Florida Trip 2010: Days 7 & 8

On vacation day 7, October 8th, my dad dropped my mom, me, and Lilly off at Disney's Magic Kingdom. The boys wanted to sleep in that morning.

When we walked in, and Lilly was so excited to see the princess castle. We had to stop and take a few pictures of her in front of the castle!

Our first ride was Winnie the Pooh. Lilly loved it. Then we headed over to Toontown where Lilly was able to meet Aurora, Cinderella, and Belle. She was SO nervous. She kept twisting her shirt in her hand and wouldn't say a word to the princesses when they talked to her. She had them sign her autograph book. After we met them she said, "I dont think those are real princesses. I think they are just girls dressed up like princesses." Not much gets by this smart girl!

Afterwards I bought Lilly a few charms for her necklace and my mom bought her a sucker. Then we took a tour of Minnie's house.



Before we left Toontown, Lilly had to ride Goofy's Branstormer rollercoaster. She is such a rollercoaster girl!

After Toontown we headed to Peter Pan. It was fun, and reminded me of my childhood. Then we went over to Mickey's Philharmagic.

We started to get hungry, so we decided to try and find a cheap place to eat. We finally found a place that sold chicken sandwiches and fries for about $10. Not a bad deal compared to the other places we found. After lunch, while we were walking around outside, my mom looked down at her shirt and said, "Oh, I spilled lunch on my shirt!" Lilly said, "I didn't." Then she pulled out her shirt and looked down and said, "What the heck?!" She had ketchup smeared across her nice white shirt. It was really funny.

We decided we should meet up with the boys in Epcot. But before we did, my mom wanted to buy Lilly a birthday present. We hung out in 2 different stores forever before Lilly finally decided on a doll that turns from Aroura to Ariel. She loved it!

On our way out of Magic Kingdom we just happened to run into Snow White. It was wonderful timing! Lilly wasn't quite so nervous this time.

We made it to Epcot, where we headed straight for Soarin. There was a 60 minute wait. But we stood in line anyways. The time went by fast as we sat on the floor with everyone else. When we finally made it to the front of the line and started Soarin, Lilly yelled, "Mom, are we really flying?" She loved it! It was worth the wait.

After the ride we bought some Mickey Mouse icecream and waited for the boys to show up.

After the boys showed up we rode a few more rides and then went over to a place where you could sample soda from around the world. There was one that James and Brayden told me was the best and that I needed to try. I think it was from Spain. I filled up my cup and took a big gulp. It was awful! It reminded me of stomach bile! Those naughty boys!

On vacation day 8, October 9th, we headed to the JFK Space Center. We were all so worn out from all the days of walking around Disney and Universal. We learned a lot and got to watch a few 3D movie about life in space. I knew Lilly couldn't sit through one more movie so I took her over to the kid play area. She ran up and down the slides for one hour. She liked to slide down on her back, and then face first.



After we met back up with my family, we took a tour out to the launch sites. Then we ate a little lunch underneath one of the space shuttles. Brandt bought Lilly an Icee and she couldn't have been happier.

When we got home, Lilly played a little dress up.



Florida Trip 2010: Days 4-6

On vacation day 4, October 5th, we left the beautiful beach and drove to Orlando. When we got there we went to straight to Universal Studios.

Universal Studios isn't super kid friendly, but it had some pretty cool rides for my dad, me, Limey, and the boys. Since my mom gets pretty sick on most rides, I was able to ride all the big ones while she watched Lills. It worked out great.

We rode The Incredible Hulk first thing, and it was pretty intense. Right when we got off, I turned to my dad and told him that I had closed my eyes for most of it. He told me that he had too as well. Lilly was really bummed when she found out she couldn't go on the green roller coaster. If she would have been tall enough, she probably would have like it.

We then we rode Spiderman while my mom bought Lilly Dippin Dots. After that we were off to the Jurassic Park ride(lame) while my mom and Lilly rode the Pteranodon Flyers.

It was then time to head over to the main attraction: the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It was amazing! Seriously, it felt like I was a character in the book. I loved it! We walked through the Hogwarts castle and saw lots of fun things from the book. Then we rode the Forbidden Journey which is the roller coaster inside the castle. It was really cool, and pretty intense. It was worth riding twice, so while we did that my dad took Lilly over to the Ride of the Hippogriff roller coaster and they road that four times together. Lilly loved the ride so much that I ended up taking her on it three more times. She couldnt get enough of it!

 In front of Hogwarts

The talking pictures inside Hogwarts

We took a walk down to Hogsmeade, and stopped at the Three Broomsticks and bought butterbeer. It was SO much better than I thought it would be. It was really good. We explored Zonko's Joke Shop and Honeydukes Candy Store.

The Three Broomsticks

Enjoying Butterbeer

On vacation day 5, October 6th, we woke up bright and early and headed to Disney World's Hollywood Studios. We immediately split up, and the girls went to Toy Story Mania. It said it was a 40 minute wait. We jumped in line hoping it was wrong. Well it was, because instead of 40 minutes we stood in line for 90 minutes! The ride broke down and no one working there told us. So there we stood. At one point Lilly went hysterical and said she was going to pee her pants. So, I grabbed her little hand and marched through the mobs of waiting people, went out the door, and headed into the nearest bathroom. When we returned to the end of the line, we awkwardly pushed our way back up to where my mom was waiting and endured the nasty glares from everyone we passed. I didn't mind. I wasn't about to let the 1 hour wait go to waste! We finally arrived and rode the ride. It was pretty amazing. But not 1 1/2 hours amazing.

After that fiasco we went to The Little Mermaid Show and then Muppet-Vision 3D. Then we met back up with the boys where we rode Rockin' Roller Coaster.

By this point we were pretty tired and decided to head home to rest our feet and eat lunch.

At about 6:00 that evening we headed to Disney's Magic Kingdom. James and Limey decided to stay home and swim because they were tired. While the electrical parade was going on we decided to walk on as many rides as we could. We rode splash mountain three times and Thunder Mountain Railroad twice. It was great not to have to stand in line. Then we watched the Wishes fireworks show as we walked to the monorail. We wanted to beat the crowds and get out of there. Lilly had a great view of the fireworks on my dad's shoulders. It was my favorite night of the trip.

On vacation day 6, October 7th we went back to Universal. We rode The Mummy while my mom watched Lilly and bought her popcorn. Then we split up and the boys went to ride the big rides while the girls rode Jimmy Neutron and watched Shrek 4D. I loved Shrek 4D. Your seat did lots of crazy things and made you feel like you were really in the movie. I also loved that Lilly kept trying to touch the 3D images on the screen.

We had lunch at the condo and then at around 4:00 we went back to the park. Me and my mom took Lilly to all the little kid rides in Suess Landing. We rode Cat in the Hat, the Caro-suess-el, and One Fish Two Fish.

By this time I was itching to get back up to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. When we got there I took Lilly on the Flight of the Hippogriff twice while my mom stood in line for the Olivander's wand shop show. The show was fun. Lilly wanted a wand but they were $30! For a stick? C'mon. It wasn't going to happen.

 Ollivander's Wand Shop

In front of Hagrid's Hut

A Hippogriff

We met up with the boys in Hogsmeade, bought more butterbeer, looked in all the shop windows, and waited for it to get dark. It was really cool at night. The castle was all lit up and looked really pretty. We stayed there until the park closed.

A Happy Halloween

Halloween lasted for a whole week at our house. 

Last Saturday, our ward had a trunk-or-treat. Lilly loved hanging out with her friends, having a Halloween parade, getting tons of candy, painting pumpkins, and eating cupcakes and cookies.

On Wednesday, I had a Joy School Halloween Party at our house. I hung bats and ghosts from the ceiling, played carnival games, went trick-or-treating at Lilly's bedroom door, had a costume parade, sang Halloween songs, and made witch cupcakes. It was great fun!

On Saturday we went to our friends, the Jensen's, to carve pumpkins. I haven't carved a pumpkin in SO long. It was really fun. The kids ran around and played while the parents carved their pumpkins. Gus carved the spider and I did the cat. It was a good time.

That night we went trick-or-treating to a few friend's houses in the ward. We were glad it was put together so we didn't miss out on trick-or-treating this year.

Florida Trip 2010: Days 1-4

On October 2nd, Lilly and I decided to crash my family's vacation and join them in Florida. We flew to Orlando where my parents, Brandt, James, and Brayden picked us up from the airport. We were SO excited to see them and spend the next 11 days with them. 

We loaded our bags into the big GMC Suburban that my dad rented, and headed down to Clearwater Beach. It took us about 2 hours to get there and when we arrived it was just about bedtime for Lilly.

The next morning, I woke up to Lilly saying, "Mom, you are not going to believe this! It snowed last night!" I walked to the window and saw all the bright white sand. I had to laugh.

We found an amazing condo right on the beach. We had a wonderful time relaxing for 3 days. Lilly loved hanging out with her uncles. She thought she was just one of the boys. One night Lilly was getting ready to go to bed, and Limey came into our room and said, "Goodnight Sweetheart."  Lilly looked up and said, "Goodnight my Darling."

Lilly loved building sandcastles, collecting seashells, and jumping over the waves.

Our favorite thing to do while we were there was to go out an hour before sunset and walk up and down the beach. The sunsets were absolutely gorgeous. There was also a good breeze for flying kites.

James, Brayden, and Brandt had a great time on the boogie boards.

 Lilly missed her Daddy so much, she decided to write his name in the sand

My dad brought Lilly her very own harmonica. They had a great time playing together. One night he even helped her make a shell necklace.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

Lilly turned 4 today. She was SO excited to finally be as old as all her best friends. Gus and I on the other hand were a little sad. I never imagined my baby would turn 4. I never imagined that she would still be an only child. She has grown up WAY too fast and I wish I could turn back time.

She is already really great at being 4. She is spunky, sassy, and acts like she is 16. But she can also be so sweet. She is amazing with babies and younger children. She tells me daily that she wants to have "5 kids" after she gets married.

She has become quite the little cuddler. Her grandma recently taught her how to "spoon" and I usually wake up in the morning to her spooning me. I love it.

She is VERY brave but shy around people she doesn't know.

She has an endless amount of energy. My brother once said she has as much energy as 8 children. Before she goes to bed, she runs around the family room as many times as she can so she can "get her energy out". This endless amount of energy came in handy on our trip to Disney World 2 weeks ago. She was such a trooper!

She is an amazingly self sufficient child. She has such a can do spirit. Whenever her friends ask me to zip their jackets or tie their shoes, Lilly always says, "Hey, I will do it for you."

She is very mature for her age. She is my little adult.

She is our miracle baby. We may not have known that when she was born, but we sure know it now and we are so happy she joined our family when she did.

We love you sweet girl!

Ears Pierced

Today we took Lilly to the mall to get her ears pierced for her birthday. She has been begging me for months now to get them pierced and I figured if she was brave enough back then, she would be brave enough to get them done for her birthday.

When we arrived at Claire's, I think Gus and I were more nervous than she was. I kept expecting her to freak out at any moment and change her mind. But she didn't. She just sat in the chair and smiled, except of course when the ladies tried to talk to her. That's when she got real nervous. Whenever people she doesn't know talk to her she just stares at them and gets all nervous.

I asked for 2 ladies to do it at the same time so she didn't back out after she already had one done. They got everything ready, told her to take a deep breath, and then it was over. She didn't even flinch! Seriously, the expression on her face stayed exactly the same the whole time. She is such a funny, brave girl. We are so very proud of her.