Animal Kingdom: Rain, Friends, A Yeti, and More Rain!

Yay! We finally made it to the 1st "official" day of Disney! I am so excited to tell you all about it, but before I get started I am going to do a "thoughts before park" and "thoughts after the park" on each park. I always go into things with something in mind, so I am anxious to share what things were completely different than what I was thinking or planned. 

Ok, lets get started! Day 1 was Animal Kingdom (que the Lion King music: "oh I just can't wait to be king" As soon as I stepped foot inside the park, my head was full of Lion King music. Guess it was the atmosphere!_ and I had it planned this way, thinking it would be our least favorite park. I figured it was just a big zoo, and we would be done by lunch. We could head back to the hotel and enjoy the pool. WRONG! 

 

Tuesday 5am- This Mama's eyes are wide open! I am so excited to get the day started. The park opened at 9, and everything I had read up on said to be at the park entrance 30 minutes before opening, if not more. I also knew transportation would take some time, so I knew my family that is very hard to wake up, would need extra time to wake up! With this being our 1st trip, I did not plan on doing any of the breakfast dining. I figured with two small children, the parks would be plenty and I did not want to over-do us. We are not huge breakfast eaters anyway, so in our checked luggage I packed pop-tarts, granola bars, and muffins. This was plenty to get this family ready for the park! To my happy surprise, everyone woke up easily! I think it is the Disney "magic" they place in all the rooms. 

We finally made it to the park, right at 9 am. This "OCD Mama" was a little nervous at first because we were off schedule by about 30 minutes, but once I saw Jagger's face see the entrance to the park, all that went away. It is absolutely beautiful!

Before we left the hotel that morning, I had kind of made a small plan. I knew what rides we would for sure want to do. I had read where the Safari was best to hit first thing in the morning. So what does this Mom do? As soon as my feet are in the park, I am making a b-line to the Safari. First let me remind you, these are not little parks that you can just walk to each attraction. No, these parks are huge and it is a lot of walking. It takes a good 5 minutes or more to get to the back of the park depending on the crowds. Another big thing I learned while we are there, it is very hard to make a 5 year old focus on getting to the back of the park when he is seeing a million things he wants to do on the way!! The whole way trying to get to the Safari, Jagger is yelling at things he wants to do RIGHT then. Thankfully he was in a stroller, and this girl wasn't slowing down! ;)  We finally get to the Safari and we got to walk right on. I was really thankful for this because I had heard sometimes you have to get Fast Passes for this ride! We loved every minute of this ride. The weather was not too hot. We actually got to see some beautiful animals. Even Hudson enjoyed the ride! Once we got off the Safari, we met up with our really good friends, The Hatch Family!! What was so awesome about this is we did not even plan on being at Disney the same time. It just happened! I was literally jumping up and down when I found out they were there! It made the trip even better! They have been to Disney many times, so I was happy to have them to show us the ropes! I can't remember what all rides we rode after we met up with them. All I know is that right as we were finishing up lunch, the torrential down pour started! It was insane!!! Thankfully, I did have ponchos! We really thought it would clear up...No...this went on for awhile then it decided to clear up! About every 30 minutes, torrential down pour would happen and all we could was stand there in our ponchos. All I could was laugh! Thankfully getting wet was ok because we had rode the River Rapids so many times we were already drenched. 

In between all the downpours, sweet Stephne talked me into Mount Everest! See it in the background...Beautiful huh? but you can't hear all the scream from people riding it..

 First let me explain, I am not a huge "rider". Dumbo, is about my level of excitement.  "Megan, come on" "Its no big deal" "It's not scary at all" "You will love it". Matthew even chimed in, "We came 900 miles, you should do it once"....the next thing I know I am getting strapped in a little train! 5 seconds later we zoom off. I am pretty sure I broke Stephne's hand from gripping it the hold ride! She laughed the entire ride, I screamed and thought I was going to die! I really wish you could zoom in on my face! It is priceless! I am screaming like a baby!! Waylon and Steph are haivng a blast!

After I survived the roller coaster, oh I forgot to tell you, It has an 80 FOOT drop and a Big Yeti that doesn't want you to escape his mountain!  Yes 80 ft! 1 time was enough for me! Sorry Yeti, you can catch someone else! ;) When I got off, it was time to make Daddy get on! Again, Steph is having a blast. Matthew, at least more fun that me! He did get off and say it was intense! Maybe, I am not crazy! (what really bothers me, is the little guy behind Steph that is not even bothered at all)

In between the excitement of the roller coasters and other rides, we decided we needed to see Festival of the Lion King! It's basically a "broad-way" show of the Lion King! We had Fast Passes for this so we didn't have to wait to long and our seats were excellent! This was one of my favorite things while we were there. The music was awesome and the costumes. WOW!!! gorgeous! Totally worth going and I am not really sure who enjoyed it the most, the parents or the kids! Jagger even got picked to go out and dance with the performers. We were so shocked that he did it. Normally he would be too shy, but after a few seconds he got right out there! Such a fun time!

 We ended up closing the park down by riding the River Rapids over and over! It was great! We could walk off and right back on. I have been told this does not happen many times at Disney parks! If you noticed I havent' said anything about food! This will have to be a whole post by itself.

Thoughts after the park:

This park is so much more than a Zoo. We loved it! There was a lot we didn't get to do. I can't wait to go back and see the rest!

Lion King is a must! Great for everyone in the family! If you get a Fast Pass, then the seats are awesome. We were right on the front!

Kali River Rapids was Jagger's favorite ride. It is a lot of fun. Warning: you will get soaked! I started out wearing a poncho and then with all the rain figured, what the heck! We ended up trying to see who could get the wettest on the ride! ;)

The Safari ride was beautiful! 

Yak and Yeti is a great place to eat! We all loved our food!

We had such a great day! Like I said, we ended up closing the park down at 5. After we left the park, Jagger fell asleep on the bus back to the hotel. He was exhausted. We ordered pizza for supper that night and all were asleep by 8!

Tomorrow: Hollywood Studios

Hope everyone has a blessed day!

Lots of love

2 Kids, 2 Hour Delay and Storms!

Wooohoo! I am so happy to finally get to sit down to write! I have so much to catch up on. I am going to use each day to write about the different parks we visited at Disney! Yesterday, Jagger and I ended up at Urgent Care due to fever, body aches and headaches. They tested us for flu and strep. Both came back negative, so they diagnosed us with a "virus". I don't really like this because I want to know what it is! I need a name :) Oh well..all that matters is today we are feeling better! Matthew and I were laughing because we go on an awesome trip then come home sick..this is how our life goes! Ok, enough about all of this. Lets get to the good stuff!

Sunday night- There was no sleeping going on in our house! We were all so excited. Poppa had drove up so he could take us to the airport early Monday morning. We had decided he would drop us off and bring our car home instead of leaving it for the week. We finally got to sleep around midnight, knowing we had to be up around 5:30.
Monday- This excited Mama was awake at 4;30. I am telling you I was more excited about this than Christmas. This has been a dream of mine since I was a little girl. I really think I was starting to scare Matthew with all the excitement I had, and I truly had no clue what to expect! We finally were in the car and ready to leave by 6:30.

Hudson had just woke up so I didn't have time to get his Mickey shirt on! and we were finally off to the airport! Oh, and several people had scared us to death about flying with children and how horrible it is to get through security. That we should be there a few hours in advance and all this other stuff. I had even called the airport and she told us to the be there around 8:30.
My dad gets us there about 8:15 and while he is dropping us off I get a message that we are delayed 1 hour. Boo- I don't like delays especially with small children and we have no vehicle! I kept telling myself, "It's no biggie, time will go by fast"   We get to check in and there is absolutely no one except us there! It's like we are the only people in the airport! Check in- 5 minutes. Security- 10 minutes! We zipped through everything! Around 9 we make it to our gate, so that means 2 hours until our flight takes off. Time to break out the movies and everything else to pass the time! Hudson and I decided we will just tour the Memphis airport and eat breakfast!

enjoying some bacon, ready to leave~

While we are enjoying our bacon, I get another message that says we delayed another hour, so this will put us behind 2 hours! If you are doing the math in your head, this means we will be in the Memphis airport for 4 hours with two small children and nothing to do!! I was about to panic, but what would that have helped. Nothing. I said a small prayer and decided we would make the most of it! I got Jagger and decided to show him around the WHOLE airport and we would get to enjoy lunch here also! (this was not our original plans..we were suppose to be in Florida by 2pm and have the afternoon to enjoy downtown Disney!)
After several hours of walking around the airport, lots of whining, buying junk we didn't need, eating lunch, it was finally time to board. We went from this.......

to this..

Jagger was SO excited about flying! He has talked about flying for a year! He could hardly wait to get up in the air. Mommy and daddy, not so much! We were ready to land and get our feet back on the ground. We let Jagger pick the spot and he picks the very back row. At first I was ok with this because I figured we would not bother as many people, but when we began to take off, I was not happy. We were pretty much straight on our backs. I felt so sick. I think Matthew had claw marks in his arms. Hudson was not to excited about the take off either. Once we finally got straightened out, it was not so bad! Jagger looked out the window the whole time. Hudson got antsy. Matthew tried to take a nap. Me- made sure everyone was ok. Handed out ipads, ipods, food, drinks, took Jagger to the bathroom, put stuff back in bags. I was busy making sure everyone had everything. We start getting close to Orlando and they tell us there are storms. Blah. I was not looking forward to this. Dear Jesus, Just let us land! ;)
We finally make it to Orlando. The landing was not bad at all but it was storming. Thunder and lots of rain. Torrential downpour! The first day had not been the best but we refused to let it bring us down!! By 6:30 or 7, we finally make it to our hotel! We were all so excited to check it out! It is amazing how as soon as you step foot in the door, the atmosphere changes. Everyone is happy. Mickey Mouse is everywhere. I can't even explain how awesome it was and we were just in the hotel! ;)
We decide to eat grab a quick supper and head to downtown Disney! I was hoping the rain would stop but it for sure didn't. I actually think it got worse. In the midst, of being excited, I left our rain ponchos in the hotel room. We make it to Downtown Disney and it was like a monsoon. We would just have to toughen it out! We walk around for about 30 minutes and decide it was not worth it, we would just head back to our hotel and get rested for the next day! I did poke my head in and ask what ponchos would cost us- $9 for adults, $8 for kids... $34 in ponchos! Ummmm, no thank you. We will just get soaking wet and laugh while we are doing it!  Even in all the rain, we still had fun! There are so many awesome stores down there. Jagger and Matthew had lots of fun trying on all the hats they saw!

 When we finally made it back to the bus, we looked like drowned rats!! We were all wet, tired and ready for bed! I really don't even remember falling asleep that night. I think we all just passed out as soon as we walked in the door!
I was just happy we made to Disney safely and with no major issues!!
Hope everyone has a blessed day!!  Tomorrow- Animal Kingdom
Lots of love.

Home Sweet Home!

Hey everyone!! We are finally home from the best vacation ever, and when I say best, I mean BEST!! It was amazing! Over the next week I am going to do a recap of the whole trip! You may get bored reading but I am happy to have this blog to go back and see what all we have done!
I had heard so many things about Disney- you will be exhausted, you won't want to go back for a few years, people are rude, lines are long, kids are cranky, etc....None of this true was for us! We are officially hooked to Disney and we ARE going back. I am already looking at times for next year and how much we need to be putting back a week so we can go! It was seriously the best trip for our family! We had so many precious memories made and sweet Jagger had those dimples showing the whole time we were there!
It truly is the most magical place you could ever go! I grew up in a Disney loving home, so my appreciation for it was even more! I remember being at the movie theater as a little girl waiting to watch, Little Mermaid and Beauty and The Beast. I was probably more excited than anyone about the whole trip. I can't wait to share our adventure with everyone!! ;)
Hope everyone has a blessed day!
Lots of love

Friday Favorites: Fair Week!

Here in our town it is Fair Week!!! My Jagger LOVES the fair! He is almost obsessed but I have had to explain to him that we can not go out every single night! With the fair and all the excitement going on, here are some of my favorites....

Favorite fair parade moment:
watching our kids reactions during the parade! Oh, to see things through the eyes of a child!

Love those dimples!!

Favorite fair food:
Fried oreos!! possibly one of the best things I have ever put in my mouth!

Favorite view:  I am not a huge "rider" but I do like the Ferris wheel!

Favorite thing to watch: Jagger riding the super shot! We could not believe he wanted to ride this but he kept on, and kept on. I was scared for him but he did EXCELLENT!! Such a brave little boy!

Favorite Hudson moments: His faces have cracked me up! This was his first time to go to anything like because last year he was so sick! He has had more fun looking at all the lights!

OOOOOOOO!!!

Waiting on brother! 

Link up with Andrea at Momfessionals and tell us what you are loving!!!
Hope everyone has a blessed weekend!
Lots of love..

Stand Up!

I am really getting fed up with the world we are living in! It is awful. This morning during prayer time I barely knew where to start because there are so many prayer requests!! There is so much going on in the world right now that it makes my heart hurt! Last night I watched a few minutes of the news and I wanted to cry. I hate the way our world has changed for the worse in the last 10 years and its only going to get worse.
As a Christian, I am tired of people/groups trying to take away all we have. It's time to take a stand for what we believe. I have been very saddened at the Christians here lately who have let things happen strictly because they don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. They don't want to go against what everyone else is doing even though it goes against God.
What makes me so mad is that everything being done to Christians offends me, but we don't run off and throw a big fit. We don't call all the news stations, NAACP, gay rights, and whatever other group when things go wrong or we get offended. Last week, Arkansas State University was faced with an opportunity to stand up when one person threw a big fit because they had crosses on the back of their helmets! At first they were told they had to take the helmets off, but by the end of the week they were able to put them back on. From what I am told, the community really came together and took a stand! See what happens when Christians come together and take a stand for what we want! If we would just get a backbone and STAND. Wow!! What could happen!
Are you ready to take a stand with me??? If you see or hear something that goes against God's word, then lets take a stand! If someone offends you, tell them! If anything lets do this for God. I mean my goodness, Jesus was beaten, spit on, and hung on a cross to die. I really don't think he wanted to do this or had fun doing it, but he did it for us! If we love him, I think this is the least we can do for him also!
Hope everyone has a blessed day!
Lots of love..

Grateful Heart Monday: Miracles!

Yay! Today is Monday and I am super excited about having a grateful heart!

I have so many things I am grateful for, but this last week our community was brought together by a little girl in our town who became sick very fast! Thursday morning, very early Matthew and I woke up to our phones going off. Both phone calls were prayer chain for a family in our church. Their little girl, Carley, was being airlifted to Memphis. During the day, she had gone home from school with a headache and fever and by 1am she was being airlifted. They had no clue what was going on. The day and night continued to get worse. By 11am, we were getting phone calls that doctors were giving her a 1% chance of surviving. I can not tell you the pain my heart felt. All I could do was cry and pray! Prayers were going up everywhere for this sweet family. Within a few hours, we were getting calls that she was showing signs of slight improvement. The next day,  we were still getting good news reports! This child is a miracle! We watched God take a 1%  chance and work with it! She is still in ICU and has a long road. They still need many prayers but prayer is a wonderful thing and it does work! 

I am so grateful for prayer and that our God is in the miracle business! This whole situation hit home with me. I have been a bawl bag the whole time. I have felt like I have been right there in the ICU with them. For all you new readers, I delivered our 2nd child at 27 weeks and spent right at 5 months in the NICU with him. It was a life changing moment for our family. You can go back and read all about it

Dreaming ...this was just the beginning and you can read on from there! 

Thursday when we got the call, my heart sank because I know what it is like to see your baby lay in the hospital bed and there is nothing you can do. I have seen Hudson flat line several times and had no clue if they could get him back...I have been told he would HAVE to have surgeries and then ended up not having them...I have been told he had a small chance of survival...I have been told he would have many things wrong.......It has been a hard road, and I know there are many more out there who have seen worse, but I know that no matter what God is there! God is with us and I know that we will all receive that healing we are looking for whether it is here or in heaven! So again, I am so grateful for prayers and being able to go to our Heavenly Father about what we need! 

Link up with Ember Grey and tell us what you are grateful for! 

Hope everyone has a blessed day!

Lots of love..

Friday Favorites: Animal Print!

Woohoo..It is Friday and I am ready to talk about my favorites!

 Normally, I do favorites from the week but today I want to talk about my favorite things in my closet, anything leopard print! I have this weird obsession and have had it before my beloved print started becoming popular! Ask my mom! I have pictures of me from 5th grade when I was sporting a denim vest that had leopard print collar. I also had an all leopard print room along with my super cool email address- babyleapord, and yes I know it is spelt wrong, but the right spelling was already taken! Ok, so I am hoping you get the point! Basically, Leopard print is my neutral! You can never go wrong and in my book it is never out of style!!
Here are a few of my favorite leopard print pieces!

 I just bought this shirt and I am super excited about it! I think it will be a great piece for fall. I loved it with black skinny jeans and I am thinking I have some sort of wedge booties that will finish the look off!

A solid black cardigan is a must in any closet! you can do so many things with them! I love it because I have lots of different animal print tanks from summer....solution- throw a solid cardigan over it and boom, you have a fall outfit!

This is just a regular printed top. I enjoy wearing this with a maroon flowy cardigan for fall! I can also dress this up with black slacks or a black pencil skirt!

This is a printed sweatshirt from Old Navy!! I love it so much. The material is so soft and it looks super cute with dark jeans and boots!

Everyone needs a leopard cardigan!

These are absolutely my favorite shoes right now! The leopard sneaker! They are so comfy. I love to throw them on with skinny jeans and a graphic tee! super cute and fun!

Be still my heart!!!! 2 things I love the most! Leopard and a wedge! put them together and it is a match made in heaven! These are just too much for me to stand! I already have so many outfits to wear them with. I can't hardly wait!

I also have several scarves that always make me smile. Oh,  I almost forgot the smoking flat...these look super cute when you are needing a shoe that is a little more dressy!!

I have quite a few other things but I really figure you are thinking this is a little much! ;) This is what I might look like if I knew it was not in complete violation of what is considered too much animal print at one time....

Rock on Shania! :)

Link up with Momfessionals and tell us your Friday Favorites!!
Hope everyone has a blessed Friday!
Lots of love..