coloring easter eggs

I ended up taking off the entire week - I have never done this before.  However, I didn't realize I had relocation leave to use, so I used it and we finished unpacking and moving landscape.  We decided to color Easter eggs with Kaylea on Friday night.  Jordy doesn't get into this tradition because he never do it as a kid growing up.  Kaylea had a blast.  She was more patient than last year and loved putting the stickers on the eggs.  It is amazing how much these little ones change in a year.  Just as we were finishing up, Trina called us on Skype and Kaylea wanted to eat one of the eggs.  Oddly enough, she liked the white part, but not the yolk.  Maybe she will be healthy after all.

easter pictures

As if we weren't busy enough before leaving for Disney World,  I saw that a photographer in Lafayette was offering pictures with bunnies and chicks, so I signed Kaylea up.  We had the first appointment on Friday at 3:00.  To say she was excited would be an understatement.  She picked up the chicks and bunnies and giggled the whole way through.  She smiled for the camera and just had a great time.  We may have to do this again next year.  I spend way too much money on pictures, but she is so adorable, it makes it hard to resist.

day 4 - last night

We had reservations for the Rain Forest Cafe in Downtown Disney on Tuesday evening.  We got there a little early and decided to check the place out.  Kaylea rode the carousel and picked up some cotton candy.  She actually loved the restaurant.  She liked the animals and the dinosaur nuggets.  She had the most fun afterward.

As we were walking out (way past her bed time), she spotted some water fountains shooting out of the ground.  I looked at Jordy and said, what do you think.  He said, don't encourage her, but if she asks, we can let her.  Almost immediately she says, can I get wet?  And that explains how we spent the next 45 minutes of the night.  After we got back to the hotel, Kaylea wanted to take a bath with Mimi and have a tea party.  When her head hit the pillow at midnight (8:30 is normal), she fell asleep so fast.

I didn't take pictures of our final day in Disney, but we didn't have to leave until 1:30, so we spent the day at Magic Kingdom riding all of Kaylea's favorite rides.

day 4 - animal kingdom

We slept in before heading to animal kingdom.  Kaylea had a great time checking out all of the animals.  She loves animals, so I think she enjoyed the jungle safari.  We rode the dinosaur ride and the Bug's Life Ride.  We tried to watch the Nemo musical, but Kaylea only lasted for part of it and she was ready to go.  After a nap, Kaylea had a tea party with Mimi on the back deck.

drinking strawberry milk in a fancy glass

petting park

tea party with mimi

day 3 - hollywood stuidos & chillaxin

We decided Kaylea may be a little overwhelmed with all of the fun stuff to do and decided to take it easy on Day 3.  We were able to get reservations for a 50s style restaurant Monday, so we went to Hollywood Studios for lunch.  The food was great and our server was hilarious.  We used a fast pass to ride the Toy Story ride.  This was probably my favorite ride.  Kaylea seemed to like it, too, but she didn't completely understand what she was doing.  We went back to the hotel so swim in the pool and enjoy the park.  Kaylea loves swimming.  There was a water slide that if she wanted to ride, she would have to go down by herself...would you be surprised if I told you she went?  She went multiple times.

thanks for the great trip, mama

at the restaurant

with our appetizer

kaylea & daddy in the water

enjoying the bathtub and the fact that mama let her use as much soap as she wanted

day 2 - magic kingdom

After having breakfast with Mickey and the game, we headed to Magic Kingdom. I couldn't believe how fast we got through all of the lines. Kaylea was tired and needed a nap, so we only stayed until 12:30 or so, but she rode almost everything there for someone her age (she didn't care for the "movie" rides, so we didn't do many of them).  She loved the roller coaster.  She wanted to ride with Mimi.  I was pretty nervous, but hearing her laugh the entire way was great.

We made it out of the park without buying much of anything.  I guess Kaylea isn't too into Disney and didn't make any requests.  I'm sure this will change as she gets older, but I decided to save the funds until she thinks of what she really wants.

first trip to magic kingdom

 (i'm getting one from photopass that is much better)

running away from the castle

tea cups with daddy

dumbo

ready for the roller coaster

waiting for the parade - this is her favorite tree

chef mickey

I booked breakfast at Chef Mickey back in January, and I'm glad we did.  To hear Kaylea squeal each time a new character approached our table has been the highlight of Spring Break.  She does this really cute laugh now, where she covers her mouth and giggles.  We had to get up early so we could meet Mickey by 7:35.  I was very impressed with the buffet and certainly ate too much.  I may not be keeping my P90X2 results for very long, but we'll get back on that plan after we have a week of fun.  Kaylea ate a lot of food and wasn't at all scared of the characters.

jordy and goofy - i love this picture!

family of three

posting with donald

family vacation - by the way, my mom hates having her picture taken,

but hates "wasting" money more. 

i talked her into this picture by telling her I was going to

buy the one they took at the entrance for $33.

getting ready to kiss pluto

disney world

We're in Disney World.  This is Kaylea's first trip, so I wanted to document all of the fun details.  We flew out of Louisville.  The flights were a little cheaper and my dad kept Doodle, so it just made more sense.  We drove down Friday night...LONGEST DRIVE EVER.  It took us 4 hours..granted, that included a potty stop, and White Castle for dinner, but seriously, the traffic was awful.

We had to get up at 4:30 a.m. to make it to the airport for the non-stop flight.  I thought Kaylea may go back to sleep after I woke her up, but she didn't.  She did great on the flight (what a difference a year can make).  She read books, played with Mimi, and watched a little bit of Barney.

Jordy woke up sick, so we put him in a seat by himself so he could try to sleep off whatever bug he caught.  It didn't work.

We arrived at our resort (Animal Kingdom Villas) and were told it would be about an hour and half and our room would be ready.  We knew Kaylea needed a nap and Jordy needed to sleep, too, so we grabbed some breakfast and waited... And waited...and waited.  After the third time inquiring about the room, I was told it would be just 35 more minutes. We were given some complimentary fastpasses to use.  After the fourth time of inquiring about our room, we were upgrated to the Savannah view.  This means instead of looking at the parking lot every night, we get to look out at zebras, an ostrich, a giraffe, and some other things I'm not really exactly sure what they are.

Kaylea fell right to sleep.  When she woke up, my mom and I took her to Epcot.  I knew Jordy wanted to see her experience Disney and didn't think he would miss much if we went to Epcot.  I was right.  We rode about 3 rides and headed back to catch the second half of the Final Four game.  We were thinking about going back to the park that night, but Kaylea was tired and we had a big Sunday planned, so we were all in bed by 9:30!

on the plane

waiting for our room

checking out the fire engine

in front of nemo

what we see off of our deck

brenden comes to visit!

Shannan and Breden were on Spring Break this past week, so they (along with Nana), took the weekend to come up and visit us.  We had a great time.  Kaylea got to show off her new bed.  We also went to Jump It, XXX Burger, and played on the trampoline.  I showed Brenden how to play basketball, too :)

the circus pages

I saw a sign last week advertising that the circus was coming to Lafayette for one day.  I read some reviews from last year and knew it was pretty lame, but I thought Kaylea would enjoy it, so Thursday evening (before watching our CARDS make it to the Elite 8), we headed to the circus.

Kaylea enjoyed some aspects of the circus - she really loved the tigers and lions and the cotton candy.  It really was pretty lame.  They stopped after every act to try to sell you something.  I think by the time intermission arrived, Kaylea was ready to go, but not before riding the ponies and then the elephants.  I was shocked she rode the elephant, because when we talked about it the day before, she told me she would not be riding any elephants, just ponies. 

All in all, it was a good experience for her and I'm glad we were able to take her...and including admission, we got out of there spending only $45.

with daddy before the circus

self-portrait



enjoying her cotton candy



pony ride

elephant ride



lions and tigers