Oops...I lied! I have one more story about Hayden the Hero!

I can't believe I have forgotten to tell one of my favorite stories from our vacation.
I took Ashlyn to a medical clinic when her ear was bothering her on Monday afternoon. While we were away, Chris took Hayden to the beach area of our hotel (his favorite place). Hayden built sand castles and waded in the water. When the boys headed back to the room, Hayden told Chris, "Look what I found in the water". It was a diamond engagement ring! Chris said he could hardly believe it, and they took the ring to the front desk. The person working said that he knew who to call right away. Supposedly a young girl had been crying all day because she lost her engagement ring on the beach! Our little treasure hunter found it and probably made that girl's day! Talk about finding a needle in a haystack!!

Some of my favorites!

Here are the last set of pictures from our trip I will put on my blog. I took over 200.....not as many as I thought I would take, but I slowed down as the trip went on because I was tired and so was everyone else.
These pictures are some of my favorites. I love the kids with the characters....especially since I know the next time we go back they might not want anything to do with them.
We are eating at a place called Chef Mickey's...it is a very kid-friendly restaurant inside the Contempory Resort. The food was not my favorite, but still good......you definitely pay for the atmosphere here. It's so hard to get pics/autographs with the characters at the parks because the lines can get so long, so character meals are the perfect way to get pics!!!
The Contempory Resort also holds a special place in my heart because it is the resort we stayed at the first 2 times I came to Disney as a kid. It's not the place I would want to stay now....there are so many other great places here, but as a kid we thought it was so neat to have the monorail run through the hotel!

The pictures just keep coming!!!

Each "longhouse" at the Polynesian has a different name....we stayed in Aotearoa. I still don't know how to pronounce it! Ha!
Ash and Chris at Hollywood Studios!
Just finished a yummy meal at The Coral Reef Restaurant at Epcot!
Can't go to Disney without the family pic in front of the castle! Wish we would have thought to take our sunglasses off....oh well, maybe next time!!

Hope I am not boring you!

Boat ride to Ft. Wilderness for the Hoop de doo Review dinner show!
The kids at Epcot....Hayden becoming less cooperative for the camera and Ash with her eyes closed.

Breakfast with the Princesses!

When I was younger and went to Disneyworld, I thought it was so disappointing to only be able to see Cinderella's Castle from the outside. So this year, I think I was as excited as Ashlyn (if not more) to eat breakfast inside the castle with the princesses. We made it a girls only meal! The castle was lovely, the food pretty good, and the princesses were very friendly!

More Pictures!

Here is one view out of our hotel room......we loved watching the monorail zip by through out the day!
Hayden playing in the sand.......the rain on it's way in the background!
Ash on the beach, too!
View from the beach looking back at our resort.....the volcano in the background had a cool waterslide in it!
Another view from our room....I was so impressed with the beauty of all the landscaping!

Animal Kingdom!

Ok...I added this picture and I can't seem to move it. Ash and Hayden with the Everest rollercoaster in the background. We never got to ride it because we thought we would come back to Animal Kingdom but we never did!

Our first trip to a park was Animal Kingdom. It was neat place, but I have to admit it was not my favorite! It seemed more crowded, but we did enjoy a few things. We took the Safari trip and The Lion King performance was incredible! Here is Hayden with my dad on his scooter. The scooter was great for my dad because he was able to stay with us the whole time...plus Hayden got to ride as well which kept him rested! Also, we learned quickly that having my dad on a scooter allowed us to get on many rides without the long waits. My dad was one continuous fast pass for us. We called him V.I.P.!!!

Ash and Hay in the stroller!
The tree of life....very impressive in person!
Ash and Pocahantes (not sure of spelling!)

Pictures!

Here is one view from the pool area looking across the Seven Seas Lagoon...The Grand Floridian Resort is in the background!

I loved being able to see Cinderella's Castle from our pool as well........it really added to the atmosphere!
Chris and Hayden lounging by the pool!
Ash and Hayden getting ready for our first night's dinner at Ohana's! Ohana's is a restaurant at our resort with a very Polynesian theme. The kids get to limbo, hula, shake maracas, etc. throughout the meal. All the food is cooked over a large open fire pit and the servers bring the meats on giant skewers. It was a lot of fun!
Hayden with one of our servers.....his name was Cliff!

The beginning of our trip!

Ashlyn and Hayden in the pool at the Hyatt Regency in Dallas...it was cool to watch planes come and go!
The hotel was really nice except the rooms weren't sound proof....I heard every plane all night long....no sleep for mom! The kids wanted to sleep together, but that didn't last long!
When we arrived at the Polynesian Resort, they gave each of us a lei...it was fake but none-the-less a great way to start our vacation! The lobby of the resort was absolutely gorgeous. I felt like we were in Hawaii without the 8 hour plane trip!
Ashlyn puts on everyone's lei!
Hayden's version of the same thing!!!

We're Baaack!!!!!

Our trip to Disney was wonderful! It was great getting to spend a whole week with my mom, dad, Andrea, and Brian! I will post pictures and stories from our trip soon. However, I just had to share our airport adventure stories first!
On our way out of town last Thursday, we got down to the lobby of our hotel early in the morning to catch the shuttle to the airport. When they asked us for our flight, they couldn't seem to find it in the computer. Our flight was suppose to be at 6:35 AM (I had just checked it the day before), but the computer was only showing a flight at 6:00 AM and 7:20AM. The hotel worker thought our flight was probably the 7:20, but we continued to the airport to make sure. Well, we tried to check our luggage in at the curb and the rude worker told us we were too late.... our flight was the 6:00 one. Needless to say, we were racing through the airport and went through security (which was very busy at 5:30 AM). Of course, we were in Terminal C and our flight was in Terminal A. I felt like we were in a movie racing through airport only to get all the way to the plane just in time to watch it back out of the gate. Fortunately, they had already put us on the next flight at 7:20.....but we had to go back to Terminal C. It was quite the crazy morning, especially after getting no sleep the night before. I heard every plane come and go all night....not to mention the howling wind! We ended up making a great flight to Orlando!

However, the following Thursday our return flight to Dallas became quite the nightmare! I promise my story is 100% true even though you may find it hard to believe. This story makes the first one sound like nothing!!!

We were all exhausted from a great week at our resort and at the parks. We were not thrilled with having to get up at 5:00 to leave for the airport, but we knew it would be worth it to catch our 9:00 AM flight to Dallas and get to Waco early afternoon.
Oh, I forgot to mention that the day before we were suppose to receive flight confirmation from the hotel so we would know what time the Magical Express bus would pick us up for the airport......our note arrives and says they can't find our flight!!! Ugh!!! Not a good sign but we weren't completely surprised since it happened to us the week before.
Anyways, we finally get the flight confirmed and we begin to wait at the airport. Then an annoucement is made that there are storms in Miami and our flight crew will be late so we are delayed until 9:45....then until 10:15.......then until 10:30.......and then the whole flight was CANCELLED!!!
I don't know if any of you have ever had this happen.....but all I can say is NIGHTMARE!!!! Everyone from our plane went rushing to the American Airlines counter......Chris and the kids went to reclaim our luggage and I got in a long, slow line with lots of angry people. I got on the phone with American and the only option we had for getting to Dallas on Thursday was to take a flight to La Guardia (yes...New York) and then to Dallas arriving at 7:00 PM. I was just about besides myself, but I went ahead and took it. I was hearing from other people that there were no other options for that day or we would have to wait until the next day and then who knows.
We had to go back through security for the second time in one day which meant that we had to get checked with more scrutiny.....Ash and I even got patted down!
OK....so we are sitting around waiting some more for our flight and then I realize the one to La Guardia was delayed an hour...which means we would miss our connecting flight to DFW. I told Chris that I didn't want to be stuck in New York either....which would have been farther than Orlando. I was ready to take our luggage and starting driving.
We ended up getting on a flight at 11:45 to John F. Kennedy airport in New York with a connecting flight to DFW arriving at 8:30. So yesterday at this time we were in New York City....it still seems like a dream......and then our flight was delayed again.......and then once we were on the plane we had to sit on the runway for an hour......and then we took off and the flight was 3 hours long......and then when we finally arrived in DFW at 10:00PM all the gates were full and we had to wait longer on the plane! By the way, did I mention our luggage was on another flight so we had to go from Term. A to Term. C to get it. We pulled into our driveway last night about 1:15 AM!!! What a day....what a nightmare....and yet, we were home safe and sound! I was in tears yesterday at times and now I can almost laugh about it! Ash and Hay were excited to see the New York skyline and the Empire State building.....too bad I didn't have time to shop for a Coach purse on Canal Street!!
Pictures to come soon..............but I am sooooo tired it may not be until tomorrow!!

Time to Play Catch Up!

I have finally taken the time to figure out how to transfer pictures from my new camera to the computer! It wasn't all that hard...I just needed to take the time to do it!
Here is what we have been up to for the last several weeks! It was wild and hectic but oh so much fun!!!!


End of season baseball parties....I thought this was such a cute idea....it's not a cake but a bunch of cupcakes frosted together!
Ashlyn's Poetry Recital...she did the poem "One Inch Tall" by Shel Siverstien!
End of Year Inflatables Party at School

Beach Day at Hayden's Gymnastics Class!

Hayden celebrates his "unbirthday" at school and picks out a prize!
Hayden's last day of school "Luau"....he is signing "autographs"
Ashlyn's Dance Recital

Ashlyn's Track and Field Day....her class won 1st Place!