Trunk or Treat and Pumpkins

Our annual picture with the Jack-o-lantern, Elli and Fergi:)

Carving the pumpkin.

My little lambs from Cubbies. I co-lead these munchkins with Deanna and Steven. Such fun we had. Since we were going to be out of town for trick or treat, we decided to beg at Heather's house. She gave Elli a piece of candy and some money. Elli got a generous streak though and gave it back:) She was sharing.

We also stopped at mom's for some candy. This little fairy knows how to coax the candy out of anyone.

Hike in the Cedarville Gorge

Yes, Elli is wearing a santa outfit to show off her leaf collection from our hike. How fitting?:)

We walked for an hour and Elli didn't ask me once to hold her. We had a great time!

She wanted to lead the way the whole time. She really was excited to find all kinds of leaves and rocks, and nuts, and other things. So thankful for a warm day.

Finding a colorful tree. A lot of the leaves had already fallen, so it was fun to find a tree with the leaves still on and colorful.

Friday, our last day, Magic Kingdom:)

This was early the next morning. We were told we couldn't take her balloon on the plane so she asked an attendant to give it to a little girl going to Disney World:) She is a sweet little girl, don't you think?

We went to Downtown Disney for ice cream and walking around. She had wanted to ride the carousel at Magic Kingdom before we left, but it broke down, so we let her ride this little one.

A week without naps and late nights was hard on this little girl, as well as her parents:) She fell asleep soon after leaving the Magic Kingdom for our last time. She picked a pluto for her souvenier. She made a wish on him to turn him into a girl, and the next morning she said it worked because he had sparkly fur:)

This was the closest we got to the Fairy Godmother. The line was closed so I took this picture so she could remember what the Fairy Godmother looked like.

We loved riding the Barnstormer:)

We got to ride the magic carpets. Elli was bummed that she couldn't make the carpets rock back and forth, but it was fun still. (The button was broken)

Action shot on Big Thunder Mountain. We asked Elli what rides she wanted to do again at Magic Kingdom since it was our last day. She picked this one, the carousel, the carpets, Barnstormer, Splash mountain, and I think Snow White. We opted out of snow white since she didn't really like it the first time, but fit the rest in. She loves rides!!!

We finally got to meet Tiana and Naveen. Each day we were too late to get in line so I waited here while Brent and Elli went straight to the carousel. She loved talking to her. Being first in line, Elli got lots of attention. They talked to her for a while. When we were leaving Tiana asked Elli if we were her Mamarazzi and her Paparazzi. Elli said no:)

Elli decided to be brave and try to get her picture with these ladies all by herself. Go Elli!

Her favorite horse was available! She told us she wanted to ride the flower horse and on our last day, she found it. She was so thrilled!!! It's the small things people!

Day 6, Hollywood Studios (Thursday)

Not the best picture but the ferry had so many characters!

Mickey in the show Fantasmic. Sadly, we went to this after terrifying Elli on the Tower of Terror. (She kept asking if she was going to twinkle like the people in the movie, i.e Twilight Zone. As we were flying down, Elli was near tears thinking we were going to twinkle away) Anyway, this show was about the evil characters trying to take over Mickey's imagination, so it showed all the evil villians very close up on the water spray background. Needless to say, Elli had a hard time sleeping that night. I found her the next morning still totally covered in her covers.

This picture cracks me up. She so wanted her picture with these actors. This was pose #5:)

Hollywood Studios:) Elli didn't like this as much as the other parks, since there were not so many rides, but the shows were awesome.

Meeting Quincy and June after seeing PlayHouse Disney live. She was quite excited.

We loved Beauty and the Beast, well most of us:) Elli only loved Beauty and the other girls in pink dresses:)

Play House Disney was a fun show, if you enjoyed sitting on the floor surrounded by lots of kids singing and dancing along:)

One of Elli's favorite moments was seeing The Little Mermaid show. She was a little confused about why Ariel wasn't swimming around though and was stuck on her rock:) Good thing she got legs at the end!

And yes, Minnie Mouse again. We wanted to go to the Toy Story ride first, but it was not working so we sent Brent to get a fast pass while we talked to Minnie. We did get to ride it later though as well as Tower of Terror.

Elli was making a wish while holding her balloon. Not sure what she was wishing for, but it is cute nonetheless:)

Day 5, Magic Kingdom again, swimming, parade and fireworks

Truly magical again!!!

I loved it. Firworks make me happy.

Elli was so surprised to see Tinker Belle flying from the top of the castle. I didn't get a picture of her, but Elli will not forget:)

We met up with some of the Raymonds. Elli was so excited! She asked all day of we were going to spend time with Lily. Sven took Caroline to another spot during the parade since there were too many people around. Elli was on Brent's shoulders, Lily was on mine. Some really nice people next to us held Andrew on their shoulders so he could watch the electrical parade. It was really cool.

Brent said he has a picture of himself in front of this mickey when he came to Disney World as a child. Fun times.

This was the pool at our resort with the pirate ship. It also had a big slide which Elli did all by herself! There were three pools there total. Lots of fun to be had! Elli learned to dive this trip. Always something new when she is in the water.

Yes, we saw Ariel again. I said Elli's name loud enough for Ariel to hear and then when she went up, Ariel said, "Hi princess Elli." Elli was amazed and knew for sure that they were friends after that!!!

We waited in line to see more princesses. Belle was wearing her yellow dress and Elli was ready to show off her own yellow dress. Elli really did love the princesses.

Cinderella again. We went back to the Magic Kingdom on Wednesday the 13th. Elli was ready to see more princesses and ride more rides. We went to Mickey's house and Minnie's, rode the Barnstormer, the carousel, Pirates of the Carribean, and some other things. We went back for swimming and naps then came back in the evening for parade and fireworks:)

Day 4, Animal Kingdom

We decided to go to Heather and Gary's room at the Dolphin after a long day at Animal Kingdom. We tried swimming but it was a little chilly, so we walked to the boardwalk and had dinner. Great ending to the day aside from Elli throwing up in their bathroom:)

Thank you Heather and Gary for letting us come over and for joining us for some time at the parks.

We all loved the Lion King show. It was so fun!!!

These monkeys were hilarious and fun to watch as they remained in character with all they did.

When I saw there was a petting zoo, I knew Elli would love to see goats:) What else can they safely put in a petting zoo? I was right though, she loved it.

Hi, Jiminy Cricket!

Pochantas was so sweet.

Finally a ride for Elli. There are more shows than anything else at the Animal Kingdom and Elli was getting a little restless.

Like I said, Elli hunted down Minnie mouse as often as possible.

Not the best shot, but we wanted a picture of the two of us in front of the tree of life.

The safari was awesome. We saw so many animals. Even the lion cooperated with a huge yawn, of course, right after I took this:)

Is this baby elephant the cutest thing you have ever seen? She was running after another elephant.

This giraffe was also running when we were going by. It was so much fun!

The safari was a great ride and we loved seeing all the animals. We saw an Okapi which Elli and I had just seen at the zoo. We love those animals.