9/24/07-Day #4

Pluto professing his love for my Aunt Judy at the Garden Grill, lol

The boys' getting some undivided attention from Chip & Dale at the Garden Grill

We started off the day at Epcot. Aunt Judy ended up having to go back to the room because she brought the wrong card with her and she couldn't get in the turnstiles. Thank the Lord that we were staying at a monorail resort. That sure made things easier for her to return to the room and get back to the park in decent time.

While Judy went back to get her card, Clayton took Hayden to Test Track and got to walk on twice because the lines were practically non-existant. Everyone that got to the park at rope drop headed to Soarin' (which we did and grabbed some fast passes) but they all waited in line instead of getting the passes. That worked in our favor and that is why Test Track was so dead.

Lunch was at the Garden Grill Restaurant. It is a really cool place where your booth rotates slowly around the outskirts of the restaurant and the food is excellent. The kids got to meet Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale while we were eating. It turns out that Emerson was really fond of the character interaction so this was the perfect place for us to have lunch. Hayden didn't seem to mind meeting them either.

Clayton didn't know it but I had made us both appointments to get massages at the Grand Floridian Spa at 2:30pm. My massage was really nice but I much prefer the Aveda spa to this one. It cost more and the massage wasn't no where near as good as what I can get at Aveda. Clayton enjoyed his but he said that it wasn't worth the money. What really sucked was the walk from the spa back to the Grand Floridian (the spa is not located in the main building-instead, it is a long walk away near the wedding pavilion). It was hot as Hades and after taking showers at the spa, it really sucked to walk back to the hotel and be sweating to death. I don't recommend wasting your money there but that is just my opinion.

Hayden at The Living Seas in Epcot

The Boys

We went back to Epcot after our treatments to meet back up with the kiddos and my Mom/Judy. Dinner was at the Coral Reef. I was so excited to try this place out but ended up severely disappointed. It was wayyyy too loud in there and my crab legs were nasty. At least the aquarium was neat to look at. :P

9/25/07-Day #5

Mom and Hayden driving one of the Sea Mice

Clayton and Emerson on the lake

This day was our free day. We could do whatever we wanted to do as I had no parks planned. I have always wanted to rent one of the water mice to take out on the lake but just never got around to doing it until this morning. We got fitted for our life vests (which my belly made it a little bit difficult as they is no such thing as a maternity life vest, lol) and then got into our boats. Judy and I rode together and unfortunately got the slowest boat known to man. It was so slow that I was afraid to try and cut in front of the paths of the ferries for fear that my boat wouldn't make the turn fast enough, lol. Mom and Clayton's boats seemed to zoom all around without much effort. I believe that the boat rental staff gave us a slow boat on purpose because they knew that we might kill ourselves out there. It sure didn't make us look too good when we had to have one of the staff come into the lake to help us out. I accidentally pulled the cord that was attached to my vest out of the hole in the boat. It killed our engine immediately as a safety precaution. Judy and I both laughed about being rescued so it wasn't too big of an ordeal. We had a great time anyway.

We putzed around the hotel after eating lunch at Captain Cook's. I had a surprise planned for Mom and Judy at the Garden View Tea Room at the Grand Floridian. This was one of the highlights of the whole trip. We had little tea sandwiches, scones and some yummy desserts to go along with our tea. Everything was excellent and I highly recommend this place to everyone without kiddos. It was a great refuge from the screaming brats that I had encountered oh so many times over the past few days. It was quiet and very relaxing.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, I ordered a surprise dessert for the gals from the Grand Floridian Bakery a week before we left. It was a Cinderella slipper made out of white chocolate and it had the best mousse ever inside. It also had a decadent chocolate mousse boat on the side. I couldn't believe how yummy it was. Gosh, I would give my right arm to have one right now. Mmmmm.....

We had dinner at Ohana and it was pretty good. I didn't totally care for the grilled meats but the potatoes and bread pudding were to die for.

9/26/07-Day #6

Clayton and Emerson on Dumbo

Mom and Hayden on the carousel

E, Mom and H enjoying Mickey ice creams

We started off the day at the Magic Kingdom for LOEMH (Little Ones Extra Magic Hour). Even though it started at 8am, a lot of people showed up for the event. We rode lots of rides in Fantasyland and had some Mickey ice creams just outside of the Tomorrowland Speedway. That was the first time that we used any snack credits. We were always full from our meals so snacks rarely sounded good. While everyone went to ride the Speedway, I secured fast passes for Mom and Clayton to ride Space Mountain. While they headed to lunch at Cosmic Ray's, I ran off to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad to get 3 fast passes for Mom, Clayton and Hayden. That was a lot of walking! They appreciated being able to walk right onto the rides though so it was well worth it. Unfortunately, as soon as my they got onto Big Thunder, it downpoured right on them. They exited the ride so wet that they might as well have jumped in a lake, lol. It rained so hard while they were riding that they couldn't even see. I am soooo glad that Aunt Judy and I sat down outside of a shop in Frontierland before the rain began to fall. Emerson was asleep the whole time so I just covered his stroller with a waterproof table cloth. He never even knew that it rained. Lucky guy.

We left shortly afterward to head back to the hotel. Judy and I grabbed some Dole whip floats on the way out and they were super yummy. Our hotel had a Dole whip dispenser in the food court but you couldn't get the floats there.

Our dinner reservations were at the 50's Prime Time Cafe in MGM so we headed out after naps. Our server was wonderful but the dinner was just okay. We headed out to Fantasmic after that. The show was good and everyone should see it at least once.

The boys and their Grandma Ronda at Fantasmic

9/27/07-Day #7

Hayden tasting different kinds of Coke products at Epcot

Emerson at Club Cool

We slept in a little bit this morning and then headed out to Epcot. One of our missions was to find Dad a Coca-Cola hat and thankfully there was a cool one at Club Cool (sponsored by Coke). We tasted several kinds of Coke products from around the world. I particularly liked a Fanta drink from Mexico that we don't have here. It was a pink fruity drink that tasted pretty good.

After that, we decided to use some more snack credits for some ice cream and then headed on to Figment's Journey Into The Imagination ride. We then headed over to World Showcase and they had alot of their booths up for the Food and Wine Festival. It wasn't supposed to start until the next day but I took advantage of it by trying some sushi from Japan and a cheese plate from Ireland. Yum! We stopped into the Kringla Bakery in Norway and got some schoolbread and lefse (sp?). The schoolbread was to die for. It is a custard filled bread loaf with coconut on top. The lefse was really good too. It's basically a potato bread tortilla that is rolled up with cinnamon, sugar and butter.

Dinner was at Le Cellier. After reading about how awesome this restaurant is and how hard it is to get reservations, I expected a lot from this place. It was just okay. I will go into more detail in my dining report. Anyhow, Emerson got to meet Brother Bear (Hayden was asleep) outside of the restaurant and he was thrilled. He lit up whenever a character would be nearby. It was so cute!

Emerson getting love from Brother Bear in Canada at Epcot

9/28/07-Day #8 (Part 1)

Hayden playing in the kiddie area near the pool

Big E chose not to get wet in the kiddie area, lol

Doesn't this look like a totally thrilled little guy? :)

The volcano pool at the Polynesian

We spent the morning by the pool area since this was our last full day. The kids had a blast playing and we did too. My Mom and Aunt went shopping around the Magic Kingdom and I shopped around our hotel. I ended up buying the kiddos a monorail train set that was way too big to carry home so the hotel took care of shipping it for me. That was wonderful. I also managed to buy my neice Audrey something along with Jasmine (my friend Natascha's daughter). Now I almost have Christmas shopping done. Yay!

9/28/07-Day #8 (part 2)

After shopping, I took Clayton over to the Grand Floridian for a surprise high tea lunch date. We enjoyed the tranquility of the tea room. The tea and food was yummy!

We met back with the rest of the family and once again made the trek to Epcot via the monorail. This time was particularly special though because we got to sit in the front with the monorail driver. It was so cool to see everything from that prespective. The driver was super friendly and gave us all our co-pilot's licenses.

Hayden playing at Innovations in Epcot

Emerson snoozing through Innovations, lol

After goofing around in Innovations, we headed out to the International Gateway towards the Epcot resorts. I gotta say that they are beautiful but they are severely lacking conveniences. The walk from Epcot stunk and the boat ride wouldn't have been any better. Also, neither the Yacht Club or Beach Club offered a food court with counter service. They did have one counter service restaurant but you had to put your name in for ressies and it had a 30 min. wait. Then there was a counter service place outside by the pool but I really wanted to sit inside. It was way to hot. Ugh. It amazes me that I can name an indoor food court in all the Disney resorts, whether it be a value or a deluxe hotel, but there wasn't one available in these hotels. What a crock.

Anywho, we ended up eating outside because we didn't have time for the indoor restaurant's wait. After that, I led everyone up to the dock for a big surprise. I had booked us an Illuminations cruise on the Breathless II. Now mind you, that isn't an easy thing to come by. There is only one of these speed boats in all of Disney World (Breathless I is out of commission). It is extremely difficult to book and I was lucky to have gotten it. It was a bit pricey but oh so worth it. Our wonderful driver was Aaron and he took us for a tour around the boardwalk and MGM before heading back over to Epcot for the show. He was able to make it go fast a few times and we all loved it. Once we got to Epcot, he parked us underneath the International Gateway bridge and we had front seats to Illuminations. There were 5 other boats (pontoons) around us. We felt like such VIPs to have such a wonderful seat. People above the bridge waved at us. Little did I know that 2 of them were our friends Sandy and Sage, lol.

Emerson and Aunt Judy enjoying our Illuminations cruise

The Breathless II

• a 26 foot long mahogany speedboat
• estimated to be worth at least $100K
• Disney acquired it at cost ($40K) to advertise for Hacker-Craft
• Rhett Butler supposedly owned one just like it (so I heard on the Disney boards)

After retuning to the Poly, we met up with Sage and Sandy for a late night swim in the volcano pool. The kids had a blast and didn't go to bed until midnight.

9/29/07-Day #9

We were pretty tired on this last day and just couldn't wait to get home. Unfortunately, our flight was at 7:45pm so we had the whole day to waste. Clayton and I took the kiddos to the Magic Kingdom to do some last minute shopping but it was just too hot and crowded. We ended up having some ice cream and then we got the heck out of there. We had lunch at Captain Cook's in the Poly and then took Magical Express to the airport. Mom and Judy's flight was leaving from a different terminal so we had to say goodbye quickly as we exited the bus to go to ours. This is when everything got ugly.


For starters, I was exhausted. I couldn't hold my eyes open. We got our boarding passes but couldn't check our luggage just yet because we were more than 4 hours early. We waited 45 min. and then Clayton finally got rid of our bags. Orlando Intl. Airport totally stinks. C had to take our bags over to the scales, get it weighed and then put it onto the conveyer himself. Now mind you, this section was not at the same place that you actually check yourself in so you have to lug it yourself. I have never had to do that crap and it really makes me mad that he had to. I wasn't with him because I watching the kiddos elsewhere so he had to lug all 4 huge bags himself. It turns out that my Mom and Aunt also had to do this in their terminal so it wasn't just a Southwest thing. Ugh. So much for service. :(

We had time to burn so we went to Chili's and got us some grub. The kiddos fueled up and had way too much energy for us to deal with. Oh well, at least they could sleep on the plane.

When we got to our terminal I took a nap on the floor while waiting. Once we were able to get in line to board, we kept hearing the Southwest employee talk about Birmingham/Denver. Now hold up, we were booked for a direct flight. Guess what? They decided to load the Birmingham people on our flight and made us stop over in Alabama. I was ticked. It would be one thing if it were an emergency or their plane broke down but come on. I booked a direct flight and that it what I expected. I will be writing them a nasty note and I will never fly with them again due to this. I did not get what I paid for and they acted like it was no big deal. Well guess what, it is!! I have never had an airline change my itinerary just for fun. What a load of crap. It was bad too because of the horrible turbulence near the ground at both airports so we had to experience way more than we should have due to 2 different take-offs. Sheesh.


Anyhow, we arrived in Denver around midnight and Clayton couldn't locate his keys. It was an absolute nightmare. After digging through everything, we finally found them within the next 15 min.. Thank the Lord! We finally made our way home and passed out shortly thereafter.

Well, I this is the conclusion of the trip report (with the exception of our food reviews which will be posted later this week). I hope that you enjoyed it and if you are planning a vacation to the World anytime soon, feel free to email me with questions or suggestions. We will be heading out that way again (hopefully!) next September and we are already booked for the Polynesian. :)

While you are waiting for my epic long Disney trip report...

here is a cute pic of my burgeoning belly at 6 months. :)

FYI-Those hideous curtains are a part of the decor at the Polynesian, lol.

We are *finally* back!!

I have a ton of things to report and pics to post. Bear with me and I will try to write the epic post tonight and get it all uploaded tomorrow. We had a wonderful stay at the Polynesian and we can't imagine staying anywhere else at Disney World now. I hope that you all had a wonderful week. :)

So sorry for the neglect

I just can't seem to bring myself to do anything lately. All I have been concentrating on is our impending vacation. I don't mean to neglect my blog but I cannot seem to find anything to say other than "6 more days to Disney World", lol. This trip will be over-the-top and there won't be another one like this for a long time. Sure we are planning another trip to the World for next year but it won't be anywhere near as extravagant as this one. I just pray that Ingrid stays away from Florida so that we don't have any bad weather conditions to deal with.

Bounceback Vacation for the Logans!!

Like my newest ticker? If you happen to be staying at a Walt Disney World hotel from 8/31-9/28/2007, you will be lucky enough to receive a bounceback vacation offer to come back in 2008 for free dining. You have to be sure to book the package while you are still checked into your hotel. They will not take ressies with the offer after you have already paid your 2007 tab. No exceptions. You have to pay the $200 down payment at the time that you make the ressie and the vacation has to be set between the dates of 8/20-9/27/2008.

We are definitely going to book again while we are down there this month. I am so excited!! Now I get to go through the heck of figuring out which hotel to book and where all we want to eat again. My Mom and Dad will be going too. Yay!! I hope that I can get more family members to go but we will have to wait and see. :)

Boyish Wonder

I took this photo of Hayden, Emerson and Austin back in NC just before we moved. They were playing in the yard behind Britt's On Main (mine and Tracy's favorite lunch spot). There is a tiny pond that always seemed to spark their curiosity. What I wouldn't give to be there right now. I miss having lunch with my favorite gal pal and her sweet little boy. Hayden misses his best friend also. **sigh**

A step ahead of the game...

I just finished addressing and stamping all of my Christmas cards last night. Yes, you have permission to hate me. :P

Roll out the green carpet

This is our backyard as of today. We have 2 berms (raised areas/hills), a sprinkler system, sod, rocks, 3 boulders (moss stone), a drip system and our fence posts. Yay!! The fence should be done tomorrow and that will be it until the Spring. We are going to have 3 aspens planted around the right corner berm and some tall grasses will be added there as well. There will be several pretty purple sage plants against the back fence. The other berm on the left of the bottom photo will have several plants added into the long part of it but we are sure what just yet. Clayton wants some juniper bushes that may just be the right location. The strange squared off area in the left corner of the top photo is pea gravel. It will be where the playground or the fire pit sits. We will figure that out later I guess. Either way, it will have timbers around the pea gravel to keep it from combining with the rocks.

Hopefully it won't be long until the sod intermixes. Rights now it looks like sod bricks because you can see each individual piece, lol.

**The pic is a bit wonky because I had to take it through a screened window.**

Hayden's First Day of Pre-K

Hayden couldn't wait to go back to school this year. He has an awesome teacher and his classroom is very cool. The bottom pic is his teacher. Sorry it looks funny but I had some technical difficulties and took way too long to get the pic. It ended up focusing on the background rather than him and his teacher so I sharpened it alot so that I could post it here. I will have to take a better one this afternoon when I go back to get him.

A Shout Out

I want to wish my cousin Natalie a happy birthday today. She is now 21 and legal. Hope you are having a wonderful day gal!

20 weeks, 6 days along...

Half-Baked

Last Wednesday, I hit the 20 week mark. I can't believe that I am halfway through this surrogacy. Wow, time sure does fly! My belly is definitely noticeable at this point. I have people congratulate me all the time when I am out and about. They always stop and stare at me like a deer caught in headlights when I proceed to tell them that the baby isn't mine, lol. After explaining that the baby is someone else's genetics and will be going home with his biological parents, people seem fascinated. I get lots of questions and so far no one has freaked out on me. I have heard several horror stories about people getting offended and then accusing the surro as a "baby seller". It's crazy how many people do not understand that the baby can be conceived in a petrie dish using the biological parents' sperm/eggs and then transferred into someone other than the biological mother to grow. My job (besides gestating this sweet little one) has been to educate others on the process of gestational surrogacy and to help them understand that the main goal of this procedure is to help a couple become a family with their own biological child/children. The question that I have been asked alot lately is, "Will you do this again?". So far my answer is yes (barring that I have no labor/delivery complications). If my current IPs want to try for a sibling project, I will be on board. If they don't, then I will refer back to CCRM to see if there are any potential couples in line for a gestational surrogate. We shall see. As long as my hubby continues to support my ventures I will be fine. :)

***I will try to get a new belly pic posted later tonight or tomorrow.***

I also wanted to add to today's post that it is my cousin Rachel's 15th birthday. Happy Birthday gal!!

Patio-Mission:Completed!

I just had to personalize it, lol.


We chose to do rounded corners. I think that it looks better than squared off ones.


The weird hole with the wood pieces over it is one of our basement windows. We will have to get a cover for it so that the kiddos don't fall in (or me for that matter, lol).

When I took these photos, the concrete was still wet. It looks as though it had speckles in it because that was how it began to dry. As of 5pm it is mostly dry and the concrete is white like the stairs.

Day 1-Thursday, August 9th

On this day we began the transformation of our backyard desert. I have the greatest landscaper working with us. He works when he says he is going to (I can't say the same for our concrete guy) and he helped us figure out how to cut costs. We can't afford to do everything that we have planned with him but we will be getting the basics taken care of this year. Next Spring, he will come in and do the shrubbery and trees that we want. I can't wait!

Day 2-Friday, August 10th

Our backyard after being weeded

Day 3-Satuday, August 11th

I have no pic for the day but the trenches for the underground sprinkler were dug.

Day 4-Sunday, August 12th

The underground sprinkler system was put in.

Day 5-Monday, August 13th

A lot of river rock was spread on one side of our house. The concrete guys set up the framing to pour our patio.

Day 6-Tuesday, August 14th

The rebar was put into the patio framework after the dirt was compacted.

Lots of stuff going on

Man, it is amazing to me how much we have got going on around here. I had a consult with a landscaper and concrete guy yesterday. Clayton and I are getting ready to throw down a lot of money all at once and it is about to make us sick to our stomachs, lol. We have to do something about our barren backyard though. It is an overgrown weed patch at this point. I had originally sat down with the landscaper and had all of our plans put down on paper but it turns out that we got in over our heads. The concrete guy costs twice as much as one back home to pour our patio. That really sucks. My uncle (who is a contractor back in NC) said that the quoted price for our patio was high but it may just be due to location. It's kinda like buying bread in one state can be dirt cheap and super expensive in another. Dang it. We did look at another guy but his prices were even higher so we stuck with the first guy. No stamped concrete for us though, sigh. We are going to get a basic concrete patio, underground sprinkler system, sod, river rock (for the boundaries), and a fence. Due to severe sticker shock from the patio, we are going to hold off on doing the play area and decorative plants until next year. The play area will be a 20x24ft. area marked with timbers and filled with smooth tiny pebbles. Considering how close we are to the end of warm weather here in CO, that will be fine. We can wait until next Spring.

I am so excited to say that I got Hayden into an awesome preschool. He will be going to one that is held at the local elementary school for, get this, FREE. Yea, I can't believe it either. After paying tuition for him the past 2 years, this is definitely going to be a treat. The state of CO offers the program and Hayden miraculously got accepted. Yay!! He will go 4 days a week from 12:15-3:15pm. Emerson will be going to a different school since he isn't old enough to go to the same one as Hayden. He has afternoon pre-k also so we will get to sleep in everyday. It can't get any better than that!

I am beginning to pack for our upcoming trip. I know I am insane but I just can't wait. Only 44 more days to go!

Tuckered Out

Poor E was so tired on Sunday that he just passed out in the recliner. I guess that's what happens when we try to make him skip his usual 3 hour afternoon nap, lol.