first family vaca: disney part one

Back in October we took our first official vacation as a family of three. If it had been just the two of us again, we would have most likely opted for our annual cruise. But since Matthew is still too young to go on a cruise (yes were missing our annual Thanksgiving cruise with my family this year, boo!) we decided to go to the next best place we could think of: DISNEY!!!

Luckily we only live about a 3 hour hour drive away, so we thought it would be a great first go at the whole "traveling with a baby thing." We decided it would probably be easiest to go during a time that Matthew would normally be sleeping. So we waited until both of us got off work on a Thursday night, fed Matthew, and hopped in the car. He cried for about 2 mins and then as soon as we hit the highway, he was out! (because you know, my child only enjoys being in his carseat if the car is moving. Hit a red light? be prepared. lol) Things seemed to be going pretty smoothly. Unfortunately, even though we remembered to feed Matthew, we completely forgot about dinner for ourselves. So we stopped off at a fast food place before we got on the FL turnpike in Ft. Pierce. We were hoping that Matthew would just stay asleep, but we werent so lucky. I let Matt eat while I changed and held Matthew, figuring I could eat in the car as Matt drove.

We finally got to our hotel, Disney All-Star Sports, at around 11pm. My sister, nephew, and niece were already at the hotel and had an adjoining room to ours. We setup the pack and play, fed Matthew again, and went to sleep. We knew we had quite a long day ahead of us the following day, as we were going to try and tackle 2 parks with 1 sick baby and 2 children. Oh did I forget to mention that my child was sick? Yes, the day before we left, I opted to take him into the drs office because he hadnt been feeling so great. Turns out he had bronchitis, and a normal babys blood count should be at 13, his was a 29. Meaning pretty close to pneumonia. My dr knew we were leaving for Orlando and told me to make sure he was kept cool, hydrated, and that he got all of his meds and he should be fine. He gave him a antibiotic shot to speed up the recovering process and ordered us to do breathing treatments at least 3 times a day. Before we left I also made sure to grab a stroller fan (lifesaver!).

The next morning we woke up bright and early, no more sleeping in on vacations now that we have a lil one :( and started the day off with some breakfast in the hotel cafeteria, some playtime for the kids in the themed resort areas, and a quick morning nap for Matthew. I love that all the Disney budget hotels are themed. We've stayed at movies, music, and pop century before, but this was our first time at sports. Although Matthew couldnt really enjoy the themed part this year, Im sure if hes anything like his father, or cousin for that matter, hes going to love the sports resort the most as he gets older. There were giant football helmets, basketball quart, surfboard, etc throughout the property. Even my niece enjoyed the sports theme!

 

 

 

Once the time came to head to the parks, I realized it wasnt going to be as easy as I thought. We were prepared, maybe even a little bit too prepared. You see, the number one reason I like to stay on Disney property is because you dont have to worry about transportation to and from the parks. They have free shuttles that go all day long to all the parks and hotels. So I packed up everything I thought we would need for the day; the stroller, the baby bjorn, the diaper bag (packed with all the essentials) and the camera. I figured since we had the stroller it wouldnt be a big deal because we could just put everything in the bottom basket and strap the diaper bag to the handlebar. So yeah, that plan went well until we were standing in line for the shuttle and someone informed us that you have to fold the strollers up in order to get on the bus. :/

So now we have to figure out a way to bring everything, plus hold the stroller, plus hold the baby. All I have to say is thank god there were multiple hands available with my sis and her kids being there! Somehow we figured it all out, and it really wasnt that bad. People were even nice enough each time we got on the bus, to get up from their seat and allow for me to sit with the baby, opposed to standing and holding on to the rails. And i knew it would all be worth it, especially when we finally made it to Magic Kingdom. It was an absolutely gorgeous day outside, although hot, but thats to be expected in Florida. Since it was only about a week before Halloween, the parks were all decorated with pumpkins and everything else fall. (this is when I got the idea to do my mickey pumpkin by the way)

Since Matthew was only 4.5 months I knew I wouldnt be taking him on many rides, if at all. But my sister isnt really into all the rides anyways, so I figured I could at least take my niece and nephew on a few rides. The first place we stopped was at the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House. Am I showing my age here? I used to love Swiss Family Robinson, and yet my niece and nephew had no clue who they even were. lol.

 

 

Also, something I definitely recommend for anyone going to Disney with an infant, and something I am so happy i brought with us, bring the baby carrier. It was actually the first time we had Matthew in it facing out. We tried with him facing in like we normally do, but he was just too fusy. So when my sis suggested having him face out, we figured why not. Now I personally didnt like it because I couldnt see what he was doing (smiling, spitting up, sleeping, etc) but he seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. And thank god we have the Synergy version of the Baby Bjorn because 1) its made our of mesh so its breathable, a definite must in the heat (i mean look at my face in the pics, im beat red lol) and 2) it has additional back support, which is also a definite must because umm hello my child was 4 months but weighing in at an average size 6 month old, and carrying him around the park for that long def put some strain on my back.

 

 

Well,  I think I overloaded this post with enough pics. Ill leave the rest for another post. Until then, i hope you all have a great weekend!

when i said i do......

two years ago today i said i do

to a man i could not live with out

a man i wished of marrying for so long.

a man i dreamt about becoming a father

a man i trusted with my heart

a man i called my best friend

 i remember it like yesterday

i spent the night away from my soon-to-be husband

i woke up with my mother and sister at the hotel

it rained in the morning

but they say its good luck when it rains on your wedding day

i got ready with my girls

 

 while my seminoles beat the gators

and while the guys got ready downstairs

shots and all

 

i had dreamt of this day since i was a little girl

knowing my father would walk me down the aisle

 where i would join my prince

and our family and friends would watch

as a close friend performed our beautiful ceremony

adding special touches that really symbolized our relationship

and what it had become over the past 10 years

we had written our own vows

something he wanted us to do

something i was a little shy to do in front of so many people

but they were beautiful

he went first, then me

ive kept those small papers

with our loving words on them

his a little shorter, but just as powerful

his went like this

and mine like this

those words mean even more to me today

than they did when we said them to each other

we were no longer just

matt & lisa

we were

husband & wife

and now

two years later

we are daddy & mommy

~matt~

i love you more than words can express

you are the man of my dreams

a father to our son

and my best friend

happy anniversary

love

your one and only

also linking up with Becky to connect with other 20 something wifes, mommies, and wannabe photographers ;)

show & tell: thanksgiving recap

If you missed last weeks show & tell, you can read about our normal thanksgiving traditions, and then come back here and read about what we did this year.

Ill skip the whole sob story, where i tear up about the fact that my side of the family wasnt even a part of Matthew's first thanksgiving, and instead was in a completely different country.

Moving along, Matthew woke up around 7am and hubs brought him into bed with us for some morning snuggles. I love when we do this because it puts us all in a great mood from the very start of our day, even if it is a lil earlier than we would have liked to be woken up ;) I did our normal morning routine (change, feed, breathing treatment) and then rushed down the street to my parents house to let their dogs out (yes I was dog sitting, since the were off in some tropical oasis, insert jealous face) before the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade came on.

Now I dont know about you, but watching this parade on TV has been one of my favorite memories of Thanksgiving growing up. So of course I wanted to make it a tradition to do the same with my son. So I spread out a blank on the floor and camped out with the cutest lil boy I know to watch multiple hours of the parade.

Since my family was out of town, we would be spending the day with hubs family. My mother-in-law was in town from earlier in the week when we had Matthew baptized (post coming). So we were planing on her coming over to our house before we all went to hubs aunts house to gather with the rest of the fam.

Now, im not sure if I have mentioned this on here before, but im not really the cooker (or cleaner for that matter) in our house. Hubs usually does the cooking, especially since I have almost burnt the house down twice. (who knew that milk froths when put on the stove, not me, at least not until the second time when i actually witnessed the milk catching fire). Needless to say, no one in my family counts on me to cook for the holidays. However, I am very good at baking. At least I would like to think so. So when I realized that I would not be having said potato casserole this year at thanksgiving, i knew I wanted to make it and bring it to hubs aunts for dinner. Only problem? I dont have the recipe.

I was literally searching my parents house for days trying to find where the recipe was. With no luck, i went out on a limb and emailed every person in my family on the cruise, yes 5 out of 6 of the people were on this thread, only excluding my niece because shes 6 and doesnt have an email, to tell me where i could find the recipe. My brother-in-law happen to be the one to check his email at 6am out in the middle of the atlantic ocean, and said he would ask my mother and try to email me back. Needless to say, all morning I kept checking my email, when finally around 9:30am i got an email basically stating there was no written recipe and therefore i would be going off my mothers memory, and then he proceeded to give me my mothers off-the-top-of-her-head recipe.

I made hubs run out to Albertsons, since its like the only store open on Thanksgiving, and get me all the ingredients I didnt already have. Plus, i figured I would make these oh-so-delicious homemade pumpkin woopie pies, since I had those ingredients on hand too!

Both turned out great, by the way. And I only have one lonely battle wound on my right arm when I burned myself taking the casserole out of the oven.

Once we got to hubs aunts house, Matthew was most definitely the life of the party. He was such a happy boy being passed around to different family members. Plusalso, there was football on, and our lil man, he loves to watch some football. Even though the Dolphins wouldnt be playing until Sunday, he was content with watching any team play. ;)

 

 

 

We did get a few great pics as a family of three and also a few of 4 generations, but those are on my mother-in-laws camera. Ill share once i get them.

 

I also think, that i should defintely mention that it was quite a scene once the turkey was ready. Im not exactly sure how it all began, i just know that there was an issue when it came to getting the turkey out of the actual pan. Lets just say, all 3 guys tried their hand at this task. Not until the third came in, did they realize it was probably not a good idea to take the turkey out of the pan bare-handed considering it just came out of the oven. lmao

I even got video of it because it was becoming so ridiculous.

Basically, the entire day was absolutely perfect. There was alot of laughter, family, food, and chubby baby legs. Isnt that what Thanksgiving is all about anyways?

 

 

 

 

And Ill leave you with some outtakes.....

 

 

 

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!!!! Dont forget to go link up with Becky.