The Story of Stella's Toe

Coming home and valentines day

Coming Home... what a day that was. When we booked our flights I had found such a killer deal I didn't even look to see when the flight home was. Well It left at 8:00 in the morning. So the shuttle came to get us 3 hours early. So just after 4:00 in the morning we got up. I had gotten the girls ready the night before so we could just grab them and go. The clothes and everything they needed were packed away. Well as soon as we got them up they were wide awake. So its was 5 in the morning and they are talking and playing, it was the strangest thing! We get to the airport and the lines to check in where huge. Who would have thought that early in the morning there would be so many people there. We somehow managed to entertain the kids till the flight, and yet they were still awake! They took a quick cat nap on the flight to Colorado. And then were awake the rest of the day... a flight home and the 2 hour car ride. When we got home the were so tired and so they went to bed early and slept hard.

It was so strange coming home... one because it was cold and we were use to the Florida sunshine and two because my sister had moved out while we were gone. It was so strange having the house empty. She moved in with us in July and her and her little one have been here since. We were so used to the noise that the quiet was so hard to get used to. We left the unpacking and everything to do for the next day and Aaron and I crashed hard not looking forward to real life the next day.

Funny the next day was valentines day. We woke up and did pink heart pancakes, which were a huge hit with the girls. Then we gave them their gifts. Later that night we got a heart shaped pizza, one of our favorites! It was a nice relaxing night which we needed from adjusting back to normal life.

Day Seven visiting hotels and saying goodbye

On our last day in Disney we wanted to see the rest of the park. Disney has some of the most amazing hotels and we wanted to see them all and take Aaron to eat at the ESPN club one of his favorite places. We started the day by FINALLY finding the playground at our hotel. It was so big that it took us 7 days to find it tucked away in the corner.

Then my grandfather picked us up and gave us a tour of the hotels. They are all over the top and so grand. We wished we would have stayed in some of them and then looked up the prices and decided our room was just great! Then we had a late lunch at the ESPN club, Emma loved that there were TVs everywhere even in the bathrooms! The we took the ferry over to the yacht and beach club and played in the man made beach. It was so beautiful and sunny that we just sat there forever soaking it all up knowing that we would have to go home tomorrow.

Then my grandpa dropped us off and we went swimming and relaxed while we waited for my aunt and her new boyfriend to meet us. We had dinner and visited for a while. It was nice to spend time with them, but we had to go to bed early know that an early day was coming for us tomorrow!

Day Six Becoming a Princess and visiting a animal resuce center

We had a nice relaxing morning today. We went back to downtown Disney to go to the team mickey store to find Aaron a great baseball Disney gift. The store was all decked out and it was so fun to look around. We then went to the rain forest cafe for lunch. We thought the girls would love the animals and thunderstorm, but they were scared of it. After eating we took the bus back to the hotel where my grandmother meet us.
My grandmother is a fairy godmother in Cinderella's castle and we waned her to do her up as a princess. She could not get us a discount on it and felt bad having us pay so much. So she came to our hotel and did it. Emma loved every minute of it and looked so magically when she was finished.
After she was all done up, we went home with my grandparents were we met my aunt. She is only 9 months older than me but she is still my aunt. She works at a animal rescue center and wanted to give us a tour. Emma loved to see all the animals and looked out of placed all done up like a princess. Stella was even able to feed a bear which she didn't know what to think about. It was so fun to spend time with them and get to see where they live since they have moved since the last time we stayed with them.

Day Five Epcot

Epcot has always been our favorite park and we could not wait to take the kids. The day did not turn out to be as beautiful as yesterday but we knew we would have a fun day. We started with the iconic ball and did the ride within it. Then went to character signing to see Micky, Minnie, goofy, Pluto, chip and dale. It was nice to see them all in once place. Then my grandpa had to leave to get my grandma so we were left alone the rest of the day. Which meant less pictures and no tour guide, but we managed. While we went to the different countries we stopped and saw some of our most favorite characters.
We got to ride some of our favorite rides: test track and sorin. We also saw the funniest show that was done with Crush. And yummy lunch in Mexico! We had a wonderful time together and even got to see the firework show. we picked a place right behind the pole so the view was unobstructed. We could still see it and it was beautiful.

This picture is strange, but it shows Emma's favorite part of Disney! Her light up spinning Minnie. We told her that she could pick one thing she really wanted as a souvenir. After looking for three days she picked the thing she wanted the first night. This Minnie mouse. Which was nice because it was reasonable without our grandparents discount.

Day Four Space Center

Day four we decided to take my grandpa up on his offer to drive us to Cape Canaveral to see the space center. Today was the most beautiful day of the trip and we loved all the sunshine we got! After the hour long drive we arrived at a beautiful place. It is amazing that the space center is surround by such beauty.

We spent most of the morning and afternoon there touring all the complex. It is huge and we learned so much about the space program and even got to see the discovery out on the pad. The last shuttle to go out. It was so great to get to see it out there. We had such a fun time and we were glad that we got to get out there and see it.
After the ride home, we decided to take a break and enjoy things around the hotel. The hotel had huge statues all over the hotel from each decade. The girls loved walking around and seeing them, but the best part was seeing Emma's face when she finally got to go swimming. Who would have thought that in February we would be swimming outside. After pizza and nice warm baths we were all ready for bed so we could be ready for tomorrow.

Day Three Magic Kingdom

We could not wait to take the girls to magic kingdom! We were all ready with our autograph book to see all the characters. The day started rainy and really cold. But we got some nice sunshine in the middle of the day. My Nana had to work so my papa took us around till she got off. We started with toon town since after our visit they were tearing it down to build a larger fantsy land. Emma loved seeing Mickey Mouse and playing around. Next was the carousel which was Emma favorite part and she even got to ride Cinderellas horse. My Nana worked in Cinderellas castle so we stopped in and saw her and Emma got some fairy dust. We walked around the rest of the park seeing some of the must sees but also having to skip some like splash mountain because of the weather. We meet up with my Nana when she got off work and saw some great great shows like the laugh floor with mike and had a wonderful dinner. We then waited in a forever long line to see the princesses. It was worth it because it was the girls favorite part and Stella loved Cinderella. Then we went to go watch the fireworks. They were so beautiful and we loved the way the lighted the castle up in different colors. They day was so fun, wish we would have known where all the character where a head of time because we missed some of them because they were in weird spots. But we got a good chunk of them and Emma was really happy with them! We were so tired from walking around all day but it was so worth it.

Day 2 Sea World/ Downtown Disney

Day two was spent at Sea World. We knew that we wanted to do something else besides Disney. And after looking at all our options we thought that Sea World would be the best option. Like we were asked a million times if we were going to Harry potter, we sure wanted to but didn't think the kids would enjoy it has much and that was really important to us!

Sea World did not let us down. The animals and shows were far more than I had remembered or had expected. The girls just loved all the animals and the day was so warm and sunny that we just enjoyed walking around and seeing everything. Some of our favorite were:

Aaron somehow convincing Emma to ride this ride. They are in the very back. Afterwards she was so freaked out we bought her a blue treat because she had been such a brave girl. It worked but the remainder of the trip if she sensed a ride was scary no way was she going on it!

Of course the whale show has to be on here. Even though they cant go in the water with them anymore it was still beautiful.

But the best show has to be the dolphin and bird show. they did all sorts of tricks with them and the actors even were suspended in the air dancing. It was so fun to watch!

A huge storm rolled in late afternoon and we had seen most of the park so we decided to call it a day. My grandparents dropped us off at our hotel. This is a picture of the lobby, it's was so over the top and there was so many fun things to do there. But we decided to go to downtown Disney for some dinner and shopping. We took the bus from our hotel over there and then it started raining real hard. We got our our trusty Disney ponchos and braved it. We had the best dinner at a place called Earl of Sand which. Tasty Tasty. Then went to the shops. We got to see all sorts of crazy things. It was so fun to relax and spend time together. When we got home we were all wet and we all needed nice warm baths and showers. Then off to bed because day three would be a long day in...