February 2013

Well we did it!  We took the obligatory trip to Disney World with our young children—and it was a trip for the record books!  Jackson and Taylor are at the perfect age to experience all the magic Disney World has to offer.  And Grant is the perfect age to leave with my parents :) (thanks mom and dad).  The experience was made even sweeter because our best friends from our MBA days (Mark and Natalie), joined us with their two older daughters (Cali and Tacy).  Since we didn’t have nap times to work around or bottles to make or diapers to change or baby food to worry about, we could just go all day.  Combine that with Scott’s infamous trip optimizer app, and we were unstoppable! 

We left right after church and it took us 9 hours to arrive!  We did stop to play soccer and eat at Cracker Barrel.  We checked into the Homewood Suites, which was nice because this hotel provided breakfast (including cool Mickey Mouse waffles) and dinner.  Monday morning we headed out for Hollywood Studios.  We did it all:  Toy Story (Jackson’s favorite), Little Mermaid (Taylor’s favorite), Lights, Camera, Action (Scott’s favorite), Indian Jones, Star wars, and more!And after we stuffed a few napkins in the heels of Taylor’s shoes (to make her tall enough), she was even brave enough to do Tower of Terror with me!  Jackson declined claiming, “I already did this ride at DinseyLAND.”  Which was true.

The Hendricks gang landed and caught up with us halfway through this day.  Our 4 kids really got along great, and made the trip WAY more fun for the adults.

We watched “Honey I shrunk the Kids” before our trip, so the kids were thrilled to be “shrunk” and play in the oversized grass, bushes, and on oversized ants!

Tuesday, was the much anticipated “Magical” Kingdom.  There were several times I found myself tearing up—during the parade when Taylor, wide-eyed, received a blown kiss directly from each princess; and other various moments when the kids were wowed and gaping at the magic Disney produces.  We all had a blast this day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Disney Parade

Wednesday was Epcot.  We were excited about this day because Taylor, Cali, and Tacy were going to have breakfast with the princesses!  And for $60 a person, I was doubtful, but it delivered and I’m so glad we did it.  Taylor felt beautiful (she LOVED getting dressed up and wearing makeup) and special as 5 princesses came and spoke with her directly for a few moments.  Her favorite was Cinderella. 

Epcot surprised us.  I remember it being ‘educational, boring, and a ton of walking,’ but they have a ton of really cool rides.  Soarin’ was probably our favorite because it brought us back to our San Diego days.

Maybe the funnest part of all was when we went to “Turtle Talk with Crush”.  It was really cool – they had this digital animation of Crush from Finding Nemo (think the crazy surfer turtle “dude”, “the EAC”).  But Crush talked to both Jackson and Taylor – they were great and Tay was hilarious as you would expect!

Tay talking to Crush

that evening we had a great dinner inside the Mexican temple and got to watch the fountain show on our way back home.

 

 

 

 

 

The next day was Animal Kingdom.  Everyone had a great time, and got to ride some super fun rides and see some great shows.  They had a scary ride called Dinosaur that we snuck Tay onto – you can see from the picture that she really enjoyed it as she ducked for cover! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that wrapped up our Disney trip.  When the chaos was all over Thursday night, and the kids were asleep, Scott took a second to check his email.  Turns out he had a training the next day in Atlanta at 10 am, and to cancel it he’d need to write an email to the head partner of the office, and the head partner of regional training for all the south offices.  So we decided to pack the car up, transfer the sleeping kids and start our drive home at 8 pm.  Made much better time getting home than we did on the way down there!

Next on the list for the month was the chess team state championship.  Jack was playing up on the 3rd grade team to fill a more competitive squad, and his team did well enough to make it to state!  They’re going to have Jack playing the number one chair for the 3rd grade team in the state tournament (means he’ll play the best kid from every other school’s 3rd grade team)…should be a learning experience. 

And that’s about a wrap for the month.  Scott continues life on the beach, so he’s helping out taking Tay to school, and we’re just it soaking up for the time being until the next project hits.  And things with me are going great.  I’m still enjoying my primary calling and hitting my stride with homeschooling (especially now that a college student from church comes and helps out with the house and Grant a couple days a week).

Hope you all have a great month!

All the best,

TFK