Reagan Fuller

ThanksDisney

The 2nd half of our Florida vacation was spent at Disney. Its almost becoming an annual Thanksgiving tradition. We were in Disneyland 2 years ago so we figured we needed to see what Disney World had to offer for the holidays. The short answer: Disneyland does Christmas better. Anyway, back the rides! You can tell your kids have gotten older between trips to the Magic Kingdom. Things that excited them the first time around like seeing characters are not as cool this time. This time it was all about roller coasters! Reagan and Sydney were tall enough for the biggest Disney had to offer so we spent a lot of time riding the same rides, over and over and over.

Interestingly, we didn’t even take many pictures this year. With 3 kids to worry about and having been there many times before, we focused on our own moment instead of capturing them on film this time. It was an enjoyable change.

First stop, hat store. What is Disney without some mouse ears of your very own.

The big excitement for Reagan was that she was indeed tall enough for Space Mountain! So we got Fast Passes and waited all day until it was time. We got right in and Reagan was first in the car — front seat for her first ride. She loved it! She yelled the whole time and instantly was ready to go again! She was hooked. The rest of the trip was all about roller coasters.

While roller coasters were a top priority for the older girls, character dance parties were a very close second. We were grooving with the Toy Story characters…

And Stich…

And Goofy…

And Pluto…

Did we mention this year was all about roller coaster? We do however have a little munchkin, Kayla, along for the ride as well. So the big girls had to suffer, and I mean sometimes it was a real suffer, through some of Kayla’s rides as well. Most of the time they were excited to show Kayla the rides. But once they were done it was, “ROLLER COASTER!!”

While we did spend a good amount of our time like this…we really didn’t do too bad on the lines. Our tactic soon became go to the parks late and stay until they close. Droves of worn out folks were heading home as we were just getting started. Most of our waits were five minutes or less.

When we did have to wait in line a bit it was great to have our very own babysitter, I mean Nana and Papa, along for the ride.

Another great part about hitting the parks late was that we got to spend the morning in our very own swimming pool. And that’s just what the girls did. They pretty much lived in this thing. Another great perk of renting your own villa for the week.

And of course the roller coaster rides would not have been possible without our very own Nana and Papa. Who selflessly sacrificed their own roller coaster rides by volunteering to babysit Kayla so Mom, Dad, Syd, & Reagan could ride all night. We couldn’t have done it without them.

Another great year in Disney. The weather was great. Not too hot or cold. And everyone left happy. I hope our kids grow up with fond memories of these adventures. Because its done all for them. Hope you had a blast! Until next time.

Reagan got sick on the last day of the trip. Good timing? However, this meant going home would not be pretty. As she was boarding her flight, she started to puke. Barely got that in a bag. We had two segments so at the next boarding, Reagan and Kim pre-boarded so she wouldn’t barf on anyone. Here she is sleeping off the sickness on the flight with the bag in hand. Kinda looks more like what you would expect from someone coming back from Vegas!

Venice Beach

On our last day in Venice we decided to go check out the local beach. We had read that Venice Beach is home to lots of prehistoric shark teeth. Unfortunately, we found no shark teeth. Luckily there were literally thousands of great seashells for the taking. We spent a couple hours searching the sand for shells and were able to come home with a great little collection. And in Reagan’s case, a great new pair of seashell shoes. Apparently you have to go out into the water to find the shark teeth. Maybe next time.

Grammy and Papa’s House in Venice

Later in the week we headed down to Venice to stay a couple nights at Grammy and Papa’s new villa in Venice. It was our first trip to Venice Beach so we were really excited to check out the area. Although, the kids only really wanted to play in the awesome pool. Can’t say that I blame them. It was really a great pool complex.

They had a little splash area which I was sure the kids wouldn’t like. But, to my surprise they all loved it. Especially Kayla.

Even Papa joined in on the fun.

My three little water babies.

Later Daddy was able to join the party and take his turn with the kiddos in the pool. He was really impressed to see how well Reagan was swimming. She was able to hold her breathe for an impressive amount of time before resurfacing.

As you can tell, Reagan was pretty proud of herself too.

Once we convinced the kids that pool time was over we started walking back to the villa. Our walk was disrupted by some loud whooping noises. We carefully walked over to where the noises were and spotted these guys. I believe they were sandhill cranes which are local Florida residents of this area.

If ever you couldn’t find Reagan or Isaiah have no fear, they were together. While Isaiah loved all the girls he really loved Reagan. She was always very nurturing with Isaiah and he thought she was really cool. Even on walks they would hold hands. It was pretty cute.

Here’s the whole gang!

Soon after arriving back at the villa I snapped this shot. I think its pretty safe to say we wore these kids out.

Siesta Key

This year for our Thanksgiving break we decided to take the family down to Florida for about 10 days. The first half of the week we planned to visit Aunt Sara, Uncle Michael and Cousin Isaiah. This would be our first visit to their new home in the Sarasota area. Later on we found out that Grandpa and Grandma Coburn would also be down at their Venice condo for the week. The more the merrier. On the first morning we asked the girls what they wanted to do…BEACH…of course. So we packed up and took the whole gang down to our old favorite Siesta Key Beach. We were surprised to see how busy the place was. But, we still had a blast.

The big girls went straight to the water. It was getting a bit cold for us adults but the girls didn’t seem to mind.

It was a little too cold to go out too deep so Reagan found other ways to keep herself occupied in the water. She played a little game of jump the waves.

After a bit Reagan decided to take a break from the water and started up a game of chase the baby. Of which her little sister really loved.

I asked Reagan to pose with the guys for a photo. Unbeknownst to Reagan, Papa decided to give Reagan the ears.

Be careful, payback is coming your way.

Not even poor innocent Grandma was spared the ears.

We stayed to watch the sunset on the beach. It was beautiful. I hope the pictures can do it some justice.

Thanks to our hosts! We all had a great time.

103 Degrees

Yes, please.

Leaves

Kim was out raking and quickly found she wasn’t getting much done. Apparently, a pile of leaves means playtime to some! She decided to take a few pictures of the action. They were just too cute to pass up.

The girls took turns throwing leaves on each other for a photo op. I think they turned out pretty great.

Before The Snow Flies

Its been a late arrival for winter in Leadville this year. So we knew we were smart to get one last snow free visit in down at Turquoise Lake. The next time we return, its likely to be frozen over. Winter is coming!

Reagan said it was cold and wasn’t happy at all.

Leadville Fish Hatchery

Back at the cabin, one of the spots the kids had never visited was the Leadville Fish Hatchery. Established in 1889, is the second oldest Federally operated fish hatchery in existence today. Located on 3,072 acres near the city of Leadville, the hatchery’s subalpine forest surroundings with its cold, clean water supply and nearby source of native cutthroat trout populations provide the ideal spot for trout production.

So when we drove up to what looks like a parking lot with big concrete troughs in it and I asked if they wanted to see some fish, the confusion began. They approached the tanks and quickly noticed the waters were alive with thousands of big trout that were hungry. We got some food from the dispenser and started feeding them. The girls were having a great time watching their activity. Many of the trout would try and swim upstream. That is impossible given the tank layout and provided for some good splashes when they came back down. They kids ran around for quite a while before we wrapped up our trout viewing and feeding.

However, you know that silliness had to be coming! Meet the two newest fish at the hatchery!