Florida Trip part 2 - DISNEY!

We took our first family vacation (with an outside baby, that is), to Florida this month!  Originally, we had only planned to visit and stay with Justin's parents at their condo in Venice.  But Justin decided that he wanted to take the kids to Disney for a night.  I actually thought he was nuts, but I'm so glad he pushed for it.  We had SO.MUCH.FUN and decided to stay an extra night.  It was super chilly but we were still happy to be missing the "Polar Vortex" up North.

To see Gwen's excitement over seeing the castle and meeting Ariel and Belle in person, was just something Justin and I will never forget.  It really was magical, as cliche as that sounds.  I'm writing this post almost a month later and her face still completely lights up when she talks about it and completely gushes about how she met Ariel and sat on her lap(!!!!). 

First stop was Downtown Disney for lunch:

That night we had dinner at the "Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue".  This was pretty cool for me because I remember going to this dinner show the last time I went to Disney.  I was probably only a few years older than Gwen!  We all had a great time.

After dinner we decided to walk around and explore our hotel the Wilderness Lodge and we decided to get caricatures done of the kiddos!  We're so happy with how they came out.  Gwen gave everyone a show while she was sitting for her drawing :)

The next morning we were up early for the opening of the Magic Kingdom!

chilly boat ride!

this was epic for Gwen

waiting for the parade

dancin in the street

my view for most of the visit <3

meeting Belle!

daddy got to meet Belle, too! lol

Gwen was excited to see Sebastian at the street party

The next morning we went to breakfast at our hotel and then headed to the Animal Kingdom!

Florida Trip part 1 - Venice

We had a lovely visit with Nana and Papa in Florida!  With the nationwide Polar Vortex in effect, we had some unusually cold weather overall, but we still made it to the beach a couple of times!  Gwen lives for the ocean.  Is it summer yet?

Nathan waiting for his Lobstah at Sharkey's

Big Boy Milestones

All sorts of unassisted sitting, big boy restaurant high chairs, and eating solids have been going on around here!  Nathan's first meal was homemade sweet potatoes and although he still has his tongue thrust reflex and mostly just pushed them back out of his mouth, he was a great sport and smiled through it!  

Nathan - five months

Family Photoshoot

Here is a pretty sweet collage that the photographer put together from our family photoshoot taken in mid-October.  Gwen is 2yrs 9mo and Nathan, almost 4 months.  We'll be using some of the pics for our holiday card this year but here's a peak!

All photos were taken by Sarah Pratt Photography

Happy Halloween!

This year we've spent pretty much all of our October weekends at my parents' place in Salem.  It's always a lot of fun because the town gets really into it and Halloween ends up being a month long celebration.  There's always something fun to do!

Annie Annie and Amber came to visit the weekend before Halloween and we had so much fun with them!  Gwen was especially excited to see them and I'm so glad that she gets to see her Vegas Aunt as often as she does.

Gwen has had a pretty long-lasting obsession with the movie Monsters, Inc.  So we decided that she and Nathan would dress as Sulley and Mike from the movie.  I was half expecting her to lose interest in the movie by this point and no longer be into wearing the costume, but any time anyone asked her who she was going to be for Halloween, she was excited to tell them and she ended up wearing the costume VERY proudly!  She got to wear her Sulley costume on 2 different days, and each time she stepped into it she shrieked with excitement!  I'm pretty sure if I don't hide it on her, she'll ask to wear it out on any given day.

Halloween fell on a Thursday and it was a little rainy this year, but that didn't dampen the party!  Both sets of Grandparents and Justin's brother's family were all with us.  We walked around town for a bit in the rain and by the time trick-or-treating started, it had cleared up.  We all had a blast, and Gwen and Nathan's costumes were a total hit!