January 2013--a quick review in photos
Apparently, I am not very good at keeping this blog up to date. The problem is, as a photographer, I tend to take a LOT of photos...but then I have to deal with all those photos. And it's the dealing with them that tends to hold me up, especially now that I maxed out my storage on this blog and have to upload the pictures to Google + first...but I digress.
Here's a look at our January:
We gathered at Nana and Pop Pop's house on New Year's day. Aunt Karen had been sick for Christmas and they missed the family gathering, so this was a New Years/Christmas celebration. While we waited for Aunt Karen, Uncle Keith, and Ben to arrive, Aunt Laurie, Bam-Bam, and TJ played tiddlywinks.
A little cousin love. Apparently, Autism Spectrum runs in the family, and my nephew, like my eldest, also has Aspergers. But he LOVES his cousins, especially TJ.
Aunt Karen and Uncle Keith got Mimi her heart's desire...Aunt Karen is taking her to see La Nouba.
My mom, and Sari with her new camera taking pictures of me taking pictures.
Can't even remember what she was so excited about, but she had her daddy jumping up and down in excitement with her.
The first thing we do when we get to the Kingdom is get our Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom cards. When we exited the building, there was another family there checking their cards and wanting to trade, so we spent about 30 minutes just trading cards and chatting.
Our one big goal was to check out the new Belle storytime attraction in New Fantasyland. It is beyond cool. You enter this room, and you are looking at a mirror, and then the mirror starts to grow, and show pictures, and within the course of a minute, it becomes the doorway you enter the next room through. I can't begin to understand how they do it, but WOW!
If you have small children, and you see this attraction, you want them to get picked to help act out the story. TRUST ME! Sari was Mrs. Pots.
All the "cast" gets individual pictures with Belle. COOL! And she got a bookmark, which I then laminated when we got home with a copy of her picture with Belle on the backside.
We also wanted to try the new drink called LeFou's Brew. It was good, but (gasp) Butterbeer is better. No, they aren't meant to be alike, but seriously, you have to know the two frozen beverages were destined to be compared, and Butterbeer wins hands down.
When we went to see Belle, the attraction went "101" (meaning it broke), and so we got fastpasses to come back. While we were waiting at the back entrance in a drizzling rain, Scott decided to try to convince me he was an angel, LOL.
And the kids played their favorite game, "Honey, if you love me, won't you smile?" Here's Sari making me crack up as she pretends to have a ring and propose marriage.
Another thing they have totally redone is the waiting area for the Dumbo attraction. This is it below. It's a whole play area. Even though there was no line when we went, the kids wanted to stop and play, LOL.
Fireworks as viewed from Tomorrowland. We watched them from the TTA mostly, because Sari hates fireworks, but the other kids wanted to see them.
How gorgeous is the castle for the holidays???
We caught the parade as we left the park. I love that Sari waves to all the floats and characters as they go by...so sad when they outgrow that.
A rare photo of all four and no one is scowling, ;-).
Super cool new aquarium under Manta. There is a place where you can duck under and stand inside with fish all around you.
I've always though this was such a cool carousel
Oh, Sari...she has LOVED this so much. Her face is in non-stop amazement. Sea World isn't Disney to be sure, but they really have the BEST little kid ride area. (For the record, that's the antithesis of what Walt wanted for Disney, and I know that, but really Shamu's Happy Harbor is every parent's happy harbor too.)
Blue Horizons...one of my favorite shows at Sea World. Dolphins, birds, divers, bungee, and just plain WOW.
I think the kids could hang out here for ever.
Sari could not muster up the courage to touch a ray...until this moment. Now that's all she wants to do.
TJ touched the white one (yes, there's a ray in this picture).
My kids and I...but unlike the Disney picture, you'll notice a scowl or two. They HATE these group shots, which of course makes me want to do them more and more.
Mimi was less than excited, but this distraction paid off when she won a prize from The Bunkroom because she worked out the crossword puzzle.
It was such a slow day, we went to the park too. Just me and the littles. Scott and Mimi were both working.
Shadow fun...if you know him, you'll understand.
Here's a look at our January:
Sari and her Aunt Karen.
Sari and cousin Ben.
My mom and sister.
A trip to Magic Kingdom:
If you have small children, and you see this attraction, you want them to get picked to help act out the story. TRUST ME! Sari was Mrs. Pots.
All the "cast" gets individual pictures with Belle. COOL! And she got a bookmark, which I then laminated when we got home with a copy of her picture with Belle on the backside.
We also wanted to try the new drink called LeFou's Brew. It was good, but (gasp) Butterbeer is better. No, they aren't meant to be alike, but seriously, you have to know the two frozen beverages were destined to be compared, and Butterbeer wins hands down.
When we went to see Belle, the attraction went "101" (meaning it broke), and so we got fastpasses to come back. While we were waiting at the back entrance in a drizzling rain, Scott decided to try to convince me he was an angel, LOL.
Another thing they have totally redone is the waiting area for the Dumbo attraction. This is it below. It's a whole play area. Even though there was no line when we went, the kids wanted to stop and play, LOL.
Fireworks as viewed from Tomorrowland. We watched them from the TTA mostly, because Sari hates fireworks, but the other kids wanted to see them.
How gorgeous is the castle for the holidays???
We caught the parade as we left the park. I love that Sari waves to all the floats and characters as they go by...so sad when they outgrow that.
A rare photo of all four and no one is scowling, ;-).
We went to a nearby state park with our Kiwi friends. It was a drizzly day too, but we enjoyed ourselves in spite of the weather.
Have I mentioned how much I LOVE the studio where Mimi takes her aerial classes? I actually have a whole blog post coming about it. Mimi is taking ballet there now, and below are a few pictures from her class. She has zero dance experience, and Christye (the red head) has danced her whole life and been a principal ballerina. She manages Metro, and she's SOOOO good. Look at how she literally sat at Mimi's feet and corrected her. The girl in blue is Stacy, and she is a teacher there too. She has been accepted as an aerialist by Cirque du Soleil, and is just waiting for them to have an opening for her.
New year= new theme park passes, this time to Sea World. Their FL resident offer runs according to the calendar year, so our Disney passes overlap Sea World right now. When we last had Sea World passes, they were still building Manta, and Sari doesn't remember it at all.
Mimi rode Manta for the first time!
I've always though this was such a cool carousel
Oh, Sari...she has LOVED this so much. Her face is in non-stop amazement. Sea World isn't Disney to be sure, but they really have the BEST little kid ride area. (For the record, that's the antithesis of what Walt wanted for Disney, and I know that, but really Shamu's Happy Harbor is every parent's happy harbor too.)
Blue Horizons...one of my favorite shows at Sea World. Dolphins, birds, divers, bungee, and just plain WOW.
I think the kids could hang out here for ever.
Sari could not muster up the courage to touch a ray...until this moment. Now that's all she wants to do.
My kids and I...but unlike the Disney picture, you'll notice a scowl or two. They HATE these group shots, which of course makes me want to do them more and more.
Our local library had it's official "reopening" after some serious construction. They celebrated with the Jiggleman.
Sari and I have done a pretty lame job of actually being diligent with FIAR. SO we took a slow day and decided to make an apple pie.
It was such a slow day, we went to the park too. Just me and the littles. Scott and Mimi were both working.
Shadow fun...if you know him, you'll understand.
And we went Letterboxing, something we haven't done in so long Sari couldn't remember what it was. This took us to a new-ish park literally minutes from my house that I didn't even know existed.
Well, that's January in a nut shell. Actually, it's probably not even remotely all of January, but it's what I have pictures of ;-).
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