disney weekend part 2

A 4am bedtime meant that our wake-up at 7:30am this morning was pretty painful, but we persevered. We spent the morning at Animal Kingdom. We walked the gorilla trail (and actually saw them because they were hanging out close to the glass).
We went on safari and caused a traffic jam because an ostrich decided that it wanted to check out our Jeep instead of crossing the road. We took the train. And we brushed goats and sheep.

And then we went back to the resort and took naps. After we were all well rested and had eaten dinner, we went to Magic Kingdom for our evening thrills. We saw the fireworks and rode lots of rides.

Josh and Jeremy take Peyton and Madeline in the teacups.

Jeremy, Sara and Peyton on Pooh's ride.

And then Grandma took us to meet the princesses. M and P were the only two in line at this point (yeah, it was pretty late and the "responsible" parents had already taken their kids to bed) so the Disney handlers let the girls hang out with all three princesses for a while. We even got to take some rare pics with all three of them at the same time. M was thrilled that she got to meet Cinder-lella, Belle, and Sleeping Doody. (Still, none of them compare to Fish Girl.)

disney weekend part 1

Gma and Gpa L graciously offered for us to meet up with them and Peyton at Disney World this weekend after their cruise docked. Jeremy and Sara were also on the cruise and scheduled to spend time at the parks. Who could turn down the opportunity to see them and Mickey, too? This trip ended up being rather last minute because we didn't know until Tuesday if Josh would be able to be out of town for the weekend (upcoming FDA audit, blah, blah, blah). But it worked out that he could play hooky, so we hit the road on Thursday after work for the 10 hr trip to FL. On the way down there, we discovered two unexpected benefits of our new Android phones: GPS navigation and streaming video.

M holding her Mickey and Minnie dolls while watching an episode of the Mickey Mouse clubhouse on Josh's phone.

We got in around 2am. M had already been sleeping in the car for a few hours so she was ready to get to the parks as soon as we pulled into the resort parking lot. Josh and I, on the other hand, were exhausted. Toddler lesson #5648: Make sure to explain AHEAD OF TIME that saying that we're going to Disney World today, doesn't actually mean that we're going to go to the amusement park as soon as we arrive in Florida. It was a rough go to get her back to sleep, but by 4am we all crashed out.

dance party

After her bath tonight, M decided she needed to have a little dance party to her current favorite song, Final Countdown (she calls it Tinal Fountdown). In her world, dancing cannot happen unless you are dressed properly, so she put on all her finery over her jammies so that she could get her groove on.



She "danced" to the entire 5 min 11 sec song.

peaceful

We've gotten a little bit of snow this year, usually not more than an inch or two at a time. The backyard is so peaceful when it's covered in white.

yee haw

Our little gal loves to pretend.



Most of M's dress-up supplies are from the dollar bins at Target or repurposed items from around the house. Her sparkly green bowler hat -- that's what all the cool cowboys are wearing these days -- is from Target's St. Pat's Day supplies (she added additional decoration via some strategically placed lumps of transparent tape). Her lasso/whip is one of Pickle's toys. She has used various stuffed animals in the role of horse, but her kitty is the most popular participant.