Animal Kingdom





This park was pretty cool. We didn't do a whole lot of rides at this park. But we also didn't spend a lot of time here either. It was pretty hot so we only stayed for a couple of hours. Sean and I rode Everest Expedition which was pretty intense. I didn't really get to experience the ride becuase I was comforting Sean teh whole time but it was still pretty cool.




We did do a water ride which Asia loved. Laura, Sean and Asia got soaked. Johnny, Scott and I got wet but we didn't get it nearly as bad as the rest. I literally had to ring out Asia's dress afterwards.



The Safari ride was pretty cool. We got to see a lot of wildlife on location. Animal Kingdom really is a zoo on steroids in my opinion. An older crowd enjoys this park a bit more because it's more educational. But the kids seemed to enjoy it since a lot of characters were at the park this day.

Disney World!

We had the best time. We arrived at the park at 8 in the morning and stayed until the parks closed. We got in as much as we could the first day and we pretty much did all of it.



We spent most of the day at Magic Kindom and then had a late, late dinner at Epcot the first day. The kids including me had so much fun on the rides. And Sean is now big enough that he can ride some of the bigger rides with me since Scott isn't a fan of the coasters.



Asia loved all the characters and her favorite rides were Peter Pan and the Haunted House. Sean loved Pirates of the Carribean and I think since he wanted to do Space Mountain again, I think he liked it. Now I will say that I felt pretty bad when we got on the ride Everest Expedition. I had told Sean that I thought it was like Space Mountain. Well, it's a pretty intense ride and he got pretty scared. At several points he was wailing but no tears were flowing because he was too scared to cry. By the end of the ride he had calmed down but the funny thing was he said, "Mamma, I didn't even man up until the end of the ride." He was pretty excited to still be alive and when asked if he wanted to do it again he said, "No."



The parade was beautiful and the kids especially Asia was completely awed by the charaters. It was really cute to see her face as she waved to them. It was fun seeing her amazment that all of her favorite princesses are really "real". Sean is too big now for all the make believe but he really enjoyed everything. He's a thrill seeker so he enjoyed the rides a lot.



The day ended and we headed back to the resort for some much needed rest. We were going to need it for the next day.

On the Road

We had the best time in Florida! Scott and then Johnny reluctantly agreed to do a timeshare vacation at teh Westgate Resort about a mile from the park and we had the best time. We got to spend 4 days and 3 nights at a 5 star resort and got a couple passes too in the package for an amazing price.

After Scott's ball game on Friday at about 12:30 we headed down towards Lake City. We had originally planned on leaving early Saturday morning but Scott wanted to get on the road. So he laid the seats down and the kids slept and I rolled around in the back. :) About 5:30 we arrived at the hotel in Lake City and Scott got to crash for a couple of hours.



We arrived at the resort right around lunch time. So we unpacked and the kids headed down to the pool to swim. We had a light lunch, had dinner later and then just relaxed for the rest of the day to get ready for Disney World!

Wahoo!!!!

I love my pots and pans that Laura and JOhnny got me for my birthday. I've had my eye on this Wolfgang Puck cookware set for the past couple of years. So since I've got them, It's been fun playing and experimenting with my new set.



The inagural mmeal was Steak Diane, oven roasted asparagus, sour cream smashed potatoes and a garden salad. It was so much fun!



But what I"m excited about is that I was able to make candy for the first time. I made homemade butterscotch caramel. I'm going to start trying new recipes and flavors with the caramels now. Fun!

Here's a recent picture of Scott and me. Sean actually took this picture of us before we out to dinner. He did a really good job I think. But we were on out way to Outback for dinner.

Auburn Game

All we do anymore is go to ball games. So for a bit you'll hear a lot about football. But hey, it's football season. Is there really anything else happening in the world?

Kim was able to come down today and see her nephew play. Sean and Asia love it when their Auntie Kim comes to see them.



Sean's team did well again. They won 12 to 7. It was a good win againt the Auburn Tigers. Sean scored another touchdown and ran the ball pretty well. He did have a couple fumbles that we weren't too happy about but he's pretty consisent otherwise hanging on to the ball.



I did get a shot of him running the ball and he's stiff arming the guy. It looks like he's doing the heisman.

The pictures I got at work are actually right in front of the building. We have a really nice waterfall. So after the kids got done throwing pennies into it they posed for mommy. Johnny and Laura did too and I got some nice photos of everybody.

Too bad Scott wasn't there. We have so few pictures together.

Welcome Grandparents!

Today was grandparents day at school. Johnny and Laura were able to get away for a few days and celebrate with us. Thank goodness Labor Day is on Monday so they can actually stay and rest and not have to rush off once they got here.

But it was really nice, the presentation they had for all the guests at the school. Asia had a presentation with her class in the room for all the grandparents and then gifts. And then Sean's age group, the rest of the elementary had the big production in the auditorium.

Sean was part of the group that started the ceremony which was pretty cool. He and two other little girls got up center stage to do all of the pledges. He started the one to the Christian flag.

Afterwards, we all went to Chick-Fil-A, ate lunch, walked around, met people and then I was able to get some nice pictures outside. So now we're all home about to watch a movie, The Waterhorse, and Scott's at a football game.

I'll post a review on the movie later and give my thumbs up or down. :)

It's football season! Sean opened up the season today againt the Red Raiders at Q.B. and did a fantastic job. I was actually working in the concession stand so I missed the first three quarters of the game. But fortunately for me, all the action happened during the fourth quarter.

One of his teamates went in to score and then Sean made the two point conversion. Then Sean was able to score on the bootleg (whatever that means). All I know is that my boy was in the endzone with the ball and the ref had his arms up in the air! He then made another two point conversion.

So the game is almost over. One of the other boys steps in, throws the ball into the endzone and Sean is there with ready hands. I think He got those from Scott. But he caught and he scored. Ball game. We won 20-0 against the other team. It was a great way to open this season.

First day of school!

Sean and Asia had a really good day. Sean has a really nice teacher who's very patient, has boys of her own, and some of his friends are the class too. So he's pretty excited about this upcoming year. Asia has Sean's old teachers when he was in K-5, Mrs. Farr and Sandi. She sat right down at her desk and went straight to work on her sheets. And Asia ended up winning the smart board challenge that day, matching exercises so she was pretty happy about that.

It was only half a day so we ended at lunch and the kids and I went to Chinese for lunch and had a good time. Scott couldn't join us becuase he had to get ready for the football teams lock in they were having. All the varsity players, coaches, and the coaches sons spent the night at the school. They had 3 practices in 12 hours. That took the place of the traditional camps they had in the past.

So Asia and I were menless for the night. So we had a slumber party in the livingroom. We played with makeup, painted our nails, ate tons of popcorn, watched Barbie movies and then slept on the floor in the livingroom with lot's of pillows.

So far the beginning of the school year has been pretty fun.

Hey, if you look really close, in the picture of Sean and Asia standing together in front of the school, you can tell that her shoes don't match. :) I got her a matching set this weekend. :)

Sean and Asia had orientation tonight at the school. Sean has a really nice teacher this year and I think he'll do really well with her, I'm hopeing at least. But Kim Edge, his teacher is very patient and has boys of her own plus she knows Sean so already that's an advantage for him. So I'm excited for his year this year.

Asia has Laura Farr and my friend Sandi for her teachers this year. She was really excited to see her teachers but wasn't too excited about sitting at her desk in the room. I hope her excitement to wear her school uniform will spill over to her everyday classroom activities.

All in all the kids are excited about school. It could be the new backpacks and supplies and all the "fun" things they needed for the upcoming year that they're excited about. But I think they're ready to be with their friends, make new ones and learn a little something too.

Wahoo! My new camera is in and I love it. It takes great pictures and I'm having a lot of fun learning all of its functions. I can hardly wait to see what kind of images I'll be able to take of Sean and Scott during football season. It'll be fun to find out.

Thanks to my family for all chipping in so I could get it! I LOVE IT!!!!

I was able to get some images of our trip to Myrtle Beach. We had such a good time. I just wish that I would've been able to get more pictures but my camera died during the trip.

Scott and Sean golfed a bit. Scott took us to the driving range and hit a bunch of balls. Asia met a new little friend next door to our little house and had a great time with her. And we ate a lot of frozen lemonade on the beach. Good times.

But we had a great time on the beach, eating all of that food and spending time with the extended Queen clan. It was bittersweet though on Friday when we had the annual picnic with the family. When it was time for the sisters and brothers to get photographed some of the siblings were noticably absent. So it was great to see everybody but also sad remembering those not present.

Family is so great. I'm ever thankful for mine and all the love we share.

We're home again and it's been a week since we got back from the beach. The kids both got really tan, Sean almost got as dark as me. I got a little bit of sun too but not too much. Scott fortunately didn't burn like he has in the past. So as far as that goes, it was great.

But we did have a really nice time. We had a lot of fun with the whole Queen clan. We went to the beach and the pool everyday. We found some really pretty shells too.

I was in charge of all of the meals so we ate some good food. We had low country boil on night and that has definitely become one of my favorites for sure.

My camera did pretty much die on me so I wasn't able to get any pics on this trip. I'm hopeing that I can get a new camera for my b-day so we'll see.

But we're home and back to the grind. Scott has jury duty starting on Monday. I'm hopeing that he won't be selected since we have the kids to worry about, school is about to start and we just have a bunch of things going on right now. It's a pretty busy time of the year for us.

Anyway, I'll update soon. The kids will be starting school in about three weeks. So we're planning some small camping trips pretty soon and some little day activities. So I'll update as we go.

Love you all!