Disney 2017 part 2

Gosh, I don't remember hardly anything from our Disney trip last year.  Months and months and MONTHS ago, I went through a TON of photos on my phone, picked out all the ones I wanted to post on this blog and then when it came time for me to post, my phone would freeze up and start over.  THREE times!!  After the third time I was done trying, which is why I haven't posted in so long.  All because I wanted to document our Disney trip, dang it!  So here is attempt number four with a somewhat limited commentary because it was 9 months ago.

We were able to go back to Disney, just a short time later, in October. On our way out we stopped in Tallahassee to see the state capitol building.  We grabbed lunch and took it to the steps of the capitol building to eat in the shade.  The girls had fun sitting on the pillars and climbing the stairs. 

We only stayed a couple hours in Tallahassee, walking through the capitol building real quick after finishing up lunch, and then headed onto Disney World!
Our first day of the two passes we had left was spent at Animal Kingdom. Ride number one, Kilimanjaro safari.

Kate fell asleep on our way to meet Mickey and Minnie.  Thank goodness for our Ergo.

The girls, of course, loved Mickey and Minnie.  The helper at the character greeting, however, was very disappointing. She didn't smile, say hi to any of us, or look even the least bit okay with being where she was.  And she took all of 1 family photo of us with the Mouses which turned out blurry and not everyone was even looking.  She must have been having a really bad day because she is the only unhappy worker I've ever encountered at Disney World.  Oh well.  We do have this photo that Andrew was able to snap.

On our way to... somewhere, we stopped when we heard some music playing in front of one of the shops.  It was awesome. Kate and Abby chilled in the stroller to listen while Ellie was distracted by this cool totem pole.

Our fastest character greeting ever, Pocahontas.  We stood by her for 10 seconds, got our picture taken, and was ushered toward the exit.  But hey, she was happy, and we got a few non-blurry pictures to choose from.

The girls LOVE Tomorrowland Speedway.  And I think it's hilarious how hard it is to drive their cars.  The girls couldn't stop laughing as we bounced around our lane. 

Another favorite - The Barnstormer

Ellie trying to share some popcorn with Abby, who does not like popcorn at all.

Sitting in Gaston's chair at Gaston's Tavern for lunch.  

 One more time around the merry-go-round

 Disney parade which Kate and Ellie slept through.  

 Abby sat on my shoulders to watch the parade.  Despite her straight face in this photo, she did enjoy it.

 Shopping down main street 

 The park at Shades of Green

 Last picture taken at Disney World.  Until next time!

 The next day we went to Busch Gardens in Tampa.  It was fun, but SO different from Disney.  There was hardly anyone there which equaled no wait for rides. A definite plus.

 Our adorable girls

 We opted to feed the birds.  The girls enjoyed it.  Personally, I don't really care for birds.  Pretty to look at and sometimes pretty to listen to, but other than that they just make a mess and make kids cry because the stupid things bite even though they are in a PETTING ZOO!

 

 Kate and Abby loved climbing through the canopy/jungle gym

 While they did that Ellie went for a ride on a lion

 Kate was too big to go on this ride but Abby and Ellie enjoyed it

 Kate and Abby rode beneath Ellie and I.  They felt like big girls going on the ride by themselves.

 The lady running this ride let Kate and Abby go around three times.  They had a blast.

And that was our trip.  The ride home was uneventful and Duke was happy to see us once we got back.  Even though I am glad we were able to knock out two parks in one drive down to Orlando/Tampa, I hope to not split up our Disney vacation next time we go. 

Deployment distractions

The girls used their annual Christmas gift cards from Grandpa to buy a new toy a week after Daddy left. Going after Christmas is over is the way to do it because so many of the toys are on amazing sales. The girls had fun picking out their toy while I tried my hardest not to rush them.

This year I purposely left out a few gifts for after Andrew deployed. A nice distraction to turn a bad day into a good day for the girls. One of those gifts was makeup. The girls always ask me to share my makeup with them so I thought they'd love their own stuff. I was right, however, I was wrong to give it to them and then walk away. 

Oh my gosh. They caked on as much makeup as they could. I thought it was funny and cute, so I took a picture and then walked away again. Wrong! I should NOT have walked away! They continued to put on ALL the makeup. And then it started to get on their clothes. And then the carpet. It was a mess.

You live and learn, right? Well, I learned, for sure. No more makeup for them for a good LONG time.

Another distraction was puppy shopping. Kate especially has been wanting another puppy lately so I told her we could go to the pet store if she and her sisters were good while we ran errands one day.

I had gone a few weeks before because I was feeling the need to cuddle a cute little puppy. Well, I got the cute little puppy but man, it did not want to cuddle. It freaking attacked me, and my purse, and my clothes, and my shoes...! So my plan was to go to the puppy store so the puppy could convince Kate that we don't want another one, at least not right now.

My plan worked. Kate enjoyed the puppy enough, but, it kept biting at her hair and clothes and cheeks. I told Kate that when she's older we can get another puppy. That way she can help out more with the training and all that goes with getting a puppy. She agreed.

And here are the girls with their felt nativity set from Grammy.  They loved playing with it and were sad to see it get packed away with all the other Christmas stuff.  Just another thing to look forward to unpacking this next Christmas!

Deployment 2017-2018

I've been MIA for way too long on blogger. I'm trying to update and can only do so with pictures because my memory is so bad. So the next dozen or so posts will be from the past 6 months.

Andrew left for his second deployment one day after Christmas last year. We were so grateful to have him home for the holidays, but, knowing he would be gone the day after Christmas made me not look forward to my favorite day of the year.

We survived though. And the new toys helped keep the girls distracted. Here they are jumping off of Ellie's new slide.