Disney Cruise trip - Day 3

Day 3 - Sunday
What a long, fun day we have had today!! We got up early this morning to leave the Nick hotel and headed for Port Canaveral. We were SOOOOO excited to see our cruise ship there and couldn't wait to get on!! We got to the port early, but still had to wait for a little while. We met Mickey while we were waiting, though, so that was fun. We got to board the ship at about 12:15 and LOVED seeing everything that we had seen on TV in person!! We headed straight to a restaurant called Parrot Cay for lunch and then walked around and explored the ship. Our room was ready then, so we came to the room and changed into our swimsuits and then headed to the pool. It was a great time to swim since the pools weren't too crowded yet. After some hanging out time, we came back to the room to put our clothes back on and then went to the Sail Away Party!! We got to see lots of characters and had a great time!

In the evening, we went to the “Golden Mickey Awards” show. It was a Live show featuring dancers and characters and big video screens, etc. The special effects were wonderful and we all enjoyed the show! It was dinner time after that. We are assigned to eat in a different restaurant each night and tonight we went to Animator's Palate which was the one we'd been looking forward to the most!! The room begins as black and white and things change into color as the meal goes on. Toward the end, there is a video show and then everything lights up in color. The waiters even change into colored vests! It was very entertaining!! After that, we headed to the lobby to meet Princess Tiana. She was just beautiful like she is in the movie and we got some great pictures with her. Now it is bedtime and we are all ready after this busy day!! We are all having a little difficulty adjusting to the rocking of the ship, but we are hoping that the ship will reach some calmer waters soon and it won't be in motion quite as much tomorrow.

Disney Cruise trip - Day 2

Jan 23, 2010 - Saturday
Today was full of Nickelodeon fun!! We started with a character breakfast this morning. We got to meet Cosmo, Wanda, Ming-Ming(a duck from the Wonderpets), and Dora. They walked around and met everyone at each breakfast table and we got lots of fun pictures. The big excitement came when Spongebob showed up!! We got lots of pictures with him and the girls were SO excited!! The food was really good too which was the exciting part for Jason, Kelsey and I! :) After that, we came back to the hotel room for some study time. The girl's teachers sent some work with them so that they won't be as far behind when we get back. They were not to thrilled about the idea of doing homework on vacation, but they had to learn that this is the tradeoff for missing 4 days of school!!

Next, we headed down to the pool. There were 2 big pool areas and luckily, they were both heated. The weather was in the mid 70's which was nice when the sun was out, but did get a little chilly in the shade. The heated water felt great!! Jason wrote a silly story for the “casting call” for a show that they were having in the evening, so we gathered by the pool at 3:30 to see if we were chosen and we found out that we were one of the 2 families chosen to be in the show! They only needed 2 adults and 2 kids for each family, so Kelsey was designated to be the photographer. Jason was very excited and the girls and I warmed up to the idea after a while.

At 4:45, the girls and Jason headed to the pool to get under a big bucket that poured out green slime! They had a great time getting all slimey!! After that, we went to the food court area for some pizza and then we went to the area where the show is held. It was a game show format and we (red team) competed against another family (blue team). I “got to” dress up like Mama Chicken and hatch some water balloon eggs and we also watched some audience members play some games and we answered some trivia questions. It was a tie up to the very end and then the other team won! The captain of the other team got to get slimed, but our captain (Adysen) got a cream pie to throw in her Daddy's face!! That was a pretty good consolation prize! We headed back to the room to hang out for a while and then Adysen and Allie went to see a 4D Spongebob movie. What a fun day!! We are excited about tomorrow when we will get up, pack, and head over to Port Canaveral where we will board the Disney Wonder!!!

Disney Cruise trip - Day 1

Jan. 22, 2010 - Friday
Today is the first day of our long awaited Florida/Disney Cruise trip. The girls have only been waiting since Christmas, but Jason and I have known about this plan since September and we have all been SOOO excited!! We picked up the girls from school, rushed to the airport after school and ended up making it in plenty of time. Jason left his phone in the car and I left my wallet on the counter at home, so we were a little frazzled when we got there! I was SO mad at myself for leaving my wallet because I had spent so much time planning this trip and getting all the details in order and that was definitely an important detail!! Jason had his credit cards and debit card, so we were able to find an ATM to get more cash and it all worked out fine. Our flight was uneventful, thankfully, and we arrived in Orlando at about 8:15pm. We rented a car and started the drive to the hotel. After stopping at Olive Garden for dinner, we located the Nickelodeon hotel where we had reservations. Adysen and Allie both love Nickelodeon but Adysen is a HUGE Spongebob fan, so she was seriously excited!! We paid a little more to get a Spongebob room and he and Patrick were on the walls which thrilled her, of course. We were up late, but plan to have a good nights sleep and a really fun day tomorrow!!

Happy Labor Day!!

Adysen, Allie and I were sitting around watching TV Sunday morning and saw a commerical for the Gaylord Texan. I pulled up their website and saw a "teacher special" that they were running for the summer and Sunday was the last day for it. So.. we woke up Jason and Kelsey, packed up and went!! We had a great time and made some special memories.

First Day of School

I have gotten SO behind in posting... things got crazy! I'll try to go back and catch up with our end of summer stuff later. But, for now, here are our beautiful girls on the first day of school today.
Allie is starting 3rd grade and still loves to have her picture made....


































































Adysen is in 4th. She is embarassed to have her picture made at school now! :( I tortured her just a little, but didn't insist on going into the classroom like I really wanted to. We settled for this picture at the front door.























































And, I REALLY can't believe it, but Kelsey is a Senior!! Oh MY!

Allie's Birthday....

8 years ago today, we recieved a phone call that changed our lives forever and our sweet Allie became such a special part of our family!! We always say that God dropped her straight in our laps because that is how it really happened. This year, we celebrated a few days early with waffles for breakfast and a dinner at Medieval Times - SO fun!!