Disney and Florida Visit

It has been a LONG time since I have posted anything, but over the next week or two, I hope to get caught up from the summer!  We will start with one of a couple big events - our trip to see Nana and Papa in Florida and a visit to Disney!  We were planning to go in January 2014, but just decided July would work well also.  I was a little worried Clay might be too young to appreciate Disney, but even though he may not remember much in a few years, he was the perfect age!  We were so blessed that Nana and Papa could enjoy this amazing experience with us (and that we could relax at their house for a couple days before and after the trip). 

 



 Clay got a "fishy thing" before the trip, and he has a blast throwing the red plastic fish into the water, yard, or anywhere he is allowed.  He just reels it in and throws it out again!  We had to bring it with us - don't worry, we didn't bring any hooks on the plane!

This was the view from our room at the Animal Kingdom Lodge!  It was a "magical upgrade" (probably because they didn't have enough rooms).  Although we only spent two nights, it truly made the experience magical!  We saw giraffes, wildabeasts, warthogs, ostriches, emus, and lots of birds right outside our window. We felt like we were sleeping in the middle of the Lion King!

 Enjoying the scenery... My boys LOVE animals!

 In addition to a little cold the first day, Clay had a pretty traumatic experience at dinner the first evening.  He fell and "bumped" his head on the side of a table.  It swelled up and turned blue immediately, but the nice Disney people gave him a cold pack and a little toy.  That helped!  His shiner lasted a couple weeks, but he sure is a tough kid!

 Waiting in line to see Mickey and Minnie...

 He got to meet Minnie and Mickey the first day at Animal Kingdom!  This sure helped after we went on the terrifying Dinosaur ride.  We didn't realize quite how scary it was - it was basically a pitch black ride, except for the huge lighted dinosaurs that roared and jumped out at us.  Yikes!  He decided he was afraid of the dark shortly after that....  I think we are over it now, but Clay still isn't a huge fan of dinos.

 Clay was most excited to meet Goofy, and we found Goofy and Pluto together!  This was probably the highlight of the Disney parks!  There were other wonderful meetings, as you will see below, but he continues to talk about meeting Goofy and Pluto.

 Another highlight of Animal Kingdom was the petting zoo.  Clay (and Dad) could pet lots of different animals - little (farm) boy heaven!

 Clay is not a scaredy-kid, but he was scared of carousels for the first couple years of life.  He got over the fear at the carousel at the Columbia Mall, and now they are one of his favorite things to do!  Yes, we take a ride (almost) every trip to the mall now :)  Disney's carousel at Magic Kingdom was a hit!  I don't know how many times he rode it, but it sure was a lot!

 Yee haw!

 Any true cowboy can't pass up an opportunity to meet Woody and Jesse (from Toy Story, for anyone without preschoolers around).  This was a long, hot line, but well worth it to give Woody a high five!

 Thanks for a wonderful adventure, Nana and Papa!  It was a couple long, hot days, but Clay (and Mom and Dad) were so glad we got to experience Disney together with you!  We look forward to more trips in the years to come!

 The reason why we decided not to wait until January to go to Disney... Busch baby has an expected arrival date of February 27, 2014!  We are beyond excited!  Everything has been going well so far, and we are all looking forward to meeting him/her!

A final thought...  We had so many more experiences than we can capture in a short post, but the memories will stay with us forever!