Thursday, February 6, 2014

Disney!



Well...here we are in February.  One of my goals for the year was to blog more often.  I'm obviously failing, but I'm going to try to do better.  I'm really hoping to find time to actual write more thoughts, recipes, book reviews, etc.  However, it's usually all I can do to keep up with family pictures! I guess we'll see!

Two days after Christmas we headed to Orlando.  It's kind of a hard time of year to be gone for 8 days, but we decided to give it a try.  

We almost always drive to Orlando to save money and because it's easier just to have our own car once we get there.  We never stay on the Disney property so a car is VERY necessary.  However, that many hours in a car always proves to be an adventure.

The kids mostly watch movies and play video games.  
(They never like to hear my stories about the good old days when we had to ride for hours with no electronic devices at all.  We had to just play car games or sleep or stare out the window or HEAVEN FORBID read while we were traveling.  Up hill barefoot in the snow both ways.)


 While the kids were entertained in the back, Brian and I put on a little Kenny & Dolly concert up front.  We take our performances very seriously.  Because we are islands in the stream.  That is what we are.  Uh huh.
 We left on a Friday and spent the night in Jacksonville.  We wanted to have the whole day on Saturday in Orlando, so we got up early and headed on straight to Animal Kingdom.


 By afternoon, this is what we looked like.

 The kids loved being able to swim outside at the end of December.  The weather was fairly warm, and the pool was heated.
 Islands of Adventure was fun.

 We tasted the (nonalcoholic of course) Butterbeer. 

 We especially enjoyed Harry Potter world since we just finished all of the books.
 It was great to go to Epcot since we hadn't been there in a few years.
 The star of the show is always Magic Kingdom for us!
 It was decorated so beautifully for Christmas.
 My crazy driver
 I waited with Parker while Claire and Brian rode Space Mountain. He rode Space Mountain twice before, but he's just not that into it! Look how tired he looks on the left.  Bless him.



 A trip to Magic Kingdom isn't complete with a Mickey treat!

 The castle all lit up at night was worth the entire trip for me.  I couldn't ever get a perfectly clear picture, but it was gorgeous.  It changed colors and looked like it had icicles all over it.  Breathtaking, I tell you!



 We fit in a little more swimming and sliding.
 A quick trip to Downtown Disney on out last day.  It was very cold that day!
 The journey home was S.L.O.W because of this...
It was a wonderful trip, but we were happy to finally get home! 

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