Disney Vacation - 2013

This vacation was a little dream of mine so Ian and I began planning it in the early Fall.  I had a lot of fun doing research as to where to stay, how long to go and what our young family shouldn't miss while there.  I am writing this to record our trip just as it was.  This is exactly what my blog is for - to record our memories, special times and to celebrate us.  I hope you enjoy my blog post... and maybe it will inspire you to make some special memories with the ones you love.  I will cherish every single moment we spent on our trip; the good, the bad and the craziness of it all! 

We just got home from our annual vacation to Florida and this year was extra-special as we took our children to Walt Disney World for 5 days.  It was magical.  We filled our days with all things Disney and had so much fun making memories.

On Saturday January 26, we left the cold winter weather and drove over 2 days (staying 2 nights in hotels) to Orlando, Florida.  Packing for our trip is always a challenge but this year we were pleasantly surprised by how organized our van was when we packed it all in.  It doesn't take long for the kid's seats to get cluttered though.  Their backpacks were full of activities, books and toys and I had a special bag under the passenger seat that had surprises inside.  We pack a lot of food for the first two lunches and then go out to a restaurant for supper.  I think we have almost perfected the drive as we have done this 6 times already and plan on doing it for many more years.

Once we arrived at Walt Disney World we surprised the kids with our resort.  We stayed at the Art of Animation Resort in the "Cars" movie-themed area.  Our room was all things "Cars" which is one of our favourtie movies.  Life-sized versions of the characters were all over the resort area - above is "Mater the Tow Truck" and all of us.

Yahoo - we arrived!  We were following one of the many Disney buses.

 The Art of Animation Resort was amazing.  We were very happy with our choice as there are so many to choose from around the Walt Disney World Resort area.  This resort reflected the animation part of making movies and there were huge sketches and life-sized and larger replicas of characters from some of their best animated movies.  Our suite had one bedroom, 2 bathrooms, a dining area, kitchenette and living room - perfect for our family of five.  It had enough room to sleep 6 people comfortably and even another spot for a small child to sleep, so those of you with 5 kids, you would be happy in this room!





This was Alex's own space... a Mater-bed. 
During the day it was our table and at night it came down and became Alex's bed.  Very cool!

 

 

 We spent our first evening at Disney with Mickey and his friends. 
This was the first of our experience with
"character dining".  We had supper at "Chef Mickey's" buffet restaurant and these characters
walked around and greeted all of the guests.  It was a lot of fun! 
After supper we went on the monorail and then
watched the fireworks outside of the Magic Kingdon. 
This is when we discovered that Jean is petrified of fireworks.
It was a beautiful show but we didn't enjoy it as much as we would have liked - poor Jean.

Magic Kingdom:

We had a four day pass to Walt Disney World.  Of course day one had to be at the Magic Kingdom. 

 

 

The Magic Kingdom is truly a magical place.  After we walked in we just had to stare for a bit and then we wandered to the newest part called Fantasy Land.  Once there, we went to visit Ariel, the Little Mermaid.  I will never forget Jean's reaction to one of her favourite princesses.  As so many 4 year old girls are, Jean is a big fan of the Disney Princesses.  We stood in a very short line to meet Ariel and were so excited... myself in particular!  Once we got inside her "grotto" Jean completely freaked out.  She refused to sit near Ariel, who was so sweet to us, so Alex and Grace had their picture taken with her and Jean stood with us in the background.  I felt really sad for Jean but I guess she was just so "star-struck" that she didn't know what to do!

The afternoon parade was so awesome.  We saw so many Disney characters and the music was spectacular.

 

Magic Kingdom is quite busy place, as you can see in one of the pictures above, but Disney has perfected the art of "people-moving" and despite the crowds at MK, we experienced it all and even enjoyed a break to swim in the middle of the day.  We went on new rides, such as the Toy Story ride and going through the Little Mermaid movie and also went on the older rides such as A Small World and the Jungle Cruise.  Jean's favourite part of the day was the Parade in the afternoon before we left to go swimming.  The parades at Disney are absolutely amazing - musical and entertaining.

 

 

Epcot:

Our second day was spent at Epcot.  At first I wasn't sure if we wanted to go to this park with the age of our children.  I remembered Epcot from when I was a child though and wanted to go there anyways.  One of my friends also recommended that is is a great place to visit with small kids children.  It also had a great restaurant that hosted character meals with the Princesses so I made reservations and we planned on going.  It was much less busy than MK so we felt we could just wander a bit more.  It was a great day!  Epcot has a nice area with the movie "Finding Nemo" as the theme.  "The Land" was an area we really enjoyed with a great ride through the history of food production (as farmers, we just had to go and we all really liked it), a movie about the environment with the "Lion King" characters and my FAVOURITE ride called "Soarin".  This ride was absolutely amazing where we felt like we were flying.... it was awesome.  We were not able to get on a race car ride due a problem with the ride, which was a shame.  We went back to our resort for a swim and came back to Epcot for supper with the Princesses.  After supper we toured "Around the World".  The kids were really tired by then so we were thankful for our double stroller.

 

 

 

 Animal Kingdom:

Our 3rd day was spent at Animal Kingdom.  When we arrived we headed straight to the Safari ride, which was really great - an African safari ride.  We had fun in Dinosaur Land... until the ride, which we didn't realize was so dark and scary, really scared Alex and Jean.  They were done with rides after that one!  We toured around some more - Animal Kingdom is a beautiful park.

 

 

 

Downtown Disney:

 

 

 

Downtown Disney is filled with great restaurants and many, many stores full of Disney and other things.  Our favourite store was the Lego store, which Alex was very excited to visit.  All around the store there are huge lego statues (see above).  We went to Downtown Disney twice for supper - once at Wolfgang Puck's restuarant and the next time at Portobellos Italian restaurant.  Both were really great dinners!  Strolling through Downtown was another magical part of Disney.

 

 

Hollywood Studios:

 

This picture was taken for Grandma Ann... who loves watching American Idol and we were so happy to take the photo when Carrie Underwood was talking on the big screen!  Grace and I are big fans of hers! 

 

By day four we were slowing down a bit.  We slept in and had brunch and then went to Hollywood Studios.  This park doesn't have as many rides for our young family and we missed getting on the Toy Story ride but it was a great place, nonetheless.  We watched a few shows, another amazing parade, played in the "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" area (which our kids know nothing about that movie - it is from our childhood) and toured around the animation area.  As with all of the parks, there is so much to see so we wandered around and took it all in.  Since the kids were getting very tired though, we didn't do as much in Hollywood Studios as we would have liked.  We'll come back there another day - another year! 

 

 

 Our Disney vacation came to an end but we still had more time in Florida.  We left on Saturday February 2 for Ian's parent's Florida home in Port Charlotte (2.5 hours south west of Disney).  We absolutely love it there - the kids really enjoy their time with Grandma and Grandpa, spending time playing mini-golf and swimming and Ian and I really love the atmosphere of the community where they stay.  The weather remained just wonderful with perfect Florida temperatures.  All we did was play games, swim, played a few rounds of mini-golf, eat, drink, sleep and walk.  It was heavenly.

 

 All good things must come to an end and that was true to our vacation as well.  On Friday February 8, we left the Florida sun and started our trek home.  The driving conditions were perfect (despite a nasty weather system heading through the northeast) and we arrived home in the afternoon of February 10. The kids were so excited to get back to school but the next day the buses were cancelled.  We drove them to school anyways because they did not want to stay home (and the roads were fine).

I am so thankful to be able to spend this time with our family, travelling to a magical place.  Not every moment went according to plan and not everything lived up to my expectations but there were so many things that exceeded my expectations.  We made memories that will last us a lifetime and that is irreplaceable.  Our world could change in an instance - our children are growing way too fast and the days fly by so I want to make sure I don't take anything for granted.  Memories like these will live on in us and our children will remember their first trip to Walt Disney World but more importantly they will remember that we did it as a family - a very close family. 

I look forward to many, many more family vacations.





Shifting Focus

I'm feeling a little side-tracked theses days.  I'm focussing on one thing too much and forgetting how important other things are in my life. 

We just got home from our annual winter vacation to Florida.  It was heavenly; sad to have to get back to "normal" but once we got home, it was good to be home.  I haven't written in my blog in a while and I am missing it - missing my creative outlets so much.  I find myself letting the creative part of me go when I am busy and right now I need to get back to that part of me. 

Despite the "crazy-weather" winter we are having, we always enjoy being outdoors.
We have had some fun already on Ian's family pond.

Grace's First Quilt - January 2013

I am so happy to teach my daughter, Grace, how to sew.
She began her first quilt in early January and took to sewing like she was meant  for it.

I have a sewing desk and table set up in the back of our living room - a convenient spot to work.

I put some masking tape on my machine so she could follow the line easily for sewing.
Grace is a quick learner so her quilt came together quite smoothly.

About half-way through... it is so cozy.

Here she is holding up her quilt... almost finished!  She did ALL of the
sewing up to this point.  We ran out of flannel so the plan is to add strips of
fleece along the sides.  She did a fantastic job!

Here it is - all finished and ready for our drive to Florida!  Grace will have
this nice, cozy quilt to cuddle with on our vacation.  I am so proud of her - and
so excited to plan her next quilt.  I love to sew and want to teach my girls a
love of sewing as well.  I have always been creative and crafty and now I can
share my love of homemade/handmade with her.
Watch out Joanne's Fabric Store, here we come!!!

Being Real For Myself

 

Tis the season for making New Year's resolutions... and then having them go by the wayside.  I feel like my 35 things for my 35th birthday (previous blog post) was my way of making resolutions so as we begin another year, I am focussing on just a few things:  the first thing is my health.  I do want to lose a few pounds but more importantly, I want to gain some body health.  I love to be active, especially with my kids.  Winter time is perfect for us as a family to enjoy some outdoor fun together (whether it is in the snow or the sunny south) and I love to be able to keep up with them easily.  In the past I have enjoyed running on my road.  It gives me peace and the feeling of accomplishment.  I just feel good when I run. 

 

Not only am I trying to be more active but I need to focus on some of my eating habits.  Usually when I try to lose some weight, I step on that darn scale and become even more frustrated.  THIS TIME I AM GOING TO AVOID MY SCALE.  A friend of mine explains that a weigh scale only measures the gravity's pull on our bodies... it has nothing to do with us as a person - how great we really are; how strong we are; how resilient we are; if we are a good friend, parent, daughter, or how creative we are, how smart we are, how loving we are!  So right now I have decided to focus on BEING REAL and freeing my body and mind from my own negative thoughts.  I will focus on becoming healthier, more active and loving myself! 

 

 

Our First Family Ski Day

Yesterday we enjoyed our very first family ski day!  I was so happy with how it went.  I have always thought that we should have activities to do together AS A FAMILY and skiing just seems like a great way to spend the day together.  We both enjoyed skiing when we were younger; Ian was a avid skier and I was more of a casual skier... in it for the social part!  Once we had our babies though, we certainly didn't make it a priority but as time went by, we often talked about if we should get our family into skiing once they were older.  Yesterday was our first chance trying it out and we had fun!

Alex and Grace took to it like little experts!  I was so proud of them - listening to our instructor-friend (who was amazing!) and doing everything she asked them to do.  Very quickly they were going down the bunny hill with no problem and Grace was ready to take on a bigger hill after lunch.  Alex is not a thrill-seeker by any stretch of the imagination and was perfectly content staying on the bunny hill, flying down it and having so much fun.  Jean was spending lots of time with Ian slowly going down the hill but mostly enjoying the carpet ride up the hill!  We took Grace up the chair lift (a bit of anxiety for mommy) and then down the hill (it was just beautiful with all of the snow) and she wanted to do it again.  Lillian took her up again and Grace had huge improvements the second time around.  We stayed the whole day... almost right until closing time and everyone was happy and tired.

I can't wait to do it again!

Hold On Tight

This New Year has started off quietly.  After a very busy Christmas time (and I mean VERY busy with wonderful family gatherings, parties, and just plain travelling around) we came home on January 1st and relaxed.  The only little issue is that the kids are looking for some routine and school is still days away.  Despite priding myself on my organization skills (or at least trying really hard to be organized), I am not very good at routine.  I plan my week and then change it if something pops into my head that I should do.  When the kids are at home with me, I rarely have meals and snacks at the same time, we don't do the same thing at the same time and bedtime is always different.  I've always wanted to have more routines but I haven't been able to pull it off!  Hence I look forward to school returning... it seems like they haven't been in a school routine for so long because of the record snow days we had before the Christmas break even began.  I'm going to try my best to enjoy these last few days of their holiday but I'm really craving some "me" time again.

Ian and I have always spent time at the beginning of a new year talking about our goals and dreams for the upcoming year.  We haven't done this yet - partly due to Ian feeling under the weather and partly because I'm in a funk right now.  Some emotional issues have reared their ugly head in our life that mainly have to do with some of our loved ones and it is hard to feel motivated when others are dealing with so much heartbreak.  I feel so thankful for what we have and just want to hold on tight.  Looking forward to the future and planning is just not in my immediate radar right now. 

Remember My Birthday Post... A 35 Things Recap

Some of you might remember my blog post from my 35th birthday in August.  As 2012 winds down, I thought I would do a little recap of what I've accomplished or haven't accomplished so far.   I'm not trying to make myself feel bad... I don't really hold that list as written in stone.  I don't plan on being hard on myself.  I wrote the list to give me some goals and ideas to look forward to and as I've learned over time, goals are always more attainable when written down and reviewed.  So here it is:

1.  This one makes me laugh.  Yes, I have stripped many many times.  In the comfort of my own bedroom and bathroom (sorry about too much information).  Oh and yes, the wallpaper in our upstairs hallway has been almost completely stripped but that is thanks to the kids.  One evening they decided to take as much as they could down and I was probably on my laptop looking through pinterest as they were doing it!  Thanks kids!  Maybe in January I'll plan to paint... we'll see!

2.  No I have not lost any weight... and it won't start now as we go into Christmas!

3.  YES our vacation to Florida and Walt Disney World is planned!

4.  This one will be easy - go on that vacation - at the end of January!

5.  I am volunteering at our school every Friday morning and for most of their classes special events.  Tomorrow I am helping in Grace's and Alex's classes.

6.  I have certainly continued blogging... and loving it!

7.  Work on the blocks for my winter quilt... still behind on that!

8.  Yes I did complete a very special "pink" quilt for some special girls out in B.C.

9.  I did make a batch of salsa... and it is yummy!

10.  I am trying to drink more water.  I've brought out my water container that I try to finish every day... it is harder than you might think!

11.  I am having no trouble drinking more red wine.  After years and years of drinking only white wine, I now prefer red... that was easy!

12.  Ian and I did go away to Quebec City over a week ago... it was heavenly.

13.  Watch less t.v. - yes I do!  After becoming a Jockey Consultant, I spend many evenings doing all things "Jockey".

14.  I am not sewing very much... and I miss being with my wonderful sewing machine.  This morning I hemmed 2 pairs of pants and realized that I am really missing it!

15.  Make lots and lots of jam!  No problem there.  I've had record sales for jam this fall and continue to make batches and batches.

16.  No I am not finding it easy to purchase more eco-friendly products.  I have many in my cupboards but I still want to purchase and use more!  Still working on this goal.

17.  Still trying to teach our kids to eat more healthy foods...

18.  Eat more fruits and veggies myself - always a challenge in the winter months but I think I'm doing it!

19.  Ha!  This goal was to run 5 km... maybe in the spring??

20.  I've decided I am not going to read the 3rd book in the 50 Shades trilogy... moving on to better reads.

21.  I have not made my own pasta yet... saw the attachments today for my kitchenaid mixer and not sure if I want to make that purchase.

22.  Hug and kiss my kids more.  Oh this is a good one, especially after the many tragedies that have occurred recently.  I love this goal and I am doing it every day!!!!

23.  Kiss my husband more... that is for only me to know (but I will say that during November it was a bit less due to his silly mustache!)

24.  I am trying to breath through my stress.

25.  I need to work on this one... call my mom more often!

26.  I am not going to bed earlier - too many things to do! 

27.  All of my teaching supplies from years ago are still in my basement.  That is a MARCH project!

28.  I think my big deep freeze is in pretty good shape - I did this job early in the fall!

29.  Take a yoga class... I tried but the one I wanted was full.  I am on her waiting list.

30.  Yes I made zucchini relish and it is delish!

31.  Take skiing lessons:  I am hoping a friend will help me with this one!

32.  We are planning on skiing a few times this winter and have already been in touch with a friend who will help us teach the kids (and myself!).

33.  I am not walking as much as I should these days...

34.  This is a good one:  Show my husband that he is the most important person to me.  I think we have a very strong relationship.  I had the best time on vacation with him recently and didn't want it to end.  Every day we are a team and I feel comfort from that... he is my favourite person.  I hope that I show that to him as much as I should.

35.  Love myself a little bit more.  This fall I found myself floundering (is that a word?).  Then something came along, an opportunity that initially I put aside but then realized that I really really wanted to go for it.  Being a mom and a farmer's wife (and proud of it), my own desires can easily get put aside but this time I made the choice to do something JUST FOR ME.  I think this is a great way to love myself more. 

Well I've made it to the end of my list and I feel pretty darn good about it.  Heck, I still have almost 9 months to continue to work on some of them...

I hope that some of you have your own lists and that you review them periodically.  It is so rewarding to see accomplishment but I also think that it is good for our self-esteem and self-worth to see how far we've come.  We are all capable of change but sometimes all we need is to realize that what we are doing and how we are living is really good. 

Take care of yourself and those around you.  I am thinking of a wonderful family that we know that are going through a very, very hard time.  I am praying for them every day and wishing them peace.