Animal Kingdom

Thursday was by far the best day at Disney, in my humble opinion! We started off the day by going to Animal Kingdom as soon as the park opened. We went straight back to Africa so we could go on the safari and catch the animals before it got too hot--turned out to be a good plan because we sure saw a lot! We saw hippos, rhinos, giraffes, elephants and lions ... plus a few things that we had no idea what we were looking at!! I didn't take many pictures with my phone, so I'll have to post pictures later--I took a lot of them!


After our safari, we watched an African street performance, and headed over towards Asia, when we happened upon the Birds of Flight show, which was just about to start. We sat in the second row and watched as all sorts of birds showed off their tricks ... Nicholas volunteered and fed one, even! I got a picture (not on my cell phone) but I didn't have time to switch to video!

After Birds of Flight we headed down to get fast passes to Expedition Everest, and happened upon Baloo and King Louie ... Paige has the eagle eye of the group and we met several characters thanks to her! I snapped this screen shot from the photo pass website--it's the only character picture Brian and I got in with the kids and therefore one I might have to purchase!!


We finished our afternoon by riding a few rides and watching Finding Nemo The Musical, which was fantastic!!

From Animal Kingdom, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table. We had a wonderful time and met Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel, Aurora and Belle. We rode a few more rides and the kids stood in HUGE lines to meet Princess Tiana (and Prince Naveen) and Rapunzel. We ended the night with the Electric Parade and Fireworks, which were absolutely amazing! Such a neat night!!



The girls at the bus stop, on our way to have dinner at the castle.




Nicholas posing with Pinnochio




Princess Paige by the castle

Last 5 minutes of the fireworks show ... I should have taped the whole thing!



And I thought it was hard to get a picture of just my two kids! Here are the cousins after the fireworks, right before heading back to the resort.

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Hollywood Studios

Yesterday we went to Hollywood Studios, formally known (and forever known to me) as MGM. It was a fun day, albeit shorter than the others! We started out on the Aerosmith Rockin' Roller Coaster, which was closed last time we were here! Paige decided to sit this one out, so while Brian, Nicholas, Jay and I rode this one, Jeanne and the rest of the kids went over to the Tower of Terror and procured four fast passes for us! What a great sister-in-law, wife and aunt, right??!

We saw a few shows and got to see the Pixar and Pals parade, which was AWESOME, and then headed back to swim for a little while before dinner at Chef Mickey's. I took quite a few pictures with our "regular camera" rather than my phone so I don't have as many pictures to post from the day, but here is what I have!!!




Waiting on the bus to take us to Hollywood Studios




Brian and I after our ride!



A snapshot of the picture taken during the Tower of Terror. The two goofballs with their hands up in the back are Brian and Jason (Nicholas and I are to the left)




The men after riding the tower of terror




The kids with one of the army men from Toy Story




Nicholas, Luke and Kate meeting Phinneus and Ferb ... Paige wasn't interested this time around!



The kids in front of the Muppets fountain








Pictures of the kids with Mickey and Minnie at Chef Mickeys for dinner. We also met Donald, Pluto and Goofy, but those pix are on my camera and I can't get to them until I have my computer at my fingertips again!

Today we stuck around the hotel and swam, then went to Downtown Disney for dinner at T-Rex, which was VERY good! We're having a great time--today was a good break from being on our feet and going non-stop for all of us. Tomorrow we start back up again and will finish out our time at Disney World on Friday. I think the four of us will be ready to be heading home, but I'm sure it will be bittersweet at the same time--this trip has been a lot of fun--the kids have SO enjoyed spending the week here with their cousins, and Brian and I have enjoyed the company of Jay and Jeanne as well!

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Epcot

Well, we're 1/2 way through our trip and having a great time!! Monday we went to Epcot and met a lot of fun characters--Alice in Wonderland, Daisy Duck, Marie (from Aristocats), Snow White (who called Nicholas a prince and embarrassed him) and Belle from Beauty and the Beast!!













We had lunch at the Coral Reef Restaurant, where we had a front row seat to all sorts of fish--sharks and sea turtles included!

We walked around the whole park and visited the different countries. We stopped to avoid some rain in Germany, which worked out perfectly for Brian and Jay in their quest for a beer!! We ended up pulling out the ponchos and finishing in the rain, but it wasn't all that bad--we still had a great time!!













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It's official!

It about killed us ("us" being me and Jeanne ... for some reason the Wiard brothers didn't care so much about the surprises) but the kids officially know ALL the details of the Disney trip! Jay and Jeanne were supposed to meet us at the hotel around 7:30 last night, but somewhere in Tennessee (before our IN/MI routes converged) they had to detour off of I-75 due to a rockslide that did a lot of damage to the interstate. The detour was just about 20 miles of the highway, but cost them 2 hours of travel time!! By the time they arrived at our hotel it was after 9:30 so we agreed we would wait until this morning.

I was awake for good at 5:30 am, but woke up just about every hour starting at 2:30 ... I know, I'm worse than the kids! Our family was all up and showered by 7:30 and headed in to have breakfast. Jeanne and I texted back and forth and agreed that the potential for a noisy reunion was pretty great so the lobby/breakfast room was probably the best place for it. I tried to get it all on video but it's hard to tape when you're a.) trying to be inconspicuous, and b.) GIDDY with excitement!!! The video is below ... you'll see Jay and Jeanne and the kids walk in, and I hear me tell my kids to look at the door. Of course I missed getting Nicholas' face on camera when he realized what was going on, but I did see it and wish I had the lens focused on him!! Here it is:

So! Now we're caravanning for the next six hours down to the stomping grounds of my youth: central Florida!! We have Kate and Paige with us and Nick and Luke are following in the van with Jay and Jeanne. Let the fun begin!!!









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On our Way!!

Well, we did it! I can't believe we were able to pull it off, but we managed to surprise our kids this morning when we told them we are going to Disney World!!


So now we're on our way to Florida! We're out of Indiana completely and in to the rolling hills of Kentucky. Beautiful!! The kids are quietly watching a movie in the back seat while Brian and I jam to Aerosmith ... so far a pleasant experience.





Jeanne and I are texting back a forth and keeping tabs on each other. They left from Michigan around 6am and will plan on meeting us at the hotel in Georgia, at which time all secrets will finally be revealed and the kids will know they are not only going to Disney World this week, but going to Disney World WITH THEIR COUSINS!! The first Wiard-side family trip, and I think it could be the first of many! I'm all about extended family vacations! We went to Yellowstone National Park with my parents a couple years ago and I've recently begun campaigning for a Nelson family cruise ... so far, I think I'm the only one on board, but give me time!!

Nick's Baseball Game

Betcha thought I had forgotten about this blog, huh?!?  Sorry ... I'm back and will be trying to post weekly--whether I have anything to say or not!! 

The baseball season has once again begun, and Nicholas has had two games so far (he would have had more, but a few were rained out). This year his team is the Oakland A's, which has a few 4th graders but mostly has 3rd graders, like Nick.   He also has the same coach as last year, Terry, who is WONDERFUL--not only with the boys as their coach, but a great example of a good sport!   Terry was able to "draft" several of the boys from his team last year, the Red Sox, the team that won the championship last year!   He mentioned to Brian and I at the beginning of the season that he didn't think we'd have a repeat of last year since we've moved up into the 3/4th grades teams and our team is so young, but the A's have won both games they've played so far! Here are a few pictures ...


Standing ready on third base



On third base ... almost got the player out!

Running to third base (his coach calls him "Nick the Quick")!

Being goofy ... he gets this from his father (obviously!)

Nick didn't strike out at all during this game ... he walked one time and had base hits the other two!

Out on second base!  Dangit!

"Good game, good game, good game ...."

Quick team talk after the game