Walt DisneyWORLD!!

So much for keeping up to date on our blog...But in January all the stars aligned and we got to go to Disneyworld!! My sister Lindsey and her family also came with us. It was such a fun trip!! I have barely been able to blog about it because I have been so sad it was over so quickly :(
Day 1: We went to the airport and got checked in. But first of course we had to do some major rearranging so our bags were the proper weight. Annoying. Made it through security and onto the plane. Our kids had not had naps yet so I was thinking they would fall right to sleep. Boy was I wrong. Oakley fought sleep the ENTIRE flight and fell asleep after we had landed and our plane was driving to our terminal. Stinker!!! Off the plane and had a lay-over in Texas. Tried to keep the kids under control in the airport and back on another plane. We landed in Florida pretty late and it was like trying to breath in water when we walked off the plane because it was so humid!! We got into our shuttle driven by a guy who talked to Devin about the all time evil of American conspiracy-Walgreen's. We got to our hotel and crashed.
Day 2: We got up and got ready for our first day in Disneyworld. It is quite the process to get places. First we get on a shuttle that takes us from the hotel to the transportation center. Then you get off and wait for another shuttle to take you to which kingdom you want to go to for the day. We went to Hollywood Studios.

The kids favorite was Lightening McQueen and Mater.  They also had Toy Story Mania which is a really fun ride.

We also went to saw the car stunt show called Lights, Motors, Action which was awesome. It had cars, motorcycles, and jet skis doing all kinds of tricks. And a visit from Lightening McQueen. It was sweet!

Oakley's favorite was the lady blowing bubbles. Probably could have done that at home Oakley!

Day 3: We got up early and headed into the Magic Kingdom which is like Disneyland. The cool thing about the Magic Kingdom is instead of taking another bus you can either ride the Moneral or take a ferry boat. We chose the ferry boat. The Magic Kingdom was so much fun. One thing I loved is they do a little show while everyone is waiting for the gates to open. The characters ride in on the train and everyone counts down together with Mickey until the Magic Kingdom is officially open. Then you can casually walk to Fantasy land and the lines are really short.

Daniel took Canyon on Splash Mountain for the first time with his cousin Max. I stayed off the rides with the little ones and waited to take their picture as they came down the big hill. Well I was waiting patiently and had the perfect picture taking spot. Well of course right when they started coming down the big hill, a foreigner with no boundaries literally stepped right in front of me! I tried to take picture but missed them. Yup that's right, the picture below is a bunch of strangers. But hey, we can pretend right!

We rode tons of rides and watched the firework show. They even had Tinkerbell fly off of the top of the castle during the fireworks. It was awesome!!
Day 4: The Animal Kingdom: Coolest Kingdom EVER!!! It was so much fun I wish we would have had an extra day there because we didn't even have time to see half of it. They had dinosaur land,

The Tree of Life

And the Jungle Safari ride that was so much fun! They had tons of animals on the jungle safari. The animals not pictured below included hippos, elephants, lions, flamingos, and a bunch of others.

This giraffe was right to the side of me. I did not even use my zoom. He was right there!

Then we took a train ride to Rafiki's Island and had some Mickey Mouse icecream.

Met Rafiki (Oakley was desperately trying to get away from him!)

And got to go to a petting zoo. They give everyone brushes and you can go from animal to animal and brush them. The kids LOVED it! Oakley wanted to brush every single one!

We also got to ride this:

Expedition Everest! It was the most intense ride I have ever ridden in a Disney park. It was seriously scary!!! This was no Matterhorn!

The Animal Kingdom closes early so we had time to go swimming and eat dinner at Pizza Hut. Then it was back to the hotel to put the kids to sleep while the adults played an intense game of Life.

Day 5: Back to the Magic Kingdom. It was so much fun! We rode rides all day long and tried to enjoy every last minute of our last day in Disneyworld.

That night we stayed in the park until the very last second they would let us. We tried to get on as many rides as we could and we were the very last ones to get to ride the Jungle Cruise before it closed. We rode the ferry boat back to the transportation center. It was so sad to watch Disneyworld get farther and farther away. I admit I shed a tear or two.
Day 6: We had to catch our shuttle at 4:30 am! (which is 2:30 am our time). Two plane rides and a three hour layover later we landed in Salt Lake. Hopefully we will get to go back someday!
Memories:
*Canyon thinking it would be ok to pee off of the bridge and into the river that contained people riding Splash Mountain! Good thing Daniel caught him.
*Disneyworld treats-popcorn, icecream, churros-yummy!
*Foreigners with no boundaries
*It's a Small World
*No line at Peter Pan!
*Cardboard straws
*Daniel flirting with the KFC girl and getting a bunch of free chicken. Thanks for taking one for the team Daniel!
*Swamp water. All the water tasted very swampy no matter where you went! Gross.
*Crazy shuttle bus driver
*peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the park
*Getting two double strollers and 4 kids under age 4 on and off of shuttles.
*Oakley throwing his souvenir penny into the water foundation.
*Country Bear Jam-should have gotten rid of that a long time ago Disneyworld! Really lame!
*Eating breakfast in the Magic Kingdom at the Main Street Bakery. The most delicious cinnamon rolls ever!
*Having Oakley (who was literally days away from being two) be a lap child on the plane! Big mistake.
*Daniel's favorite ride=The people mover which broke down every time we rode it!
*Canyon riding Splash Mountain and Dinosaur (like Indiana Jones ride) for the first time.

The Holidays

Yes it is now March and I am trying to catch up on the holidays. I am going to try really hard this year to keep caught up on my blog. So here is a quick recap of our holidays. For Thanksgiving Canyon had a Thanksgiving program at his preschool. It was pretty much adorable. They sang songs and each got to stand and say what they were grateful for. On Thanksgiving day we watched the parade and had Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Furr's. Then I was off to do Black Friday Shopping-which was awesome! It is one of my favorite nights of the year and we got some great deals. And on the plus side we did not go to Walmart so there was no near death experiences :)



For Christmas we got to enjoy some fun holiday activities. Canyon had another Christmas program at preschool. This is his partridge in a pear tree that he painted. They sang some more songs and the teacher gave all the parents a CD of a whole bunch of pictures she had taken of the things they had done in preschool. She also had the kids make really cute ornaments for the tree with a picture of their faces on it. Darling!

We went to Festival of Trees.


This was the Cars tree. The kids' favorite of course.
We got a Christmas tree at the tree lot with Mater.

We wrote and mailed letters to Santa Claus. Canyon asked for a Cars 2 watch and a Lewis Hamilton race car (from Cars 2). Oakley wanted a sucker and a Chuggington train.

We went on the Christmas Cruise. This is one of my favorite yearly traditions because it is awesome! The cruise director pulls the boat along a cable strung from the trees.


Santa rows up on a canoe and gives everyone tootsie rolls. Canyon likes to yell what he wants at Santa while Santa makes his way around the boat.


It is some serious fun. We also went to temple square and visited Santa at the mall. (I don't have pics of these events because 1.I forgot my camera at temple square 2. the mall no longer lets you take your own pictures of the kids sitting on Santa's lap. Stupid mall!)
On Christmas Eve we went to the Nickels for their famous fancy dinner of prime rib and king crab legs. Delicious. The kids got matching Mickey Mouse pjs.

Devin and Daniel also got matching jammies. Surprise :)

Grandma Ruth also came to visit which was so much fun! Here she is with Canyon and Oakley. (Canyon just had a head on collision with his cousin and had not yet recovered from his injuries.)

Then Papa Dean read the kids Twas the Night Before Christmas. Canyon thought it was very intense and was surprised at almost every page :)
On Christmas day the kids slept until 9:00. Merry Christmas to us! We opened presents and went to church. We then visited grandparents and had a very happy Christmas.
For New Year's we went to the Furr's party but took our kids home and put them to bed way before midnight. Daniel and I watched the ball drop on TV to ring in the new year. We decided that was boring so we got into our stash of fireworks (the fireworks may have been illegal) and lit them off in front of our house. It was a great way to start off the new year!

Trick or Treat

Buzz and Woody




Halloween + Trick or Treating with Buzz and Woody=Best Halloween Ever!

October

We love October. We try to do a lot of activities to get ready for Halloween. We made our annual trip to Krispy Kreme and ate Halloween donuts...




Picked out pumpkins....
and then carved and painted them...


We decorated cookies


Went to the pumpkin walk at the Centennial Gardens (this one was our favorite pumpkin)



We also watched Nightmare Before Christmas several times (which my kids love...weird they take after me with my love for scary movies) and drove around to see "bad guy houses" almost every night. I love people who decorate their yards for Halloween!