My Pizza Chef

Madison went of a field trip today to a pizza place. They got these nice green little aprons to wear with their names on them and these personal pan pizza sized crusts with sauce. After a tour of the kitchen the kids got to sit down in front of their pizza crusts and put on some cheese, ham and pineapple. Maddy was way more interested in eating the topping then putting them on her pizza but she got the hang of it and complied. Then they took all the little pizza's and put them through the oven bringing them nicely toasted for the kids to eat.

I was pleasantly surprised. We've eaten at this pizza place before and it's not close to the best pizza we've had but it was perfect for the kids. She wasn't too thrilled about all the workers oozing with animation and attention but we got through it. Once her hands were washed and she was munching on cheese all her troubles were forgotten and she ended up eating all her pizza but one piece. At least she thought it was tasty. :S

I Heart the Smiles

I absolutely love it when kids smile for you after you ask. It's always that exaggerated smile showing their teeth and squishing their cute little cheeks up into their eyes so they are all squinted. Maddy has been a good smiler on demand with her brother and sister as her example but now that all her teeth have all come in I think that little smile is just the cutest thing ever! She also loves having her picture taken so she can run over right after and see how cute she really is. She's actually started doing fancy tricks for the camera, like yoga poses and dances. Ryan thinks it's awful how are kids can be such posers but I love it! They'll have lots of fantastic shots for their wedding slide shows.

All I Want for Easter is My 2 Bottom Teeth

I thought that I would quickly share some exciting news of Brayden's and post some pictures of his new tongue hole. He lost his second tooth giving him a nice gaping hole in the bottom perfect for his tongue to stick out of. I tried to let him talk me into tying a string to it and pulling it out but he just could not be convinced so for days it just dangled there. Today we took Grandma's advice and bit into a nice crispy green apple and out it came. Simple as that! Thanks Grandma!!

ene is N in Spanish

Wow, I didn't really want to lay this out in a unexplained post but I'm going to. We are moving out of the Philippines ... relatively soon. Maybe May? Are we coming home you might ask, no. We have one last pit stop on our way back to Canada, or the States. Focus is opening a new office somewhere in Central America and Ryan will be there to help get it up and stabilized, along with his super fabulous, naturally good looking and amazingly fun family (ahem, me and the kids). We don't know exactly where yet and we don't know exactly when, we just know it's coming and it's coming soon.
So i'll save my thoughts and feelings for another time but in preparation for this move I've started to learn Spanish. Ryan and I have talked about it before when we knew there might be a slightest possibility for a move and we both thought Spanish is a language we would need to learn. I think it's right up there at the top of the lists for most spoken languages in the world along with Chinese and English. So when we found out the chance of us moving was quite high and within months I figured it was time to start.
The kids sit with me and listen and repeat with me what I'm learning. It's cute and annoying at the same time but I figure if they picked up a few things then it would only be beneficial. A few days ago we were at the grocery store and cruising the aisles looking for imported finds when we passed by a group of younger boys from high school. Of course they were being louder then necessary, I figure it just goes with the age? They were jabbering with each other fighting over which chips to buy and share and Brayden was listening and staring as we walked by. After we had passed he grabs my arm and says to me "Mommy, that boy just said ene! That's N in Spanish."
So, he's right, ene is N in Spanish and for a boy who picks up everything ... I wonder what other spanish words and sounds he's cataloged in that brain of his!
Enjoy this cute picture of Brayden when he was about 1 1/2. It's one of my favorites and I look at it and can't help but feel how cute he is and feel this huge love for him and all his talents. He really is one smart kid!

My Newest Challenge

I have blogged about our garden and the different things that we've planted in it. We've had failures and successes. Right now I'd have to admit that the garden is one big failure. After Christmas we had a month of good hard rains and our entire garden flooded and with that most of our stuff died. We had a few things that seemed to thrive in the rain, our papaya trees are still growing, the chili pepper tree is still producing and our lettuce! I think we used lettuce from the garden one time because it kind of tasted weird. I never got rid of it because it's hard to kill something you helped create so I just left it along with the rest of the garden to fend for itself and it has strived! It pretty much has turned into bushes! The weeds have taken over and the ground is now hard but I'm so unmotivated to do anything about it because we're moving within the next 3ish months and so I don't think i'd even be around to eat what I plant.
With that being said there are a few things that I have never been able to grow. My cilantro (coriander) and dill. They are both extremely hard to find here but either my seeds don't sprout or the climate destroys the little seedlings. At one point I even had these crazy flying bugs dig nests into my herb garden and my little herbs died. Tragic really. SO, I found some new seeds while we were in Thailand and I came home determined to not be a complete failure in the herb department. I mixed in some coffee grounds I snagged from Starbucks into my soil, planted my little seeds and covered it with a mesh netting. I relocated it to an area that got minimal sun and out of the hard rains and I waited. I would pull my little plants out during the morning so they could get the warm sun and put them back up against the house in the late afternoon. Soon I had dozens of sprouts. Now all I had to do was keep them alive. I would cover them with the mesh netting to keep the bugs out and check up on them every day. Well 2 1/2 weeks after planting I finally have the startings of real herbs. There are leaves on my coriander that actually look like cilantro and I have little dill pieces! Hopefully now I can keep them alive long enough to make some yummy meals with them in a few weeks time.

I do however feel there is room for improvement. I shouldn't have planted the whole pot at once! Now i'm going to have tonnes of dill and cilantro all at once! And then, nothing. Didn't really think to far in advance with that one, at least I'll know for next time!

31 Days and Counting

I absolutely LOVE it when people come to visit it. It seems like the days just whip by in some crazy blur, I have an excuse to cook great meals and make fancy desserts.
This week we had a Focus dude from Utah stay with us. I guess Ryan's boss. He's stayed with us before so he knew what to expect as far as our family. So in preparation I thought I should warm the kids up to the idea since they can tend to become silent in the first few hours of a visitor if caught off guard so at dinner a week before he was to arrive I tell the kids "Don is coming to stay with us next week!"
"Is he the one with the cool kids games on his computer?" Brayden asks. We've had a quite a few Focus people out this past year so I guess he needed to clarify. Ryan confirms that yes, that's the right guy and the kids become so pumped to have him come.
Don arrives and our week begins. The kids love it, silent for maybe 2 minutes until he whips out his iPad and starts reading kids books with them. We eat our meals, the boys sleep when they can sleep and work when they aren't (or talk about work). Don even gets to ride my scooter around the neighborhood. He loves it. He takes it to the mall about 15 minutes away with Ryan on his bike. Later that night they take the bikes to work instead of using the gas guzzling beast I drive. He crashes the scooter :( Thankfully it wasn't a huge crash, I guess the bike just skidded down the road and nothing but a curb was involved but Don has an ankle that is the size of a softball and the colour of plums. The purple extends down to his toes and he can barely walk on it. The scooter just needs some paint touch ups in a few areas which will give Ryan a little project so no real harm done on our side.
As far as the Beattie's go I think his trip was a success. We got all our questions answered and our issues dealt with. Hopefully it was just as successful 'in' the office as it was for us. He gave us lots to think about as far as Ryan and our near future, things I'd love to blog about once we've digested everything.
Don leaves today back home to his own family and we are left with our 'normal' routine once again. Thankfully we don't have to wait too long until we are graced with guests again! In a months time (31 DAYS!!) we have friends coming out with their son and a few days after they leave Grandma Beattie is coming out with Ryan's aunt for almost 3 weeks! Plus these guests start arriving the week summer holidays start for the kids (summer here is mid march-june) so it's absolutely perfect timing! I won't have to think of creative ways to entertain my kids all summer long because I'll have all these extra people to help :D The end of summer sounds like it might be just as busy as it's start but I'll save that for another time. Thankfully though, these next few months are just going to fly by!

Mixed Emotions

For those of you that know us probably know that for us at this point we are done with three kids (knock on wood). We always said 2 or 4 and so when we went for the third we had every intention of evening the numbers with that 4th kid. We love Maddy. She's quite the little person and she brings a tonne of laughs and smiles into our lives ... BUT ... she's enough for Ryan and I to look each other in the eyes during a serious conversation and say "three is enough."
I'm excited to be done with diapers. To move onto that next stage of our lives. I guess selfishly it's to gain a little more freedom back. With Brayden and Sydney as independent as they are Ryan and I seem to find more time to sit down together and talk or do our thing. Lately I've been kind of thinking about a 4th child. When we end up in North America again Brayden will be back in school all day for grade 2 and Sydney will be in kindergarten. For half the day it will just be my little baby girl and I. Maybe I do have time for one more? But these thoughts quickly disappear and pushed away. Ryan and I have talked about it and the beautiful thing about is that we're on the same page. Maybe when things settle down and we aren't travelling around as much this topic might be open for more discussion but I don't think our travelling adventures are quite over yet. Especially for Ryan and his future with Focus, it includes quite a bit of travel as far as it stands right now.

SO, with that being said. Maddy is our baby. But lately we've been looking at her and really realizing she's no baby. She's 2 years old in just under a month. The kick in the gut is that she doesn't want to be our baby anymore. She's rejected her high chair and demanding more and more to sit in the big chairs with the rest of us. She's started to give me attitude about cups with straws or sippy cups. She wants a real cup and thankfully she drinks out of it perfectly. A month ago she started to give me attitude about the play pen. It's what we've used as a crib here, one less piece of furniture to buy over here. So now she sleeps in her big girl bed. I've gone out and bought her a potty and it's being introduced although verbally she isn't quite ready for that yet but I can it's coming. She's starting to sit on it and say 'poop' and she knows when she's poopin' but I'm not sure she know's when she needs to pee before it happens yet. So in an exciting and sad way we don't have a baby in our house anymore and no baby on the way. Just three 'kids' or four if you count Ryan, hehe.

I thought I'd post some pics of our baby little girl in her big girl bed:

Tears of Joy

Imagine life without Costco. Close your eyes and really think about it ... no fabulous cheap meats, no freezer foods, having to buy soap as individual pieces, no big boxes of those nice fruit snacks or granola bars that get our kids through church. It's a dark world; one without Costco. I can say this because I've just lived it for four years. I love Costco so much that no Santa could go wrong throwing in a membership card or gift certificate in my stocking. We have somehow (very frustratingly) lived without the Costco things I often took for granted: ranch salad dressing, lemon and lime juice, polish hotdogs, taste testers, italian sausage (seriously Costco's italian sausage is the best in the entire world), and those fabulously huge shopping carts. Well NO MORE!
***Back Story:***
Ryan and I try to get to the LDS temple once a month. For us that either means a quick flight to Cebu City or Manila. We enjoy these kidless trips. Not only do we get to attend the temple but both Manila and Cebu have 'treats' we can't find here in Bacolod. Things like Ranch dressing, cilantro or Cheerios. It's those little things that we call the immediate blessings from our temple attendance. December we went to the Cebu temple and ran into someone from church here in Bacolod. We quickly said hello and went our separate ways. The next week I saw her at a church meeting and we were talking about our recent trip and what we had done in Cebu while there for the day. She asked if we had gone to S&R because while she was there they were selling real live Christmas trees imported from Canada.
"S & R? Never heard of it" I told her.
She looked at me for a moment and then said "COSTCO, it's just like COSTCO! You need to go there."
This lady has been to Costco. She has some of her kids now living in the States so I knew she knew what she was talking and she gave me that look that said she knew that I knew that she knew what she was talking about (I couldn't resist). I didn't really want to get my hopes up too high but I do really trust her opinion so I googled it that night when I got home. It looked legit so yesterday when Ryan and I were in Manila for our monthly trip we decided to check it out! We walk in and this is what we find:

Looks pretty much like Costco doesn't it? Well that's because it used to be affiliated with Costco until just recently. It's stocks are 70% imported and 30% local which is dream come true for us. We quickly paid the $14 anual membership fee and headed to get some lunch before cruising the aisles of the warehouse. We were so excited to find polish hotdogs on the menu, something I miss from our local Costco in Canada. Real hotdogs, not red ones familiar to the Philippines, but real ones. REAL ONES! I understand that you could never understand how this felt to us unless you've lived in a world of rice and chicken for 4 years and the impossible task of never finding the simple pleasures of life. The filipino taste buds are different then ours. They do have a lot of namit (delicious) foods but they go for a sweet flavour and as North American's we tend to go for a salty flavour. Even the spaghetti sauce here is sweet, it's just how they do things.
So we savour our hotdogs in a couple huge bites and head out with our shopping cart. A couple posts ago I mentioned how expensive real cheese is here, well we found cheese ... loads of it! We found huge jars of real ranch dressing, by the crates. We found herbs and spices that have only been in dreams. We saw lemon juice and lime juice begging for me to take them home and we found the most amazing looking produce.

The meat and produce sections were so amazing. Just like they would be from a store back home. The meats were nicely cut and packaged. No need to pick up tongs and sort through the breast fillets and contaminate your hands, your bags and your carts with salmonella. Everything looked so nice and pretty. We saw fresh berries which we passed by because they were hugely expensive but I had to take a picture to catalogue the memory for my journal. It was just the best afternoon. It felt like Ryan and I were just newly dating, all excited and running around giddy holding onto each other trying to snag all the free samples we could. We made sure to go down every aisle so we wouldn't miss anything. We didn't really pick up too much because we're going back in a month and plan to check out the one in Cebu with our car so we can really bring back the heavy stuff like detergent's, swiffer sweepers and things like that! It just so fun to roam around. We picked up a few things we really wanted and realized we had so much time yet until our flight so we put back the freezer stuff and just got what were 'need' items. We decided that we would go to the Mall of Asia to burn time and then go to the other S&R that is right by the airport to pick up the stuff that needed to stay cold on they way to our flight. So good bye we said to the fancy fruits and vegs, the tall never ending aisle and our huge shopping car *sniff*

Our plan was perfect. We walked around the mall, had some DQ cool treats and headed to the other S&R for our refrigerated goods. It was so great too because we found more 'need' items at that location that weren't at the other! We crammed our 2 backpacks full of goodness to be checked and brought on a shopping bag as well.
Mission accomplished.

Spawns of Satan

Somedays I have no idea how we all get through. I have these great kids who although they do drive me crazy at times, I know they are pretty dang good. I've felt like my Heavenly Father has compensated me with well behaved children so that I could manage these years in the Philippines. I know that's how it works, I give a little and He gives a lot back. With that being said some days I can't understand where my sweet angels are and why they've been replaced with spawns of Satan!? Today has just been one of those days and sadly it's only 9:07am.

I think it all started with yesterday. Chinese New Year. We bought the kids balloons. As Ryan dashed out of the car to buy these fancy balloons right before going home I thought of a blog I've read. This pretty cool lady who is apart of the Focus Family wrote about this post on how balloons always end in tears. It's true, I known it to be so but we still had to buy them for that limited time where they cause smiles and giggles. This morning they woke up excited to play with their new balloons. Brayden had an eagle, Sydney a Hello Kitty and Madison had a Dora balloon. Off they play and I repeatedly remind them to play in the area's of the house without the raised the ceiling. Of course they don't listen and they got more exercise in 30 minutes running up and down the stairs with a broom trying to nurse their balloons to the balcony to reach them then I get all day including my hour of cardio. I can feel my stress levels rising with my frustration due to their lack of listening and the increasing whining when the balloon is unreachable by the broom handle.

First balloon that caused tears: Sydney's. I cannot reach her Hello Kitty. Her daddy cannot reach her Hello Kitty. Now Hello Kitty is just safely out of the reach of sticky kiddie hands hanging out with our chandelier.

Sydney pulls herself together and goes to play outside. She tries to take Madison's Dora balloon outside with her and I can feel my voice raising at the obvious stupidity of this scenario. I can see in my mind the balloon drifting off into the sky and lost to us forever. Outside the two girls go together, without a balloon. I start cleaning up a bit around the house when Sydney comes inside frantic.
"Brayden let go of Maddy's balloon OUTSIDE." Wide eyed and clearly upset Sydney is trying to get my attention. I'm only half listening because when it's that whiney tone in her voice I kind of shut my ears off.
"Oh, ok .... wait, WHAT!? BRAYDEN!!!"

Second and Third balloons cause tears: No more Dora. Brayden had to go to time out AND since he was responsible for the untimely loss of Dora, his eagle (the only remaining playable balloon) now belongs to Madison.

I think I'm trying to teach him a lesson. He brakes her toy, he gives her his. The only problem is that Maddy wants nothing to do with his Eagle so he's running around playing with it now as if nothing happened. She just keeps giving it back to him. *sigh*

KUNG HEI FAT CHOI or HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR

I stole a tiny section from this website which explains a little bit about a person born in the year of the Rabbit:
Positive: The Rabbit can be sensitive, tactful. home-loving, refined, prudent, discreet, long-living, ambitious, cultured, well-mannered, artistic, considerate, scholarly, suave, graciously hospitable, modest and unimpeachably virtuous.

Negative: The Rabbit can also be snobbish, secretive, pedantic, complicated, haughtily indifferent, self-indulgent, hypochondriacal, punctilious, judgemental, self-righteous, deceptive, self-centred and terminally condescending.

Today was the first day in the New Year for the Chinese calendar. The year of the rabbits, more specifically the metal rabbit. Here in the Philippines it's a pretty big firecracker holiday. There's also parades, street parties and other random Chinese celebrations. We went today downtown to the the festivities around dinner time to get some grub and to try and catch a few of the dragon dancers. We were pretty early for dinner and since we were locating ourselves at the end of the parade we had time to burn. We went to the Lagoon to feed the fish and check out some of the animals from the Chinese Calendar. They have each animal lined up around the Lagoon with a summary of the different characteristics a person has born in the year of that animal. When the fish food was all gobbled up we headed to get our own dinner along the main strip and finished just in time to catch the parade. The first thing that we saw was a long skinny dragon dancing towards us. It was pretty cool. They kept lighting off firecrackers around where they were dancing so it looked like the dragon was dancing through fog. I thought it looked great! I think the loud firecrackers made Maddy a little jumpy but she didn't freak out or anything, she just clung pretty close to Ryan.

Right behing the long skinny dragon were these big furry dragons. I thought they looked great but they turned off of the main parade path and went down the little side street where all the lights and stalls were set up. Ryan had taken Maddy a little ways down to get away from all the firecrackers when one of the big dragons came up behind them and really freaked her out. I don't think she had a clue what it was and maybe thought it was going to eat her! Ryan said she just tensed right up and started shaking like she was shivering from the cold (only it's hot out). On either side of the dragons were some people dressed up and carrying these unlit lanterns. They seemed to be apart of the parade but they weren't really doing too much other then following it down the road. Who knows.

By the time we had walked a little bit it was starting to get dark and bedtime was getting nearer. The streets looked amazing all lit up with lanterns, fancy balloons and street venders selling their glow toys. I just love my camera because I think it takes great pictures in the night and really captures all the colours even with the limited lighting. LOVE.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone and hopefully the year of the rabbit will be a good one for us all.

Time to be Pampered

Madison had a field trip last week to a hair salon. We all met up at the salon where the kids got a tour of the salon/spa. They first took the kids into the room where they do the hair cutting and styling. We then went to the other side of the salon where they do their manicure, pedicures and massages. It was a nice little salon but it was pretty crowded with all the little kids plus each one had a yaya accompanying them it was a little much for even me. I could feel Madison tensing up.
After our tour they split the kids up into groups according to what they were going to get done in the salon. The choices were to either get a hair cut, a hair style, a manicure or a massage. I didn't even know that you could give a two year old a massage but apparently they can. I decided that Madison probably wouldn't enjoy having strangers massaging her so we went for the manicure. It ended up being a great choice! Her nails looked fabulous and she had so much fun showing them off holding her up for anyone who would look at her. The only problem was that they didn't last so long. She picked them all off within 48 hours but while they lasted they were pretty.

Wandering Around Singapore

We tried to explore Singapore as much as we could in the weather that we had been given and we did okay. The Sentosa Boardwalk opened the weekend we were there. This boardwalk is a 0.5km bridge that connects Sentosa Island (where the resorts and beaches are) to Singapore. What they did was make it so that now not only can you drive or take the Sentosa Express train to get there but you can walk across it for the price of $1.00. For the opening weekend it was free so on our way back from Universal Studios which is on Sentosa Island we decided to take advantage of the freebee and walk back to the main part of Singapore. It was so pretty, it was dark out and the boardwalk was all lit up with Chinese lanterns for Chinese New Year, pictures of rabbits everywhere celebrating the year of the rabbit. Just outside of Universal Studios there was a huge rabbit outlined with christmas lights the size of small house. It was pretty intense, with these brightly lit orange lanterns hanging around it. There were all these bright colours in celebration of it's opening and as we made it to VivoCIty Mall on the other side these fireworks started going off over the water. It was really pretty and a great ending to our day.

Sunday was still pretty wet. Especially in the morning! We went to China Town but it was pretty quiet being a Sunday morning and as wet as it was so we then ventured to Little India which was a little better. We walked around the market which to be pretty honest, stank pretty bad. The fruit section was okay but the meat section was just rotten. We went and saw the Merlion guarding the Singapore river and then we went back to the hotel room to dry off and get some lunch.

The rains started to fade off later in the afternoon so we headed back out but this time to the shops. It was fun just looking around downtown. Ryan even amused me by letting me find a Lululemon store and walk around it. He said a tool store to him is like Lululemon to me. I just have to go in and smell the smells and then I can leave happy. He's such a good man. We also saw this crazy man hoola hooping this huge string of beads. There was an article about it saying it was the new fitness craze but "is it safe?" I'd say NO WAY. You could totally hurt someone whipping those huge wooden beads around as fast as he was!

We then headed back to Chinatown and it was so much better! Everything was open and the streets were full of people. So much more enjoyable. We actually lost track of time since the sun sets later in Singapore then we're used to in the Phililppines. We didn't even look at our watches until just after 6pm so we had to rush back and get the kids some grub and ready for bed. By the time we got back to the hotel and settled them it was 9:00pm and I was ready for bed! For being such a crummy weather day it was sure busy and man, were the kids exhausted by the end of it!

Universal Studios Singapore

So with our amazing seat sale to Singapore we felt that we could afford to splurge a little and take the family to Universal Studios Singapore! Woo hoo. I was SO SO SO excited. When I was young my family went to the Universal Studios in Florida and it was amazing. I was so young but I remember so many of the different things we did there. I got to fly on the bumblebee with my sister and they dubbed us in 'Honey, I Shrunk The Kids" and my dad got to do this special effects show where he got completely soaked in a boat scene.
So with these high expectations I was in a great mood. Even the 100% chance of rain couldn't bum me out. I knew it would be great. The theme park had a few different sections each with it's own shows and rides: Madagascar, Far Far Away (Shrek), Waterworld, Jurrasic Park, The Mummy, Sci-Fi and New York City. We started with Madagascar! There was the huge ship they were stuck on in their crates, the tree with the broken airplane with the pilot hanging as bones and of course we saw Alex the Lion walking around and posing for pictures!

From Madagascar we ventured onto Far Far Away to explore the world of Shrek. We went to a 4D show where we got to see what happened to Shrek and Fiona after their wedding and how the ghost of Lord Farquad tried to seek his revenge. The seats moved, we were sprayed with the boogers when they sneezed, spiders crawled at our angles and the wind blew through our hair. It was awesome. Ryan also took Brayden and Sydney on their first roller coaster ride! Although it didn't go upside down it wasn't a kiddie ride either. It was fast and curvy and loads of fun. Brayden sat in the front alone while Ryan and Sydney took the row behind him. We also saw Puss, Shrek and Fiona stopping to meet us common folk.

After some lunch we continued onto Jurassic Park which was short lived since the lines were long and the rain really started to poor. We did end up flying in terradactyl's through the air before buying a few rain poncho's and continuing on. Sydney and I did return a little later and went on a ride were you sat on a roller coaster ride style chair. The ones where your feet are dangling and it's connected to the ride rail at the top. We whizzed through the ride and it was super fast. I loved it and couldn't believe how brave Sydney was. She loved it and didn't seem to get scared at all, and trust me, it was SO fast!
After Jurrasic Park we continued onto The Mummy part of the park. I took Brayden onto a rollar coaster ride that was inside a dark pyramid themed dig. This was no ordinary rollar coaster ride. Not only was it dark but there was fog so your vision was quite limited. As the ride is racing down the track you come to a wall and just as you're about to crash through it the rides comes to a sudden stop then you start speeding away from the beetles crawling through the wall backwards so you have no idea where you're going. You start flipping around at 180* and fire blasts down the walls on either side. Oh it was so great. I love a good thrill. Brayden on the other hand was so not impressed.

After Brayden's little freak out we took it a little slower and went for a few of the more Maddy friendly rides. We also took in a show where they showed us how they make all the special effects that you see in the movies. It was pretty neat. The scene that they did in front of us was a hurricane hitting a harbour in the night. They cued the rain, the winds, the waves and the set crashed down as the winds ripped it apart. Of course their was fire as things were exploding from the winds. After Brayden's little hysterical episode after the rollar coaster he was still a little on edge and did not enjoy the explosions. What freaked him out the most was that he thought the storm was real and so when we went outside and he saw that it was suddenly pouring with rain outside he thought that storm was hitting us right at that moment. Thankfully about 2 minutes after we got outside the rains stopped to just a drizzle and he realized it was OK. It was also nice that the whole street in the New York theme (where the show was) was completely covered so you could walk around the street and look into the shops, the shows, and watch the street acts and not get wet. A nice hide away from the lousy weather although with the drizzle following us around we didn't get the camera's out too much but thankfully we were able to get a few fun shots while on the more 'friendly' rides.

Our day was loaded with tons of walking and the kids did a pretty good job of keeping up. We didn't get to sit down to eat dinner at Chilis until around 7pm so it was a long long day! But I had a good time and hopefully everyone else did too!! Here's one last picture of Far Far Away and the rollar coaster the kids loved.