Disney in Oct.

In Oct. we spent Oct. 9th - Oct. 20th at Disney with back to back family and friends joining us. We had a wonderful time.


On the bus to our resort. First stop, Animal Kingdom Villas. (Yes, C's Bitty Baby had to come with us ;) We gave C that baby when we were in China getting D since then she's been on several vacations with us. )

C taking photos of the animals outside of our room.

The view outside our room

view from our lobby

The girls creatimg their own ice cream sundae's.

The first friends we got to spend time with were D, T and their daughter G. Here is C, D and G meeting Mulan.

Mulan paying the girls a visit while coloring at kids cot.

Fun in the pool at our hotel

The girls LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the train at Downtown Disney. This has been a favorite since C's first Disney trip when whe was 2 years old! As you can see, they still enjoy it very much!

After our visit with D, T and G A's family arrived. They played with us at Disney for a few days before going to the ocean. Here are A, cousin L, C, D and "Auntie" riding the tea cups.

D and cousin L

Mommy and C on the race cars

Auntie and D

Grandpa, Grandma and D on Aladdins Carpet Ride. D just wanted to ride this, Dumbo and the Dinosaur ride aka "hippo ride" at Animal Kingdom.

C walking through the Swiss Family Treehouse

A and Grandpa on the Jungle Cruise

L and D taking it all in

Our 13 year old nephew B with Uncle A

Waiting to get into the Bugs Life at Animal Kingdom

D getting a ride (and snuggle :) ) from Grandpa

The girls getting their hairwraps. C has gotten a hairwrap here every time she's been to Disney.

D getting her 2nd hairwrap. Her hair was way too short and fine for a very long time. She is very excited to be able to get her hair wrapped now also.

D riding the "hippo ride" at Animal Kingdom. We rode this ride SO. MANY. TIMES! We would get off and get right back on. She LOVED it!

C spinning the girls on a Merry Go Round at Downtown Disney.

D holding on for dear life, but loving it!

C, L and Grandma caught a little lizard.

After A's family left we transferred resorts and spent the next part of our vacation at Bay Lake Towers right by the Magic Kingdom. This resort was FANTASTIC! My forever friend J and her family arrived. She has kids the same age as our kids. We all had a great time!

Here are the kiddos C, D, J & J (their whole family is J's) watching TV while the parents check in.

The view from our room at Bay Lake Towers.

We spent the afternoon at the pool and C won a hula hoop contest

Here she is with the prize she choose. The BIGGEST box there was. It took some creative packing getting that home with all the other souveniers.

The gang in the pool

Fun on the water slide

C & D by the pool getting ready for another pool game

D doing the pony races at the Whispering Canyon Cafe atFort Wilderness Lodge. She was the only one of our 4 that would do it.

The girls at Animal Kingdom

Meeting Pochahontas

The crew with Goofy and Pluto at Animal Kingdom

D and J waiting to ride, what else, the "hippo ride" we still aren't certain why D called it that but she certainly was having no part in calling it the Dinosaur ride.

Mommy and D on the hippo ride

Our friends J, J, J and J :) by the Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom

Our family A, B, C, D ( I guess we all have a naming theme ;) ) by the Tree of life

What else do you do after a long, HOT (did I mention they were having record high temps in Florida for Oct.? They were having Aug. temps ~ meanwhile it snowed in MN while we ewre away and A's family flights got delayed because of it!) day at the park? Have ice cream, of course!

And the, promptly fall asleep on the one we've attached ourself to :)

D was a Auntie J cling on while they were with us!

At the top of the building we were staying in the had a viewing room to watch the fireworks over the Magic Kingdom. This is a picture of the castle taken from the top of our building.

The kids waiting for the fireworks to start

Ohhhh, Ahhhhh. It was awesome to see the fireworks from up there! We were even able to clearly see Tinkerbell fly down from the top of the castle! And another great thing, we got to get on an elevator and go to our rooms instead of fighting the crowd to get out of the parks. (not that everyone should experience that as it is part of the whole Disney experience but we've been there done that and I was thankful to not have to on this trip.)

Riding the monorail, a ride in itself :)

D and her Auntie J. Like I said, D was attached :)

The gang waiting for the Toy Story Mania ride at Hollywood Studios.

Meeting chip and Dale

Lightning McQueen

The girls ready to dance the night away at Mickey's Backyard BBQ. We had a GREAT time there!

Dinner with Cinderella

Our little Cinderellas :)

Waiting patiently...

to meet Prince Charming

Ok, I just realized that I didn't post a photo of Cinderella with the girls! Dang...

The girls and their very own Prince Charming :) Look at D, striking a pose ;) She's got the princess thing down!

The kiddos at the end of the day. Snuggled in resting, watching movies with popcorn. Does it get any better than this!?

J and family left and our friends R, L, E and their foreign exchange student J arrived.

Here are the girls meeting Tinkerbell. We waited 60 min. get into "Pixie Hollow" to meet Tinkerbell and her fairy friends... this was the longest line we had while we were there but it was worth it! The fairies really interacted with the kids and the kids LOVED it!

Dinner with Minnie Mouse and the gang at Chef Mickey

R, E and Minnie

J, L and Minine

D doing what she loves, dancing :)

D and E waiting for the bus.

More Downtown Disney fun

C and D in their stroller (aka carriage)

At the Princess Lunch

The castle from our resort

Downtown Disney (sorry, got out of order)

Hollywood Studios

Dinner at the SciFi Restaurant

Waiting for Fantasmic to start

And, last but not least... this photo jut makes me laugh! A & R (I think they are the real characters :)) cozied up together waiting for the show to start.

Lots of memories made...

Halloween Fun

Some photos of the girls on Halloween. We went to our church for a childrens gathering.

The girls playing Bingo

Face painting

D's turn.

Sitting very still... Look at that concentration "I not moving Mom" is what we got to hear.

All done :)

Fishing

Pin the animals on the ark

That evening we went and had dinner with friends and took the girls trick-or-treating in their neighborhood for a little while. We then stopped by our neighbors on our way home. It was a fun day.

Miley Cyrus Concert

The end of Oct. C and I went to the Miley Cyrus concert with C's friend M and her Mom. We all had a great time.

C & M at dinner before the concert. C at the concert.

C & M waiting patiently for Miley

Miley comes on stage

And this is what we get from C & M.

Misc. Sept Photos

These photos accidentally got deleted from my previous post and I couldn't figure out how to add them back in.

D's first day. C and M

Can you tell D was excited for dance class!?

C and Mommy on her 1st day

Sept.

I love fall. The crisp nights, warm air and fewer bugs... One Sept. morning I woke up, started making coffee and outside our kitchen window saw this. I sat that morning and thought about all the beautiful things in nature I am surrounded, and blessed, by.

Then we started the mad dash... I am posting this photo because I thought it was funny. We tried to enjoy as much of our fall as possible. One night I had gotten home with the girls and D took off in her car. A then got home and parked and soon, D had parked as well. We have a 2 car garage. I wonder what will happen with D's car "grows up"...

Sept. also brought the start of many things.

Dance class for C & D.

D was very excited about going to class again this year.

C started 1st grade.

Kindergarten photo. HOW did she get so tall!? And where was I for it!?

First day of 1st grade.

First day of Kindergarten. Our little girl is growing up.

D started Pre-school. She was very excited to start! Her first day was Fri. and C started school on Tues. D asked Tues., Wed. and Thurs. morning if she got to go to school and take her backpack. By Fri. she was getting a little frustrated with my "not until Fri." "Soon" answer. I don't think she believed me when her big day finally came.

All ready to go :)

Mommy and D on her big day.

We also traveled to South Dakota in Sept. for a wedding.

Mommy and D having fun at the hotel.

Another weekend in Sept. my sister-in-law came with my neice and we took the girls to the Zoo.

B, D and C.

Me and my girls :)

Soccer also started again in Sept.

Can you tell who C enjoys being with?

Her friend M. C loves her and so do we!

This is what happens at the end of a day of running to soccer, dance, piano lessons, school, pre-school, work, etc., etc.

End of Summer

Well, it's been a very busy but wonderful summer. Here are photos from our last month. I guess I don't have to wonder why it went so fast.

The Wed. swimming at Gu Ni Ni's crew. M, I, C, M, & D. Our girls and A's cousins girls. Thank you Gu Ni Ni for letting us crash your house and pool each week! We had a blast swimming and playing and getting to spend time with you! Can't believe it's over already!
Labor Day weekend we spent Sat. and Mon. at a campground near our house with A's family. We enjoyed time at the beach as it was an absolutely beautiful weekend!

D having fun at the camper. Can you tell what a silly girl she can be!? Always up to something...

C and D having fun with their cousin B.

All 4 of the Grandkids D, L, C and B.

Yesterday, Sun. of Labor Day weekend, we spent with my new little nephew L and his family for his baptism. Here he is now. He is gettign so big! Isn't he just the sweetest little guy!

Can you say Diva? D at the park singing and dancing away, totally oblivious to anyone around her watching.

My silly girls

My beautiful C...

This is the birthday card C made me

The inside

The Renissance Festival

C feeding the animals

Mommy and C riding the elephant

Face painting

Think I can get A to add these to the path in our woods? Maybe over the winter our fairy houses will grow!?

Riding the butterflies, D LOVED this! how do you like her ladybug wrist animal balloon?

The Zoo.

We made it to the Zoo twice this summer. Once with some very dear friends and their family and once with A's family. Always a good time!

The ostrich egg

C getting to feed the giraffe

Our nephew L feeding the giraffe.

The girls and I spent a Sat. night watching my neice and nephew. I'm not sure why I was there... C did all the baby L babysitting and D and B played. It was a great evening!

I think L likes C :)

who loves who?

The girls at their 1st concert. We took them to see Demi Lovato. It was a great time!

We had my neice, B's, birthday party... Happy 3rd B-day sweetie girl!

B's baby brother L

The girls and I spent time at the park and the beach.

I swear the child is part monkey...

A and the girls also attempted a garden this summer. Here are the girls last spring planting the seed with Grandma.

flowers too...

Here's C wearing Daddy's bib overalls from when he was a kid.

C watching her "crops" grow

One of the garden boxes Grandpa made us to plant in. I wish I had photos of what it looks like now with the soil and veggies growing in it. We did get to eat a few things out of it this year. Hopefully they (I say they because I am not the gardener in the family) have learned some things this year and next year will have a little better luck with the garden next summer.

Baby Nephew L ~ July 20th

Welcome little L to the family. My new little nephew was born on July 20th at 2:00pm. He is just the sweetest little guy!

This photo is of him today, Aug. 2nd. He will be 2 wks. old tomorrow. Here is our little L at 4 hours old

All the grandchildren.

C ~ the oldest grandchild and L ~ the youngest.