Best picture EVER! Well, Mad for Madras. Cam is missing, but still. I saw Travis walking with the Rs eariler and wanted a picture, but between the stroller and the crowds, I couldn't get it. Then I realized we were alone here in the little backstage area and made them walk again. I love it. The best part was when Travis saw the picture and finally realized why we have all been saying that Tal looks so much like him--he never sees himself from behind. Those two carry themselves exactly the same!

You can't really see it here, but about fifteen minutes after we arrived, Riley's shoe fell apart. That was the first Bondism of the weekend. There were many, many, many more to come.

I haven't been on the backstage tour in years. It was so hot. We were in line, one of those smelly, body-odor kind of lines. We got to the front of the line and they cut it off. Just another twelve minutes or so, they said. Then I reached down for the camera and realized my wallet was gone. While I was frantically dialing the hotel front desk (could I have left it way back there?), Travis ran back to the handy 40-pound stroller (it was indeed there). While he was gone, they came out and asked for volunteers for the show. So Tal and I start yelling, "We volunteer our dad!" over and over. They kept ignoring us, over and over. Then Travis comes back in and they saunter over and tell him he can come be part of the show. Could they have at least made eye contact with me?

So here he is in all his glory. The other volunteers got to act like they were scrubbing the front of the boat. We were all jealous that he got wet, because it was So. Darn. Hot. Then they told him which side of the ride would get soaked so he could make his dear wife sit in the soaker spot, and I was grateful.

Well, it is non-stop rain all over Florida! If you live here you know that it doesn't cool things down. Sometimes you can see that it hits the street and actually makes a couple feet of steam right on the street. Very humid. Very, very humid.

Anyway, I had the handy-dandy raincoat things in the stroller (as IF we really wear raincoats in Florida), but they did keep their clothes dry, and they did look quite adorable. Tal naturally chatted up the girls on the boat, and as usual, I caught Reagan in a quiet moment.

This is Camden from the inside out. He was playing with Travis at the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playground and kept running to him with open arms. I just love this picture because it captures his personality so well. He is always so free with the smiles and big hugs...we just love that about him.

I'll use this opportunity to talk about lunch before Travis tells you first. I think he just scans through these pictures--pretty sure he doesn't read it all, anyway. So we had dinner booked at the Prime Time Cafe, but he was hungry early, so I go to see if we can get in. The lady says No Way, Jose. So I send Travis in to ask. He gets us in immediately...they have a comfy couch for us to wait on for the five minutes it takes for them to clear a table for His Majesty. What is that? So then they have the yummiest pot roast ever. I love pot roast, even the one from Bob Evans. I cleaned my plate. So he acts like a total princess and only eats maybe half of his, then points out the discrepancy to the waiter. This is a restaurant where they yell at you for having elbows on the table! So they bring over more people to come gawk at my piggishly-empty plate. So all day I was the center of every joke. We had a brownie sundae with M&Ms and caramel popcorn topping (yucky) for dessert.

Here are the kids on the film slide...how cute! They had such a nice time, and the entire playground was...drum roll, please...shaded!

Isn't this cute of Reagan and Travis? They look so much alike in the face. And of course Travis was working.

The new Toy Story ride (which is FANTASTIC) was broken the entire day...that was a bummer. The Rs are big into Indiana Jones right now, so they were excited about that stuff.

So we had a great time at MGM. We have done a bunch of things lately that we've never done there before. And we can take a boat from the Beach Club (the huge stroller stays intact on the ride over).

One of the great things to do at Disney is a Character Breakfast...lots of fun. Only they don't have omelette stations. So I found that the Swan breakfast has characters AND omelettes. I forgot my camera, so I had to take lousy pictures with my phone (but better than nothing). Reagan was grumpy early on, and would you believe some of the characters came back to animatedly check on him? So sweet. I can't believe how much shy Riley enjoys them now...it is insane to see the change in him.

Travis was feeling antsy, so we went for an outing to the outlet mall. I never, ever resist that, but oh MY was it horrid. That place may as well have a neon Gimmick sign over it.

See the mini-hurricane to the left here? This is our Pool Day. The Yacht & Beach Club has the world's best pool...this side is about two feet deep, so moms can sit (for an hour and a half, while dads have Me Time) and kids play in the sand and swim around. Once the kids master walking in the sand (the entire thing has a sand bottom), the sky is the limit, even if they can't swim. There are some huge pirate slides and a really big lazy river, too. There are bridges and Jacuzzis tucked in all over, so it is like a giant maze.

We raced inside and ordered room service really fast before the masses figured out that the restaurants were all full. Great new routine is that on our last night, we order pizza for the kids, and Travis and I eat outside. Camden knocked his dinner on the ground, but what's a little extra protein? Ground floor rooms = no elevator, closer to the action, no scary balconies, and we can run around outside. And dinner outside is really in a garden at Disney. Everything is so lovely.

Here is Riley with a Yoo-Hoo, Travis' idea of calming the kids down in the car. Riley actually cried when we had to come home...now THERE is a switch!

A day at Papa & Nanny's is an adventure for sure. The kids were checking out the horses and donkeys. There are two dogs, of course. We counted five visible gators in the lake that evening--gross! The lake is beautiful and makes a great backdrop for camping (and nice & close to the house--a few feet away, in fact). They also rode the four-wheelers and got all kinds of dirty. Nice!

Never mind the bedhead. This is such a precious moment of Cam and Travis hanging out. And Cam just doesn't sit still for long.

Tal also had a moment at the Starbucks, while Daddy and the brothers were (patiently) waiting for us to pick up carrots. Whoops...were we gone more than five minutes?

I have never seen a child put down chocolate like this. He can go from mad to happy in two M&Ms. There is no question he is my child. His eyes lit up like Christmas when he saw the molten lava cake here.

What a week. Here are some highlights just from Friday:

- Microwave was finally replaced after a year of scary things like it starting in the night. But oh, the new model (same microwave) is 3/4" taller than the old one, so we'll need a granite-cutting expert first. So we have a big hole in the wall, which has yellow paisley wallpaper.

- Decided to have breakfast al fresco (rolling with the them). Within ten seconds, Tanner had eaten two of the kids' waffles (causing tears), Camden knocked over the drinks, and I somehow let a wasp into the house and had to chase it down.

- A large, random dog got into our house during a giant thunderstorm. So I put him out on the porch, not knowing what kind of dog he is (and he is knocking children over). He got back in three more times...and how? I finally realized he was running around to the garage and opening the out-swinging side door with his paws. Smart dog!

This is one way to get them to take out the trash, right? We missed trash day last Tuesday, then Friday was a holiday. Let's just say this morning was a red-letter day on the calendar and we spent a good deal of time outdoors. Tal came up with the idea of transporting things with the cars, and we had fun. You can see one of the crepe myrtles is hanging all the way over the driveway, but it is too pretty to trim right now.

Follow-up: So much for a successful family trash day. Someone left the cans out overnight and we were CITED!

Who is Al Fresco? We decided to spice up the summer with a theme every week. I'm obsessed with grilling, we're fixing up our back patio, Tal and I are going to Dinner Done together, and he has been dabbling in Italian (what else?) with his CD from Chick-Fil-A, so it seemed like a good fit. Our goal is to eat at least one meal outside every day. We'll see.

Here is a photo of the rapidly-improving back patio. I finally decided it was time for the dog to stop owning the backyard. You can also see a bit of Tanner's expensive surgery scar and Riley's cool new swim shirt (it has a Woody car on it) to protect him from the sun and to work with the horrid sunscreen.

I buckled and got Cam a puppy backpack with a "leash." Figured it may come in handy on our upcoming adventures. It looks like a big stuffed puppy he has and he loves it...go figure. He is still staying strapped into the stroller 99% of the time...

We hope you had a wonderful Fourth and a great long weekend. I wish every work week was four days!

We went to Idlewild's Family Night...not your average little church shindig. Wow. Tons of bouncy things for the kids, adorable train rides (read: painted tractors with bubbles instead of smoke), a car show that both our dads had a great time at, a fabulous fireworks show...Best of all, we parked Griswold-style by the entrance and seemed to be about the first out.

We had a tough time getting out the door...there were all the children, and then of course, Tal, Riley, Reagan, and Cam. We had Norman and Travis getting ready with the cars! Oh, dear. So I was parked so far away and lugged sleepy Reagan (had to barter with Riley for a spot in the stroller), the ridiculous 40-pound stroller (my review...someday), four soccer-mom chairs, two coolers, two blankets, a giant (but hawt) bag full of kid stuff...and I'm not sure what else. Okay, we walked about a mile. So we get to the kid area, met Brenda, and the kids hopped in line to bounce. We got to talking, and I had my back to poor Cam in the stroller. A woman came up to me and said, "Maam, your stroller fell over." OMG. It did, and I didn't even NOTICE! Camden is so laid back that he didn't make a sound--he was just checking things out from his new vantage point ON THE GROUND.

The kids got to pose with Herbie here...and we just saw the movie two weeks ago!

Well, something happened. First, Travis traveled 14 trips in 15 weeks. The kids were so upset that we were hearing things like, "I lost my Daddy." So I think he wanted to come home with a present (but what does one bring from Des Moines?), so he stopped at Wal-Mart (aren't we boycotting, Travis?) and found a display sale.

The Jeep has been around for nearly five years...here is the picture of the big accident (scroll down). And the Bill & Steve photos are pretty famous, too, although I don't have them here.

No, Camden isn't driving yet, but he sure was having a good time in Park. Click on his picture to see his "Cheese" face.

Now imagine Travis' face when he sees his garage. It takes an act of Congress to get our cars in now.

What the heck? Wild turkeys in Florida? There were three of these ginormous birds in our backyard today.

We live in a gated community...we have beautiful preservation areas all around us, and not so attractive swamp areas with gators, but we have been absolutely amazed at the critters we've encountered. I've documented some on the Critters page, but we have spotted deer, bullfrogs, turkey, Florida softshell turtles, gators (ugh), deer (a family lives back here), rabbits, snakes (the water moccasins have been particularly unfriendly), armadillo (not sure how to make that plural), and my personal favorite, the otters.

More turkeys up for discussion? Sunscreen manufacturers. I've been a sunscreen fanatic and my kids have hardly had a hint of redness, thankfully. Until today...Riley has been in pain all day. Four coats of that new aerosol spray--50 SPF! I had some lively discussions with some other moms, and we agree the creams work best (even though they are messy and the kids hate them). Also, Travis had heard that CNN had done a study, so I looked it up. Apparently 4 out of 5 sunscreens were useless. The scariest part? I put in the Marketed to Children and Waterproof options, and it only came back with one brand that had both sunblock and no giant cancer warnings. Creepy.