Jambo House!

Last week we went on a vacation to Disney.  We didn't tell the kids until the night before we got there, after we had driven to Tifton, GA for a stop on the way.  We met up with Nana and Pa Bob at Chic-fil-A.  They were a little surprised that Nana and Pa were there because they didn't know that they were going on vacation with us.  We then told them that we were going to Disney.  They were a little surprised and excited but also seemed confused.  And then just acted like it was cool, just like an everyday thing to go to Disney. No biggie.  We had a great vacation.  We stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge Jambo House.  Luckily, we got upgraded to a Savannah view room on the Kudu Trail there.  We had an awesome view of a lot of animals everyday.  

That building thing in the back was where they fed the animals each morning.  Then they'd put food throughout the Savannah areas so the animals would all roam around.  At about the time we'd wake up each morning, this is what we'd see.  We could sit on the balcony and drink coffee and eat breakfast and look out to this.  Giraffes, zebras, antelope, ostriches, wildbeest, vultures, scimitar-horned oryx, etc. etc.  We absolutely loved this hotel!!

Nana and Pa stayed 2 rooms down from us and basically had the same view.  They liked it too.  

A cool thing about the animals here compared to a zoo is that they had so much room to roam around.  They animals all seemed very happy and well taken care of.  

We had some really good restaurants at the hotel.  This was the quick service place.  

There was a flamingo pond right by the playscape area near the pool.  

Flamingos with a giraffe in the background.

Our pool was fabulous too.  There were two sections of the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  We stayed at the Jambo House, where this picture was taken.  We also went over to the Kidani Village.  Their pool was pretty cool too.  Both had slides.  Kidani Village had a longer slide but smaller pool.  

We had snails at the hotel too!

Luke and Anna slept in a bunk bed.  Luke slept on the top and Anna on the bottom.  It was their first time sleeping on a bunk bed and they seemed to really like it.  

This was outside of Sanaa, which was at the Kidani Village.  We had a great dinner there! 

The ostriches were so handsome!

It was fun watching the giraffes eat and seeing their black tongues.  

On the last morning at the hotel the kids decided they wanted to wear life jackets.  This was the slide at the hotel.  Not as cool as Kidani Village (which I didn't get a picture of), but still pretty fun.  

Of course the animals were cool, but we also loved how pretty everything about Jambo House was. After we left and moved on to the next hotel in Georgia, Anna wrote 'Jambo House' on a piece of paper and put hearts all over it and cried hysterically about how much she missed Jambo House and wanted to go back.  It was sad.  We all miss Jambo House.  

The lobby was pretty amazing too.  

Frankenstein

Lukey and Anna have been talking about going to Frankenstein (Frankenmuth) all summer.  So, last weekend when Kent was up there for baseball we went up there.  The baseball game got cancelled because of rain but we still had fun at the outlets and Zehnders for dinner.  The kids were really bad at the outlets as usual but they had fun at dinner.

Happy Birthday to Sloane!

Happy Birthday to Sloane!  We celebrated Sloane's birthday proper by going to 7-11 and drinking slurpees. We'll do this every year on her birthday.  Then, on the weekend we went out to Holland and went to the beach for a few hours then went to Sloane's birthday party.  She seemed to have fun.  

The theme of Sloane's party was cats.  Or, more specifically, her cat Mr. Burns.  They had this piñata.  Anna was upset when it was time to beat it down.  After it came down she only took one piece of candy.  A few kids offered her more and she didn't want any.  She was a little traumatized and quiet for awhile after this event.  Later when Kent was beating on the piñata some more Anna started crying.   He felt bad and stopped.  

Nana and Pa Bob make a Happy "Burrthday" cake for Sloane.  She calls Mrs. Burns Burr.

Lukey found some watermelon...

I couldn't get a good angle to get any good pictures of Sloane with her cake because some neighbor kid was always in the way.  She seemed to like her cake though!

Sloane is by far happiest when she is with her mama.  At all times she is saying "mama".  She's a vocal baby.  We tried to tell her a few times that I was her mama because Carrie was busy but she was wise to our tricks.  Mama or bust.

Wearing her new cat towel.  It's nice that she's a cat lover like her cousin, Anna.  And the rest of us.

Look at this group of cheerful children!

Happy Birthday America!

We celebrated the 4th of July holiday by going to Nana and Pa Bob's house then to the Plymouth fireworks on 7/3.  Too bad Uncle Ben's creepy face was mostly cut out of this picture.  

Hook

On day Da was grilling and found a snail shell for Anna.  She put it on the table.  We were surprised when we found it walking up the Kleenex box the next morning.  Turns out a snail was inside!  She named it Hook and wore a snail top that day to celebrate.  Hook lived in a home we made for him for a few days.  Then he started to smell and had to go back outside.  We sometimes wonder what Hook is doing now.

mommy's b-day

For the morning of my birthday, we went to Gallop Park for a walk.  We went there last year and got some really good pictures.  This year we didn't. It was really sunny. 

It was also Optimus Prime's birthday!

Every time we go to Gallop Park, Da and Lukey sit on this bench and have a meaningful discussion about life.