The little pig with the stick house

McKenna's class put on little skits at school for all the parents to come and watch.  They actually wrote their own scripts based off the story and figured out the characters and everything. They had to add some new characters since there were more of them then the story.
McKenna's group did the story of the three little pigs.  McKenna was the pig who made his house out of sticks.  Their story added a woman who sold them their materials to build their houses.  Well the Hay and the Sticks were free, but the bricks cost a dollar because they were so strong.

It was so fun to watch them act out these skits and to see how creative they were.  It is such a good way for them to get use to talking in front of groups and speaking loud and clear.  It was such a great learning experience for them.
I was also volunteering in her class so I wasn't able to get too many pictures, but at least I got some.  I love my little piggy, she did such a good job, I am really proud of her.

Jacksonville

While we were in Florida going to Disney World, we also had the special experience and privilege of seeing our niece Keara get baptized.  It was really wonderful to be able to be there on such a momentous and special day in her life.  She looked so pretty in her white dress.  She is the first Grandchild to be baptized, so it was extra special.

I was so proud of her that she decided to make the decision to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  It was so neat to have mostly everyone in our family there.  What a neat experience for all the younger kids as well to get to see one of their cousins get baptized and for them to hopefully want to follow in their footsteps.
McKenna I know is looking forward to the day she can be baptized, and I am excited for that day too, but I am OK that she has not reached that point yet :)

It was fun spending time at my sisters gorgeous house and to be able to just hang out and let the kids all play together.    There was a little lake in the back of Annie's house which the kids liked to play in.  I thought this was so cute that Grandma was out there with the grand kids, and I don't know what Graysen found but it looks like he was having fun so as long as he didn't fall in I was okay.

Aside from almost dropping my phone in the lake because someone told me there was a spider on me...It was a very pretty lake and it was fun sitting out there talking and being together and watching the kids have fun.
 It is a really pretty area and I am glad I got to see it and be there with everyone. Just some of us hanging out.

Hollywood Studios

Today was kind of a low key day.  We hit up Hollywood studios, but there wasn't much to do for little kids, so we just kind of walked around.  It was so hot though so we tried to stay in the shade as much as possible.  The kids were so good and just made the most of it by just sitting around and playing with bubbles or playing rock paper scissors. They were troopers.

 We saw the Beauty and the Beast show there which the kids really liked, and the adults went on the Tower of Terror which was really fun.  You can't really see the picture that great, but we are in the upper right corner.

Mostly it was a lot of waiting around, but it was fun just being together.

We took the kids back early and swam in the pool and played.  It was kind of nice not to be gone the whole day doing stuff. We also went to a restaurant called Island Breeze which was really good and it was nice to go to a nice restaurant. Just some of the gang.

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!