A Magical Disney Vacation

Vacations....quite simply, I love them! I relish in the process of planning, mapping, tweaking, and actually going on trips. Vacations give me an opportunity to relax, spend uninterrupted time with my family, and get my hubby all to myself for a few days every year. Those moments are priceless to me, and I feel very grateful whenever I have a chance to sneak away with my loved ones. This year we had the opportunity to go back to Disneyworld. It's a favorite spot for us to travel to. We love soaking in the bright vibrant colors, the Florida warmth and sunshine, and all the over-the-top decorations. And while some people can't handle listening to "It's a Small World After All" a few dozen times in a single day, I never seem to get sick of the songs, the plays, the musical numbers performed, and of course the rides are an added highlight for all of us. Here are a few snapshots of our most recent escape:

Outside the Tusker House Restaurant. We snagged an early morning reservation that allowed us to go inside the Animal Kingdom an hour before park opening. The food was fantastic, the atmosphere was exciting, and the chance to hop on Kilimanjaro Safari immediately after breakfast was the best. So many animals were out in the early-morning hours.

We met Donald, Goofy, Minnie, Pluto and of course Mickey Mouse while we were eating at Tusker House. These were some of the personalized shirts we made for this trip (along with the help of some very creative designers on the disboards.) I had a lot of fun creating shirts and bags for this trip.

These are the Animal Kingdom shirts I made for Kevin and I (Milliepie was the creative designer behind the logo. I just had to print and transfer, but on the back of the back of the shirts I designed a name tag you can't see.)

Another one of the shirts we made.
This was Kyler's 4 Parks 1 World t-shirt for our EPCOT day.

We had another early morning breakfast at Akershus in the Norway Pavilion at Epcot. I loved going into the parks before they opened to the general public. It helped create a whole new layer of magic we've never experienced before!

Jordan inside of Akershus.
This is his "Touring the World One Day at a Time" shirt. Kyler was the creator of this shirt.


For this breakfast we got to meet Belle (Jordan's favorite princess....He's got good taste!), Cinderella, Aurora, Snow White, and Ariel.

Here's Caleb with his favorite princess around. He loves Ariel, and her long red hair. He beamed when he saw her, and gave her a big hug.

Our family outside Epcot.

I love this picture of Caleb and his daddy.
One of the many reasons we love Disney so much is because we see this happy face the entire time we're there.

We've met quite a few characters before, but this was the first time we've ever met Mary Poppins or Bert. They were so charming and wonderful with the boys. Bert got right down face to face with the kids and talked to them about their day and asked lots of questions about them. The duo didn't seem rushed at all to have us leave, even though there were people patiently waiting for a picture and autograph behind us.

This is a bridge on Tom Sawyer's Island, and these are a few more shirts I made for the boys.

Kevin and I

The boys were able to go to the Pirate League this year and get a pirate make-over. We teased Kyler he looked too much like Brett Michaels with his smokey eyes and bandanna. This lasted for a whole day before we realized Kyler didn't even know who Brett was. I guess it's time to dust off the old albums and show him a photo. On a side-note, Kyler looked way too good in make-up!

One of the things they do at Pirate League is give the boys new pirate names. Kyler is now officially "Thomas Firecastle", Jordan will forever be known as "Hector Scurveybellows", and my littlest buccaneer, Caleb, is now known in the pirate world as "Edgar Dreadloote"

We opted for t-shirts instead of full-fledged costumes this year for "Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party" Linda from the disboards helped design this logo that I was able to make t-shirts with.

The Scott Boy Pirates!

Of course we tend to go to Disney in September which is hurricane and tropical storm season for that area of the world. In our 10 days there though we only had rain twice. One storm lasted about 45 minutes while we were indoors having dinner, and the other storm formed the night of our party. It poured, literally, for about 3 hours. The rain came down hard and fast, but that discouraged a lot of other people from coming out, and we had the park to ourselves. My brother, Brooks joked that Kevin looks like he's dressed as Little Red Riding Hood! I'm his identical twin behind the camera.

My pirate boys threw themselves in jail. They have a lot to learn lol!!

Caleb had it pretty easy inside a stroller with his dole whip float in hand while watching the HalloWishes Firework spectacular.

This is the last set of shirts we made for the trip. Kyler designed and created his own, and he also helped me design Caleb's shirt.
Once again, Milliepie helped design the logo on Jordan's.
This photo is outside the Polynesian hotel which we were able to stay in the night before we flew home.

The talking trash can found us in the Magic Kingdom. It traveled down the street with us and talked to the boys as it went. We've only seen this once before, but this was by far the best interaction we've ever had with it. I loved the look on peoples faces as they realized a trash can was rolling down the street and talking as it went.

Outside the Poly hotel.

This was our last day in Orlando. We had another early morning breakfast planned at the Crystal Palace and got to the park an hour before official opening. When we went inside the park it felt like we were in a whole different world. Notice there are virtually no people around us? How often does that happen in Disney? It was a magical way to end a magical trip!

Blogger slacker at it again!

My little sister Kelcee called me tonight to chat, which in turn led to a conversation about this very blog, which ultimately led to my guilty conscience about doing anything BUT blogging lately! Sad to say, but blogging has not been a priority of mine lately. Truthfully, it's been down towards the bottom of the list of things I need to accomplish, but I ended the conversation with my sister by promising her I would go upstairs to my computer and blog something....anything.... that has happened in the past month or two. Actually, it feels kind of good to be back at the computer typing up my memories. So now the question is what should I start with. I guess I'll begin with our trip to Toronto and Niagara Falls. We took off the last day of school on June 11th and had a fabulous time checking out Canada, eh!

So we started off our trip right. We spent Sunday morning traveling to the Toronto Temple. It was beautiful, but because it was Sunday the gates were closed. I wish we could have gone in and walked around the grounds. There is nothing more peaceful in the world to me than being on the temple grounds.

My baby and I

Plus my 3 super babies.

The CN Tower was a huge hit for all of us. I believe it is the 2nd tallest building in the world, and boy did it have an amazing view!! We were there on an overcast day, but on a clear day you can see Niagara Falls from the top.

The CN Tower has a glass bottom floor that made me leery, but was still very cool.

Yep~~Those would be 5 camels posing for a picture!! Lucky me lol!

We made our way to the Royal Ontario Museum and hit the McDonald's across the street for a quick lunch break. We loved being in Canada where everything is labeled in both English and French. It helped make our vacation feel a little more exotic.

The ROM had a lot of neat exhibits including one about Egypt complete with real mummies, including one that was open on display!

I just love this picture of two happy boys.

This is the Casa Loma Castle.

All the boys exploring the grounds around the castle.

This was Caleb's face the majority of the vacation. He's such a sweet kid!

My hubby given' me some lovin'

Caleb at the Science Center. Another museum that the boys couldn't get enough of.


Overlooking Niagara falls. This is one of my favorite places in the world. It is gorgeous!


We went to one of the world's largest indoor aviary's. Yet another beautiful, peaceful place to go.

One our favorite activities of all was going to an indoor butterfly pavilion. There were hundreds, probably more like thousands of butterflies flying all around us. It was amazing.

Inside the butterfly pavilion.

All my sweetie's.


Picture mix-up...back at the aviary.

Hmmm...Yep, Caleb is a man that LOVES his chocolate!!

My incredibly handsome pre-teen, Kyler.


Niagara Falls. I've been here twice in my life, and can't wait to go back again.

So, I'm beginning to remember why I don't blog as much as I should. It takes me WAY TO LONG!! I start multi-taking on the computer, and before I know it an hour has gone by to write a paragraph and upload a few photos. I hope you enjoy Kelcee. Thanks for giving me the motivation to put my memories down on paper...errr...at least put down in some sort of format. I had a good time looking back over these photos and reminiscing happy times last month.

This one's for you, Kyler!!

This post is for you, Kyler!!
First off I think I should give a little background info.
Kyler is in a computer class at school this semester. During the class he is given time to look up pictures, collect information, and do research on the web for various projects he's involved with; however; he's not suppose to use classroom time to check his e-mail (thank you teachers!!) Well, this of course got Kyler's creative juices flowing. How could he communicate with me during school hours and still make sure he's not breaking any classroom rules? Voila...problem solved! Just log into the family blog and comment on different posts. Blogger sends the comments directly to my e-mail and Kyler manages to get out what he wants to say without getting in any trouble. Since I'm sure he'll be checking the blog again today I thought I'd dedicate an entry to him.

Kyler's back to raising caterpillars this spring and summer. He currently has 6 Painted Lady caterpillars he's been raising the past couple of weeks. As a mom I've been a tiny bit worried about these little critters because Kyler is banking on the health and well-being of the butterflies for his end of the year advanced science project (talk about stressful!). Yesterday 3 butterflies emerged and it was already looking a little shaky. The first butterfly to emerge was missing half a leg, the second butterfly emerged and thankfully looks perfect so far, but then the third came out with totally dis-formed wings. Poor girl can't fly, but gets around pretty well by walking. Kyler set up a big terrarium out back complete with host plants, flowers, and nectar for the butterflies to live and hopefully thrive. He's now going to start collecting data on which host plants the butterflies will lay the most eggs on (fingers crossed he gets a mix of male and female butterflies or this little experiment will tank before it even begins!!) Well today the last 3 butterflies came out. Butterflies #4, #5, and #6 all look great. I hope this makes your day Kyler!! Here's a couple photos for you. See you in a couple of hours.


And on a completely unrelated topic.....We've had a robin nesting outside our front door who is named Ellie (daddy is named Carl. Can you tell Caleb had just finished the movie UP when he decided on their names?). Ellie and Carl are officially parents. Hopin' these babies get cuter pretty quick because so far they're not the cuddliest little babies I've seen around.

Pinewood Derby Time

The Car...err...Monorail!
I thought Jordan did pretty good for his first attempt at building a car,
and he's already thinking about next years design.

Jordan was the first one to check in at the Derby.

It really was a night of Magical Memories.

Ready for the races to commence.

Kevin, Jordan, Dylan, Brendan, Ryan, JD, Jacob, & Joey

Tonight was Jordan's first official Pinewood Derby. He had a blast graphing, designing, making, and painting his Disney Monorail car that he named Magical Memories. If you happened to miss past blog entries revolving around Disney than you might not realize how much of a Mousejunkie family we really are. This just proves it a little bit more. Unfortunately, Magical Memories wasn't as fast as a real Disney Monorail (not by a long shot), but Jordy didn't seem to mind tying for last place...yep last, but **Magical** nonetheless!!)

13 years and counting!

Our special treat. The sorbet was sooo delicious!!

My cousins Julie, Cara, and Callie

13 years and going strong.
I LOVE this guy!!

With 2 major events under wraps you would think our weekend would start to slow down, but we had one last celebration to squeeze in before Spring Break officially wrapped up and that was the celebration of my wedding anniversary to my incredible husband of 13 years this past Monday. We were able to go to Chicago over the weekend with my family and visit with a bunch of my relatives including my grandma who recently had surgery. It was so good to see her, and she looked absolutely beautiful. It's impossible to be amongst my family and not eat like there was no tomorrow. We dragged ourselves back to the hotel every night completely stuffed. Between Chicago style pizza, cakes, cookies, and desserts, I think I gained a few pounds in the span of 48 hours. On Monday we were able to meet up with 3 of my cousins and eat in the Signature Room at the top of the John Hancock Tower. The view was breathtaking, and the food was tasty. As a special surprise our waiter brought Kevin and I out a special anniversary treat at the end of the meal complete with his and her candles. So sweet, and so much fun!! Love you, Kev!! Happy Anniversary!!