Memories

Here, it's already been three weeks since returning from our family vacation, but what a time it was! I've decided to post simply the highlights from our 10-day vacation in Orlando. For Derrick, Madison and myself, the best part of the vacation was the day we drove to Sarasota Beach along the Gulf Coast. Simply amazing! The gulf coast was the first beach I ever saw (at age 22 mind you...and my girls have seen multiple beaches at this point) and it has always remained my favorite beach. I was thrilled to share this amazing creation of God's with our girls. Breanne described the sand best when she said, "It's like flour!" We had fun swimming in the ocean, digging in the sand, flying the kite, searching for sea shells and sand dollars.

We met many characters at the theme parks, which was Aliya's favorite thing to do.

We were fortunate to have a good friend from Billings and her 4-year-old son join us for half of our stay: Dawn and Gabe. It was so good for me to reconnect with Dawn and for Gabe and Aliya to have playmates their own size.

Here we are waiting for the Toy Story Mania ride with 3-D glasses on and below overwhelmed by all the stuffed animals one of the zillion gift shops!

Of course, no trip to Disney would be complete without meeting Mickey.

We did our Momma-Bibbidi-Bobba-dee-bo Boutique at the townhome we rented and went out for a night at Downtown Disney.

Tinkerbell was mom and dad's favorite character to meet. She was fantastic at playing the part and engaging the girls in conversation!

The fireworks at Magic Kingdom were awesome...took too many pictures. I don't know if Breanne really had a favorite from our vacation. Her reply would simply echo someone else's often, but I do know she really like the shows (I think Beauty and the Beast was her favorite, but Derrick & I really liked the Lion King) and parades.

Our last stop in Orlando...stock up on Disney gear and say cheese!