Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Disney day 1! hollywood studios

We started out our first day at Disney by going to Hollywood Studios. We went with some of my cousins and my mom. They had different priorities since we had a 3 year old so we often split up and met back up later. James and Hadley and never been so we were ready to start our Disney experience!

Our little family of 3 ready to go!

the pic of the whole sunny gang


James went to go on the Star Wars ride so Hadley and I did some exploring.

we met a dinosaur

and also Daisy! Hadley did super well meeting all the characters. At first she wanted me to be near her but by the end she was a pro.

We went to Monsters INC. This is hadleys favorite movie of all time so I thought she'd be super excited.... well she a bit nervous this time so I had to show her Mike was a good guy.

here we are with Mike and Sully

we took a break from the 90 degree weather day (yes in November) to wait in a semi-shady line to meet Santa goofy! I just knew I wanted this as part of my Christmas card so this was one of the only real lines we waited in (only about 15 minutes wait)

Everyone needs a goofy hug

with the help of her cousin, Hadley went back to properly meet her faves (sans adults, it's amazing what peer pressure does haha)

We went by the Tower of Terror which was my fave ride when I was in HS. My mom volunteered to take Hadley to see a show while James and I got to ride this. James had never been to Disney at all so I knew I had to take him on this.

we were all super scared..... (ha)

and for good reason!

the ride line was ridiculously non-existent for some reason so we had some time to kill before meeting back up with Hadley and mom so we had a photo shoot


Below is a picture of the actual ride that they took. I love it because James is looking at me (it was pitch black in the ride)

we got front row by chance too! 


gotta have a Mickey pic!

Everyone keeps asking me if they think Hadley was at a good age and did we wait in a lot of lines. I think Hadley was a great age. We don't have any other children so we didn't have to wrangle older kids or tote along a little baby so it worked out for us. She was at a great age to enjoy most everything. She did have a couple morning meltdowns while waiting for the bus to take us to the parks. They had the most lines and sometimes we had to wait through two times. It was understandable but let's face it. She didn't melt down anymore than she does at home :). We also didn't have to pay for her because she was 3 right at the end of the trip and she shared our food from our dining plan. We overall all enjoyed our day at hollywood studios. Oh I almost forgot to show you the Osbourne lights! It was my favorite and the last year for it. IT ACTUALLY fake snowed with christmas music playing and lights.... what more could you ask for!

it was so crowded that you could barely move through and we lost each other for a little bit (hence james on his phone up there)

but boy was it awesome!



Monday, November 30, 2015

hello again

It's been a crazy couple weeks! Since last we spoke, James came home from deployment! We've been soaking up every minute of family time. Hadley's very excited to have him back she keeps making it a point to say "mommy AND daddy" when she wants something now. As soon as James arrived home we took off for our Disney trip for Hadley's birthday! We had an absolute blast. I'm still in withdrawals. Then we had a birthday party for Hadley and boom Thanksgiving was here. It's crazy how a month goes so slowly when James was gone but a month home goes by in a second (ok it hasn't been a whole month home yet but almost). I will need several posts for our Disney trip so this ease back into blogging will start with James' homecoming!

Hadley and I made James a welcome home sign. It came out great! Hadley was super excited for daddy to come home.


Here we are waiting!


Hadley waiting outside! She did not fully understand he was actually coming home until she saw his truck.


Running for daddy! (if that doesn't melt your heart the next one will)


So sweet :)


yay!


and here's the obligatory family pic! we are so glad he's home safe and sound.


We are looking forward to all spending the holidays together. The next blog post should be disney day 1!