10th Anniversary

Me and Brian celebrated our 10th Anniversary in September this past year. I wanted to do something big, especially since we haven't really done much for any of our anniversaries. The morning of our anniversary we went to the temple to do sealings, and then we headed over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge on Disney World property, where we stayed that night. We also went to the Spirit of Aloha dinner show at the Polynesian Resort that night, which was sooo much fun! The next day we went to Hollywood Studios and had a super fun day all by ourselves. The only bad thing that happened was that our camera battery ran out and we weren't able to take as many pictures as we wanted. :(  But overall, it was so wonderful to get away from the kids for a night - another reason I'm so happy to live closer to my parents!

 

A look at our room at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

 

They had towels shaped in Mickey ears on the bed.

Our balcony, which overlooked the pool. It was fun eating breakfast out here the following morning.

After checking into the Animal Kingdom Lodge, we headed over to the Magic Kingdom for some fun before the dinner show. Here's a peek at some of the fall decorations they had up.

Getting ready to go to the dinner show!

At our table. We started with a yummy salad with fresh pineapple served on platters that looked like boats.

This was our dessert, chocolate mousse "volcanoes" on top of some sort of tropical fruit sauce (the picture makes it look gross, but it was very good)

Here comes the entertainment!

 

The lobby area of the Animal Kingdom Lodge. It's so amazing!



Life in Florida

Ok, I'm the biggest slacker ever. But I'm sure that anybody who reads this blog knows that by now. In fact, you've probably all given up on me a long time, huh? Hello? Anybody out there??  Anyway, even if nobody on the planet reads this little blog of mine, I'm going to go ahead and keep it up. Partly because I want to chronicle our life here in Florida; I have no idea how long we'll live here, and we've done so many things already, so I'd like to share that with everybody. Plus I'd like to remember it myself!

 

So, instead of trying to back track over a year with photos, I'm just going to start with our move here last June. We're still getting used to this strange, buggy, humid place they call Florida. I swear, for the first few months I felt like I'd moved to a different country. I wasn't sure I liked it, and I often felt homesick for somewhere else. Where? I wasn't sure. I'm still not, but at least I can now say that I'm getting a little more used to it. And it helps to have my parents only 2 hours away. But no matter how long we live here, I know one thing for sure: I'm not a Southern girl. I do not care for sweet tea, boiled peanuts, fire ants and biting flies, 7 months of humidity, finding frogs and geckos in my house, grits, or okra. I DO, however, love the beach, Disney World, the clean and fresh ocean breezes that blow across the state, winter time (even if I miss the snow a little), the rainstorms in the summer that break up the heat a bit, palm trees, and family close by. So maybe I'm half of a Southern girl? At any rate, despite the good and bad of this place, we feel extremely lucky and blessed to be here. It was truly an answer to many prayers.

Anyhoo, here's just a start in the many photos I plan to post in the coming days:

 

 

 

 

A few weeks after moving here, my baby girl turned the big 2 years old. We first had a family party before going to my parents for another party. One of the many bonuses of having family close by!

 

Party at Nana and Papa's!

Brian started his internship at Shands Hospital/The University of Florida on July 2nd. Doesn't he look professional?

Makayla started kindergarten (sniff) and Kylee moved up to big-kid land in 3rd grade. I was happy to see that their classrooms are only a few doors down from eachother.

Makayla is in Mrs. Skipper's class this year. We all thought it was funny, because for a while now we've called Makayla "Skipper", because she skips all the time.

Our house from the outside. It's very cute and a much better size for us than our old house. We feel very blessed to have found it.