Christmas '09

We decorated our tree a few weeks before Christmas...

On Christmas Eve we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Pearson's house where we ate a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner. Grandpa left for a few minutes and then reappeared at the front door with a Santa hat on, a lantern, and a sack with a few presents. I think this was my mom's idea, and though Justin and I thought it was unusual, the boys liked it. The boys each opened a present that night, and then we headed home to get "snug in our beds".

The next morning the boys woke up to find their stockings filled and presents under the tree. Jackson got trains and a Buzz LightYear action figure. Drake got puzzles and other toys, but he was just interested in the snacks he got in his stocking.

After our small at-home Christmas we went back over to Grandma and Grandpa Pearson's house. We ate breakfast, tortured the cat by making her wear a Mrs. Claus hat, and then we opened more stockings and presents. The boys were so excited to have so many fun new toys.

We celebrated Christmas twice with Justin's side of the family. We went over a few days before Christmas to celebrate before Justin's sister Jennifer and her family went out of town for the holidays. Then we went over again on Christmas afternoon. Below is a picture of the boys with all of their cousins in front of Grandma Cersey's kids' Christmas tree (she has at least 3 trees up every year). Jackson doesn't look so happy, but Drake is compensating by being overly enthusiastic.

Grandma Cersey gave Drake his favorite thing, a ball. Jackson got lots of toy cars and some transformers.

How blessed we are to have so much family nearby to celebrate the holidays with. I am so glad that my boys are growing up surrounded by such love. Happy Holidays Everyone!

Playin' at the Park

 

A few days before Christmas my cousin Eric cut my hair at his salon (it was just a trim and I forgot to take pictures). Anyway, after the cut the boys and I went across the street to a little park. The boys loved running around the fountain. Thanks for the cut Eric!

Jackson's Haircut

So, I really wanted to grow Jackson's hair out, but I never comb it and so many people kept asking me why I let my kid wear a mop on his head, so I decided to cut it. Here are the before and after pics.

 

Disney Days 6 & 7

Epcot, Day 6

On our 6th day at Disney we went to Epcot, one of my favorite parks. I love visiting the different cultural displays. We got there in the morning and hit up a few rides. We rode "Soarin'" first. It was a really fun hang gliding ride. Then some of us rode the race track ride, but it broke down before Justin and I got the chance. We also looked at some of the future and safety displays. Jackson enjoyed learning how to prepare for thunderstorms, but he was afraid to go through the fire safety course. I guess he thought there might be a real fire. Then we got this cute picture of the kids with grandma and grandpa.

We left for lunch and then came back to the park later that afternoon. Justin and I finally got to ride the race track ride. Then we split up and looked at the different cultural displays. Unfortunately this was the coldest night in the history of Orlando (might be a slight exaggeration). We were so cold that we rode the indoor Mexican ride 3 times in a row to get out of the cold. The boys were able to find a train table at the park in the England exhibit (Thomas and friends are apparently British). For days I had been telling Justin that I really wanted to eat at one of the foreign restaurants in the park. They were all very expensive, but we finally settled on a small Japanese cafe. It wasn't that great, but I was pleased to have come to a compromise with Justin.

We ended up leaving before the big fireworks display because our kids were dead tired and we were all freezing (as you can see in the first picture, taken when we were leaving). The rest of the family said it was amazing. Oh well, next time.

Animal Kingdom, Day 7

On our last day at Disney we went back to the Animal Kingdom. We rode Everest. It was really fun. Then we went to look at some animals. Jackson liked looking at the animals, but Drake passed out. We got really close to some tigers. They were only a few feet away from us separated by a window. After a few hours of exploring we headed to down town Disney where we checked out the cool Lego displays. The dragon behind Jackson in the picture below is made out of Legos.

Drake fell asleep again.

We had a great time at Disney World. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Cersey for the amazing Christmas present. We will never forget our fun week at Disney. Love you!

Disney Days 4 & 5, and Thanksgiving

Day 4

On Wednesday we had a lot of this...

But late in the day we decided to venture out anyway. Justin and I took Jackson back to the Magic Kingdom while Drake stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa. It was really wet and cold but we made the best of our evening at Disney. First we rode Thunder Mountain. The roller coaster looks like a train, so Jackson was excited to ride. He is just the right height to ride and he loved it. Check out his expression in the top right pic below. That's not fear, that is pure joy. Then we headed over to the carousel where Jackson picked his favorite horse. We took a spin on the flying Dumbo ride and then our last ride was It's a Small World, which was one of Jackson's favorites.

To get back to the car we had to take the monorail. Usually it was cram packed with a ton of people, but this time we got lucky and we were the only ones in our train car. We took advantage of our solitude and went a little crazy. You can't see it in this picture, but Justin's feet are suspended in mid air. This was my favorite ride of the day.

Day 5, Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving we went to the Animal Kingdom. A great park to visit on the day that we carnivorously feast on animal flesh! We rode on a safari ride where we saw a ton of cool animals. Check out how close we got to these guys. One of the pics below is actually just the boys playing the drums, but that was fun too. Justin and I rode Everest, which is a new ride since we last went to Disney (Jackson is not tall enough for this one). It was pretty sweet. The shot on the left was taken from the top of the ride. We also saw the Lion King show (don't have pics of that), which was kind of fun. We got 3rd row seats in the warthog section (pretty sure that was a good thing). We also saw the Bug Life show, which scared the boys to tears because it is 3D and they weren't comfortable with bugs flying at their faces. Justin and I rode the Dinosaur ride which almost scared me to tears. What? It was a little terrifying!

Just to make sure the boys had enough fun before we left for the day, we let them play in Dinoland. They were suppose to be digging up dinosaur bones, but Jackson decided to bury Drake instead. We also saw some fish. That's the best explanation I've got for the pic on the top left. We left Animal Kingdom early (3pm) to get home and get ready for our Thanksgiving dinner. It was a great traditional dinner with turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, sweet potatoes, corn, some tasty jello casserole thing, pie, and probably other stuff I can't remember. After dinner the kids sang a song that Grandpa wrote about Thanksgiving that was really cute. Grandpa is very creative and he writes a song every year. Here is a pic of all the grand kids with Grandma and Grandpa.

Disney Days 2 & 3!

On our second day here in Florida (Sunday) we took it easy and hung out with family, but on Monday we headed back to Disney for a day at Hollywood Studios.

Disney Day 2

The adults enjoyed a ride on the Rockin' Roller coaster first. It is one of the best rides in all of Disney World.
Then we headed to the Tower of Terror. Jackson met the height requirement so Justin decided to make him try it. Justin warned Jackson that it might be a little scary which was a big mistake because he was terrified through the entire line. I tried to convince Justin to let Jackson skip the ride, but he was determined to make his son a man. Justin told Jackson to scream at any ghosts he saw on the ride and that would scare them away. We all loaded onto the elevator ride. Jackson sat between Justin and me. The elevator stopped and the doors opened. It was dead quite in our packed elevator and 4 Ghosts materialized before us. Jackson opened his mouth and screamed as loud as he could for at least 30 seconds and then the ghosts disappeared and the doors closed. Daddy's advice paid off and Jackson made it through the rest of the ride without another peep. Jackson was not interested in riding again.

I took the boys to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. This was one of their favorite places. They rode down slides, played in a giant web, and crawled through little caves. Drake was so cute that one foreign couple asked if they could take a picture with him. Weird?

We got Jackson some Mickey Mouse ears which he has worn almost nonstop since. We went to the Playhouse Disney show, and rode on the new Toy Story ride, which we all loved. Jackson got to meet 2 of his favorite characters, June and Quincy from the little Einsteins show.

We stayed at Hollywood Studios all day. When it got dark the "Streets of America" lit up with over 5 million Christmas lights. It was amazing. Every few minutes they played a Christmas song and the lights would flash on and off with the rhythm of the music. Really cool.

Disney Day 3

On day 3 we went back to the Magic Kingdom. We took the kids over to Toon Town where Jackson rode and airplane roller coaster twice. Then we rode the train that goes around the park twice for Jackson's sake. We also rode Pirates of the Caribbean, which was a little much for the boys. We saw a parade and then headed back home for lunch.

After lunch we rested for a couple hours and then went back to the Magic Kingdom for the night time parade of lights and fireworks. We maneuvered around thousands of people and found a great spot from which to watch the show. We still had some time to kill so some of the adults ran over with our fast passes and rode Space Mountain. The boys really liked the parade, but the fireworks were a little too nerve racking for them at 10:00pm after a long day. After the show we rode one more kids' ride while we were waiting for the crowds to dissipate.

Drake was so exhausted.

1st Day at Disney!

For those of you who didn't know, we are in Orlando with Justin's family. We got here on Friday night, had a rough night of little sleep with the boys, and then got up early yesterday morning for our first day at Disney World. We started at the Magic Kingdom. The boys had a great time riding the rides and seeing the shows. Later in the afternoon I took Drake to a little play area called Pooh's Corner and he was so tired that all he wanted to do was sit in a little chair in Pooh's tree house. He sat there for 10 minutes and then we put him in his stroller and he took a nap. Though Jackson was dead tired, he stayed up all day and had a blast exploring the Magic Kingdom with his cousins.

Today we are taking a break, but we will be back at it tomorrow when we will hit up Hollywood Studios! We are so grateful to Justin's parents for putting this trip together and to the Browns who are letting us stay in their vacation house. You guys rock!