Vermont!

Aside from court our visit to Vermont was great! There wasn't much snow when we got there but on the day of court it snowed all day long. The people we stayed with (Dylan's parents) have a Bed & Breakfast so we got our own little suite above there garage and they fed us every meal we were there. All for free! That's the way to vacation if I do say so myself. We got to hang out with Dylan and Shelley (Nyah's dad and his fiance). It was really nice to be able to talk about the situation and not feel like you're boring the person out of their skull. I swear Shelley and I could talk about it for days and never get annoyed with each other because we're the only ones that completely understand each others situation.
The day before we left I had to make a snowman. I've made one before when I liked in Virginia when it "snowed", but it was more of a frozen-dirtman than a snowman.


Icicles!


Dylan's parents have 4 llamas too! I had never seen a llama in person before, and they are huge! I was too scared to feed them, but Mitchell took a chance.

I was excited for the snow but it was so cold I couldn't handle staying outside for too long. Plus, Mitchell was so scared I was going to slip and fall that he held onto me every second we were outside. I know, my hubby is so kind and loving :)

Road Trip

We left Cali on a Friday and got home on Monday. I decided that throughout our road trip I would attempt to take pictures of each state sign and then a picture of the kids in each state. I got most of the state signs (kind of).

{Warning: A large number of pictures are next. And they're backwards in order, so if you want to look at them scroll down to the bottom and work your way up}

Attempted picture of the Florida sign.

Yay! We're finally home! Riker had just woken up in this picture.

Extremely bored.

Alabama!

Portable DVD at the best on road trips {Thank you so much Bonnie!}

Mississippi!

We missed the Louisiana sign but here are the chillins.




Attempted picture of the Texas sign.


The only happy picture the whole trip and it was taken the first night with food in hand.

New Mexico!

Bored with straws.

First state, Arizona!

This trip was full of-
20 bathroom stops
6 split drinks
4 (Riker) meltdowns
and it was also Riker's first time peeing in a bottle. You may think it's horrible but when you're in the middle of Texas and haven't seen a town or rest stop for 100 miles and your almost potty-trained son saying 'Mommy! Potty!' What else are you gunna do?

Finalish Destination

After Utah we flew out to California, I was most excited about this part of our trip! My grandparents offered to give us their old car, if we could get the car back to Tally. So instead of flying back to Florida we flew there and planned to drive home (definitely not the highlight of the trip for me). We stayed in Cali for 3 days, and most of our time was spent at The Beach Club. This was my all time favorite place as a kid. I use to visit my Grandma for the summer and go to Beach Club. I did that for about 4 or 5 summers. The Beach Club was my heaven, and I could still live there to this day. Most of my time was spent looking at this view-


from my Grandma's 'equipment' as they call it there. It consists of comfy beach chairs and an umbrella.Our first full day in Cali we rented bikes and rode down to check out the Santa Monica pier. Riker got it easy he just sat behind Daddy while the rest of us peddled our lives away!

We also scoped out Venice beach where...

Mileena got a Henna tattoo with her built-up allowance.


Grandma also took Mileena for her first pedicure. She said Mileena 'needed flowers on her toes'. Which of course Mileena agreed with wholeheartedly.

And all made possible because of this wonderful woman! I Love You, Grandma!

Surprise!

After we left Vermont we headed out to Utah to surprise my dad for his 50th birthday. He had no idea we were coming, Mileena and Riker stood at the front door with balloons and when he answered they said "Happy Birthday, Fefa!" He started crying he was so surprised. We had a really fun time squeezing everything we had planned into 5 days. 2 birthday parties, a reception, a dinosaur park, and Mitchell painting and fixing the things on my mom's 'Honey Do List' that my dad hasn't done.

Happy 50th Birthday Dad!!

Riker with T-Rex.

Whoa there, dino!

Mileena, Korbin (our nephew) and Riker.

The Beginning of Our National Journey

For the past year and a half we have been trying to get custody of Mileena. I haven't mentioned it on this blog because I didn't want it to get back to the wrong people. When she came down this summer we realized things had gotten really bad in Vermont. We were expecting a court date sometime in September. On the 20th, Mitchell called me from work saying we had a court date scheduled for the 26th (6 days later) but we needed to be in Vermont by the 24th (4 days later). I couldn't believe it. We were suppose to go out to Utah and surprise my dad for his 50th birthday on the 27th, the day after the scheduled court date! Talk about stressful. We had so many things trying to stop us from getting up to Vermont for this court date, it was insane. Now I truely know that Satan tries to stop good things from happening.
Long story short we got up to Vermont on the 24th, with the help of many gracious family members and friends. {Thank you all so very much}
And on the 26th, Mitchell got full legal custody of Mileena!! It was amazing! We no longer have to worry about her safety and if she is happy. We got to see her little sister, Nyah who we haven't seen in almost 3 years. She has changed so much!!

Riker, waiting to get one of the many airplanes we would be flying over a 2 week period.

Nyah!

I yanked out one of Mileena's teeth while in Vermont. She was freaking out, but I got it done!

Riker had a blast with Nyah.

Mileena's Aunt Karen took all of them on a tractor ride. Riker was in love with this place.

DisneyWorld-Day Six!

Magic Kingdom

We found out we had an extra day at one of the theme parks so we decided to go back to the Magic Kingdom before heading home.

Peter Pan! I think we got an autograph and a picture from amost every character in the Magic Kingdom. Pretty impressive, I know.

Mickey Ears!
Riker's favorite ride (that we went on 3 times), Cinderella's Golden Carasel.
Check out that flip-flop tan from 6 days outside. He definitely gets that from Mitchell because I don't tan.

DisneyWorld-Day Five!

Hollywood Studios

This was the park I was more excited for, most because of the characters there. We got to see Lightning McQueen and Handy Manny, Riker was thrilled!



We also went on the Tower of Terror, I had been on it when I was little with my dad. It wasn't as scary as I remembered but it was still scary!

DisneyWorld-Day Four!

Typhoon Lagoon

On Thursday it was time for water! Thank goodness is what I was saying. Each day since arriving in Orlando progressively got hotter and hotter. Riker couldn't go on any of the rides so he just stayed in the Kiddie area while us adults switched off going on rides.

Going down the Crush n Gush. As you can tell being in the front is more scary than the back, either that or I'm more of a pansy than Mitchell.

DisneyWorld-Day Three

Magic Kingdom

Wednesday we went to the Magic Kingdom, we had been there 2 times before so it was nice to not feel rushed to see and do everything in the whole park.

First stop-Minnie and Mickey. Riker had been waiting weeks to see Mickey, he was so excited to finally meet him!
Goofy became Riker's favorite Disney character over this trip. He could hardly control himself while we waited in line to see him, he kept trying to cut in front of people.

He was also really excited to see Tigger and Winnie the Pooh!

DisneyWorld-Day Two!

Animal Kingdom

Tuesday we headed off the the Animal Kingdom. We knew Riker was going to love this park because he loves animals. Our first stop the Safari, Riker was loving it!


Rafiki and us!
I love this picture, if definitely captures my little man and his love for animals. If you can't tell he is looking at hundreds of fish.


Disney Quest

Because the Animal Kingdom closed early we headed over to Disney Quest. We didn't stay there long because it wasn't quite Riker-friendly.

We did play a virtual reality game, Mitchell won, I lost and Riker was too small. But the worker let him sit in the chair and pretend to play which was nice.

Downtown Disney

Then off to the Bibbity-Bobbity Boo Boutique to watch my nieces Olivia and Taryn turn into princesses.
While we were watching, Riker kept pointing at them and saying Princess. It was too cute!

After they were all princessed-up we headed off to the new T-Rex restaurant. It is just like the Rainforest Cafe, but dinosaurs instead. There is a meteor-shower every 20 minutes, which didn't go over too well with the kids.
This is the room we ate in, it changed colors from blue to red every so often. Mitchell and I thought it was fun!



This is a video of my niece Olivia dancing outside of the restaurant. Such a girl, and so darn cute!