7 month compare

Common denominator: they are all REAL cute. 

Disney World and home again

Here's the thing.  When you only have one day to spend at Disney World, the day is kind of crazy.  Especially if you expect it to be a low crowd index day and it ends up being so crowded that the park extends its hours.  Our hotel was great and the kids got a good night of sleep, but Mike and I didn't because Cora doesn't like sleeping in strange places and spent the night laying on top of me.  Not restful.  But we woke up early and headed to the park for our early morning character breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and friends.  We learned that Disney World is huge and we got lost.  We circled the whole park and finally found parking and hopped on the monorail.  We got to enter the park early, which made for a few fun, uncrowded pictures. The holiday decorations were up on Main Street, which made everything look very festive.  It was a beautiful, sunny day.  Very sunny. 

 We got seated for our breakfast promptly, and the buffet was very nice.  The chef came out and made some suggestions for Sylvie as well as making her a plate of special pancakes and dairy free foods.  Eeyore got to our table right after we sat down, and both Jens and Sylvie were thrilled to see him.

 Mike was getting food when Pooh visited our table, which was too bad.  Sylvie joined in the friends' parade, then we were ready to go.  The Rhoduses were seated right as we were finishing up (we couldn't get reservations for the same time).  Sylvie did not want to leave without seeing all of the characters, so she chased down Tigger and Piglet while I pretended not to notice what she was doing.  I didn't take pictures or anything since she was basically invading someone else's table to greet the characters, but I had a feeling that if I didn't let her go there would be tears and an ugly scene.  She was very bold and approached the characters by herself and gave them both hugs.  Then she was satisfied and ready to go!

 Mike was the fast pass champion of the day.  When I look back, I can't believe how much we managed to see and do on such a busy day.  We hit Splash Mountain first, which was Sylvie's favorite ride at DisneyLand, but scared her so badly that she didn't want to ride any other rides for the rest of the day.  When we were waiting to get off she was so relieved, but then as they pulled our car forward she thought she was going to be stuck for another round and started wailing!  Abbie wasn't a big rider, either.  We did Thunder Mountain Railroad next, which is still one of my favorite rides.  We went through the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, which was a hit, rode the magic carpet ride, and had Dole Whips for lunch.

While the dudes went to The Haunted Mansion and rode Pirates of the Caribbean with Cora, the ladies saw the princesses (thank you fastpasses!) and rode the carousel.  We met back up and watched the Philharmagic show, saw the Country Bear Jamboree, which Cora was fascinated by, watched the parade, ate treats, then most of us rode the Disney World steam engine around 3/4 of the park while Mike and Jens did Space Mountain then met us and went on the Ariel ride. 

 Mike took the kids on the teacups, we went on Space Mountain, and Aunt Jessie (a true champ) staked out territory in front of the castle with 4 of the kids and watched two shows with the characters, including the one where they magically lit the castle.  We picked up dinner in Tomorrowland and shuttled it to the castle, where we sort of huddled in a little building and fed the kids, who were holding up admirably.  We rode Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, the carousel, then went on the Jungle cruise, rode the magic carpets again, went to the Tikki Room, then paused to watch the fireworks, which we saw from the back side of the castle.  This is not necessarily in the right order--I am having trouble remembering exactly when we did what!

 We finished with some souvenir shopping and a few pictures with the beautiful castle.  The kids were all so good throughout a very long, very busy, very tiring, and very FUN day.  Even Cora was a shining star--no crying or complaining.

We stayed almost until closing, and by the time we exited the park the line for the monorail was a mile long, I swear.  Cora fell asleep in my arms and we waited patiently.  The kids were exhausted, but they were real troopers.  We finally made it to the car, loaded up, and headed for Gainesville.  All of the kids were asleep before we left the parking lot.  Mike and I were so tired that I was worried we would fall asleep while we were driving, so I talked incessantly the whole way home.  It was very tiring, but we had such a great time.  I am still amazed by all we managed to do and see in such a short span of time. 

Thursday we spent the day recovering and packing up.  Mike and Jessie took the kids to see Frozen, which they all loved.   

We drove to Tampa on Thursday night and spent the night in the airport hotel.  The flights home went very smoothly in spite of a delay in Phoenix.  We were supposed to have a 45 minute layover, which I was very stressed about.  It turned into 6 hours, which was worse.  The kids were amazingly patient, even Cora.  I think we looked like everyones' worst nightmare as we boarded our flight from Phoenix to Sacramento, but the kids were really good.  Cora fell asleep promptly and stayed asleep for the whole flight.  When we landed, I was complimented by at least 4 different people on how wonderful our family was.  I think they were exhausted into good behavior, but I'll take it.  We had such a fun trip, and it was so wonderful to spend time with our family.  We are truly thankful!

Sea World

We had so much fun at Sea World.  It was a perfect day--the weather was beautiful, the park was decorated beautifully for Christmas, the kids loved it,  and it was very quiet and uncrowded!  We saw every show and the kids rode all of the kid rides without long waits. We paid for preferred parking, which was totally worth it. Sylvie had a very happy birthday.  Notice that she is wearing her dog purse in pretty much every picture!

 Waiting for Clyde and Seymour in the Pirate Show.  Jens found it hilarious!  Sylvie liked it too, but she kept more of a stone face.

 The kid rides were very popular, especially the Shamu roller coaster.

 Running off the roller coater to ride it again!

Hot dogs for lunch. MMMMmmm!

The princess from the dolphin show.

 We loved the underwater dolphin viewing.  There was one dolphin in particular that kept blowing bubbles underwater then playing with the them.  It was very amazing.

 They had a street show going on with some elves wrapping presents.  It was very slap stick, and Jens and Abbie thought it was hilarious.

 Cora was good as gold.  I was able to feed her while we were at the shows, and she took several short naps.  She didn't cry or complain at all--maybe because there was so much to see?

 The kids did a picture in the snow globe at the end.  It was pretty cute.

Sylvie in particular loved the fake snow.  In fact, she went a little crazy. 

 We finished the day with dinner at Panera Bread and cupcakes at our hotel.  Then we went to bed so we would be ready for Disney World the next day!