a month of chaos

I've been contemplating taking this step for a while. There are so many things that happen that I think I should document.  So here goes.  I'm not sure I'll be very good at this blogging thing but I'm going to give it a try.

It's been a busy month for the Bonnell's.  One month ago today my sister Lacey got married.  It was the most amazing day.  She worked so hard on the decorations, the menu, the small touches, the pictures and pictures and pictures... it was fabulous.  But nothing compared to how beautiful she looked- truly stunning.  It was by far the most fun wedding I've ever been to... even more fun than my own.  I can't wait to see the pictures and the video.

Here is a quick sample of my adorable (if I do say so myself) daughters.

We attempted to get back to our normal lives for a few weeks before we took our first Bonnell Family vacation since we've had kids.  Nine adults and three kids to Disneyworld!  After nearly forgetting the girls birth certificates, a small outbreak of hand, foot and mouth (which is probably currently in the incubation stages for the rest of the family... stay tuned for updates) and the two day packing adventure of 5 suitcases for 4 people we finally arrived in every princess's dreamland!  We kicked off the trip strong with an evening at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.  We saw three parades total at the Magic Kingdom.  They were all fun, magical and different.  Cameron was so excited to be in her Rapunzel dress and dancing that it could have been a parade of bagpipes and she would have been thrilled.  Lucky for the rest of us it was a cute onslaught of characters we all knew.  We partied until midnight and these girls crashed hard core on the bus on the way back to the hotel.

We returned to the Magic Kingdom on Monday for a full day of family fun.  I made us all shirts and everyone was a good sport in wearing them all day long.  The girls were the first ones to ditch the shirts for dinner when they thought it was time for some princess dresses!  We skipped over to Hollywood Studios for an early dinner at Mama Melrose.  We also went to see Fantasmic that night.  I was leery since I wasn't much of a fan of fantasia but it was a great show.  The girls thought it was cool and all the princesses at the end sealed the deal for them.  

Tuesday was my 31st birthday... and it was spent mostly at the Animal Kingdom.   We went there first thing in the morning and headed straight for a Safari (thanks to Brandy's super planning skills we knew which rides to hit first in each park... she rocks).  We barely had any wait at all and I only almost got into a fight with one grandma so it was all good.  No really... don't mess with me on this whole waiting in line thing people.  I do my part to give and take.  When 75% of a group is in front of you and a dad and double stroller are behind you give a little grace.  Anyway... moving on.  It really was a great day.  We got to see Safari Minnie and Pocahontas.  Had an amazing lunch at Rainforest Cafe with a few adult beverages and a huge dessert!  We spent a little downtime that day and went back to Boma (Animal Kingdom) and had a nice dinner.  My Sister-In-Laws called in a special order for my favorite cake... red velvet with cream cheese icing.  It was an awesome day with a great group.  We finished it up with a stop at the character spot in Epcot on our way home to catch Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and Donald.  The girls turned in and we hopped into the hotel bar for some karaoke.

One of the few family pics we snapped... hint- you may see this on a Christmas card coming your way soon.

Wednesday we kicked off by watching them open the gates to the Magic Kingdom before heading over to Chef Mickey's for breakfast.  The big girls loved having all the characters running around but miss Kennedy was not so sure.  It seemed inevitable that every time a character came up the adults would get up to take pictures or video and leave Kennedy hanging out a little too lonely for her taste with such fuzzy creatures roaming around.  We got some great pictures and the girls had a really good time.  Wednesday was supposed to be a down day but we just couldn't sit back and let that happen.  We ended up back at Magic Kingdom.  Lacey was able to join us for the first half of the week but she headed out on Wednesday afternoon so we squeezed as much as possible into the first half of the week for her.  We actually got a sneak peak into the new Fantasyland section of the Magic Kingdom.  We saw Belle's father's workshop and took a magical trip into the Beast's castle where we met Belle.  We also got to meet Ariel and ride the Little Mermaid ride.  These things will all be open for good in December so I was so excited to get in on the sneak peak.  Wednesday evening we went back to Epcot for dinner at a the Coral Reef.  It was a cool restaurant with a huge aquarium.  The girls went home with Nene and Sean and I got a chance to ride a few grown up rides.  Soarin' and Mission Space were both awesome!

Thursday we went back to Magic Kingdom for breakfast at Cinderellas Castle.  It was great.  The girls had so much fun.  We saw Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel and Jasmine.  We were a little disappointed to miss Rapunzel and Aurora but it was special nonetheless.  They issued each kid a wishing star and a magic wand. By the time we finished at Cinderella's Royal Table we were absolutely exhausted.  As we attempted to brew up a huge meltdown we decided to hit the pavement and walk the girls to sleep.  By this time we had mastered the transportation options that allowed us to let the kids stay in their stroller.  So we hopped on the monorail from MK over to Epcot and walked to the boat from there to the hotel.  Unfortunately while the girls got some much needed rest, we were still exhausted.  Sean snuck in a nap on Wed so Thursday was my turn.  A hour of sleepy bliss.  It was great.  We hit the wine and food festival at Epcot for dinner and most of us turned in early.  But not before finding Aurora and Jasmine and Aladdin.

Friday was our last day to play at Disneyworld.  Our smaller group of Bonnell's hit Downtown Disney on Friday morning for a little shopping before coming back to Epcot at lunch.  We had lunch at a Japanese steakhouse in Japan (hello!) which was awesome.  Then we hit the monorail and ferry boat to the Magic Kingdom to give it one last go!  First item on our agenda was to find Rapunzel... it was a success!  We tried to hit each of our favorite rides one last time... the girls loved Peter Pan's flight.  We all grabbed a snack and found a good spot to sit for the electric parade.  We all enjoyed the electric parade... the girls had fun guessing who was coming next and what character or movie each float was tied to.  Then we watched the fireworks at the castle and flying Tinkerbell.  As we really thought things were settling down we just couldn't bear to say goodbye.  At 10 pm we had the bigger girls out riding more rides, playing in the fountains, riding goofy's roller coaster (twice!).  Cameron was so excited she was tall enough to do it she had her own little celebration.  We finally drug our exhausted bodies out of the Magic Kingdom around 10:30 on Friday evening.  That's one vacation that we definitely want to do again... but not too soon.  We need some time to re-cooperate from this one first.

Since we got home I've been thinking a lot about how different vacations (among just about everything else) are since we've had kids.  Knowing that feeling of providing our children with opportunity to feel pure joy and seeing it on their faces.  It makes me wish I could answer prayers.  I can only imagine the joy our Heavenly Father gets in witnessing our pure joy and happiness everyday.  I keep reminding myself to embrace those opportunities every chance I get.