Disney - Day 1

On Friday, we woke up and went swimming. There were multiple pools at our hotel, so we checked them all out. Kathryn had fun going down the water slides. Then we went and bought our tickets and drove to Magic Kingdom. We ended up going in a back way (accidentally) and bypassing the booths where you pay for parking! That's what I call a happy accident!

We started in Tomorrowland with the Astro Orbiter and Space Mountain. Then we moved on to Fantasyland and rode the Mad Tea Party and watched Mickey's Philharmagic.

Then we ate our lunch we had packed and moved on to Frontierland. Kathryn and Mike rode Big Thunder Mountain first and they both loved it. Sydney did NOT want to ride it, but we both knew she would love it, so we made her. Kathryn wanted to ride again so I took them both. Sydney cried the whole time we were in line. At one point she asked me to say a prayer so she would feel better. We got her on and she held on to me tightly the entire time. I'm not entirely sure that she even opened her eyes! As we were exiting the ride, she said that it was fun, but that she didn't want to ride again.

We finished up in Adventureland and rode the Magic Carpets of Alladin and Jungle Cruise. To finish off the day, we all shared a turkey leg!

The Day is Finally Here!

On Thursday, September 15th, we pulled the last ring off of our countdown to Disney chain! Here are the girls in their Disney shirts before leaving for school. We picked them up from school around 3:30 and went straight to the airport! Our flight was delayed an hour, but we knew ahead of time so we adjusted our timing. The girls did great on the flight. Kathryn thought it was going to be super loud, so she plugged her ears for a long time. Once she realized that it wasn't going to be as loud as she expected, she was happy to unplug them. We arrived in Orlando at 10pm, rented our mini-van, stopped by Wal-Mart for food, and got to our hotel around midnight.

Brendan's Playground Community Build

This past weekend was the Community Build day for Brendan's Playground. Here they are installing the engraved bricks. Each of our girls has a brick with their name on it.

This is our friend Zach and his girlfried, Gracie.

Here is Reagan with Zach. Zach is one of the first names that Reagan has learned to say. They are good friends. One time we were over at their house and Reagan saw Zach out of his chair and didn't recognize him!

Labor Day Hike

On Labor Day we met our friends (the Fowlers) at the park, shared a picnic, and went on a hike. Our girls LOVED the hike! Sydney didn't want to stop. Reagan enjoyed riding in the backpack, though she did fuss a little at first. If she cried at all, Mike would stop walking and only begin again if she was quiet. He only had to stop 3 or 4 times before she stopped fussing!

Raging Rivers - Grafton, IL

On Saturday of Labor Day weekend we drove to Grafton, IL to enjoy Raging Rivers waterpark. I won free tickets on Facebook, so we were very excited to be able to go for free! The weather was nice and hot for our visit! The ferry was not operating, we had to drive around the long way, but it wasn't too bad.

That is the Mississippi river behind us.

I told the girls that I would stand under the huge dumping bucket with them because they were scared to, but I cheated a little bit.

Kathryn's favorite part was getting to eat chocolate Dippin' Dots ice cream. It was the last weekend of operation, so all of their treats were buy one get one free!

New Roof!

We got a new roof at the end of August! Ours was damaged during a few hail storms we had in the spring. We were happy to have it replaced since it was a poor roofing job to begin with, and it didn't even have tar paper applied! They did the entire job in 1 day, from stripping the old roof, to laying the new roof!

Indian Camp Creek

This weekend we drove out to Indian Camp Creek and enjoyed a simple hot dog cookout. The girls enjoyed playing in the small stream, though Reagan was very unsure at first and spent most of her time walking carefully to avoid the water.

We stayed at the park until dark and the park ranger came to tell us the park was closed!

School days

Nonnie is visiting us this week and got to eat lunch with both of the girls at school! The girls requested chicken soft tacos from Taco Bell.

My matching girls. I took this pic in the parking lot before I dropped off the big girls for school. They usually ride the bus, but I had some PTC things to do at the school, so I brought them with me.

Sydney and her teacher, Miss Reside. We love her!

Back to School!

Sydney on Kindergarten Orientation day!

Kathryn at 1st Grade Supply Drop-off.

Kathryn with her teacher Mrs. Reynolds.

Kathryn & Sydney on the first day of school!

Reagan looking really happy about her big sisters going to school and leaving her alone with Mommy! This is her new "say cheese" face.

Our family waiting with the girls for the school bus!

Getting on the school bus!

Sitting on the school bus! Kathryn was too busy saying hello to everyone to be bothered with taking a picture!

I was a little sad to send my Sydney off to Kindergarten, but she is doing amazingly well! Kathryn was very eager and excited to go back to school. I am up at the school a lot since I do a lot of volunteering with the Parent/Teacher Committee. It's nice to be able to sneak a peek and them sometimes.

End of Summer Fun

We had a busy and fun summer! To finish it off we:


snuggled our Daddy as much as we could...

played with the down-the-street neighbor boys...

and visited with our friends who moved to Iowa last year.