Kate and Chad: September 2009

Chad and I just got home from a week long vacation in Orlando, Florida with Chad's brother Kent and wife Liz who came all the way from Utah. This trip has been in the works for the past 8 month, so it was a long time coming and much needed.

Our first night in Florida, Chad and I decided to drive down to St. Pete's Beach in Florida's gulf coast for a day of rest and relaxation. I've never swam in warmer water in my life. It was awesome!

I think Chad liked it too. He's just happy to have a 3 week break before starting a new quarter. This is his last big break until he graduates Dental School in 2012, so to celebrate we grabbed a grouper sandwich for lunch before heading back to Orlando.

Our first night in Orlando was spent on I-Drive with dinner and live music at BB Kings restaurant. Awesome Ribs and great music!

A couple of the evenings we went to Downtown Disney for dinner, shopping, and dessert. A must stop for us was Ghiradelli's for a hot chocolate chip cookie sundae and goofy's sweet shoppe.

When I was younger I was deathly afraid of little people and would break down into tears everytime I was near one. To this day I still cannot watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory or Wizard of Oz. So....this was a huge step for me to look at my short stumpy arms in the mirror at Goofy's Sweet shoppe. It's pretty creeepy.

Animal Kingdom was probably our 2nd favorite park. The scenery and props were really well done. The safari was a fun way to see most of the animals in the park, but we were all dissapointed the Lions were sleeping and didn't want to come out for us to see. This was the first park we went to, and none of us were prepared for the intense heat and humidity.

We made our acting debut by participating in a special effects movie scene. We were volunteered by a family who chickened out. Little did we know that we would smell like these nasty, wet, moldy suits the entire day and would result in THIS.......................................................

............RASH, which is covering Chad's entire body and looks 10 times worse than this. Do you think we can sue Disney?????

I think we all agree that Disney's Hollywood Studio's was our favorite park out of the four theme parks that Walt has to offer. We spent most of the day riding the Tower of Terror and the Aerosmith rollercoaster repeatedly. Just a warning, apparently the Tower of Terror triggers migraines..........not by the free fall drop, but by the stupid movie you have to watch before the ride even begins. This turned out to be a major buzz kill.

My first visit to Epcot when I was much younger, ended with my cousin Mark throwing me into the water spouts, drenching me from head to toe. This time I stayed far away from the spouts, and instead spent the majority of the time stuffing my face with French pastries.

Kent served his mission in France and thanks to Chad's insisting, he ordered dinner for all of us in French.

Posing on the Jungle River Cruise

Teacups. Let's just say that I opted out of this ride and volunteered to be the photographer. Even though it's in the little kid section of Magic Kingdom, I know better than to ride with these three.

I volunteered for the second time to sit out on this one and take pictures. Nothing will ruin your day more than soaking wet jeans rubbing against soaking wet thighs.

While we were planning our trip, the one thing Kent had to do was go on an airboat ride and search for gators. Even though we teased him, this ended up being one of the highlights of our trip.

Kent's wildest dreams came true when he was made co-captain and had the best seat on the boat, right next to the captain.

After the boat ride we each had a chance to hold a three year old Gator.

A friendly game of miniature golf. We thought putt-putt at night would be the perfect way to end the day, but it turns out that even putt-putt at night causes extreme sweating.

Waiting in line for the Toy Story ride. We had to wait in line 20 minutes for the Toy Story ride due to thousands of teen, Christian youth groups taking over the park. 20 minutes is a long time especially when all week we didn't have to wait in line at all for any of the rides. Disney in September has spoiled me.

While baby Will was being born on June 6th, we spent the day with Morgan and Miles to keep them busy until it was time to visit their new baby brother in the hospital. Morgan made her debut as little miss muffet in her dance recital, and Miles loved critiquing each performace. Morgan was the star and loved having her cousin there to give her flowers.

I can't believe I'm posting these hideous pictures.....but this explains my lack of blog updating. After three months of migraine's 24/7, many visits to see my Neurologist and even more unsuccessful prescriptions I was gratefully admitted to the Hospital for tests and treatments. I wasn't the happiest camper but by the fourth day the doctors were able to break the Migraine and I was discharged.

I have the best family in the world. I was visited by everyone, brought food each day, and was showered with love and cookies the entire time. Even Will who was born a couple days before I was admitted made it to the hospital to meet me.

We had a fabulous 4th of July full of family and fun. We had our regional family reunion at my parents house and were lucky enough to have a couple of our cousin's and their families make the trek from Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Cincinnati. My grandma was also able to make it from Oregan for the festivities.