Part Four....Winding Down...Vacation #1 Success?

The time came to pack up, snuggle with our new stuffed friends, hold onto our memories, and head home.

Jae-min was exhausted and pretty much passed out when we left the driveway!!!

Jaelah did well on her first vacation.  Her behaviors were pretty similar to those she has at home.  We could tell she felt comfortable and at ease and I do attribute it ALOT to the amount of thought and preparation we did for her beforehand.  It was nice to see her being ok with it all....and it was also nice to see all of my hard work before and during the trip being responded to by her.  I was just so happy she was able to get some joy!!!

We had one more important thing to do before going home and with each passing mile the excitement grew!!

You see our next stop would be to pick up and bring this little Charlie home!!!!

Part 3....Santa's Village

After a day of rest we headed to Santa's Village.  Where its Christmas all year long!!!

Jae-min loved these fancy penguins and about halfway through our day we realized that if you lifted the hat it was a trash can.  Brilliant!!!

More rides for everyone!!!!

And we even found Santa's reindeer and got the chance to feed them.

Silly Jae-min checking out the igloo.

Oh there you are Santa.  As we stood in line I asked Jae-min what he was going to ask Santa for.  He replied a "weedwacker and a chain saw"  Um....ok buddy.  Good luck with that one.  But when the moment came he told Santa he wanted Lego's.  Well thats a safe request.  Its never too early to get your request in when it comes to that very busy man.
Your probably wondering where Jaelah is....She began yelling "no no no" when we asked what she wanted to tell Santa.  She did brave his side long enough to get a candy cane and then she ran back to momma at lightening speed!!!

We were winding down the day when we passed this ride with no line.  Jae-min asked to go on it and we said sure.  He went on ALONE and Jaelah saw how much fun he was having so she wanted to go too.

And with no line and not many kids around this little gem these two rode that ride multiple times!!!  Putting their hands up as the thing spun around, laughing.  And big brother took good care of his little sister showing her how to ride it like a BIG kid.
Santa's Village was a success.  And now we've got the Christmas spirit too!!!!

Part 2....Choo Choo

The next day we took a train ride to see the scenic mountains!!!  Uh uh folks....we seem to be losing her!!!  Haha

Phew...we got it together on the train and enjoyed the ride!!!!

Yup train rides are ok after all!!!

Ok look closely at the next picture....do you see what we saw????

Yup thats right a big black bear.  We saw a mommy bear with her three cubs just walking around the neighborhood.  And we saw her twice!!!!

First Vacation....Part One

Phew....its been busy around here!!!  Two little ones and one puppy make for some busy days.  But I did want to document our first vacation before it got away from me...so here goes...

Several weeks ago we had traveled on our first vacation since Jaelah has been home.  I will be honest here...I was NERVOUS about how this would all go down.  Jaelah still has some struggles she's working through and I just didn't want this time away to regress her at all.  So....I prepared her the best I could...I mean I went above and beyond to set this up for success for her.  I knew we needed to get away and Jae-min needed it too, but I also know what "vacation" means to a child who struggles with securities still.  We loaded up the car as prepared as we could be, and with fingers crossed, off we went!!!!  The kids were happy and excited and fell asleep 1/2 way there...good planning on our part.

My parents had rented a house which was awesome for Jaelah as we made it as comfy and "homelike" as we could for her.  Our first adventure was to Storyland where the kids had a BLAST!!!  I thought this sign summed it all up.

Jae-min wanted to go on the RIDES.....and by rides I mean BIG BOY RIDES!!!!  He had woken up early that morning soooooo excited to go on rides like a big boy....and thats what he did.  He had a blast!!!  I think he rode on every ride in that park.  From a roller coaster, to a raft ride, to the flume he rode it all.  And daddy was his companion on all those BIG BOY rides!!!!

Jaelah enjoyed the rides on the smaller scale with mommy.  She was comfy to hang out in her stroller and watch big bro scale those biggies.  Oh and of course to shake it and show her belly to cheer big bro on!!!

Here go those crazy boys on the flume ride.  I will admit my mommy heart was in my throat as I watched their log climb the great big hill....but I think it flew out of my chest as they plummeted DOWN the big hill.  Jae-min's face was priceless!!!  It honestly looked like he was going to sail out of the log!!!  As he ran to me with a huge smile and wet clothes I saw the pure joy that adrenaline gave him....think I'm in trouble!!!

A great time was had by all.  Oh...do you notice Jae-min's changed outfit in the below picture???  Well while waiting for lunch I brought the kids over to an area where you can shoot water at people on a ride...but I failed to realize they could shoot back.  As Jae-min stood at the cannon shooting his water a family came by and started shooting at him.  But they wouldn't stop the water arsenal!!!  It all happened so fast....I saw Jae-min standing with his hands over his face getting drowned by water trying to move but was totally immobilized!!!  My mommy bear kicked in and ran to save him...to which this crazy man turned the water on me, soaking me too!!!  Jaelah saved herself and ran out of the area to Grammy who was waiting on the sidelines.  Jae-min and I were at this grown man's mercy and honestly were stuck, drenched, and laughing so hard we thought we were going to pee our pants.  That grown man took no prisoners, no mercy on a poor helpless woman and child!!!!  Lesson learned...next time scan the ENTIRE area before subjecting your little ones to crazy adults with water cannons!!!

Storyland and day one of vacation a success!!!!

Our Newest Addition......

On Friday we added a new addition to our family.......

Meet Charlie!!!!!

Cute, isn't he???  And yes we know he bars a striking resemblance to our beloved Martin.  But we also know that Charlie is his own little being....his own little dog being that is!!!
He's silly, fiesty, lovable, snuggly, and has done super so far.  He's great with the kids and I have some pitter patter footprints behind me again.
It was time to open up our hearts and home to another little fur creature....and we're so happy with our Charlie!!!!!!!
We're excited to share our home and lives with him.  And he's feeling pretty much like he's been here forever.  I guess that's what happens in a perfect match.
Soooooo.....welcome little Charlie.  We love you already!!!!