We're Going to Disneyland!

The last week in January we headed west to visit Disneyland and the San Diego Zoo in California!  We spent five days between Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure.  It was a blast, and the days just flew by.  The crowds were pretty low, so we got to do just about everything we wanted (some of them more than once).

Just the best pictures

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For our more serious blog readers, here's a more detailed summary of our Disneyland trip!

Since we've done Disney World in Florida a couple of times with the girls, we decided to check out Disneyland in California. Mom found inexpensive plane tickets this fall and started planning our awesome vacation. We surprised the girls just after Christmas with the news that we were headed to Disneyland at the end of January!  The first part of January flew by and we were headed to Disneyland before we knew it!

We flew from Denver to LAX on Sunday, January 28th.  The girls are getting old enough that they can pretty much entertain themselves on these flights, so that was pretty easy.  Once we landed, we grabbed our rental car and headed down to Carlsbad (stopping at In-N-Out for dinner, of course).

Monday morning we drove down to San Diego to visit with Aunt Maxine (aka Old Auntie Max).  We had planned on going with her to the San Diego Zoo, but her knee was bothering her.  So, we spent some time hanging out at her house and then headed to the zoo.  The San Diego Zoo was very impressive.  We walked around until about 2 in the afternoon and then Emily decided she was done.  We were able to see the cheetahs and a sleeping arctic fox, which were both on Kara's "must see" list, along with many other animals including the famous pandas, koalas, polar bears, and an interactive show with a Komodo dragon.

We stopped to get snacks (and a replacement stroller) on the way back to the hotel.  It was late afternoon by then, but we were close to the beach, so we changed into swim suits and went to check out the Carlsbad beach scene.  It was beautiful and not too crowded, but boy was the water cold!  The girls didn't seem to mind, but Mom stayed out of the water.  It got especially cold when the sun went down, so we piled all the wet bodies into the car and headed back for hot baths and some delivery pizza at the hotel for dinner.  Whew, and that was just the first full day in California!

The next morning, we woke up and headed up to Disneyland in Anaheim.
We stayed at the Courtyard Anaheim Theme Park Entrance, which was a super nice, relatively new hotel.  It was an easy walk to the parks.  Great stay overall - the girls loved the bunk beds and the water park (went one day).  Mom loved the split bathroom and Starbucks in the lobby!  Kara also enjoyed Pepper, a robot they had in the lobby on certain days.

Here's a breakdown of the major rides and shows we did, for posterity:

Day 1 - Disney California Adventure
- Soarin'
- Goofy's Flight School
Lunar new year celebrations (year of the dog), including Mulan's processional, drummers from China, and face painting
- Radiator Springs Racers
- Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: BREAKOUT
- Panera Bread for dinner
- Toy Story Mania - this whole area of DCA was under construction and not too fun to navigate through.
- Radiator Springs Racers again
- World of Color (after nap at the hotel) - great show and a great first day in the parks!

Day 2 - Disneyland
- Main Street under construction - this definitely had a negative impact on the overall feel of the park.  We quickly went off to the different lands, avoiding the massive construction walls when possible.
- Indiana Jones
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Space Mountain
- Tiki Room (Dad and Emily)
- Dole Whips!
- Haunted Mansion
- Hotel pool for the afternoon

Day 3 - Disneyland
- Rode Mr. Toad's Wild ride, Alice in Wonderland, Snow White's scary adventure, etc. in Fantasyland
- Rode the Matterhorn
- Finding Nemo's voyage
- Tried "the Grey stuff"
- Blue Bayou for dinner (which is inside of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride)
- Fantasmic:  This was a wonderful show!  We all loved it, and had front and center seats.  It was awesome!
- Haunted Mansion afterward

Day 4 - Disneyland first, Disney California Adventure afternoon
- Breakfast with Minnie at the Plaza Inn - got to meet lots of characters
- Kara got to meet Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in DCA
- Radiator Springs Racers
- Hung out in Cars Land and got soft serve at the Cozy Cones
- Met Star Lord, Gamora and Groot!
- Guardians of the Galaxy: BREAKOUT

Day 5 - Disneyland (morning before our flight back home)
- Space Mountain
- Matterhorn
- Toon Town
- Monorail from Tomorrowland to Downtown Disney
- Silly Symphony swings

Dad's favorite part of the vacation was the Guardians of the Galaxy ride (might have been Kara's favorite too) and meeting Groot! :-)

The girls enjoyed pin trading for the first time.  Mom loved Space Mountain (and everyone managed to ride it many times).  Emily really enjoyed Haunted Mansion, and we all loved the longer Pirates of the Caribbean.

Here's an album that has all the fun.  Enjoy!

All the pictures (includes a couple videos)

Disney Cruise!

Early this summer, we headed down to Florida with Grandma and Grandpa to catch our first Disney Cruise out of Port Canaveral.  We hit some turbulence on our descent, which Emily thought was just the greatest thing ever. Grandma and Mom were gripping their seats while Emily was giggling and cackling every time the plane shook or dropped.   After landing in Orlando, we caught a shuttle to a hotel in Cocoa Beach.  We got there just in time to grab some dinner and then head to bed.

We woke up the next morning (June 10th) and took a quick stroll on the beach.  Mimi and Uncle Trey coincidentally were in Orlando meeting up with Trey's girlfriend, Ashley, so they came out to say hi.  We grabbed some breakfast with them and then headed out to the port to catch the ship.  We cruised on the Disney Fantasy ship, which was pretty awesome.  They had a theater for live shows (and also movies), a full-sized movie theater, two pools (that kids could use) on deck complete with an awesome water slide, three dining rooms, and a huge kids area (called the Oceaneer Club) with interactive games like Star Wars and Dr. Strange.  We spent the first day exploring the ship.  Kara and Dad stumbled upon the Midship Detective Agency activity, which was actually Dad's favorite part of the entire cruise!  Basically, you get a case assigned to you at a kiosk in the middle of the ship.  They have a couple Mickey Mouse mysteries, but they also have a Muppet one, which was the one Kara chose to start.  From there, you go to certain framed pictures on the ship.  When you hold your picture up, the pictures will come to life and give you clues or otherwise help you with the mystery.  The cards can be used to complete actions (eg turning a wrench or popping balloons).  They had several variations, so you could do it more than once (which we did).  We had dinner the first night in the Royal Court dining room.  Both girls tried escargot (Emily actually ate a couple snails!) and we finished off the meal with Mickey Ice Cream Bars (except for Mom and Grandma, who opted for more grown-up desserts).

Day 2 was a day At Sea.  We started off the day by hitting the pools.  Kara also hit the big water slide, called the AquaDuck.  Emily was a little too small for that slide, so she did the smaller slide over and over again.  After swimming for a couple of hours, we headed back to our room to get ready for our character greeting with Elsa and Anna from Frozen.  After that we grabbed some lunch and headed back to the room for an afternoon nap (both girls were pretty good about taking naps on the cruise). We took it pretty easy the rest of the afternoon, checking out the ship some more and getting some pictures with characters.  We had dinner that night at the Animator's Palate, which has TV screens all around the dining room.  They had an interactive show with Crush from Finding Nemo.  He would talk to the kids and make jokes with them.  Unfortunately our table wasn't situated right next to the screen, so the girls didn't get to talk with Crush.  They enjoyed watching him, though.  After dinner we hit the Aladdin musical show, which was basically a condensed version of the movie (still entertaining).  It was almost 9:30 at night when the show got over (which is late for Kara and super-late for Emily.  We got both girls back to the room and to bed, so we could get rest for our next adventure.

On Day 3 we stopped in at Cozumel, Mexico.  Both girls were up and at 'em by 7 am (of course).  Cozumel was where we did our big excursion for the cruise at this port.  We did the Dolphin Experience.  It was pretty awesome.  All of us got into an enclosure with a dolphin.  The trainer then took turns with us giving the dolphin kisses and letting her kiss us!  We all had fun (even Grandma).  After playing with the dolphins, we spent some time at the pool before heading back to the ship.  We took the rest of the afternoon pretty easy, just walking around the ship.  We finished up the evening with dinner at the Enchanted Garden dining room, which was decorated as an arboretum.

Day 4 took us to Grand Cayman.  We decided to just hang out on the ship for the morning (the girls were a little beat from the previous days' activities). After a short nap, we took the the tender into Georgetown to see what they had.  We happened to run into Grandma and Grandpa (who had headed over earlier in the morning) on the street and checked out Del Sol with them.  Mom and Dad had dinner at Palo, which was a fancy restaurant onboard to celebrate their 14th anniversary while the girls had dinner at Royal Court with Grandma and Grandpa.  After dinner, Mom and Dad rejoined everyone else to check out that night's show, Wishes.  The show got over around 9:30, so we herded the girls back to the room to get some rest.

We docked in Falmouth, Jamaica on Day 5.  We didn't have any specific plans in Jamaica (but we did have big plans for later in the evening), so we just hung out around the ship for the morning.  After breakfast, Emily and Kara spent some time in the kids club.  While they were in there, Mom and Dad caught Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 2 in the movie theater.  After the movie, we boosted the girls out of the kids club and grabbed some lunch.  By that time, Grandma and Grandpa had come back onto the ship from their morning adventure in Jamaica (mostly just wandering around shops).  Dad headed back to the room in the hopes to get a really good nap while Mom and Grandma ran into town to check out another Del Sol.  Unfortunately, the girls just couldn't get settled down for a nap.  They whispered to each other and kept each other up for more than an hour.  Eventually, the girls did settle down for a short nap (maybe an hour).  It was extra unfortunate they didn't get in a good nap because that night was Pirate night on the cruise!  Around 4:00 we headed to Bibbity Boppity Botique (which was renamed to the Pirate's League for that night) to get the girls made over in pirate make-up (check out the video below)!  Once the girls were all made over, we headed down to the atrium where there were several characters for meet and greets.  After meeting Stitch and Goofy (and also getting some group pictures) we headed to dinner at Animator's Palate.  Once we were done with dinner, Dad headed back to the room with Emily (in hopes that she would settle down and maybe get to sleep) while Mom and Kara headed to watch the newest Pirates of the Caribbean movie.  Emily had a complete break down in the room and wouldn't stop crying until Mom came back.  So, Mom came back to hang out with Emily while Dad went to go watch the movie (Kara stayed there with Grandma and Grandpa).  After the movie, there was fireworks show at 11, which is ridiculously late for Kara.  Dad and Kara headed up there with Grandma and Grandpa and were surprised when Mom and Emily met us up there.   After Emily's little breakdown, she was fine.  After the show, we herded the girls back to the room to get some sleep.

Day 6 was a Day at Sea.  We spent much of the morning recovering from the excitement of Pirate Night and took it easy most of the day.  The girls spent some time in the kids club in the morning.  In the afternoon, we did a few cases with the Midship Detective Agency.  We had dinner that night at Animator's Palate.  They put on a pretty good show.  Each person draws a character, which was then animated.  After dinner we hit the show - Believe, which is about believing in magic.  Good entertainment for kids.

For Day 7 we stopped at Disney's private island in the Bahamas called Castaway Cay.  It's a pretty small island with a protected beach that can be found here.  We started off by just wandering the beach.  They have a few water attractions (a slide and a climbing structures out in the water).  While Kara and Grandpa were waiting for their turn on the waterslide, the lifeguards closed down the slide and sent everyone because they saw a storm approaching.  They weren't kidding!  As soon as everyone got back to shore, it started to rain.  Dad and Grandpa, who had wandered pretty far down the beach with the girls, quickly found some shelter thinking it would just blow over.  About 20 minutes later, it was still pouring!  The storm did eventually dissipate, and we wandered back to find Grandma and Mom.  We stayed out on the beach until early in the afternoon before heading back to the ship and getting in a little quiet time.  Late in the afternoon we headed to the movie theater to check out Cars 3, which had just been released in theaters.  The girls thought the movie was pretty good.  On the downside, we didn't get out of the movie until after our dining time, so we grabbed dinner at Cabana's (quick service buffet).  Since we'd hit the movie in the afternoon, we decided to skip the last show of the cruise.

We disembarked and headed home the next morning.  The trip home was uneventful, which is just the way Mom and Dad like travel to be.  The girls are already planning our next cruise!

Link to pictures

Disney World 2016!

We decided to take advantage of free admission to Disney for kid's under 3 by taking a trip with the family to Disney World in Florida at the end of February with Mimi and Papa (right before Emily's 3rd birthday). We made a similar trip with Kara right before her 3rd birthday (Blog post of Kara's first visit to Disney).  To get the girls in the Disney mood, Mom set up an awesome scavenger hunt (see the video below) on Valentines Day. That day was exactly two weeks before our flight to Disney World.  Mom and Dad figured that was plenty of time for the girls to get excited about the trip but not so much time that the girls would pester us with questions about how much longer until our vacation for too long.  It worked perfectly as Mom and Kara were able to scout out some of the rides and watch some Disney videos to get prepared and Emily had time to get used to the idea of meeting characters.

Sleeping was a bit of an issue for the first several nights.  It was the first time we'd all shared a single hotel room and the first time we'd traveled with the girls since last summer.  It seems Emily likes to talk to herself a bit before she goes to sleep.  The first few nights, our bedtime process was a cycle of Emily talking a bit, Kara telling her to be quiet and go to sleep, Mom and Dad telling Kara to leave Emily alone, Emily then talking to Mom and Dad, Kara getting annoyed, and so on.  Plus, Emily kept waking up every so often and getting up to check if everyone was still there (and waking everyone up in the process), but we got it figured out after the first few nights (thankfully!).

We signed up for a Disney Photo Pass, which was great since we got some good group shots.  Emily was a little camera shy at the beginning of the trip, but she warmed up toward the end.  We picked out the best for the trip photo album, but here's a link to all the photo pass pictures.

It was quite an eventful trip.  Even though we didn't go into a Disney park every day, the trip seemed to fly by and we were always busy!

We hit Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral our first day.  It was a favorite visiting place while we were temporarily living in Florida.  Kara enjoyed checking out the Rocket Garden, the play area, and the Space Shuttle exhibit.  The girls also got to meet Robonaut, which was awesome.  Robonaut is a humanoid robot (his twin is currently on the International Space Station, ISS) that you can interact and talk with.  By the end, Emily was exhausted and a little cranky (since we'd stayed through her naptime and she didn't sleep too well the night before).

The rest of the trip was taken up with Disney.  We hit all four parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Disney Hollywood Studios) plus Disney Springs (formerly known as Downtown Disney).  It was a whirlwind trip.  We did a couple of character breakfasts: Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary with Mickey Mouse, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, and Minnie and Cinderella's Royal Table, which is a restaurant in Cinderella's Castle with Cinderella (of course), Ariel, Jasmine, Snow White, and Aurora (Sleeping Beauty).

Kara enjoyed doing all the thrill rides.  Her favorites were Tower of Terror, Test Track, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Star Tours (a ride with C3PO as a guide on a tour gone very wrong, which Kara, Dad, and Mimi ended up doing Star Tours 4 times in a row since the line was almost non-existent and the ride is a little different every time), Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Astro Orbiter.  Kara also really enjoyed Spaceship Earth, though she said she was disappointed that it wasn't a real spaceship.  Mom and Dad were a little concerned that Kara would be scared on Tower of Terror, but she said it wasn't nearly as scary as the Haunted Mansion ride.

Emily was a little small for the big rides but really enjoyed meeting the characters.  Her favorites were Goofy, Baymax (who she calls the puffy robot), and Tinkerbell.  Emily was just in awe of Tinkerbell and just thought she was the coolest person ever.  Emily also really enjoyed Frozen Sing-A-Long.  Emily did enjoy some of the rides like Winnie the Pooh's Adventure, Dumbo, it's a small world, and Prince Charming Regal Carrousel.

Unfortunately, Emily started to get a sniffle on the last night, so she didn't sleep well, which made for a very unpleasant travel day.  But we all made it home safe and sound.  I think the girls are ready for their next Disney adventure!



Link to pictures

We're going to Disney World!

We decided to take advantage of free admission to Disney for kid's under 3 by taking a trip with the family to Disney World in Florida at the end of February with Mimi and Papa (right before Emily's 3rd birthday). We made a similar trip with Kara right before her 3rd birthday (Blog post of Kara's first visit to Disney).  To get the girls in the Disney mood, Mom set up an awesome scavenger hunt (see the video below) on Valentines Day. That day was exactly two weeks before our flight to Disney World.  Mom and Dad figured that was plenty of time for the girls to get excited about the trip but not so much time that the girls would pester us with questions about how much longer until our vacation for too long.  It worked perfectly as Mom and Kara were able to scout out some of the rides and watch some Disney videos to get prepared and Emily had time to get used to the idea of meeting characters.

Sleeping was a bit of an issue for the first several nights.  It was the first time we'd all shared a single hotel room and the first time we'd traveled with the girls since last summer.  It seems Emily likes to talk to herself a bit before she goes to sleep.  The first few nights, our bedtime process was a cycle of Emily talking a bit, Kara telling her to be quiet and go to sleep, Mom and Dad telling Kara to leave Emily alone, Emily then talking to Mom and Dad, Kara getting annoyed, and so on.  Plus, Emily kept waking up every so often and getting up to check if everyone was still there (and waking everyone up in the process), but we got it figured out after the first few nights (thankfully!).

We signed up for a Disney Photo Pass, which was great since we got some good group shots.  Emily was a little camera shy at the beginning of the trip, but she warmed up toward the end.  We picked out the best for the trip photo album, but here's a link to all the photo pass pictures.

It was quite an eventful trip.  Even though we didn't go into a Disney park every day, the trip seemed to fly by and we were always busy!

Day 1: Kennedy Space Center
The morning after we flew in, we headed straight to Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral.  It was a favorite visiting place while we were temporarily living in Florida.  Kara enjoyed checking out the Rocket Garden, the play area, and the Space Shuttle exhibit.  The girls also got to meet Robonaut, which was awesome.  Robonaut is a humanoid robot (his twin is currently on the International Space Station, ISS) that you can interact and talk with.  By the end, Emily was exhausted and a little cranky (since we'd stayed through her naptime and she didn't sleep too well the night before).

Day 2: No park day
We took our second day relatively easy without a park visit.  We started off the day with a character breakfast at Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary hotel at 9:30.  We got to meet Mickey Mouse, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, and Minnie.  Mom and Dad were slightly concerned that Emily would be afraid of the costume characters, but she seemed to warm up to them quite well.  After breakfast, we did a little shopping at the Contemporary hotel and then took it easy back at our hotel, Shades of Green.  That night, we had a fancy dinner at Sanaa in the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  They have African animals (like giraffes, wildebeests, and other exotic animals) wandering around the grounds.  The girls had a good time checking out the animals before dinner.

Day 3: Magic Kingdom
On day 3 we finally made it to the Magic Kingdom.  Mom made reservations at Cinderella's Royal Table (which is a resaurant in Cinderella's Castle) to meet all the Disney princesses.  We got to meet Cinderella (of course), Ariel, Jasmine, Snow White, and Aurora (Sleeping Beauty).  The upside to having breakfast at the castle with the princesses (other than eating in the castle with the princesses) is that we get into the park before it officially opens.  We headed straight for Fantasyland and got to check out some of the kid-friendly rides there (Winnie the Pooh's Adventure, Dumbo, it's a small world).  After lunch we headed back to the hotel for a little break.  After a quick nap for Emily (and a little quiet time for Kara), we headed back to Magic Kingdom.  Our second time around, we checked out the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, which is a very popular new attraction.  It was a fun roller coaster.  Kara loved it!  We also checked out Mickey's Electric Parade, which both girls enjoyed.  After that, Dad and Papa headed back to the hotel with Emily while Mimi, Mom, and Kara hit the Haunted Mansion and the nighttime fireworks show.

Day 4: Animal Kingdom/Disney Hollywood Studios
The next day took us to the Animal Kingdom.  As soon as we got into the park, we headed straight to the Wild Africa Trek safari, which always a cool ride to check out.  The morning just flew by, and after only a couple of shows, it was time for Emily to head back for naptime.  Kara stayed at the park with Mom and Mimi before they all headed over to Disney Hollywood Studios.

Once Emily woke up from her nap, Dad and Papa headed back out with Emily to meet with Kara, Mom, and Mimi.  We first checked out the Muppet show, which both girls thought was awesome.  Dad, Kara, and Mimi then headed to Star Tours (a ride with C3PO as a guide on a tour gone very wrong),  while Papa, Mom, and Emily headed over to the Frozen Sing-A-Long.  Papa, Mom, and Emily missed their FassPass window, so Kara, Dad, and Mimi ended up doing Star Tours 4 times in a row (the line was almost non-existent and the ride is a little different every time).  We stayed late at the park that night to check out the Fantasmic show.

Day 5: Disney Springs
After two days in a row at the parks, we decided to take it easy and headed to Disney Springs (previously known as Downtown Disney).  We poked around the shops for a couple hours and then grabbed lunch at the T-Rex restaurant.

After a nap and a leisurely afternoon at the hotel, we headed over to the Polynesian hotel to grab some dinner at 'Ohana.

Day 6: Epcot
We next headed to Epcot.  Unfortunately, Mimi started to feel kind of under the weather as we walked to catch the monorail.  She was a trooper and toughed it out, though.  We only stayed in the Future World portion of Epcot and hit some of the big rides (Misson:Space, The Seas, Journey into Imagination, Spaceship Earth).  Kara really enjoyed Spaceship Earth, though she said she was disappointed that it wasn't a real spaceship.  After a quick lunch, Mom and Dad headed back to the hotel with Kara and Emily while Mimi and Papa enjoyed an afternoon touring the World Showcase at Epcot.

Day 7: Magic Kingdom
Our final day at Disney found us at the Magic Kingdom.  Fortunately, we were able to get to the gate in time for rope drop, so we were able to hit some rides early in the morning (Space Mountain and Big Thunder Moutain).  We also took some time out to visit with characters.  Both girls met up with Chip and Dale, and Emily met up with Tinkerbell.  Emily was just in awe of Tinkerbell and just thought she was the coolest person ever.  Overall, Kara enjoyed doing all the thrill rides (her favorites were Tower of Terror, Test Track, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Star Tours, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Astro Orbiter) while Emily was a little small for the big rides but really enjoyed meeting the characters (her favorites were Goofy, Baymax, who she calls the puffy robot, and Tinkerbell).

Mom and Dad spent the afternoon in the parks while the girls stayed at the hotel with Mimi and Papa.

Unfortunately, Emily started to get a sniffle on the last night, so she didn't sleep well, which made for a very unpleasant travel day.  But we all made it home safe and sound.  I think the girls are ready for their next Disney adventure!



Link to pictures

September Blur

The month of September just seemed to fly by.  We had a steady stream of visitors while we tried to get the most out of our last days in Florida.  It started the last week of August when Mimi and Uncle Trey came down to visit.  They spent a lot of time hitting the sites of Cape Canaveral with Kara.  The highlights included: a visit to Kennedy Space Center, kayaking in the Indian River with the manatees, checking out the dinosaur museum, a trip to Downtown Disney, and visiting Disney's Animal Kingdom (it was a busy week). Mommy and Daddy took advantage of the babysitters and spent the weekend at Universal Studios, which was a lot of fun (pictures).

On September 12th, Grandma and Grandpa S. came down from Colorado to visit us as well.  They took Kara to Jungle Adventures, Kennedy Space Center (which was pretty much Kara's favorite place to go down in Florida), and back to Downtown Disney.  Emily is still pretty shy around new people, but she warmed up to them after a couple of days.

Shortly after Grandma and Grandpa left, Mimi flew down to help get everybody packed up for the long trip back home.  Trey came down the following weekend with his girlfriend, Mary Beth.  Everyone except Daddy and Emily headed to Disney World for the last excitement of the summer.  Whew, I get tired just thinking about it all!

Mommy and Mimi bravely drove the girls back to Alabama in one day (Tuesday, Sept 24th).  The trip went fairly smoothly other than a couple meltdowns from Kara and frequent diaper changes and feedings for Emily.  Unfortunately, Mommy and Emily came down with colds as soon as they got to Mimi and Papa's house, so they were fairly miserable.  Daddy arrived on Saturday to get everyone ready for the last push home (more on that the next post).

Emily is doing great these days.  She can sit on her own and really seems to enjoy exploring things by herself (she'll just sit there and play with some rubber blocks for 15 minutes or more), which Mommy and Daddy are excited about.  She sleeps from about 6:30-6:30 most nights, though she occasionally will wake up at 4 am, and takes 2-3 naps per day (usually at 9 am, noon, and 3 pm).  Emily is going through a phase of stranger anxiety.  In general, she seems to prefer to just hang out at home and take things easy, so that's what we do with her whenever we can.

Kara has gotten pretty good at entertaining herself, which is really good since Mommy and Daddy have to spend a lot of time taking care of Emily.  Kara has developed quite an affinity for comic books.  In particular, she seems to really enjoy Spider Man.  She'll sit an read comic books to herself for long stretches of time.  Kara has become quite an artist.  I'll post some of her pictures in a blog soon!

Link to pictures
 

More Florida Summer Fun

We have been keeping ourselves very busy down here in Florida.  We made it down to the beach one day as a family (Emily's not a big fan of the sun and heat).  We also made it out to EPCOT one last time before the summer crowds start (which was a surprise visit for Kara).  Here's how the talk went on the drive into the park:

Mommy - Kara, do you see the sign in front of us? [it was the entrance sign for Disney World]
Kara - It's a sign for Disney World!  Are we going to Disney World?
Mommy - You'll have to wait and see.
Kara, talking to herself - I think we're going to Disney World.  We seem to be following the signs.  It would be fun to go to Disney World, and I think we're going.  But Mommy says she doesn't know where we're going.  I hope it's Disney World!
Mommy - Kara, do you see what's in front of us? [it was EPCOT]
Kara - EPCOT! (throwing her hands up in triumph)

Kara is getting adjusted to her new surroundings.  We signed her up for a sports camp, so on Tuesday and Thursday mornings she runs around playing soccer with other kids.  She seems to have a great time with that.  Kara has also taken to putting on productions for Mommy during the day at the condo.  In one show Kara was pretending to be a dinosaur.  When Mommy was pretending to be scared, Kara replied, "It's just make-believe, nothing's going to happen to you."  And then later said, "It's all controlled, don't worry."  Sometimes she will pretend to be the animals and act out their parts.  Other times she will be the ring master - "Introducing Cecil the Dolphin and Cecil the Octopus" (for some reason she seems to like the name Cecil).

Emily is becoming a very talkative and happy baby.  She often times will chat up the caterpillar toy on her bouncy seat.  She's also taken to giggling while playing with Mommy and Daddy.  She is getting stronger all the time.  She rolled over for the first time at 11 weeks old.  She also can stand on her legs (with lots of support from either Mommy or Daddy).  It really is amazing how fast they grow!

Speaking of babies, congratulations to Justin, Heather, and Sean on your newest addition!  We cannot wait to meet Robin.

Link to pictures

Summer Vacation!

Daddy got a new job at the beginning of May.  There was one catch/perk, though.  The job includes a six-month temporary assignment to work for NASA at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and they wanted Daddy there ASAP.  So, we packed up the family and headed down to Florida to spend some time on the beach.  We've been pretty busy since we got down here. We have hit the beach several times, Daddy and Kara got to watch a launch from the beach, Daddy got to visit the space shuttle launch pad and mobile launcher, and we all hit Disney World for a day with Mimi and Uncle Trey. Not a bad start to the summer!

Emily is getting a little bigger and stronger all the time.  She recently started pulling her head up during tummy time. She also can stand up while holding onto someone's hands.  In general, she's a very happy baby, always smiling and cooing at Mommy and Daddy.  She's also sleeping really well.  She'll get in a couple hour-long naps (plus a few other cat naps) every day and will sleep almost 8 hours straight at night.

Anyone want to visit us down in Florida?  We're only an hour away from Disney World, SeaWorld, and Universal Studios!

Link to pictures

And Daddy got to see another launch one evening.

Disney World!!!

Just before Kara's third birthday, we decided it was time to head down to Orlando and visit Walt Disney World!  Mimi and Papa H. along with Grandma and Grandpa all came with us for Kara's first Disney experience.

We started our adventure with a visit to Disney's Hollywood Studios.  It was probably a good park to start with since it has lots of shows and attractions as opposed to intense rides.  Kara's favorites there were the Beauty and the Beast show and the Muppet Show (we did that one twice).  We were able to do everything we wanted to do before lunch and headed back to the hotel for nap time (we were able get Kara back to the hotel everyday for nap time - nap time is even more important than Disney!). After the nap, we went back to the park to see the light show, which was really cool.  Kara enjoyed trying to catch the fake snow!

The next day was a visit to EPCOT.  Kara's favorite thing was Turtle Talk with Crush, which is a really cool interactive show where Crush (the turtle from Finding Nemo) asks the kids questions and jokes around with them.  We only got in a couple of rides in the morning, but we went back to the park in the afternoon.  That was when Kara had her first character greeting experience.  She was a little timid at first, but quickly figured out how to get the character's signatures and how to pose with them.  We grabbed dinner at the Biergarten in EPCOT.  Kara really enjoyed the live band and had a great time dancing on the dance floor.

Our third day led us to the Magic Kingdom, which is where Kara would spend the rest of the week except for a morning at the Animal Kingdom with Mimi and Papa and another morning in EPCOT.  Kara was enthralled with everything at the Magic Kingdom.  She loved the shows (Mickey's Philharmagic was her favorite) and the rides (she liked especially liked It's A Small World and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh Ride), but she absolutely loved the characters.  She had a great time meeting the princesses, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, and, of course, Mickey Mouse!

All in all, Kara had a great time.  We got some great pictures and created some amazing family memories.  We're planning on heading back in 2018.  Who's with us?

Link to pictures