robert and heidi

**WARNING** Picture-heavy post full of vacation photos! :)

Here we are at the happiest place on earth. The Magic Kingdom is our favorite park, so we always expect this day to be our best day at Disney, and it always is!

The kids have completely filled the character autograph books they got two trips ago, so Brennan and Kate-Kelly started new books on this trip. Garrison decided it's not for him anymore and has moved on to more adult things...like texting his buddies who were also on spring break and spread out across the country. I usually would not have been so keen on him texting so much on vacation, but the phone is still brand new and burning a hole in his pocket. The girls and I stood in line to get the princesses' autographs. Here is Brennan with Aurora.

Kate-Kelly with Cinderella, and wearing her dress. The princesses, as well as the ALL of the employees notice when a little girl is dressed as a Disney princess and really give her a ton of attention. Pretty much every step of the way all day long, Kate-Kelly was called a princess by the employees.

It was the same in Epcot, where this was taken with Kate-Kelly dressed as Snow White. Snow White noticed immediately that Kate was wearing her dress and made a BIG fuss over it. This was taken at the Princess Breakfast at Norway's Akershus in Epcot.

While we're still here in Epcot, I just have to say that the best ride by far in Disney, in my opinion, is Soarin'. That is always the first FastPass we get.

The newest big attraction in the Magic Kingdom are the Disney Fairies. Unfortunately, what goes along with that is the long 120-minute line you have to stand in to see them. Brennan decided that she didn't want to wait in line that long, so she went with Robert and Garrison to ride Space Mountain (they had FastPasses for this) and the Haunted Mansion while Kate-Kelly and I braved the Fairy line. I must say that while the Princesses are very sweet and nurturing, the Fairies were sassy and aloof and I don't think Kate cared for that.


This is in front of Minnie's house.

This is in front of Cinderella's castle.


We all dressed appropriately for St. Patrick's Day. You can't tell from this picture (I completely blame my camera - Robert that's for you!) but the kids are covered in temporary tattoos of shamrocks, Irish flags, etc. Even Robert and I wore green for St. Pat.

This is in Animal Kingdom with Mt. Everest in the background.

The girls getting an autograph from Pocahontas.

Going in to see A Bug's Life (which was SCARY - seriously!)


The girls in front of our favorite gift shop in Hollywood Studios. This particular shop only sells princess stuff and they have the cutest things! We always find a way to separate from the boys for a little while and make a stop in here.

We spent two days at the beach in Florida, one at Pass-A-Grille - an adorable little town on the coast near Tampa, and one at DeSoto Beach Park - which was beautiful. The water was warm enough to swim, which is exactly what the kids love to do to at the beach.

I love this picture of Kate-Kelly jumping waves.

Being the baseball-loving family that we are, we made it a point to see a spring training game while we were in Florida. We went to the Yankees-Toronto game at George Steinbrenner Stadium (my only image of George Steinbrenner is from Seinfeld) in Tampa. You can't tell from this picture because it was taken late in the game, but this game was sold out.

We drove to Florida and on the way down we stopped and visited relatives in Atlanta. Then, after our week of playing in Florida we spent another week visiting friends and relatives in southern and northern Alabama. We were thoroughly spoiled the entire week. It was so good to see everyone again!