Magic Kingdom

Thanks to the generosity of a family friend, we were able to go to Disney World this weekend. As you can see from the last post, Diego was thrilled when we surprised him with the news. There were two things that made the day a major success. 1) The weather was overcast, with a few showers in the afternoon, which made the lines very short. The longest line we waited in (for Peter Pan) was 45 minutes. Everything else was 10 to 20 minutes. 2) I didn't bring my other baby...my big nice camera. I just brought a little one that fits in my pocket, which made for a lot less to carry and nothing to worry about when we left our stroller behind. I always insist on carrying that thing around, but being without it made it stress-free and much easier to just be in the moment instead of trying to capture a zillion pictures. That being said, here are a zillion pictures of our day.

Shockingly, this was Diego's favorite ride of the day: We had to go on twice so he could get his fill of driving a racecar. He love love loved it.

Celo liked the driving, too, but had a hard time focusing enough to properly steer.

Here we are on Dumbo. The fact that it was rainy made for an awesome hair day, as you can clearly see. Luckily there was just a light drizzle for a couple of hours and we never even had to get out our ponchos.
Diego and Daddy on Dumbo. Doesn't Daddy look like he's having so much fun? He really was, although all the pictures would make you think otherwise! He's never thrilled when I whip out the camera.

Diego and me on Buzz Light Year. Marcelo and I tied with 153,000 points. Diego got a 9100, and Celo got 100.This was sooo cute to see. Both boys ran up to Mickey and Minnie and gave them huge hugs. Then they switched so they could give the other a big hug.The CarouselHappiest boys on earth right here.Ugh. The teacups. This ride is 100% for the children. Just like It's a Small World. Celo started to get a little nauseous when Marcelo and Diego started spinning it really fast.

At one point, we were waiting in line and some music came on. The boys grabbed on to each other and started dancing. When we were in another line, Celo was holding his dad's hand, and we turned to look at him and saw that with his other hand he was holding a little girl's hand who was in line behind us. That boy is TROUBLE. Best attempt at a family picture while riding the train.
Watching the fireworks. Since Celo's birthday is in July, we always tell him that close to his birthday we'll see fireworks. When the fireworks started at Magic Kingdom Diego yelled out, "Look! I get fireworks on my birthday just like Celo!!" He loved it. Oh and notice that even at Disney, they still spent the day with a car in hand.

This is what they looked like 20 minutes after we got into the car.
And yes, Diego's puppy is wearing underwear.

If you ask Diego what his favorite ride was, he'll say the racecars. If you ask his least favorite, he'll say "Goofy's roller coaster. It was scary." Celo was also pretty terrified on that roller coaster. He bit his lip the whole time trying not to cry. But then as soon as we got off, my little daredevil said, "I wanna go again." He loves to be scared.

The best part of the day was when Diego said to me (more than once), "This is the best birthday party EVER."

It was an awesome day! I really REALLY needed a full day of family fun and lots of smiles. I think I had the most fun out of anyone in our little family.

Flowers

As stated previously, my grandparents have a bazillion flowers at their farm in Colombia. I took way too many flower pictures to post on this blog, but if you want to see more, you can click HERE.

Roses


Orchids


Dahlias


Don't know the name of this one


And just because, here's a picture of a humming bird.


A close up.

Pictures from Colombia

Exactly one month ago, we were on a plane to Colombia. I took almost 3,000 pictures in the 9 days I was there. The exact number is 2,867. Naturally, I have a lot of favorites.

This first group I'm posting is of the many gorgeous clay pots my grandma has in front of her house. Every morning, we could just walk out the front door, sit on one of the rocking chairs, and enjoy beautiful views of all different colored flowers, arranged in these pots. I'm probably going to blow a lot of these up and hang them up in my house.

I love the last one. More to come this week.

We went to Animal Kingdom last weekend with my sister-in-law and her family. That was our last pass (we had 4-day passes), which means our last Disney trip for a long time. I'm kind of glad we're done, though, because it's kind of addicting. Seeing Diego so happy and excited is so fun, and it makes us want to keep taking him back. But our wallets can't handle it. And, quite frankly, it's tiring.

This was my first time to Animal Kingdom. I loved it! My favorite part was the safari. I tried to take as many pictures as I could with one hand around Marcelito, but he's a squirmy monkey, so it was hard. There were so many beautiful photo ops. I had to control myself and put the camera away so I could focus on letting my kids have a good time.

I loved these trees! They look like they're upside down. The branches look like roots.
Diego had a lot of fun, too. He got to see elephants, which was really all he wanted from the beginning. He saw tons of animals, rode the triceritops ride, rode the train, and even petted a goat. But, whenever possible, when he noticed that everyone was standing still long enough to allow it, he would whip out his true love, and do this:

Yes, that's a racecar. He's obsessed.

More Fun Times at Disney

As I already mentioned, we took the boys to the Magic Kingdom last week. It's so fun to see how much Diego loves it.

This time, he got to meet Donald Duck, Pluto, and Goofy. As soon as he walked up to Donald, he reached down onto the ground in front of him, pretended to pick up a flower, and then handed the flower to Donald. Donald had no idea what Diego was doing, of course, since there really wasn't anything in Diego's hand. So Marcelo said, "Oh, are you giving Donald a flower?" (Because we've seen him pretend to pick flowers at home and give them to me.) And Diego was like, "Yes!" Donald thought that was the sweetest thing and threw his head back and gave Diego a huge hug. Diego was in heaven. Then he moved on to Pluto, and Goofy, and gave each one of them a pretend flower, too. As we walked out, I was like, "Diego! Wasn't that so fun?" And he said, "I gave them flowers!" It was just the sweetest little thing ever.

Here's Diego showing Marcelo the pretend flower:

Marcelito wouldn't let go of Goofy's arm, which Goofy thought to be quite humorous.

The CarouselAnd Diego's favorite ride:

Artsy Disney Pictures

We took the boys to Disney yesterday. It was a really great day, and we took lots of pictures. I just wasted a bunch of time messing with a few of the pictures, and I can't even decide if I like the outcome. I probably should have just left them as they were. Anyway here are a few pictures of Diego playing in the Winnie the Pooh play area. He must have climbed in and out of that tree about 20 times.


I didn't do anything to the last one. I'll post the rest when I have more time later.

Sea World!

Two days ago, Marcelo was supposed to take an FCC test. But thanks to a local arsonist, the city he was supposed to take the test in was basically on fire and the test was cancelled. With nothing to do on a free day off of work, Marcelo suggested we go somewhere fun with the kids. We were going to go to Downtown Disney to just walk around, but on our way there, Marcelo spotted a sign for Sea World and said, "How much does that cost? Let's go there." He is not really a spur-of-the-moment kind of guy. He's a plan-ahead kind of guy. I love that he's very organized and analytical in his decision making, but seeing this spontaneous side was really fun!

We weren't sure if Diego would enjoy it because he hates to sit still and one of the best parts of Sea World is the shows. But he loved it! We only went to one show, Shamu, (where I didn't take a single picture because of the 9 month old jumping in my lap) and Diego did pretty well sitting through it. He looooved the rides. I love seeing him so happy! It turned out to be a really great day, and the best part is that for the price of just one day, we can go back all year! Marcelo and I will be planning some date nights to their luau. I'm so excited!

Classic Sea World picture

He loved this ride! He went on it twice.

This picture is a total fake. Shockingly, he didn't like getting wet. He wouldn't let go of Marcelo's hand and was like, "I wanna put clothes on now" and "Wanna get dry." But I was like, "Okay, just smile first" and this was the face he gave me long enough for my camera to capture it, before he almost started crying.

Marcelito had fun, too.

No really, he did.

This was Diego's absolute favorite part: Touching stingrays. I'm quite surprised Marcelo could handle being that close to stingrays, what with his near death experience a couple summers ago.

I guess he's moved past that traumatic "attack". (I'm teasing. I know it was real.)
All in all, it was fabulous day. I can't wait to go back!