The Happiest Place on Earth

I thought this photo was eerily awesome. There was a storm rolling in just as we left the park.

We drove two days to Florida to attend the last flight of Discovery. She has flown 37 missions and we had hopped to see her last journey into space, however she just was not ready. Over the course of the week they had a few fuels leaks, a weather delay and finally they scrubbed the launch until early December when the next flight window opens (we won't be going back, this was our only chance to see a flight). We were really disappointed, but in the mean time we had a wonderful and much needed vacation.

We stayed at the Liki Tiki Resort, it was a villa resort with condos with washer/dryer, separate bedrooms and fully stocked kitchen, It was incredibly nice to have some room (and two T.V's) The resort had a mini water park which the girls loved. I know you are all thinking, what Renshaws actually dropped some cash? Have no fear, we didn't jeopardize our frugalness (not sure if that is a word), we booked through condosdirect.com and got the villa for $50.00/night taxes included. Would highly recommend them, great place to stay and about five miles from the Disney gates.

And of course you can't go to Orlando with little princess-obsessed girls without hitting Magic Kingdom. We ended up going on a Thursday, which was perfect. We didn't wait in line more than 10 minutes and we were able to do the whole park in one day and the weather was beautiful.

Erin loved the princesses, Ike loved Its a Small World and at the end of the day Eliza discovered Goofy's Barnstormer roller coaster and was hooked (surprise, surprise, Eliza like a thrill :) We made it from 9am to 7pm.

(ps, we love Eliza she is just anti-photographs right now).

Swiss Family Robinson Tree House

Ike stole Minni's chair from Eliza, point for Ike and man was he proud!

Jared is by far the most excited in this photo to ride the Astro-Orbiter

No ones eyes should be this blue :)

Erin and the castle

The Ike Man

He is getting so big. I gave him a haircut a few weeks ago and was thrilled to see his sweet little hairline is still there, which makes me think I am never going to let his hair grow out. Ike is such a happy little guy...except when large sticks linger overhead, sisters are nerve-racking!

Air Show

This year the girls were not interested in the airplanes at all and Ike completely freaked when a big bomber swooped overhead. But the day was beautiful and the kids enjoyed being out in the park.

Happy Halloween

We were leaving for Florida on Oct 30th but the kiddos still needed costumes for school outings and our wards Trunk-or-Treat. I told them they could either spend their money on costumes or spend it at Disney World. So they quickly decided a box it was. I thought it would be a walk-in-the park, how hard could a "box costume" be?

Eliza was adamant about being a "mink mi-pod", which is humorous because Jared had to bite his tongue and let his little girl dress as an Apple product as he is now a proud EVO owner.

Erin took it a step further and decided on being "a box of Shipley Do-Nuts", our favorite Saturday morning stop. Seriously what kid wants to be a box of baked goods?

I was able to put together Eliza's costume together for $6.00 and Erin's for $8.00 plus a few late nights and lots of glue gun burns. I kept thinking this is how I use five years of design school? But I must say I thought they turned out dang well and the girls we really excited. My mom always did an awesome job on homemade costumes so it was fun to pass along the tradition.

Eliza's preschool got to trick-or-treat all the high school classrooms and I heard she was the hit of the high school. She really got into it wearing all pink!

And Ike, well Ike was a left over elephant from the costume bin, but we used him a public service announcement to VOTE! I know, the kid is going to need counseling!