Bill's Top Vacation Moments

and the continued tradition of remembering vacation moments ..

Bill's List:

1)  Fishing with Ellie
2)  Fireworks over the castle
3)  California Grill
4)  Toy Story Ride at Hollywood Studios
5)  the pool!
6)  First sight of the Castle this trip - its magical even though we've seen it before!

Bill's first catch of the day!

Bill and Ellie in front of the castle - awaiting the fireworks!

Date Night at California Grill!

Even waiting in line for the Toy Story ride is an adventure!

This is just 1/8 of what our pool looked like

The castle from the OTHER side!

Ellie's Top Vacation Moments

On our first day home we sat around the kitchen table as I explained the beauty of vacations ... the enjoyment comes in three parts.  First comes the anticipation of the trip - the planning, the scheming and the excitement of what's to come.  Second comes the actual trip - all of it - travel, seeing new things, laughing, relaxing and of course, the food!  Third is the one that lasts the longest - enjoying the memories.  I asked everyone to think of their top vacation moments so that we'd have this list to look back on when the memories begin to fade.

This is Ellie's list:
1)  the pool parties each afternoon
2)  her very first fishing trip
3)  Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom
4)  Fireworks over the Castle
5)  Ariel at her Grotto
6)  Food tasting at EPCOT during Flower and Garden Festival

She did hula-hoop, ring toss, dancing and so much more!

So happy to have caught her first fish!

Fireworks over the castle - truly like no other experience!

Ariel and Ellie!

And a good time was had by all....

Until next time ...

Day Seven

Disney Magic in EPCOT

Mexican Restaurant for dinner on the last night in EPCOTs World Showcase

And it all started with a mouse ....

A view of our hotel from the boat ferry that took us to and from EPCOT

Day Six

Be Our Guest at Magic Kingdom for lunch

Ellie and Luminare outside Be Our Guest

Oh the joy of Magic Kingdom

Sprinkling Fairy Dust wherever we go ...

Inside the castle at Be Our Guest

The welcome song at Be Our Guest before the first seating of lunch

From inside the castle it looks snowy outside - just like Beauty and the Beast

The Dining room at the Castle

Day Five

Hollywood Studios brings out the actor/actress in us all!

Great spot for coffee in Hollywood Studios called The Writer's Spot for coffee and treats!

We call this a 'selfie' waiting for a bus to take us somewhere fun

Happy 9th Birthday E L L I E !!

Delicious whipped cream frosted white cake - just like she wanted!

Ellie and Robin - BFFs
Making their painted frames together~!

Getting ready to cut the cake!

Rebecca, Ellie and Robin hard at work.

After face painting ...
A Tiger, A Zebra and a Sparkle Fairy

Close up of the Zebra mask
She wears it well!

Day Four

Day Four was our visit to Animal Kingdom after a fishing expedition .. pool time and then off to dinner at Animal Kingdom Lodge.  Each day was full of adventure, laughter and sunshine.  Can't ask for any more than that!

On our way into the park in the morning ...

First things first .. Expedition Everest ... she loves her roller coasters!

Disney Magic - Animal Kingdom-style!

But first there was fishing!  She caught 7 fish in two hours ... well, actually only in the 2nd hour!

They sure did have fun!

Day Three

Test Track at EPCOT

Visit with Mickey!

Shock and Awe followed us everywhere!

Dinner Day Three - Downtown Disney Food Trucks!

Day Two

Day Two we visited Magic Kingdom (again) for all the magic one family can possibly handle.  Ellie loved the rides (of course), and we loved the parades, shows and magic it provides!

I know you must have been wondering what I meant when I said, 'magic' ... and now you know!

Day One

Here's a shot from our very first ride .. Seven Dwarfs Mine Ride at Magic Kingdom!  You can see from the faces who enjoyed the ride the most ...

Many more to come ...

There will be lots more photos to come ... There are several hundred to download from the Disney site, as well as organize from our trip.  In the meantime I wanted to at least post one to let you know what a wonderful time we had ... and we've each assembled our Top 10 (5 or 11) list of our favorite memories from the trip.

I will try to depict each of those through photos as well.  Since we know you want to see what we're talking about!

from our last day at Disney ... 3/13/2015

March Birthdays

Olivia and Ellie at lunch

Thursday was a snow day ... and i mean SNOW DAY!  We got 4 inches of snow on top of the ice overnight.  Schools were closed, and work was delayed opening until noon.  It was quite a day.  Of course Ellie is counting down days until Disney so this gave her more time to catch up on Disney movies!

Until her new friend Olivia's mom showed up at the door to return our basket from last weekend.  Jen and I talked briefly about work, taking conference calls from home and the fact that it was Olivia's 7th birthday (March 5th)!

They were headed to Texas Roadhouse for lunch and asked if Ellie could go too - to celebrate Olivia's birthday.  Why not?  And Ellie's coat and sneakers were never put on so quickly!  Off they went.  Jen text me the whole time and posted wonderfully happy pictures!

I was thrilled for Ellie to have the feeling of independence, and even more so that Jen said how polite Ellie was, and very grown up!  YEA!

Here are a couple shots of the girls at lunch!  Even though they'll be separated for the next week Ellie made sure that Jen knew about her birthday party on March 22 - and that she was inviting Olivia to the party!

Olivia and Ellie with sugar covered faces!

Tie Dye Shirt Project

First color.

Second color.

Third color.

Entirely different shirt - this time with a big E!

Even Bill and I dyed some shirts for our Disney trip!