Florida - Part Dos - DISNEYWORLD (The Hotel)

Basically since Luke was born Drew's grandpa has been telling us that as soon as Luke was potty trained he would take him to Disneyworld. Well, Luke was potty trained at 2 but that's a little young for Disneyworld. The trip was finally planned for Christmas of 2012. But then it was pushed back a week or two for money-saving reasons and we went the first week in January 2013. IT.WAS.AWESOME.

Of course the weather wasn't being fantastic for us the actual day we were in the park, but we didn't mind. The only time it was really a problem was late at night when we watched the parade. It was raining pretty bad but those babies were going to see that parade, dang it!

Okay, back to the beginning of the trip. We stayed in the Art of Animation resort. Luke was in HEAVEN.

And the inside of our room:

This was the table that turned into another bed:

And the view from our room:

Some of the other hotels in the resort were Lion King, Little Mermaid, and Finding Nemo. Here are a couple pictures of those:

Phew! That was just the hotel stuff! I'll do a Magic Kingdom post next!

Florida - Part Uno

We went down to Florida at the beginning of January to go to Disney World (more on that later). But we went a couple days early to spend some time with Drew's aunt, Aunt Diana. She has 4 kids there in Florida with her and one on a mission, so Drew got some good cousin time in. And I loved spending time with them too! Her twin girls, Madison and Michelle, are especially fun. 

Gracie dancing with Aunt Diana

Gracie and Madison

Gracie and Michelle (she's going to kill me for posting this one :) )

Rick (Drew's cousin) has a girl the same age as Luke named Hannah. They LOVED playing together!

Michelle is basically queen of posing for the camera, so I tried to learn from her. I don't look nearly as good!

Drew with his cousins Joey and Ricky (I'm not sure what Drew's doing)

From left to right: Madison, Michelle, Grace, Drew, Me Aunt Diana, Luke, Ricky

We also tried to go to the Orlando temple, but it was closed. 

We had to pay SO MANY tolls while we were there! We probably spent around $12 just on tolls. 

We also picked up Grandma Pepper before Disney World! She came the night before we could check into our Disney hotel so we stayed in a regular ol' hotel all together. We stopped at Panda Express first. They had a "pajama party" with Grandma. Luke insisted there should be a cake at a pajama party :)

The next day we went and explored Downtown Disney. It's a big shopping area with TONS of shops...mostly Disney-themed shops. It was awesome! And I wish we were millionaires. I could have spend a small fortune on things for the kids!

And that's part one! More to come...

Christmas Festivities

Christmas! Luke was so so excited this year for Santa to come. He kept singing "Santa Claus is coming to towwwwwn." Or in the store he'd be singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and people would smile at him because he's crazy and adorable. So anyway, in preschool they had a Polar Express day. Here are some pics of that:

They were asked to come in their pajamas :) Here's Luke with his Polar Express ticket.

Merry Christmas!!

And one night we made hot chocolate and a Santa craft:

And then Luke had a party at preschool where they made graham cracker houses:

We went and visited Drew's grandma in South Carolina:

And then it was Christmas Eve! 

Santa and his helper elf

Drew and his Orangina. If you've never had it before, shame on you.

Luke went out and scattered his reindeer food in the grass. It was oats, glitter, and sugar, I think. He made it at preschool.

The loot

Cookies & Milk

And then...Christmas morning!

All the trash!

Their favorite toys (the ones from Santa):

And Luke/Buzz:

After we opened our presents we headed to Charlotte to hang out with Drew's aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandparents. I only got one picture of that day but the kitchen that they're playing with they actually gave to us. It was Drew's cousin's when they were younger. I think the kids like that kitchen more than any Christmas gift they got.

And that's Christmas! Drew's grandparents took us to Disneyworld a couple days after Christmas, but I'll post about that later.