BFFs

Last weekend we went to a picnic at my parents house and many friends and family were there -- and it's so fun because now there are lots of other kids for Imogen to play with! The little boy in these photos is Tristan. He was born 2 days after Imogen (on Imogen's due date!) and he lives several hours away, so we don't get to see him very often. Imogen enjoyed stealing his puffs and, with the help of a couple other little girls, ate all of them! It was so funny seeing all the girls stuffing their face with puffs while the little boy played happily to the side and could have cared less.
The little girl is Imogen's BFF, Leah. Leah is 9 months older than Imogen and loves her so! When Leah saw me for the first time at the picnic, she yelled, "Imi!" It was so cute! Leah and her parents live close to my parents so when we go to see them, we get to visit often. Now that Imogen is a tad older and into other kiddos and playing, it's been fun watching her and Leah together. We hope they continue to enjoy each others friendship and company :-)

Trip to Florida: Part V (The Finale!)

Saturday was our last full day in Orlando and our plan was for each mini-van (we had 2) to take a group to their collective favorite rides/games from earlier in the week. The mini-van we rode in first went to Hollywood Studios to ride the Toy Story Midway Mania game. It was definitely worth another try, although I think I did better the first time. Then, Chris, Imogen and I ate a little breakfast while the others went to ride the Rockin' Roller Coaster. We made great time, getting into the park and riding both rides within an hour and a half.

Our next stop was Epcot -- and we were there just in time for lunch! We ate at the Mexican Restaurant and it was very tasty. Imogen was such a good girl and slept through the entire meal! After eating lunch, we swung by Norway for another almond pretzel and went shopping in Germany.

Here we are at the end of lunch in Mexico. Imogen was sleeping in the stroller between us.

Next, we jetted off to the Magic Kingdom for something we completely missed the first time -- a photo in front of Cinderella's Castle. We also decided to wait in the obnoxiously long line to ride Dumbo. Imogen was sleeping when we were in Fantasyland on Tuesday, and we felt like she should ride Dumbo of any ride at Disney. Overall, it was a very hot day! Our first day without rain all week, so it was a tad miserable...you know, all the sweating and feeling gross and the constant thirst. But we didn't stop going and going! I think the sunny weather just made us thankful that it wasn't like that every day of the week!

Chris had been carrying around a backpack with our camera in it and when he took it off, I captured a photo of what was left behind -- and exact outline of the bag in sweat! Yes, it was that hot!

Waiting for the gate to open so we could get on Dumbo!

The best photo we got of the 3 of us on Dumbo :)

Our last stop of the day was at Downtown Disney to meet the other half of our group and eat dinner at Portabello, an Italian restaurant. It was delicious, but inside the restaurant was FREEZING. So cold, in fact, that the waiter brought all the girls tablecloths to wear as shawls since we only had tank tops on. After the meal, we were excited to go back out in the heat, but it had rained while we ate and cooled down tremendously! So, we all ran into the stores and bought sweatshirts.


A final group photo before we headed home the next morning! It was a great (albeit exhausting) trip! :-) I hope you enjoyed following along! (if you made it this far--haha!)

Trip to Florida: Part IV

Wednesday we went to Blizzard Beach and unfortunately took NO pictures! It is a very large water park with sand, so we decided to keep our camera clean and dry and locked it away in a locker when we got there. In hindsight, I wish we would have kept it out because Imogen had such a grand time playing in the kiddie area, called Tykes Peak, and we would have loved to capture her face on film. Oh well! We have those memories in our mind. We enjoyed lounging on the lazy river and even took Imogen on a very long family raft slide! Just as all the other rides she was on during the trip, I really think she just didn't know what was going on enough to enjoy them fully. But, as I mentioned above, she LOVED to play in the kiddie area. There were all kinds of fountains and spraying water and other kids that she loved to stare at. It was a great water park and I would definitely love to go back on our next trip to Orlando.

Thursday we went to Epcot. In the morning it was drizzling even before we left, so that made for a very empty park. However, the rain was never very bad and we enjoyed a day of short lines and small crowds.

The gang when we first got to the park.

We ate lunch at the hibachi in Japan called Tepon Edo. It was very tasty! I gave Imogen some rice and zuccini and to our surprise, she ate it! Our chef was a very old Japanese guy and he was awesome. He made an onion choo-choo complete with steam!

Imogen was asleep when we first got there, but as soon as she woke up, she wanted in on the chopstick action.

I got some great shots of her when we were finished eating.

Imogen had a great time!

Waiting in the lobby with Nunny and pointing to her nose! It was her favorite thing to do -- point at noses. Imogen can now point to my eyes, nose and mouth!

In Germany, we got our first and only character pictures during the trip -- with Winnie the Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore. The lines were always long at the characters and since Imogen doesn't know any of them yet, we didn't wait anywhere else.

While we waited for the laser show and fireworks, we let Imogen walk around and stretch her legs. Here she walks around with her Uncle Joe.

We definitely had a nice day of eating in Epcot! Food was the theme of the day! Chris and I had an almond pretzel in Norway, eggrolls in China, gelato in Italy, dinner in Japan, and ice cream at night! And the park was not crowded at all, so it was very nice not having to wait in long lines.

Friday was Animal Kingdom day!

A family picture with the Tree of Life in the background.

The first thing we rode here was the safari. This is my favorite picture Chris took during it -- of the lion. ROAR! There were some very cool animals to see, but since we live near the zoo in Pittsburgh, we have seen lots of them before. The bumpiness of the vehicle we were in put Imogen right to sleep, which was so nice and easy!

Unfortunately we forgot to charge our camera battery Thursday night so it died early in the day, therefore that's all the pictures we have of Animal Kingdom.

We have one more day to recap and it was a fun one! Look for the finale of our Trip to Florida coming soon! :-)

Trip to Florida: Part III

Tuesday we went to the Magic Kingdom and from the beginning, we knew it would be a long day. They have a parade and fireworks at 9pm -- so of course we had to stay for them. It was the first day in the parks where it rained on us, but besides being slightly annoying, it was a welcome cool down. It didn't slow our group down at all...we would go in to see movies or ride in-door rides during the heavy rain.

Imogen slept a looooooooong time this day! She took a 2 1/2 hour nap in the morning and then a 2 hour nap in the late afternoon! It was nice for Chris and I because we were able to ride some rides and do things that we couldn't take her on, but at the same time, for anyone who's been to Disney, you know you can't take strollers indoors at all, and we didn't want to take a sleeping baby out of the stroller -- so Chris and I diverged from the group a lot this day and just walked around. One thing we got to eat that we haven't had since our honeymoon in Hawaii is Dole Whip. I'm not sure exactly what makes it so special, it's really just like a soft-serve ice-cream, but it was so good and completely took us back to our time at the Dole Pineapple Plantation on Oahu. Chris got a root beer float with vanilla Dole Whip and I got a pineapple float (it was orange/vanilla twist Dole Whip in pineapple juice). They were incredibly tasty on a hot day!

Here are some pictures from the day:

Sleeping in the morning...almost as soon as we got into the park.

Imogen wore her Minnie polka dot crossover dress and cute pigtails!

She woke up while most of our group was waiting in line for Splash Mountain -- I stayed behind with her and Nana.

Nana and I rode the Mad Tea Party with Imogen -- I think she liked it!

Chris and I rode the Carousel with her. She stared at the center mirrors the whole time we circled.

The afternoon "Celebrate Today" parade. I think this character is Abu from Aladdin.

Sitting on Minnie's chair in her house in Toon Town. Imogen would have spent hours in this giant cartoon house if we have let her.

Waiting with mom for the fireworks show.

A closing family picture :-)

I know, I know -- we didn't get any pictures of/by the castle this day! Not to worry -- we went back on Saturday for a prime photo-op. Stay tuned!

Trip to Florida: Part II

Sunday we drove over to Orlando and got settled in our condo -- 12 adults, 2 tweens and a baby -- we were like one big happy family all crammed in there! That evening we went to Downtown Disney and enjoyed a delicious dinner at The Rainforest Cafe and walked around for awhile. Imogen got to ride her first Carousel -- I think she liked it! She also got her first Minnie stuffed animal. My mom bought it for her and when you push her white glove, she talks and says the cutest things. Imogen absolutely loves her! At the end of the day, she was completely exhausted and had a nice nap in her stroller.

Monday was Hollywood Studios. I had looked online before we left to see what days were the busiest in each park, and so we scheduled our days around those. It is a very fun park with an amazing new 3D ride -- Toy Story Midway Mania! It is a game more than a ride consisting of 2 people sitting behind toy guns (for lack of a better word) and shooting targets. The car moves from screen to screen and each is different and you try to score the most points. Perhaps it doesn't sound all that glamorous in my description, but of the 14 people in our group who can talk, 11 said it was the top thing in all of Disney at the end of the week. It really was so fun! And the bonus was that Imogen could ride along in our car and just watch, so we didn't have to leave her outside while we waited awhile in line.

My dad and brothers got to participate in another attraction at Hollywood Studios -- the making of the action movie: Harbor Attack. It was pretty cool, just browse through the series of photos below and you can get the gist. They were very good actors!

We also rode the Tower of Terror and the Rockin' Roller Coaster, which were both fun! Monday was a very hot day with no rain, so we were ready to leave that evening and spent time in the pool when we got back to the condo.

To be continued....

Trip to Florida: Part I

We recently got back from an action packed trip to Florida to visit family and take Imogen to Disney World for the first time. Since there are WAY too many pictures to post in one post, I'm going to do a series...and the first is our time in Tampa.

We flew down on Thursday July 2nd and enjoyed a nice smooth flight after a one-hour delay in Pittsburgh. We had a direct flight, which was key...and also another thing we learned was to take late afternoon flights whenever possible. It was so nice not having to get up before the sun and race around to get to the airport on time. My aunt and uncle picked us up at the airport and we stayed with them until Sunday. It was so nice to visit and I was excited for them to see Imogen -- it had been about 11 months since they had! Imogen has grown so much from last August!

My aunt and uncle have a beautiful pool in their backyard and we really took advantage of having it available to us! It was Imogen's first time in a pool and she loved it!

Here are some pictures from our first couple days:

Waiting at the gate in Pittsburgh with Mommy

Floating around in the pool in her cool baby ring

Posing with Mom and Dad

Her swimsuit was a tad big...but I got it on clearance at the end of last season and guessed Imogen's size for this summer. She was a little smaller than we expected, but those things are NOT cheap full price! Nevertheless, she looked adorable in it!

Happy 4th of July! We bought her some special pigtail bows and shorts to celebrate the Independence of our country!

Munching on some goldfish

We enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and spending time together

Posing with Zizi Lisa before our trip over to Disney World (zizi means "aunt" in Italian and is pronounced zit-zee)

To be continued...