy still collects your teeth.  I want to soak up your childlike innocence for as long as possible. For your birthday celebration with friends this year, you decided to go to Partee Shack for unlimited miniature golf and go kart racing.  You invited four of your best buds (Junior, Beckett, Jackson and Austin) to help you celebrate #11.  I think this birthday will be hard to top but there is always next year! ;) I love you so very much and continue to be so grateful that God gave us YOU! 

Love, 

Mommy

Wedding Weekend in Maine

Linds and I had a sister adventure this past week. For the first time in almost 20 years, we got to take a flight together just the two of us. Without our parents, husbands and kids in tow, I don’t think we were quite sure what to do with ourselves at first. However, after a caffeinated beverage from Starbucks and a couple hours of catching up while waiting for our flights, we quickly settled into a sister getaway to see our youngest cousin get married in Maine. 

As soon as we got into the Bangor Airport, Aunt Glenda picked us up from the airport and we headed to meet the family for an intimate dinner at the Pentagoet (owned by two of Casey’s friends). We were able to spend time with our extended family and celebrate Connor and Caleb’s birthdays. 

We went into Acadia National Park on Friday, stopping at Thunder Hole and Jordan Pond. While the temperatures started to drop and the precipitation came in, we were able to get some pretty great pictures of the family in the park. We stopped in Bar Harbor for a lobster roll and some shopping in the afternoon before getting ready for the rehearsal dinner. 

Casey and Ryan hosted the rehearsal dinner at their home, The Belvedere. We had oysters and pizza. It was a laid back evening in the barn before the big wedding day.

On the wedding day, we kept ourselves busy setting up for the reception with a “camp” theme. Ian and Kaitlyn travel to many national parks and it was evident that they love outdoor adventures through the little details of the reception (s’mores by the fire, custom bandanas, lanterns, fresh flowers, etc.) While it was quite cold for an outdoor wedding in Maine, Casey and Ryan’s property was the perfect location for a beautiful night. We danced the night away, moving from the wedding tent to the barn which offered more heat. Congrats to the newlyweds! It was a wonderful weekend celebrating them, surrounded by family and meeting new friends. 

Soccer Saturdays, Sundays and all the other days of the week!

With both boys in travel soccer this year and Zander playing on his school’s middle school team, most weeks have us on the soccer field 6-7 days! This past weekend was no exception. Zander had a local game Friday night and then a tournament about an hour away on Saturday and Sunday. We had the remnants of a hurricane come through our area which made for wetter and colder conditions on Saturday. The boys and I stayed in the car between games, reading books, resting and playing on some technology as we waited for the next game to start. Both were soaked as they enjoy being on the turf regardless of the weather! Fortunately, I packed extra clothes to ensure the ride home (and the wait time between games) had us in dry clothes. Zander’s team won their tournament and were very excited to get their champion medals. Zack got to enjoy the post game celebration on Sunday while I was back home with Maddox for his home game and Awana at church. Maddox’s team won 7-5 and Maddox earned a hat trick scoring at least three of the goals on Sunday. The weather warmed up and dried up before the first whistle of his game (although the warming up process before the game was rather wet). Maddox finished his 4th awana book on Sunday and has officially earned his Timothy Award for his 5th grade year. He is the first fifth grader to do it this year and we are so proud of his commitment to reading and memorizing scripture. In other soccer news, Zander’s middle school team finished its season yesterday by losing in the playoffs to Wiley. The KMS team has shown so much growth this year and Zander loved playing with some of his buddies from previous travel seasons. The team finished up 2nd in their conference. For now, we will continue our evenings and weekends in the world of travel soccer as we await the start of boys’ volleyball (Z’s tryouts are next week) and basketball (for Maddox). Finally, we are embracing fall at our house. I love the simple ways that Zack adds details to our front walkway to connect with whatever holiday or season is approaching.  Hello Fall!

All the Sports

We have fit in a lot of sports this past week! In between all the soccer (Houston boys), softball (Emmy) and baseball (Eli), we continue to see friends (thank you Carmen for meeting me for weekly runs while Maddox has practice) and work hard on all the academic tasks within the week (homework and reading books). You will see below that Maddox sometimes fits in his nightly reading on the car rides home from soccer practice. He also works hard memorizing his weekly Bible verses for AWANA (he is almost finished with his fourth book, and then he will have earned the Timothy Award). I feel so blessed to have been able to cheer on Z at three soccer games this week (two for his school team and one for his travel team). Maddox had a tournament this weekend and Zack took point on the Saturday games while I was with Zander (complete with a Waffle House breakfast before his local game). I made the trek with Maddox early Sunday morning for the second day of the tournament. They came up short in the semifinals with a 2-0 loss but it was fun to cheer on both soccer stars this weekend! I also love that I can catch the Kennedy kids in action. It is such a blessing that they live close so I can see them for weeknight games nearby. Finally, Maddox found out this week that he holds the current pacer test record for his school. I was testing students in the classrooms right outside the gym on Friday so I was able to snap a picture of him while his class cheered him on as he beat the previous record from earlier in the week. ;)