Six Flags...

So another fun thing we did was go to Six Flags, which used to be Marine World. So they still have a lot of the animal shows. Kenzi said her favorite was the Dolphin show. It was pretty cool! Enjoy!

Kenzi was soooo happy to have ridden the bumper cars! She was happy to be at Six Flags. She was still talking about her trip to Six Flags over Texas that she went to when she turned 5. So I am sure this is just going to add fuel to her memories even more! That is fine by me!

Kenzi riding one of the kids rides ALL by herself.

Since I get really sick, yes pucking and all, on the teacups, Uncle Ken went with Kenzi on them. Of course, he is such a big guy that they thing in the middle you use to turn the cup was rubbing on his legs!
Kenzi eating the cotton candy at the Dolphin show.

Kenzi and her old friend, The Flash!

I kept asking Kenzi if she got the Penguin but she kept telling me that she was not looking for them!

They have a "water ride" for kids and she LOVED it. It was a warm day so she got cooled off really well. After her turn was done, I told her to go hug Gramma, but she was not there so she hugged Grampa instead. He LOVED it. Again it was warm!

A picture from the dolphin show. Do you know they actually give dolphins a time out when they have done something they are not supposed to. No joke! They gave them a time out right in the middle of the show!

The tiger show was fascinating! Tigers cannot climb trees but they jump high and they are great swimmers.

We had a great day at Six Flags and with the family. Thanks Mom, Dad, Ken and Norma! We miss you guys! Kari

Water World ...

And no Kevin Costner was not there! While visiting my family in California we went to Water World. Kenzi LOVED it and did not want to leave! Enjoy!

Kenzi and her Uncle Ken are under the water fall.

After a very fun day Ken & Norma had some watermelon in their cooler so we ate it and it was yummy! Of course I had to get a picture!

IT was a lot of fun visiting the fam! Thank you Mom, Dad, Ken and Norma!

Florida photo shoot...

So one of things that I like to do is take pictures with family, often. I love to see the growth in families. In fact my favorite thing to get is a photo with the Christmas cards. I scrapbook ALL of the photos and I have one cousin who has sent pictures of her girls every year. And it is so cool to see them through the years. With that being said, We got pictures with Gram Mac while we were there. There are some really great ones so enjoy! Kari

The post to end all posts...

I have decided that I am going to use one post to finish our vacation. So first up...

So I have a friend, OK a couple of friends who live here in Allen, that are "Cali" girls. But one in particular, is die-hard "Cali-girl" and I wonder why she ever left! But she is a MAJOR In-n-Out fan. So when she happened upon this restaurant she called them impostors! I went into this restaurant in Florida and thought OK, there is the red and white thing but that is pretty much where it stops. You can eat or stash as many peanuts as you want. The floor is so slippery that you could fall and break a hip! The menu is quite extensive, in which In-n-Out is very limited. (Which is way fine by me as they are THAT good at what they do, they do not need more items on their menu!) And holy-moly, fries batman! As far as the burger itself, In-n-Out will still be the best hamburger you can get in the country for this girl!

Before we left Sarasota FL, Kenzi went over with Gram Mac to walk Uncle Len's basset, Logan. Apparently Kenzi and Logan hit it off from day one. Not surprising really!

So we headed home and took three days to do it. We stopped to see the USS Alabama. Really my husband would be the better person to ask about it as he is the history buff and this kind of stuff is way cool to him. Me, on the other hand, it is a HUGE boat! This is a pretty cool picture though. That will probably be blown up in the scrapbook. But anywho, a funny story is that I tend to be afraid of heights. Though I don't realize it often because I am fine on airplanes. They also have a submarine on land that you can go in to. There are a set of stairs outside of it to get to the top and then you go down one of the holes to go inside. Well, by the time we got to the top of the stairs I was starting to have an anxiety attack. I walk over to Carter and tell him, "hey I am having trouble, so you and the kid do whatever, I will wait for you inside the Airplane hangar." "No we will come with you" After bantering back and forth we all start our decent down the stairs to which Kenzi says "What are we doing?" Carter: "We are going back down because mommy is scared." Kenzi: "Mommy it is going to be OK, you are going to be fine!" Mommy: "I know honey, thank you!" Pretty sad when your four year old reassures you!

We also stopped in Alabama to tour an Antebellum Home. (Or plantation home.) Come to find out that Plantation home is not the politically correct term as it connotes slaves. I was unaware and no one tarred and feathered me, however, I have always loved plantation homes. I would love to live in one, one day, minus the slaves. Though I would have family move in so we all could keep it clean together! :0) It was beautiful and if we had more time, I would have stopped at some more in Louisiana.

This picture just makes me smile. We had gotten home earlier that day on 4th of July and wanted to see fireworks, so this is us waiting and eating Taco Bell/Pizza Hut dinner since that was pretty much the only thing open! Who knew? Such a fun vacation! Loved it! One of those vacations that you don't want to end even though you know it cannot last! Sorry for the long post, but at least vacations are done! Yippee!! Kari

Singing in the rain...

So on the last day that we were in Sarasota, we went to some outlet malls nearby. While we were there we got some more rain! And one of the children's clothing shop had rain coats and boots. It took some convincing, but we were able to buy Kenzi a coat and boots. (Of course, we meaning Gram Mac.) The thing that fully convinced her was the comment, "You know Kenzi, if you get those boots, you can splash in the puddles and mommy will not get upset." Well, she had the opportunity to put them on while we were shopping and ran around. It was so cute! I actually got some great pictures and was able to put together a video but for some reason it is choppy, so if this video loads it will be raw. It is still cute! Enjoy! Kari

Showing us the Florida beaches...

So one of the great things about Carter's family is that they will show us around when we come to visit. Uncle Len took us to a couple of beaches that we totally got stormed on and we all looked like we took a shower with our clothes on. Kenzi liked finding the shells on the beach but most certainly did not like seaweed and the storms. After we sufficiently got drenched we went to Saint Armand's and had an early dinner at "Columbia". If you are ever in or around Saint Armand's, I highly suggest eating at Columbia. The food was amazing! And Gram Mac bought the cookbook that they produce and I was able to make the 1905 salad for dinner one night with some friends and they liked it! Seriously good food! We did dry off about an hour after our meal. We had to walk around quite a bit. At least the rain stopped so we could dry off and enjoy and ice cream cone! Thanks for the fun time and for being our tour guide!

Lunch with Great Goog...

We were able to visit with Carter's grandmother "Goog". The name Goog came from when Carter was little he called her "Goog" because he could not say gramma. So it just stuck and as far as I know she has been known as Goog ever since. We love seeing Goog and she looked happy and healthy! We went to Kenzi and Great Goog's favorite restaurant... McDonald's! We love you Goog! I just love this picture below! Enjoy!

On a roll now...

So this actually marks the half way point of our vacation. From Orlando we traveled to Sarasota Florida which is on the West Coast in the Gulf. Everyone was so happy to see us and we had a swim party the next day with the whole family. I am so utterly grateful for how much the family loves on our daughter! She got a ton of presents and loved hanging out with Gram Mac, Uncle Len, Aunt Joy, cousins Cody & Adam, and Curly Bear and Duke - the fluffy dogs! We had a lot of fun and doesn't Gram Mac have a GREAT pool! Thank you for the fun time and warm hospitality!

Animal Kingdom...

OK, So this was my absolute favorite of everything we did. The weather was much nicer and I really did not feel like I was in a theme park so much. I think that is mostly because we were walking a lot of the park looking for animals. The had a very cute Safari parade, which we almost got to be in. Kenzi was to young. But other than that we had a wonderful time. There is one VERY memorable ride. It is Expedition Everest. It is Disney's self proclaimed #1 thing to do at Disney World. My brother-in-law JT went 4 or 5 times. My mother-in-law, Robyn hurt her back riding it 2 or 3 times. I most definitely wanted to puck after riding it once! (Man I am getting old!) Again Kenzi liked the characters. She REALLY wanted to talk to Stitch but we were unable to since they closed the line before us. She also liked looking at the animals on the Kilimanjaro Ride. You ride a big jeep and tour "South Africa" on a much smaller scale. We closed this park out too, however, it closed at 7 pm. Much easier to close a park when it is still light outside! Well, again, there are a million pictures, ok maybe a hundred. I know it seems like a million when you have to endure someone else's trip! I tried to edit better this time, Keri. Enjoy!

Down day...

So on Wednesday we took a day to chill. We went swimming at the hotel pool. Which Kenzi absolutely loved! She is becoming such a water bug. Ever since the life jacket at my brothers, she is willing to jump in without anything! I love watching my little girl have such a wonderful time! I never knew that as a parent you REALLY get enjoyment out of watching the world through your child's eyes. That would explain why when your child gets hurt physically or emotionally that you hurt more than you would for yourself too. Anyway, we again had such a wonderful trip! Enjoy! Kari P.S. the car we saw driving from lunch breakfast back to the hotel and we were so perplexed by it that we stopped to let it go ahead of us. Then we figured out that is was probably the purpose. Who know?!?!?! Funky nonetheless!

Magic Kingdom

So we went to Magic Kingdom on Tuesday. I know that at this point you are probably thinking "Really Kari, that was like a month ago now", but really the pictures are worth mentioning. We ended up being there all day. We did take a break about 1 o'clock and went back to the hotel, had lunch, and took a nap. Though I have to say the last picture is pretty telling of what it did for Kenzi. She liked everything. She wanted to talk to a lot of characters. They all were so great with her. If they were characters that could talk like Snow White, they would actually have a conversation with her about her favorite color. They were tipped off by the shirt and ears! I think Snow White even talked about cheesecake with her. If they could not talk, like Mickey & Minnie, they would mime and give kisses. I have to say that Mickey and Minnie were adorable! I almost forgot they weren't in a cartoon. Really, Magic Kingdom we could have done in two days because with Kenzi she wanted to see everything, and there is only so much detail you can cover in one day. I have had a friend ask if it was worth taking her and did we feel like we got our moneys worth. I would definitely say yes, but if you are planning to take your children, here are few things to ponder. Are they into attractions such as characters or rides? If they are into rides are the going to be able to ride with the height requirement? If they like characters on television, how are they with Santa or Chuck-E Cheese? And if your kids tires, definitely make arrangements to rest during the day. It made a world of difference in Kenzi's attitude the rest of the day! We had SOOO much fun. There are a ton of pictures so viewer beware! Enjoy! Kari

Downtown Disney

So on Tuesday we went to Downtown Disney. We were able to make our family t-shirt and ears for Kenzi. We started out with lunch at T-Rex Cafe. It was very cool! If you ever have a chance you should go for lunch or dinner. And if you have any children that like Dinosaurs then they will flip their lid! Kenzi had Shark Water to drink, which was Sprite with Coconut syrup and blue! Our meals were actually good and we had desert that was unbelievable! The pictures of Kenzi in the sand is the Cafe's Dinosaur dig. She made a sand angel. We also went to Disney Quest. That was a little disappointing due to the fact that Kenzi could not do a lot! Though Carter tried a virtual game and almost pucked! So we enjoyed the walk and all of the fun stores. That is where Carter was able to get his Penguin champion shirt! He was a happy camper! Papa and gramma had to go back to the hotel due to the heat so JT got dragged around with us. He seemed to keep up OK. Hopefully we did not wear him out too much that weak. I am sure he might have had to recuperate! Anyway, enjoy! Kari

About time...

Hello all, I know I promised this a week ago! I was trying to be all fancy and it blew up in my face. So now I am just going to stick with what I know works. So over a month ago we took a family vacation. We drove through Louisiana (stopping overnight in Baton rouge), Mississippi, Alabama, and then Florida, with our final destination being Orlando. We met up with Papa and Gramma G., and uncle JT. Uncle Alex stayed home for basketball camp. On Monday we went to the Kennedy Space Center. We actually had a lot of fun and Kenzi liked it too. We were able to see the Endeavor on the launch pad as it was set to launch the following Monday. Has that launched yet? Kenzi liked running around! She especially like the Snoopy dressed as an astronaut. The thing that Kenzi was bummed about was... there was a simulation ride and she was not tall enough to ride it. Try explaining that to a 4 year old that wears size six clothes! We had a lot of fun playing with gramma and papa and JT. And seriously Alex, you were missed! There are a lot of pictures so you get the full effect of our visit! Enjoy!