Day 1 of Disney World

On the safari ride, you are up close and personal with animals. I think Carter took this picture. On the second ride, I let him have the camera to snap shots of the animals. He is becoming a little photographer.
The boys went googey eyes when they saw her. I not going to even try to spell her name!

I love the place for character places. But you have to check the times, we almost never made it on time to get pictures. The boys could pick I character (all the time they had left before going in), they chose Bolt!

As you can see, Carter has NO fear, unlike the one on the right that wouldn't get any closer!

First day, first park - giddy smiles! The boys were matching shirts all days. A tip to those going - it was very easy to spot my children. Carter has his pins around his neck. My sister sent them pins to trade. They loved this, it was a fun side game we had to try and find really cool pins.

Ryan had a business meeting in Orlando the last week of September, so we decided that would be a good time to meet up with him and head to Disney. Now, I need to say this was our first Disney experience! Carter flew with Ryan earlier and spent time with his grandparents, Pops and Honey, while Ryan went to his conference. I must say, it is very different (not easier/not harder) with having just 1 child for 5 days. Benjamin and I few to Florida together to meet up with the rest of our family. We hit Animal Kingdom first, the boys favorite ride was the safari jeep ride. They loved looking at all the animals and riding along bumping around in the jeep. In fact, we did the ride twice. Ryan, his father, and I rode the Yheti (don't know if I spelled that correctly), but it is a scary (but quite fun) roller coaster. We also enjoyed the one of the water rides (the smart ones (Honey, myself, and the kids)) were smart and wore ponchos. The other 2 were wet all day! The boys did not like the 3-d movie "It's hard to be a bug," too many things jumped out and to much loud noises. After we spent a full day at Animal Kingdom, we checked into our hotel and went to Downtown Disney. D Disney is a neat boardwalk with places to eat and shops. Our favorite, of course, was Legoland.

We're Back in Business . . .

Shopping for school supplies

Okay, so May 19th was several months ago. May flew by and then summer hit. We

had a wonderful summer. In fact, we didn't want it to end - that meant our precious Benjamin would be headed off to school. As much as I thought May blew by, before I knew it the middle of August hit, and school was around the corner. Our summer was filled with visiting family, a new baby (provided by my sweet sister, Robin), and a get away trip for Ryan and I. Above are back to school pictures . . . Carter is attending the preschool he went to last year. He is in the Tiger class this year, so far, he is loving it! It was very hard to be sad and miserable for Ben starting school because he was soooo excited! He literally floated into school every morning the first week of school. Even into the 8th week, we are still loving it! All I can say is that starting school has ROCKED our WORLD! We are up early, in line for drop off and pick up, homework, and into bed early! I will try my best to catch you up on the happenings the past few months - broken arm, trip to Disney, and all the fun Merriman adventures in between! Where Benjamin is my serious one, Carter still brings down the house. Something funny he said recently . . . We were driving in the car and I looked back to see him. He had his arms tucked behind his head smelling his armpit. I asked what he was doing. He replied, "I am smelling my armpits, they smell like treats." I asked, "What do you mean treats?" He said, "you know, like sweet treats. And I love it!" Okay!
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