disney trip part 1

i've decided to break this post down into two parts simply because of the mass amount of pictures that i have. 

a few weeks ago, our family along with my parents and my sister's family, ventured to florida for a disney cruise followed by a few days at disney world.  to say we had a great time would be an understatement.  jeff and i really enjoyed our cruise with the girls last spring.  we knew we would enjoy cruising again, but we had no idea how magical disney cruises are.  we, as well as our girls, were in awe as soon as we stepped on the boat.  mickey and minnie were already making appearances and we spotted goofy walking on an upper floor.  kevyn was star struck!  her jaw dropped and her eyes were wide open!  seeing her face as she watched the characters is a memory i will hold onto forever. 

this was also the girls first plane ride.  that was an adventure by itself.

on the boat:

everyone time they brought the girls ketchup, they poured it in the shape of mickey mouse.

all sprinkles were in the shape of mickey.

we got to take pictures with so many characters...

...and get autographs!

the boat had wonderful shows every night.  lots of singing and dancing - that's right up kevyn's alley.  so needless to say when we were in a lounge waiting for our port adventure and the girls found an empty stage, they put on their own show for onlookers.

in nassau on our way to a submarine ride.

each night you got to experience a different dining room.  however, your servers stayed the same and followed you to the different locations.  our servers were aut and henry.  they were so kind and aut was very talented in making various things with the napkins when the kiddos started to get fussy.  here he made neely a hat.  she was thrilled.  ;)

more sprinkles!

kevyn really enjoyed her dessert before taking these pictures...  goodness.

i just love how the girls would look at the characters.

this sneaky guy swiped kevyn's sunglasses!

one of the mornings the ship had a princess meet & greet.  so the girls put on their best princess pajamas dresses and "crayons" or crowns.  and since we were headed straight to the pool next, they had on their swimsuits and flip-flops underneath.  this was the only character meet & greet that we had to wait in line for a lengthy amount of time.  it was well worth it.  the princess' did a wonderful job of not rushing the girls and answering all of their questions.  and let me tell you, they had a few.  natalie was very curious as to what was under ariel's dress - her tail or her legs.   

tinker bell informed the girls that she and ariel were very good friends and that sometimes she shares her pixie dust with ariel and they go flying together.  this picture makes me smile because i can only imagine what nat is asking her :)

aut made kelby a boot.

one evening we had a pirate party that ended with a firework show.  it. was. amazing!!!  

on disney's island - castaway cay:

ice cream cone in one hand, shoveling dirt with the other - she is in heaven :)

i only had one kid brave enough to take a picture with captain hook

there was always live music going on in the atrium and because kevyn has "happy feet" we usually had to pause for a moment so she could dance a bit.  here she had neely join in on the fun.

that's it for now.  part 2's post will include our trip to disney world.