Magic Kingdom

We started out by heading straight to the Magic Kingdom and had a blast. The rain threatened a couple of times but it was never really a huge issue. We actually enjoyed having the clouds around too. The shade they provided was quite a bit cooler than the sunny day that we did have.

When we first got there we went straight through the really cool castle and headed to the Dumbo ride. We got in an hour early because of our stay at a Disney Resort, and we wanted to make sure we hit that ride first since it's pretty popular. Even Eric got to ride on it.



We also got to see Mickey and Minnie's houses. Apparently they don't live together, but they live right next door to each other, so they're not fooling anyone :-) Natalie was very interested in Minnie's refrigerator. In case you're curious, it was full of cheese.



Natalie also got to meet a bunch of her favorite Disney characters! Eric loved them too, but only from a distance. You can see him keeping a VERY close eye on Mickey and Minnie to make sure they didn't come too close.






We got to ride plenty of rides, with Natalie's favorite being the big cars. She couldn't reach the pedals but she loved to ride in them and steer. The teacups were pretty darn popular as well. Eric wasn't a huge fan of any of the rides, but he tolerated the carousel and teacups.



Throughout the day there was regular rehydrating, a couple of treats, and plenty of shopping. As you can see below Eric had trouble deciding on a hat. He was super cute in the tigger hat with the tail, but he ended up with the Mickey hat, and he let us know his favorite by giving Mickey a big kiss.






They were long, hot days, but we had fun!

Disney World!

We're back from Disney World and we had a great time. It was Natalie and Eric's first time to Disney and Seaworld, and it was Eric's first plane ride. The time in the plane went pretty smoothly due to good planning and plenty of toy diversions. This was Natalie's fifth plane ride so we've had a bit of practice.

After arriving, one of the first things we did was obtain some fancy Mickey cups that allowed us to drink too many refreshments throughout the week. Natalie and Eric each got their own cup and they immediately put them to use. Eric also decided to give his sunglasses a try.




So one of the first things you learn when arriving at a Disney Resort is that you should really get used to riding the bus. You ride the bus A LOT. Natalie and Eric got used to it pretty quickly, and other than a couple of very crowded rides it went alright.





Sometimes we rode the bus so much we went crazy!


We stayed at the All Star Movies resort, and our wing was the 101 Dalmations wing. It was pretty cool, and Eric really loved seeing the dalmations everywhere. His favorite one was the little guy in front of the tv. Every time we walked by it we had to stop and say hi.







More on our trip to the Magic Kingdom in tomorrow's post!

2009-07-04 - Disney trip

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Eric walking, Emily married, and so much more

Hi folks. We're still here in Cinci doing our thing. The kids are still amazing, and we're all still super busy. It's been a month since I posted, and sooo much has happened. Where to begin? Well, Aunt Emily got married to Uncle John (congratulations guys!!), and just today Eric started walking!

Eric's been so close for so long, and just today he decided to give it a shot without someone or something to hold onto. We got some video of it and I'll post it when I can.

In the meantime, here's a couple of pics of everyone looking sharp in their wedding outfits, including Emily in her beautiful wedding dress and Natalie and Carina who were super cute in their flower girl dresses. You can also find more wedding pictures here.



We're in Disney World next week, so the rate of posting isn't going to get any better for a while. However, there will be even more to post about when we get back! Stay tuned...

Our little artists

Natalie has really been into drawing pictures for a long time now. She started out with scribbles, moved to shapes, and now she's on to drawing people and practicing her letters. Eric is also fascinated with the crayons and markers, and he loves to scribble whenever he gets the chance. I just wanted to post a few pictures so you could see them playing at their art table since they do it so often.

Natalie has been into drawing the whole family together. It started out as smiley faces, then they got ears, then hair, then arms and hands, then legs and feet, and recently they've started to get fingers on their hands. She's actually getting very good! She's also very good at coloring in pictures these days. We'll keep you guys up to date on the new artwork developments.

Gymnastics!

Natalie is already on her second session of gymnastics, and it's going pretty well. She started her first session all the way back in January, and is almost at the end of her second session. The first session was with the 2-year-olds where the parents could come along with them to class. Her second session is with the big boys and girls and it's just Natalie and her fellow students with the teachers. It took a week or two for Natalie to get used to going solo but she's doing very well now. She's now willing to do all of the activities as well.

They have a lot of really fun obstacle courses that involve lots of jumping, climbing, and somersaults. She was most nervous about the activity where you stand up on a platform, then swing out over a big foam pit and drop in. It took a few weeks but now she does it all the time!

Here are some pictures of her in class. She now has a pretty blue gymnastics outfit to wear. We'll make sure to get some pictures of that at some point for you guys as well :-)

Easter

Happy (super-belated) Easter folks. It's a bit embarrassing to post pictures so obviously late, but oh well. I post them all eventually!

Eric's favorite part of the Easter basket itself was the grass. It is pretty interesting I guess.



Natalie had a great time going on the Easter egg hunt, and she really enjoyed watching her Dad and Grandpa Steve try to get her new Dora kite into the air. With only a few minor injuries we managed to do it. Both Natalie and Eric found out they like kites a whole lot. Actually, Eric likes pretty much everything outdoors (especially birds), but more on that later.




Eric also got a neat little bulldozer he likes riding around on. Eric's crawling around now (more on that later too), and hopefully the bulldozer will help get him walking!