DISNEY WORLD !!!

Last week, while the rest of Utah was working, schooling, and freezing... we were having a blast in sunny Florida! My parents rented a house in Kissimee and we had a fun family get-together. I'm sure Jenna won't actually remember any of it, but she had fun while she was there, and the adults got to have our own fun at Disney while the kids are still free!

Isabel, Jenna, Marshall, Jackson = too cute for words!

Jenna and I flew down to Orlando the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and Paul flew down the next Wednesday - he had to be at work for the BYU-Utah game. Go Cougars!
Anyway, here's some of what we did on our trip:

DAY 1: at the house

The cousins met and played together, we swam, we ate, we talked, and played lots of ping-pong!

Jenna liked "reading" to Isabel

The boys gave us a little concert. Jackson sang and played the banjo while Marshall took the guitar.

DAY 2: Magic Kingdom

Sadly, we didn't see many characters walking around. And the ones we did see all had 30 minute lines to take a picture. We figured it wasn't worth it. Good call, since Jenna wouldn't let any of them touch her!

We found these hula hoops in a random cafe and the kids all wanted to play:

this is Jenna's version of hula hooping!


The teacups:

Marshall loved it!

...so did Jenna, until she started to get dizzy...

Then we checked out Minnie's house in the little kids' area:

Jenna probably had the most fun with Isabel :)
She liked to push her around and "clean" her up with wipes!

The Haunted Masion:

I love Jenna's face here! I promise she had fun!

Carousel:

This was Jenna's expression on pretty much every ride! She's soaking everything in. It might not look like it, but she's having a great time! Afterwards, she asks to do it again!

Ryan and Dad racing

Daniel's racing face

I obviously didn't take pictures of everything, and my picture-taking only gets worse from here. We were having too much fun to think about pulling out the camera all the time. Oh well.

DAY 3: Animal Kingdom

Isabel thought the characters were a hoot! And it was so fun to see her enjoy them!

Jenna, on the other hand, liked them from afar. But she wouldn't even smile at them up close :(

This guy picked her a flower in hopes of winning a smile... nope.

My cousin Joni just had surgery on her ankle. wheelchair = no lines. We loved Joni!

Jenna enjoyed controlling our height on the dinosaur ride.

Best ride ever! Actually it was closed, so we didn't get to ride, but check out its name - it's got to be the best, right? :)

Me and Daniel on the Mountain Yeti ride ( i don't remember what it's actually named)

Me and Ryan: Same ride. It was awesome!

While we did the big-kid rides, the grandmas took the kids to the petting zoo. Jenna got to brush the goats. When she left, she waved and said "bye goats!"

DAY 4: MGM Studios

I didn't want to carry my camera around, so I put it in my mom's purse. Then, I lost my mom for most of the day. Hence, no pictures.
It was a good day. Jenna liked watching the 3D shows and street performers. My favorite part was when a street performer saw Jenna and said "you are really cute! Some kids aren't - but you are! [laughter from the audience] Good job to whomever made you!"
Thank you, thank you!

It was a 25-minute drive to Disney, and remember Jenna hates being in her carseat. So she watched Baby Signing Time on the ipod.

DAY 5: Epcot

I flat out forgot my camera. Oops.
When I was little, I had a Figment doll from ImaginationLand. Get it? Figment of your imagination... So we got Jenna one too! They also used to have a giant bush shaped like figment, but sadly that is gone.
Our favorite part was the candlelight processional. It's only done in December. The Disney choir and mixed high school choirs perform Christmas songs between readings of the Christmas story from the bible. It was beautiful. Paul performed there in high school, so he was singing along - it was fun!

DAY 6: Magic Kingdom again!

It rained. a lot. all day.
But, Jenna didn't mind and there were NO lines, so it was still a blast!

This is how Jenna and I spent the day - inside Paul's coat. Seriously, all day.

... and this is how she took her nap. See her feet dangling out the bottom?

We did the teacups again. This is my dad's favorite ride! My only memories of Disney world when I was a kid are getting Mickey Mouse's autograph, and injuring my neck on the teacups! My dad goes sooooo fast!

After that, Paul wanted to show off how fast he could go, so Jenna and I rode with my sister. It was a little slower:

DAYs 7 & 8: Haines City

My family left early Saturday morning and Paul, Jenna and I stayed until Sunday night. Paul took us around where he used to live and we met a lot of his old friends. It was really nice to be able to visualize some of the stories he's told me... and Paul was amazed at the changes to his small town. Well, small town doesn't really describe it well. This place makes Provo look like New York City! Whew!

By the week's end, Jenna was really pooped out:

It was a wonderful break! I wish we could do it every year!