Vacation - Day One

Can you spot any early morning hair? I had the girls sleep in their clothes so that I could just pick them up at 6 am, put them in their car seats and speed away to the airport. It worked, but I didn't do their hair until we were past security at the airport. That meant a picture like this snuck through! (We did find time to stop for my coffee, however!)

After we fixed their hair, the girls spent the remainder of the time watching airplanes take off and land. As you can see, they were enthralled. Their first time flying was going to be exciting!

We got to board early since we had a small child! Woo hoo!!!

I think that's excitement on Ella's face! We were FINALLY heading to Disney World.

I think this crew was excited, too!

I know this little gal was getting anxious! There were many things to look forward to these last few months, and now she just wanted to be there! Gracie and Ella were excellent flyers. We had packed some activity books, snacks, and the Ipod and we landed before we got to do very much. Ella was fearful at take off and landing, but all I had to do was put my arm on her legs and she felt better.

Our first image of Mickey in the Orlando Airport.

After we ate a quick lunch and got settled at our hotel, we headed straight for The Magic Kingdom. It was definitely an impressive sight. Ella fell asleep on the bus that shuttled us, so she missed the initial excitement.

When we made our way through Main Street Disney and rounded the corner to Cinderella's Castle, we found this expression on Gracie's face. Her princess friends were on stage performing. You couldn't ask for a better welcome than that!

I took a better picture of the castle the next day, but this one shows the mobs of people. Oh, the crowds! Oh, the heat!

This was the show we got to see as we approached Cinderella's Castle.

Ella missed the whole thing.

Gracie missed nothing, however! She had a great view thanks to her daddy. I love this sequence of photos. They show exactly how excited Gracie was during the princess show that ended with fireworks above the castle.

Papa and Nana made this trip possible for us all. A big thanks to them!

Our first stop was Tomorrowland. Gracie rode quite a few rides, Ella continued her nap and we all tried to get used to the extreme heat. Air-conditioned shows were a big hit the first day!

Ella finally woke up just in time to meet...

Pluto!!! He put his arm around Ella and patted her back. She was a little shocked at first, but quickly got excited. At this point she didn't even realize we were at Disney World. She was asleep upon our arrival, so this was all a shock.

Ella wanted to ride something, so we crossed over into Fantasyland so that Ella could ride the Tea Cups. She thought it would be fun, but quickly changed her mind.

Once the cup started spinning, Ella was no longer a fan of the Tea Cup ride.

Do you know whose chair they are sitting in? The one and only Minnie Mouse. Toontown had a replica of Minnie Mouse's house. Very cute!

Another chair in Minnie's house! Too bad Minnie wasn't home today.

We stopped at a vendor's stand and bought Gracie some Minnie Mouse ears and Ella a Minnie Mouse hat. Gracie also needed an autograph book so that if we ran into any famous characters, they could sign her book.

We ate supper at Tony's which is supposed to be reminiscent of the restaurant in "Lady and the Tramp." I had the spaghetti which just happened to be the best spaghetti I have ever eaten! No wonder Lady and the Tramp enjoyed it so much.

A window by our table in the restaurant.

Gracie still has a very empty smile. Let's just say that corn-on-the-cob has been a little tricky for her this summer.

Our reservations were for 8:30 pm which was horribly late, but it was also perfect for watching the Electric Parade which went right by the restaurant. Gracie sat in the big windows and ate supper while watching the parade go by.

I'm only going to post one picture of the parade because they just don't do it justice. However, this will give you a feel for the parade. Many Disney characters were inside these floats. We saw Tinkerbell, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, and Mickey and Minnie just to name a few.

We headed back to our hotel after watching the fireworks above the castle and riding Space Mountain. We were one tired group of travelers!

Uncle Robert and Aunt Deena's Awesome Pool

We started our vacation today by heading to St. Louis to spend the night at Brent's uncle and aunt's house. We were flying out of St. Louis and had to be at the airport at 6:30 a.m.so it made sense to spend the night. A few years ago Robert and Deena added this gorgeous pool/waterfall/fish pond and marvelously landscaped scene in their backyard. Every time we visit it just keeps getting prettier and prettier.

Deena said that a friend told her the color of your hydrangea is determined by the PH in your soil, and she has multi-colored bushes. They are so pretty and very unique!

I was just playing with a different setting on my camera for some of these flower shots.

Ella has become somewhat famous for her winking abilities. It's always cute to see a child learn this trick, but for some reason she has a whole facial "thing" that happens when she is winking, and it is hysterical. I tried to capture it in this photo, but you just can't fully appreciate it here.

What a little cutie! Ella loves to swim and really enjoyed all of Uncle Robert and Aunt Deena's fun toys.

Gracie got very brave and started swimming with only floaties on her arms, and then she started diving off the side of the pool. She is turning into an excellent swimmer considering she has never had lessons.

Uncle Robert must have been giving Gracie some pointers!

Swim Ella, swim!

Deena fixed us an awesome supper: steak, roasted vegetables, salad with homemade dressing and for dessert...Creme Brulee. We were swimming and Robert told Gracie, "Aunt Deena made Creme Brulee for dessert." Gracie got excited and replied with, "Yea!!!!" Uncle Robert asked, "Have you ever had Creme Brulee?" And Gracie said, "Nooooooo." It was pretty funny. She knew it must be special, and she was right. It was delicious! She ate every bite. Thank you Robert and Deena!!!!

Oh My Goodness...500!!!!

"500 what?", you might be asking yourself. Well a few weeks ago I noticed that I was rapidly approaching my 500th post. It seems impossible that I have had 500 things to blog about during the last 3 years. Some of the posts were about nothing of any great importance, but this blog has started to become something of a memory book for our family. We will always be able to look back at it and remember when we did this or that. I'm not sure who even reads it anymore, and it doesn't matter. I do it mostly for our extended family since none of them live in Macon and also for myself. I may not have time to ever complete fancy scrapbooks for my kids, but we will have at least the last 3 years documented. So for now I am caught up, but not for long. Stay tuned for an obscene number of pictures from our trip to Disney World!

Fourth of July 2010

Gracie was totally thrilled to be celebrating the 4th of July. Not because she has a good grasp on what it's all about, but because it meant we would be seeing some great fireworks.

Silly goof! I guess I can't complain since she usually behaves nicely for the camera. Now her sister on the other hand...

Dad decided to kick back and relax during dessert. Mom's yummy strawberry pie is sooo good in the summer.

Our littlest firecracker! Ella has a very explosive temperament from time to time.

Who taught Ella to behave this poorly for the camera? All I wanted was one nice smiley picture.

She was looking at everyone like, "Are you guys getting a kick out of this?"

Everyone got to use one of Gracie's sparklers. Nana liked hers!

Ella did not like hers. We couldn't ever get her to light it. She's quite timid around fireworks of any kind!

Nana Kaser is always a good sport and she enjoyed her sparkler, too!

Poor Ella was exhausted from being terrified of fireworks. This was taken after we got back from Moberly's display at the park. I ended up going to the van with her because they were disturbing her so greatly. After they ended we headed back to my parent's house to pick up our things and their neighbors were doing some very big and loud fireworks that got her worked up again. Nana was good at calming her down in the rocking chair.

Ella's not asleep, she just squeezed her eyes shut when the fireworks got too loud.

Cherish the Moment

This morning the girls pulled the couch cushions onto the floor and sat as close as possible to each other to watch cartoons. These moments are wonderful, and we are fortunate to see our girls loving on each other a lot throughout the day. However, when they turn on each other, it is so ugly it scares me! So therefore, I try to cherish each sweet little moment they have with each other and now I am documenting it so that when Gracie is 16 and Ella is 12 they will remember they did used to like each other! (Hopefully they never reach the stage where they totally dislike each other, but just in case I'll keep posting random acts of kindness!)