More from Disney

Monday was Epcot Center day and my camera died early in the day! I had reservations for the Akershus in the Norway area for supper. I knew that there would be a princess there, but we were happily surprised to be visited by four over the course of the evening! Jasmine, Aurora, Cinderella and Belle all were there! My sister asked about a picture with Cinderella on my last post - Cinderella was in the castle and posed photographs were taken by the royal photographer and given to each little princess during the meal. They presented them to us in a beautiful folder with an 8x10 photo of the castle on one side and and 8x10 of the two princesses (Cinderella and Melissa) on the other. It also included four smaller copies of the same photo. During this meal they did the same with Belle - so we have some really excellent pictures of Melissa with the two princesses - but I don't have a scanner here so you will have to wait to see!

On to Tuesday! This is the tree that is the focal point to Animal Kingdom. If you can't see the carvings on it, click on the picture and enlarge it - this is a really cool design...

FINALLY! A character shoot the boys can really enjoy! This is Rafiki from "The Lion King".
And since today is Brendan's birthday, we are thrilled that he gets to see his very favorite friend - Stitch! He was so excited!
And there is time for one final princess...Pochohontas! Melissa has been stumbling over her name all week, but KNEW she was a princess - whatever her name is! The most common name she gave her was "Ra-ponnus" - I think she was probably combining Rapunzul and Pochohontas into one unique name!

We are tired and have suitcases of laundry to do when we get home, but we have done our best to see and do everything we could. I think the kids all have had a great time but we are all ready to get home. We are going "park hopping" tomorrow to do a last few things we didn't have time for. We have to be back here at the resort by 5:30 to get to the airport for our flight so I won't get to post again until I get home - for now enjoy all the stuff I have posted over the last few hours!

Disney Princess Day!

This day will take two posts since blogger will only let me post five pictures at once. I am going to try to get them in order ...

The day finally arrived! Melissa was so excited! I had made reservations for her and I to eat lunch at Cinderella's Castle. Nothing would do but to wear her Cinderella dress and crown when we left for The Magic Kingdom. I packed her another outfit thinking the synthetic fabric of her little blue dress would be too hot eventually - never did talk her into changing though! Guess she takes after her mom - it's all about the looks!

We jumped on Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride first. The kids loved this one so much we did it twice and as we were getting off, out ran Alladin and Jasmine to ride! They rode one round and then came over to the market area to sign autographs and pose for photos. As you can see, they were both excellent and looked a great deal like their movie! Aladdin's signature even looks like the movie title! I had been so worried that Melissa was going to be afraid to have pictures made since she was afraid of everybody yesterday. She was concerned about Aladdin, but Jasmine was her "new best friend" and she was able to talk Melissa into a pose with Aladdin nearby.
Then we went off to ride a few more rides. On the way we ran into the "Magical Dreams Parade". The kids had fun picking out their favorite characters. These two are my personal favorite. Mary Poppins...
and the gang from Pinocchio! Jiminey Cricket and Geppetto are on the lower level waving furiously while Pinoch watches over. This was so adorable!

Almost time for lunch! There was just enough time for a visit to Ariel's Grotto! Melissa was so thrilled and she just kept talking. She told Ariel all about her "pincess bwacelet" and how she got all dressed up to come see the princesses! One funny thing: nearly every princess that met her asked her who her favorite was. Her answer? The name of whichever one she was speaking with then and Cinderella! So when Ariel asked her, her answer was "Ariel and Cindewella". When Snow White asked her the same question her answer was "Snow White and Cindewella"! I thought it was SO stinkin' funny that she wanted everyone to think they were her favorite!

Lunch finally arrives! Melissa ate her food (chicken nuggets, fries, and corn) so she got dessert! This was a scoop of vanilla ice cream with Disney-shaped sprinkles topped with a chocolate crown!

Disney Princess Day continued

And then we met the princesses!
Melissa waited very patiently at our table and watched the various princesses make their rounds of the room. Finally Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) made it to our table! Once again, Melissa acted like she was her long lost friend! Aurora was a little shy-acting and didn't really say much...then...
Belle came by! Belle was so sweet to Melissa and as you can see she is really beautiful and looks much like she looks in her movies!
Oh my goodness! Then came Snow White! Snow White was a real favorite as you can see from Melissa's face! She was SO excited by now she was just jabbering 90 miles an hour! I was just having a ball watching my little princess - what little girl wouldn't just LOVE this?Now for a formal post with Snow White. Snow White also looked just like she looks in her movies! Just amazing, huh?
A final picture. This is the Cinderella castle at night before the fireworks started. Tinkerbell flies from that highest spire up there. We tried to get a picture of her flight, but she was way too fast! Melissa was completely exhausted by this time and the boys were begging to "go home", but we stayed long enough to see Tink fly and then headed for the boat back to the resort. We watched the fireworks from the boat. What a fabulous day and what great memories!

Disney Day 2

Day Two... We headed out for Disney Hollywood Studios. This place is stuffed with sights and scenes from the movies. Thanks to RideMax (thanks LaRona!) we didn't have to stand in line long at any place.

Jamie gets a hug from Leo from Little Einsteins!

And Jojo and Goliath are happy to see Jamie and Andrew. Jojo is signing an autograph in Melissa's autograph book here but Melissa herself wouldn't get close!
The whole gang snuggle up to the adorable little robot Wall-E! Melissa is trying to get him to talk to her.
Several of the streets in this park dead ended in a huge flat painting that made it look like a city beyond. This is the gang in front of a pretend San Francisco -looks real, huh?
Jamison sits on a speeder from Star Wars. This was a favorite ride for all the kids. The ride was a "space ship" that took you into outer space. I wonder if Jamison and Melissa realized we were just sitting in a booth that was on hydraulics! It sure seemed real and the ride was bumpy etc.

Tomorrow we are off for Magic Kingdom and Cinderella's castle. Melissa and I have reservations in the afternoon for lunch with the princesses. We will post again when we can get online!

Disney World - Day 1

In spite of getting up at 5 AM, our flight went well and we arrived in Florida without mishap. We caught a bus to our cabin located at Disney's Fort Wilderness. It is a pretty little log cabin complete with full kitchen and a Murphy bed in the living room! We were told our luggage wouldn't arrive for about three hours so we ditched out carry-on luggage and headed for the bus stop for Downtown Disney.

Melissa and I were thrilled that we able to get her in at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique as a walk-in! Normally these appointments are made weeks in advance so we were so excited. Two "fairy godmothers" presented Melissa with a personalized invitation with "Princess Melissa" on the front inviting her to become a princess. She was escorted to a chair in the most girly, pinky, fancy salon you can imagine. The chandelier had a glass slipper hanging from the bottom! One of the fairy godmothers allowed Melissa to select between two colors of nail polish and six colors of eye shadow and six colors of lip gloss. They opened a little palatte of make-up and Melissa's eyes shone like the stars. That fairy godmother started doing nails and make-up while the other started on her hair.

She was allowed to choose between three or four little tiaras and two barrettes - all sparkly with rhinestones. At the end the fairy godmother doing her hair sprinkled fairy dust from her wand and said "Bibbity Bobbity Boo!" over her and we had our little princess! They gave us all the make-up, both colors of nail polish and the tiara and barrette to keep as well as the ribbon banner that says "Bibbity Bobbity Boutique". This was something Melissa will remember forever and I am so glad we got to do it!
Our little princess!~"Bibbity Bobbity BOO!"
Just outside is a statue of Melissa's favorite princess - Cinderella! Melissa and I have reservations tomorrow to eat lunch with Cinderella in her castle at the Magic Kingdom. I watched closely so I can do her hair again for that - and we brought her Cinderella dress from home for her to wear.
In the meantime...Daddy and the boys were scouting out the most gigantic of Lego stores. This dragon is in the lagoon in front of the stoor and is absolutely massive! He is made entirely of Legos!
A family walking their dogs on the side walk in front of the shop - again, made entirely of Legos! The shading on the dogs is really cool! We came back to our cabin and our luggage was here. It has rained off and on so we are a bit drippy - I had brought rain ponchos from home so we managed to at least stay dry a little, but still it was good to get in a cozy cabin and hit the beds!

Our internet connection is not good at all so I may not get to post every day but I will go ahead and post pictures from Day 2 after while.

Busy Life

I am finally getting a post done! I have been so swamped at work at night and kids in the daytime that I haven't taken a minute to write. Randy and I went on our first cruise on July 3rd. We set sail out of the filthy dirty waters of Galveston Bay and when we woke up the next morning, the water was a beautiful royal blue - the Carribean Sea is SO much prettier than the Gulf! We had a great time being together. Randy's parents went with us and that was fun too.

This is Randy and I standing on the dock in Cozumel, Mexico. The ship farthest away is the Carnival ship "Fantasy". The one closer to us is the "Ecstacy" - our ship. This thing is SO incredibly massive!

Room service was incredible. If you left your cabin for 15 minutes, they had been there to straighten things up. Each night when we got back from dinner the beds had been turned down with a chocolate mint on the pillow. Every night there was a different critter made of fresh towels on the bed too. This was the first one - an adorable elephant! They picked up my sunglasses from the desk and perched on his trunk - isn't he cute? Later in the week they had a class on making the towel animals that Randy and I went to. I really thought it was just for me and Randy was just being polite to come along - but he really got into the spirit of the thing and helped out. We had a blast and now if you come to see me, you might be surprised what you find on your bed every night!



The food was fantastic and I have just now gotten off the last of the six pounds I gained those four days!

Work is going great. I am really enjoying the experience and already have some stories to tell! I am amazed at the young teenage girls giving birth! Mostly hispanic and they seem to think it is a fabulous thing to be still in school, unwed and pregnant. So sad to me. We have been really busy the last two weeks - lots of babies due in July. I have done mostly c-section births. My supervisor had worried that I would not get enough time in the OR with the c-sections so had arranged for me to do several weeks of day shift after school started. My preceptor told me that I had done so much in the OR so far that I might not have to swing to days after all! I really do enjoy the night shift and would love to not have to move to days.

One of the days right before we left for the cruise when Mom and Dad were here I was scheduled to work. After I left Melissa told Mom that "Mommy went to work to hunt babies!" How funny, huh? After we got home she asked me to take her dolly to work to "see if I could find a baby in her tummy" - I wonder what she really thinks. I have told her that I "help mommies get their babies out" - maybe TMI for a four year old?

The boys have gone and come home from church camp. They all seemed to have a ball. Now I am packing for our trip to Disney World. We leave next Wednesday but I am trying to get as much done now as I can. I have to work tomorrow night and Monday night and our plane leaves really early Wednesday morning so I figured sooner was better than later. I found out on the cruise that when I try to pack after working a 12 hour shift the night before, important things get left behind!