DISNEY 2009

Get ready, get set...this is going to be a very long post...enjoy!

On Saturday, June 6th, we embarked on our first (of many) Disney vacations. For those that don't know...my mother went a little "Grammy crazy" last year...construction on the pool began and she bought into the Disney Vacation Club to make sure she would be vacationing with her grandchildren for many years to come. Ruth Ann and Ada are very lucky to have a Grammy who loves them so very much.

Here are the girls loaded up and ready to head to Disney...





We headed out of town on Saturday to spend the night just outside of Orlando...then we would check into our resort at Disney first thing Sunday morning so we could enjoy a full day at the park of our choice . We got into Orlanda mid-afternoon. The girls did a little shopping in an outdoor mall next to the hotel and the boys headed to the pool. When we got back from shopping I took Ruth Ann down to the pool and she went swimming with Daddy for the first time.





I'm not sure whether Ruth Ann is a good Baptist girl and doesn't mind being dunked in the water or if we should tell Michael Phelps to move over because we have a future olympian on our hands...









For those of you gasping in horror at what we subjected Ruth Ann to...relax, she LOVED it...



Ruth Ann LOVED the water...which is good since Grammy spend a lot of money putting a pool in & Grandma and Granddaddy have a lake house...swimming will be a big part of Ruth Ann's life for many, many summers to come (and Mommy is hoping for a swimming scholarship to Auburn!) ! Here are some more of the highlights from Ruth Ann's first swim in the pool...





We got up early Sunday morning and made our way to Disney. Here are the girls dressed alike and ready to head to happiest place on Earth...





Here is Ada's response to the following request "Ada...smile."



When planning our trip we had been told that we could check in and leave our luggage at the front desk, but our room would most likily not be ready until 4pm...we didn't care since we would be enjoying our day at EPCOT...however, when we checked in our room was ready at 8:30am! We were very happy and our room was fantastic! To call it a "room" doesn't do it justice...it was actually called a "Villa"...it was a 3 bedroom, 4 bathroom, 2000 sqft villa! We loved it, but actually spent very little time there.

Here is Arch with Ruth Ann just before we headed to EPCOT. PS...I made the shirt and honestly I didn't see anything as cute the whole time we were there!



And here's Ruth Ann with her big brother who was equally as excited about being at Disney.



The animals at Disney were so friendly...not just the animated ones...the live ones too. Here is Ada within a few feet of duck...if that fence wasn't holding her back she would be in the loving that duck to death!



While the rest of our family rode on Soarin', Toni & I waited our turn with the girls outside. This ride was fantastic...at the end everyone clapped their hands because it was so great!





(I love how blue Ruth Ann's eyes look in this picture...so far they just keep turning a lighter shade of blue...where did this blond haired, blue eyed girl come from??)



We had heard in on of the gift shops that Snow White would be arriving shortly, so we sat around and waited on her to show up. Finally, we got to meet our first Disney character and get our audiograph book started. I wanted to get a picture with each character to go with their signature. I bought the same audiograph book I had with my parents took me and Adam to Disney world when I was in the 3rd grade. So far she has way more audiographs then we got during our visit.



Here are some of the other Disney characters we got to meet...













You may be wondering what Ada thought of the characters...you make your own decision...



She and Toni watched from what Ada determined was a comfortable distance...



For Christmas my mom purchased our park tickets and matching polo shirts with our names on them. Her only request...we do a family picture...



I had hoped to also get a family picture in front of the flower beds at the Magic Kingdom and/or in front of Cinderella's castle, but Ruth Ann was asleep going into and coming out of the Magic Kingdom. Ruth Ann actually did a lot of sleeping throughout our time at Disney...here's the proof...







I thought her sleeping through Animal Kingdom was kinda funny because this park is kinda like a zoo and Ruth Ann can't ever seem to stay awake when we visit the zoo in Columbia either!

We went to Disney Hollywood Studios on what had to be the hottest day of the week. Since we were eating dinner in this park I thought we should just stay there all afternoon...it was HOT, HOT, HOT. Here is my mom, Ruth Ann, Arch, Spencer and Ada trying to sit in the shade to beat the heat.









The only way to beat the heat was to sit in the pool. Arch's cousin Kelley was at Disney the same week and stayed at the same resort. She and her daughter Mia met us at the pool to cool off one afternoon.















On our last day we made it to the Magic Kingdom where Ruth Ann and Ada got to ride on their first rides. Here we are waiting in line to ride The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Then we headed over to the play area to take a quick picture infront of Rabbit's house.







So as you can see, we had a great time. I have some thoughts about how I would do things on our next trip to Disney, but I think our next vacation club vacation will be to a beach resort...we probably won't be going back to Disney until the girlies are a little bit older. It's kinda sad to have our summer vacation over so early in the summer...that just means we have the whole summer to hang out at Grammy's house and enjoy the pool!