Some Disney pictures

 These are the pictures my mother in-law took on our recent trip to Florida. It was nice to have someone along that also took pictures so that I could be in some of my own vacation photos for once!

We had a great time. We occasionally had to be creative with our activities or schedules due to stormy weather....and stormy moods. :) But all in all, it couldn't have gone better.

 Before we left for the trip Lily became hyper-focused on altering a dress that she had acquired via hand-me-down from her Grandma Dayna's closet. Lily was determined that she and Grandma Ann would be able to alter it to look just like Belle, from Beauty and the Beast. As the vacation approached, and her demands on Grandma Ann became more specific and difficult to meet, I was worried that we were just setting ourselves up for a meltdown of the century. Surprisingly, Lily did just fine. She was satisfied with the final product. She was so satisfied that by the end of the day the day she wore it to the park, she was pretty sure that she had fooled a few other little girls into believing that they'd actually seen Belle, and not Lily. She did what she could for these confused little girls, waved and smiled like a princess, so that these girls wouldn't be disappointed.

 One day on the trip we went to Sea World. The kids liked the shows. Drew was excited to visit the sharks and everyone was happy to get up close to the dolphins. During the shows Lily sat in the front row determined to get good pictures with her camera and to get as wet as possible.

                                                                                    During the whale show, she succeeded. And she had Tom and Drew sitting with her too. Julianna, Grandma and I stayed where it was dry.

                                                                                                 Mary Poppins is my favorite. However sweet she was though, she did not look like the Mary I remember. Just the same, she chatted with us for a few minutes discussing our favorite parts and how maybe the bank part of the Mary Poppins movie was a little too long for the kiddos. :)

 Lily danced with a belly dancer. The dancer was asking kids to join her and no one would until Lily found out dancing in front of the crowd was an option. She wasted no time after that!

 Here are Drew and Julianna waiting for the fireworks. They were pretty excited to eat those ring pops and managed to make them last a couple of days. Yes, days. Those kinds of things happen when you vacation with Grandma.

Julianna took a little drive on vacation. I love her facial expressions in all of her pictures. This girl knows how to make me laugh. 

We took a ride on a train. 

And saw a fantastic fireworks show. A couple of my children do really well taking naps, staying up late and sleeping in on vacation. The one who doesn't....well, lets just say, when she's a teenager and she wants to sleep in on vacation, I will probably be in her room, in her bed, eating my breakfast and asking her endless questions. Maybe....

 See what I mean about Julianna's facial expressions? These pictures make me laugh out loud every time I see them. She is a ham! She spent most of the vacation with her hands over her ears. At first it was because she was constantly worried about loud noises (there are a lot), but then it became anytime she was worried about anything in general. The theatre is too dark? Hands on her ears. The ride is too bumpy? Hands on her ears. The ocean is too cold? Hands on her ears.

 Typically, Drew stays by my side in all situations. He is a nervous type that likes to stay close to his safety person. I didn't see that nervous boy on the beach. He LOVED IT. He spend all day on that boogie board. All day. He loved the waves and the water and the sand and the sun. He would live there if he could. So would I. It was my first swimming experience in the ocean. The ocean is now my most favorite places on the planet. I'm already dreaming of the day I can go back.

Julianna was nervous about the moving water. She played in the sand in a puddle of water. Eventually the tide came up to meet her and she didn't mind it after that. My only regret about the beach is that we didn't go sooner. I would have done less amusement park and more beach for sure. 

Drew was sure this is what it's like to ride a wave. 

This is one of only a couple of pictures of Lily. We couldn't get any more at the beach because she spent too much time out in the waves. She went so far that Tom and I had to go out to retrieve her on a couple of occasions. She, obviously, loved the ocean.