A Grand Celebration

For my 40th birthday I planned myself a big party!  John, William and I were joined by our friends the McCorkles (Bob, Michelle, Ava and Hannah) at the Grand Floridian Villas for a Disney World vacation!

When I was thinking about what I wanted to do for my 40th, the idea of going to Disney for our summer vacation/birthday fun made perfect sense.   And, of course, since I'm a mature age now, it made sense to stay at the fanciest of all of the hotels:  the Grand Floridian (which did not disappoint!).   To make it a real party, we needed friends along who love trips to Disney as much as we do!

Our flights on Thursday morning left super early.  Unfortunately we left from different Chicagoland airports so we couldn't take the party limo for 7 people at 5 a.m. through Naperville!   But we met up at MCO in the Disney Magical Express line at 10:45 a.m. ready to party!  (Or sleep....or snack....or swim....whatever made itself available.)    We got to the resort around noon but our villa wasn't ready, so we changed into our swimming suits and cooled off and ate lunch at the pool.   This was the smallest of our meals for the trip, since we were on the Deluxe Dining Plan and spent 1/3 of every day eating! ;-)

I was obsessed with getting a picture of the monorail going past the pool and finally got the perfect shot on the third day. 

The hotel and our villa:

 

That's the tippy top of Cinderella Castle peeking up over the roof.  I honestly wouldn't have noticed it except John pointed it out!  I was way too busy watching the monorail to the left of our room.

Bristol Renaissance Faire

I'm very committed to our Summer Fun List this year and not letting family weekends get away this year.  This summer has felt so fast to me.  I feel like tax busy season and school starting are bearing down and I want to get every last minutes of family time out of summer before it's over!  So after our action packed 4th, I signed us up for opening day at the renaissance festival.  I had never been to one before - even when high school friends (and probably my brother) did the roadtrip to Kansas City. The only reason I knew about this place at the Illinois/Wisconsin border was because Ryan's charity bike ride stopped nearby for lunch on the first day of the ride.  So William and I had made the drive before (around 75 minutes) and knew it was easy enough.   Opening weekend had lots of good coupons ($5 off adults and kids admitted free), so I figured we had little to lose.   Turned out to be tons of fun!

I'd never do this at Disney World, but we bought our tickets at the gate!  This was the line we had to stand in to save that $5 per adult ticket versus buying online in advance.  It was only about 30 minutes and it was good people watching.  William spotted this woman's modified Nerf gun right away.   Her outfit was my favorite of the day, and she was agreeable to a photo.

This was the first souvenirs I spotted and I really wanted one of the purple or orange ones.  But then we wandered off and I forgot about them until just now!  I guess I should do that with more of my "really wants" while shopping!

We saw a few cute shows - a most family friendly rendition of Robin Hood to start and then a cat/rat circus; -- and a jousting tournament.   We tried a variety of foods, and since it was in Wisconsin, they served ice cold Leinenkugel's summer shandy.    It wasn't even super hot out (hot enough....) but those shandys were sure refreshing!

Oh and we bought weapons!   And threw knives for a fun game!   I'm pretty sure because of the beer and the weapons that we'll be going back next year!  And now that I know all the foods to try I'll be better about not wasting my calories on a turkey cold cut sandwich.  I'm looking at you cheese fritters!

 

Office and Zoo

William didn't have camp this week due to the holiday in the middle.  I had Wednesday and Thursday as holidays but wanted to run into the office for a few hours on Friday.  He happily joined me because 1) He loves spending time with his mom; 2) We have jelly beans at the office; and 3) We were heading to the zoo for the afternoon!   I didn't take any pictures of our time at the office, but made up for that at the zoo.  William actually asked me to take several of him, which I happily obliged. 

 New since our last visit was a $10 add on to feed the giraffes.  We enjoyed watching people do that.

 Our attempt at a selfie with my favorite giraffe. 

We could either get us or the giraffe!  Combine them in your mind! :-)

There was a new (or at least new to us, but several families were making the same comment) exhibit called Habitat Africa.  It was a walk through path that was forested and had a variety of animals in it.  Our favorite may have been the quasi-unmarked door that took us in to see several fantastic things that I totally can't recall now!!

We got to the zoo around 1:30 so were already hungry for lunch but wanted to explore some first.   So we got a large Dippin' Dots to share before finally working our way back to the Great Wilderness to have bison burgers and hot dogs for a "real" lunch.

William spotted this cool electric eel and wanted to make sure we took a picture to show Daddy, who wasn't able to play hooky from work to join us.  Actually this was the second one.  The first one slithered out before I could get my phone unlocked and photo ready.  The coolest mental picture I took was the eel swimming right under the top of the water and there was a perfect reflection of it.

 Penguin feeding following by baby gorilla viewing.  Can you see it in momma's arms?

We also missed the snow leopard, which according to William was the only thing he HAD to see that day.   After we walked around to the back of the exhibit we finally found the window where some girls had told us he was hanging out.

A cool day with my favorite boy!   We had a lot of fun hanging out together and exploring the zoo!

Fourth of July Festivities

Our priority for the 4th was walking with the Cub Scouts in the neighborhood parade because I wanted to earn my summer activity merit badge.  I mean, I wanted William to earn his summer activity merit badge.  (Also the same reason I planned a kickball and bags tournament the last Friday in June.....)

The parade was its usual hot, wet fun.  Though I walked in the parade for the first time.  I was a mobile water gun refill station for the boys.  It was actually a lot of fun!  Especially the stop in this last photo where William chased John up into the neighbor's yard!  Then instead of joining our thousand closest friends for free hot dogs at the subdivision pool, we went to the McCorkles house for a cookout.  It was full of patriotic desserts and an adorable dog!  We chose wisely. 

Between the dog's flag and the white chocolate flag, how could we go wrong?  I ate Kansas.  John appears to be contemplating what destroyed the upper northeast.

The city fireworks spectacular was delayed a night due to a thunderstorm that swooped in.  But the kids played with the pop things and sparklers from the grocery store before calling it a night.