The Beach

As you can see it took Berkley a little while to get over her beach problems. But she sat on this kickboard and played in the sand (with one foot in the air) for a good while and was having such fun that she eventually forgot that she was supposed to be scared of it and walked around. I have lots of pics of the beach but we really didn't hang out there a ton because there was an indoor pool that had way more of a draw to our little girls than the gulf- Berkley was very concerned that the waves were going to get her. I was a little more concerned about all the jellyfish getting her though ;-)

All in all it was a very relaxing weekend and we had a great time on our whole trip. The girls and I are already discussing going back again and when that will be.

Is anyone else having problems on blogger seeing the pics once you upload? All I see are codes- so it is a little hard to provide my witty commentary along with the photos......

New Blog

I have decided to take a plunge and start working on my photography a lot more. I have been starting to work on building up a portfolio, so right now I am doing pictures SUPER cheap and giving a CD of the pics to those people who allow me to practice on their kids! Check out my new blog and don't make fun of my name, I've been thinking about it forever and ever and finally just had to pick one!

Photography Blog

"I 'ate' the beach

Berkley hates the beach. We drove today from Disney to Destin to spend the weekend in a Condo on the beach. We went to dinner- and got back pretty late but thought we would take a stroll on the beach really quick since we drove all day to get here. Berkley said she wanted down then held her feet in the air while I tried to put her down. She said "I 'ate' the beach" I hope she changes her mind!

Magic Kingdom & Animal Kingdom

These pics are all jumbled up. We have wrapped up our time at the parks. It was awesome! We had a park hopper pass which was great because it allowed us to do half days at different parks since little girls can't handle long days. Plus Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios we didn't need a full day for all the kid stuff. All in all I would say we had the perfect amount of time here. We were able to see most everything we wanted to and had a great time- save for some whining that in turn led to a grumpy mommy.

This is from Today- we rented a double stroller. E did really well the first day walking for 6 hours but as the days progressed I found myself carrying her a lot or her riding in the stroller and carrying Berkley. Chris's bad back sure is hard on mine!!

Funny stroller story from Animal Kingdom yesterday. Usually you just park the stroller in a stroller parking lot outside the rides. At AK they let you take them through the line and had an attendant take it at the end. Berkley LOST her mind. I guess she thought we gave her stroller away- she cried about it for at least 5 minutes and was very concerned about the whereabouts of her stroller. In the next line when they took it Chris told her they were just going to watch her stroller. She happily sent it off.

The girls outside of Mickey's house. Unfortunately we were never able to meet Mickey and Minnie- we almost got in line for Minnie once but they were closing it. Today E didn't want to wait in any of the character lines. Fine with me- they are a bit of a beat down. Even short lines take a loooong time. Its nice because the characters fool around with the kids and sign autographs and all that but it makes the line go really slow. Berkley really wanted to wait in the line for the wicked stepsisters. She was a little nervous about them though. It was cute

We can see fireworks from our balcony every night at 9. The girls expect it before bedtime every night now. Its so nice!

Berk going down a slide. This was a big dinosaur park E was busy climbing all around. B spent at least 20 minutes going down this slide over and over. Toward the end she decided to start throwing her arms up like she was on a roller coaster

On the way to the Bugs Life 3D movie. E did NOT like it. They tried to exterminate us like bugs and attacked us. Berkley thought it was great

B at dinner. Chris took a grape from her plate so she proceeded to stuff the last 4-5 in her mouth at once.

A safari ride at Animal Kingdom

This was at Hollywood Studios. B loves 3D movies now. I forgot how at Disney they also do lots of special effects (such as mice running by your feet or termites going under your bench- GROSS!) She likes to reach out for the stuff- our favorite was the Mickey one at Magic Kingdom,

E loved driving the race car. She could barely reach the pedal so I did it for her most of the time- I love this pic of her cute leg!

She took her driving very seriously!

Wow! I picture of me- just to prove I was there!

I had visions of all these great pictures I would get. E and B were not very willing to model for me in front of the castleThe castle looked so pretty lit up at night. I really enjoyed the night we spent at MK it was a lot less crowded than during the day and so pretty with all the lights

Berkley was an animal driving the race car. It is on a track so there isn't a ton of steering to be done but she enjoyed swerving back and forth like a crazy person

We had a blast in the teacups with Megan and Madilyn.

Driving and Disney

We made it to Disney! We drove 14 hours on Saturday- the girls were great in the car we kept busy with lots of movies and a new Mario Brothers game for the ds. For Elliott ;-) Poor Berk only took a 45 min nap. By 5 she was asking for her nightgown. We stopped to eat and put on their jammies. From 8 until we stopped at 9 B sat there whining I want to go night night...I want to go night night. Never has been a great car sleeper.

This was a meltdown due to having the dry erase board privileges stripped after I told her not to color on her or her sister....

We made it to Orlando in 4 hours on Sunday and hit the pool at the hotel. Berk was ready to go!

Sweet Elliott was so excited to get to go swimming- she even went down the waterslide with Chris! She liked the sliding part but not the going under water part without her goggles.

Yesterday we went to magic kingdom and had lots of fun. I'll post the pics of that later. I overlooked those and don't feel like going back to the uploading pics part.

Today we went to Epcot for a princess breakfast at a castle. It was really neat the princesses each came to our table to sign autographs and take pictures. Our scavenger hunt book called for tracing a princess's shoe on one of the pages. Cinderella said we were the first to ever ask that! All the princesses were very impressed with Berkley's princess book.

Our good friends Ray and Megan and their girls Madilyn and Emily Kate are in Disney with us. They flew in yesterday so we've had lots of fun with them!

Berkley was dying to meet Cinderella. I think because that is the dress she had on, usually she is really into Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty- but don't you dare call her that or just plain Aurora) and she cried that she wanted to see Jasmine. She stalked Cinderella while she was at the next table

E needed a pic making a fishy face with Arial for her book- like her version of the fishy face?Berk was unsuccessful in her attempt to disguise herself from the paparazzi. Notice the crown on top of her hat ;-)

We did lots more this afternoon at magic kingdom. The girls are having a blast on all the rides. We are having so much fun it is hard to fit all the things we want to do in!

Getting ready for Disney!

The girls went to spend the night with Grammy and Papa last night so I could get some packing done. They came home today and I had gotten them each a princess dress that actually fit them! They also had little autograph/scavenger hunt books that our friends John and Jody from Kansas sent- they were SO excited!

I decided to take video of B with her book because she was going through all the princesses and naming them. Its kinda long but so cute!

E needed her chance in the spotlight too

Thanks again guys- I'm sure we'll have lots of fun with the books!

I can hear E telling B all about the princess breakfast they are going to.

E- We will wear our beautiful new dresses and the real Cinderella will say- "oh look at that little Cindcrella Baby!"

B- "No, I not a baby"

E- "Well she'd say oh look at that little Cinderella kid, I want to sit by her!"

How cute is that??

Chuck E Cheese and Stroller Skate

These pics are a little old, I finally downloaded my little camera. We have been busy this week getting ready for our big trip to Disney World!! We're so excited to be going on a big family vacation. We are also going to the beach in Destin on our way back home. We went to Destin when E was almost 2, I'm so glad we get to do the same thing with Berk because we had so much fun on that trip.

We are driving! Which is a big step for this little family. We typically don't drive out of a 3 hour radius from home. Chris and I haven't done a road trip like this since college. Should be interesting. We have packed and planned tons of games, movies and activites so hopefully it won't be too bad. We've decided Berkley can make or break this so cross your fingers that our little Taser is in good spirits for the drive. 18 hours.....We went to Chuck awhile back. This was a dress up day for Berkley- she wore her Sleeping Beauty costume ALL DAY. They love when Chuckie comes around Berk was a lot happier than she looks in this picture. They should have a blast with all the characters at Disney!The skating rink here has Stroller Skate once a week where moms can take their little ones in strollers and go skate. I let E skip school for this since its on a school day. She loved it!Berkley was pretty much over it by the end! This is the cutest thing ever. E is skating without holding on- she really prefers the carpet at this point. We'll have to go lots more because she really likes it!