Day 2: Animal Kingdom

There's been a big delay between posts because we moved. :) We're temporarily at my parents' house until we sell ours or give up and rent it. Then we'll get a rental here and be all set for the next three years while Dan does his residency.

On with Disney:

We had skipped coming to Animal Kingdom when we came to Disney World for our honeymoon in 2002. I am so glad that we came this time. We had a great day! Here are some highlights:

The Kilimanjaro Sarafi ride was a lot of fun and we were able to see animals up close. Afterwards we took a train to the conservation center.

At the train station:

At the conservation center, Elena met Pocahontas. She was so sweet and (in case you can't tell from the picture) absolutely, unbelievably gorgeous. I wanted to tell her so, but I didn't want to creep her out. haha The vet took an xray of a spiny-tailed lizard. He was swollen/puffy. They ended up doing a little lizard enema to help him out. Elena (who wants to be a doctor when she grows up) was fascinated. We got to watch through the glass.
E and K had so much fun at this random play area. There were fountains for the kids to get wet in. At one point there were about 10 kids in bathing suits enjoying the water.
While Kevin slept in the stroller (napping is the one way that Kevin is an easy child), we walked on a nature trail and saw bats, tigers, alligators, and birds. The whole park is beautiful and thankfully shady. It must have been 100 degrees!
The Lion King show was amazing! There were acrobats, a fire dancer, stilt walkers, singers, and more. Kevin clapped and laughed most of the time. Elena was scared - especially at the beginning, but what else is new? :) The Nemo show was also really great.
There is a dinosaur section of Animal Kingdom which is fantastic. We ate a nice lunch there and then went exploring. This is all of us on one of the rides (like Dumbo with a Triceratop).

Goofy and Pluto:

The had a fossil dig with a Mastodon fossil under all of this big sand/small gravel. You can see how hot and tired they are by this point.

An archeologist themed playground to run around in:

Day 1: The Drive to Florida

Updated with a video:
We wanted to do something really fun for Dan's last (ever?) long vacation, so we decided to take a family trip. After talking to my awesome and generous brother, we chose to go to Disney World. The reason that talking with my brother helped us decide? He offered to give us 8 one-day park-hopper passes that he had. All we had to do was purchase a single one-day ticket for Elena and we were able to visit all 4 Disney World parks for 3 days! I took almost 400 photos while we were gone (and I wish I had gotten more!), so I'll be posting one day at a time.
We had a great drive, honest. Kevin is tired in the pic, not sad. They were really good. Dan and I talked and listened to part of "The 3 Musketeers" on cd while the kids watched movies, read books, slept, and played with small toys. The 10 hours weren't so bad (Dan drove the whole way there) and we even checked into the hotel early enough for the kids to play in the Splash Zone before bed.
Did I mention that our completely adequate hotel was only $50 a night? It was great. We were super close to the parks (we could see Epcot fireworks in the distance from the 5th floor walkway), we had a fridge and microwave, pools and Splash Zone, and we saved enough money on the price of the hotel that we were able to pay for parking at the parks and not stress over shuttle/bus schedules. It didn't even matter that we were all in one room because both kids fell asleep as soon as/before they laid down each night. Then we would plan the next day.
Elena really embraced getting wet on this trip. She was so excited and energetic after all day in the car. Kevin was much more restrained, and he isn't even in the video below (there is a different little boy running around in the background) because he refused to get in the water until Dan came and played with him.

Daniel's Graduation

It was an amazing weekend. We were blessed to have all our parents and my sister in town for graduation. It was wonderful to be able to celebrate Dan's accomplishments. He had 3 graduation ceremonies along with an official dinner and a luncheon (stretching things out from May 14-16), so we were able to celebrate with him over and over. :)

At our fancy dinner on Saturday night:
At the Hooding Ceremony. This was on Sunday at the chapel pictured above.

Digging in the dirt with the kids immediately after the hooding ceremony. Is he going to be a great pediatrician or what? :)
Dan with his padres:
Mi familia:
Receiving his diploma after Commencement. Commencement was outdoors (the picture on the top of the post) for all the WFU grads, and this ceremony was just for the medical school.

Wow!
I think that this is my favorite picture from the whole weekend.

Abuelo and Abuelita

We LOVED having Dan's parents come visit in May. Here are a few photo highlights from their trip.

At The Natural Science Museum

At graduation events
At home
Playing with a new light-up top

They were playing hide-and-seek and Elena had just popped out from under the bed

In Abuelo's hat

Dance

These are from the class that Emily teaches every other Friday at the church building. I'm not sure when the tights ended up on Elena's head, but I thought it was hilarious.I haven't taken the time to learn how to edit videos on my computer, so it's kind of long.

Easter 2011

We had a great Easter weekend. Ummm...if we choose to forget some extreme crankiness caused by missed naps. :) It was a busy couple of days. I think I'll organize this entry by sections.

Egg Dyeing

Church Egg Hunt

Behind Kevin, you can see Alan. His mother and I have prearranged his marriage with Elena. :)

Court of Honor
Alan's big brother (and my friend Elizabeth's son) received his Eagle Scout Award on Saturday. He's such a good kid, and we were so happy to be there to see his hard work (and the hard work of his parents) recognized.
Easter Baskets
Easter Dinner

Dan and I thoroughly enjoyed our Easter dinner at the home of the Evans. Yum! I should've taken a pic of the food. The company was awesome too of course. It was a nice, relaxing evening and the weather was perfect.

The kids' table

Kevin barely let go of this pink lawn mower the whole evening! We had to force him share with the girls. He is truly terrible at sharing. We're working on it.

Traditional Easter Family Picture

This one doesn't exist. :( I totally forgot to ask a friend to take a family pic. I didn't even remember to take a picture of the kids in their new Easter clothes. I took one of Elena after Kevin was already in bed. If you look at the lawnmower pic above, you can see Kevin's outfit. Fancy Nancy taught Elena what "posing" is in one of her books, so she gave it a try.Here are the only ones from the whole weekend that Dan and I are in. Dyeing eggs in our pjs:
Church on Sunday was great. I loved teaching the Sunbeams (3 & 4 year olds) all about the true importance of Easter and the Resurrection of our Savior. They were impressed, and it was awesome to see their understanding of Jesus Christ grow. :)