Spring Tease

It was so warm yesterday that I had to get Grace and I outside. Here are a few pictures.

Grace can finally peddle her bike. She has a hard time getting started, but one she's gets going she does pretty good.





I love these sun glasses.



Here are a couple of pictures from our trip to Mystic with Amy and the boys.

How cute is he??

WDW Day 6: Back to Epcot

The rain that started the day before was expected to continue AND the temperature had dropped quite a bit so we decided to head back to Epcot to wander the countries and have lunch in Japan.

Grace was not so impressed.



I bought a couple of umbrellas at the hotel and Grace insisted on having one of them. She was pretty cute.





Lunch in Japan was great!! Grace ate the whole meal with the chop sticks.







My last look before we left WDW.



This was our first official family vacation that was just the three of us. I'm glad we went. We had lots of fun. I wish we had stayed a few more days, there were a couple of rides in the Magic Kingdom we missed and a few I would have liked to ride again. I look forward to going back maybe next year for our anniversary and when Grace doesn't need a nap any more.

We've been home for a little over 2 weeks now and Grace still talks about our trip daily and has asked many time when we will go back to Mickey's house. Just tonight as I sat with her before bed she said, "Remember we had lunch with Leo. That was fun."

WDW Day 5: Magic Kingdom Do Over

We were all in a much better mood and ready to ride the rides when we went back to the Magic Kingdom on Thursday. My goal was to make it all the way to the parade at 3. I didn't want to leave WDW without Grace seeing any of the parades!

We headed straight back to Fantasy Land and started with the Flying Dumbos.



Then Daddy and Grace rode the Tea Cups. Twice. In a row. This was Daddy's limit.



The Merry Go Round was next.



Then much to our surprise Grace wanted to ride the Pooh ride again. It was like a monkey on her back and she need to prove she could do it. And she did, without tears.

Learning from the previous day I stripped Grace naked before she played in the fountain. How many people can say they have been naked at the Magic Kindom?



We continued on and rode Its A Small World. Then to Mickey's Toon Town to revisit Minnie's house and ride Goofy's Barnstormer. I think Grace was a little mixed on Goofy's roller coaster, but I was proud that she tried it.

After some lunch, we went to the Haunted Mansion. The ride has been redone and I think they did a great job. Grace only asked if we could get out of there a couple of times. I was very proud of her bravery. Next Daddy and Grace got into the line for the Speedway.



Then it started to rain, hard at times. It kind of sucked, but by this point the parade wasn't to far off so with ponchos on we waited for the parade. Unfortunately we I have no pictures as I didn't want the camera to get wet. I think Grace enjoyed the parade, but I can't say for sure. Her reaction after the parade was to start crying over the fact that she didn't get to try the hula hoops that the park people had out for the crowd prior to the parade.

To stay dry we took our time getting out of the park. We had dinner at the hotel which was surprisingly good.

Grace showing off her Pirate bed. She slept in that bed all by herself and only fell out twice.

WDW Day 4: Epcot part 2

After a wardrobe change we headed off to Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in Norway to have lunch with the Princesses. The first thing you do when you enter the restaurant is have your picture taken with Belle. I don't even think Grace's pretty dress could have saved this picture.



As we ate lunch, the various princess stopped by the table.

First was Sleeping Beauty.



Than Arial, The Little Mermaid.



Then Cinderella stopped by and Grace felt the need to offer her some Mickey Mouse raviolis.



Finally Jasmine. She gave Grace a little tickle to get a smile.



Dessert was awesome. It was really, really good. Lunch was good too, but desert was sooo goood.



After lunch we went to Mexico to do our Kim Possible Mission. Daddy finished our mission as Grace started working on her mask. While in Mexico we also rode the new and improved boat ride starting the Three Caballeros. Grace loved it because it had Donald Duck. I give props to Disney for taking a very tired ride and vastly improving it with Donald and his friends.



We left Mexico and headed back towards Norway to find Donald again!



I must say that up until this point Grace had been very reluctant to even touch the characters so when she gave Donald a big hug I got a little teary. So did Daddy.



At this point Grace was getting pretty tired so we started to head for the exit, but on our way we noticed that she was trying to fall asleep in the stroller so we let it happen. She probably napped for 45 minutes and saved us the trip back to the hotel.

Well rested, we grabbed a snack and continued on to the various countries to collect all of the stamps for Grace's mask.

Daddy and Grace watching the trains in Germany.





We stopped in France for dinner and it was yummy. Daddy got a bowl of the best onion soup I've ever had. (Daddy thinks it was pretty good, but Panera is closer and cheaper.)

I couldn't leave Epcot without getting ALL of the stamps for Grace's mask so we continued on to England where we found Alice.



And Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore. The Disney photographer took a great picture of the six of us, but I don't have a digital copy, but here are a few I took. The characters were really cute with Grace.



When we lined up to take the group picture, Grace asked several times why Pooh had a zipper. I just ignored the question.

I had a little panic when we couldn't find the Kidcot station in Canada, but no worries we found it and successfully collected all the country stamps for Grace's mask. And then we called it a night. It was a great day.

WDW Day 4: Epcot Part 1

I think my favorite day was Wednesday in Epcot. Since we had already done the Living Seas we started the day by heading for Figment. On the way, we noticed that there was no line for the character spot by Innovations. We probably waited for 5 minutes to meet Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald and Goofy. Finally Grace got to meet Donald.



Minnie was cute with Grace.





Goofy is the one on the right.



I wouldn't say that Grace enjoyed Figment, but she enjoyed the fountain outside.



I figured Grace had had enough of the 3D so we skipped Honey I Shrunk the Audience. We also skipped The Land as Grace isn't tall enough for Soarin' yet. We spent a good bit of time playing in Innovations East and West. After that we ended up out in front of Mission Space and another fountain. Only this one was a little more accessible.



Amazingly she avoided getting wet for the first few minutes. Just missing the shoots of water until one hit her straight in the head. She got hit in the head a couple of more time, but she didn't care.