Long Weekend at Disney

The weekend after MLK we had a three day weekend at school. Jacob had a mandatory work day, so he wasn't able to join us until that afternoon. We decided to leave Kaitlyn at home and enjoy spending time with our big girl. We were visiting WDW with the Pearsons so Renee and I loaded up the girls and all of our luggage and headed to our hotel, Port Orleans French Quarter, on Friday morning. Jacob and Stephen were going to join us that afternoon at the hotel.

We immediately checked in and our rooms were ready. After dropping off the luggage we rode the bus to Animal Kingdom. It was a great day out and we did just a few of our favorite things. We rode the safari, took the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch, and saw the Lion King show. We headed back to the hotel to wait for the dads to arrive and let the girls take a nap.

After their nap we all headed down to the pool and hot tub. We spent some time here and then we were headed to Epcot for the night.

At Epcot we walked around the World Showcase and had dinner. The girls' favorite place was Mexico where they tried on all kinds of sombreros. We ate dinner in Morocco (my favorite) and finished walking the entire World Showcase. We were exhausted and headed back to the hotel to prepare for the Magic Kingdom on Saturday!

On Saturday we got up early and headed to the MK to ride on all our favorite rides. The girls rode the carousel, Peter Pan, It's a Small World, Tom Sawyer's Island, Haunted Mansion, and the train to see Mickey and Minnie's houses. We left around lunch time and headed back to the hotel so we could go to the pool. It was a nice warm day out and we wanted to make sure we had pool time!

The girls loved the pool and Mady especially loved going down the big slide by herself. Jacob would go down first and then wait for her at the bottom. After a few hours at the pool we headed back to the rooms and took naps so that we could see the SpectroMagic parade at MK.

We headed back out to MK for the nightime parade and had a great viewing area, complete with popcorn, soda, and light up Mickeys. After the parade we went to Toon Town to see the princesses and fairies. While we were visiting during the day the wait was almost an hour. This time we waited no more than 15 minutes! It was awesome and the girls loved seeing the princesses and Tinkerbell and friends.

The next day we had breakfast at the Swan and saw Goofy, Pluto, Chip and Dale. We love this breakfast and look forward to it each time we stay at Disney. After breakfast we drove to MGM and caught the Beauty and the Beast Show. There's not much else to do at MGM so we said goodbye to our friends and headed home!

We had a great time at Disney and loved that the weather was warm enough to enjoy the pool. The girls loved being together and riding all the rides and seeing the princesses. We loved spending time with just our big girl and promise to take KK with us so

Brevard Zoo

In January we decided to visit the Brevard Zoo. We've never been there before and being zoo passholders for the Central Florida Zoo, we get in half off! We met up with some friends and enjoyed the day at a real zoo. I didn't have my camera with me this day so I only have a few photos. We hope to go back soon when the weather warms up because they have an awesome splashground.

Mady loved feeding the birds in the aviary. Last time we were at Gatorland she was a bit hesitant. Thanks to Pam and Renee for giving Mady the sticks of food and hanging out with her. It kinda freaks me out to be in close quarters with those pecking birds.

Mady and KK inside the petting area. We saw all kinds of animals in here, including an armadillo you could pick up. Once again, Pam was in charge of picking up the animals for the girls to see.

Kaitlyn taking a break inside the petting area. She just loved to sit and watch the animals. That's the way I like to enjoy a petting zoo!

Mady and Emily loved petting the goats. I can't believe Mady's not afraid of them.

Christmas 2009

I know we are wayyy behind, but better late than never. Over the holidays we made cookies, visited the Grand Floridian, saw the lights in St. Augustine, saw the Rockettes, opened way too many presents from Santa, and hung with our cousins! Here are a few of our favorite photos from the season!

The girls loved decorating the tree. Kaitlyn mainly looked through the ornaments, Mady did a good job of putting them on the lower part of the tree. After the girls went to bed, Jacob and I redistributed the ornaments and made sure all of the fragile ones were up near the top.

We made lots of Christmas cut-out cookies this year. I have an awesome recipe and two years in a row now they've turned out just about as good as Jacob's mom's. Mady loved helping cut out the cookies and had an even better time decorating them. Most of them were loaded with sprinkles, Jacob and I were in charge of putting on the icing.

This year we decided to visit the Grand Floridian at Walt Disney World. They have an amazing gingerbread house and it's neat to see all of the holiday decorations. My plan was to get a picture of the girls in front of the big tree in the lobby or in front of the gingerbread house and use it as our Christmas card photo, but Kaitlyn did not want to participate. This was the only picture of the girls together that day.

We traveled to St. Augustine right before Christmas to see the lights. We rode around town in the red choo-choo and saw the lights in 3D. We also managed to eat at our favorite restaurant while we were in town for the night. Mady loved the lights, but KK grew restless about halfway through.

The day we have been waiting for has finally arrived, Christmas morning! The only thing Mady really wanted was a swing set from Santa. Kaitlyn didn't get much, but the one thing she did get, she loved- a doll house.

After opening all the presents we headed over to Jacob's parent's house where all the cousins were waiting for us. Here is a picture of Mady with her only girl cousin Jillian. There's also a picture of all TEN grandkids. Mady, KK, and Jillian are the only girls!



After Christmas my friend Renee and I decided to take Mady and Emily to see the Rockettes at the UCF Arena. Tickets were buy one, get one free and both girls loved seeing the Rockettes in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. They paid attention the whole time and loved the show.

We had a NYE party at our house and then the following day we took the girls to Monkey Joes for the first time. Up until now Mady has never liked bounce houses, or "blow ups" as she calls them. Now she loves them. We were excited to go since it was rainy out and wanted something to do. KK loved jumping and bouncing and going down the smaller slides!