Why we keep going back...

We just came home from another Disney vacation...this one was our best so far, and we've gone there a lot! In fact, someone recently asked me if we ever vacation anywhere BUT Disney World. Well, the answer is yes. In fact, in 2014 we didn't go to the land of the mouse even once! And, by the end of the year, we knew we were missing it. And so, here are my reasons for why Disney World is just so awesome, and keeps us coming back so often.

I'm sure I could list 1,000 reasons for why we love Disney World and why we keep coming back. But for know, I'll settle for my Top 10, in no particular order. 

1. The Cast Members LOVE their job! Years ago, Walt Disney named the employees "cast members", as they all have a job in a making memories and moments special for the guests. Well, Disney World employees have NAILED it! Ticket takers, security guards, bus drivers, custodians...you name it, they all love their jobs and have a way of making you feel like a valued guest in their home. If happiness truly is contagious, they are spreading it everywhere! On other vacations, we assume that people will love their jobs just as much, but they just don't. Disney sets the bar high for customer service and experience, and that is addictive! 
2. It's so clean! I'm not a neat freak by any means, but with young children dirty bathrooms freak me out. I mean, at any given moment a child will likely be crawling on the ground, laying down and then picking their nose with those same filthy little hands. Given the large volume of people that enter the parks daily, it is truly miraculous that you never see trash on the ground, gum on the curb, or even full trash cans. Like magic, it is all clean, all the time. We stepped off property for lunch once this past week, and instantly I knew we weren't in Disney any longer as there was "gunk" in the corner of bathroom sink. That just doesn't happen at Disney...and it's so refreshing! 
3. Exposes myself and my family to people and cultures different than our own. Raising children in the suburban mid-west of the United States, we don't hear foreign languages very often. Disney World attracts people of all cultures, from around the world. Employees work hard to teach children about their own country and Elliana even got her name translated in three different languages! How often does that happen on vacation?! 
   
   
   

   

   loved shopping in "Morocco" 

4. We grow stronger as a family team. Waiting in line, answering new questions, enjoying new experiences all outside of our normal routine requires all of us to step up and become team mates even more so than normal. Maya gives Elliana bravery that she might not naturally have, and Elliana gives Maya praise and encouragement for her new accomplishments. We web and flow together, in unison...and the results, are pretty awesome! 

   

   Driving already?! 

   
   

   

   Maya's first roller coaster ride! 

5. The little touches. And there are a lot! "Mousekeepers" create beautiful towel creations, arrange stuffed toys on the bed, and overall truly care about the home away from home. Our headboard in our room lit up in LED lights mimicking fireworks above our head. The little touches go far beyond the resorts, and are a part of everywhere you look. 

Maya with her Mickey Mouse towel

6. Ignites the creativity and magic within us all. Nothing quite like watching your little ones squeal in uncontrollable delight when they see a favorite character or witness the magic of larger than life performances. Broadway style performers, interacting with your kiddos and including them in the show...my goodness, what an experience!

Maya and Elliana were selected to be in the Lion King Show!!!  

Participating in Belle's Enchanted Storytime

My Knight in Shining Armor at Enchanted Storytime

7.  AMAZING FOOD! And, we tend to participate in the Dining Plan which gives a plethora of options, snacks, dining experiences and DESSERTS! We all gained quite a few pounds this last trip and it was worth every calorie! 









Banana Creme Brulee- Kona Cafe






Elliana with her favorite snack, a MICKEY BAR!






Unlimited bottomless fresh berry cobbler with fresh vanilla cream on top

8. This particular year we were able to share pieces of our trip with some close friends. You know God has intentions for our friendship when we booked the same trip, same flight and same resort without talking to each other ahead of time! What a joy it was to watch these sweet friends celebrate and laugh together in the magic of the mouse, and share in the meltdowns of young ones with their grown up counterparts. :) 

9. I love to sew, but rarely make the time to do so. A Disney trip inspires me and gets my creative juices flowing. I love when we are all "matchy matchy" and not only does it make our photos look great, but I have noticed a marked difference between the interaction of cast members and our family when we are wearing Disney threads and when are not. This year, the staff went kuckoo over the Duffy dresses my talented cousin made for her kids, and I modified to fit my girls, even awarding Elliana a special celebration button adorned with Duffy! 







t-shirt dresses






patchwork skirts, appliqued shirt



Sulley really loved the Monsters Inc applique on the dresses and even danced for the girls! 






My favorite! Monsters Inc shirts/dresses for us all! 






Daddy's custom made Mike Wasowzski shirt...blocking Mike as per usual 



showing off their dresses...

10. This year was the first year we participated in the Wilderness Explorer program at Animal Kingdom. I can't believe we never did this before! The girls LOVED searching for the little emblems, answering questions, performing tasks and earning badges for nature/geography/science based questions. On safari they identified animals and marked them off in their books. Elliana played African & Indonesian instruments, met people from other countries and learned about currency conversion rates. We were so busy acquiring badges we missed out on a lot of the theme park, but discovered a whole new side of it we had never before experienced. 

playing an Indonesian instrument






On safari








Preparing their adventure books for the next badge

P.S. Last year, the Frozen sisters overtook the world by storm making their songs and personalities a part of nearly every household in America. My girls were no exception to the craze, and their little wishes came true when we met the beloved princesses along side their friends. This was Elliana's highlight of the trip and insisted it be represented in the blog! 

Secret Sewing Project

Looking back, I still find it amazing we kept this a secret. We realized last winter that we needed to have at least one warm weather vacation each winter to keep our spirits lifted from the cold and dreariness of living in the mid-west.  And so, last March, we began planning for Winter 2015. Originally, we arranged and booked a Disney Cruise out of Miami for February. However, when we began looking at flights to Miami during peak travel season, we were shocked to find flights were close to $400 per person! We began looking into our options, and given we were already excited for Disney, we rearranged some things and booked a trip to Walt Disney World instead.

I am a dork, and I like our photos to be matchy-matchy and themed to our vacation...and so, I began sewing. Sewing with two small kids is a bit tricky in and of itself, but sewing secret clothes for a trip they didn't know about...well, that was even more difficult!

By Christmas morning, I had finished 2.5 outfits. Not the 7 I had planned on, but hey...a girl needs to sleep too! And so, we wrapped up the goodies below along with a few Disney goodies and put it under the tree for Christmas morning.



 And so, at last...Christmas morning came. We saved this gift for last.

And now the countdown begins until we venture down south to meet our favorite Disney friends. I'm hoping to make a few more outfits for our family before then, but if not...that's okay too ;) 

And after all of that prep work, I am 150% okay with using an advent calendar from the clearance Christmas aisle to use as our countdown. Tomorrow...only 24 days until we leave, and there just happens to be exactly 24 days in this countdown. :)

 

2013: A Year of Travel and Adventure!

My goodness, what a year 2013 was!!! Rumor has it that small children can slow a couple down, but that certainly wasn't the case for our little family this past year.

We jumpstarted 2013 with the celebration of Elliana turning 4, Daddy turning 33 and then off we were onto our first vacation of the year....A Disney Cruise! We ventured to Galveston TX, the newest Departure Port and then boarded our first Cruise Ship as a family. We sailed to Georgetown, Grand Caymans and then onto Cozumel, Mexico. What a delight it was to introduce our little girls to the culture and excitement of new countries, not to mention experience 85+ degrees in January!!

The 6-night cruise so early in the year truly gave us a hunger for more travel, and so in March we were off again to celebrate Mommy and Maya's birthday at the Abe Martin Lodge in Brown Country, Indiana. We filled our birthday weekend with hiking, an indoor water park and then topped off the weekend with a trip to the circus. Throw in Maya's first birthday celebration, Easter celebration and our favorite Norwegian friends visiting us for a few days and we were BUSY!!!! 

In April, we ventured to the Smoky Mountains National Park where we rented a cabin for a few days of uninterrupted family time. We saw black bears in the wild, hiked for a few days, shopped a little bit and of course enjoyed some of our favorite eateries.

 In May we filled our days with outdoor fun, warm weather and local activities. We built forts, played outside, even dipped our toes in our baby pool as we waited for the neighborhood pool to open. The Krohn Butterfly show, Elliana finished her first year of preschool and we went camping! Another busy month!!

In June, we spent a great deal of the month visiting with Mommo, my 94-year old grandma who fell ill.  It was so very hard to see this vibrant, feisty woman so ill and weathered. She passed in late June after a three week battle, and took a bit of my heart with her.

July, we hit the road again to explore the city of Louisville, KY. We celebrated fourth of July watching fireworks over the river from our 9th floor hotel room. It was rather fun watching them from the luxury and comfort of our hotel given the rain was torrential and the kids were cozied up inside. :) Not how we planned it, but slowly we are learning to go with the flow. We explored the local Science Museum, malls, Louisville Bat Museum and any indoor activities we could find as the rain never did let up!

Standing in a giant bubble at the Science Museum!

We also hit the Reds baseball game, local museum with friends, Chuck E. Cheese and a beach vacation to FLORIDA!!!

Two four-year olds + two one-years, = fun times!

Reunited with my long lost college roommate Megan!! 

August we hung out in town, enjoyed our pool, outdoor fun and unfortunately said goodbye to T.J.'s grandma as she joined Mommo in heaven. We experienced 8 new teeth for Maya including all four molars, and said goodbye to breastfeeding. We all began sleeping through the night again (first time since Maya's birth!) Back to the zoo, gymnastics and soaking up the last days of warm weather. 

getting teeth is ROUGH!

Completed Summer Activity Chart

Gymnastics

Zoo days with Ella

In September, TJ and I celebrated 9 years of marriage, Elliana began her second year of preschool, surprised the girls with a trip to see Curious George, apple picking and we ventured to Disney World for a week of vacation.

Hugs before school

Elliana's beautiful letter to God on the sidewalk chalk

The girls Curious George Surprise! Books, new dresses and GEORGE!

Enjoying her fancy meal at Brio in Columbus

October came and went and we filled our days with the last warmth of the year with hayrides, pumpkin patches, outdoor tea parties and unfortunately ended the month with a trip the ER, two sick little girls and finally a torrential down pour on Halloween.

November we were blessed with a getaway for just Mommy & Daddy. A weekend away to Boston for hubby to attend a conference allowed us some much needed downtime and relaxation. The girls loved the quality time with grandparents. Later that month, off to Chicago we went for Thanksgiving. We loved staying with Aunt Jenna and Uncle Matt and getting to know Jackson even better. We need to start planning our next getaway to visit them :)

The girls with their cousin

Chicago Museum of Science and Industry - with Papa! 

December is always a blur of holiday activities, snow and fun. We had our annual gingerbread house party with friends. Elliana sang in her Christmas Concert at school and we all enjoyed the Festival of Lights. We were blessed with lots of family gatherings too to celebrate the birth of Christ. 

Already excited and grateful for the blessings ahead in 2014!