Disney Day 2,3,4

These were fun days! We were getting a little more lonely without Luke, but not to fear- he arrived the afternoon of day 4 and we were SUPER excited!!! Day2, we went to the Animal Kingdom, Day 3, Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Day 4- Hollywood Studios

Getting ready for the Safari ride- super cool, almost like we were in the middle of the African Desert. We saw Elephants, rhinos, alligators, lions, tigers, Gorillas, and a variety or other animals I have never heard of before.....

Ava was glued the whole time. When we saw the elephants she said "look, a duck!" (there were little birds by the bus!)- a little anticlimactic for her I guess :)

One of the 30 bus rides we took to and from the parks during our stay...

Ava's favorite ride..... The carousel! Seriously, I guess we don't need to go to Disney anymore, we can just go to the Southtowne mall...

Ava loved loved loved the parades. We braved the heat and got some SWEET spots for this parade and so many characters came up to her and gave her 5, she was super excited!

Waiting for Fantasmic! Our favorite Disney show by far

Who knew the little tiny snails would provide more entertainment in 20 minutes that 3 days at the disney parks!

I have no idea what this character is doing :)

Ready for the day with daddy

Toy Story Mania

Honey I shrunk the kids playground- it was just like the movie set! We managed to lose Ava once and I seriously thought I would never see her again! It was super tense, but then she magicaly reappeared coming out of the spider net

Playing and posing on the rocks

Had to get one of these pics....

In the sharks mouth outside of Finding Nemo

Family Pic with Mickey

Ava pic with Pluto- we totally lucked out during extra magic hours at Epcot. Only resort guests could stay and play for three more hours and we found this character spot with pluto, goofy, mickey, minnie, and donald. We didn't have to wait too long and Ava got pics with all of them. She wasn't scared or shy one bit!

Beach Day 5

Saturday we rented Tahoes (free upgrade!) and drove 45 minutes to Cocoa Beach. The water was 80 degress and we rented a beach umbrella and some beach chairs and had the funnest time! Ava has no fear of water (good and bad) and the whole 2-3 hrs was spent taking turns making sure she didn't drowned! We also had a successful shopping stop at Ron Johns Surf Shop :) After we played, Ava passed out from exhaustion and we had a yummy seafood dinner on the end of the pier. On our drive back we went out to the Kennedy Space Center. It was closed, but we got to see a few sweet things.

ps- we all got majorlly sunburned thanks to the misting sunscreen that totally malfuncitoned and didn't provide any protection! Luckily I had lathered Ava up with some other stuff that morning or it would have been a super painful few days for her too!

Disney day 6-8 and home

Pretty much after Sunday, it rained all day Monday and Tuesday until we went home :( We spent a lot of time in our ponchos and took a break from the parks all day Sunday and Monday night. We ate at a great seafood place Monday night and Jeff accidentally ordered a full lobster- it was funny to watch his reaction! Monday we did Magic Kingdom (we did this park the most because it had so much for Ava) and Tuesday we were going to to Epcot during the morning before we needed to catch our flight, but it was raining so we just did Downtown Disney. We had some great lunch at Wolfgang Puck's and did some last minute shopping :)

Rafiki- I think..... I was amazed she wasn't scared of These two characters because she doesn't even know who they are....

Hot husband and cute daughter!

Parade- again!

Seriously!? She fell asleep during a downpour in her stoller wearing a poncho!

The drowned rats on the Monorail....

The only picture that turned our while swimming at the hotel. It was a great great pool! Ava couldn't have loved swimming more

So super tired after swimming..... I know- my 2.5 year old still sleeps with a binky! Don't judge me too harshly..... I just need her to keep napping and sleeping well during the summer for her babysitter- then I will take it away.... probably....

Tuesday downpour

Waiting for our flight

Post Under Construction....

Post Under construction……

Will be completed November 2009


PS- sorry to any of you who I may have had to lie to, to keep our super secret secret :)

Disney World Day 1

We had a super great time on vacation! There were so many priceless moments, especially with Ava. It was like a dream world for her. It was so nice to get away from everyday life and to "relax" for a week. We ate some great food and spent some fun quality family time together. Thanks everyone for the fun times!!!

Day 1- well, actually day 2. Day 1 we spent flying to Orlando and finding a place to eat at Downtown Disney. We ended up eating at T-REX, it was fun. They have huge moveable dinosaurs much as the Rainforest Cafe has computerized rainforest animals. So Day 2 we spent at the Magic Kingdom. It is super similar, if not mostly the same as Disneyland, but it is better because it is more spread out so you don't touch other people as you're walking, and all paths connect so you never reach dead ends! We were so happy they had the Country Bear Jamboree, it's been so long since we have seen it because it left Disneyland and it totally took me back to my Disneyland childhood days :)

Getting ready to see Mickey...

Before going on Pirates. She wasn't scared, just blinded. She loved Pirates, I think we ended up going on it 3-4 times! It's not as long or as detailed as Disneyland, but the lines move super fast!

Just another picture of Ava roasting in the hot Florida sun!

Country Bears

In front of Cindarella's castle, even though you can't see the castle.....

Florida- here we come, ready or not!

We're on our way to Orlando tomorrow morning for a much needed vacation! Hooray :) Ava can't stop talking about going on an airplane helicopter (I hope she isn't dissapointed when there's no sign of a helicopter!) We'll be back in 8 days- until then........

Happy Mother's Day- Love Ava

This is for all you mothers, soon-t0-be mothers, or someday going to be mothers out there! A little something from the princess of our family :)

Thanksgiving Point- Tulips!!

If you want to feel what Heaven is going to be like- go to the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point during their tulip season. It is amazing! The kids had fun running around and having a picnic. Thanks Mindi!

Classic picture of Jane strangling both kids trying to get them to look at the camera...

The hit of the day- the water fountain!