day 2 + day 3

Tuesday we were at Epcot the whole day. I love Epcot. I love the World Showcase, even though it seems like we never spend as much time as I would like there, but the little mini countries are so cool. Even more cool at Christmas because they share with how each country celebrates the holidays. Aislynn saw Father Christmas in England and kept calling him the Green Santa:) Here are the pictures:Shaun was getting our fast passes for Soarin' while the kids had a little snack. I wish I could have gotten a better picture with their ears, but they really didn't like having them on too long.

This was after we got off the Finding Nemo ride...Kieran looooooved the fish! I think he could have stayed a long time watching them swim by!

Aislynn and Nemo:)

See? The hats didn't last long:)

Here we are in England.

Aislynn wanted to meet Alice. She really wasn't that interested in meeting the characters this year...more into the rides. They had a lot more of the princesses at Epcot than they have had in the past, but she didn't want to wait in the long lines to meet them. She did want to meet Mickey and Minnie as you'll see below.

In Germany, they had this train set which Kieran also loved. He kept calling the trains "ca" for car and would smile and point every time he saw one!

Playing the drums...

After dinner in Mexico...

This picture is important because it shows what Kieran kept doing throughout the trip-taking off just one shoe:) Most of the time we saw when he threw it overboard, but one time, all these people started yelling at us that they saw a shoe and then a lady ran up to us with his shoe. What a stinker that boy is:)

If you remember our Christmas cards from last year, you'll know we had a picture taken in this same spot last year. This was in France.While in line for meeting the characters, Kieran kept trying to put his ears on Shaun. Then he kept trying to feed Shaun cheerios. Cheerios definitely helped in the waiting process:)

Meeting Mickey. Kieran loved meeting Mickey. He kept calling him "Mick-me" and didn't want to leave him:)

A loved meeting and giving hugs to all the characters, Kieran was weary of Pluto. He didn't really want to go by him, but he was smiling at him:)

Minnie was Aislynn's favorite character to meet, and Kieran loved her too...must be the ears he likes:) He could say Minnie and that was so cute!

Donald-again, K wasn't too sure about him!

I love this picture, it makes me smile how they are both running up to Goofy to give him hugs:) I guess K though he was okay, ha ha.

And this was the end of Epcot:) Sleepyheads:) *** The next day we went to Magic Kingdom. It was nice we went the other night too and had ridden some of the rides, so there wasn't as much pressure to try to do everything, lol.

Aislynn getting a view of a show that was going on at Cinderella's caste when we got there.

Aislynn and Shaun on Big Thunder Mountain...can you spot them?

We ate at the Plaza on Main Street for lunch. I have to say...I am not impressed with Disney's food at all. We ate breakfast at the hotel, and brought our lunch 2 days to save money. Honestly, if you are going to pay for Disney food...I wouldn't make reservations for the sit down places. The food is just as bland and gross as the quick places to eat and the quick places Disney offers are much cheaper. The upside to Disney food is for the kids they offer a lot more healthier sides then most places (fruit, carrot sticks, salad, etc.).

After lunch we watched the parade. This was good since A didn't really want to wait to meet the princesses, she liked seeing them all in the parade. After the float with Mickey and Minnie went by, Kieran kept trying to get down...I guess he wanted to hop in the parade with "Mick-me" :)

Nice shot Shaun...love that you can see A and the Fairy Godmother waving to each other:)

After the parade, we headed into Tomorrowland, and by the time we got there, K was passed out (he slept for about 3 hours!). We went on Space Mountain-A went on with Shaun, then again with me. Then we went on the tea cups. This picture above is probably my favorite picture from the trip. Before we ever went to Disney, when we were showing Aislynn pictures of the rides, she wanted to go on the tea cups so bad. Well, the first time we went we never made it to that ride, plus I was pregnant with Kieran so I couldn't ride them. Last year, Shaun went on them with her while I was feeding Kieran, so I couldn't go then either. But this year, she was so excited to go on them with me:) And I was just as excited:) I made the tea cups spin as fast as I could and I will always remember her giggles from twirling around so fast:)

Cinderella's Carousel. K and A both loved this:)

And this shot is great, it was taken by the Disney Photopass people, but I like it because it has all four of us with the castle in the background. After Magic Kingdom we went to Epcot for dinner and so that Aislynn could go on Test Track with Shaun since we didn't do that the day before. We had such a great trip and I really hope we can continue to do this every year:) The kids love it so much, and it will be so so fun when K is able to go on more of the rides. He actually could go on quite a few and called everything you rode in a "ca" for car:) We are hoping to go again in February since we have passes now.

maclay gardens + disney day 1

Finally getting around to posting some pictures. So far...knock on wood...Kieran and I aren't sick and Shaun and Aislynn are feeling much better! We got our Christmas tree this weekend and started putting lights up on the outside of the house. It is COLD here too, brrr...but that just adds to the feeling of the season:) I take hardly any pictures on Thanksgiving every year? so don't really have much to share from that, but it was yummy and great to spend some time with Mimi and Papa:) We went into Tallahassee Friday and Shaun and his Dad went to see Harry Potter, while I took the kids to see Tangled. We didn't last long...K was into it (or rather, the cheerios I had snuck in for him!), but Aislynn wanted to leave about 45 minutes through. Saturday, we headed back to Tallahassee and went to Maclay Gardens. Here are some of the pictures from that...my battery died while we were there.

I could just gobble him up he is so stinkin' cute:) Daddy and Kieran

Mommy and Aislynn

This was the same place where that family shot was taken. I love her little shadow and the light coming through in this one.

She liked picking up all the different color leaves...

Hey, I didn't know Santa was going to be there:)

Mr. Stinker Pants *** Now on to the Disney pictures. We went to Animal Kingdom the first day, followed by Magic Kingdom since AK closed at 5. The first thing we did was go on the safari there. Kieran looooooved looking at all the animals. A said it was slow, although she did enjoy seeing the lions (even if they were sleeping). That was the theme for her at Animal Kingdom...she said the rides were too slow there (except for Expedition Everest!).

Here she is checking out some animals.

Pluto was the only character we met at Animal Kingdom. Aislynn was not shy at all, and Kieran was doing his flirty bit, where he totally pretends to be shy and coy:) Each of the parks have iconic structures, and at Animal Kingdom, it is the tree in the background, glad we got it into a picture:)

A family picture...might just be one of my faves from the trip.

I didn't go on this one...I was off in search of different shoes because I was getting blisters on both pinky toes. Aislynn and Shaun are the bottom people. They really didn't get that wet, but some people that were coming off the rides were completely soaked!

Expedition Everest is a roller coaster. Aislynn kept her eyes closed the whole time because she didn't want to see the Yeti:) She went on it first with Shaun, then with me but after that she said she was never going on it again:)

Aislynn took this picture of Shaun and I. After this, we saw the Finding Nemo show they had there...it was awesome! It was way better than I expected! We went into Dinosaur Land after that, but Aislynn wouldn't go on the dinosaur ride...too scary, she said, maybe when I'm 8 or 9. :)

Soft serve ice cream, yuuuum. We got one almost everyday...one day we got 2, hee hee:)

At the ice cream point, K was passed out in the stroller for the rest of the time in the park. This was the day where he had the most meltdowns. He was overall, pretty good...just lack of sleep, lack of being able to walk whenever *he* wanted to...made for a few not-so-happy moments.

Watching the parade...A was totally getting into it and dancing and waving!

After the parade, she hopped into the stroller and we headed off to Magic Kingdom. This was what they looked like when we got to our car:) Btw, one of the smartest things we did on this trip was rent a double stroller. Last year we brought ours for Kieran and A walked the whole time, which led to one tired girl, which led to one cranky, whiny girl. She was pretty well-behaved the whole trip, I was so proud of her! *** At Magic Kingdom, we got to do all of the rides in Adventureland (Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, and Aladdin's Magic Carpets) then we had dinner reservations at Tony's (from the Lady and the Tramp).

Gotta love how they deck everything out for Christmas at Disney!

K's newest obsession is "co" or coloring. Before I can even get him in the high chair, he is saying "co co co co co" when he sees the crayons.

After dinner, the kids fell asleep in the stroller again so we decided to head back to the hotel. I snapped this shot of Cinderella's castle before we left. I love how beautiful it looks with the lights.

Disney has photographers that take your picture, put the pictures on a card and then when you get home, you can go on their website and type in your code and it pulls up all of the pictures that were taken by them. The camera of the photographer by the castle wasn't working, so she offered to take some pictures with our camera, yay! Free, lol! To get the pictures they take with their camera, is is $15 a pop:( Anyways, glad to get a shot of S and me:)

And the end of day one:) (What's funny is that I have one of these pictures from everyday we were at parks, ha!)

we're back...

and we are all exhausted, plus S+A are both sick...taking A to the doctor tomorrow to take care of her sinus infection. But a few pictures to tide you over because I really don't know when I will have time to sort/edit/post them! The Saturday after Thanksgiving...we went to Maclay Gardens and a group of sweet high school girls offered to take our picture:) This needs to be put on a canvas if you ask me:)

Meeting "Mick-me" as Kieran called him:) One of my fave moments was when they met the characters and Aislynn held Kieran's hand when they walked up to each one:) Kieran really loved Mickey and Minnie...as you can see here with the kiss:)And this is what they looked like after every single night...I've got the pictures to prove it;)

Now to get settled in to the ole routine. Hoping to get full into Christmas this weekend with the tree and decorations:)