Gooooooooooo Upward!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rachel running out during introductions before the game began

She is excited!!
Prayer time before the game starts

My sweet little cheerleader

"1, we are Upward

2, a little bit louder

3, I still can't hear you...

4 more, let's score...

1!"

Rachel is enjoying cheerleading for Upward so much!! The other day, I really couldn't stop laughing at how adorable and hilarious she was being as she cheered. She was so "into" it all! Her yells/cheers were loud, her movements were enthusiastic and deliberate and her energy was very high! She was just having such a good time! The funniest part was her showing "spirit" after her cheers (the girls can jump, shake their pom poms up in the air or do a split)...she thought it was cool to do a split every time. And, she wanted me or Gege to look at her every time she did one. It was quite funny. I love her enthusiasm for everything and if she wants to be a little cheerleader, that's fine with me! She'll be great at whatever she does!!!

Toddling Trenty

"WAAAAAAAAAHHH!! Mom said I could NOT have the camera!!!!!!!!"

(Not a very common sight, since Trent is so laidback!)
"I LOVE to look outside!!"

"Will someone please take me out there!!?"

"I still can't have your camera??!! Aww, shucks!"

"Let's see what I can get into in sissy's room..."

Our little baby stinker is almost 10 1/2 months old and IS walking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For the past couple of weeks, he has been letting go of various things he was holding onto and standing by himself. But, over the past couple of days, he has started to take some steps! And, we haven't even been pressuring him to do it...he would just let go of something he had pulled up to and then take a few steps. Tonight he took about 8 steps before he fell down! Of couse, we make a really big deal and clap and yell, and Trent gets a big grin and seems pretty proud of himself! So, where does he fit in compared to his sibs...Rach has the boys beat with walking (or trotting, since she wouldn't slow down) at 9 1/2 months!!! Bradley was walking pretty well at 10 1/2 months and since Trent is ALMOST (on the 14th) 10 1/2 months, he's neck and neck with his big bro! We're so excited to see him reach this precious milestone and are reminded again how thankful we are to have a healthy, normal developing baby!

Other things Trent is now interested in/getting into:

Peek-a-boo! He loves doing this with us...he likes to move his hand up to his forehead and then lower it, as in "where's Trenty?" (when his hand is on his forehead) and "there he is/peek-a-boo!" when he lowers his hand. Lots of fun and giggles with that. And, Rachel and Bradley love playing that game with him.

Making his brother and sister laugh...he discovered (in the car one day) that if he puts a toy on his head and his brother or sister notices, they will laugh and giggle uncontrollably, so he LOVES this game. He also loves to pull on his retractable window shade, which makes his sister and brother cry, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" in their loudest, silliest voices and they all giggle at this. (It makes for a fun, loud car ride.)

Outlets and cords...(sigh!) we enjoyed the many, many months where Trent didn't notice or touch the cords or outlets, but now he's fascinated by them. He has a one-track mind and will continuously crawl over to the ONE visible cord/outlet in the den and stand at it and touch it. He even smiles when he does it, as in "I know I'm not s'posed to, but I'm gonna anyway."

STAIRS!! He loves our stairs to the bonus room. He has discovered that they are fascinating how they raise him a little higher with each one and has climbed all of them (with me spotting him, of course) to get to the playroom. He's very proud of himself when I let him climb them too. Of course, there is a gate at the stairs at ALL times! :)

Oh, Trent is such a joy! The months are flying by and we'll be celebrating his 1st birthday in a couple of months!! We sure are crazy about our Trenty-poo!!!

Bubble bathing boys

2 cute bubble bathing babes
bubble-beard

relaxin' in the bubbles

eatin' and drinkin' some bubbles

aerial view

The boys took a bubble bath the other night...and thought it was so cool! Bradley made himself a bubble beard. Trent kept choking on the bubbles and his nose kept itching with the weird feeling of the bubbles against it. I thought they looked mighty cute in the tub (and was secretly jealous that I don't have much time these days for bubble baths!!). I'm sure they're going to love these one day!!

Day 4: A second visit to Magic Kingdom and relaxin' at the resort

Rachel's 1st time behind the wheel

(blue car)

The Disney train
sweetest girl ever

our family saying goodbye to DW...for now!

collecting seashells

Bradley LOVEd getting in the water!

Trenty tasting some sand-YUCK!

Headin' for the water

sweet Trenty enjoying his Gerber banana cookie

Rach and Brad dancing on our cabin deck

Rachel is showing off her Pooh bear wearing Trent's hat

2 VERY handsome fellas

little swimming champ

" ooooh! An extra-large tub!!!" -Trent

"I like it!" -Trent

"Ribbit! Ribbit!" -Bradley the frog

Trent's first experience with being thrown up into the air

All my babes! 4 blessings in my life!!

On our last day at Disney, we could have gone to another park, but we knew we wanted to go back to Magic Kingdom and do a couple of things we had not gotten to do the first day. We took a train ride on the Disney RXR around the park, rode the race cars, went on Buzz Lightyear again, rode the Barn Burner again, and Nick and Rach rode on Thunder Mountain Railroad. It was fun to go back to the BEST park in Disney one more time. We left around 3:30 and went back to Fort Wilderness where the kids played on the "beach" and got nasty in the sand. Trent tried out the sand for the first time and loved it!! He ate a little sand (oops!) and kept crawling for the water. He was perfectly fine with crawling straight into it! After that, we played on the Fort Wilderness playground for a little bit and then visited the horse area. They had several clydesdales (sp?) and some miniature ponies. They offered pony rides, but it was too late in the day to do one, even though Rachel wanted to. Then we went back to our room for our last night and ate food that we had brought with us. Rachel had been begging to go swimming, so even though it sprinkled a few different times, we got our suits on and headed up to the pool, which was about 10 minutes away on foot. The pool was huge and had had long, shallow steps that were great for Bradley to play on. There were only 4 other people there and they left after a few minutes, so we pretty much had it to ourselves. It was dark outside, but warm, and the pool was heated, so it felt great. Trent got to try out the pool for the first time and he loved it!! He was fascinated by the water and kept splashing his little hands. He was precious! Bradley loved hanging on the steps and being a "frog". Rachel jumped back in and swam as well as she did over the summer! She's a little fish! It was the perfect way to end our wonderfully, awesome vacation at Disney!! We swam for about an hour and then came home to get some sleep. I have to say, I would have loved one more day...one more day to go to a different park (or 2) and one more day to just relax and maybe swim some more or do some shopping. This was definitely a "taste" of what a Disney vacation can be and it's exciting to think that we can do even more the next time we go. I really can't wait to go back!!!! Disney World is truly a magical place!!!

Day 3: Animal Kingdom and Downtown Disney

waiting on a bus to take us to the A.K.
Rach and Brad roaring in a cave

a look at the "jungle-like" atmosphere where some of the animals lived

Nick and Rach looking for animals

Mommy and Bradley looking for reptiles

Trenty ridin'...believe it or not, we DID get him out of his stroller!!

Rachel and Bradley are getting ready to go on a safari

"we discovered a dino!!!!"

Rachel being transformed into a "Bird" girl

She had been begging to have her face painted!

our lovely bird girl!

The Tree of Life

Everyone on the safari

wildebeasts (I think) on our safari

cool elephants

Rach and Brad with Buzz in Downtown Disney

We were actually a little disappointed in Animal Kingdom. Most of the rides were for older/taller kids than ours, so there were only a few that we got to ride. However, we did like the Triceratop one, even though it was like Dumbo and Aladdin. The cool thing about the kingdom was that there was a jungle-like atmosphere and lots of animals. From wild boars to lizards to ducks and birds. It was neat getting to see all the animals. And, there was a really cool dino area that had some dino replicas, a playground and some rides. Our absolutely favorite thing about Animal Kingdom was the Kilimanjaro Safari. It was as close to a real safari as I'll ever be...and it was pretty close! We all loaded up into these heavy duty trucks that had open sides and all terrain wheels. There was a tour guide who pointed out all the wildlife we could see, and we actually saw alot! Right outside our vehicles was the Harambe Wildlife Reservation and it's home to so many wild animals: lions, zebra, giraffes, wildebeasts, flamingos, elephants, cheetahs, I can't think of them all. It was so cool how the reservation was designed...several different eco-systems appropriate for each animal. Anyway, about a 20 minute ride through the reservation, full of twists and turns, oohs and ahhs, lots of bumps in a rugged vehicle and I was super impressed! The kids loved all the animals and Bradley kept asking, "mom, is that animal real?" He was confused since all the animals we had seen at Magic Kingdom were fake. THAT was the coolest part of Animal Kingdom and well worth the trip to the park!

We left Animal Kingdom in early afternoon and decided to go to Downtown Disney for dinner at the T-Rex Cafe. The cafe' was of course, designed around dinosaurs. The restaurant was full of dinosaur replicas, there were constellations on the ceiling and every 20 minutes, there was a "meteor shower" where the room would change colors and all the dinos would get upset and riled up and begin roaring as hard as they could. It was quite entertaining (and loud!!). The food was NOT very good, but it was VERY expensive. I'm sure we were paying for the atmosphere. After we ate, we went to their paleo-dig, which was a rock pit where the kids could take a dry paint brush and "uncover" dino bones. The bones were huge, permanent fixtures underneat the pebbles. The kids LOVED it and looked so cute using their brushes to move the pebbles off the bones. After dinner, we strolled around Downtown Disney and looked at some of their unique shops: Lego Land and Toy Stores, and lots of Disney specialty shops. We actually got home at a decent time that evening and just relaxed after our busy day.

Day 2: Meeting up with JuJu

about to ride Dumbo
the magnificent castle!!

in a tunnel in Pooh's Corner

in a tunnel in Pooh's Corner...wearing cool Buzz Lightyear shades

on a honeypot in Pooh's Corner

snoozin' while the kids play

the awesome, comfy stroller
(but, it was heavy to push with 80+lbs. in it!)

dancing on the street in front of the castle

YAY!! Juju's here!!

some of the parade performers

Mickey and Donald on their float

Woody and Jessie from Toy Story 2 (Bradley's favorite!)

Me and Trent waiting on everyone to finish their magic carpet ride

some silly animals being transported to the zoo

the cousins in Mickey's house

Meeting Mickey and Minnie

Juj meeting Mickey and Minnie

After our awesome breakfast, we anxiously waited for the Lanes to arrive at DW so we could all be together. While we waited, we went ahead and did a few rides by ourselves. First was Snow White's Scary Adventure, which was so cute, but basically a boat ride through the story of Snow White. It was dark, so it was a little scary, but the kids liked it. Then, Nick took Rachel and Bradley to ride Dumbo. I decided that Trent had been patient and sweet for long enough and decided he deserved a comfy diaper change and nursing. I found the Baby Care Station at Magic Kingdom and was so impressed!!! The station had an attendant who told you where you could change, nurse or feed your baby. (And, I'm sure to make sure there weren't any perverts or weirdos hanging around...) There was one large room with 10-12 baby changing tables, and then a huge kitchen complete with several microwaves and probably about 10 high chairs where you could feed your baby. And, there was a shared nursing room with dim lights and rocking chairs where you could nurse your baby. I thought the whole thing was so cool!! It was comfortable and very accommodating. And, even though we didn't use the baby care station every time, since it was at one end of the park, it was nice to use if we needed to. Anyway, Trent and I met Nick and the kids and went to Pooh's Corner where they had a cool playground for the kids to play on. And, Tigger and Pooh were also available to sign autographs and have your pictures made if you felt like waiting in line to see them. After that, we headed to the kiddie section of Magic Kingdom and saw a cute roller coaster in Goofy's Wise acre Farm called the Barn Stormer. Trent had fallen asleep, so Nick stayed with him in the stroller and I took Rach and Brad to ride the roller coaster. As we waited, it seemed a little bit scary and really fast. I wasn't sure if Bradley would get scared while he was on it. Turns out, he LOVED it and wasn't scared one bit! After we rode it once, the kids wanted to ride it one more time with Nick. (We also rode it another time with JuJu later!) Finally, it was time to meet up with Matt, Wendy and Juj! We were so excited to finally get to see them! We met on Main Street and right after we all met up, there was a parade that went down Main Street, so we got to watch that. The parade was cute, had lots of great music and dancing and some of our favorite characters on floats. Once the Lanes were with us, we headed to one area of the park and worked our way all the way around to the other end. We rode as many things as we could and explored as much as was possible. We walked to the top of Swiss Family Robinson's tree house, rode Aladdin's magic carpet ride, went on a fake safari, went through the Pirates of the Caribbean boat ride, did the Haunted House, Merry Go Round, It's a Small World, Goofy's Barn Burner (again) and the teacups. Needless to say, after our early start that morning, we were POOPED!!! Shortly after going to the last section of the park, Fantasyland, we parted ways with the Lanes. Nick and Brad shot some evil Zurg characters in the Buzz Lightyear ride, and I hung out with Rach and Trent till they got out. We walked to the front of the park and caught a little bit of the end of day, very impressive and beautiful parade that DW puts on with lights, music, floats, dancing, etc... We caught our boat, our bus and walked to our cabin and went to sleep. It was a GREAT day at Disney!!!!!!!!!!!