THE MARINI'S: Holy Blogness!!!!!!!

Pace yourself, this is going to be the mother of all posts. I know it has been a while since the last, but I can explain...I've been gone. Like, haven't been in my house for longer than 36 hours since October 1st. So let's catch up on what we have been doing on our fall break!

Join me in a picture walk....

Welcome back to the Magic Kingdom...it's been a while since we were here and we were so excited to be back!!!

First ride of the day! Alice in Wonderland.

He's pretty excited too.

Tea Cups early in the morning, not a fantastic idea....but someone has to go with them!

Look at us...one the train!! And more importantly this is a huge deal because this entire trip was STROLLER FREE!!! Let me say that again....STROLLER FREE!!! It was fantastic!!! We used the train a lot! The freedom of not having the stroller is amazingly liberating.

The second of firsts for this trip was that we were finally able to use our time share and stay at the villas at the Grand Californian. It was amazing! The best part about staying here was that I had to run back to our room to get jackets one night and from the back of California Adventure to our room was seven minutes. Mommy likes that!

And another first...we actually used the pool! Very fun!

And I went down this water slide. Officially my first water slide ride since 7th grade. it was so much fun, but when I realized that I was the only one over the age of 13 doing it, I made it a solo run.

The boys loving our room!

Little bit more room to move around and the mini kitchen was heaven especially since we bring a lot of food with us.

The view from our room. I absolutely loved that we could hear all the people and music throughout the day. We had a bet going the first night on whether the lights in the park would be on all night. Only a few were on.

Taking advantage of the balcony and having a snack!

Goofy's Sky School turned out to be our favorite "new" ride of the trip. Ryan was so brave to go on it and loved it!

It did not take long for them to pull out the bed from the couch and "rest".

Because we were staying at our new place, we got early entry to California Adventure. Here are the boys mapping out where we were off to first...you know, like they haven't been there before.

Gorgeous day!

Me falling behind as these three race off to Toy Story Mania!

Rich and Matt on the Ferris Wheel for the first time. Not such a good ride for people who get motion sickness...just sayin'.

My boy right before Goofy's Sky School. The hair is growing on me...cutie!!!!

Lunch break at one of our favorite restaurants.

The Angry Birds shirts that made an appearence nightly.

LOOK WHO'S FINALLY BIG ENOUGH FOR THE ROPE SWING!!! WOOOHOOO!!!

Matthew was chosen to do the Jedi training. We thought he would challenge Darth Vader, but it turned out that it was Darth Maul.

Preparing....

Sword training...

The battle...

After a gorgeous start to the vacation, rain moved in on little vacation. Our first ride in the front of the monorail.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

After Ryan had been to see him several times, the family finally all went at once.

Hey look!!!! FRIENDS!!!! We met up with the Flemmer's on the last day of our trip! Here is Matt and Ryan with Kendall and Lauren!!

Look at this group! Half of them were prepared for the weather! As much as we would have loved to spend more of the day with them, we were SOAKED and had to leave. It was to the point of becoming miserable. Luckily for them over the next couple of days the weather got better. However I want a make-up trip...we need to do this again!

Great overall trip to the Mouse's House.

Change of gears....we came home Wednesday night from Disneyland and then Friday morning I left for West Virginia!!

Look who I got to spend a few days with!!!

On Saturday we went to lunch at one of Noelle and Greg's favorite restaurants. I love this picture for two reasons...1. She's so damn cute! 2. It screams..."All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!"

At her favorite place on earth...the children's section at Barnes and Noble.

A view from Noelle's back deck!

On Sunday Noelle and I headed to Pittsburgh to do a little shopping. I brought my camera from school on the trip and did not take a single picture with it. I have a new phone that decent pictures, so I found myself just using it. And, prepare yourself...they are all taken from the car at a high speed!

Here is the stadium where the Pirates play.

A pretty bridge...

Heinz Field. It was a game day and the place was rockin'. Here is a crazy thing on game day EVERYONE, I MEAN EVERYONE wears Steelers shirts! Or they are have on black and yellow, I have never seen anything like it.

Lunch at the Cheesecake Factory

Noelle's fish tacos..

Our dessert...pumpkin pecan cheesecake.

Another view of Heinz Field.

I took a TON of pictures of the landscapes of Pennsylvania and West Virginia not only because with the leaves changing for fall, but because when we were here two years ago in March...the place did not look like this!! There was not a leaf on a tree and all the rolling hills were brown because the snow had melted and the grass was dead! I am happy to report it redeemed itself with the views this time.

On Monday we went to a place call Ali Baba. It was Mediterranean food....located at the Morgantown Airport. No joke! This picture was taken from the window by our booth!