Magic Kingdom day 2

We had a lot of fun the second day in the Magic Kingdom.  It really is so magical, I just love it. we just did more rides and enjoyed having fun with eachother.

We got McKenna and Graysen some Minnie and Mickey mouse ears with their names on them, they were so happy! I just couldn't resist they were just too cute.
Grandma and Grandpa also took them to pick out a special toy from the Disney store and McKenna got a kitty (what, who would have guessed that,) and Graysen got a Pluto dog.  They wanted to take them everywhere after that. It was cute that Graysen got Pluto because we got a picture and autograph from him while we were there.

The electric parade was that night so we went back to the hotel and had dinner and relaxed and then came back for the parade.  It was so awesome to see.  Graysen unfortunately didn't even make it pass the waiting before he was out cold in the stroller.   Let me tell you though, if you are at Disney World with a front row spot saved for your family, you will be surprised at how little space you actually have when the parade starts.  We had this big old spot saved for all our family and people just kept encroaching and soon we were reduced to sitting almost on top of each other.  Some even tried to sit in front of us which we put an end to right away.  We didn't stake out the spots and wait forever just so someone could just plop down right in front of us.

Anyway, it was worth it because we had a great view and the kids were just mesmerized. There was a really cool show on the castle as well afterwards, with music and different images projected onto the castle.  It was so sweet to see Travis holding McKenna and just watching it together.   It doesn't get much better than that, unless of course I could have done something about all the rude people around me like the person who kept shining their stupid phone video light right in everyone's face when they were watching the show, but hey the rudeness of people and how people act in public places is a whole other blog post.

The kids were just exhausted though after such a long fun day.  I loved how they fell asleep on eachother on the monorail. Poor girls couldn't keep their eyes open.

Bottom line, the kids had an awesome day, as did I.  I love DisneyWorld and I am sad it is over :(  It always goes by too fast when you are having fun, and I am so glad I got to share this special experience with my little fam and of course my parents and siblings with their kids.  Here are all the cute grand kids minus Lincoln which I am not sure where he was, and of course Jackson, Callie and Ryan who couldn't be there and whom we missed lots.

Downtown Disney

Travis and I got to go on a little date to Downtown Disney, thanks to Abbey cause she watched the kids for us.  It was really nice to be able to spend some time together without the kids.

It was really cool just to walk around and look in all the stores and see the waterfront and listen to all the cool bands play outside.  We went into the Circe de Sole store and the planet Hollywood store, and lots of other cool places.

There was this candy store that we went into and we each got a little treat and ate it as we walked around.  I got a chocolate covered s'mores, it was soo good!
I had fun just being with my handsome hubby.

Magic Kingdom

We had to do two days in the Magic Kingdom to be able to get to everything that we wanted to do, and we still didn't see it all.  It truly was a magical place though.  The kids were just in awe of everything and so excited to go on rides and see all the characters around.

We immediately headed for the back of the park to hit up the buzz light year ride.  It was really cool, and the kids were all excited about shooting all the bad guys and being in the dark with all this glowing stuff.
After that there was the monster's inc show which was really funny, and they rode on the big spaceship and we went on the people watcher which was cool. We had lunch and just hung out for a little bit.
The Adults and some of the older kids went to space mountain which is so fun, some of us even had to go back a second time.
 We went on Its a small world and Dumbo, and lots of other fun rides.  It is impossible to include them all, but the kids had so much fun, and this was by far their favorite park.

 We went back to the hotel, but then came back for the fireworks show and we saw Tinkerbell fly down from the castle too.  It was so cool to see the castle all lit up at night and the fireworks.  McKenna and I just went with my parents, but she loved it and I was really surprised she stayed awake the whole time.

 We had such a fun day, busy, but fun! The kids crashed of course right when we got home and slept in, so it was good they got a lot of sleep.

Animal Kingdom

We kicked off our Disney World trip by sleeping in since we were all exhausted from traveling and such the day before.  It is a catch twenty two though because even though it is nice to sleep in, we also wanted to get up and get going so we could be at the park as long as possible. The kids needed to sleep though so that is more important :)
Thankfully we weren't the only ones who wanted to sleep in, so we went to the animal kingdom with Abbey and Trevor and Lindsay and Brandon.  The rest of the family headed out earlier so us slow polks got ready and went to meet up with them there.
There wasn't a lot of rides at the Animal kingdom for little kids, however there was a lot of cool things to see and do so it ended up  being a lot of fun.

We went on the Safari ride which was really neat because we got to see a ton of animals up close that you don't normally get to see.  There were hippos and Giraffes, lions, antelope, rhinos, and lots of other things that I don't know the names of.  The kids loved it, so we were happy.

There was a petting zoo that we went to wear you had to ride the train to get there, so it took a while and in my opinion was not worth it, but the kids had fun so that is what really matters right? It was fun for them to be able to brush the animals and touch them....even though I was secretly ripping my hair out :)

We adults had some fun too, we got to ride on this really wet ride, I don't remember what is was called, but we got soaked!  It was a nice way to cool off though since it was very hot.
In Dino land, the kids got to go on a couple of rides over and over again, and we also took them to see "Finding Nemo" the musical which they were mesmerized by.

Miss McKenna sure was a brave soul.  She went on Everest with us which was a huge roller coaster that goes backwards and was in the dark. It was so much fun! It was probably one of my favorite rides.  She was scared but said she liked it. It was really nice because she could go on pretty much any ride.  It was fun to be able to take her on all the big fun roller coasters with us.  It was a lot of trading off with kids so we could go on rides, but the first day in Disney land was not too shabby.
We had a lot of fun and the kids were exhausted when we got back to the hotel. They were soo good though and loved spending time with their cousins and aunts and uncles and grandma and grandpa, and I loved being with my family too!

The happiest place on earth is also the most tiring!

Well, we survived a week long trip in Disney World and Florida, but I think we will need a vacation to recover from it :) It was so much fun, but we are all exhausted!
We had been talking about going to Disney World for almost a year so I think when we told them it was finally time to go I think they weren't quite sure it was actually happening.  Once they realized it was though, they were so excited and couldn't wait.
We had a very long traveling day going there and coming back. When we left, we woke up at 3:30am to get ready to go and then headed to the airport about 4 in order to catch our flight at 625am.  The kids were pretty awake though and really excited we were finally going.  We had to fly from PDX to Newark NJ which was a pretty long flight.  The kids fell asleep though which was nice, after all they had been up before the crack of dawn.

The cool thing though was we got to see NYC, the empire state building and the statue of liberty as we flew into the airport.   We had a 3 hour layover there which was a nice little break from flying and then we hopped on a short flight to Orlando.

 We had to drive about 45 min to get to the hotel.  We stayed at the Holiday Inn vacations at Orange lake Resort.  It was really nice.  There was a mini kitchen so we could make food instead of eating out all the time.  Our room looked over the pool which was so pretty and really nice.  We had to share a room, but at least the kids had their own bed :)
We got in last out of everyone in the family, so it was pretty much time for bed when we got there.  It was so nice to see everyone though.  The kids were so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa and Aunts and Uncles, but all the cousins were already asleep so that had to wait for another day.
It was a long day of traveling, but we are so happy to be in Orlando with all my family and were so excited to go to Disney World.
I think I will do a different post for each day we do that way I am not trying to cram it all at once, Day one was pretty uneventful, just traveling, but definitely full of anticipation and excitement for what awaited us once we arrived.

Tulip Festival

After last years trip to the tulip festival, I was really excited to go this time since it was nice weather (gasp) and not raining. We went with some friends and it was really pretty and the kids had a blast.

They Loved playing with all the fun toys and swings and playing with their friends.

 I let them the each pick a flower that we paid for and unfortunately they picked them faster than I could tell them the right way to do it So they only picked off the top part and not the Whole stem. They also weren't the best flowers but they had fun and they loved their flower so I guess doesn't really matter what it looked like.

We wrote the little cart thing over to the tulip fields and They got to play in a Wooden shoes and see all the pretty flowers and then we went back and played a little bit more before we left.

 Tulips are my mom's favorite flowers so seeing all of them really made me miss her.  She would have loved to see all these beautiful tulips, but at least I have pictures to show her right.
Anyway, we had a fun time and it was really pretty.

Easter Weekend

So this Easter was really fun this year since Graysen is older and know's what is going on and can really get into it.  We dyed Easter eggs earlier in the week which the kids thought was the coolest thing.  They had these roller things that looked like the paint rollers with paint and they got to decorate their eggs with them.  It was fun to see how they colored them all.  We had a movie night after and watched "The Rise of the Guardian's" after which is such a cute movie.

Easter Sunday the kids woke up and looked for their baskets that were hidden.  When they found them it was so fun to see their faces as they looked through all the loot they received. They would take everything out, put it back in and then take it out and look at it over and over again.  They were just so cute!

I got them all ready for church in their new Easter Outfits and then we headed to church where I actually got to speak.  It was a nice service though and it is good to be able to remember our Savior despite all the fun things that accompany this holiday.

We went over to our good friends house for a delicious steak dinner with the missionaries too.  It was fun to be with other people on Easter instead of just by ourselves.  One of the missionaries had a bunny outfit and put it on to surprise the kids with in the backyard.  We hid Easter eggs all over the yard and he was there to show them what he brought for them.
It was the funniest thing.  As you can see from pictures the Easter bunny was kind of creepy....his eyes were lopsided and he had lost his tail.  Graysen took one look at him and was like "I am scared mom, I want you" and he had me hold him the entire time the bunny was there.  Bailey who is only about 20 months was really scared of the bunny too so they didn't want to get down and look for eggs.  McKenna thought the Easter bunny was so cool and her and her little friend Tucker went all around the yard picking up eggs.  The Easter bunny left and Graysen finally got down to get some eggs.  I felt bad he was scared, but the Easter bunny was just so funny...good times.

It was fun seeing them get all the eggs though and have a good time.  Graysen was really scared of the Easter bunny last year too, and I don't blame him.  I think I might have scarred him for life as far as the Easter bunny is concerned...looking on the bright side I can always tell Graysen if he is acting up that the Easter bunny will come see him, that might whip him into shape :)

We had a fun time and I am glad that we were able to still remember our Savior and that he was resurrected so that we could live again.  I try to instill in my children that even though there are lots of fun things to do around these Holidays, that we have to remember the most important thing, and that is Christ.  I hope it sticks with them.  I am so excited that we will be able to be Resurrected so that I can be with my family forever.