Adoption Day!

Saturday, 11-13-10

Today we celebrated our second Adoption Day, the day that we legally became Amy's parents. I remember the day so clearly. Getting ready to head to the courthouse. Making sure that we had our camera so we could take pictures of the joyous occasion. The nerves. The excitement. Was it really going to happen?? We were thrilled that my parents were able to come up and enjoy the excitement of the day with us.

We love celebrating Amy's adoption with her and telling her the story of all who have loved her throughout her short little life. We celebrate Amy's homecoming day in August and then her official Adoption Day in November. We had talked about it for several days beforehand, so Amy knew that we were going to celebrate her Adoption Day this weekend.

In the morning, we headed to Monkey Joe's for a little monkeying around!! Amy & I had been here a few time before, though this was Kurt's first time. He loved jumping around with her and going down the big slide with her. Amy was thrilled to have both of us to jump with and jump on!! She had so much fun and can't wait to go back! Kurt and I both just love the sound of Amy's laughter and her beautiful little smile when she is having so much fun.

Amy had just bounced onto Daddy's lap and couldn't stop giggling!

Amy loved jumping in the swimming pool!

Giving the monkey a hug!

For dinner, we headed out to continue our celebrations. Amy continued to have so much fun - she ate fairly well and enjoyed coloring on her menu. Yet, I think she really enjoyed passing out the different sweeteners to us. She would get the different packets out and hand one to Kurt. Then, she would hand one to me. Then, she would start it all over!

After dinner, Amy chose to have a chocolate cupcake, which she enjoyed immensely!

We are so blessed to have Amy in our lives. We love celebrating her adoption!

Disney World - Part Three - Magic Kingdom

Thursday, 11-4-10

Today was the big day...Magic Kingdom. The princesses. The rides. The parades. How exciting!! Since we stayed at one of the Disney's resorts, we were able to take advantage of the extra hours when the park is open just for Disney guests. So, bright and early, we head off to Magic Kingdom!

Amy was excited that she was finally going to be able to see some princesses - I'm sure she thought she was never going to see them, other than the display ones at Downtown Disney! Amy loved seeing the castle as we walked into Magic Kingdom. She was certain that she was going to live there! Amy's favorite ride for the entire time that we were at Disney World was the carousel. She wanted to ride it over and over and over again! She was very particular about the horse as well...it had to be the horse with flowers on it! :)

After riding the carousel one time, we got in line for Dumbo. However, as we got closer to Dumbo, Amy began having second thoughts. She saw some spinning things on it that "spooked" her, as she put it. She decided that she would give it a try, but wanted to sit on my lap. I'm not sure if she truly enjoyed the ride. She was glad when it was over and didn't want to go on it again...though there were a few times when she said that she wanted to ride Dumbo, but would quickly change her mind when we would head in that direction!

We saw so many different characters throughout the day. It seemed that every time we turned around, we would find a new one. We saw Cinderella's Fairy Grandmother. I'm not exactly sure what Amy was telling her here...

But, she smiled when she was told to point to Mommy & Daddy! :)

Other than the princesses, which were Amy's absolute favorite part of the vacation, Amy really enjoyed going through Minnie & Mickey's houses. She loved that Mickey's kitchen was a mess from his attempt at remodeling it! She still mentions how messy Mickey's kitchen was and talks about how silly Mickey is! She enjoyed having "tea" at Minnie's house...

Amy was very patient with any lines that we encountered while waiting to visit with the different characters. She would watch closely as the little kids in front of us would visit with the characters. When we met Mickey and Minnie, she was delighted that Minnie danced with her while Mickey signed her autograph book!

And then there were the princesses....she had a lot of tell all of them, though I'm not exactly sure what all it was! She had her princess dress on as well as her Sleeping Beauty necklace, which was a hot topic of conversation, especially when she met Sleeping Beauty.

I can only imagine the conversation that they are having below...

Showing Sleeping Beauty her necklace...with Sleeping Beauty on it!

We watched one of the shows that they performed -

Amy loved to watch the princesses dance around the stage!

She was telling Ariel about the spider webs that she had seen -

she mentioned that someone needed to clean them up!

We also visited with the fairies. To be honest, I'm not that familiar with the fairies...other than Tinkerbell. But, Amy enjoyed meeting them and talking with them.

We watched several parades, though I didn't get pictures of one parade (I'm not exactly sure how that happened!). The other parade was a nighttime parade, right before the park closed. It had been a long day, though Amy was a trooper. She did really well waiting for the parade to start (it didn't start on time) and afterwards on our way back to the room. Amy waved to all of the characters and were delighted when a few stopped by to say "Hi" to her!

All in all, it was a wonderful vacation. I simply loved seeing the expression on Amy's face when she saw all of the different characters and princesses. I loved hearing her talk about the princesses and all of her thoughts about Disney World. I'll admit that I had some hesitations with taking Amy to Disney World at such a young age. But, I'll admit it - Kurt was right. Amy had a great time and it was a wonderful family vacation! We can't wait to go back!!

Disney World - Part 2 - Animal Kingdom

Tuesday, 11-2-10

On Tuesday, we woke up bright & early to get ready for our Character Breakfast at one of the resorts. Amy was so excited that she was going to be able to eat breakfast with Minnie Mouse, Goofy, and Donald Duck. We enjoyed the buffet breakfast. Amy loved the Mickey Mouse shaped waffles as well as all of the fruit and yogurt. As we were eating, the different characters came around to our table, one at a time. They signed Amy's autograph book and posed for pictures. This was Amy's first experience with the characters, so we weren't sure how she would respond. She was a little hesitant at first, though she loved giving her little "side hug" to them. She also would lean her face in for them to give her hugs & kisses!

After breakfast, we headed to Animal Kingdom for the day. We got there shortly after the park had opened and we were heading to one of the attractions when we came across a sleeping bear (umm, just a character bear - not a real one!). We pointed him out to Amy and we watched him for several minutes. He was leaning up against a railing, seemingly asleep. Amy checked him out, though lost interest after a few minutes. But, then the bear woke up and began moving slowly toward her! She got so tickled that she had woken up the bear! She gave him a small hug, since she still wasn't exactly sure what to make of this bear!

A little further up the way, we ran upon King Louie. Amy wasn't too sure about him either and so she had to check him out as well.

Once she decided that he was okay, she gave him a hug.

By this time, Amy was getting excited about the different characters that we were seeing. I should mention that I had a hard time getting "good" pictures of Amy with the characters. She wouldn't really look at the camera and when she looked at the camera, she typically wasn't smiling. Sometimes, she would give the character a hug, and then take off running toward us, so I have several pictures of her running away from the characters! However, she really did enjoy meeting them and hasn't stopped talking about them...well, she mainly is still talking about the princesses and Mickey & Minnie Mouse!

We rode the Safari ride first. Amy wasn't too thrilled with this ride and thought the jeep ride was too bumpy. She wasn't all too interested in the different animals either. She was ready to get off the ride probably about half-way through, though she was able to finish the ride without any problems. We asked if she wanted to go on it again and she quickly said no.

We then headed off to find more characters before The Lion King Show. Amy was able to see quite a few characters and had them sign her autograph book!

Next, we saw The Lion King Show. It was an absolutely amazing show! Kurt & I had seen it when we visited Disney in 2003. We weren't sure how Amy would do during the show - we knew it would be loud at times as well as dark. We also know that Amy can be a little timid with loud noises and/or dark places. But, Amy loved it! Her absolute favorite part of the show was the monkeys. She loved that they were doing gymnastics just like her! They monkeys had a high bar and rings just like the ones in her gymnastic classes. She kept talking about the monkeys doing gymnastics for the rest of our vacation...and is still talking about them! She had to tell Ms. Kathy, her gymnastics teacher, all about the monkeys doing gymnastics when we returned from Florida!

Next up is Magic Kingdom!!