Day 3: Epcot

Wow!  I can't believe I'm JUST now getting around to posting this.  FINALLY (it was only from December :)! Epcot was next on the list of parks!  We rode Soarin', Spaceship Earth, Mission Space, Nemo and the Seas, and Test Track. We ate lunch in Mexico at a quick serve spot, La Cantina and then headed to a show, Journey Into Imagination with Figment and another round of Soarin'. The fast passes allowed us to get on certain rides several times, which was so great. We loved Epcot for many reasons, but most of all because of the World Showcase.  It was so exciting to step into each country of the world and really FEEL like you were there!  It was an incredible experience.

Here are the kiddos enjoying the aquarium after the Finding Nemo ride

In the mouth of the SHARK!

Yes....this is my child lying on the floor in the middle of the crowds.  She clearly liked the feel of the carpets

That evening we ate dinner in the World Showcase at Akershus Banquet Hall.  We met all the princesses while we ate a very yummy meal (I ate some delicious pasta with cream sauce-yummo!).  The girls were so excited about the princesses and followed them around the entire banquet hall.  After dinner we used our fast passes to ride on the Maelstrom, a Viking boat tour.  It was awesome!

Missing Adler

This weekend was just as difficult as I expected it to be. Today is Adler's due date and instead of tears of joy for the arrival of our beautiful baby boy....there was weeping at his graveside yesterday. As I sat there staring at the wilted flowers from October 20th on Adler's burial plot, my hopes and dreams for this little life were hushed by the sound of the wind in the trees. As I sat there sobbing over of all that COULD have been....I couldn't help but think of this one simple truth. Can you imagine willingly giving up your son for the benefit of others? Can you fathom coming up with that VERY idea....to sacrifice your son? I can't. I'm still struggling with giving my only son up to my Heavenly Father in a place that is full of absolute beauty. I know how silly that sounds, but the honesty of it is this....I would selfishly LOVE to have him here. To squeeze him, to kiss his sweet cheeks.  Oh, to have those sweet moments with him.
I could linger in that thought and excitement for so long, but the fact is....He doesn't want me to. I know there are reasons unseen why our precious Adler was taken from us so soon and I'm trusting in His promises regardless of how difficult it is. We have hope and a future with a God that loves us more than we could imagine. One that would give up His son just for us. That's pretty amazing and I'm going ALL IN, regardless of my circumstances here, for a God like that.

We also planted a Weeping Cherry tree in our backyard in remembrance of Adler and I'm so glad we did.  It'll be a sweet little haven for the kiddos to play under and a nice memory for all of us. I love that the girls will always know it as "Adler's tree".    

Can't wait to see how his tree grows!

Charli Suttyn:20 Months!

OH GIRL!  You are so FUN!

 

*You're babbling and talking a lot! We can't understand much except for the two of us (meaning you and I). I can usually understand what you want because I've learned Charli speak, but it's not easy. You like to say "dat" and "more" a lot and sometimes it's a complete guessing game, but hey....you've finally mastered momma and daddy! :) 

 

*You may not speak a whole lot, but your receptive language is amazing.  You know exactly what we're saying and you get your point across with or without words.  You are a smart little cookie.

*You've got the most beautiful curly hairy. It's thinner than Ansley's has ever been, but some days I feel like it's curlier. We usually rock the front ponytail (the front fountain), but it can also be put all the way up and it's adorable!

Watch out if you happen to see her right after a nap.  This girl can crank out some bed head like no other!

 

*You've started this new thing....you alarm me of a dirty diaper.  It's pretty funny really. It goes a little something like this.....you find me IMMEDIATELY to be changed and hold yourself UNTIL I change it.  Usually, there's several "UH OH's" that follow. You're such a mess.  Smart, but a mess.  Now, if I can get you to tell me a little earlier!

*We have most of our teeth now! Bottom canines and all of your molars...or whatever they are!

*You like Barney, Dora, and Minnie Mouse shows. You'll really watch them for a little longer if it involves snuggle time on the couch with Daddy. For whatever reason, you'll sit still if the situation is exactly that. Otherwise, no way!

*Your favorite thing to do, by far is read books. You are hooked and so very studios! Ha!

You could literally sit in my lap and listen to me read or go through your picture board books for hours if I could do it. You LOVE the tab books where there's a surprise on each page. Your sweet squeals of excitement after every page is the most precious thing-even if it's been 20 times.

*You have mastered cow, duck, horse, and dog sounds. Whew!

 

*You love to do somersaults! And rocking and rolling all over our king sized bed. You go from one end to the other giggling and falling wildly. Scares me silly!

 

*We've noticed you're quite the nail picker.  It seems so strange that at this age it would bother you so much to have a hang nail, but it does! When I've noticed there's no sign of Charli anywhere and she's become quiet....it's because she's found a hang nail somewhere!  She's either investigating her nails or her toes.  No hang nails allowed for this girl!

 

Love YOU, sweet Char!

Day 2: Magic Kingdom

 I wasn't sure how Day 2 could get any better, but it did!  Magic Kingdom was Uh.Mazing.  I felt like I had a pretty good feel for the Fast Passes and this day we used both our bands and our room keys for rides.  So total, we had 6 Fastpasses which made everything quick and painless really (it took more work figuring out who would stay with Juliet while the rest of us rode, but a lot of rides she just stayed in Laura's carrier.  Usually we did 2 shifts for the rides (if Juliet couldn't ride) splitting my mom and dad up sometimes, but we mixed it up a lot.  We got to the ride and basically got right on....that and the fact that most of the parks were a 2-3 out of 10 (a crowd rating) on the days we were there.  Score!  We started off with the Adventures of Winnie Pooh, Dumbo, the Mad Tea Party, Tomorrowland Speedway, Barnstormer (Ansley's favorite rollercoaster), Ariel's Grotto, Peter Pan's flight, The Haunted Mansion, and more! We watched Mickey's Philharmonic 3D show that the kids adored and while we were near the Barnstormer, we hopped the train. 
It took us all around the park so we could get a better idea of where things were at (not to mention the kids loved it).  We ate lunch at Be Our Guest, but couldn't stay long because it was off to the Pirates of the Caribbean and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad for our fast passes!
Here they are on Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. 

Jason was pretty amazed too :)

Flying Dumbo with the girls.

Tea cups with Dad! Charli and her runny nose....we had several pictures like this. Ha!

Then it was time for some racing!

We passed everyone!

Clearly Ansley has a lead foot!

Our relaxing train ride

Lunch at Be Our Guest.  Yummy!

Love this picture

Charli was set with her sweet ride!

Can you tell Jansen didn't want to stop for a picture? :) These outfits were coordinating thanks to Aunt Laura. 

Cutie patooties


My mom and dad with Ansley outside of Ariel's Grotto

That evening after a FULL day of fun, we ended the evening with dinner at The Crystal Palace.  We ate a yummy buffet and the kids met all of the Pooh characters. This was the cherry on top of the day.  Those kids BEEMED and SQUEALED when the characters came out and LOVED parading around the restaurant with them!  Jansen was beside himself as his favorite lovey greeted him (he carries a Pooh bear everywhere).  Our cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing so much!    

I think this was Charli's favorite part of the trip!

The girls just kept loving on them!

Parade time!

This sweet little girl helped guide Charli

After dinner, my marathon eater wanted some more snacks so we took a seat during the Christmas party and had a few goldfish.

This was the best family pic we could get.  I think Charli was still looking for food. :)

Magical Day #2.....check!  

Disney Day 1!

Let the adventures begin!

Our first full day in Disney was spent at Animal Kingdom. The kids loved seeing all the animals there and watching the AMAZING shows.  We tried to break up our days by riding several rides and then watching a show and so on.  It gave all of us some downtime and a time to just chill before moving on to the next big adventure. :) We were able to see the Festival of the Lion King and Finding Nemo musical type shows.  Wow.  They were so great!  The singing, stunts, and sets were out of this world!

Here we are at finding Nemo!

Some of our ride highlights included...Primeval Whirl, Tricera Top Spin, Expedition Everest, and Dinosaur. On Expedition Everest, Ansley was tall enough to go, but the whole time I wondered if it was too much for her (it went really fast and backwards) and it turned out.....my DAD of all people got sick on it.  Ha!  After that, he took it easy on the rides. :) We also rode on Kilamanjaro Safaris which was an open-air vehicle ride that takes you on an expedition through an African savannah.  This scored MAJOR points with the kiddos.  They loved it.  However, the Dinosaur ride was NOT for Ansley!  She kept her head in my lap the entire time and almost broke a few bones in my hands.  She is STILL talking about that scary dinosaur ride. :(  We ate at a quick serve lunch at Restaurantosaurus while Charli slept a little bit.

This was the scene after lunch.  They were whooped!

 

We loved Animal Kingdom and could have explored more of the park, but we had some REALLY important reservations at the Bippity Boppity Boutique in Downtown Disney. 

She was so excited!

They put on eyeshadow, blush, and lipstick!

They got every single tangle out of her curly hair.  She was so tough about it....she didn't even grimace.

Seeing herself for the first time after all the pampering.

She was on Cloud 9!

After her appointment, we explored the Downtown area, watched an awesome dance show, and ate dinner at Earl of Sandwich.  My sandwich (roast beef and cheese) was seriously amazing.  Can't say enough about it...it was seriously yummy.  As if the day hadn't been exciting enough....that evening we jumped back on the bus and headed to Magic Kingdom to watch the Christmas Parade of Lights.  Wow. Just wow.  That parade is just one of a kind. 

Here's a few pictures from it.  Pictures DON'T do it justice!

Just imagine, thousands and thousands of lights covering these floats.  It was magnificent!
 
We had the best seats!  We were the first to see them come out of gate.

Cinderella up close and personal.

 

Watching the parade!

Charli kept yelling "Dat!" (in Charli language- look at that!")

And this was one of the most magnificent sights I've seen.  This castle was breathtaking.
And the fireworks were AMAZING!  This is when Ansley's love for the Frozen movie started.  Some of the movie was projected on the castle and she was in awe and so were WE!  

Magical Day 1....check!

DISNEY! Here We Come!!!!

I can't even believe I'm posting about a Disney vacation! AHHHH! I thought the possibility of us going this soon seemed IMpossible.  I always imagined us waiting until Charli was a little older to go, but I KNEW Ansley was at the perfect age to really enjoy it.  So when my mom mentioned that they wanted to spend their credit card rewards on a Disney trip for the whole family, I was excited about this possibility ACTUALLY becoming a reality.  Turns out....it paid for more than 1/3 of our trip!  Yay!  Because we were going around Christmas, we overwhelmingly agreed that it was an AMAZING Christmas present for all of us from my parents, so absolutely NO presents allowed under the tree (they totally broke that promise, but at least they peared it down!).  We didn't decide on all this until the end of September.  Now, if you look at all the Pinterest boards for Disney you will see that you should always book your Disney vacation 120 days before you plan to go for optimal reservations.  Well, we didn't quite make that cutoff, but it turned out great regardless!  After talking with my friend, Ashley she suggested using a Disney travel agent to get the best deal.  I tried to book my dining plan first because apparently that's the hardest thing to get on short notice.  They were right!  I basically called and said..."I need some character meals stat!" and after several LONG phone calls with some really sweet Disney representatives...we had our dates.  Whew! That same week, Southwest had some great deals on flights so I booked everyone's flight for super cheap ($300 RT and nonstop).  It just seemed like things were falling into place. 

WOO HOO!!  Disney here we come!

Our flight there was so great.  The plane was barely occupied, so we had rows and rows of seats in the back to ourselves.  This was good for a slightly anxious mom of 2 that had never flown with the littles before.:/

This is my crazy brother acting like there are people sitting next to him so the oncoming passengers stay away.  He apparently didn't get the memo that it was an empty plane. Ha!  We laughed about this until we cried! His face!!! Hilarious...

The kids got to see the cockpit before takeoff.

Mom and Dad ready for takeoff!

Charli was set with her little board books.  She was so good!

And this little girl couldn't have been more excited to fly.

She called the window seat next to Daddy. 

After our flight we were escorted by Magical Express to our hotel that evening.  When we got to our resort (Art of Animation) it was AMAZING!!!  Let me just say...Disney thinks of every little detail.  Just our walk IN the resort was magical! They had everything decorated for Christmas in every fun color you can imagine to match their current décor.  It was beautiful. 

This was the pool area. 

And the girls DIED when they saw their Mermaid room.  Ansley kept screaming from one surprise to another....look mom!  Look dad!  It's Ariel and Flounder, and Prince Eric!!!  Charli was amazed too.  She kept going from one Ariel detail to the other and she LOVED our mermaid shower curtain!  We still were all hungry so we went to the restaurant for some dinner and then hit the sack before our first exciting day at Disney.  Who in the world could sleep with so much excitement ahead!