Licky Mouse and Friends

Sophie had a riot meeting the live characters at Disney World. She even wanted to meet the ones she'd never seen before... "I wanna see the blue guy!" And we were the crazy parents videotaping and snapping pictures of the whole thing! I can't wait to put together a little book of these for her!

Sophie's Disney Moments

Sophie was her usual spunky self during our trip, and we tried to write down some of the funny moments/quotes so we'd remember them when we got home. These are some of our favorites...

--Sophie ran round and round the pole at the bus stop, stopped, and said, "I got busy!"

--continually talked about "Licky Mouse"

--wore Snow White dress to Magic Kingdom. Got on the bus and told the bus driver she was Snow White

--held Jared's hand on the Snow White ride so he wouldn't be scared

--after running and jumping around suspiciously, announced, "Mom! I've got a nugget in my pants!"

--After riding the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, I asked her if she liked it. Sophie said, "Yes, but I didn't like the pirates."

--"Look out!" What Sophie yelled as she was overseeing an Owen diaper change, when we were taken off guard at its being really messy.

--the 4 of us were laying on our hotel bed looking at pictures on the camera when Sophie said, "I smell something. What's that smell like? Smells like peppers." Greg's armpit was by her head.

--the only souvenier she was half interested in was a travel-brush that she used like a cell phone. That's what we brought home to remember Disney by. At least it has princesses on it!

Disney World

We just returned from a week's vacation at DisneyWorld in Florida. Sophie and Owen were both really good travellers, so we may actually go on vacation again someday! We spent days at the Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom and Disney Studios taking in shows, sights and rides. Sophie became quite a pro after the first few days and would skip from one ride to the next yelling, "Let's go on another ride!" She also became quite adept at spotting characters and would demand that we get out her book (autograph book) and pen so she could go see them. We were amazed at how bravely she approached, hugged and talked to the characters--she wouldn't even get close to Santa, if you remember! We visited Magic Kingdom the most, and Sophie's most requested activities were visiting the princesses (pictures of characters will be in a following entry) and riding the Snow White ride (3 times!! It was shut down our last day, or it would have been more).

Owen mostly rode around on Greg or I in the Bjorn, and he slept through most of the loud, exciting productions we experienced...the Lion King show, Nemo show, parades (horns blaring right in front of us), etc. I believe his favorite ride (oh yes, he rode the rides with us!) was It's a Small World. He had wide eyes and looked all around...and then fell asleep. Of course, sleeping at night was a whole different story. Mostly he ended up in bed with me and Greg ended up in bed with Sophie. It was a bummer for Greg and I, but at least it ensured that everyone got SOME sleep.

We enjoyed having Greg's sister's family join us for two days at the parks. They hadn't met Owen yet, so that made the time even more special. It was great for Greg and I too because Sophie had 3 extra people to entertain her all day and Owen had several other pairs of arms to lug him around. Sophie especially enjoyed hanging out with cousin Jared and even held his hand on the Snow White ride "so he wouldn't be scared."

Overall it was a great trip with lots of fond memories and a bunch of great pictures. Enjoy!

Lots of fun

Sorry (again) to take so long to add new photos. Life's been a little hectic around here. We've got a lot on our plates, and added to that, watched the neighbor's daycare kids for a few days with only one evening's notice! Sophie had a nasty cold on top of it all, so we spent 5 days straight in the house. Good thing those kids came over to play! Sophie had fun with them all, and I did my best to keep things safe and under control. We played on the computer, played dress up, did art projects, etc. It wore me out! Greg said, "You used to teach 30 kids in your classroom." Yes, but that wasn't in my own house, and it wasn't 3 and 4-year olds plus a baby. Overall, the days went much better than I thought they would, but it has been confirmed that I never want to do daycare full-time. (It wasn't ever really a question...)

Chuck E. Cheese

Happy New Year! We went to Chuck E. Cheese with Lydia's family to celebrate the holiday today. The girls had a great time playing games and riding the rides...almost as much fun as their dads did! When it came time to spend her tickets on prizes, Sophie had difficulty choosing. Of course, she wanted something worth more points than she had, so her dad went back to shoot a few more hoops to win her what she wanted. I'm sure it was totally worth the extra sweat to get Sophie her movie-star glasses and Tootsie Roll!