Animal Kingdom

Back to Disney for a few posts. It really bothers me that these are out of order but I'm trying to ignore that fact. On Wed. Sept. 9 we started once again early that morning and arrived at Animal Kingdom before they opened. Grammie (Rachel) had arrived the night before and was joining us on our adventure. Our first ride was Kilimanjaro Safaris. Pretty cool. We then walked the Maharaja Jungle trek. I still can't get the picture of the naked mole rats out of my head. Allie probably should have skipped "It's Tough to be a Bug" but she just kept her head down for most of it. Flights of Wonder was interesting but the kids spent time drawing pictures during it. Allie was a little wiped out this day so for the first time I let her order a Dr. Pepper to drink. She was so excited but after about 5 sips out of her large drink she was done. Thankfully she used her snack credit for that one. Allie became a little more interested in the characters by this day so we walked over to Camp Minnie-Mickey for some photo ops. The lines were long but thankfully we could talk Blake and her into seeing the shorter line characters since we were eating at Chef Mickey's that night. Around this time Flake (John) was arriving at Animal Kingdom. We had a delicious meal at Flame Tree BBQ. I also managed to cut in front of Paris Hilton with my stroller while we were headed to eat. An empty table can't wait. We couldn't fit everything in but we still managed to hit the highlights: Festival of the Lion King, Kali River Rapids (which Rachel and I managed to stay dry), Expedition Everest (Blake was tall enough but didn't want to do it and Allie was too short but cried to do it), Finding Nemo, The Boneyard, Tricera Tops Spin and Primeval Whirl (once again, tears because Allie wasn't tall enough). It was a good day but we were tired and we had dinner reservations at Chef Mickey's. Dinner was good and the kids had fun seeing all the characters. We ended the day by watching the fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom from the Contemporary resort.

flick


(this picture is out of order but I deleted it somehow and had to add it back)

Kilimanjaro Safaris

gorilla behind glass on the Maharaja Jungle trek

allie's first dr. pepper

baloo and king louie (Justin's favorite characters)

flights of wonder show

allie drawing pictures during the show

camp minnie mickey

picture with grammie and daisy

festival of the lion king

picture of expedition everest

riding tricera tops

justin and blake riding primeval whirl

riding the monorail

having fun at Chef Mickey's

pluto

Mickey

goofy

donald duck

minnie mouse

Baylor Homecoming 2009

We missed the homecoming parade last year due to Justin having one of his last law school exams during at the same time but we made it this year. John and Rachel were able to come and they brought nephew Julian with them (Sophia couldn't be here because of a camping trip). We ran into lots of cousins and friends after the parade. It was absolutely beautiful weather for the Baylor game (although that didn't help the football team). Justin and I picked up fajitas from On the Border to take back to the house for dinner. Allie and Julian played outside all afternoon/evening and we were able to visit with John and Rachel. Everyone, including the dogs, headed back to Dallas on Sunday morning. We are now dogless again. Hmmm, wonder if we should get one for Christmas??

not sure why she is checking that lady out

waiting for candy

lots of cousins (Julian, Allie, Maddie, Chase, and Caleb)

silly picture

she played with mr. and mrs. potato head during the game

father and son enjoying the game

rachel took julian to see the bear

allie could care less about the real bear, she wants to see the bubble bear!

enjoying a snack at halftime

FINALLY! allie's favorite bear!

giving him a hug

rachel gave samson (the dog) a bath in allie's old sandbox. allie and julian couldn't resist playing in it.

Cheetahs Soccer

Soccer is finally over. As much as I would like for Allie to play a sport, I don't see it happening! T-ball was excruciating to watch since she usually sat on the ground unless she was batting. Soccer was probably worse. I thought she would love it more because she got to do more than in t-ball but fooled again! She liked kicking the ball but only when she wanted to and then it was with no goal in sight. She also stopped playing and chasing the ball on a few occasions to go check on one of her teammates who'd fallen down (which usually resulted in giving up a goal). How do you teach a five year old that sometimes it's okay to leave somebody on the ground? I think we are going to try gymnastics. Something that she can do on her own. We had a fun little team of players but we didn't have a lot of experience. Our defense improved dramatically over the season (probably because we got plenty of practice on defense). Unfortunately, we didn't have a very dynamic offense. I think we had five or six goals on the season and the one kid on the team who had two or three those goals got sick with swine flu and missed the last few games of the season. Nonetheless, the kids usually played hard even though they were on the wrong end of the scoring. It was so crowded at Mazzio's for the pizza party that I didn't get any pictures but here are some from the next to last game. She actually did play hard in this game (and almost scored a goal!). Maybe it just takes her the whole season to get used to the sport and she likes it just before it ends??

Coach Dad keeps a close eye on the action

go number 7!

Coach Joe Neal (Erika's dad) watches Allie in action

allie and meredith

Pumpkin Farm

I can't believe how far behind I have fallen with blogging. I love my new Beth Moore Bible study but it has consumed my time (not necessarily a bad thing) along with co-chairing the book fair at school. Anyway, I'm going to take a break from Disney to post some fall activities per request.
One Saturday in October we headed to Kaska Pumpkin farm for the afternoon. It was extremely muddy from all the rain we have had but it was a gorgeous day out and we had a great time with the Nickell's.

Allie, Blaine, Libbie, and Delaney

The corn maize was a little bit more difficult this year than last. Glad we went in after the kids.

Justin, Blaine, Allie and John hopefully headed in the right direction.

the cow train

Blaine is in the last cow, Delaney is in the 3rd to last and Allie looks like she is in the first one but there were a few more.

enjoying the ride!

This thing was Allie's FAVORITE. You raced ducks by pumping water to make them go. She played at this almost the whole time we were there. Of course her shirt was soaked by the time we left.

Allie and Delaney going for a slide on the hay. Almost as much hay in her pants when she was done!

the wind blew just as I was about to take her picture

What fun!