Let the magic begin

This is just a small sample of our trip, which in summary was so much FUN! We had the best time! Yes it was hot, yes we had to wait in a few lines and yes it was kinda pricey. But the memories that we made, the fun that we had and the smiles on our kids faces override all the negtives!! It really is the most magical place on earth and we can't wait to go back! We love you mickey and friends!

day 6, epcot

On friday we headed to epct for one reason only: tinkerbelle. Fantasy land is under construction, so the fairies were re-located to epcot temporarily. While we were happy to take the kids, it was not our first choice to spend our last day. There is not a lot for the kids to do in the various worlds. I loved it and would like to take a day with the hubby there, kid free!! we did see several princesses there. Snow white, mulan, jasmine to name a few. But after i took these pictures, my camera battery died. oops! i used my camera for 6 days and didn't recharge the battery...where was my head? lol! we did ride soren which was so amazing, and saw a few kid shows at the nemo and friends area. Oh, and we lost lucas. yes, lost as in where is he, running around, crying. it was not pretty. i will finish that story later, but rest assured he is home with us now, safe and sound!!

day five, clearwater beach

On Thursday we headed to clearwater beach to have a little bit of a down day - or so i thought. We thought it would be fun to sleep in some, not rush off any where and when we got to clearwater, take the kids on a pirate ship cruise! so that's what we did! Little did we realize that we would be on this shade less device for 2 hours in the baking sun!! ahh! poor planning on my part, that's for sure! we should have rushed out for the earliest trip! it was fun nonetheless.

there was a treasure hunt, story time, face painting and a water gun fight.

pirate lou

there was dancing and limbo as well. Mia never misses a chance to dance!! she did the macarana, the ymca and duck dance. love her!!

we even spent some time at the beach, it was beautiful!! Word of advice, the umbrellas are not free! while we played in the water, officer friendly tried to give nana kathy a ticket for using the umbrellas! uh oh! we made ourselves scarce after that!! I adore mia's swimsuit too, so cut eon her!!

tomorrow's adventure - epcot!!

day four, disney

Wednesday started with breakfast at Cinderella's castle. it was so fun and Mia was able to meet so many princesses'! the food was really good too!

the princesses'. but where is belle's dress? a small disappointment that she was in her peasant dress.

After breakfast, Lucas had an upclose meeting with the evil step mother and step sisters! They were hands down the BEST characters there. the more lucas pouted and made faces, the more the ESS did too! it was priceless. the whole crowd was cracking up at the antics. we loved them!

day four ended with a ride into tomorrow land where we spotted buzz lightyear!! what! stop the tram, we need to meet Buzz! I took lucas over and we waited in line, where he was very excited to meet him, all the way up to the front of the line. then he froze up and wouldn't even smile. poor lou! he was just overwhelmed. we also rode the peter pan flying ride.

day 3, sea world

On Tuesday we went to sea world!! I loved sea world! loved the animals, the shamu show, all of it!

Darrin rode the Manta roller coaster and loved it. He actually rode/flew over us at the beginning. I wish i had known so i could have been more prepared to snap a picture! the kids met shamu, we learned about beach safety "don't trash were you splash!".

We got to pet the stingray, watch the dolphin's play and splash

we saw the dolphin's from underground too. very cool! Extreme Mia also got buckled up and did some high flying on the trampoline. she loved it. no fear in that girl!!

we also fed the sea lions! love, love, love! it was so much fun!

Mia got to experience the sea gulls snatching the food from her hand too. She hesitated one second too long and the bird swooped down and snatched it from her!

After lunch we made a pit stop at the pearl diving station. They divers retrieve a oyster and it is opened to see what pearl is inside! I have one from sea world and one from Hawaii. Amelia now has a cream pearl, ready for setting in the future! We also took the kids to the shamu harbor to let them play. too bad Lucas fell asleep. Amelia loved the kids rides, especially her first roller coaster!!!

My all time favorite was the shamu show. it was so fun! I could have watched it all day! They have a baby whale that they were training too. Lucas was mesmerized by the show. His eyes were glued to the whales. And sadly we sat in the splash zone and didn't get one drop of water splashed our way. not one!!! it was super hot too! the side splash zones got it all!

After the Shamu show, we did some shopping and headed back to the hotel It was a great day and we can't wait to go back!

disney, day 2

Monday started off with a stop at the sihloutte station. I have one of these from when i was a child, and was looking forward to having one of my kids! then, we went on buzz lightyear's space ranger spin. Nana was the first one to discover it was a game/ride. you were supposed to shoot the targets to get the highest score. Amelia and myseff - well, we were just having fun spinning around i circles!! Our score was not the highest :)

We then headed over to secure a spot in line to see Rapunzel. We were advised that if we did not have a spot in line at least an hour before Rapunzel arrived, you would not make it. And they were right. Nana got in line at 12 noon while we fed the kids, Rapunzel was scheduled to arrive at 1:00pm. She finally at 130. It was a very long. hot wait, but just look at the pictures. This is Amelia and I's favorite movie to watch together. Amelia was so nervous and so excited, she was wringing her hands at one point. Then Rapunzel invited her to Cinderella's castle for breakfast!! What a great girl! It was a memory we will not soon forget.

we also met ariel and prince eric, and took a boat safari ride!

Towards the end of the day, we got Lucas this super cool hat! the letter's are a all Disney character's! We went on the pirate's of the Caribbean ride and saw this awesome balloon guy! I love the outfit!

up next - sea world!

The happiest place on earth

Our fist day of disney was Sunday, father's day!! and what a great day it was!! I will try my best to break it down day by day. This was day #1.

We were all dressed in our disney finery and so excited to get there! My mom made Amelia's dress and I "made" lucas' shirt if you can call it that. It was an iron on that i applied -nothing too fancy for me!

Lots of firsts here - we took the boat over (should have monorailed over - oh well!).

Loved seeing the signs saying we were there, the first castle sighting was also fun! Mia was uber excited to see it, she knew it meant cinderella was near!! loved the let the memories begin sign

too!!

We made it in, and ran into the fairy god mother. She was super sweet to the kids, although lucas was not very fond of her. we saw a dance show on main, and mia caught the dancer's eye. he came over to talk to her and called her princess. she was so bashful - it was very cute! our first ride - the carousal.

After the carousal, we rode snow white's scary adventure, then we made our way over to it's a small world. Lucas and amelia loved the snow white ride, lucas told me he did not like it's a small world. he was quite funny about what he liked and what he didn't!! we saw the noon show with mickey and friends too! even included some fireworks!

After the show we went on a boat ride, Amelia, her pop and nana went to the haunted mansion. Since Lou wasn't old enough for that and was sleeping, I took him with me to the Christmas store nearby. i could look, he could sleep and there was AC!! sold! I happened to see the sign that told me Princess Tiana would be coming soon! Our very first princess meeting! I waited in line and everyone made it back in time to see her! One of my favorite things the big D promotes is having one person wait and the rest of the group exploring! very nice! After Tiana, we went on a train ride around the park. Lucas loved it, he is a huge train fan right now.

We were able to see where the new attractions were going to be while riding the train, and it gave us a chance to relax! We decided to leave the park after that for some r&r. The kids needed a nap and so did we! On the way out we ran across a street show in frontier land. Amelia was picked to go out and dance with the cast members! how fun! she did a great job and it was a wonderful memory!

Up next, we came back for the fireworks and the light the night parade!

day 1, part 2 - fireworks

After a much needed nap for everyone, we went back to WDW for the night time light show and the fireworks! I loved the fireworks, so did the kids and Darrin. Here are some pics of the light show on the castle. They put guests pictures from that day on the castle exterior. it was so fun to see and I am almost positive that we were on there. Ok, maybe not, but it was hard to see where we were sitting, so there was always a chance, right?

here are the fireworks - the little light in the corner is tinkerbell - she kicked off the festivities! It was just like I remembered from when I came as a child!

summer fun

does it get any cuter?

I am not sure!! this is his mad face!! It makes me laugh every time.

the newest member of our family

Welcome Ferdinand Bartholomew!!

Ferdinand found us June 11th, he was only about 2 weeks old. We have been loving
and nuturing him back to health, so far so good! Welcome to the family ferdie!

splash plad

We were invited to go to one of the many local splash pads with out friends Olivia and Robbie. We had a lot of fun, got really wet and afterwards, took a great nap!! I don't know how we didn't even get one picture of Olivia! Sorry Olivia! We had fun with you guys!

the 844

Union Pacific had a contest and the STL route won. We were excited to see the Steam engine and headed to Dupo, IL as t came through. Too bad it wasn't disclosed that it would not actually stop for us to climb on it that day. It honestly came into Dupo, stopped for 2 minutes, and then left. Lucas was excited to see it but wanted to get closer and touch it. We will have to take a trip to the Museum of Transportation so he can see some trains up close.

The History of LIVING LEGEND NO. 844

THE LAST OF THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVES

Many people know the engine as the No. 8444, since an extra '4' was added to its number in 1962 to distinguish it from a diesel numbered in the 800 series. The steam engine regained its rightful number in June 1989, after the diesel was retired.

Steam Locomotive No. 844 is the last steam locomotive built for Union Pacific Railroad. It was delivered in 1944. A high-speed passenger engine, it pulled such widely known trains as theOverland Limited, Los Angeles Limited, Portland Rose andChallenger.

When diesels took over all of the passenger train duties, No. 844 was placed in freight service in Nebraska between 1957 and 1959. It was saved from being scrapped in 1960 and held for special service.

The engine has run hundreds of thousands of miles as Union Pacific's ambassador of goodwill. It has made appearances at Expo '74 in Spokane, the 1981 opening of the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans and the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Los Angeles Union Station in 1989.

Hailed as Union Pacific's "Living Legend," the engine is widely known among railroad enthusiasts for its excursion runs, especially over Union Pacific's fabled crossing of Sherman Hill between Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyoming.