Disney World Day 1: The Magic Kingdom

It's September and I still haven't blogged about our trip to Disney that happened in July. I guess you could say that I'm pretty far behind. So, instead of taking the time to narrate, I'm going to let the pictures do the talking. Well, for the most part!

The Buzz ride was Liam's favorite!




Disney World is the friendliest-nut-allergy place on Earth! At all of the restaurants we went to, including counter service places, the chef would come out to talk to us before we ordered. They would ensure us that Liam's food would not be contaminated when it was served and tell us what foods were safe. It was such a great experience!!! They even had safe ice cream!!!
A lot of the pictures I will post were taken by Disney photographers.



Look at Liam's face in this one. He did not like Stitch!





The Magic Kingdom was truly a magical experience. Several times throughout the day I caught myself getting chills and tearing up. It was just such a wonderful feeling to see Liam so happy!!!

So, it's summertime and I really have no excuse for not keeping up the blog. I guess we've just been having too much fun for me to find time to blog. When I'm not busy with Liam rescuing animals or "fixing" stuff around the house with his tools, I'm working on stuff for my new second grade class or reading myself. (And let me tell ya, I've read some great books this summer!) Here's a quick update on some of the highlights over the last few weeks. I apologize ahead of time for the overload of pictures. If you are not a grandparent, you may want to move on to something else now!

Thursday before the 4th of July, we met Devin, Aspen and Ayla at the Science Museum. We initially planned to go to the zoo, but with a forecasted high of 106, we decided that finding something to do indoors would be best. I was worried that our babes might be too young for the Science Museum, but they definitely were not. They had a blast!

Liam loved the little firehouse. He could have climbed the stairs and slid down the pole all day long!

This is in the earthquake room. I seriously thought these two would flip when the room started shaking, but instead they thought it was pretty fun!
The mirror maze was my favorite part. Aspen and Liam both ran their heads right into a mirror before we made it out the other end!
This is attempt #564 to get a picture of all three kiddos looking at the camera. SUCCESS!!!! Too bad Aspen looks like she just lost her best friend. Lol!!!
Of course Liam could have watched this train forever!
I think he was getting tired at this point, because when I asked him to sit by me for a picture, he immediately put his head on my lap.
We wrapped up our visit at the Science Museum by going back to the play area. I'm so thankful that we were able to meet up with Devin and her girls before they headed home to D.C.!

Friday before the 4th, Liam and I packed up and headed out to meet my friend, Amanda, and her super hunky son, James, at the Bouncy Barn in Broken Arrow. Amanda takes amazing pictures, so I didn't bother taking out my camera. Hopefully she'll post some of the pics she took at the Bouncy Barn on her blog soon. Hint, hint Bonner!!!!

Friday night we watched the first of 3 firework shows in Bartlesville with my parents. At first Liam wasn't too sure about the loud booms. He eventually got used to the sound and said, "Fireworks pop. Like Pop Goes the Weasel!" So he now refers to fireworks as, "pop goes the weasels".

On the 3rd, we headed to Jenks to go to the Oklahoma Aquarium and to spend the evening at Shalayna and Bryan's apartment. They live right by the bridge where the fireworks are set off, so we have the perfect view of the fireworks.

Since Bryan works at the aquarium, we were able to go up above the shark tanks. Like where they feed the sharks from. I was sooooooooo nervous. There is a red line that you're not supposed to cross, and Bryan stepped over it once with Liam in his arms. I think my heart stopped! If you enlarge this pic of Bryan and Liam you can see the pool of water they're standing right by. Yep, that's where the sharks are.
Once we were back into the aquarium I was able to relax and enjoy myself. Liam was not into the fish during this visit. He was more into running around and burning energy than anything else.

He would seriously not sit still even for a second!
Since we didn't last long at the aquarium, we had time to go back to the apartment and swim. It's so amazing to me how much Liam has changed in a year. Last year on the 4th, he wanted nothing to do with the water. Nothing! This year he loved the water! We went back and forth from the steps to the fountains.

We spun in circles, splashed, and he even started jumping into the water!
After we swam, we ate some delicious food and watched another amazing fireworks show. I don't have a clue how he did it with the fireworks going off only a couple of blocks away, but Liam fell asleep in the middle of the show!

The next day we watched some of the Casey Anthony trial, ate lunch, and picked up some things for Shalayna and Bryan's wedding at David's Bridal before heading back to Bartlesville. We watched our third, and final, fireworks show on the 4th. We had no idea where the fireworks would be shot off from, so my mom, Grandma, Liam and I just picked a spot where there weren't a ton of people. Holy Batman! Talk about the perfect location! The fireworks were directly over our heads. And Liam loved every second of the show!

Dinosaurs

Liam has been really into dinosaurs lately. Sometimes he thinks they're pretty cool. Sometimes not so much. Yesterday he ran up to me screaming, "I scared! I scared!" When I asked why he was scared he said, "There's a dinosaur outside." I had to look out the window with him to prove that there wasn't actually a dinosaur outside of our house. I decided this was the perfect time to visit the Same Noble Museum of Natural History, so that I could prove to Liam that there is no reason to be scared of dinosaurs.

You can tell in this first picture that Liam wasn't too sure about that dinosaur behind him! Haha!!!

Daddy took his lunch a little early so he could come to the museum with us!!! Aren't these two handsome?!?!
Liam eventually wanted to get up close and personal with the dinosaurs. I think his fear was fading!
The museum is really cool. It has several hands on things for children to do that go with the exhibits. Liam loved making these jaws "chomp" together!
The museum has a HUGE statue of a Mastadon. We took a few pictures under the Mastadon and thought it would be funny if Liam would lay under the foot like he was about to get stomped. He was definitely willing to pose for us!!!
The museum even has a hands on room for children with a "dinosaur dig". Of course Liam had a blast in this room!!!
I'm happy to report that after we left the museum, Liam called Papa to tell him that, "Dinosaurs are big. Dinosaurs nice!" We have successfully conquered the fear of the dinosaur!!!

Kaleidoscope Children's Museum

A couple of weeks ago David's mom called to tell us that she had bought us tickets to the Kaleidoscope Children's Museum in Tulsa. We had no idea what Kaleidoscope was, but we were up for spending some time with David's side of the family and it sounded like it would be a fun place to go.

We started out in the "grocery store". Liam was so excited to push a cart that was almost his size. He went straight to the cleaners and started throwing them in his cart. Lol. I think I've created a clean monster!

Then we went to the hospital, which was one of Liam's favorite spots. He is no stranger to taking medicines and having his temperature checked. He made everyone "take their medicine" before we left the hospital.
Logan and Haley liked the jail cell. Can you tell how excited they were to have their picture taken?
My favorite room was the room with the rock wall and the play area. Logan was the first to brave the rock wall while the rest of us played on the slide. He got really good at getting up that wall!
Haley tried it next. She got pretty good at it too!
I was really surprised that Liam was willing to get up on stage and sing into the microphone. He just kept singing "Happy birthday to you" over and over again. He wouldn't perform unless I was up there with him "playing" the guitar.
And then Shalayna, Marybeth and I decided to give the rock wall a try. When we began I thought we were just having a fun, sisterly moment. But, as we were climbing, things started getting a little competitive.
It came down to Shalayna and I. Please notice how she had begun to move to my side of the rock wall.
And she moved even further to my side. I think her strategy was to block me out. (I kid, Shalayna, I kid!)
But in the end, she couldn't go any higher and I was the only one that made it to the top!!! :)
I kind of panicked about how to get down. My repelling turned into me pushing my feet against the wall all the way down to keep my body from banging into it. I repelled until my butt hit the floor!

Thank you, AnnMarie, for taking us to Kaleidoscope! We had a ton of fun!!!!!!!!

The Kiddie Park

My hometown has the coolest amusement park for little ones, The Kiddie Park. All of the rides are perfect for small children and Liam loves them all! My mom and dad have taken Liam twice while he was staying with them and he was so excited to show his daddy and I all of the rides that he loves. First up was a ride with Mommy and Daddy on the train.

Next up, Liam wanted to ride the trucks. We got to The Kiddie Park right after it opened, so Liam was the only one on the trucks and got to pick his favorite color....yellow.
And then it was off to the cars. Liam was the first in line for this ride also, so he got to pick which car he wanted to ride. Of course he picked Thomas!
This next ride is kind of like a roller coaster....a very small roller coaster. Liam would just laugh when going down the hills.
The airplanes made this mama nervous! They went up pretty high and I was so worried that Liam would jump right out, but he acted like a pro and sat perfectly through the entire ride.
Then it was Nana and Papa's turn to ride the train. I have no idea what my dad is laughing at in this pic, but I'm sure it had something to do with Liam being silly.
Liam chose Daddy to ride the carousel with him. I was sooooo relieved. Those things make me so dizzy!
He had to have one more ride on the train before we left. Mommy and Daddy got to ride this time!
I'm so glad Liam loves The Kiddie Park. I remember going there as a kid and it's so fun to watch my baby enjoy it as much as I did!

Zoo Trip

The Sunday before Memorial Day we decided to get up and around early for a quick trip to the zoo. We beat the heat and the crowds, and we had a BLAST! Our first stop was the Children's Zoo. This is my favorite part of the zoo. When we arrived, the goats were eating breakfast. Liam was a little hesitant to try to feed them at first.

But, with Daddy's help, he got right down in there.
And finally got a couple of the goats to eat from him.
After the boys finished feeding the goats, we went to see the Larikeets. It was crazy in there! I held the cup of nectar at first and the Larikeets were all over me. Then, I lowered it over Liam's stroller so he could see the birds better and one of the Larikeets knocked the cup out of my hand and into the tray on Liam's stroller. Needless to say, Liam ended up with a close up view of the Larikeets!
The Larikeet on the left in this picture was a little aggressive. When Liam stuck his finger out to touch it, it snapped at him.
After washing our hands, we were off to see the monkeys, which is Liam's favorite part of the zoo.
And then on to the elephants to see the baby elephant for the first time!!! Oh my!!! She is just precious!
I could have watched her interact with her mama for hours. At one point the baby started to walk away from the mama, so the mama got a trunk full of water and sprayed her. I guess that's how elephants handle discipline?
Before we left Liam wanted to ride this cat. He kept telling us to push him. Lol!!!
We wrapped up our fun morning with lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings and then snocones. I think there will be many more zoo trips and snocone stops in our near future! I love summertime!!!