Last Day at St. Thomas

Tuesday was Miles' last day at St. Thomas Aquinas. He will be with the same teachers next year and is very fond of Ms. Kelly (teacher in the gray sweatshirt), so that is a good thing. Here is a pic of him with his teachers and their children. He still goes until June 6th at the other school, so even though Tues. and Thurs. are done, M, W, and F are still filled for a little while.



Below is a pic of Miles and Tyler in the parking lot after school.
Even though Tyler moves up to Miles class next year, they still will not be together because Tyler moves to the three day group and Miles stays at two because of his other school. No worries, they will have the whole summer to get sick of each other.....

Disney 2009

This year was our 10th wedding anniversary. We decided to have a vow renewal ceremony at our church with friends and family and then planned a week long trip to Disney for a vacation. We left on last Sunday and got back this Saturday evening. Although it was very hot already, and it did rain one evening, we had a blast.

Miles wasn't quite sure what he was in store for, but he did know he was going to see Mickey and Minnie. Because we had 7 full days, we were able to take our time and fit in everything we wanted to see. Miles rode his first roller coaster and finally understood the 3D movies. We saw a lot of shows and even though I am ridiculously pregnant for the amount of walking we did, we explored every corner of every park.

To make the most of our trip, we planned everything very carefully. We bought the meal plan as part of our package and would recommend it to everyone........such a deal!! We had a character dinner one night, dinner at Ohana a Polynesian restaurant, dinner at Boma an African buffet, a very entertaining meal at the Japanese teppan tables and even got back to the German buffet at the Epcot World Showcase. Miles really dug the Japanese chef cooking in front of us and danced like a maniac during the German polka band. Although finding things for him to eat was not easy, we brought plenty of snacks with us if the cuisine wasn't appealing for him, which was most places we went.

Before we left everyday, we would read the park maps and plan where to go the next day, and avoid the areas that children and preggos are not allowed. I did go on a few rides that were questionable and definitely ate a lot that I should have avoided, but we were on vacation and I don't think the baby was too shaken up by the experience. The only downfall was the lack of sleep (tiny hotel beds) and the sore hamstrings and calves.

We had a great time and it was nice to get to have one last vacation as a family of three. We will most certainly do it again when the new baby is out of diapers. Nothing more gross than having to change a dirty diaper in a germy park in 90 degree heat....mmmmmmm! (BTW - I didn't use up all the hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes, but I did buy two bottles of each and we each had our own travel size sanitizers for our pockets, so it would have been very hard to run out). I don't think my family will ever want to wash their hands again after this week.

Here are some of the pics from our trip. I will post ones from the anniversary party once I get them from the highly trained, professional photographer (my friend Rita). -

Are you going to expect me to smile for every picture?

Miles first roller coaster

Mickey's house

Minnie and Mickey pics

What's gonna happen next?

Oh, Canada.....

Cinderella's Castle, or as Miles likes to call it Mickey's house

Pics with Piglet at our first dinner

Miles and Tigger

Fireworks at Magic Kingdom:

Character pictures from Animal Kingdom:

After we found out that Miles liked 3D movies we went back to Magic Kingdom on our last day and saw Mickey's PhilharMagic and rode the Buzz Lightyear ride one more time.

I don't know what's harder to believe, that Miles made it 7 days or that we did. By day 7 we were all ready to go home........with lots of great memories.