Christmas Card Picture time

Don't you just love trying to get the "perfect" Christmas card picture? I don't understand why kids don't respond well to, "If you don't have a perfect smile for this picture, I am going to spank you!" I feel that is pretty easy to understand?!?

Halloween

We had our first Fall Festival at Anna's school. She was Tinkerbell, and Andrew was Boba Fett. At our next Fall Festival at church, Anna was Snow White. I wonder who she will be for Halloween. Isn't it great to be a kid. I was a bat at the school Fall Festival. Sorry no picture to show!

A couple of weekends ago we headed up to Nashville for the weekend to Dan's brother's house. His grandmother, Mrs. Nancy, aunt, uncle, mom, and dad all met us there. We had a great time with lots of good memories!

Thursday, October 2

We wake up and check out of the hotel, leave our stuff in the car, and catch the bus to Epcot. Epcot bores me, but Dan likes it. Anna and I looked for characters and Dan and Andrew ride rides. We eat at Liberty Inn which was very good. We head back to the Lodge around 4:00 to go check into the Hilton at Downtown Disney. We get in the car and Anna starts crying for Tinkerbell. It is in the backpack, and the backpack is on the BUS! We go and report it missing, check into the Hilton, and walk to Downtown Disney. We buy Andrew his lego watch, and Anna a sucker and little princess dolls. We spend our remaining snack credits at Goofy's Candy Shop which will become a new tradition! We go back to the hotel and swim. The water feels so warm! We go to sleep. We leave at 7:30 and drive all the way home-14 hours! The kids did great.

Now, the great debate to stay on or off Disney property. Hands down if you can afford to stay at a deluxe hotel on property, it is the best way to go. In our opinion, it becomes highly debatable which it better the off site hotels verses the moderate/value hotels! There's good and bad to both. The hotels off site are much nicer and much cheaper, but the convenience of being on Disney property is HUGE!

Overall, we had a fantastic time. We are already planning on when we can go back. The best part was being just the four of us! We had so much fun, and we loved the Wilderness Lodge!!! Thanks for reading!

Wednesday, Oct. 1 - Magic Kingdom

We sleep as late as we want to, but still are at the park by 10:00. We leave the Lodge and take the boat to the Contemporary. We then ride in the front car of the monorail to Magic Kingdom. Another one of my top 10 things to do. After entering the Magic Kingdom, we hop on the street car to take us to the castle. They have a singing group as our "radio." Anna is fascinated by them, and Andrew becomes obsessed with the map and telling us where to go. I have a rule that everyday when we enter the park we will take a family photo, and yes, I did coordinate our clothes for everyday that we were there! That is a lot of work!

We do all things we didn't do on Monday and some of our favorites. One of my favorites is the people mover. We then head to lunch at the castle. Can't say I was too impressed. Felt rushed the entire time and the princesses didn't spend much time with you and weren't as personable like they did at the character spot. The food was good. I did like that better then the breakfast, but they no longer do the wishing ceremony with the Fairy Godmother which was one of my favorite things. Anna was disappointed that Cinderella didn't come upstairs. I should have prepared her for that. But Snow White was there, so that was a huge plus! We then went to Storytime with Belle. That was wonderful. Andrew go to play the part of Belle's dad. Anna has come home and played this out all day! Anna and Dan went and found characters while Andrew and I rode rides. There were so many kids there with Make-A-Wish t-shirts on. It make me so thankful for my healthy kids.

Anna and I watched the parade (another one of my top 10s) and the boys went and rode rides. We then watched the show in front of the castle. Another favs! Then we hoped on the boat and headed back to the Lodge. Anna wants a boat. We all went swimming. Ate at the Lodge hoped back on the boat to go to the MK for the night time parade and fireworks. Again two favorites. I have learned to ask Cast members what to do. So I walked up to a cast member and asked the best/fastest place to go. He said follow me and took us to the VIP spot where we watched the parade!!! Then we saw the fireworks and headed back to the hotel!

Tuesday, September 30 - Hollywood Studios (MGM)

We let each child pick one character meal. We have not been too impressed with character meals. Andrew wanted to eat with Stitch, so Tuesday morning to hop on the boat to the Contemporary and then the monorail to the Polynesian and eat breakfast with Stitch. Much to my surprise it was really good. They gave us each pink leis. Stitch, Lilo, Mickey, and Pluto were all there, and the food was really good ~ fruit, Mickey Mouse pancakes, bacon, eggs, sausage. We decorated our strollers with the leis and they were so easy to find after that, and we got lots of comments about them. You couldn't miss the strollers which was a big help! We hoped on the bus and head to MGM. The only two things Andrew wanted to do at Disney was build your on light saber and Jedi Training. So as soon as we got to the park we head straight for Jedi Training. We had a good hour before the show started so Andrew and Dan went and rode Star Tours, and Anna and I stood in the front of the stage saving a spot for Andrew to be picked. We were almost the first ones there and Andrew was in his Star Wars shirt. I had done research on how to be the ones picked from the audience. We are there for about an hour before the show starts. Then they start picking kids to come up at random, some kids that just show up. Andrew doesn't get picked, we are all crushed. He starts to tear up and we ask him if he wants to leave, and he says yes. We take him into the store to buy the $55 Jedi Robe to help improve his chances of being picked. He says he doesn't want it. We go to Little Mermaid. We each pray with Andrew. Anna and I go see the show and Dan and Andrew go back to stand in line for the next show. As I am sitting in Little Mermaid, God convicts me of something. I have been telling Andrew that Disney is magical and makes all your dreams come true. And I told him I would do whatever it took to get him in Jedi Training, and the hard lesson I learned from God and my precious baby's expense is that only God is in control. And He alone is the only One with any power. WOW! Anna and I make it back to Jedi Training just in time to see Andrew go up on stage. He does fantastic and loves it. Anna is scared of Darth Vader, so I leave with her, and don't get to see much. When Andrew comes down, I tell him I am sorry I told him mommy could get him into Jedi Training and that Disney makes all your dreams come true, because it is really only God that can do that. He says, I already know that Mommy!



So then we head to the Muppet's. They have a new parade called block party. No one thought is was that good, but Anna had a blast! She wanted to Hola Hoop and Andrew didn't, so she went out there by herself. Something I never would have thought she would do! She even made friends with one of the workers, who later snuck us in to see Buzz and Woody! We rode the new Toy Story Mania, and everyone loved it! Andrew really wanted to build another light saber, so we let him if he would share one with Anna. We then headed over to Ft. Wilderness thinking there would be great things to do. Not impressed! Saw the horses and walked back to the Lodge where we ate dinner outside! Then the girls swam and the boys went to the arcade. All Anna wanted to do was swim. We made it back to the hotel that night in time to see the Magic Kingdom fireworks from our balcony!

Monday, September 29 - Magic Kingdom

We wake up and I get everyone moving as quickly as I can so we can make it to the Opening Ceremonies at Magic Kingdom. This is one of my Top 10 Favorite things. We hop on the boat and are there in no time. And the boat is the closest transportation drop-off to the main gate. We get to see the opening show! We see Stitch and don't even have autograph books yet! Both become big fans of Stitch the rest of the trip. After seeing Stitch we go buy autograph books and ride Buzz and then head to Fantasy land. We run into the Fairy Godmother, throw on the Cinderella dress and go see her. We find characters and ride the rides, and eat lunch at Pinocchio's. Great place to eat. We then head to Frontier land. We decide to ride Pirates. Andrew is scared and doesn't want to, but Anna keeps telling him some Pirates are good. They play pirates on the playground at school. So half way through the ride, Andrew is laughing and Anna is crying begging to get off the ride. She recovers pretty quickly. She and I head to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and the boys go ride Splash Mountain. She has her makeover, and loves being made up, but said the actual makeover was pretty boring. I would say even as much as it cost, it was worth it. You get the makeup and two bottles of fingernail polish, face stickers, crown, and barrett for $60. We step outside the castle to see the parade. She loves it. The boys meet us there and then to head to the princess character spot. The princesses are so good there, and even get Andrew to take a picture with them. These princesses are much better than the ones at the castle. And Anna who has the most wonderful smile and laugh in the world, but I have never seen the child just smile for the camera, but when that little girl stood with the princesses she had the biggest grin on her face, and a smile I have never seem her do before! The kids are pooped. We could go take pictures are Anna made up, but she doesn't want to, so we get Mickey Mouse ice cream, jump on the boat, and head back to our most relaxing resort. We go swimming, take baths, and head downstairs to eat at Whispering Canyon. Great place to eat, and do a little shopping while waiting for our table. Head upstairs and go to bed.

Sunday, September 28

We start driving to DISNEY WORLD! Six more hours and we will be there! We leave later than we expect, but get there and check into the Wilderness Lodge. Our room faces the Magic Kingdom, and passed the trees you can see the castle! We dropped our stuff and head to Downtown Disney! Number one thing to do is head to Once Upon a Toy and build the light saber. Anna finds a stuffed Tinkerbell she likes immediately. We show her every toy there, but she is stuck on that first Tinkerbell. Of course her father buys it for her. Before we left, I told them they each got one costume and one toy! Now let me chase a rabbit about these costumes. Now I just knew these costumes would be amazing since they are $65, and the ones at Target are $20. Well, my opinion, there is no difference. But none the less, I ask which costume Anna wanted over and over, and she kept telling me she had all of those, and she didn't want the Tinkerbell dress because Tinker belle doesn't wear a dress. So that day we left with a stuffed Tinker belle and the light saber we built which is a fantastic deal. You build it anyway you want which is pretty cool, and it only costs $20! Andrew also finds a Lego watch that has the little Luke Skywalker that he wants. We tell him we will think about it. We can't find a Luke Skywalker costume.

We leave Downtown Disney and catch the bus to the Yacht Club where we know we can walk the Boardwalk to Epcot. Here is the great stroller debate. We have tried and tried to figure out what stroller to take. We love the ones you rent at WDW but they are $41 a day for the double. That seemed like an absorbent amount to spend on a rented stroller. So we bring my Maclaren Volo stroller (that I recommend everyone own this over any kind of stroller), and we borrow Amy's Chicco stroller. Having 2 umbrella strollers could not have worked out better. They were easy on the bus, and great for times like these when we had long distances to walk to get in the park.

So we go do Nemo and Turtle Talk with Crush. They ask Anna a question, and she doesn't say a word. Andrew just sits next to her and rubs her back. So then they ask Andrew his name, and then they come talk to me. You all know how I love to talk on the microphone. So then Andrew and I go ride Soarin'. It was wonderful. We then go eat at the Season's counter service with our meal plan. We only get three meals and all share. We have plenty of food and lots of variety. We head back to the hotel as the fireworks are going off. We go to bed...

Saturday, September 27

We leave Hotel Gigi and Poppy's and drive to Sandestin to spend the night on the beach. The kids do pretty well except Anna has to change clothes two times on the way down! We check into the hotel room, and Dan has surprised the kids with BUNKBEDS! They are pumped. Anna doesn't want to go to Disney, just stay at the beach. We head down to the beach, and there are jelly fish everywhere! You can barely put your toe in the water without touching a jelly fish. I have NEVER seen anything like it, and they are HUGE. Anna is begging to get in. But if you know Anna, we tend to go to the emergency room any time we go out of town. We can only think the worst of what a jelly fish would do to her! Anyway she continues to beg, we say a quick prayer, but her on a raft, and all of a sudden a huge couple of waves come by and completely slam her! She doesn't want in the water anymore. I guess God took care of that! Andrew and Dan boogie board, and Andrew loves it. Anna is now contint to play in the sand. We decide to head to the pool. It is freezing. We try the indoor pool. Still freezing, so we let the kids play and head up for showers. We then put on our pretty white to go take family pictures! No luck, but the kids love playing in the WATER! We go and change clothes again and hope on the shuttle and go to the Wharf right across the street! Kids love it. We eat dinner and head back to hote. Anna hops in the top bunk but Andrew is scared and wants to sleep with us. Anna then decides she is scared and both sleep in the bed and Dan sleeps in the bunk bed! We all sleep...

Friday, September 26

All is calm on the home front. Dan goes to work and the kids and I go to work. I go run a couple of errands, and check Andrew out from school at 1:00. He was pumped! We go home and load the car. Dan comes home and we head out to Hotel Gigi and Poppy. Spend the night!

Thursday, Sept. 25

Happy Birthday, Dan! Sorry we didn't celebrate because I was too busy getting us ready to go to Disney! And he had to go to soccer practice which only 2 people showed up for! And that morning I got a phone call from Andrew's school telling me to come get him. He was about to throw up. I prayed all the way there that it wouldn't interfere with Disney. God answered my prayers, because Andrew was FINE. Just got too hot on the playground.