Christmas & Disney World!

Has it really been over 2 months since I've posted? Oopsy. We are crazy busy, so obviously time must be moving faster here.

Christmas was really nice this year...we didn't have to really travel anywhere and we didn't have to rush to prepare Christmas 'dinner' which is a change from the norm. I really enjoyed just being home, staying in jammies all day, being lazy, playing with new toys, etc. The girls were super spoiled, as usual, and got a ton of fun gifts. This year's "hot items" were a Barbie Sister Style Camper (Aundrea's MUST have) and a scooter (for Kaitlyn). Since she just had her birthday, Kaitlyn didn't have many "must have's" on her list. She did ask Santa for a REAL LIVE KITTY though...remember, we already have a REAL LIVE CAT named Sam...so the kitty was a no-go. I don't think she was too disappointed though. They also received a Disney Princess Dream Castle (H.U.G.E.) which our entire family helped put together. We ALL (Mommy, Daddy, Kaitlyn, Aundrea, Uncle Chris, Grandpa Maloch & Grandma Marti) had our hands in it getting it ready to play with. It may take a village to raise a child, but it takes a whole family to put a princess castle together! The girls also really enjoyed Elfie, our Elf on the Shelf, this year and were sad to see her go back home (to the North Pole) with Santa. Elfie did some pretty silly things this year like put the girls undies on the tree, draw faces on pictures, hang from the ceiling fan in undies, hang out in the dollhouse, etc. Every morning the girls were full of giggles once they found Elfie.

Two days after Christmas the four of us left for Jacksonville, FL. This was Aundrea's first 'real long' vacation with us. We were prepared with snacks, movies, books, crayons, tablets, etc. to keep them busy in the car and I'm proud to say they did REALLY well. We ran into traffic in SC on our way down and that put us about 3 hours behind, but even with that they were pretty good. We visited Uncle Bryan, Aunt Edye and cousin Jenna for several days and had a ball. They had gotten the girls several craft projects for Christmas and that kept them busy. We also made our annual trip to the Jacksonville Zoo, did some shopping while the boys golfed and made several trips to the beach to play in the sand. And of course, we had to eat at Joe's Crab Shack on the beach too...Mommy's favorite!

Then we were onto Disney World with some very excited little princesses!! Our first day we spent at Hollywood Studios dodging rain drops. Good thing we had umbrella's and raincoats, but then we couldn't see the girls' cute Minnie Mouse pettiskirts. We made the best of it though and got to ride the Tower of Terror (Kaitlyn = LOVE; Aundrea = terrified, then like, lol), see Beauty and the Beast Live on stage, meet Princess Sophia (for the first time!), Minnie Mouse and a few others. Then we checked into the NEW Art of Animation Hotel where we stayed in a Little Mermaid room...AKA our little girls' dreams come true! Ariel was actually only featured on the shower curtain...in front of the coolest part of the room...Ariel's Grotta WAS our SHOWER! Yup! The tile was painted (?) to look like shelves holding all of Ariel's treasures from land. It was pretty sweet.

Day two we dressed the girls up as Elsa and Anna, from Frozen (the BIGGEST thing for school-aged kids right now) and we headed to Epcot. The girls really looked their part too...Anna has strawberry blond/reddish hair (just like Kaitlyn) and Elsa has bright blond, almost white hair (like Aundrea's). As we were waiting for the bus to take us to Epcot, a family approached us and asked if they could have their picture taken with the girls because "they look so cute and just like the real thing!" Ha ha! Kaitlyn and Aundrea felt like movie stars! Oh and later that day another woman came up and asked for their (Elsa and Anna's) autographs! At Epcot, the girls LOVED riding Test Track, meeting TONS of characters, and playing with some new friends from Indiana while waiting in line. It started POURING rain this day too and we were worried that our entire vacation was going to be a wash out. But it was more of an off and on rain, so it could have definitely been worse. By the time we got to our Princess dinner though, we were all soaked and looked like wet rats...which didn't make for great pictures with all the princesses...but oh well. They still were in awe meeting them and this time they got to parade around the restaurant with them! We also tried really hard to get to meet Elsa and Anna but their line was THREE (3) HOURS LONG...for a picture and an autograph...and it was going to run over into our princess dinner time. Daddy even entertained the idea of waiting in line for us girls while we did something else, but of course we didn't want him to miss dinner. So, we hoisted the girls up in the air, above the crowd, and let them "see" Elsa and Anna from afar...but sadly, we didn't get their autograph or their pictures. Sigh. I think Mommy was more upset about that than the girls were because I knew how excited they were to meet them. Good thing we could follow up that disappointment with the princess dinner. And they spent some of their spending money on a red Minnie Mouse (Kaitlyn) and puppy from Lady and the Tramp (Aundrea).

Our third day we headed to Magic Kingdom and just when we thought the rainy weather couldn't get any worse, the sun came out...and the temperature dropped to 40 degrees...in Orlando, FL. We didn't bring coats with us so layered as many sweatshirts and jackets as possible and wrapped the girls in their princess/Tink blankets...and that's how we paraded around MK. We met quite a few characters this day and even got a little extra time with Snow White...she showed them all of her forest friends in her book. This day ended up being kind of a flop for us...Kaitlyn was miserably cold (as were the rest of us, really), Big Thunder Mountain was closed darn near all day so we didn't get to go on it, and we wasted about an hour waiting for a parade that never happened. We also had dinner at the Crystal Palace with Pooh and Friends (which was amazing, by the way) but as we were waiting outside (snuggled up under blankets) the girls both fell asleep on our laps! Ha, that never happens! But apparently, when you're freezing cold, cozy in a blanket, tired from vacation...it can happen. They woke up happy though and ready to meet Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore. And, because it was so cold, we ended our day at the park after dinner...we were all ready to warm up and sleep.

Day four was also at Magic Kingdom and this day was wonderful! Ariel (Kaitlyn) and Belle (Aundrea) were all glammed up and ready to ride Big Thunder Mountain! Which we did...over and over and over...seriously, like 6 or 7 times or something. We got to the park early, headed right for it AND grabbed fast passes so we could ride a bunch. We got to meet Merida, Ariel, Alice, etc. and ate lunch at the Be Our Guest restaurant again. Mommy and Daddy loved it...the girls, eh. We also got to see the parade and the girls got dusted with magic fairy dust, which they thought was pretty awesome. The weather this day was really nice too...65-70 and sunny...hooray!

Our last day at Disney we woke up early to have breakfast at the Tusker House in Animal Kingdom. We love that breakfast, as it allows us into the park an hour early so by the time we're done eating, we're still in the park before it opens. We went on a private safari, just the four of us (plus the tour guide)! That was pretty cool! The main attraction at AK is Expedition Everest...Kaitlyn's favorite roller coaster, and now Aundrea's favorite too. Once again, we went there early and rode it a bunch of times plus had fast passes for it. Mommy's tummy was feeling it after our 5th (?) time so I had to cut the girls off, lol. Seriously though, I'm so glad these girls love roller coasters as much as I do...so much fun! We saw an awesome Lion King show at AK and took in the parade too before heading to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. The kids menu included a scavenger hunt for items around the restaurant, so the girls had fun doing that...and it allowed the grown ups a little quiet time to ourselves...although, I was a little nervous about them walking around the restaurant by themselves! After dinner, we said goodbye to Disney World and headed to Jacksonville to sleep. Then we were on our way home! Or so we thought...it actually took us 2 days to get home because SNOWMAGEDDON hit Ohio the day we were driving home and we got like 2 feet of snow! But Wayne-the-driver is awesome and got us home safely. :o) 

Well, that almost catches us up. January has been full of snow, cold and snow days for the kids. I think they've only had maybe 5 days of school this entire month! So, even though we've been back from vacation for nearly a month, we have yet to settle back into our normal routine. Getting there though!