Brandi’s Florida Vacation April 2011 – Pt. 1

It is always fun to take family and friends in to Disney here in Florida…This is more special cause our daughter, Brandi, came down for about a week to visit her bff who lives in Lakeland and to go to Disney and do a few things that she didn’t get to do a few the last time she was here…

The weather was going to be HOT…So we gave her the option to go in to the chosen park early in the am and then go swimming in the hottest part of the day or sleep in, go in a chosen park when it is getting hot and then go swimming…Luckily she chose to get up early and go in to a chosen park…

April 13 – Magic Kingdom (MK)…We started about 8am when it was very cool…We arrived at MK, got a double stroller for our snack bags and cooler bag for our lunch…We headed towards the Carousel ride so Bri and Bran could ride it together…All of us actually got to walk through the middle of Cinderella’s Castle…

The line wasn’t long so they got on the ride very quickly…Richard and I found a spot to take some pics but it was tough to get some good pics of them when they are sitting in the middle of the horses…Round and round they went…The joy of seeing their smiling faces…While waiting for them, I spotted Pinocchio over by the Pinocchio House…We headed to the line so Bri can get his autograph…

After the autograph signing, we all was heading to Pecos Bills to eat our lunch but along the travel Bri and Brandi got on the Peter Pan ride…The Stand By wait time was only 15 minutes so Richard and I told Brandi that they should get on that ride…Richard and I sat down on a wall in the shade waiting for them…After the Peter Pan ride, all of us decided to get on It’s Small World with a Stand By time of 5 minutes…We all agreed that we should get Fantasyland over and done with before heading out of that area…

Time to move on…Thought we were going to go eat lunch but we went to see how long the Stand By line was for Splash Mountain because Brandi saw the ride and asked what it was…So we headed to Splash Mountain and the Stand By time was 10 minutes but it was quicker than that…We got to the log plume seating quicker than normal and off we were around all the bends and turns until we hit the 50 foot plunge…Brianna and I got a little wet from the splash down but not too bad…Bri was a bit scared but had fun…

Finally after the wet ride we finally went to Pecos Bills for lunch…Everyone was hungry…We got a few toppings from the toppings bar in Pecos Bills and found a big table…Lunch was over and we headed to Monsters Inc. before leaving MK to head out to go swimming but just had to stop by Mickey and Minnie for a few quick pics…

 

Our girl was trying to get a tan without burning but I think white girl got more burned than tanned even with tanning lotion…lol

We headed out and then went swimming for a little bit…Brandi wanted to spend some evening time with her bff, Nicole..Richard and I were getting tired and worn out…

Grandchildren are Wonderful

Ever since I can remember, I’ve always couldn’t wait to be a grandparent…Maybe because I spent most of my preteen and teenage with my grandmother on my dad’s side or because of how my family was….I just don’t know why but I knew…I couldn’t wait to have kids of my own, 2 at the most but 3 was the number and I’m so happy with that…Then one day I find out that I’m gonna be a grandmother, my son’s (Joshua)daugher…I am overjoyed…but as time went by and things changed, that didn’t work out due to no fault on my side of the family…There is a little girl out there who is now somewhat grown but not old enough to get in touch with this side of the family…I have but a few little photos of her and will always keep them to let her know that I’ve not given up on one day of being her grandmom…After time there came 3 beautiful granddaughters by my eldest daughter (Brandi)…and then 2 more beautiful grandchildren, 1 girl and now 1 boy, by my youngest daughter (Misti)…Now all of these grandchildren are biological grandchildren and I love them…but I also have 2 non-biological grandkids who are teenagers and who just came in to the family in August 2010…So total in all, I am a grandmother of 8 grandkids…Wow!  How amazing is that! 
I have created some collages of only 5 grandkids because 1. I do not have any recent photos of my eldest granddaughter who I have not seen since she was 2 or 3 yrs. of age 2. I do not have many photos of my step-grandkids that are recent…So I have only 5 collages of grandkids made and I hope to get some pictures of the step-grandkids from their mom and step-dad…
The first 3 collages will be of Brandi’s daughters…The last 2 collages will be of Misti’s daughter and son…
This is our silly Kayla…She is in 1st Grade and has done really great…She loves to make funny faces, jump rope and have fun…
This is our little model Brianna…She likes to play games, have fun in the water and loves to visit Disney…
This is our little superstar Elizabeth…She loves her Poppy, loves to pose, and loves her sisters…
This is our little Sicilian princess Laurianna…She loves to play with all her toys, be with her mommy and daddy, and loves to eat all of her food or wears her food…We have not seen her yet because her daddy is stationed in Sicily until October 2011…Hope to see her one day soon…
This is our little newcomer Nicodemus…He was just born on April 8…Just seeing the pictures of him is awesome and it’s a boy!  Tonka Trucks and overalls…His mommy and daddy are very lucky and big sister, Laurianna, will love him forever…
I hope soon to put up a few collages of my step-grandkids so I can show them off as well…I am a very lucky grandmother and very blessed to have them all in my life…

Some 2011 Fun at Resorts

More fun than a barrel of monkeys…Bri has had “the best day of her life” for many days while being here with us…We have had “the best days of our lives” with her here…We are the most lucky grandparents in the world to have our daughter let us keep one of our granddaughters, 1 at a time, come to where we are and stay with us for 6 weeks or more…During this time we try to have lots of fun with each one doing various things, depending on where we are at…During Bri’s visit, we are in the Walt Disney World area and we are having the time of our lives…We haven’t been to do much else since the price of gas has risen to an enormous extreme for traveling but we are playing games, having movie days, visiting friends of ours, doing pre-k workbook, coloring, working on crafts, dancing, drawing, and from time to time being able to play on the computer…

We have been able to visit the Disney Resorts and show her what they look like…We’ve even gotten our feet wet, grabbed a small bite to eat or even get an ice cream…Every resort on Disney property is very unique in their own way…There are still more resorts to see and I hope that we can get to a few more before she heads home…

Yummy! A very cold treat for such a hot day…We’ve traded some pins and walked around the Wilderness Lodge…Bri got to put her feet in the water and we got to relax and enjoy her having fun…

While out and about, Bri spent some time swimming while we got to sit under an umbrella and watch her have fun in the sun…Too bad the goggles didn’t match her swimsuit…hahahaha!  I can’t quite place what she looks like here but she can look under water without having red eyes…

The Wilderness Lodge has another section to it for the Disney Vacation Club people…We took a slight tour of the resort and came upon some games to play…A checker board..Um, there’s some thinking going on here…I wonder who will win?  hahahaha!
 

Chinese Checkers and Backgammon was a few more games to play but we were still doing some exploring…We found huge rockers and Bri wanted to “drive” one of them so we had some fun pretending her rocker was a car and she was going to McDonalds…It was so funny…Poppy was paying for his order of burgers, fries and a drink…


Can you tell what she was doing here?  Bri found some hoof prints and was deciding what it was that crossed the sidewalk…What we thought it was is standing out in the front yard of the Wilderness Lodge…This was all in a few days fun of seeing the resort and see what we all could find different…We carry snacks and lunch sometimes and get a drink wherever we are at…The day of investigating tires us out and at night she falls sound asleep…but it’s “the best day of our lives” with her…

Swimming Fun with Friends Visiting in March

Sun  and   Fun  here in Davenport, Florida with some friends who came down for about 10 days…We spent about 6 days with our friends, Durwood – Dottie and their daughter, Amy, son-n-law, Dustin and their 2 kids, Nikki and Nicholas…A rental home with a nice pool was very relaxing and fun and we got spend many hours watching Bri and them have tons of fun…
 

Here is our goggle swimmer with floaties…I have not been able to get her to try to swim without them…but not yet…

Anyone want to be squirted???  Come closer…closer….a little closer….Squirt!  Got ya!!!  Yes, she had a blast squirting the other kids and adults who were in the pool…No one was safe unless you were out of the pool and sitting at the table protecting all the cameras and cell phones…hahahahaha!!

Then there was some tube tire fun…Nikki and Bri would climb on to the tire at the steps in to the pool and then paddle their way out to the middle and then count to 3 before falling backwards off of the tire…Sometimes, one of them would wind up inside of the tire…

Then this is some form of “cannonball”…She loved jumping in to the pool…Bri, Nikki and Nicholas would jump in doing cannonballs…


Bri was having fun with Nikki’s dad, Dustin…Dustin was tossing the kids up in the air so they would land back in to the pool with a giant splash…All 3 kids were trying to get Dustin to toss them around in the pool…Can I say jealousy for all 3…but then I understand cause Bri just loves having fun in the pool and didn’t want to be left out and thanks to Dustin, he had fun with her too…

Cannonballs, Water Squirting and Relaxing

Our friends, the Herrings and Roeders, were down in Davenport from March 19 to March 28…They rented a house with a pool and we went to their rental 5 days to spend quality time with them and to let Bri have some playing time with the kids…The most fun part of our visits were the kids (young and old) playing in the pool…

Can someone say “CANNONBALL”…Dustin did a jump in to the pool that just splashed water all out of the pool…It was a great cannonball…

Here’s Nicholas, Dustin’s son, who was doing a cannonball but sometimes he wouldn’t jump up and out far enough…Nicholas still had a blast jumping in to the pool…He wanted to be like his daddy…

This is our friends, Dottie, in the background and Amy who is due in the beginning of May…The sun was out, the kids were at the other end of the pool and no splashing was going on…at least not yet!  Amy is Dottie’s daughter…

Dustin was having a blast with the squirter…The one getting squirted is his daughter, Nikki…Dustin did some pretty good aiming while jumping in to the pool…To only be that young again and to be able to do all of that…

Anyone for some tossing up in the air out of the pool and then be able to land back in to the water with a huge splash??  Nicholas is being tossed this time…Brianna was waiting her turn to have the same thing done to her…

Ahhhh!  Some relaxing time…Nikki and Brianna were still playing in the pool…They were like fishes and didn’t want to come out, no matter what…Water logged and having fun…Our friend, Durwood, who is in the blue tee, was telling us a story and we all were chiming in…Poor Amy’s feet were so swelled up from this pregnancy that she had to put her feet up on her Poppa…This is what we did those days that we visited our friends and we were sure glad to have been able to do so…Sure did  miss them when they all left for their homes up near Tallahassee…Bri missed her newly found friends too…

ESPN the Weekend Fun…3.4.11

Anquan Boldin

                                                                                                                        Larry Fitzgerald

Jason Witten
                                                                                                                     DeAngelo Williams

                                                 Derrelle Revis
                                                                                                                              Brandon Jacobs

This is the first year that we got to go to ESPN the Weekend at Hollywood Studios…I just happened to come across this event on the Cast Members Hub and thought it would be a cool thing to go to…The first thing I had to do was find a sitter for our granddaughter, Bri, because I knew she would be very restless during the whole day just waiting around, standing in lines and just passing the day away without getting on rides or seeing shows…The big blown up Football was at the entrance of Hollywood Studios along with a huge soccer ball but the only sport I care about was Football…lol
After grabbing an itinerary of what was going on, I circled what I wanted to do and see…Richard was just like “I’ll follow you around all day and just relax” which was fine with me…lol  We headed over to where NFL Live was going to be at Premier Theater…I wanted to get there early so that we could get up front seats as close as possible…The NFL Live show started at 11am and we were in the Premier Theater area at 9:30am…We met a family from Baltimore, big Ravens fans and a Jets fan…So we all took turns keeping our spaces while each member in our families went to get some breakfast like coffee and buns or coke and buns or go elsewhere…About 10:15am, the Cast Members came out of the theater and told everyone where to line up…Whoever was standing/sitting around was rushing to get to where the line to go in to the show was actually starting…Not bad, we were about 4th in line along with the other family, who we let go in front of us…Time to go in and get our seats, wait for the show to start and start clicking away with our cameras…

The NFL Live hosts came out and I didn’t know who Trey Wingo was but I knew who Mark Schlereth and Merril Hoge was…The guest who I was really interested in and hoping to get an autograph from was Anquan Boldin, our Baltimore Ravens WR for the 2010 season..After all the questions/answers from the studio audience and all the talk about all the players careers, the show was over and the audience was scrambling for autographs…I, of course, was one of them but with no luck…

Now it’s off to see the NFL Athletes Motorcade that is going to go from the main entrance of Hollywood Studios, down Hollywood Blvd. and end up at the Sorcerer’s Hat…Unfortunately, the parade went by fast but it was great to see a legend at the end of motorcade, Tony Dorsett…

After the Motorcade, we headed to the Sports Zone to see what that was all about and maybe, hopefully, possibly get some autographs…Lots of things for kids/adults to do…Jump hoops, swing a golf club, so some fishing,  hike some footballs…None of which I was interested in…Along my journey of the Sports Zone, I did come upon a few mascots…I know of the Atlanta Braves mascot, Homer but I know nothing of the “DUCK” except he/she was from Oregon…Is that a basketball team?  Don’t know, didn’t care…I got some autographs even if they weren’t from athletes…hahahahaha   Moving on, Ah, there are the Tampa Bay Bucs cheerleaders…Aw man, I was too late to get a picture with them or any autographs…They were heading to another location or back to locker rooms somewhere on property…But a quick snap shot would do…There you go sweetie, wave your hands in the air like pom poms…hahahahaha

Richard and I grabbed some lunch, walked around a little bit, relaxed while waiting for the show to begin on center stage of the Sorcerer’s Hat…Richard relaxed while I waited to see Teddy Bruschi, retired New England Patriot…Standing in the crowd of baseball fans waiting to hear all about this so called pitcher for the Phillies…Finally, the baseball show ended and football talk was about to begin…Teddy came out along with Trey Wingo and Merril Hoge…Then Tim Tebow came out..It wasn’t his time but he made a guest appearance…I was done with that show and needed to go rest…Found Richard over at the Sweets Shop sitting under an umbrella…Our next stop on my list of things I wanted to see was the Stump the Schwab All-Star Game held at the Drew Carey’s Sounds Dangerous Theater…The 3 teams got their questions and gave their answers…DeAngelo Williams and his partner made it to the final round, Stump the Schwab…Howie Schwab came out and the Championship Round question was put up on the big screen…
Howie had to give an answer and then DeAngelo team had to give an answer…Howie could not come up with a team to this Championship Round…He lost…What did the DeAngelo Williams team win?  Nothing…It was all for fun…But afterwards when the show was over and all the people in the audience was running up to try and get autographs, I was able to “push” my way past a few people and stick my collage of some of the athletes that I made up in the air to get anyone’s attention to sign…I did it, I got Brandon Jacobs autograph…Finally my day ended with an athlete’s autograph…It may not have been from my own Baltimore Ravens team like I had wanted but I got an autograph…
It was a great ESPN the Weekend day…Thanks sweetie for a great day and for going to this…I love you!