Disney Day 1!

Back in November, we went on an awesome family vacation to Disney World and Universal Studios!! We met up with Mom, Dad and Abby verrry early* on Black Friday, and hit the road to Florida!

*I originally wrote "bright and early," but that isn't a correct statement since it was still pitch black when we left! haha.

I've been working on a Shutterfly photo book with our pictures from the trip, but it has turned into the biggest photo book I've ever made...and I'm not mad about it!  I think I have most of our Disney pages done, but haven't even started on the Universal ones yet. 😧 There are just so many pictures, and I want to make sure I include all of our faves!!  Plus, once I finish, I'm waiting until Shutterfly has a code for free unlimited pages, because right now, I'm pretty sure my cost for additional pages is higher than the original cost of the book. haha.

These pictures are mostly from my camera.  There are literally HUNDREDS more on our shared album on our phones, but it would take me forever to go through and choose those pics to include now. So, I'll probably have an entire post later on with just our phone pictures.  (Seriously, between the five of us taking pictures on our phone, there are SO many to go through!)  There are also some pictures that we had taken by the Disney Cast Members--we did the Memory Maker photo package, and I can't recommend it enough! Totally worth it!!

Our first day started with a character breakfast at 1900 Park Fare inside the Grand Floridian. We loved this meal--it was a buffet breakfast with so many options, including Mickey waffles, of course!

 

Mom and Marshall checking out the gingerbread house.

 

Since this was Marshall's first character experience, it took him a little bit to warm up to them. 

However, it didn't take him long to realize, "hey, I need to give them my book to sign!" 😂 

 

Marshall's first lanyard and trading pins, and his birthday button!

 

 Time for Animal Kingdom!

 

Abbs and Marshall watching the crazy monkeys:

 

 We saw Finding Nemo the Musical, and outside the theater at one of the souvenir stands, Marshall LOVED playing with this bubble gun with one of the employees!  He didn't leave with the bubble gun, but he did twist Popees' finger into getting a Dory magnet for the fridge. haha!

 

The next Disney post will be about our day in Epcot! Now, that may be tomorrow, or even next week (more likely 😝), but I promise there will be lots more fun things to share! 😁

In Between Time

I saw this quote the other day, and it couldn't be more accurate.

There aren't anymore presents to be wrapped.  (There are some to still be given though!!)  No more decorations need to be put up.  The radio literally stopped playing Christmas music at midnight as it became December 26th.  And we're still eating on Christmas candies, cookies and Chex Mix.   No complaining on that last point, though.

I originally thought the week before Christmas flew by, mainly because Matt and I were both off, and we didn't do as much as we had planned, which isn't totally a bad thing.  But now, after having this week literally fly by, last week seems like it lasted twice as long.  What's with that?  Thankfully, we do still have a long three-day weekend ahead of us.

I hope you all have an amazing New Year's weekend! We'll be spending tomorrow with my dad's side of the family for Round 2 of Christmas!! Bring on all the fun, food and laughter!

25 Days of Christmas: Day 25

How is it that we only have a few hours left of Christmas day? 😭 It always makes me sad that there's so much build up leading in to Christmas (hello, Hallmark Channel started playing Christmas movies BEFORE HALLOWEEN, which I had no problem with at all!), but then December 26th, it's like Christmas never happened.  Everyone's moved on.  Except me, and several other people I know who will keep on embracing Christmas through the 12 Days 😀

I can't believe these 25 books have come and gone. WHERE did the time go? It seems like we just started this year's 25 Days posts, and now, this is the last one. I love that we were able to do it this year, even when we had to double or triple up books for one night. Now, time to brainstorm themes for next year's posts! (Suggestions are welcome, if you have any fun ideas!)

Book #25: Mater Saves Christmas

Apparently, Christmas was exhausting for this one...

I think Maple's going to miss these fun nights, too.  Okay, probs not.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

25 Days of Christmas: Day 24

To be totally honest, I didn't think tonight's book was going to happen either.  Marshall was so tired after an evening full of fun Christmas traditions and it was his past bedtime.  Luckily, he did settle down just long enough to read!

Book #24: Twas the Night Before Christmas (of course!)

Photo bombed by Santa Maple. That's her new Christmas sweater and she loves it! :)

25 Days of Christmas: Days 21-23

The past couple nights, Marshall hasn't been "feeling" reading. On the 21st, when he first started this, I thought, "okay, no big deal, we'll just double up tomorrow." But then, it kept happening. haha. The 22nd and the 23rd were no different.  He'd sit still for MAYBE 10 seconds, and that was the end of that.  A couple of the books, I did actually finish, but I know good and well he wasn't paying a lick of attention. haha.

Last night, after the 3rd night in a row of Marshall not wanting to read, I realized we were running out of days in the 25 Days of Christmas, and I'm just going to need to do a blog post now, before Days 24 and 25 are ready to be written.

So, here are the books we attempted reading the past couple days:

Book #21: The Snowbelly Family of Chillyville Inn

Book #22: Christmas Joy

Book #23: Lady and the Tramp: Lady's Christmas Surprise

25 Days of Christmas: Days 19 and 20

Tonight's one of those nights where I'm just sitting here staring at this blog post--all the pictures and links are good to go--but I have no idea what to write.  I keep clicking other tabs, then coming back, thinking something will come to me.  It doesn't, so I do it all again.  So, let's just cut to the chase!

Book #19: The Pups Save Christmas

Book #20: Santa's Toy Shop