Magic Kingdom

Here we are starting off at the Magic Kingdom. I took this picture of Alice and the White Rabbit for my SiL Heather. I wish she had been there to make us stop and take a group picture in front of the castle.

We got a good glimpse of what they are adding to Fantasy land -Belle's castle, Ariel's castle and a village area. Scheduled to open fall of this year.

I was the official FPP of our group -Fast Pass Person. I raced ahead to get fast passes for our group, checked times for when the next ones were available, and then raced ahead to get more. It's a system. And if you work it can have a great time and not wait in line. It was also a benefit to have Hallie with us. Some of the rides you could show the handicap pass and walk to the front.

Here's Clay and Jeremy with Evan and Rebekah.

Growing up in southern California, I am much more familiar with Disneyland than WDW. It is always fun for me to see what is different between the two. One of the big things that scared the kids is that Space Mountain is a single-seater ride. They chickened out because they wanted someone sitting next to them. Also it didn't have any music with it. At Disneyland there are speakers in your headrest that blare music that is synced with the ride. On the other hand, Disneyland does not have this cool interactive grave yard in the line for Haunted Mansion. Did you notice that the tea cups have a roof over it? It's a Small World is completely indoors and hard to recognize when walking by. The horses that the girls are riding is NOT King Arthur's Carousel with my favorite lead horse Jingles (I liked the old coloring better), but Prince Charming's.

A treat that night was watching the Electric Parade and the fireworks. An added addition was a projection_show on the castle. Pretty cool stuff.

Florida here we come!!

Our friends the Rosenlunds invited us to go to Walt Disney World with them (twist my arm!). If you haven't guessed yet we do a lot with these guys. Surprising that we don't get sick of each other. But I guess this is the ultimate test of friendship -sharing a house together for a week on vacation.

We spent all day Saturday driving down to Florida and met them that night. They rented a 7 bedroom house for all of us --5 adults and 7 kids (Jeremy's mom came too). The house had a pool. After church all the kids wanted to go swimming. The pool was on the north side of the house and proved to be a bit cold. As the kids came in shaking and with blue lips I quickly directed them to the front of the house where there was abundant sunshine. It felt so good to just sit and soak in some vitamin D.

Snow Tubing

Emma went snow tubing with her girl scout troop. She had a great time!

More fun stuff

Emma and Rebekah both got some gift certificates from Uncle Mitch and Aunt Jamie. This is what they decided to order. Emma got a blufadoodle webkinz and Rebekah got a mermaid outfit for her doll (she already had one for herself).

Mount Vernon

We went to Mount Vernon with the Rosenlunds during Christmas break. It was a beautiful day for this time of year.

There was camel named Aladdin, and the presidential pardoned turkey was there too.

Clay had fun pushing all the kids around on the stroller. Evan and Rebekah enjoyed hitching a ride with Juliette and Hallie. Emma and Spencer are buddies.

A neat addition was the gingerbread version of Mount Vernon. Check out the detail on the camel and the store house.

Merry Christmas!

You only see this kind of love on Christmas morning. Here are the girls with their gifts from Santa.

Place mats from Gma Murray, magazine and tea set from Aunt Donese, Enchanted game from Aunt Kerry, name plaques from Aunt Allison, purse and bracelets from Uncle Mike & Aunt Heather, chess and matching doll clothes from Grandad & Gma Kris

Christmas Eve

We had a big Christmas Eve dinner by ourselves. Honey-baked ham, divine potatoes, whole wheat rolls, salad, broccoli, and Welch's sparkling grape juice. Everything turned out great. And the best part is that we will have leftovers for a few days so I too can take a break from cooking.

After dinner we made hot cocoa with marshmallows and whip cream and watched The Polar Express before putting the girls to bed. Hot chocolate really makes me sleepy. It works great on the girls too. Straight to bed with no complaining, and they fall asleep quickly.