Thanksgiving

We had a very low key Thanksgiving this year. It ended up being just what we needed. Both kids had nasty colds, but thankfully we were still able to spend the day with family. It was just us, Nana and Pop Pop, and GG and Goomba. We spent the day together, ate way too much, and laughed A LOT!

 Eli took a lot of pictures with my new phone. Layla is just a blur in most of them :)

Me and my boy. Thankful for this sweet one who first made me a mommy.

 Most thankful for this husband of mine. 

 GG told Eli a little bit about Pilgrims.

 We like to call Nana the play dough master. She makes the rest of us look very bad in this department!  

 Play dough ice cream cones were offered to everyone.

 We brought the train tracks down which kept this one occupied throughout the day.

 We always joke about how many Morgans it takes to cook a Turkey. It usually ends up being Pop pop and a bunch of expert observers! It was perfectly done as always!

 Layla was feeling pretty miserable all day. Poor thing didn't even want to eat dessert. That's when you know she's sick!

 Eli was sure to take care of Layla's uneaten dessert. He was so excited for pumpkin pie!

Sickly selfie of my girl.

We went back on Friday night for leftovers. We stuffed ourselves, AGAIN! But I promise you we burned half of the calories off with all the laughing we did after dinner. Eli and Pop Pop entertained us for hours. 

 We don't have carpet at our house, so there's always a lot of rough housing on the floor over there!

 And kid push ups.

 And torturous tickle sessions.

I don't have the video in my possession - but Pop Pop turned into an inch worm. Great blackmail material!

Eli very sweetly shared how thankful he was for his family. I love that he's starting to realize just how much we have to be thankful for. 

Disney - Day 7

We were determined to fit as much as possible into our last full day of vacation. We were blessed with a kid free morning date to Hollywood Studios! We missed this park on Monday due to daddy and the stomach bug, so we were happy to go back and ride some rides together. 

We knew we had to conquer the Tower of Terror. Our 4 year old did it first, and he likes to remind us of this daily! We got off the ride repeating over and over how shocked we were that he rode this and wasn't traumatized!!!

 It was Saturday morning, so the lines were all a little longer than we had seen during the week. We rode the tower and then the Rock n' Roll roller coaster. This was Danny's first upside down roller coaster. It was fun to do that together! He's totally addicted to thrill rides now. I never thought I'd see that day! He claims that after his Blue Angels ride, he can ride anything now :). 

We were back at the resort by noon, and we all went straight down to the pool for several hours. We ate lunch by the pool, relaxed in the lazy river, and soaked up some sun.

 I could have done this for hours! Layla is such a cuddle bug these days. 

 Cindy is such a hoot in the pool. Definitely her happy place!

 Same goes for this little water baby. She's so content while playing in the pool.

 She even made a few friends!

That night we set off for one more night on the town. It didn't go exactly as planned, but it worked out fine. We had planned to take the rest of the crew for dinner and music at Downtown Disney. However, DD is an absolute mad house on the weekends. Lesson learned for sure! After sitting in traffic for about 45 minutes, we ended up at Chick Fil A :).

 We were so proud of how well Layla did sleeping in the hotel for an entire week. She slept better and longer than she does at home. Praise! 

We accumulated A LOT of souvenirs over the course of our week, but these Mickey & Minnie pillow animals were their special gifts from mom & dad. We wanted them to have something that they'd use everyday, and that they'd always have to remind them of their first trip. 

That concludes our Disney recap. We are already counting down to the next trip. We just don't have the heart to tell Eli that it won't be anytime too soon!

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas

Several months ago we purchased special tickets for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party. It was the very first one of the season, and I was SO glad that we would be there to see Disney transformed into a winter wonderland! It was really what I had most looked forward to about our trip. My mom volunteered to keep Layla that night, seeing as it would be a really late night. This was a huge help! 

Danny, Eli, and I got to Magic Kingdom around 5:00. We rode several rides we hadn't had a chance to previously in the week, and just ate up our time with Eli! It was nice for all of us to be able to ride together, too. At 7:00, the park closed to the general public. Disney operates in a miraculous way! We were amazed at how well they transitioned everyone out of the park that didn't have tickets to the party that night. The party lasted from 7-midnight. We found ourselves a great spot in front of the castle early in the evening, and were able to see perfectly the Christmas show, parade, glow show, and fireworks. The parade was one of the best Christmas parades I've ever seen! 

There were snow flurries falling all over, hot chocolate and cookies galore, and extra special guest character appearances. It was just as magical as we had anticipated. Our little guy had pure joy in his eyes all night, and THAT's what made it so perfect!

Layla wouldn't wear the Minnie ears we got her, so Eli insisted mommy wear them :).

 Eli LOVED finally getting to ride the teacups with daddy. He's a much better spinner than the rest of us!

 More Dumbo rides.

 Another favorite was definitely the Buzz ride. Laser shooting fun! It turned into a major competition between mom & dad, and sadly, I lost. 

The real deal Buzz was waiting for us when we got off the ride. Talk about a star struck child!

These two really hit it off. Buzz kept taking his hat off and had Eli laughing so hard. I know he'll never forget meeting one of his favorite characters!

 We got our spot in front of the castle and waited for all of the shows to start.

Right after this show finished, it was time for the parade to start. We had a curb front spot, too. We got really lucky. Finding a good spot to watch the parade is NO easy task.

Again, this was just the best Christmas parade. Eli got to shake hands with a lot of the characters as they came past us. 

After the parade was over, mommy and Eli made the trek to get more hot choc and cookies. We just barely made it back in time for the glow show and fireworks. 

 The turned the castle into a Christmas tree!

One of the sweetest memories from our whole trip was watching these fireworks together. We kept watching Eli's face, and it literally brought us to tears. Now we know why they called it the place where all your dreams come true! 

I'm glad I was able to get this video, because Eli watches it over and over again.

After fireworks we were off to ride some more rides. Eli thought he was so cool to be out riding roller coasters at 10:00 at night! 

 The snow falling was so pretty! We walked the streets for a bit, and then decided to head back. 

If you ever go to Disney in November or December, this is a MUST!