New Bedrooms!

So the window is FINALLY done! We have been planning to dig out the back bedroom basement window for SO long and it is finally done. It looks great! Kaydra is so excited to have her own room. I was a little sad for them last night as they went to their own rooms -- it's kinda fun to have someone to talk to when you are going to sleep, even if they get on your nerves occasionally and I think that they may miss it a little. Last night, though, they were SO excited! They both slept well and reported a good nights rest.

We decided to move the bed in Miranda's room down to Kaydra's room. This gave us more room in Miranda's room and also saved us from buying another bed. We used the same bedding and it seems to work for now. Kanyon was able to have more room now for all his toys including his train table. He is also very excited to now have TWO beds. Kaydra inherited a desk and bookshelf that Courtney and I shared as kids. It is pretty "used" and we want to refinish it but it will have to wait until the weather is warmer. Kaydra loves the extra space and loves having a place to do her homework -- I love it too! Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Fuller for letting her use it.

Here are some pictures....

We decided to put in a window box instead of the bottom trim for the window. It's different, I know, but Kaydra likes it and I think it turned out really well. Len did a great job with all the carpentry work. I am always amazed at the things that he is able to do with little or no experience. He is not afraid to fail and manages to pull off some great stuff! We painted the window green mostly because I didn't have the cream color that the other trim is painted and I didn't want to paint all the other trim white (which would also include painting three sets of closet doors!) I think it really accents the room well. It kinda looks like an art piece instead of a window -- love it! What do you think? Is it over the top, or just right for a growing girl?

New Things

As a disclaimer, I must say sorry to anyone who may let their little girl read this blog who may say, "But Kaydra did it!" .... Read on!



Kaydra
Today was Kaydra's last soccer game. She had a really fun season. She got to play on a team with Kalli and Madison (her cousins) and was coached by Lisa - my cousin's wife (does that make her my cousin-in-law?). She did much better than last season and seems to be understanding the concept of the game a little better. She is not very aggressive which is a good thing in life but not really that great for soccer :) She had fun though and it is definitely good exercise. Thank you to Lisa for all your hard work. The girls really learned a lot.


For Kaydra's birthday we gave her some earrings. They were some for pierced ears that we got in DisneyWorld without telling her. She was so excited. She has been begging to get her ears pierced for about a year. We told her that she could get her ears pierced after soccer was over. We didn't want to go through the hassle of taking them out for the games. So today was the day!
We went to the salon where she got her hair cut and had them pierce her ears! She didn't cry but I could tell that she wanted too. She was quite tough and did very well. She really likes them and is excited to show everyone. She looks so old to me. Where did all the time go?

Kanyon


Kanyon has now learned how to ride a two-wheeled bike! This is a short video of him riding tonight. I laugh at the end because Leonard told him to turn around and he kept saying "I can't!" We hadn't really reviewed that part yet! The following picture shows Leonard teaching Kanyon how to turn around. It took him a little longer to pick it up than Kaydra once we started but he is a whole year younger than Kaydra was. He seems to really like the freedom that it brings and we have been going for bike rides nearly every night. It has been nice the past few nights but the weather is getting colder for sure. He too is growing up so fast! Time flies when you're raising children!
I am so proud of them both. They are such big helpers with Miranda and with getting things done around the house. They play so well together and I know that they will be great friends as adults. I am blessed to have them both in our home.

Eight months

Miranda is now eight months old. I can't believe how much she has grown. I worked in the NICU the other day and took care of three babies all born under 5 lbs. They were so small! Miranda was never quite that small but it was still a HUGE difference. When I look at her I still see all baby, yet in a few short months she will be considered a toddler. It is so sad how fast time flies sometimes. She is a great baby. I love it when they start to recognize you and smile when they realize you are still there. She loves her family already. You can really tell that she knows who we are. About three weeks ago we were laying in bed with Miranda sitting between us. It was first thing in the morning and Leonard had just gotten home from work and had brought Miranda in to our room with him. She was playing and smiling and laughing with us. There were no toys -- just us, and she couldn't have been happier. Leonard turned to me and said, "She is so CUTE! We're going to have another one aren't we?" I was SHOCKED! Our entire marriage Leonard has always said three was a good number for him. He came from a family of three and felt like it really worked. I never pushed the issue but always felt that when the time came I would be able to talk him into more if I felt it was right. So I was like, "What?!" He said, "It just seems kinda sad to think this could be the last time we have a baby this age -- they are so cute!" This is exactly what I have been thinking for Miranda's whole life! Even days after her birth (which wasn't a pleasant experience) I was thinking, "It would be so sad if this was the last time I _______-- fill in the blank. (i.e. was pregnant, had a baby, nursed a baby, introduced a new baby to my other kids, cuddled with a newborn for the entire time between feedings, ect.) I think that this means we may not have a complete family yet. It also means that (just in case) I feel like I need to just breathe in Miranda every day and enjoy the time that I am able to spend with her as a baby. I am truly enjoying being a mom right now.

Miranda is flying through her "developmental milestones". She is a very determined baby. She is crawling on all fours and is now very good at it. She follows me all over the house. When she gets tired she crawls out into the hall and cries for me to come get her. She pulls herself up on everything. Most of the time it is on my pant leg. She pulls herself up on me when I am cooking, doing the dishes, sitting at the computer, sitting at the table, ect. She is getting really good at it. She loves to put everything in her mouth and I am constantly pulling things out of her mouth. She has really worked out that "pincer" grasp.

She LOVES food! I have never had a baby react to food the way she does. She knows when we are eating and she wants to be a part of it. Every day she eats a bowl of rice cereal (my other kids hated that stuff) and at least one jar of baby food (the big ones) and some finger food throughout the day. Plus, she is still nursing as much as ever. She has tried nearly all of the bottled baby foods and she likes them all. She eats Cheerios and Rice Chex like they are going out of style. She also likes mac and cheese, bread, homemade applesauce, fresh bananas, yogurt, and anything else that I will let her try. It is so weird sometimes. I seriously wonder what is going on in that head of hers. She is so little, yet she eats like there's no tomorrow! Does she know something that we don't?

In an earlier blog I bragged about her excellent sleeping habits a little too soon as she now wakes up 1-2 times a night. Lately she wakes up about 3:00am to eat and then sleeps through the night until 7:30 or 8:00. Not too bad, but she just started that about a week ago so we'll see how long it lasts! She likes to sleep on her tummy or her side and she still LOVES her pacifier. When we were in Salt Lake we forgot her pacifier one time while we were out shopping. It was nap time and she wanted that pacifier. What normally would have taken about 5 minutes to fall asleep instead took two stops to nurse her and over an hour before she finally succumbed. She is definitely not ready to give that up -- at least I am not ready for her to give it up anyway!

She is a happy kid and she loves Kaydra and Kanyon. She is old enough now that we sit her down with the kids and let her play beside them with some toys. She loves it and feels like a big kid as long as I am not in the room. When she sees me it seems to be all about me holding her again. She loves to be held and it starting to show affection by laying her head on my shoulder or sucking on my neck. I think that she is "kissing" me when she does this because I often kiss her neck, but maybe she is just trying to find the food! I feel blessed to have her in our family. I know that she has a good spirit and that she loves us all very much. I am so thankful to have her in our home. We love you, Mandy!

Free Handbag

Hey! This website is giving away free handbags - one every hour for 24 hours on October 15. Check it out at http://www.handbagplanet.com/ and sign up to win! We can all use free stuff!

Be Aware!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. This is my reminder to all of you to get yourself checked and remember to do your monthly exams. Here is hoping for a cure soon. Many women have suffered -- some have survived and some have not but all of them have suffered so that hopefully, we can learn something from them and FIND A CURE! This is for my Grandma, my mom, and all my aunts that have shown such strength in times of trial. I love you!

Update

So I have been very busy the past two weeks and have not been very good about updating the blog...Sorry. I will try to update in one big entry so bear with me!

Women's Walk

For the past five years I have attended the St. Luke's Women's fitness Celebration that they hold in Boise every year with Michelle. It is touted as the largest Walk/Run for women. This year there were over 12,000 women signed up to walk or run. I took the kids to Boise to stay with Reid and Michelle for a few days. Reid was kind enough to offer to watch my kids while we attended the walk. We had planned on taking Miranda with us in the back pack but it was raining continuously so Reid graciously said we could leave her home too. We were really wet and I am so glad we didn't have her with us. She would have been miserable. We still managed to have a good time. We got t-shirts and at the end of the race you end up in a big park where they have food for all the participants. It is always a fun weekend because I get to catch up and visit with Michelle and we usually manage to get in a little shopping too. I had and great time. If you want to see us, go HERE and watch the video. This is of the finish line. We come into the center of the picture at 1:35 into the video. Michelle, her mom, and I are all wearing clear ponchos. It was fun. Thanks to Michelle and Reid for the hospitality.

Peaches

The peaches from my tree finally got ripe and we were able to can them. I took them to mom's house and Courtney and mom helped me can them all. We got 38 quarts of peaches just from my little tree! I can't believe it. We still had some left over too that were not quite ripe enough to can. It feels good to put food storage on the shelf! I love peaches!

Work

I have switched back to twelve hour shifts at work. This means that I only have to work once a week to meet my required hours. I LOVE IT! I feel so blessed to be able to stay home with my children. I love being there when they get home from school so they can tell me about their day. I love watching Miranda get better at the little things each day. I am so grateful for my husband who helps make this possible. With both Kaydra and Kanyon I returned to work full time after they were born and I am loving that I can spend more time with Miranda. I have noticed, however, that she is more clingy to me than the other kids were but at the same time, I feel a little more clingy to her too. When Kaydra was only eight months old, Len took her for five days to see his parents. I completely trust my husband to do this with Miranda too but at the same time - I don't think I could stand to be away from her that long. Of course, I wasn't nursing Kaydra at that age like I am Miranda -- so that could be the main difference! I just love that little girl. She is beautiful, funny, charming, and oh so adorable! As much as I enjoy work, I am glad that I can spend so much time with her and the other kids.

Conference Weekend

This past weekend for conference we got tickets to the Saturday session and had a girls trip with Leonard's family. Just girls, no kids except for Miranda. It was me, Kay (Len's mom), Jodi (Len's sister), and Michelle (sister-in-law).

It was so fun! We went shopping and just looked around without kids whining or pulling on our pants! We window shopped and tried on stuff just because we could! We went out to eat and had nearly uninterrupted conversations. We watched a chick flick and made cards with Michelle's cricket. We attended the first session of conference in the conference center and then watched the Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning session at the hotel. All without kids crying or needing attention. It was GREAT! I felt so rejuvenated after the weekend on my drive home.

Miranda was super spoiled with attention from two aunts and a grandma all to herself! Attending Conference was fun. So peaceful. Just a feel good kinda thing to do. Thanks to dad for the tickets. I want to go again sometime. You just can't get enough of that feeling. Thanks to all the ladies for making it great. Hope you all traveled home well. I figure no news is good news!

Well, that's about it for now. Seems like most of this post is about me and not the kids. That doesn't usually happen. I guess that's why I haven't updated lately!

Fall Harvest and Carhart boys!

Some people have been asking how my garden has turned out so I thought it time to post an "after shot". If you want to see the "before" you can look HERE at the previous post on June 9th. We ended up with a pretty good harvest this year. My peas always die too early. This year I was careful to give them a little shade with a little fence I put next to them to help them climb. I thought this would help but somehow by doing this I managed to deplete them of another need -- water! The fence was unknowingly in the way of the sprinkler that was in charge of watering them! Every year I think - next year I will have the best peas! Maybe next year :). We got several pumpkins from our two plants and some will even be good for carving. There are still about four green ones on the vine. I am not sure they will have time to get ripe but we'll see. The grapes are flourishing as usual and taking over the garden. The two mounds of ivy that you can see on either side of the first picture are the arbors covered with grape vine. We can no longer walk under the arbors and one of them is taking over the fence too. They are so pretty though! They are just a BIG PAIN to trim back every year. I keep having to cut the one near the cherry tree back because it is trying to grow over the cherry tree! I wish everyone would just stay where they are supposed too! The tomatoes have done well but we have lots of green ones still on the plant. Again, hoping that we won't get an early frost. The peach tree did FABULOUS and we have a lot of peaches. Not bad for cold Idaho. We still have a few to pick but had to pick them a little early because the wind was starting to blow them off the branches as well as blow the branches off the tree. Good ol' south Idaho wind! All in all not a bad little harvest. We also got lettuce, cucumbers, plums, and two or three five-gallon bucket fulls of apples. I plan to do lots of canning next week.

Len has been hunting quite a bit lately but this week he is staying home for some "honey do's". One of those projects is to dig out a new window well for our basement bedroom so we can put a big window in. We are excited for this because then we can move Kaydra to the new bedroom and the kids can each have their own room and a little bit of space. Kanyon is such a big "help" to his dad and I couldn't resist taking a picture of my two Carhart boys. There is something about a working man in working pants! I am grateful for both of them and all they do for me!

Miranda is now seven months old. She has decided that this is the perfect time for her to take over the entire house and family. She is crawling quite well now but refuses to go more than about 5 feet. She wants to be carried everywhere and NEVER left alone in a room. She needs someone to constantly entertain, talk to, smile at, or cuddle with her. She lets us know this by SCREAMING a VERY LOUD high pitch squeal anytime we are not doing exactly what she wants. This is usually not a problem unless I want to get ANYTHING done! Did I tell you that it is LOUD? One day, after an entire day of not pleasing her and continuing to hear her scream all day I finally put her in the tub. She was finally happy for just about the first time all day. She played really well and found that chewing on her wash cloth was soothing to her as well. She has found that her mouth is a good "third hand" and uses it frequently to carry things while she is crawling. I know that this picture isn't very good of her but I thought it was funny how she is holding the washcloth in her mouth. When she isn't screaming she really is a cute baby. She has the best smile and laugh and she loves to eat anything I will let her. Tonight she had Shepherd's Pie. Yes, she ate elk burger, corn, beans, and mashed potatoes. She is a heavy eater-even at seven months. It's what she wants and if I don't give it to her, she screams - VERY LOUD! What's a mom to do? She doesn't even understand the word "no" yet! I fear that I am spoiling her but there is nothing I can do about it! Even with all the screaming, I still love her. She is a beautiful baby and so much fun to cuddle with. If only I could just cuddle with her all day and do nothing else. I think we would both be happy!

Seven year old!

Kaydra turns Seven!

So I missed posting on Kaydra's birthday but I wanted to post a slide show of my little girl to show how much she has grown. I think that Miranda is starting to look like Kaydra did at the same age. The only difference is their eyes. Kaydra's were very blue at six months and Miranda's are much darker and most likely going to be brown. That is fine with me because they are both beautiful girls.
Kaydra is such a big help around the house. We are finding that she has such a loving personality and is able to be friends with everyone. She loves people and she tries her hardest to have them like her too. She is a very kind person. She thinks of others and tries to meet their needs. She will frequently leave me small notes that say, "I love you" around the house for me to find and this brightens my day. She is always willing to play with Miranda or keep her happy for just a few moments so I can finish what I am doing. She is a good big sister to Kanyon, letting him play with her and her friends when they are over. She is very creative and has an immense imagination. Her and Kanyon can frequently be found playing an imaginary game where they each take on different rolls and play them out for hours. I feel so blessed to have her in our home.
This year for her birthday we went to Heise Hot Springs.

This is what Kaydra asked to do and her birthday fell on Monday so it was a good family night activity. We invited Courtney and her kids and Jake, Jana, and Riley to come with us. When we got there we thought the pool was closed because no one was in it. We checked in at the hot tub part of the pool and they said that the pool was open! I asked about the water slide and they said that if we wanted, they would turn it on for us! The kids thought that was pretty cool. So we got all you can stand ride passes for the slide and pretty much had the pool to ourselves.

Kalli jumping Kanyon jumping Kaydra jumping

The water was a great 80 degrees so even the babies liked it. We went down the slide several times and then sat in the hot pools for awhile. It was a lot of fun. After swimming we went to the clubhouse that is part of the golf course and had cake and pizza. I stole some pictures from Courtney's blog because I didn't take my camera and she got some good pictures!
When we got home that night we opened her presents. She got a soccer ball, some snorkel gear, and some earrings so she can get her ears pierced (after soccer) if she wants to. She was SUPER excited. I can't believe that I have a seven year old. She is such a great person and I feel blessed to have her in our home. We love you Kaydra!

Okay, Okay!!

I haven't posted for quite awhile. I am starting to hear about it! I am glad that people are paying attention. I have been meaning to post but I was waiting for some pictures to come and then when I got them, it just seemed to be at the end of the "to do" list. But, the story continues!

Last day of Vacation

On our final day of vacation we drove about 2 hours to a different beach that Dan (Courtney's husband) found online. It was called Bathtub Beach. Here there was a huge reef that helped to break the waves so the water inside the reef stayed warm and calm. The kids could swim and walk out pretty far without us worrying they would be plummeted with an unexpected wave. The reef also provided a great place to snorkel. We could see tons of fish and other sea life and there were so many shells! The kids felt like they had found the "hidden treasure". They gathered shells and looked at fish and they all got pretty good at snorkeling. We had so much fun that day that we forgot to take pictures! It was beautiful but we never got the camera out! Leonard managed to find a huge conch shell in excellent condition and a nearly perfect sand dollar. They are beautiful.

That night, the boys (Jake, Dan, and Len) went fishing one more time before we had to catch our flight the next day. We thought they were crazy because our flight was at 7:30 so this meant that we would have to leave at 4:30 a.m. in order to be to the airport with enough time to check in and return our cars. They couldn't resist though and Len managed to catch some interesting sea life.

Yes, that is a real black tip shark and a weird starfish. Only Leonard would catch something crazy like that!

This is the end of my telling of our Florida vacation. We had a great time. We are so glad that we went. We feel so blessed to be part of such a great family that continues to grow each year. Thank you Mom and Dad for making it so great.

I am in TROUBLE!!!

I know that I still need to finish journaling on our vacation. We have been busy this past week. I also need to wish Kaydra Happy Birthday. I will blog on both of these but for now I thought you should all share in my pain as you watch my BARELY 6 month old baby IN ACTION!!! WHAT WILL I DO???!!!

MGM and The Rainforest Cafe

On Friday we went to MGM. There weren't as many rides there as we thought there would be but it was still fun. The kids liked the Tower of Terror. This was one of my favorite rides when we went to Disneyworld when I was in high school. I remember it the most of anything we did that vacation. It was a brand new ride at that time and they didn't have one in Disneyland at that time so it was pretty cool that we got to go on it. Anyway, the kids seemed to like it. It was a warmer day and so it was hot and the park is smaller and seemed much more crowded then even the Magic Kingdom. We left early as we had planned to go to the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney. We had reservations for 4:30 so we could eat and then go back to the park if we wanted. The food at the cafe was good. It is a pretty cool restaurant. The animals move and the lights flicker off and on like you are in the rain forest during a thunderstorm. The kids seemed to like it.

We then had a chance to walk around the shops of Downtown Disney. It was like a HUGE Disney souvenir mall. Every store had something Disney in it. The kids liked looking at everything and it gave them a chance to pick out a souvenir. Kanyon got stuff to dress up like a pirate. His package included an eye patch, gun that shoots rubber darts, sword, and hook.Pretty cute and an easy Halloween costume if I can talk him into it. Kaydra got a pretty Mickey necklace and a castle ring. I went to the caramel apple shop and got me and Leonard a huge caramel apple that was dipped in milk chocolate, then in crushed M&M's, then drizzled with white chocolate. We ate it that night after the kids went to bed. It was SO yummy! I would have gotten another one the next day if the shop had been closer!

There were statues of the princesses there so Kaydra finally got a picture with Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. It's not quite the same but she was happy. It was a long day but ended very well. A day can't be bad when it ends with an apple like that!

Beach Day #3

Okay, back to vacation reporting. Last Thursday was another day of staying on the beach. These were my favorite days because we could come and go as we pleased and stay as long or as little as we wanted. The hotel was only a short walk from the beautiful sandy beach. The waves seemed smaller this day then they had any other day we were there. The kids still had a great time using the boogie boards. We were afraid that it would rain a lot this day but it actually turned out pretty great.

Leonard and the boys discovered how to find were the crabs and other creepy crawlies were under the sand and they would try to dig them up. They mostly found these weird crab/beetle looking things but Leonard managed to dig up a few crabs. This is a picture of one of them.

Dan and the kids with help from some of the older boys created this big pyramid sand castle with a moat that slowly filled as the tide came in. They thought it funny to put Leonard's crab right next to the pyramid and watch it bury inside as though it lived there. If you look really close you can see a small black hole in the back of the pyramid on the corner closest to Kaydra - this was where the crab crawled in - creating a "door".

Markell manage to catch her first fish ever with the help of Josh - her friend who came with us on the trip.

Scott and Traci had Markell take some stunning pictures of them on the beach that night. You can go to Traci's blog to see some of them. They are such a cute couple and we were glad she was with us on the trip.

One time I was out in the waves with Miranda and then I came back to the beach and sat next to Paul in a chair right at the edge of the water. He was digging a hole with his foot. Pretty boring if you asked me. We discussed the purpose of the hole. Soon, for some reason the other men felt compelled to help him dig the hole. They, unlike me, did not ask the purpose of this task. It was amazing to me that they would just sit there and dig without any real reason. They were surprised to learn that Paul's purpose for digging the hole (which they were helping) was so that there would be a big hole that someone would fall into as the tide came in. Paul said to there surprised reactions, "Why else would you dig a hole?" What I wonder, is why were they all so attracted to simply digging in the first place? I will never understand the male gender.

That night we had a delicious steak dinner prepared by Dad. He had ordered some Omaha Steaks that were delivered to the hotel and we were able to enjoy them that night. It was delish!

Josh, Leonard, and Jake went fishing again that night. Jana said she tried to go watch but was attacked by mosquitoes again and decided it wasn't worth it. Stinking mosquitoes anyway!

Six Months Old and the First Day of School

I hope this video works. I have been trying for a few days to get a good video of Miranda laughing because it is so funny!She is growing so fast and I wanted to make sure that I caught this on video. I hope you can see it. She had her six month check up on Monday and she is growing great! Everything looked really good according to the doctor. She is sitting very well for a six month old he said. The past two days she has started commando crawling all over the floor. She is still pretty slow but it is only a matter of time! It's fun to see her grow up but I wish it would slow down just a little! She is now 16 lbs 2 oz and 28 inches long. The doctor says her growth looks great and right on track. She is mostly a happy baby as long as she gets what she wants. My biggest mistake with Miranda so far is that somehow she has developed a taste for sleeping in bed with us. For those that know us -- this has always been on our NEVER DO THIS WITH YOUR CHILD list. I am not really sure how it happened. She started growing out of the bassinet and it seemed easier to just let her sleep with me than to put her in her room as Leonard is gone at night working so much so I had this huge bed all to myself. I know that I need to break the habit soon but I too have started enjoying it! Usually she falls asleep laying next to me and then I carry her to her crib. She usually wakes up around 2:00 am and I have to feed her. She will then wake up at 6:00 if I leave her in her crib or she will sleep the rest of the night if I take her back to bed with me. Most nights it just seems easier to take her back to bed. We'll see how long it lasts. I am definitely better about putting her in her crib when Len is home to share my bed. She is just SO CUTE!! and I hate to see her cry! :( especially when I know that she will stop crying immediately if she just lays down next to me! I am wrapped around her finger - I know!

Today was Kaydra's first day of school. She is now in second grade and has Mrs. Holm for her teacher. She had a good day and was glad to see some kids she recognized from last year. Her two good friends are in another class but she seems like everything will be just fine. I can't believe I have a second grader. I remember being in second grade and it doesn't seem like that long ago. Weird. Kanyon was pretty lonely at home today. As we walked home after dropping Kaydra off for her first day he said - "So, what are we going to do today?" His preschool doesn't start until after Labor Day so we will have a long week and a half! "I'm bored" is his favorite expression right now although sometimes he gets it wrong and says, "I'm boring". Too cute!

The Magic Kingdom

This was the part of the vacation that Leonard did not look forward to -- going to the theme parks. The kids were really excited though.

This is before the day started. Everyone is well rested and waiting to get started!

We planned ahead and bought them all Disney shirts to wear to the park on this day. Kaydra and Kalli matched and Kanyon and Terek matched and Miranda and Riley matched.

Miranda wondering how long she has to wait before we start going!

I didn't take any pictures with all the kids in their outfits and I don't even have a picture of Riley in her outfit but I know that Jake and Jana took one of Miranda and Riley together so maybe I will post one later if I get a copy of it. We had a good time and so did the kids. We took advantage of the fast passes and also the "rider switch" passes so that we rarely had to wait in the LONG lines. It was good with all the kids.

Kaydra, Kalli, Terek, and Kanyon with Buzz Lightyear

Kaydra was disappointed that the only "character" we got to meet was Buzz Lightyear. The lines for the princesses were very long. We did walk through the castle and she was happy with that. Kanyon's favorite ride was Space Mountain. He loved the idea that we were on a rocket blasting through space. I thought he would be scared but he loved it and was able to go twice. We were there from park opening at 9:00 am until after the fireworks show which ended about 10:30 pm. On the way back to the car it started DUMPING rain. In fact, it started while we were on the monorail back to our car. So after carrying around ponchos all day and not using them we used them for the 5 minute walk to the car after we got off the monorail. Even though we didn't use them very long, I was SO glad we had them because the rain was SO HARD! The parking lot was flooded before we even got to the car and it had only been raining for about 5 minutes when we got there! They get a different kind of rain in Florida! We appreciated the overcast day as it made the heat more bearable and all in all we had a really good day. One the kids are still talking about one week later.

This is Splash Mountain. On the ride from front to back and right to left: Jana and Jake, Dan and Kalli, Kaydra and Grandpa Fuller, Kanyon and Leonard