Our Boring Life

We are home from Disney and life has gotten back to normal. The girls in school everyday, Luke and I waste our time doing the same housework and watching the same children’s cartoons everyday of the week in between his naps, mealtimes, and phone calls, Will is procrastinating his schoolwork again, and he stays busier than ever with the church.

There is never a dull moment in our house, yet at the same time, we like our ‘boring’ life. We have time to eat dinner together, and get our homework done in the afternoons. We aren’t running everywhere trying to get to dance class or baseball practice with three kids.

Thank you God for our ‘boring’ life.

Some More Disney Photos

Here are a few photos from our trip to Disney World in March 2011.

 

Will and Luke in their Baylor attire before our  breakfast at the Crystal Palace.

Here are the kids with Tigger at the Crystal Palace.

Always a favorite is the Prince Charming Regal Carousel.

Isabelle strikes a pose.

Both girls learned out to do the panoramic photos with their cameras during this trip. But we kept getting photos like this instead of any scenery photos.

While the girls and I watched Indiana Jones, Will and Luke met the Lightning McQueen and Mater.

Here we are at Hollywood Studios.

This is my incredible family with the characters from The Incredibles.

Here are the kids photos in front of the tree at Hollywood Studios.

Thanks to the closing of Toontown, new Mickey meet n’ greets have been popping up in different locations around the Magic Kingdom. Since Luke enjoyed the characters so much we met as many as we could. Here is the Colonial Mickey from the Hall of Presidents.

 

Anna LOVES roller coasters! Every time she gets on, she puts her hands up.

Our favorite part of going in the Spring is the Flower and Garden Festival. Luke says hi to Lighting McQueen.

Rafiki and Simba are made out of plants for the Flower and Garden Festival. Will couldn’t pass up this photo-op.

Here is the Snow White display for the Flower and Garden Festival.

We loved the Beauty and the Beast topiaries.

The girls’ favorite character to meet is the lovely Marie from the Aristocats movie.

My beauty poses in front of Sleeping Beauty and Prince Philip.

The girls love Innoventions; this time they did the Piggy Bank and the Fire House.

Will took the girls through the General Motors display after Test Track. I am having nightmares already about the girls learning to drive.

One more picture in front of the castle before we left for home.

Luke just kept saying, “Buzz…Buzz…Buzz.” I think this photo is great.

Right before we left the park we watched the parade. The girls had lots of interaction with the characters because there wasn’t anyone else standing by them.

 

We had a wonderful time and made lots of memories.

Animal Kingdom's Kali River Rapids

One of the girls' favorite rides is Kali River Rapids at Disney's Animal Kingdom. We did not get a chance to ride during our January trip since the weather was too cold. The girls insisted they ride this time. Somehow Kate and Jenny convinced Jason and me that we needed to ride it with the girls while they watched Luke. Here is the in-ride audio and video. The quality isn't great since I recorded with a waterproof camera, but it is still fun to watch. Isabelle's face at 3:02 is priceless.

Disney March 2011

Our internet connection has not been the greatest so we have not posted much. I just wanted to post a short video to show everyone how much Luke is enjoying meeting all the characters.

Disney Days Six, Seven & Eight

I know it has been a few days since I posted an update, but we are on vacation and I have been busy.  I decided to cram the last three days of fun into one blog post.  So here you go!

 

Wednesday was day six of our adventure and we started the day off by driving the the Orlando International Airport to pick up my mom.  After her arrival, we took the girls to the Florida Mall so they could use the Build-a-Bear gift certificates they received for Christmas.  The ironic thing was that neither of them built a bear.  Isabelle built a rabbit and Anna built a cat.  Never the less, here they are with their new pets!

After we finished at the Florida Mall, we went to a place call Sweet Tomatoes for lunch.  Sweet Tomatoes is a salad buffet with lots of salads to choose from.  Before you get excited and think that I have changed my eating habits, rest assured that I ate from the baked potato bar.  From Sweet Tomatoes, we drove to the Magic Kingdom to spend the rest of the day.  While at the Magic Kingdom, Anna made her first trip on Space Mountain.  We also took Luke on one of his favorite rides, the carousel..   

 

The main reason for our time in the Magic Kingdom was to watch the premier of the new The Magic, The Memories, and You show.  This show uses 16 projectors to display images on Cinderella Castle.  It was a really neat show and a great prelude to Wishes. 

The next day, our 7th day at Disney World, we met up with Mike and his family and spent the day at Animal Kingdom and then made our way over to EPCOT.  While in the Animal Kingdom, Luke had to chance to meet Terk, from Disney’s Tarzan.  He was not real sure about the experience. 

While at EPCOT we stopped to take a group picture at the special meet and greet for Disney Visa card holders.  We were the last family for the day and were able to spend more time with the characters. 

Today we began our day by packing our bags to transition from our timeshare to Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort.  We will only be here one night, but we wanted to add a day to our trip since we had family that would be here.  Once checked into the resort, we boarded our Disney bus and met Mike and his family at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. 

Matthew, Mike’s son, really wanted to ride the Tower of Terror but did not have anyone to ride it with since his parents refused.  We met at the tower and both Isabelle and Jessica decided to join Kate, Anna, Matthew and me on the ride.  I was proud of Isabelle for trying the ride, but I don’t think we will ever get her or Jessica on the ride ever again.  Isabelle was in tears when exiting the ride.  She vowed to never ride the ride again.  The funny thing was that once she calmed down, later in the day she wanted to ride it again.  We did not let her though.

Also while at the Hollywood Studios, I took the opportunity to take the kids picture by the this tree.  I have a picture of the kids by this tree from every trip we have been on since 2006.

About 3:00 p.m. the rain started coming down and we put on our ponchos and took the boat to EPCOT.  The boat ride from the Studios to EPCOT is relaxing and about 25 minutes long.  It was just long enough for the rain to pass.

 

The girls have been begging us to do once of the Kim Possible adventures so as soon as we arrived at EPCOT, we checked in at the kiosk and headed to Norway.  The girls had fun when they weren’t arguing over who got to hold the phone. 

We made it back to the resort around 7:30 p.m. and have tried to get in bed early.  We will head to the Magic Kingdom in the morning and leave for home around lunch time.  Please pray we will have a safe journey home!

Disney Day Five (January 2011)

We began the day at the Magic Kingdom to say goodbye to Kate’s family.  Today was their last day in Orlando and we wanted to see them before they headed home.  While doing some last minute souvenir shopping on Main Street, Mr. Frank found the chief of Main Street’s Volunteer Fire Department and stopped for a photo.  I don’t think that ax would make through the baggage check at the entrance of the park.  


After Kate’s family left for home, Anna and Isabelle wanted to ride Goofy’s Barnstormer.  We made our way over to Toon Town and used the Baby Swap option to take turns riding.  As you can see, Anna is the dare devil of the family.  Isabelle is much more tame, but she did tell Kate that she will hold her hands up next time if someone holds on to her.


This is Luke’s third trip to Disney World and yet today was his first time on It’s A Small World.  During his first trip he was only 2 months old and we never got around to riding the ride.  His second trip last September, the ride was closed for refurbishment.  So Kate was really excited to see his reaction to the ride since it is one of her favorites.  I think he liked it.  He kept pointing at everything.  Here are a few photos.

Since we have already spent a couple days at the Magic Kingdom, we decided to make our way over to EPCOT.  On way out of the Magic Kingdom, the girls wanted to pose with the statue of Minnie and Roy  Disney. 

In EPCOT, we headed over to the Seas with Nemo and Friends and took our traditional picture with Bruce the shark.  For some reason, people refused to get out of the way for our photo.  After waiting for our turn to get the picture, I had to politely ask four people to move so I could get the picture.  Even though they moved, they did not get their children out of the way, so here is our three kids, and a couple of extras.  It’s not like it was crowded, they just wouldn’t get out of the way.     
As Disney Visa cardholders, we are allowed a special meet and greet at EPCOT that comes with a free 8x10 photo.  This was Luke’s chance to get close to Mickey and Pluto.  All he could do was point at them.  He was pretty excited.  



Tomorrow we will pick up my mom from the airport and she will join us the remainder of the trip.  My brother Mike and his family will also be driving in tonight. 


On a side note, after reviewing my post.  I realized I have made several spelling and grammar errors.  I am typing these post late at night and I am not proof reading them.  Please forgive me for the errors.  I will try to fix them when we get home.