Mickey's Christmas Party

After Thanksgiving this past year we headed down to Disney World for another one of our adventures. This one was gonna be extra special because we were going to the Christmas Party and we also had a few people that we knew who were going to be down at the same time as us. The 12 hour drive always seems to go by so much quicker on the way down than on the way home. It might be because the kids sleep for most of it so there isn't as much whining. Or it might be that we very rarely have encountered any traffic issues. 

Road trip ready! 

Our first stop was the Animal Kingdom. We were first greeted by this massive Christmas tree that was decorated with all kinds of animals.

We all rode Kali River Rapids, but Jennifer was the lucky one that got to ride it a second time with Landon. Brinley and I wanted to stay dry, so we opted to be the picture takers.

Our hotel, the All-Star Movies Resort, had some pretty awesome statues between their buildings. We stayed in the Mighty Ducks rooms, but did some exploring and the Toy Story statues were our favorite!

The pool was themed after Fantasia and the water was actually a decent temperature. We all took a couple dips in the pool during our stay.

Epcot had been one of our least favorite parks, but once Brinley could start riding more rides we were able to enjoy it a little more. The kids love going to the big "golf ball".

During our visit at Epcot we were able to get some pretty awesome seats to see the Candlelight Processional with guest host Neil Patrick Harris. This was a program where the real Christmas Story was read and church hymns were sung by a large choir. It was really a neat experience. 

The next day at the Magic Kingdom we were able to meet up with some of Brinley's preschool friends. As it turned out 4 of the 14 students were absent from class this week because they were all going to Disney. Brinley really thought it was cool to see some of her friends.

One of my absolute favorite things is that Landon can't read yet, but he tries so hard to figure out what things are from pictures. He says when we get on a ride that you have to keep your hands and feet inside and you have to hold daddy's hands. I don't want to correct him!

Waiting on Main Street for the Festival of Fantasy Parade. Brinley with her favorite Disney treat, the Mickey ice cream bar.

We met up with the other kid in Brinley's class, Jonathan and his older sister. We had ran into his family the night before at Epcot. The kids all decided to get a picture in before the parade started.

Pretty awesome rainbow that appeared after a little Florida rain shower. If you look closely you can see a second rainbow too!

Family picture with Cinderella's Castle all lit up.

Getting in a ride on the kids favorite ride, the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

The next day we slept in and then enjoyed some time by the pool. In the afternoon we headed over to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas. This is the reason why Aunt Andrea came down to visit with us. As soon as we got in the gates, Jennifer went to stand in line for what we thought was going to be the busiest character meet and greet lines. So, that meant that Aunt Andrea, me and the kids were trying to run around and ride as many rides as possible. Aunt Andrea had no idea what she was getting into!

The kids showed Aunt Andrea their favorite ride, the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. It is a great picture, except that Aunt Andrea's hand covered up Landon's face.

Brinley even showed Aunt Andrea the best way to ride Splash Mountain, which is with a poncho! Andrea forgot to put up the hood part and she ended up getting soaked! Brinley couldn't stop talking about how all the water splashed up in Aunt Andrea's face.

While Brinley and Andrea were riding Splash Mountain, Landon had a little photo op and even met up with Olaf!

Once the characters finally came out to start meeting people we headed over to meet Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps from the movie Zootopia. They are relatively new characters so we knew that they would be popular. We heard that the lines later in the night got close to 2 hours long. Jennifer was the second person in line, but had to wait about and hour and a half before the characters started coming out to meet people. There is no way that the kids would have survived waiting in line that long!

Next Jennifer went to stand in line for someone else and Andrea and I took the kids again. We did bring Jennifer some of the treats and drinks while she was waiting in line. We got to meet Goofy dressed up as Santa in between rides on the barnstormer and Dumbo.

Next the kids got to go meet Jack Skellington dressed up as Sandy Claws. The kids really enjoyed this because they had recently seen the movie Nightmare Before Christmas and they both like it. It is also always a little more fun when the characters actually talk to you too!

After this we caught the Christmas parade, but we didn't really have that great of a view because it was so crowded. We had planned on seeing the second parade, but I got too busy trying to see as many characters and ride as many rides as possible that we totally missed it.

We rode the Barnstormer as a group.

We even had a chance to meet the Seven Dwarfs! The kids thankfully woke up from a short little nap and cooperated for this picture opportunity.

Aunt Andrea and Brinley even waited in line to meet Minnie and Daisy.

Landon and Aunt Andrea riding Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin.

I got into line right before midnight to meet a couple of the princesses and their princes. The only problem is that Jennifer, Landon, and Andrea were on the other side of the park. I let everyone in front of me while waiting for them to arrive and they never got there. I called them and they said nobody would let them in the doors. So, what did my sister do? She just kept opening doors until she found Brinley and me. It worked, except that Jennifer decided to stay out front because she didn't want to do anything illegal. Andrea didn't really mind breaking in. Either way we got the pictures we wanted with Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder.

We also got to meet Tiana and Naveen. They carried on a full conversation with the kids about Tiana's lasagna recipe and told the kids that next time they came down to New Orleans that they would have to stop by her restaurant. 

We made our way around to the front of the castle to get some pictures with the beautiful castle. Here was our crew for the night. 

Family picture with a little Disney magic adding in the mistletoe.

The kids with the castle!

Unfortunately, I made another mistake and didn't realize that the gift shops on main street were going to close before everyone got out of the park. So, we were unable to get any souvenirs of our night at Mickey's Christmas party.  We did think ahead and we brought a Tupperware along with us to collect all of the cookies that they were handing out that we couldn't eat during the party. They ended up being a nice little treat on the drive back home the next day. We did have to get up the next morning and headed to Disney Springs to try and get a souvenir that we missed out on the night before. Then after dropping Andrea off at the airport we made the drive back home to Kentucky! Overall, we had a pretty great week and I would highly recommend the Christmas party to anyone wanting to go to Disney in November or December.

Horse Park Run Club 2016

Over the summer and into the fall we spent most of our Monday nights running at the Kentucky Horse Park. Every Monday they had a run club and you could run in between fields of beautiful horses and great views too. The kids loved seeing all the horses and playing on the playground and it helped me get back into running more often. This seemed like a win-win scenario so we tried to go as often as we could. Here are some pictures from all of our adventures.

Landon checking out this beautiful white horse. Sometimes they were friendly and would come over to let the kids pet them.

Feeding the horse some grass. It amazes me that the horse even gives it a second look because he is surrounded by the same thing that the kids are offering up. However, he must just like the attention because he is going to great effort to eat it.

Look at all those horses!

My favorite running buddies. They have gotten a lot heavier over the past couple of years. Maybe in a few years they will start running with me.

The kids were amazed with this beautiful horse.

I talked him to coming over to meet us.

That horse is huge compared to my little man. Here Landon is trying to feed him some grass.

The kids did get a little bit of a run in with their mom. They got worn out pretty quick though.

Selfie with this horse.

My loves all in one picture. I love these three so much.

Family picture with our horse friend. 

Our family loved going on Mondays to the Horse Park Run Club and we can't wait until next summer for it to start back up. We would love to see you out there too! Thanks for reading and God bless!

Visiting Tent City

Kentucky basketball fans are sometimes referred to by Coach Calipari as the craziest fans in the world. I am proud to say that I am a member of the crazy fan base, but there is one thing that I have never done. I have never been one of the people to camp outside of Memorial Colleseum for 3-4 days for a pair of free tickets to a practice. The main reason that I probably haven't done it is the fact that I don't own a tent. Maybe one day I will join the masses and camp out. This year I found an outline of events and decided that I would head down to campus and check out one of them. I picked the night that the players would be handing out pizza to the crowd. Not because I wanted pizza, but because I wanted to interact with the players and possibly get a picture or autograph.

I heard Coach Cal come out and address the crowd about how things were progressing so far.

Here come the players handing out pizzas. Isaiah Briscoe was the first player out and was very excited to be there and seemed like he was having a good time.

The freshmen Jones, Fox and Adebayo were a little more timid with the whole process. They wanted to stay inside, but that just meant that the doors were completely packed with people trying to get up there to meet them.

What a great young man. Briscoe seemed to really be enjoying everything. 

Tai Waynard wanted to take the selfie picture himself, which was fine, but blue Santa decided to photo bomb my picture.

De'Aaron Fox finally came out and embraced the moment and I might add that he is also super fast at signing autographs as well as running up and down the court.

Meeting my new favorite name to say, Sasha Killeya-Jones. I am not sure if he would like this or not, but at the first few home games I couldn't help but think of the guy from Kid-N-Play. He doesn't have the complete flat top, but from the upper deck they seem to look similar.

Bam Adebayo signing my ball, but I couldn't get a good picture with him looking up

My favorite Australian, Isaac Humphries.

Coach Cal's son, Brad Calipari.

Some of the players got on stage for a few question and answers with the media.

I caught Mychal Mulder before he left the stage for a quick picture.

Someone painted some awesome pumpkins. Here is an old logo one.

New logo. I still haven't decided if I like the new logo or not. I will say that it is growing on me though.

This guy is a true professional and a great young man. He knew that everyone was there to meet the wildcats and he didn't disappoint them. He was the last one out there taking pictures and signing autographs. He is my favorite player from this years team and I think he is only going to get better as the season goes on.

What an awesome night! I was running around like a little kid trying to meet all these young men.

Heading down to campus proved to be a great decision and it was so much fun. I am pretty sure that I will be going back in the future years so that I can meet all the incoming and returning players. Thanks for reading and God bless!