Disney 2014 - Part 2 and 3 Hollywood Studios and Epcot

We love the Disney Junior activities at Hollywood Studios.  We ate a yummy breakfast at Hollywood and Vine and loved seeing the girls favorites!

Matching Amulets!



This was on the way to Epcot on Day 3

This was as close as we got to Frozen.  Currently, Anna and Elsa are only at Epcot and there was a two hour wait for them when the park opened!  Craziness!

Breakfast in Norway is always a hit!

Mulan was so sweet to them!

This was the rainiest day by far!

 

Epcot really is the best place to see characters without having to wait too long!

 

Lizzie didn't so much dig the "stuffed" characters.  She would wave from a distance, but didn't want a hug!

Just so I can remember for planning our next trip:

Meals we would definitely do again were Disney Junior Breakfast at Hollywood Studios, lunch at Mama Melrose's, Breakfast at Akersus, Dinner at the Wilderness Lodge, a meal at Tusker House (not a character one - maybe dinner), and Cinderella's Castle

Meals we would not do again were Rainforest Café, Breakfast at Ohana (would love another meal without characters), and Coral Reef

Wish we had eaten Italian at Epcot and at Earl of Sandwich!

 

 

Disney 2014 - Part 1 Magic Kingdom

We had a perfectly magical trip to Disney World! The weather was kind of rainy (please excuse all the bad hair from rain and ponchos) but otherwise it was a perfect trip! The girls did great on the plane which was a blessing for sure! We were mostly on a princess hunt and in our four days, we saw almost all of them.   We didn't get a picture with Jasmine (she had the flu) and we weren't waiting 4 hours to see Anna and Elsa, but we saw ALL THE OTHERS! The girls were happy, Mama and her camera were happy, and Daddy was a great sport!

Heading to MK the first morning - they were so excited!

Love the food at Ohana, but we will not do that breakfast again - the girls were so scared of Stitch they didn't eat their meal!



Nice crane?  Guess they were working on the castle!

I love how they do characters now with a nice scene and quality time with the kids. So worth the line (or fastpass)! When I was a child, you just had to catch the characters walking down the sidewalk!

Lunch at Cinderella's Castle of course!

SNOWMAGEDDON 2014

We were very blessed on this crazy day when the entire city seemed to just shut down!  About 10:00 I looked outside another teacher's window and realized that the snow was going to stick!  A few minutes later, I was in the office and overheard the administrators say we were releasing school at 10:30.  I immediately called Will who was clueless about how nasty is was getting outside.  I told him that I wasn't sure when I would be able to leave school but that he should go ahead and get the girls.  We both left work within the next few minutes.  Already, the entire city was in complete chaos.  There were cars wrecking all around.  Last year I was temporarily stuck heading up the hill to Grace Ann's school, so I knew better this time.  My goal was just to find a safe place to park at the bottom of the mountain!  It took about 2 hours for me to get there and park at a doc-in-the-box.  Most of my teacher friends realized they couldn't go farther and headed back to school where they spent the night.  I started walking the 2.7 miles up the mountain to GA's school.  Exactly 4 hours after I had called Will, we both arrived at Grace Ann's school.  It took him that long to get there from work with his 4 wheel drive truck.  We were so thankful to all be together and to have sweet Emi since her parents were stuck too.  Will had picked up the father of GA's friend Austin along the way.  Austin went home with us so that his daddy could walk the many miles to get his siblings. Once we were home, the kids had fun playing and we just cooked and were so thankful to be safe and warm!  That night I started reading the crazy stories on Facebook and realized that we were one of very few families who all made it home.  Almost all our other friends slept at work or at their child's school.  I am so very thankful that my work is within a few miles of GA's school and our house!  And we will always own a four wheel drive vehicle in this family! 

 

Here are a few pictures of the kids during their "Royal Sleepover" as they called it!

 

Emi was such a trooper - so sweet and well behaved even though she really didn't understand why her mommy and daddy were stuck!  Having a friend over was great for us, because it kept the girls from getting bored while they were snowed in!

 

This snow storm was definitely an experience I will NEVER forget!

 

Auburn in the BCS Championship 2014

I am writing the post from the blogger app on my phone because the majority of the pictures I took on our trip are on my phone. (so please excuse the strange format)  Aunt Liz treated Will and me to fabulous trip to California to watch Auburn play in the national championship game! Other than the game outcome, it was a perfect weekend. The girls were happy here with Aunt Kim and Rah Rah!  So thankful to them for loving our babies while we were having a blast!

This was our view as our plane was landing in Salt Lake City!

 We drove to Deer Valley to see Aunt Liz's house there and have lunch at the ski resort. It was a great way to spend a few hours before heading to Orange County, California!

I could have just stayed there and been happy!  So glad we got to see the beauty and hope we can go back for much longer soon!

Next, we boarded our plane headed to Orange County!

Will enjoying all the food on the plane! 

We finally arrived at our hotel and this view!  In heaven!

The next day we toured Hollywood and Beverly Hills!

 This was the rest if our awesome travel group! Joe, Ashley, and Mary! Love this bunch so much! 

Will ordered chicken pot pie for lunch while we were in Hollywood and they brought an entire pie!

The next day was game day, but we did spend a little time on the beach first!

This was our view at the game! We had lots of friends sitting nearby which made it so fun!

We had the BEST TIME!!!  So glad we had the wonderful opportunity to go!