Oaks Family

We're Back....

from Disney World and we had a great time while we were there! We left on November 28th and came home on December 8th. It was a long time to be away from home, but I really enjoyed spending so much time with my family.

Here is a list of all the people that were there: My mom and dad, Shauna, Chauncy, Chloe, Emily, Melanie, Ryan, Preston, Parker, Mandy, Anthony, Olivia, Kurt, me, and Amy. Missy, Eric, and Carley weren't able to make the trip with us because Missy is due any day with her first baby boy. We really missed them while we were there and hope that they will be able to go on the next family trip with us. My Aunt Tommie and Uncle Calvin and a couple of my cousins and their families drove from South Carolina to meet us there. I haven't seen any of them since Gammy's funeral in October of 2007, so it was a lot of fun to have them there with us. Now here is where it all began.....

Over a year ago, my parents won an auction for a time share in Florida and invited all of us to go on vacation with them. Ever since then we have been saving up our pennies getting ready to go. I was a little nervous to take Amy on a long plane ride, but so many people commented on what a good baby she was. She really didn't fuss much and was able to sleep for a long time. On one flight a woman offered to stand up with Amy to keep her entertained. It was nice to get a bit of a break.

All of the family bought 7 day park hopper passes for Disney World. We were able to visit each of the 4 parks twice during the 7 days. I was surprised that Amy could go with us on a lot of the rides. She fell asleep during most things, but she did have fun. She liked to look at all of the different animals in Animal Kingdom, and was slightly interested in the shows we went to, but most of all she loved to play with her cousins. They made her laugh and scream.

I can't say that I enjoyed going to one park over another, because there was something that I loved at each park. One thing that was the same at every park, was all of the walking that we did. I think I walked over 50 miles in the 7 days that we were there! Here is a list of what I enjoyed from each park.

Animal Kingdom: The Lion King Show, 3D It's tough to be a bug, safari, all of the cool animals, Dinosaur ride, Expedition Everest, and the huge Tree of Life.

Epcot: Finding Nemo ride (the aquarium part was the best), Soarin', and Spaceship Earth. The first day at Epcot it poured rain on us and our stroller got soaked. We also heard that a tornado was close by while we were there!

Hollywood Studios: Tower of Terror (so so fun), Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, Lights Motors Action stunt show , Indiana Jones stunt show (Anthony got to be in the show!), and the Backlot tour.

Magic Kingdom: Space Mountain, Splash Mountain (we got my mom to go on this ride, and she HATES things like that. Way to go Mom!), Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (I lost my cell phone on this ride and thought I would never see it again. When we left that night I stopped by the lost and found just to see if they had it, and to my surprise they did! I was so lucky to get it back.), The Haunted Mansion, Buzz Lightyear, Monster's Inc Laugh Floor, Pirates of the Caribbean, Cinderella's Golden Carousel (Amy had fun on this one), and of course meeting Micky and Minnie Mouse.

On the last day we were in Florida, we were able to go to the Kennedy Space Center. It was cool to see the launch sites and to see the crawlers that are used to transport the shuttle to the launch pad. We were supposed to visit the beach that day also, but it was freezing and we ran out of time. While we were driving to the space center we saw armadillos, turtles, dolphins, and alligators! It was cool to see these animals in the wild. I never thought that I would see an alligator on the side of the road, and we saw a huge one!

Now to the fun part, the pictures. I'm not sure how most of these turned out because we used our not so good camera for the trip, but they are pictures none the less. I hope that my sisters and parents will send me the pictures that they took (hint, hint) while we were there. It seems like we took more video than pictures, so I am hoping to get a few good ones from the rest of the family. Click on the pictures to get a better view!

Amy had a couple of "firsts" while we were in Florida. Her Aunt Melanie put her first ponytail in her hair, and daddy took her swimming for the first time.

We had a huge bath tub in our condo that Amy loved to take a bath in.