Sound Effects

Julia is a fun little girl to be around and as her language skills develop I am especially enjoying talking with her. She is at a fun age because she is starting to understand more. She is able to express herself better even if we don't understand all the words she uses. I especially like when she tells me stories. In conversations with her she likes to use sound effects to explain herself. I love hearing these little highlights to her stories, and they do help her get her point across. If she is telling a story about how she was scared, she will stop mid sentence, let out a scream with a wide-eyed startled look on her face, and then continue on in a normal tone. Lately, she frequently accents descriptions of her potty training efforts with "sshhhh" sound effects and grunting noises. You have to pay close attention because she doesn't repeat herself, but I can't help smiling every time I hear her.

Save or Spend

A few months ago Matt and I decided to start giving the kids an allowance to help them learn how to manage money. It has been interesting to see how their different personalities affect their attitudes about money. Kylee is more of a saver and really thinks about what she wants to buy. Brayden, on the other hand, is a spender and money just burns a hole in his pocket. Kylee and Brayden had to use their own money they had saved to buy any souvenirs that they wanted at Disney World. While in the souvenir shops Kylee would spend an hour looking for something and then not really buy anything. Brayden would pick something out right away. He just wanted to know if he had enough money to buy it and if he would get change back. It didn't matter how much change back as long as he would get something back. Then, after he purchased a cheap electronic game he kept looking for things to buy explaining to me that he still had room in his bag.

Disney Day 5 Animal Kingdom

Kilimanjaro Safari ride 

Taking a break to cool down with some popsicles.

In front of the Tree of Life. 

It was an action packed week and we were all exhausted by the end.  Here is a summary of the week from each persons perspective.

Blake - lots of hanging out in the stroller while the kids went on rides

Julia - a week of heaven in the magical world of real princesses

Brayden - braved the high speed roller coasters and even claimed to like them 

Kylee - first time really experiencing big roller coasters and discovered she is hooked

Disney Day 4 Magic Kingdom

Riding the shuttle to the ferry.  

Matt and Blake on the ferry to the Magic Kingdom

The girls were excited to meet the  princesses. 

Disney Day 3

With Tuesday being a late night we decided to take it easy the next morning.  We went swimming at the Orange Lake Resort pool.  It was the first time for Blake to be in a pool.  

 It was fun to relax and hang out that morning at the pool.

In the afternoon we went back to Magic Kingdom.

Disney Day 2

We decided to spend Tuesday at Magic Kingdom.  The day started with riding on the monorail.  

Disney World 2008 Group - Gaspar de Alba's, Crane's, and Caldwell's.

We came back to the hotel early afternoon for the kids to take naps.  We had pre-oredred tickets for the Not So Scary Halloween party scheduled for later that evening.  It was going to be a late night and we didn't want the kids to be so exhausted.   Katrina went to Walmart and picked up some costumes for the kids to wear to the party.  We had some pirates, the little girls were princesses, and Kylee and Paloma started out being cats.  Kristina helped get the little girls ready by putting make-up on them.  They loved it.

The Not So Scary Halloween Party had trick or treating,  a parade, a Villain show at the Cinderella Castle, and different places with music and dancing.  The kids were all given bags to use to trick-or-treat throughout the park.  There were designated spots on the park map to get the candy.  It was fun to see the different Disney Villains walking around the park.  The kids enjoyed themselves

All the kids right after we got in the gates for the party.  

The 2nd time Julia got lost was after the Not So Scary Halloween Parade.  She was sitting in the stroller with Blake watching the parade.  After the parade she decided to get out and wander off.  All of the sudden I looked and she was gone.  The next thing I noticed was an older lady holding Julia's hand walking the parade loop looking for her mom.  Julia was kind of clueless about what had happened.  

Disney Day 1

On September 21, 2008 we made the 10 hour drive from Cary, North Carolina down to Orlando, Florida to spend a week of vacation at Disney World. We met the Gaspar de Albas and Cranes who had already made the trek a couple of days earlier.  We stayed at a time share called the Orange Lake Resort through Brother Gaspar de Alba. 

We spent our first day of fun, Monday, at Hollywood Studios.   

Our first stop was the Rock 'n Roller Coaster.  Among the first group to go on it was Brayden with me (Kristel).  Brayden had not ridden a big roller coaster like that before.  As we were riding I thought Brayden had passed out. His eyes closed and his head went limp.  I kept calling his name with no response.  After it was over he said, "That was FUN!  Let's do it again!".  So he went again with Matt, though never opened his eyes.  Brayden was not as adventurous at The Tower of Terror ride where he opted out.  Kylee enjoyed all the rides and rode them multiple of times.   


The day turned out to be rainy and the ponchos came in handy.  The kids enjoyed dancing and entertaining themselves in the rain.  

Julia got lost 2 times during the week.  The first time she got lost was in Hollywood Studios.  We were hanging outside of a theatre after watching a show and trying to figure out where to go next.  As we were leaving we noticed that Julia was not among our crowd.  We frantically searched all around.  I told an employee outside of the theater and described what she was wearing.  She went in the theater to go look for her.  Then I took off trying to find her.  My heart sank.  There were so many places she could disappear to.  After a frightful five minutes the lady came out of the theater with Julia.  She had wandered back in.  When we went back and saw the footage of video on that day we can actually see the point where she walked off.  Scary.