Back Home for Now!

Check out the attitude on the New Queen...she was trying very hard not to smile...

Mikayla's hot and sweaty Knight

The Evil Knight Mikayla not taking an eye off him

Mikayla petting the Lego Dogs

Getting ready for the Princess Parade...they collect ordinary girls, bring them inside and they come out all dressed (hair, glitter and all) as Princesses

One of the country pics from Epcot

The Cannoli Cart....yummy!!

To Germany ...hmmm do I see a butt I know??

Back to China so soon...only without the pollution :)

Do you remember Tinker Toys????

Mikayla in la la land where Peter Pan, Wendy and Tinkerbell were flying over head

The cool pic made from Mikaylas hand print

Oh yeah Mikayla hated Mary Poppins, can you tell??

She was just too afraid to go near Alice...so afraid she was showing off to the crowd that thought she was soooo cute....it was hilarious

The big animal characters scared her the most she clung to mommy and daddy .....hmmm you mean you don't see us in the pic????

She wasn't even worried when she was tagged teamed by this duo and someone even took one of her ponytails out.....grrrrrr

Mikayla's Treasure

If you look closely you can see in the center where our Knight gets the sash from the Queen and then in the right he brings it to us, on the left G is taking it off the joust.

We are home again re cooperating from the sun and fun. We did get to the Medieval Times Dinner Show and Mikayla was actually picked by the winning Knight to be the Queen of Love and Beauty. She was awe struck. There was tons of food at the show more than they have at the Dixie Stampede which surprised us. The show was great and food massive. Mikayla could not get enough of it all. We also got to Epcot where she got her pic taken with all her buds; Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, Goofy, Alice (in Wonderland), Mary Poppins, Chip and Dale and more. She was not shy a bit was giving hugs and kissing noses and lovin every minute. She even got lipstick kisses from Mary Poppins and Mulan that lasted all day. We shopped at Downtown Disney and we didn't do to bad. In all the shopping at Epcot and Downtown Disney we got a parasol for Mikayla with butterflies and her name, new onesies with Minnie Mouse as she out grew her fav one at home and a cool hand print of Mikayla's made into a Butterfly and Mikayla now has a lanyard with all the characters she met and more ready for trading. Of course we had to buy some Baklava and Cannoli and of course water to stay dehydrated in the heat.

Orlando Bound

A partial one side view from our balcony Mikayla with her fairy wings

One of the kiddie pools

One of the lazy rivers

Us here at last after waking at 2:30 am, way to early for the plane ride here

Anyone want to go for a swim??

Wrestling a Gator

Let's go visit Cuddles!

Mikayla loved feeding and petting the animals

She was not to keen on the bird infestation...I love how she tried to get her feet up yet when they landed on her head she was ok with that a bit better.

What is that bird doing up there...I hope nothing

This guy is 96 snd will live to about 180..WOW!

I see you!!!

Out for a stroll

Mikayla making friends

Here she insisted on having a nail file I guess she had to get ready for the animals.

Milking the cow named Sweet Lip

Holding the baby Ducky...No More Diapers for Ducky

Look! I caught me a duck

Daddy got a bigger Duck only he cheated this one was handed to him by another guest. :)

Daddy did catch this Turkey by himself though

Out for a hayride

Mikayla's first live pony ride

Out for a train ride

Holding her first Bunny

We have been hanging out in Orlando for the week having fun. All new adventures for Mikayla. She has been having a blast being over whelmed but not complaining a bit. We decided to nix Disney as Mikayla is not old enough or tall enough for the rides yet but that does not mean we did not have fun. We started out right on the Disney grounds where we were staying as soon as we arrived. We walked around and checked out all the fun pools (4 adult pools plus 3 kid pools with all kinds of fountains), the 2 lazy rivers to float on, the room with games (pool, ping pong, video games and more) the mini golf (18 holes) the park right outside and so much more. We had the balloon guy in the Welcome Center make Mikayla her request of Fairy Wings and I had my Starbucks Chai Tea Latte. We later made our plans for the rest of our adventures. Day 2 or our 1st full day here we started out to Gatorland, while their we watch the guys wrestle a real live alligator, watched tons of gators jump out of the water for chicken and pet some very large tortoises, saw more gators then at person should be allowed to see all in one place. Here, Mikayla even got to touch and hold her first live Alligator. After that we headed to eat a Kobi's which is a Japanese Restaurant where they cook right in front of you and do a bit of a show while they chop and cook your food. Mikayla ate like there was no tomorrow and was mesmerized with the chef and not sure what to think when he made the fire on the grill grow all over in front of us, made the rice a beating heart and then transform in to Mickey. Day 3 we went to Green Meadows Petting Farm which was new for us too. The Farm has only been around for about a year or so and if you ever get out this way children or not it is definitely worth visiting. You get so much for the money. In the admission price which was under $20 per person you got to see, touch and learn about so many animals. You get a tour guide who goes the entire round with you and tells you so much about each animal and lets you milk a real live cow (Mikayla was not so sure about this being the cow was so big and alive), you got to catch a live full grown Duck, Chicken, Rooster and Turkey. You get to hold a baby chick and a baby duck, guinea pig, rabbit, hedge hog and parrots. They give you a pony ride, train ride and hay ride and even give you a free souvenir cup for kids. There are tractors and play houses and a park all for the kids to play after your tour. There were llamas, pigs, cows, goats, sheep and so many more animals to pet and learn about. This is all in the one admission price not extra like most places. After the long tour and adventures there, we came back to our condo to play in the pool we started at the kiddie pool followed by floating around the lazy river and finishing with the big pool. Mikayla is getting so brave she did not want her float at all and was walking in the water up to her nose and jumping in the deeper water with mommy and daddy ready to catch. She walked and sat and laid in the water where she could and was getting braver the longer we were there. After all of us were prunes we headed back to dry off and order some pizza and relax....note: every day a new pizza flyer or two comes to your door so you have a large choice of where to order....DO NOT order the cardboard pizza from Joe's Pizza. Day 4 we will start with Shopping at Downtown Disney since Mikayla loves shopping and you know she will love this venture and I am thinking she will make out like a bandit. She already got a Minnie Mouse tee as she loves Minnie and that is just the start of it. I will check back soon but I wanted to get a post in since there is so much going on and so many pics to share. See you later Alligators...after a while Crocodiles :)

The hissing you hear is the gator ticked off
Those gators get very close I am surprised these guys have all their fingers

Fun with Family

Hanging in the pool at home. She almost never uses this tube any more she is getting really brave in the water.

If your dog won't eat Mikayla will help by force feeding him I mean hand feeding him...she does it so well and they just take it. :)

Playing with the paints...oh yeah we forgot we are supposed to use paper...

Oh that's not paper, either???

Once again waiting at the airport in her special waiting chair, phone in hand...this time waiting for Grandma and her twin cousins she has not seen here at our house for over 10 years.

They finally arrive Grandma and the girls

Fun at the mall park....

You cant take a picture of one and not the other :)

More fun at the Mall

The girls getting dizzy...or were they already :)

The Girls out for a cruise

You know I had to take them for their first Spa Pedicures....

Us at the Arch 1st time for Mikayla

First for the girls at least that they remember

Did they go up or did they not??? Ask them!

On the roof at the City Museum after walking up all 11 flights of stairs in the heat with no air circulation, no air conditioning, no fans, no open windows.... can you say never again.

G and Mikayla in one of the many climb through mazes at the City Museum

After seeing this room of machines that make shoelaces you can then understand why they went to the round annoying continuously untying shoelaces and Velcro....I myself would love to still have only the flat laces in all colors.

To rats in a maze

Awesome pic area

Of course as you can see it is better when you wear bright colors for these pics

Mikayla loved running up and down these ramps even by herself we had a hard time getting her off them

Mikayla sentenced to a life of scrubbing floors with a sponge...as you can see we gave her a life time supply of sponges she could not even find the floor :)

We have had our fun at home and we had our visit with family. Mikayla's twin cousins have never been here in 10 years and came for a week visit with Grandma. I am not sure who had more fun. It was a busy and quick week. We visited the Arch, The City Museum and to the Festival of Little Hills. Being the girls are pre-teens they were not upset when we also visited 4 different Malls while they were here. At the malls we played at the indoor park, the outdoor race track, the Merry Go Round and the large Trampolines. At Frontier Park they had their hand at the rock climbing wall and bounce slide. At The City Museum they just could not get enough of it. Mikayla did a bit at the City Museum with G but she had fun playing at home with Grandma and the girls and just watching the girls having fun together. You know I had to take them us all out for a girls spa day so they can have their first official Spa Pedicure. We even went to the park right here near home where we had some fun. Every day was filled with fun and being on the go. I am not sure if the girls came to like my boys or not but I do know the boys had fun tormenting them. When all was said and done the day they were to leave, G left first. I had to take him to the Airport so he can head to VA when I returned it was Grandma and the girls trip to the Airport to head home. Needless to say after they were ALL gone Mikayla, the boys and I had a very quiet few days... NOT. The evening they left I threw in some laundry and was in the play room with Mikayla when I heard the gush...we sprung a major water leak, a pipe/hose busted and HOT water was shooting across the room. I had fun trying to turn it off as the HOT water was shooting at me in the process. I just thank God was watching over me being home alone, making sure I was in the basement to hear the water gush cause if I had been upstairs or out of the house who knows how much additional water and damage would have occurred. We did get it fixed quite quickly and again God was by our side and sent an angel to fix it for next to nothing compared to the major issue it was. After that Mikayla, the boys and I not only did have a quiet day or two but I think Mikayla was a bit lonely with no one to torment and play with her. The boys were also in the same boat and kept looking for the girls to play with. I think we are all back on track for now. Tomorrow Mikayla is supposed to have a play date with Kailyn. This will be the first play date for the two of them together. Kailyn has been home in the USA for just a short time now and transitioning quite well. Our next adventure will be to Florida in Sept. Another first for Mikayla...we will not be going to Disney as she is still a bit to young for that but we will do some other fun things that she will be able to do as we will be staying on Disney property and will surely go to Downtown Disney if not to shop, just to walk around (like we wont shop, right!) Shortly after Florida will be our big trip to Hawaii that will be a real treat for Mikayla with the lagoon, pools, Luau's and shopping at the outdoor mall (yes Mikayla does love to shop believe it or not) and so much more.

Mikayla trying to sit on a puzzle block G and Mikayla on the steep slide

Hamsters in the Wheel :)