Walt Disney World Part 1!!!

I am finally posting the first round of our pictures from our week's vacation inWalt Disney World!! We had the most amazing time!! Going to Disney World brings back such fond memories of vacations with my Dad, and now to be able to reexperience the magic through my son's eyes, is truly amazing! We couldn't have asked for more perfect weather....sunshine and 72. It wasn't crowded and we never waited more than 20 minutes for any attraction. We got to see everything and Jackson went on his favorite rides several times! This isn't the first time Jackson has been to Disney World. We went when he was about 18 months with my sister and her children, and Jackson was really just going along for the ride and doesn't remember any of it. This time, it was all about Jackson! We spent 6 full days at the park, often closing them down at night. We would ask Jackson if he was ready to go back to the room and he would say "1 more ride!" We stayed at the Polynesian, which I would highly recommend! There was so much for the kids to do, including a big screen movie on the beach every night, smores etc. Not that we took advantage of many of these things because we couldn't get Jackson out of the parks! We also did the concierge service, which was well worth it because we go breakfast every morning and they had snacks throughout the day. Each night you could also go up to the club level room and watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks. Being 7 months pregnant with all that walking was a challenge at times, but well worth it to see the huge smile on Jackson's face. Despite late nights and almost no napping, he did great without any meltdowns. Jackson still talks about his Disney vacation and asks when he gets to go back! There are so many pictures, so I am going to break this up into a couple of posts. The first picture is Jackson getting ready to say goodbye to Atlanta!

We got off the plane and headed straight to the Magic Kingdom. We had a hopper pass this time, which I highly recommend, so we could spend the morning in 1 park and the night in another. Since we were at the Polynesian, we were 1 monorail stop from the Magic Kingdom. Often we would go to a farther away park in the AM, and spend the evenings here. The monorail was definately a big hit for Jackson!

1 of Jackson's favorite rides! The Speedway! We must have rode this ride 5 times!!

The castle all lit up!

Another favorites for Jackson was meeting all the characters! He would get so excited when they would come around and would hug them so tightly!! I knew we were staying at the Polynesian and our character breakfast included Lilo and Stitch. Well, Jackson had never seen that movie, so we set him up to watch the movie on the plane ride to Orlando. He loved it and when he saw Lilo and Stitch, he was so star struck!!



Jackson loved to feel Pluto's whiskers!!

He was so excited to see Stitch!!

And of course....Mickey Mouse!!






Disney was all decorated for fall and Halloween with scarecrows and Mickey pumpkins. It was so cute! Disney does such an amazing job with decoratins and keeping the park spotless!

Jackson loves to turn any kind of wheel! This was for the motorized boats.

Another favorite of Jackson's....riding any kind of train!! This is the train that circles the park.

Woody and Jessie! Two of Jackson's favorite characters. He was jumping up and down with excitement waiting in line to see them! He was so sweet! He ran up to them and gave them both a big hug. He turned around for his picture and then waved goodbye as he walked away. I was really impressed that we didn't have to drag him away!

Getting ready to watch a 3D movie. Disney has several of these throughout the park. Jackson was so funny and would always reach out to try to grab whatever was in front of him.

We had a special treat with this trip and Jackson got to go trick or treating in Walt Disney World! It was amazing. You bought a special ticket, which gave you a wrist band. At 7PM, the park closed for everyone except wrist band holders. They had trick or treat spots, an amazing parade, and the most spectacular fireworks you have ever seen! Since there were only a limited number of entrants, all the rides had 5 minute or less wait times. Daddy loved that!! Jackson went on so many rides and was so pumped full of candy, that we were out to almost midnight!!

Trick or Treat!

Riding the Speedway...again. This time he got to drive the red car, which he said was the Lightning McQueen car.

The Halloween parade started out with a headless horseman. It was a real horse running down the street!

Giving Bullseye a high five!

Yet another train! This train was in Animal Kingdom and took us to Rafiki's Planet where there was a petting zoo.

Leave it to Disney to have a petting zoo where the animals and the surroundings are completely spotless!

Jimminey Cricket!








Rafiki from the Lion King.

Donald Duck! Whew! We got through the first round! Still plenty more pictures to go but I will stop here and give you guys a break!!

Yo Ho Ho! A pirate's life for me!!

Again, I must apologize for the delay in posting! Since we have returned from Disney, it has been one thing after another starting with Halloween!! Halloween was so much fun this year!! This year Jackson dressed up as a pirate, and no pirate would be complete without his ship!! Luckily, Aunt Glo was in town to help mommy transform Jackson's wagon into a pirate ship loaded with cannons, an anchor, mast, and of course, a treasure chest!! As soon as we finished the ship, Jackson asked" Can it go in the water?" I told him no and we would be lucky if she was land worthy!! Jackson had so much fun trick or treating this year!! He just couldn't believe that he was getting candy. After he finished with one house, he would yell "Next house!" and all you would see were the lights on his shoes scurrying away. Every year we attend our church's trunk or treat and our neighborhood hosts a Halloween parade. They both hold costume contests, and for the third year in a row, Jackson has one the prize. This year, however, he didn't just win the prize for best costume in his age bracket, but he won best costume of the whole parade!! He won a medal, crown, and some candy!! It was too cute, and because he won best of parade, next year he gets to lead it!! I don't know what we are going to do to top this year!! This first picture is daddy and Jackson carving the pumpkins. Surprisingly, Jackson did not like to touch the insides!


Jackson loved taking the tops off all the pumpkins and figuring out which top went with which pumpkin.






The finished product! This year's theme was Toy Story so we have the pizza planet alien, Buzz lightyear, and Rex. Daddy made a traditional pumpkin for baby Beckett!

Ahoy matey!

Claiming his prize at our church's trunk or treat!

Getting ready for the Maple Street Parade! Luckily daddy made it to the parade just in time, because mommy could not keep the ship together without his help!

Hands off my treasure!







The cutest little pirate!

Trick or Treat time!! We went trick or treating with Jackson's friends Payton, Aidan, Sam and Maggie. They had a blast!

First house!











I got candy!! Happy Halloween!!

A special event for a special lady!!

I have to apologize for how far behind I am on my posts, but we have been so busy!!! We just got back from an amazing week in Disney World!! It was so much fun and Jackson absolutely loved it!! We have so many pictures that it will definately take a couple of posts to get through them all. Also, with the help of Joe and Glo, we have been working hard to complete Beckett's room. It is pretty much done and looks amazing!! As far as this post, a couple of weeks ago, we participated in a 5K in honor of Gloria to help support the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory. Gloria has received several treatments there and is here today because of the amazing research done there. I had shirts made to commemorate the event and we all woke up bright and early Saturday morning to drive down to Emory for the race. Team Gloria included Gloria, Joey, Amy, Brad, Kiera, Mary, James, Jackson, Greg and myself. Through generous donations our team raised almost $2000!!! It was am amazing event and I couldn't think of a better person to honor by doing so!! Here is Team Gloria before the race!

Here we go!!! All smiles in the beginning of the race!

The stud of our group...finishing the 5K in 21:30!! Way to go Daddy!!

Next up, Brad and Kiera! Great job!!

Here comes Amy!!









Way to go Joey!! This was Joey's first 5K!! Although there isn't a picture to prove it, Jackson and I also finished the race. Unfortunately, as Glo was trying to take our picture, the camera was full!!

After the race, they had a little tot trot for Jackson and Mary. Here they are at the starting line!

Waiting patiently for them to say Go!!

They are off!!

My little stud running so hard!!! They all got little medals after completing their race. It was very cute!!

This truly was a very special race to honor a very special woman. Gloria, you are one of the most loving, kind, and talented women I know. We feel so blessed to have you in our lives. You continue to fight your battle with such grace and are truly an inspiration. We love you so much and will continue to do whatever we can to help you win your fight!!

Projects!

Since Jackson has started back to school, he is really into doing different projects. One of Jackson's new favorite shows is Max and Ruby. On one of the episodes, Ruby has to make a leaf book for school. After watching it, we decided to head to the mountain to collect some leaves of our own! Jackson had so much fun finding different shapes and colors!! Jackson also loves the episode where Ruby makes a gingerbread house. Since the leaf project was such a successs, I think we are going to attempt that this Christmas! This past weekend we also headed to Tanglewood Farms. It is a large petting zoo filled with baby animals set in a Wild Wild West theme. It was really cute and Jackson loved feeding all the animals! Unfortunately, as soon as we got there, the camera battery died, so I have zero pictures from that adventure :( This first pictureis Jackson as we are getting ready to go on our leaf adventure!

We certainly could not go on this adventure without some of our friends :)

We also found a few wildflowers along the way. Last weekend Daddy had found some dandelions and showed Jackson how to blow them to make the seeds fly. Since then, every flower we come across, Jackson tries to blow it into the air.

I found a yellow leaf!

See how big it is mommy!









Is this a good one?

Cheese!!







Jackson loves to paint! Here he is painting some Thomas the Train pictures. When he finishes, he always says "See how beautiful this one is mommy?"

I had to get a picture of Jackson and Daddy during our bedtime routine. They love reading books together!

So sorry about the camera mishap! I will make sure it is fully charged before our next adventure!!

Football and Apple Picking!

What says fall more than football and apples! We were lucky enough to enjoy both this week!! This first picture is Jackson ready for college day at preschool. Since we were unable to find any IU or USF gear, we decided to represent grandaddy's alma mater with Clemson. Jackson looks pretty good in orange!!

One of our friend's is a football coach for Alatoona, so we headed to the game Friday night. Jackson loved watching the game and afterwards said that he wanted to play football too. Hopefully, he will wait a little bit longer!! Mommy is not ready to see her little boy get tackled!!

Loving on Daddy at the Football game.

Go Alatoona!!

Saturday we made the trip up north to Mercier Orchards in Blue Ridge to go apple picking! The night before, I read Jackson a story about apple picking and making apple pie. He was so excited for both!!

First apple of the day! There were over 100,000 apple trees with more varieties than you could imagine! We ended up with Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, and Topaz. They were delicious!!




Can I pick all those apples?








Delicious!!

By far Jackson's favorite part of the day...the tractor. He was also so excited to get to wear his tractor shirt for the occasion.









Look at all those apples!!!






It was so nice how low the apples grew to the ground! I was a little worried they would be too tall for Jackson and he would be upset, but he was able to pick all of our apples!

Pulling hard to get that apple!









I love apple picking!!

Enjoying the fruits of his labor....literally! After apple picking, we headed to lunch at a barbeque place called the Pink Pig. It was delicious and there was pig memorabilia everywhere, which was very fun for Jackson!

I wonder what adventure we will go on this weekend?