Disney, Day 4: Epcot and a Princess Dinner! Yay!

Riley Cate here with your next installment!

On this day we went to Epcot. I was adorable. I mean, before I could hardly get through the gate, castmembers were wanting to take pictures of me with their cell phones! I felt like dang ol' Dakota Fanning or something.

Actually, the pictures up there are from later on the day, but I wanted to set the mood for ya. After we first got there, we runned over to get a Fastpass for Soarin'. That's something I can't ride, but it's supposed to feel like you're hanged-gliding over California. Mom says it's way cool. As you can see below, they wouldn't even give me a Fastpass. But I think being 40 inches tall is probably overrated.

Here's something I DID get to ride and it was totally cool, dude! It was The Living Seas with Nemo and Friends! We rode in a clam shell through a big tank and Nemo and the gang were really in there with all the not-cartoon fish! Daddy had to close his eyes when we went through the East Australian Current with Crush because it was making him feel a wittle woosy.
Oh, and after the ride, we got eaten by a shark! Look at me. I know those teeth are Disney-created.

After we got spewed out of the mouth of the shark, we ate lunch in Morocco and watched a belly dancer! And I ate cous cous!

Later on that night, me, Mommy and Daddy took Carson and Keely to Mexico to ride their new Donald Duck ride and then we all got to eat dinner with the princesses at Akershus Castle in Norway! Below, you will see that I did not care at all about Cinderella, even though I think my Mom and Ms. Amanda almost cried when they saw she was there!
Um, I really didn't care too much about meeting Jasmine, either. She looks like she's waited her whole life to see me, though!See. Snow White. How hard was that and why couldn't I just meet her in the first place?
I had a bit of a meltdown before dessert, so Mom took Keely and me to some exhibit in China about statues that guarded graves. Whatever.

Then we all went shopping in Germany and I snuggled with this bear-friend for a few minutes. Mom and Daddy talked about getting him for me, but then I threw him on the floor, so they didn't.

After the fireworks, we had to do a little shopping. While we were there we got chosen to have a magic moment! Mommy thought we were gonna get to spend the night in a castle or something. We got to do the hokey pokey with gloves on. That's just as good, right?

And then it was off to the hotel and bed, except I fell asleep in the car after my busy busy day! Join us tomorrow for some pics from our day off and the grown-ups date night!

Just wanted to share this...

This is different than our usual posts, but I read this on my cousin's blog and just had to share...especially to all my girls who are still searching for Mr. Right. :o)

"A women's heart should be so hidden in Christ that a man should have to seek Him first to find her." -Maya Angelou

Thanks, Paige for sharing this quote!

BTW, thanks for your comments about our Disney blogging. Just about to add some more!

Disney Trip, Day 3: Magic Kingdom and O'Hana!

We get up early early on Magic Kingdom day for Little Ones' Extra Magic Hours in Fantasyland and walk in just as they open the gates! Dumbo is first because the lines can be loooong and slow. We also make sure the kiddos understand that this will probably be the only time we'll get to ride this. Oh, and guess who was just a few elephants behind us...STITCH! He rode several times in a row! It was the first time we'd seen characters on the rides :o) Oh, see RileyCate's face below? This is before her usual wake up time, so this is THE expression for about the first hour. We ride the carousel next...still nothing.

Her expression FINALLY changes in It's a Small World. She LOVES this ride and just keeps saying "OOH." The guys behind us really get a kick out of her!

Oh, and here are the McClish's in front of Cinderella's Castle! Don't the kids look adorable? They are so precious!

This is Riley Cate. I'm taking over because Mommy is boring. After we all went back to the room for a nice nap, we all went back to the Magic Kingdom to ride one more ride befor dinner! It was the pirate ride! I LOVE the pirate ride! Johnny Depp was there and Mommy and Ms. Amanda seemed to be really excited about that! Personally, I think he looked like he could use a bathie! After that, we ran over to a Polynesian Resort and got there just in time to miss the rain and get checked in for our dinner! They had a big lobby and I (finally) got to stretch my legs and run/crawl around for a bit!

Here's a picture of me and Momma and Daddy at our table at O'Hana. Stitch says O'Hana means family! In this picture and in the next, you can see that I'm only here for the tatoes! Momma and Daddy ate other stuff like chicken, pork, shrimp (just Mom, cuz Dad's 'lergic), beef, turkey and BREAD PUDDING! Then there was this lady who wanted to teach me how to hula. She gave me some flowers on my head and then I decided to show her some of my own moves!
Mahalo! Mahalo very much!
After that and after all the rain rain rain we went back to the Magic Kingdom and I rode the Haunted Mansion ride! I was not scared not even a little! We then went back to Main Street and did a little shopping and waited for the fireworks...Fireworks are awesome! I wasn't scared of them, either!!

After the fired-works, we went with all the McClish's for a few more rides. Momma and Daddy rode Splash Mountain and met some people from the north who had never had sweet tea OR catfish! I'm only 1 and I've at least had samples! After that, I went to sleep and Momma, Carson, Keely and Ms. Amanda did our last ride of the night. It was Aladdin. Big deal. It's just like Dumbo but with "magic" carpets. I don't care at all that they let me sleep through it. Not at all. Not even a little. At all. Sigh.

Disney, Day 2: The Check-In Magic

Our room at Disney...look at Mickey on the bed!

After 8 more hours on the road (we are stupid, stupid people), we finally arrive at WDW! And we're off to a great start! As we're checking in, Jess the castmember brings all three kiddos a balloon (they're the only ones we see who get one!) and then he gives Keely a Tigger pin and Carson a pin, too! Pin trading is huge here and each pin is worth about $8-$9 dollars, so that was a really big deal to us! As soon as they get their pins, Shawn takes them to the gift shop to get a pin lanyard and a starter set of pins to trade later. Next we work with Magaly from Colombia to get our room assignment. She works really hard and gets us an adjoining room, then gives Cake a Happy Birthday pin, only it's in spanish, which we tell her is fine because that's the most common language where we're from! Still, she gives us another one in english...both have RileyCate's name on them. Oh...then she gives RileyCate, Shawn, Amanda, Carson and Keely these cute button pins that have Mickey and the gang on them and they say "My 1st Trip". So, talk about a little good ol' fashioned spoiling before we even see our room!!!

More today with what you've all been waiting for...our first day in the parks!

Our Disney Trip Report, Day 1: The Long, Long Drive

This is our trip report, written by Cake's Momma. Warning: it will be long and many of you will not care to read it. That's ok. Here we go!

It's 5 am and we're pulling out of the driveway. Jason's driving, with Shawn as copilot. I've got the driver side captain's chair with Amanda beside me. THREE children UNDER THE AGE OF 6 are in the backseat. That's Riley Cate, 11.5 months, in her big girl car seat, sandwiched between Carson, 4, and Keely, 5, both in boosters. The car is already a mess. And our idea to put sleeping children into the car has already been foiled. They did finally go back to sleep and stayed that way until breakfast at around 9 at McDonald's. Cake knocked out half a hashbrown and half a pancake. No one was surprised. Keely ate half her breakfast and declared herself full, then ate the rest of Amanda's while she was away from the table.

All in all, the day one trip was NOT fun. The boys, who were in the front seat NOT caring for three children, wanted to push on to Tallahassee, but after 13 hours, with Chippley nearby, the mommas made an executive decision to STOP. We ended up spending the night in a Holiday Inn where Shawn whittled the price down from $110 to $65! Score! Adjoining rooms with wall-mounted flat screens were well worth that! Mommas again took charge and ordered pizza. Roly Poly, I mean Riley Cate, ate an entire piece of pizza. Oh, and she was sooooo happy to crawl around on the floor. I NEVER thought I'd let my child crawl on a hotel room floor, but I got over it.

Oh, the pizza man got confused because of our adjoining rooms. Keely answered the door to the McClish room, then ran back through to ours and went out again. He thought she was a twin, so Shawn ran with it and told them that he and Jason were cousins and that twins ran in our family...that we had 3 sets of them!

(Side note: Jason just walked into the kitchen behind me, looked out the window and said, "There's a freakin' rooster in our yard." Random.)

Anyway, that's day one! I'll try to post day 2 later, then we'll have all the boring stuff over with! I just wanted to have it all documented for myself :o)

Yeep! The stress of traveling!

My Mommy is a nut trying to get us all ready to go visit Mr. Mickey. I've even left the house so she can fly around and get everything done! Oh, by the way, Mom says to ask ya'll for prayers and pixie dust because the 2nd out of the 3 kiddos going (me being the 3rd), has gotten sick and is on antibiotics! She doesn't want me to be next...and neither do I!!!

We leave here in about 14 hours...can you believe it?

Trip to the Park

This is me at the neatest little park, in Mena. I loved the big fountain! And like I always say, take time to smell the flowers. I think these are impatients... hey, they're just like me!

Tell me again why I'm dressed like this...

Oh, yeah. WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!!

We are leaving here in only two more days to go and see Mickey the Mouse! I have a princess dress, and so does Keely, because we're going to meet Snow White! Really!!

Here are the people who are going on our trip...
Mommy and Daddy.
Me, Riley Cate
Mr. Shawn and Mrs. Amanda
Carson (he's 4) and Keely (she's almost 6)

I'm gonna tell you all about our big trip and you'll get to see lots of pictures of...ME! We are leaving early early Friday morning. Before the sun comes out and even before Daddy normally goes to work! Then we're gonna drive drive drive to Tallamahasseeee. The next day, we'll get to our hotel at Disney!

I can't wait to do all the fun things that Mommy has been talking about for MONTHS! I've even kinda learned how to walk so that I can run right up to Mickey! Well, wobble up to Mickey.

Stay tuned for more from Riley Cate's First Vacation!!

It's time for the county FAIR!

Here's me at the fair parade. I didn't know what to think about all the noise and stuff at first. But then I discovered that the people making all the noise were also THROWING CANDY! I pretty much missed the rest of the parade becuase I was so into my sucker. So after the parade went by we all went over to the fair itself, where I met this pig. I think the name plate said his name was Jose from Horatio. But maybe that's his friend who brought him to the fair. How am I supposed to know. I can't really read... and this is my first fair.
This is me rolling down the midway. There were some really cool looking rides there. But Daddy wouldn't give me any ticket money, so we just went home.
But we had time for one more photo op before we called it a night. A good time was had by all!

Fall Photo Shoot!

Daddy finally got around to taking some more pictures tonight. We had tons of fun. I made it through almost three outfits before I threw a fit. But then I got a sucker and everything was right in the world again. Don't I look like such a big girl now? And here's my boyfriend Hudson. I think our Mommies must shop at the same store, becuase we're kinda dressed alike. I think Hudson is cute and outdoorsy!