Disney World with Grandpa and Gigi: Day 1

My Mom had planned a trip down to visit us over Memorial Day weekend and while she was planning we were both saying how we wish my Dad could come spend some time with us.  I was really excited my Mom was coming down but bummed at the same time because my Dad didn't get a plane ticket and couldn't take the days off work.  My Mom got here on Sunday and played with the babies all week while we were at work.  I'm sure I said at least 5 times "oh I wish Dad was here, or how much fun would this be with Dad" Thursday night we were all packed for our Disney weekend and my Mom promised the twins a surprise after dinner and baths.  She already offered us ice cream sandwiches once, we turned them down because we were too full from dinner. Later that evening she asked if we would like another surprise and we said "No" to more ice cream. Then she said," its at the door"......AND THERE WAS MY DAD at the front door!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe they kept it a secret that whole time. It was awesome!!!

Grandpa, Gigi and Carter and Kenna on Main Street at the Magic Kingdom. We decided to go there the first day because it had the most for the twins. 

 Our first ride: Pirates of the Caribbean. It is Grandpa and Carter's Favorite ride. They were both singing "yo ho, yo ho, a pirates life for me" the whole time :) it was Captain Carter and Captain Grandpa for the rest of the day.

 ... we tried but couldn't make it out of the store without a sword.. Here's Captain Carter with his pirate ears and sword. He was a pirate for the rest of the day (for the rest of the weekend) and even today grandpa and carter were running around the house with their pirate swords. Everything that even resembles a sword becomes a sword....(hair brush, leg to Kenna's play-pen, a spoon...)

 Pirate Goofy... Carter was checking out his whiskers. and then......

 Carter showed off his best pirate moves with his sword for Goofy. It was too cute, I think Goofy was even impressed.

 Dad's Iowa hat even got in on the pirate action.

 Dad and Kenna at the Shootin' Gallery. Carter helping Daddy shoot the rifle. They were pretty good. I even did a little sharp shootin'. That rifle was heavy to hold up and shoot. It was fun.

 Dinner at my Dad's favorite place. The Liberty Tavern. It is a family favorite, the kids at all their food and our dinners were also fantastic!

 Everything is better when it's on a Mickey Mouse plate!

 My parents have this exact picture of me when I was Kenna's age at Disney. Churning the butter at Liberty Tavern.

 Hi Grandpa and Kenna!

 Hi Mommy and Carter (that's Gigi down there behind Carter's horse, haha she wasn't tall enough when the horse was all the way up :)

 Grandpa and Carter on Dumbo :) The Boys!

 The girls! Kenna picked out the "Pink Dumbo" here she is making it go up, up, up!

 HI!!

 He's such a good sport about all this! Thanks Chris!!!! We love you!

 So, Kenna loves Pooh and Carter got his pirate sword so Kenna had to have a baby pooh.... That's what I thought she was getting.... Look at what she talked Grandpa into getting her!!! The BIG Pooh!!!!! We gave her the little one and she stuck out her lip like she was sad and Grandpa I need the big one. YEP! She's already got him wrapped up. She hugged and kissed Grandpa all weekend, it was soooooo cute and she gets what she wants :)

 They had a new show with pictures on the castle and the castle changed colors. It was cool.

 But we always love watching the fire works. My mom got a picture of one of the heart fire works, see it?

 The Grand Finale!

Yep, that is one HAPPY BOY!!!!!!! Thank you so much Mom and Dad and Chris for a fantastic vacation!

Phil and Diane #2

Click the picture for a surprise! HONEYMOON!

Phil and Diane

At Disney World on their honeymoon! Click on the picture for a surprise!!!

Merry Christmas

We went to Disney for the twins 2nd birthday and got to meet Santa!!!!! He was so very nice and we all told him what we wanted for Christmas.  We were all so happy that Santa was visiting Disney from the North Pole the day we were there! If you click on the picture it is a cute card from Disney.

I have more pictures to post soon.

Sunday = Family Fun-day! (part 2)

The Magic Kingdom has awesome "not so scary" Halloween decorations.  I loved walking down the fall decorated Main Street.  All of the orange and yellow leaves made me miss the beautiful trees back home in Michigan. 

pumpkin Mickey

All of the leave garland was beautiful.

The designers made sure to cover every little detail.

The band walked by and Carter started dancing and clapping in his seat.  His love of music and singing definitely comes from Chris.  He might want to be in a band when he grows up....

My Kenna girl looking so grown up...like a little girl not a baby anymore.  I am both excited and sad at the same time.  

Being silly :) I love her laugh and funny sense of humor.  Lately she has been a little diva and everything is "EWWW or Yuck" or she points out the "Buggys" (bugs)

Carter smiling big waiting in line for Winnie the Pooh ride. 

My handsome little boy!

LOVE!

Out! She is tired after a long day at the happiest place on Earth :) So sweet! 

We had such a fun weekend trip to Disney World. I know I am going to pay for it this week in lack of sleep but it was well worth it to see how excited the twins were.  I can't wait to go back.  We are planning a trip with our good friends for sometime around the new year. 

Our FUN Family Weekend

We had a great family weekend. It started out by spending Friday night under the lights at a home football game.  The Cobras played like a completely different team this past week.  We lost the game in the last 27 seconds, but I was so proud to be a cobra.  The boys played hard the entire game, most of the players play both sides of the ball, so they were on the field the whole night!  The article on our school website said it best (and Vince Lombardi), "We didn't lose the game; we just ran out of time" Check out the article on our website HERE.

On Saturday the kids stayed home with Chris and I went over to my friend Lisa's house for dinner.

On Sunday we decided to take a day trip to Disney World!

 We went to Epcot first and rode in a clam shell to find Nemo.  Then took an adventure through out imagination with Figment. AND the best part of the day was meeting Mickey Mouse and all his friends!!

Here Kenna is giving Mickey a kiss on the nose. The twins were so excited to meet Mickey they were yelling his name while we were in line before it was our turn to go.

Here they are in awwweeee.. So happy to be with Mickey.

Here is Carter and Pluto. He called him puppy the whole time. Kenna didn't want to hug pluto, she just wanted to go back to Mickey. 

It's Minnie Mouse!! Carter fell in love. Arms out for a BIG hug and.....

He kissed her about 3 times on the nose!!!! It was love at first sight!

Of all the characters he knew Donald's name right away and said it a few times before it was our turn. Again Kenna was being a little shy. But Carter walked right up and shook Donald's hand.

Here is our family with Goofy.  He was a great sport when both kids were knocking on his head at the end of out picture.  I apologized and mentioned that it was probably loud in there with the twins knocking on his nose.  Sorry Goof!

After we took pictures with all of the characters it was time for lunch.  We went to Chris's favorite place, The Rose and Crown Pub.  It has British food and good beer, whats not to love.  We each got fish and chips and a beer and the kids got their own order of chips and apple juice.  I had a Golden Fox which is Boddingtons and Bass Ale mixed; I really liked it.  

After Epcot we took the Monorail to Magic Kingdom to check out the Halloween decorations and ride a few favorites before we went home.  (check out part 2)