We celebrated with a morning at church followed by a family time at Grammy and Granddaddy’s house. After lunch and Easter egg hunting we spent the evening watching NCAA basketball games. That would not be the normal tradition for Easter Sunday, but when you team is playing you fit it in too.

Grammy and the grand-girls

Granddaddy with the girls too!

It was a wet day outside so the egg hunt had to happen inside. It is a new experience to look for eggs hidden among pillows and toys, but they enjoyed it a lot. Since Easter, Julia has made her chocolate stash a place she likes to visit before Mama gets up in the morning. After three mornings of not eating her breakfast Mama finally figured out Julia’s morning routine. Julia seems to have inherited Mama’s sweet tooth.

We went to Gatlinburg to celebrate Emily’s birthday. Some of Emily’s favorite things include staying in hotels and swimming, and we were able to make both of these happen. The weather was amazing for January and we enjoyed being outside despite a few rain showers that moved through. In addition to swimming, we played putt-putt, visited the aquarium, rode the trolley, walked the strip, shopped, discovered our way through a mirror maze, and rode the skylift. Emily loved discovering that the hotel had hot chocolate and cookies every night. The trip was fun and it was a delight to share the time with Emily and Julia.

Our little swimmers before they made their big leap in. The water was a bit cold so once we got out we didn’t want to get back in.

Daddy was a great sport and swam with the girls until Julia’s lips turned blue.

During the break in the rain shower we got a game of putt-putt in. The girls wanted us to take turns in the order we played. We only got one ball stuck and didn’t lose any of them. We consider this progress with our young golfers. The rules were treated as suggestions and more than once the hole was bracketed with feet to give a sense of success.

Despite our rule bending both girls successfully made hole-in-ones all on their own. This is Julia celebrating her successful hole-in-one. Quite proud! She hit the ball without looking and was holding the putter backwards, but gravity and some good luck was in her favor on the hole. Emily was not to be out done and made a hole-in-one on a later hole.

The six-year-old has some game and some attitude. Funny!

This was how we traveled this weekend. When Julia got tired of walking we gave her a push. Not a bad plan because one afternoon she gave out and slept for over an hour while Emily kept exploring.

Emily’s first visit to the aquarium had a similar photo to this one, but the fish was bigger than she was. She has now grown longer than the fish!

Dude!! We found Crush!

Mama and her birthday girl!

The girls love the fish bowl and Emily still fits in there. I think the only reason they looked at the camera was that the fish swam away.

While Julia napped Robby took Emily up to the top of the mountain on the skylift. Emily was so brave and the heights didn’t faze her in the least.

Checking out! Emily took charge of all of her and Julia’s clothes and special things. Mama loves the efficiency of giving the stuffed animals a ride on the backpack with a view.

What is a birthday without celebrating it with ice cream for dinner? We did offer other food later, but up to this point it was dinner. Yum! We had enough fun we might do this every year.

Last October we took a family vacation to the Disney World. We had a great time and it was a magical time. The magic really comes from the excitement of two little girls and their parents. A week of playing and seeing new things together was great. The girls are ready to go back immediately!

How we found our room when we got back one evening.

We stayed in the park at the All Star Movie Resort. It worked well for our needs. The section we were staying in was based on 101 Dalmatians and it created a lot of discussion, mostly from Julia. She called it the puppy hotel. She also gets the name of the movie incorrect and calls it “one Dalmatian puppies”.

If you ask the girls what their favorite rides were they are likely to say one of these: Dumbo, Buzz Lightyear Spin, and the classic It’s a Small World (which Julia called the boat ride). If you ask their parents they would tell you that Julia’s favorite ride was “It’s a Small World” and Emily’s favorite “ride” was finding princesses and getting her autograph book signed. The parent’s favorite ride was Midway Mania at Hollywood Studios. While we waited in line for rides and to see characters Emily would draw in her autograph book. On one page she drew each of the princesses she met at the park.

We spent one day each at Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studio. The rest of the time we visited at the Magic Kingdom. Grandma and Grandpa joined us for three days of the visit. It was a great to share the sights with them. Some of the days we visited we pushed Julia’s nap back, some days she took a nap in the stroller as we visited, and some days we bailed and took a nap at the hotel. One day Emily was pretty sick and crashed after lunch. For that evening Robby and Julia returned to Magic Kingdom and enjoyed the park on their own. Being flexible seemed to work well for us.

The longer we stayed at the park the more of the overwhelming feeling seemed to leave the girls. The first day they were just not sure of what to make of it all.  Mama loved how excited the girls got every time they saw Cinderella’s castle as we approached the park, the serious conversations that Emily had with the different characters, the fun names Julia gave things, and the low stress family time we enjoyed.

Julia kept a shyness of the characters through the whole trip. Many of the character meetings required encouragement for her to pose for her photo and meet them. Some she wouldn’t approach at all, some she was brave if Daddy was there, and a few she was so excited to meet that she put her shyness aside and blossomed with complete joy. The most tender greeting were with Rapunzel, Aurora, Minnie Mouse, Daisy, Merida, Tinkerbell and Pluto. Emily was herself with the characters. This meant that she would approach them and give them hugs and made conversation with them. She never was done talking with them. It was like catching up with long lost friends. Overall we saw 25 characters between all of the parks.

Park Highlights:

Magic Kingdom –

• Julia’s 4th birthday celebration was at Cinderella’s Castle, we were seated for the last seating for the day so we were not rushed out. It was a great end to an amazing birthday day at the park.

• Julia sang “It’s a Small World” while we rode the ride countless times.
• Emily had her first 3D experience and loved it. Robby had to catch her before she grabbed the woman in front of her while she was trying to grab the floating gems.
• Julia called the Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin ride the “shoot bad guys” ride. Mama can see that the name Disney gave the ride might not be real easy for a little kid. She loved this ride, probably because it was so interactive.

Epcot –

• We met Pluto which was the character that Julia kept asking to see. It was worth the wait for the hug and excitement she had.

• We briefly toured each of the countries to give the overall experience. Julia fell asleep and was carried for several of the countries.
• Mama got to meet her favorite character at Great Britain, Mary Poppins.
• Emily met Pooh and Tigger also at Great Britain. She hadn’t talked much about this meeting and it was not clear that she was excited while we stood in line, but it was the most joy she had at any of the greeting opportunities. She just kept giving each of them such sincere hugs.

• We kept running into Grandma and Grandpa as we travel the world tour. We traveled the same direction, but went at our own paces.

Animal Kingdom –

• Julia had been shy about meeting the characters at this park, but when she saw Baloo from a distance she was curious and wanted to meet him. She is not familiar with the story, but stood in line and went right up to see that big bear. She wouldn’t approach King Louie though.

• Last day with Grandma and Grandpa. Great to see them, but made for a sad day with the girls knowing that we were saying good bye.

Hollywood Studio –

• The girls loved the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground! We let them play there for a LONG time, but they were never going to be ready to leave.

• The girls had disposable cameras on this day to document their day from their eyes. They enjoyed the activity, but didn’t understand why they couldn’t see the photos right away. I guess digital cameras would be better next time.
• Mama and Daddy rode the only “adult” ride of the whole trip. We took turns riding the Star Wars ride.

• If the line hadn’t been so long we could have rode the Midway Mania over and over again. A funny story from this ride was that Emily asked Robby why she had to wear her 3D glasses, because it was not 3D. She thought that things were only 3D when they came toward you, but shooting balls away from the car did not seem to count.

We are looking forward to our next opportunity to return to Disney. It will not be our next vacation, but it will be hard to drive past the park on the way to visit the Grandparents without wanting to stop over for a short visit.

It is almost like Goofy is wishing everyone Welcome or See You Later all a the same time!

The girls were super excited about decorating the Christmas tree and all the other decorations going up in the house. Some of the fun kids sayings that came out while we did our decorating were Emily asking if we were going to hang the “garlic” this year. She was referring to the garland. Robby and I had to think about it for a while before we decided to correct her term. Although we have continued to refer to the “hanging of the garlic”. The other cute saying was from Julia. She kept asking when we were going to hang the “jewels” and “diamonds” on the tree. It was her words for ornaments, but we loved the idea that to her the ornaments were like diamonds. Now though if you ask her what we hung on the tree she will tell you that it was marshmallows. She must have loved the S’more ornament collection we have on the tree.

Emily mentioned to me the difference in how we decorated something over the last couple of years. I know she loves Christmas and having the decorations, but it was cool that she could remember such detail about what she sees from year to year.

The girls are counting down the days to get to countdown to Christmas. We have an advent wreath we decorate with ornaments and a book a day to read and it all starts on December 1st. They are ready for the excitement to begin!!

Weekends have been different since school started. It is the time the girls are together and some Mama/Emily time that we were used to. There is nothing better than spending the morning together not necessarily doing much, but just hanging out.

Mama and Julia getting some snuggling in!

Side-by-side sister coloring – never to be under appreciated.

We celebrated Mama and Daddy’s Anniversary with a family weekend away to the Opryland Hotel. Celebrating our anniversary with our kids was a lot of fun this year. Emily is old enough to understand what an anniversary means and loves the idea of celebrating her parents wedding. The joys of girls!

– a room with a view! a climate controlled balcony is awesome on a super hot weekend when four people share a room.

Emily has a general love of hotels and wants to run one later in life so we thought taking her to such a unique hotel would be fun. She was a bit overwhelmed and it will be interesting to see what her long term thoughts are on it. She loved following the different trails of the garden and watching the "dancing" water show. We were always watching out for brides and grooms too. Being Memorial Day weekend there were a lot weddings going on at the hotel.

We saw a wedding set up in the gazebo earlier in the weekend and thought it would be fun to get Emily’s photo in the same spot. For the whole weekend Emily was a bit more willing to let us take her photo. Julia’s favorite things this weekend were coloring on the balcony in our room, throwing coins into fountains, and jumping into the pool over and over again.

We enjoyed riding the boat and learning a few new facts about the hotel. Another interest that Emily has is about any natural disaster or weather anomaly. In 2010 Nashville had severe flooding of the Cumberland River which flooded the Opryland Hotel. After riding the boat all Emily wanted to discuss was the flood and the hotel.

Daddy and his girls strolling on one of the many trails.

We took a walk around the state capitol building and checked out the statues and the burial place of a president. We now know James K Polk was buried at the state capitol. We also visited the State Museum and enjoyed a little local history and some air conditioning.