Winter

Despite this crazy winter, we just don't have enough snow at home so we hit the road for Grandma and Grandpa W's... we had heard that they were buried.

And, we weren't disappointed!

Did you see the boys in that picture?  Too funny.

Holy snow!!  I'm betting it is June before all this is melted!  Check out the snow on the roof across the street.

The boys dug right in.  Literally.

They had a blast digging and climbing.

Check out their tunnel! (The hatless, unzipped and missing mitten pics were from this morning as we were about to hop in the car for home)

Here are some other random pictures of the boys with their holes.  This one was supposedly an oven??

Ryan claimed this one to be his.

Hanging out on the wall o' snow.

The half smile.

On Sunday, Uncle Dave treated the boys to their first snowmobile ride.  Ryan was up first.

A quick conference.

And, they're off.

It's official... he's a fan.  They said that this was one of the favorite parts of their trip.  

Owen had a great time with the boys.  I sure wish we were closer.

Tyler was up next and loved it too.

Finally, it was Owen's turn.  Can you see those smiling eyes?

Love this picture.  Not sure why.

We also managed to get in some sledding, but it sure was cold up on that hill!

All in all, we had a great visit.  They're already asking when we're going back.

Tobogganing

I've been waiting two years to go tobogganing... ever since I heard that there were chutes nearby.  Last January I managed to score a toboggan, but the weather didn't cooperate.  This winter has been brutally cold so things haven't worked out until today.  It was a balmy 15 degrees so we were in the midst of a heat wave and the roads...

Well, they are what they are.  We can't let a little slippery get in our way!  

I am actually quite surprised that both boys went down the chutes without any show of fear.  They were actually very excited!  Check this out!

There they go!

This is what it looks like from the inside.  

We had a blast.

Unfortunately we have the smallest toboggan possible.  I might have to rectify that situation!

The boys didn't seem to mind the size of the toboggan.  But, poor Dan!  Can you even see Ryan on there?

He faired ok.

All in all, it was a great way to spend an afternoon.

Time for hot cocoa!

Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios was a great park!

We truly enjoyed all of our minutes at this park, although it was almost disastrous!  Overall, my planning for this vacation went really well.  So well that when we did have to wait in a 10 minute line, Ryan turned to me and exclaimed "Mommy, don't you have a fast pass?!"  No, Ryan, this ride is not fast pass worthy.  "So, I have to wait??"  Ha!  The problem with my plans on this day is that I had booked dinner at the Sci-Fi Dine In for 5:45pm which would overlap the 6:30pm Fantasmic which Ava said was a must see.  Grr!  Originally, I had planned to go to the later Fantasmic, but that wouldn't let us hop to Epcot to see the cousins.  So, I made a last minute change to a character lunch.  While Tyler was initially bummed that we wouldn't be eating dinner in a car, he loved this lunch.

We got to see 4 more characters and they were some of Ryan's favorites.  Handy Manny!

Special Agent Oso!

Jake from the Neverland Pirates!

And, June from the Little Einsteins.

Lunch was so good that Tyler took a "to go chicken."  Seriously, he did.

Off to the Indiana Jones show which the boys loved.  They blew stuff up!

A stop for a little magic.  See the scowl on Ryan's face??  He was crabby, crabby, crabby.  But, playing along because he was told he'd be upset if it was just Tyler in the picture.  He wasn't going to enjoy being in the picture.  Nope.

The only real ride we went on at this park was the Toy Story ride.  It was fun!

Here we are in line.

And, getting our 3D glasses.

It was a fun ride somewhat similar to the Buzz ride.  When we left, we had to check out the Barrel of Monkeys.

And, look who we found!  Green Army Man!  Check out his feet (and try to ignore Ryan's hand placement).

So cool.  We also went on the Back-lot Tour which was a ton of fun.  And, they blew stuff up.

This was another favorite.

There were cars...

And, they blew stuff up.

Yup, my boys like fire.

We were excited to see Santa Goofy!

Still having trouble with Christmas in 80+ degrees.

Finally it was time to grab our seats for Fantasmic. The boys conned me into getting them something to pass the time.

The smiles were worth it.

And, I have to say that Ava was right.  This show was not to be missed.

The show was incredible.  The sprayed a wall of water and then projected video on it.  Too cool!  I did video it, but it seems the file it too big to upload.  Oops.

We left that night without seeing The Osborne Family Lights and I thought I was ok with that.  But, I wasn't.  So, at the end of our last day in the parks, we hopped a boat from Epcot to Hollywood Studios so that I'd have no regrets.

We caught Lightening McQueen and Mater just before they left for the night.

And, then we saw it.  Wow!  Five million lights is right.  Check this out.

Totally awesome and worth going back to see it.

Too cool.

It was a great way to end our trip.

But, I still don't need to go back.