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We decided some months ago that we would travel to Disney World this year for summer vacation. At first, I was unsure about this decision, given Sophia's age, etc. However, as the time to depart neared, I became more and more excited to share this wonderful place with her. Toby and I knew that traveling with a small child would mean a very different Disney experience than we'd had in the past. On previous trips, Toby and I have hit the ground running, and didn't stop until we were on the plane home! It was all about seeing the various parks and riding as many rides as possible in as short a time as possible. For our first trip with Sophia, we wanted it to be about time with family, and letting her experience the colors, sounds and adventures the park has to offer.
This was Sophia's first time to fly. I was a little nervous about it, but more about getting through security than the actual flight. Sophia was content to hang out and play in the airport while waiting to board...
She did really well on both legs of the trip, and we arrived in Orlando late afternoon. After we got checked in to our hotel, we headed over to Hollywood Studios where we ate dinner and rode a couple of rides...
On Sunday, which was also Father's Day, we spent the day at the Magic Kingdom. Classic Disney...
It was quite hot, so we found ourselves taking frequent breaks and seeking shade and/or air conditioning...
We all know that Disney World is child friendly. Well, it's actually baby and toddler friendly as well (of course). There were a number of rides suitable for Sophia...
We rode several, and bypassed several given the length of the line. Another part of our trip that was a little different is we were more focused on meeting Disney characters. Toby and I have had our photo taken with characters before, but it was more of an afterthought, not a conscientious effort to see them, have a photo taken, and get an autograph (yes, we bought the ubiquitous autograph book). One of our first character encounters was at lunch at the Magic Kingdom. We booked a character lunch at the Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh and friends. Sophia enjoyed seeing the characters, and wasn't frightened by them at all...
Even on the 'dark', sometimes noisy rides, Sophia seemed to have a lot of fun...
One of the things we did to get a break from the heat and to rest our feet for a bit was to see shows. We saw the singing bear show at the Magic Kingdom, the show at the United States pavilion at Epcot, and we also saw Finding Nemo at Animal Kingdom...
I highly recommend seeing this show. It's a unique puppet-based show that is a condensed version of the movie-length tale. Very colorful and entertaining!
I don't know about the other parents at Disney, but there were several characters who we saw, and we had to ask who they were before we stepped up to get our photo taken. Case in point....
Rafikki! Had to have someone else in line refresh our memories! I'm sure as Sophia gets older, and watches the Disney movies (over and over again, probably), I'll learn about the characters.
Of course, while at the Animal Kingdom, we wanted to see animals. And we did. We saw a lion, a tiger, giraffes, etc. But we also rode the train around to the area called the 'Affection Section' where kids can have hands-on interaction with the animals...
She petted the goat and helped her Daddy brush the sheep. She seemed to enjoy seeing the animals up close!
Of course, while we're on vacation, we get to do things we might not at home. Like eat soft serve. Straight out of the dish...
During our five days at Disney, we did a lot of fun things as a family, including hanging out at the pool, attending a Princess Dinner, and taking naps in the afternoon. However, it's way too much fun to pack in to a single blog post. Stay tuned, and check out our flickr page as I upload more photos from the trip. Actually, I didn't take as many photos as I expected I would. That's okay, though, because it meant I was present in the moment more, instead of behind the lens. All in all, a great family trip with lots of memories for Mommy and Daddy.
I've just added a fun new feature to our blog! If you scroll down and look at the right hand side of the blog, after the birthday and anniversary tickers, you'll see what's call a tag cloud. Basically, a tag cloud is a visual depiction of user-generated tags, or simply the word content of a site, used typically to describe the content of web sites. Tags are usually single words and the importance of a tag is shown with font size or color. Basically, it looked at the frequency of use of words in our blog. Of course, you'll notice the words 'Sophia', 'Slinkard', 'family', and 'thankful' appear largest and boldest (is boldest a word? it is now...). I'm pretty proud of those words.
We had a busy, but enjoyable weekend. And what a weekend it was - great weather, with lots of sunshine. On Friday evening, we got a wild hair to go to the drive-in movie to see Disney's new animated movie Up. 
We figured we could go and enjoy the movie and that Sophia might watch part of it, but if not, it would be late and she'd go to sleep. We packed a little 'picnic' of snacks and drinks, and even brought along Sophia's pajamas so we could change if she got sleepy. Well, suffice it to say that Sophia is officially still too young to go the movies. Even at the drive-in. I'm proud of her...she did really well. She just didn't focus on the movie, and didn't understand why we were just hanging out in the back of the car without lots of toys. Because the sound was a bit loud, it was hard for her to go to sleep, so she got a bit fussy. She did finally doze off near the end, and certainly crashed on the way home. For those who haven't yet seen the movie, I recommend it. It's not what I was expecting. Of course, if you see it in the theater (i.e., not the drive-in), you'll be able to see it in 3-D, which would probably be fun!
On Saturday morning, we took advantage of the gorgeous weather to do something I've wanted to do for a while - visit the Botanical Gardens of the Ozarks to see the plantings/flowers and take some photos. I was amazed at the variety of plants at the gardens. Some are pretty exotic...
The gardens are divided into smaller gardens such as the Japanese garden, the Ozark Native garden, etc. There's a children's garden that has lots of fun things to climb/crawl on and a number of whimsical touches. Sophia and Daddy climbed up the ramp to the lookout...
There is a pretty blue bridge that crosses one of the ponds...
In the gardens there is also a covered 'porch' of sorts with two swings...the prefect place to cool off for a few minutes...
Numerous beautiful varieties of plants and flowers...
And, some amazing garden architecture...
Sophia enjoyed playing in the fountain in the shade garden...
Though it doesn't look that way, she also enjoyed getting to crawl in the grass!
We had a great time, but it got rather warm, rather quickly! We decided to head back home to cool off. I encourage all the local folks to go visit the gardens this summer. It's free admission on Saturday mornings from 9:00 - 12:00. You can see all of our photos from the Botanical Gardens on our flickr page.On Sunday afternoon, we headed over to Uncle Cliff and Aunt Niki's house to enjoy some pool time. The sunny conditions and warm temperature were perfect. We also had the benefit of having the pool warmed!
Sophia got a new swimsuit with a floaty built in. We decided to try it out...
It works really well at supporting her, but she still tips forward or backward pretty easily!
We had fun just enjoying the water and the sun...
They had a giant blow-up walrus pool floaty, which Sophia enjoyed...
Aunt Susie was kind enough to take a photo of us as a family...
Then it was time for a juice break!
Then back in the pool to blow bubbles with Daddy...
And hang out in the shallow end with Mommy...
Sophia and I got out of the pool first, and got dressed. While I was packing some things inside the pool house, I looked over and Sophia had crawled to the window, pulled up, and was looking out at Toby swimming in the pool, smiling, and patting the window. I had to get a shot of that! Too cute...
Now it's Sunday evening. Sophia is already in bed, and I think Toby has fallen asleep on the couch. Too much sun, perhaps? What a great weekend, indeed. Good memories.
Now for tomorrow....Sophia has her MRI at 8:00a. We have to be at the hospital by 7:30a. No food/drink after midnight. Should be fun {not}. Hopefully, everything will go okay, the sedation will work, and she will wake up her normal happy self. Prayers would be appreciated.
Apparently so! This is how I found her this morning when I went to wake her up. So sweet...
Sophia has a new 'game'. Well, perhaps not a game, but certainly a new favorite activity. Here's how it goes.
First, she takes off crawling toward her bedroom, occasionally glancing back to see if we're watching. She proceeds to crawl into her room, and over to one of the book shelves. She pulls herself up, and proceeds to pull every book off the shelf she can reach, and throw it into the floor...
After the shelf is empty, and the floor littered, she plops down amongst all the books and begins to look at them, one by one. Now, mind you, her attention span is not that long. So, if the pictures are not interesting enough, or if she's having a difficult time turning the pages, she'll drop a book like a hot potato and move on to the next one!
Ya know...I don't even mind picking up after her. After all, she's engaged with books. She sees the words on the page, and even babbles sometimes as she's looking at them. Hopefully this is a sign of a lifetime love of books and reading.
Rafikki! Had to have someone else in line refresh our memories! I'm sure as Sophia gets older, and watches the Disney movies (over and over again, probably), I'll learn about the characters.
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