Day 4 Florida Vacation: Disney's Hollywood Studios

After the Lilo and Stitch breakfast, we went to Hollywood Studios.  Jessica was lucky enough to catch Tinkerbell.

She and Jamison also ran into Stitch.

Jessica had a great time riding the Tower of Terror too.

Day 4 Florida Vacation: Breakfast with Lilo and Stitch

The next we had breakfast with Lilo and Stitch as Jessica has developed a small obsession with Stitch (for reasons unknown).  The girls each had Lilo and Stitch dresses, which they modeled.

Here's the photo that the whole family took before breakfast.

The girls were super excited to meet Stitch.

He got extra big hugs from both of the girls.

The girls also enjoyed seeing Pluto.

Day 3 Florida Vacation: Magic Kingdom

Our third day at Walt Disney World was all about the Magic Kingdom.   The girls posed in their outfits as we waited for the bus again. This just became part of our daily ritual.

As soon as we got there, we took Jessica on some of the big roller coasters, like Space Mountain, and also fit in a quick Toy Story ride.

Meanwhile, Jamison had fun on the Dumbo ride with Mimi.

At lunch time, it was time for a quick change into Cinderella outfits for lunch at Cinderella's castle.  Here they are practicing their princess poses I suppose.

By the time they got to Cinderella, they were really ready to pose.

Somehow Jim and I got roped into the picture too.

The girls were very excited about meeting the other princesses over lunch.

Jamison was super thrilled to meet her favorite princess Ariel.

After a quick nap, it was back to the park and that meant another outfit change.

Day 2 Florida Vacation: Dinner at Chef Mickey's and an Evening at Epcot

After a bit of a rest back at the hotel, we took the boat over to the Contemporary hotel for dinner at Chef Mickey's.

The girls posed with their grandparents at Chef Mickey's.

Chef Mickey's has the whole Mickey gang.  Here are some photos that we took during dinner.

Then, we took the monorail for a magic evening at Epcot.  While Jamison was up and running around when we got back to the hotel, Jessica had had enough and fell asleep in the stroller.

Day 2 Florida Vacation: Disney's Animal Kingdom

After a good night's sleep, we were ready to start the second day of our Walt Disney adventure.  We decided that Disney's Animal Kingdom was going to be where we spent most of the day.  Mimi provided the girls with Lion King dresses and they posed in their regular spot as we waited for the buses.

Jessica is a lover of rollercoasters and went on Everest twice with her daddy.  She would have kept going if we let her.

Jessica fell in love with the Yetty on Everest.  Her daddy spoiled her and got her one.  So, Fuzz Ball, as she named him, joined us on our Disney adventure.

 
While we rode the rollercoaster with Jessica, Jamison visited the friends from Up.

We spent some time in the dinosaur land and found a ride that felt a lot like Dumbo, but with no line!

Jessica got to ride the big dinosaur ride that is a lot like Indiana Jones in California, but she cannot ride yet.

On the way through the park, we ran into Winnie the Pooh and Friends.

We had to wait for the Lion King show.  Jamison decided that she was going to play with my sunglasses.  I think they look better on her anyways.

Jamison completely passed out during the show.  Everyone was amazed given how load it was in there.     I guess that she must have been really tired.

The nap was sort lived and we stopped to see more characters.

The girls were lucky to catch Pocahontas as we walked through the park.

Then, it was back to the hotel for a quick rest so the girls would be ready for the evening festivities.

Day 1 Florida Vacation: Walt Disney World and Disney's Wilderness Lodge

After a long flight and some lost luggage, strollers, and car seats, we finally got to our hotel and went to Walt Disney World. Despite our lost luggage, the girls had nice outfits to wear that their Mimi had packed them. Here they are posing in their outfits.

The girls were really excited to ride the bus from our hotel to the park.

The first day at the park went rather quickly.  We decided most of us were pretty tired as the only person who slept on the red eye was Jessica. Because it was a quick day, we didn't get too many photos.  We did get this picture of Jessica in front of Cinderella's castle however.

At least everyone was happy to be riding the bus back to the hotel because of the air conditioning.

After a break back at the hotel, the girls were ready to go out again.  This time we had a dinner reservation at our hotel and the girls were ready for an outfit change.

Nothing beats a long hot day like a trip to the pool!  Jessica loved, loved, loved the pool at our hotel because it had a water slide.  She also loved the Merida towel her Mimi got her.

Here are some pictures of Jim and Jessica going down the water slide.

traveling to Florida in August

In early August, we went out to Florida to go to Walt Disney World and the beach.  The girls were very excited for the trip.  For the trip, Jamison had to have a suitcase just like her sister and she did not want any help dragging it through the airport.  Anytime you asked her if she wanted help, she would say, "No baby".  Well, we got lots of giggles going through the airport.

When we got to the Orlando airport, Jessica saw Goofy and just had to have her picture taken with him.

school supply charity drive

One of the mom's at Jessica's school decided it would be great for the kids to participate in a Backpack / School Supply charity drive during the summer.  Our goal was to provide a whole school with backpacks and school supplies (300 kids total).  The good news is that we did it plus some, the kids had a great time doing it, and they also learned an important lesson about giving to others who are not so fortunate.

Gathering supplies for 300 kids is a daunting task.  Here is just one of the tables that was set up with supplies.

Each backpack was labeled for a grade range and sex and then specific supplies were put in it.  Since Jessica likes pink things, we often found ourselves filling backpacks for K-2 girls.

It was a really hot day so Jessica and her friend Bethany decided to seek shade under the play structure and hand out construction paper to everyone.

This was the backpack pile after a few minutes.  300 backpacks took up two large areas of the house by the end of the day.

And, as a special treat, the fire department made a visit and helped us fill backpacks.