Our Monday in the Magic Kingdom

Monday morning we were out and about bright and early to play at the Magic Kingdom with Tracie, Kevin, and Rubie. We got there before it opens to watch the opening the park show, complete with the train carrying Mickey, Minnie, and many of the other characters at the park. Noelle was pretty impressed with the show!





As the gates opened, we walked toward main street and the castle. Noelle wasn't so sure about everything at first but quickly warmed up and got excited about the magic around her.





We sped walked toward Fantasy Land for Dumbo and Peter Pan's Flight fast passes. Despite getting there within 5 minutes of park opening, we probably had to wait 15 minutes for Dumbo. The girls handled it pretty well so we took a few pictures!



Next up, was the Carousel which we quickly learned would be Noelle's favorite ride at Disney. While I pointed out there was a carousel at the local mall which was way closer and cheaper than Disney, the joy she experienced on the ride made it a repeat over the course of the next few days!



Next, Tracie and I took the girls while the boys did Space Mountain. On the way to the diaper change, we saw Chip and Dale with hardly any line. We jumped at the opportunity. Unfortunately all Noelle was interested in was jumping - away from the characters! That's right, my fearless child is scared of small people in costumes! Oh well!



After the unsuccessful visit, Ellie took a short nap, we had some yummy fish and chips for lunch, and rode a few more rides. We took advantage of Noelle's nap to get one of the few Bryan/Laura Disney pictures!



After naps, we headed over to Mickey's Toontown Land. This is one part of the MK that these Disney veterans had never been too. It basically was a series of play areas for wee ones and Noelle and Rubie had a great time playing in Mickey's house, garden, and play area.





During the day, we had a little snack break! Here are the boys just chilling with the ladies!



Here is Noelle trying to decide if she is more hungry or tired!



And finally, the cousins loving one another!



We ended the day on Main Street dancing it out to the parade. We didn't get any good pictures of the girls but they loved the characters (apparently they are a ok from farther away!), the floats, the people on stilts, and the music! At 6ish we said goodbye to the Florida-based Saxton's as they headed down Main Street and we played for a few hours more. It was a great day!

Tune back for more of our trip later in the week!

The Most Magical Place on Earth

A few weeks ago, the Saxton family made one of our few last minute, somewhat rash decisions. As most of you know, we are Disney obsessed and our last trip was May 2008. Deciding we had to get our Mickey fix, we took a look at the budget, decided to go on vacation anyways!, and booked a 4 night, 5 day stay at Pop Century, a value resort on property.

Just a few short weeks later, on Sunday the 17th, we got up at 4:30 am and headed over to BWI to catch our flight. Thankfully, Noelle slept most of the flight (she would have slept all of it if we hadn't disturbed her by doing a diaper check!), and we arrived to Orlando just before 10. We took our first pictures of the trip waiting for Disney's Magical Express, the free transportation from the airport to the resort.



After a quick check in and lunch, we headed over to Hollywood Studies and immediately saw the Beauty and the Beast production which Noelle loved, the Great Movie Ride, which was so exciting she fell asleep, and began what would be our routine the next few days, took turns riding the big kid rides (AKA Tower of Terror and Rock and Roller Coaster) and watching Ellie nap. After the fun, we saw the beginnings of the Block Party Bash parade where Noelle danced and clapped along with the characters from Toy Story, Monsters Inc. and A Bugs Life.



Next, it was on to Epcot to meet Kevin, Tracie, and Rubie! We did a combination of the boat ride and walking since Ellie was a bit antsy!



Even though they hadn't seen each other since June, Noelle and Rubie hit it off and were excited to walk through Epcot's World Showcase together!



We started with the Land boat ride. We saw some cool veggies and things, and this cool Halloween display!



The girls were a bit bored though so we went over to visit Figment in the Imagination pavilion and the girls loved the ride and running around in the Sight and Sound Lab afterward!



Noelle thought the jumping fountains outside the pavilion were pretty amazing!



Then we hit Nemo and friends and played at the aquarium in the seas. Here is our family picture! It was hard to get everyone smiling!



A lovely picture of Epcot - the weather was gorgeous Sunday and throughout the week!



This is how our day ended! Noelle was out and we all hopped on the bus back to the resort. It was crowded and the boys had to stand with the strollers but the ladies got seats to hold our princesses!



We'll post soon on the rest of the trip!

Pumpkin Picking

This past weekend my mom came up to help with Noelle while we continued working on the decks. We made a lot of progress (still not done though!) but took a break Sunday afternoon to go pick some pumpkins. It was Noelle's first trip to the pumpkin patch, and turned out it was Bryan's too! My mom and Catherine joined us for the occasion and we went to this great place in Mt Airy with a whole festival with moon bounces, corn mazes, inflatable slides, and a petting farm that Noelle will love next year. For this year, we just partook of the hayride and pumpkin picking, and then Noelle enjoyed herself playing in the "cornbox". The weather was perfect and Noelle thought the pumpkins were super cool. We look forward to carving our pumpkin and taking Noelle to the mom's group Halloween party and trick or treating later in the month. That morning I have my first post-pregnancy race (a 10K) and I haven't been great in training, so hopefully I'll make it to evening Halloween events! Here are some pictures from our pumpkin picking adventure!













We got a few things from Amazon this week and Noelle has been enjoying the boxes. I think we know what to get her for Christmas!

The Project That Will Never End

The Saxton clan have been spending every free second in good weather working on the project that will never end. Yes, that is right, we are now regretting (temporarily) getting a house with 4 decks. That would be because after 3 weekends of cleaning them with a bleach solution and staining, we aren't even half way done. Our goal was to finish the entire project in 2 weekends. Clearly, we were mental when we thought that might happen. Hopefully, this weekend with my mom's help watching the little one, and a cooperative weather weekend we'll make some major progress, but we'll see. We'll post some pictures when we are finally done. Don't hold your breath because that definitely could be next July!

Otherwise, things are good. Noelle is still working on her 8th tooth, is walking and running everywhere, and is doing great with learning new words. She knows a few phrases to, like good girl and Maddie puppy, and is generally quite cute although we might be biased on that one. She does have attitude for a 13 month old too though and seems to refuse to say please just to driver her mom and dad (and daycare provider) crazy! We are working on that, and also on her listening skills as like any 13 month old, she definitely likes to have her own way. We've started doing small time-outs when she misbehaves and she is starting to understand that that's for when she is doing something she shouldn't be doing. We are really proud of our little girl and how much she is growing!

Over the next few weeks we'll have some more exciting posts! We'll have a visit from grandmom, a trip to Disney, and Noelle's first Halloween. We are so excited for everything coming up!