Our magical vacation - Day 1

Trying to document our amazingly magical Disney and Shuttle Launch vacation in one blog post would be...well...completely undoable. Even documenting in a whole bunch of blog posts is going to prove to be a challenge! But, here we go. The most reasonable way I could think to post these pictures was to do 1 posting/day we were in FL. So, be forewarned that you may be pretty sick of these by Day 6! :-)

We decided that asking Kate to endure the entire 6 day trip, including a full day launch excursion, might just push her to her little toddler limits, so we decided that she and Clint would wait and join us the day after the launch. So, Anna and I flew with Grammie and Bucko to FL to meet up with my sister and her family. Anna was none too upset to get to sit with Bucko on the airplane...

The girls (Anna and her cousins) were SO excited to see each other, and loved riding the "Magical Express" bus from the airport to our hotel.

Even just checking into the hotel was exciting! Oh, little do they know what they have ahead of them...

Our first few minutes in the Magic Kingdom. The girls were just amazed by it. Let the fun begin!

Who did we see as soon as we walked through the Magic Kingdom gates? Pluto! Even though we had committed to not spend ALL of our time getting character autographs during the trip, we did of course have to stop for this first one (and many others throughout the trip...pics to follow!).

After enjoying a few rides and dinner in the park, we had a wonderful evening watching the SpectroMagic parade, and then finding a nice place to sit and rest to watch the Wishes fireworks show. I had heard great things about this show because of the neat voice-over they do about "wishes", but thought it would definitely be lost on Anna at her age. But, towards the end of the show, I leaned over and asked her, "So, do your wishes come true?" Her answer? "At Disney they ALL come true, Mommy!"

Oh, I can tell already this is going to be a great trip...

Snowball

I am woefully far behind on posting to the blog, and also have lots of "outdated" photos that I've put aside to post and just haven't gotten around to. So, I am therefore dedicating this next week to catching up on the blog. We have our first big family vacation planned the week after that, so I KNOW I will have lots of pictures to post after that. So, I need to get caught up now!

Clint and Anna ventured up north to Cleveland in February to visit Nana, and had a wonderful time! Their timing was great and there was LOTS of snow while they were there, and Anna just had a fabulous time playing in it! Her favorite part--which she still talks about regularly--was the snowball that she found at the park and brought back to Nana's. According to Anna, it still lives in Nana's freezer (Nana--please tell us that's true! Or, better yet, at least please just tell Anna its true...)

Nana was quite the trooper and went sledding with Anna...

She and Daddy had some fun bonding time in his "hometown"...

Our little snow angel...

Making her very own snowman...

Thank you Nana for a wonderful trip (and for getting all the cold-weather gear for Anna--I think that made the adventure so much more enjoyable for her...)!

Kate's party pics

Ok, you didn't honestly think I could have SO many pictures of Kate's party and only post 7 of them, did you? I didn't think so...

Some great photos from my uber-talented photographer friends Whitney and Melanie...

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Now I just have to get my sister's pictures loaded to Flickr so I can link those as well...we'll get there...

Happy 1st Birthday, sweet Kate!

I have no excuse as to why its taken me so long to post pictures of Kate's party other than I have just been overwhelmed with the quantity of great pictures from my fabulous personal photographers--my sister, Kelly, and my dear friends Whitney and Melanie. Oh girls--thank you for capturing this day for us!

We had a wonderful party, and Kate just thought all of the celebration was fabulous! She endured wearing the Traditional Party Hat (as its fourth donner--it was previously worn by her cousins Sydney and Natalie, and by Anna), and seemed to eat up all the attention that they day brought! And, between the fire on the candle, the fuzzy antennae of the ladybug cake, and the sweet icing, she was a FAN of the cake!

I think her sister and cousins were as excited about the cake-eating festivities as she was! They loved seeing Kate get one step closer to being a "big girl"...I think they're ready for another playmate!

While possibly not the most flattering picture, I couldn't help posting this shot that captures the "full-contact" experience that eating her cake turned into. I think it took a few days before we got all of the icing out of her hair...

We had planned the party as an outdoor "Garden Party", and were of course thrilled all week to see such a fantastic, sunny forecast for the party day. Right about the moment that I got the last table set up outside (after the outside games, activities, etc. were set up, of course), I felt it. Rain. RAIN. Rain?!??? After a few moments of panic, my family convinced me that no amount of worrying (or crying) was actually going to change the precipitation situation, so we quickly created Plan B and moved the whole party inside. While it was not the Garden Party that I had envisioned (or set up!), we all still had a great time just being together...

No longer parents of a "baby"?? How did this happen?

In addition to moving the eating inside, we transported about the only activity that we could indoors and let the kiddos decorate flower pots in the entryway. I did opt to leave the "plant your own marigold" aspect out of the craft when we moved this indoors. I mean, I love these kids, but there's a limit to where all in my house I want potting soil...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATE!! If you enjoyed your first year a fraction as much as we did, then it was a good year for all...

Adventure Fridays Vol II - trip to the zoo

While the "Adventure Fridays" have been pretty few and far between, we are still committed to do them whenever humanly possible! And, we made it happen again a few Fridays ago. Melanie, me, and our ladies ventured down to the Houston Zoo. Luckily, we brought our Team Photographer (aka Anna) with us, and she captured this shot of the gang...

So happy together...

Anna, Julia, and Jocelyn had so much fun climbing through this tunnel in the aquarium. Kate, as usual, was a bit too little for the festivities, but sure enjoyed watching the big girls and their antics!

Anna enjoyed a little time chilling out by the pond (and eating ice cream!) while I fed Kate.

One hip chick...

Melanie also has some great photos of the outing on her girls' blog...

Happy Easter!

We hope everyone had as blessed and happy an Easter as we did! We had a wonderful day filled with a generous visit from the Bunny, a great time at church, and then a fantastic egg hunt at Owen and Charlotte's house. These were two happy Easter chicks...

Apparently the instructions "sit still and smile for a picture" translate into "crawl towards me as quickly as you possibly can" when you're a tiny tot? Oh well...no calm, sitting, smiling pictures this year, but certainly some happy ones!

Anna loved seeing what the Bunny brought, and was particularly thrilled with all of the princess paraphenalia and chocolate this year!

Sorry Kate...as much as I'd like to sugar-coat it for you, a jar full of fancy sequins IS indeed much more fun and exciting than a box of organic fiddlesticks. Sorry babe--maybe next year?

Scrub-a-dub sisters

As was evidenced by my last posting, I'm trying to catch up on some pictures that I've been meaning to post for a while...so, bear with me on the outdated photos for a little while...

In early February, we decided Kate was probably old enough to ditch her "baby bath" and take a regular bath with Anna. Oh, they were both just elated with that decision! They have been having so much fun taking--as Anna refers to them--"Two Girl baths" together...