Disney - Part III

EPCOT was on our schedule for day 3...

The days weather forecast was not good...80% chance of rain...turned out just a few sprinkles in the morning and turned into sunny skies by afternoon, phew!  I wasn't looking forward to soggy socks.

Finding Nemo is a current hit of Jacob and at Epcot there's a couple Nemo activities that he enjoyed a lot!  There is an interactive show with Crush the sea turtle, a ride, and a lot of aquariums to check out.  We hit this spot 3 times during out visit! 

We journeyed around the world, which wasn't super amusing for us, but turned out to be rewarding.  We happened to stumble upon Snow White, and decided we'd go meet her and get our picture with her.  Jacob recognized that she didn't have a mask covering her face and realized that she would actually talk to him.  We read the story of Snow White prior to going to Disney and he kept referring to the seven dwarfs as the seven 'doors'.  At the end of our time with Snow White, she asked Jacob if she could kiss him.  She layed a big ole smacker on his forehead and left a bright red lips mark on him.  It was quite adorable and a crowd pleaser for sure.

Another fun thing Jacob liked doing was finding his way through a shrubbery maze.  It was a good time for him to get out of the stroller and have some freedom away from the people! 

By the time we were wrapping up our activities at Epcot we were receiving texts from Nate about how the Packers were doing in the Super Bowl.  I was excited for the reports coming in.  I wanted to head back to the hotel to watch the game, but at the same time there would be a fireworks/laser light display that I knew Jacob would love, so we stuck around the park to see that.  As we found a place to watch the show from and Jacob has his laser light in hand and munching on snacks....waiting for the show to begin.  About 5 minutes before the show is suppose to begin I notice that he is sound asleep in the stroller!  No way!  By this time, I knew I couldn't catch the next bus back to the hotel, so I figured we'd just see what would happen.  Huge, loud fireworks bursting forth in front of us....he remains asleep!  Crazy, so I just stayed til it was almost over and left in time to beat the rush and catch the next bus. 

We still made it back in time to see the last several minutes of the game...you know...the part that counts anyway! 

Disney - Part II

Our 2nd day in Orlando we headed to Hollywood Studios.  The highlights included the 3-D Toy Story ride which we rode twice.  That was pretty cool.  Jacob got to see Buzz & Woody again which he was excited for, and eating a Mickey Mouse ice cream...

We were getting ready to watch a parade of dancing and floats with characters when it started raining...boo!  We hung around long enough for the parade and decided to head back to the hotel...Nate had to get to the first part of his responsibilities for his conference, so instead of Jacob and I hanging out at the park, we all went to the hotel for some much needed rest.

Since Nate was busy, Jacob and I ventured out on our own to Downtown Disney where we ate at the Rainforest Cafe and did some shopping.  The rain decided to come again...but thankfully our hotel was near and we didn't get too wet...which...I'll take a warm rain over snow any day of the week.

Disney - Part I

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Jacob has a fascination for airplanes.  You may recall (if I blogged about it) he had an airplane themed 2nd birthday party.  He was able to take his first journey on an airplane a few weeks ago when we traveled to Orlando!  He was very excited and LOVED watching all of the airplanes in Omaha before we boarded - good thing we arrived in PLENTY of time (1. to rearrange our bags 4 TIMES because our checked luggage was 57 lbs...ugh.  2.  for Jacob to watch the airplanes taxi and take off)

Unfortunately we didn't have a direct flight and we had a 45 minute layover in Atlanta...phew, we made it, after running through the airport Amazing Race style - only pushing a stroller!  

Must of wore Jacob out has he slept like a charm on the last leg (or it was just bedtime).  Kitty kitty made the journey as well for all of you who know her (or him). 


We arrived in Orlando quite late, not getting to sleep in our hotel til about 1:30am...with 4 HUGE days to come...we were very blessed to be able to go on this trip.  Nate had a conference he was attending for work and we were able to go a few days early to enjoy Disney as a family.  We felt that we wouldn't be able to do this at any given time and with how the days fell, I would only miss 2 teaching days and Jacob was free to the parks...and the best part, we did it all with cash.  Yeay!  Even better yet was coming home with a decent amount of cash in our pockets!  So here is a brief recap of our trip...

The pictures speak for themselves.  We had been recommended to introduce Jacob to as many Disney characters as possible prior to going.  So through books, pictures, you tube clips, cartoons & movies...we were able to do that.  His favorites prior to going were "Cars" characters and "Toy Story" characters.  He also was excited about Mickey.  It was so fun to take Jacob to Magic Kingdom (which that is what he calls the castle) and to ride the rides, meet characters, eat yummy treats.  It was a fun filled day and the child couldn't even nap he was so into watching everything going on around him.

Been away awhile...

Whoops!  I have been away from blog land for almost 3 months!  I have been scanning the blogs I use to follow regularly and I've missed a lot, sorry to disappoint any of you who may check in on our non updated blog.

So, in review...I have no idea what I wrote about the last couple times...

*we went to Colorado for Thanksgiving to see family and loved it...Jacob was an AMAZING rider in the car!  I'd do it again SOON if it wasn't so far.

*we went on our annual Christmas tree hunt and found a glorious tree and had no "remember when" story as it did not fall off the top of the car, we didn't have to cut branches off the bottom to make the stump long enough or cut any off the top to make it not touch the ceiling...I guess it was perfect!

*Christmas was beautiful and white and Jacob enjoyed it a lot.

*We enjoyed some beautiful handiwork of God with 2 mornings of our surroundings being coated in frost.

*Jacob went roller skating (roller skaping as he calls it) for the first time and caught on very fast.

 *Jacob evidently prefers to sleep half naked...this is how we found him one night when we went to check on him...another night we found him with his pajamas neatly draped over the guard rail while he was completely naked :)

*Being cooped up inside does some crazy things to a two year old

*Jacob is wearing Aunt S's boots...up to his thighs, yet he manages to walk across Grandma's kitchen without stumbling too much!

*Some somewhat 'warmer' winter days allowed for some playing outside

 *learning to make snow angels

*playing "monster jam"

*January came and went...lots of snow and bitter cold temperatures.


*February...yeay!  We had been anticipating a trip to Orlando since the summer...I'll blog separately about this one with pictures!

Wordless Wednesday

Even though this is 'Wordless Wednesday'...I feel a little bit of explaining needs to be done!  I picked up Jacob from daycare as usual and we went on a trek of errands.  He was superstar.  I decided that since we were out n about in our downtown that we would go by the bakery as our last stop to get Jacob a cookie.  We had done this once before and he remembers.  He told the cashier at our 2nd to last stop we were going to the bakery and she asked if he was getting a donut....well, ok...a donut or cookie...hmm.  This is what remains of his first donut, the frosting/sprinkles he couldn't quite get to and the donut that didn't have any frosting on it! 

While cleaning up the house during nap (which is still going on!) I found this - Joseph driving his alphabet truck with Jesus riding on top and Mary looking as if she got run over!  He really likes playing with his nativity scene and quite the imagination he has!

Also, so sorry I've been absent from the blogging world for almost 2 MONTHS?!  I have some catching up for sure....as well as every other aspect of my life!  Of course, blogging is the first to go, so maybe I'll get caught up at Christmas break?  2 weeks!