Wow! What an incredible time we had. We started our time at Sea World which had the best shows. (Of course we have since learned that our cousin Alicia stage manages several of the shows so it's no wonder....) Believe it or not, one of Jodi's favorite things there was petting the sting rays! Pretty slimy little things but they seemed to really like to be petted!
We stayed at one of the beautiful Disney Resorts which we actually saw very little of. We didn't even take advantage of the great pool until the day we were leaving and could walk no more in the parks! We spent Monday and Tuesday with Aunt Julie and Uncle Mal and had an absolute blast. When Jodi saw Cinderella's castle for the first time, her face lit up! She was beyond excited and immediately wanted to go into the castle. It was hard to explain to her why we couldn't tour around the castle and see all the rooms, ballroom, etc. After that, she wanted to find Belle's castle! She's all about those princesses.... We made the mistake of going in the Haunted Mansion
and she really wanted to ride with Julie and Malcolm. Almost immediately, I could hear her crying a few cars down and would holler to her every few minutes that she was OK. Oops! We closed the park down and saw a wonderful fireworks display.
Day 2 was in Hollywood Studios. They have this great new ride there based on Toy Story which we only got to ride thanks to Aunt Julie and Uncle Mal. I highly recommend it if you get a chance to go!! The sky decided to open up on us in the afternoon but we kept going right along! Jodi loved seeing a Beauty and the Beast show as well as Ariel. Our friend Vicki joined us later in the day so Baba and I could ride a "big people" ride like the Rockin' Rollercoaster. We laughed alot that day and had a blast!
Day 3 was back to the Magic Kingdom with Nye Nye Huffstetler and Aunt Betty. It was a hot day but did not slow us down! Aunt Betty was a trooper coming out to join us even though she was sick with a cold. We spent alot of time in Toontown where Jodi met the princesses for the first time. It was so incredibly sweet that I was tearing up the whole time. She was SO excited to see and talk to them and eventually got brave in giving them hugs and having her picture made. I'm sorry to say that I have no pictures to post from that day because the camera had died. We had a ball though!!
Day 4 was spent at Epcot. We spent the morning in search of more princesses and Jodi was especially excited to meet Mulan. We got to eat in a restaurant with an indoor aquarium where we were seated right next to the window so we could look at the amazing fish the whole time including a shark! We then got to meet up with Cousins David, Florine, and Alicia and Vicki joined us again as well. Jodi fell in love with her cousins and took to them immediately. Florine has recently had knee surgery so Jodi thought it was quite a treat to ride along in the wheelchair! We had a great time with them and hated to see the time end so we met up the next day at Disney Downtown. Jodi also attended a princess dinner Thursday night where each of the princesses come up to your table. My favorite part was the princess parade where all the little girls walked around the restaurant waving at the crowd. Too cute!! We are so grateful to our family and friends who show Jodi so much love! She commented about what a "big" family she has and is so excited to get to know them.
I think Jodi summed up our time at Disney the best when she commented at the end of a fireworks show. She looked around and exclaimed," Now that's what I'm talking about!"
Once again, I am really delayed in getting this posted! We are enjoying the holiday season so much. We were fortunate to have Nye Nye Johnson here with us for Thanksgiving and even got to celebrate early birthday! As you can see, Jodi is very happy to help with opening and handling the gifts. We also enjoyed some special time with our great extended family!
