Christmas at Disney World Part 3

Our 2nd full day in Florida was a non-Disney day. We spent the morning taking some much needed family photos, which turned out to be quite a hilarious undertaking. When John and his brothers get together, it is pretty much non-stop joking around, which makes for great entertainment for the rest of us. Even the photographers were cracking up during the process.

While we waited waited to have our pictures printed, the kids found a fountain to play in.

Hudson tried to throw one of Makenna's shoes into the fountain, but Grandma CeCe made one amazing save, by batting it into the air about 4 times before knocking it onto the grass. It was really quite impressive!

Makenna with aunt Natalie and Uncle Mike outside the portrait studio

It was also Natalie's birthday that day, so we celebrated that night by going out to dinner in Downtown Disney, at T-Rex, which was a really fun restaurant. It was filled with life-size animatronic creatures. The biggest challenge of the night was trying to keep Makenna and Hudson in their seats, because they kept wanting to walk around and look at all of the dinosaurs.

Hudson with Grand-Da (John's dad)

We sat in the ice cave portion of the restaurant, which from a distance looked really cool, but up close had some crazy (almost too crazy) lighting.
After dinner, the rest of the gang went and saw a movie, and John and I walked around Downtown Disney with the kids before heading home in time for their bedtime.


The next day we went back to Disney World, this time to

Hollywood Studios.

We got there an hour before the park opened, and were able to go on some of the big rides (Rock N' Roller Coaster and Tower or Terror) without having to wait in any lines. John's parents took the kids for us so that we could go on those rides with the other couples. They made good use of that time by getting everyone fast passes for the Toy Story Mania ride, and visiting with some of the characters.

Here is Makenna on the Toy Story ride, which was really fun! I think that everyone enjoyed this one. It is an interactive ride, where you play a bunch of different carnival-style shooting games (and of course uncle Mike had the highest score of the hour!).

We spent a lot of the rest of our day seeing some of the fun shows. Makenna loved watching the Voyage of The Little Mermaid, and the Playhouse Disney Live on Stage shows (Playhouse Disney cartoons are her favorite to watch in the mornings).

One of many tram rides

Here is a picture of our whole group with the Monsters Inc. characters

The rest of our trip was a little more low-key than the first couple of days. We mostly just spent lots of time being together as a family. We played games, went swimming, had a few hours of girls-only shopping, ate lots of delicious food, and celebrated Christmas. I thought having a warm Christmas might be weird, but I actually loved it! We played sand volleyball for about 2 hours, and then went swimming on Christmas afternoon...it was wonderful! We also had some really nice meaningful family devotionals throughout the trip. I loved spending time with, and getting to know my new sister-in-laws and soon-to-be sister-in-law. The kids too, loved playing with all of their aunts and uncles. I only wish that we all lived closer together so that we could see each other more often. Overall, it was such a fantastic trip, and we were so lucky to be able to go! (Thank you, Thank you to Mom and Da for making it all possible...We love you!)