A little Epcot action . . .

This is about the best shot we could get in front of the "Big Ball" in Epcot . . . two children flailing their bodies in various and sundry ways. sigh. Carolina is infatuated with balls and is one of the few words that she says very clearly and distinctly. Here she is emphatically pointing and shouting, "Ball! Ball! Ball!" She was so excited!

Can you guess who took this picture in China? :)

We were able to meet Princess Jasmine and Aladdin near Morocco

Pooh, Tigger, and a droopy Eeyore in the United Kingdom. (Carolina was sacked out in the stroller)

You see Miss Priss in the picture? While we were waiting for Brother to ride Test Track, she had fun on the "slide" that was chained off to keep people out . . .which I let her play on . . . because she did it over and over for twenty minutes! What else is a mom to do? ;)

Nemo and Friends!

"Fish are friends, not food!" (if you've seen Nemo you know what I'm talking about)

A little Chip and Dale action . . .

And this picture would explain why I look the way I do in the above picture. sigh. I enjoyed WAY too many desserts (it came with our dining plan . . .what were we to do? Not eat them? I think not.) My bottom is still thanking me for all of them . . . Have you ever seen such glee on my face? Yep. A big piece of chocolate does it to me every.single.time.

Noni, Dandy and Sister!

A "Magical" Beginning!

Whew. I really want to "journal" our trip, but it is a bit overwhelming browsing through the 800 or so pictures from our camera and my parents. Please accept my apologies from the beginning. . . there will be lots of pictures and rambling . . . you may want to skip over the next few posts! ha!

We drove from Dauphin Island, AL to Disney on Saturday, the 4th of July. The roads were smooth and surprisingly relatively traffic free, and the kids, well, they were tolerable. :) My parents flew down and met us there. We stayed at the All Star Music hotel in the Broadway section. Fun hotel - and we were lucky enough to share it with the eight million Brazilian teen tour groups that were there. I think I might still be able to share one of their cheer/chants with you . . .

Noni and Lawton . . . we were on our way to watch the fireworks for the 4th over Magic Kingdom. We didn't arrive at Disney until late that afternoon so we didn't enter the madness of the parks. Viewing from the Polynesian's beach was perfect for us! And this picture below, well, captures the excitement and pure joy Lawton had that first night. That smile was so worth it. . . :) On Sunday morning, our first full day, we somehow miraculously were able to get to Magic Kingdom BEFORE it opened in time to see a little welcome show and Mickey and the gang come in on the train. What a perfect beginning to our trip and introduction to the week for Lawton! I may have even gotten a little misty eyed in my excitement of the week. maybe.

Our first ride - Dumbo. One of our friends, Liana, helped us book and plan our entire trip. She suggested to ride this first because the wait times get incredibly long as the day goes on. She is a great planner if you are from around here . . .

This is the second ride we rode - not that you can tell what it is (Peter Pan) - but you can still see the fresh excitement in Lawton's face. love it. Cinderella's Golden Carousel . . . we rode this several times!

We caught a midday parade at MK and Lawton was so excited to see and to wave to all his character friends . . .

Lawton has the best seat in the house on Dandy's shoulders!

We spotted Donald in Frontierland at MK

That night we ate at O'hana's in the Polynesian. Yummy! We all especially loved the dumplings (but not the kind of dumplings you are probably thinking of) and the bread pudding. Carolina LOVED the noodles here and couldn't slurp up enough!

Somehow when Liana set up our reservations, it somehow got recorded that it was Lawton's birthday (and mine). So, since Disney's big push this year is "What will you celebrate?", we were able to celebrate Lawton's "birthday" (his was in April and mine in June) every night for dinner. He totally went along with it and never disputed it or asked why. Silly boy! Maybe the cupcake every night had something to do with it?

Getting a little Buzz Lightyear action in after dinner. . .

Here's me and mom on Buzz . . . can you tell we were having a little bit of fun ourselves? :)

in front of Cinderella's castle

This was our first (of five or six) time to ride Splash Mountain . . . or maybe Thunder Mountain. Lawton LOVED them both! He is 42" so he was able to ride almost everything in all of Disney. We were so glad he loved all the thrill rides because we loved them, too! It makes me kinda sad though to think that next time we won't be able to squeeze the three of us together. . .

Here we are watching the SpectroMagic Parade at MK. Carolina loved every minute of it and seeing all the lights!

This was the only thing that he asked for all week, his light up Mickey sword. He is still sleeping with it every single night. I love this boy!

More to come . . .

I'm interrupting the regularly scheduled program. . .

Some recent occurrences in our silly, crazy, sometimes head-bashing-against-the-wall-moments (me - and I'm totally being sarcastic . . .) led me to interrupt the regularly scheduled program of Disney pics to let you guys in on the mundane - or not - life in the High fam. :)

The other day I was fixing lunch and went to find Carolina to put her in her high chair. She is usually grunting and squealing at my feet before meal times, but on this particular day she was unusually quiet. I soon found out why . . . She had opened a cabinet, found the stash of Easter/other holiday candy that Lawton never finishes because he NEVER finishes a meal (more to come on that later) and was chomping on what was left of a solid chocolate Easter Bunny. I just had to laugh! She was in heaven. Somehow she had gotten the box, taken the bunny out, unwrapped the foil and was chomping away. A girl after my own heart! :)

Then, I turned around in the car the other day and saw THIS. Mercy. That bow is hanging on for dear life!!

So, after I cut Lawton's hair the other day, I decided she could use a teeny tiny trim.

It's amazing what just cutting a few little scraggly hairs can do! :) I'm not sure if this girl will ever get a ponytail . . . Lawton had probably had FIVE full fledged hair cuts by fourteen months old!

Oh, and guess who fell out of their crib today? I have no idea what she was doing, but I bolted in her room faster than I have moved in a long time. . . I was reading to Lawton before nap and all he was concerned about was what page we were on when I jumped up. sigh. And just last night in class at church her teachers said, "She is a climber! She was climbing up and down all the chairs, etc."

Just in case you were wondering, the crib IS lowered, but we lowered it two more inches tonight to its VERY lowest setting. She was fine - just scared the huhjeebies out of her!

Oh, and she was half way up the ladder to our playhouse last week before I realized it. I was standing seven feet away and had just turned my back to talk to Lawton. Mercy.

Okay, to Lawton . . . this boy hardly ever eats anything for dinner, much less finishes. I'm not a short order cook and am not ONLY going to fix things that he likes. I'm so mean, huh? The other night at a consignment sale I found a Clone Trooper costume for $3.00 that is just like one his cousin Hunter has. Lawton slept with the mask on our vacation he loved it so much. (Poor boy, though. He really doesn't know much about "Star Worz" or "Dark Vader" or the "Light Saver".

Anyways, for dinner tonight, I fixed meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans. Even though the costume was in a pile with other clothes for two days, my oblivious boy never noticed. We told him if he ate every single bite on his plate, he could have a mask just like Hunter! We started eating around five o'clock.

After an AGONIZING period of time, he ate every bite. It was so momentous we took a picture.

Could you see the time on the clock? Yep. That's 7:54. Just a mere, oh, THREE HOURS LATER!! This is why we never bribe him to eat. It's not worth it. He just goes to bed hungry and eats a big breakfast. Maybe by the time he's fourteen he will finally realize that the food I cook is good and will actually eat.

Here he is with his new $3.00 costume!!

I will now return back to the regularly scheduled program for the next post. . . :)

Token Beach Pictures

This post is solely dedicated to the tried and true "Beach Pictures". We didn't really try to coordinate for the big family picture, but it turned out okay. Believe it or not, we only took TWO of the whole group and everyone is actually looking and behaving! WOWSA! There was a serious storm quickly approaching during the "photo shoot". . .

Gran-D and Papa J and their little chicks. . .

See how Lawton is squinting? We might as well have been in Saudi Arabia in a sandstorm the wind was blowing so hard! I made these matching outfits for them (their first). I think they look pretty cute in them! :)

The girls are going to be chasing my nephew, Houston, and his baby blues very soon!

This look is SO Hunter. I love this little man. . .

I am so sad to say that I don't think anyone got a picture of the four of them facing the camera. Miss Independent was pitching a fit because she doesn't like to hold any one's hand . . . It was pretty chaotic with the storm blowing in and sand everywhere - Brent did a great job taking the majority of these awesome pictures!

The three amigos . . . these boys are going to have so much fun growing up together!

Three out of four smiling and looking . . . not bad.

Brent, Emily, Houston and Hunter

Lance and Heather - soon to be wed in October!

Gran-D and Papa J - awwwww. . .

Wow. I don't know why even bothered to try and fix my hair for the wind tunnel. I should have just put it in a ponytail like it has been all summer! ha!

My love.

And wouldn't you know? Who do you think was the only one out of twelve to get their own personal photo shoot? Yep. Miss Priss. Love this girl! She is getting quite sassy and opinionated these days!

Thanks for caring - or stalking. :) Disney pictures are coming up next! How overwhelming!