Christmas in the Northwest

This Christmas was the first Christmas we did not get to spend with our families back home...first Christmas ever! We were so blessed to spend Thanksgiving with them, but for Christmas and New Year's it would be just the two of us, here in the northwest. We did have generous offers from several families to come over and spend Christmas with them, but we decided to just spend the day together and celebrate on our own, and it was so wonderful to have the day all to ourselves. Here's what Christmas looked like for us...


Our sweet little tree


My favorite Nativity...it's the only decoration that hasn't been taken down yet...I just love it so much!


This is my very first Nativity and I think it's pretty great, too. I love Nativities!


One of my favorite things about Christmas...getting Christmas cards in the mail!! We are so blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives!


We enjoyed our Christmas lunch


We enjoyed seeing a movie on Christmas day (and it was a GREAT movie!!)

We also enjoyed making (and eating) a yummy lemon birthday cake, which I don't have a picture of because my sweet hubby accidentally smashed it =)

But most of all we enjoyed celebrating the day when our Savior was born and Salvation came to the world! One of my favorite Christmas songs has this line..
"I celebrate the day, that you were born to die, so I could one day pray for you to save my life."
And my goodness, how thankful I am for that sweet baby boy who was born and lived a perfect life and died a cruel death and rose again so that I could one day live forever with Him! Happy Birthday Jesus! Our hearts worship you not only at Christmas, but everyday in between!


Merry Christmas!!

We saved the best for last!

By day 5 we had visited all of the parks, but still had an extra day, so we decided to go back to our favorite...you guessed it...Hollywood Studios! There were a few things we didn't get to do on day 3 and we wanted to make sure we covered everything, so back we went!


Love the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular! I always think of the Full House episode where D.J. thought Indiana was Steve. The real stunt show is even better in person :)


Waited in the lobby of this place while Derek rode it...yep, I am a sissy. I rode it back in 2005 and swore to never do it again. Once in a lifetime is plenty! I didn't even mind watching the 5-year-olds giggle as they came through the lobby because they thought it was so much fun.


Enjoyed this Mickey bar while I waited for Derek...


However, I am NOT afraid of roller coasters and this one is my favorite!!


Did I mention they force you to get a dessert with every meal when you're on the Disney dining plan? Force you...really...and who am I to argue?


Had a blast in Toy Story Mania!! The wait time would get up to 2 hours in no time! Luckily, we got a fast pass for this ride, and then were handed a magical red card and sent to the front of the line...forced to go...really...

We left Hollywood Studios and went back to our room to rest of up and get ready because we had a few fun things still planned for the night...


...like this! A helium balloon ride 400 feet in the air!!


Here we are at the top! Oh, and the sun was setting and it was beautiful!


Just check out that view! We had such a great time on our balloon ride!


After the balloon ride, we had dinner reservations at this place...Planet Hollywood! It was a very cool restaurant, 3 stories tall, and the the food was sooo good!!


And after dinner we had tickets for this show...Cirque Du Soleil!


It was an amazing show! Our eyes couldn't take it all in! We can't wait to get the chance to see another one!


After the show, I saw this place, and like Snow White, I couldn't resist!

The next day we boarded the plane and returned back to our home. What a vacation! So many fun times and so many memories with my very best friend in the whole world. Can't wait to go back and do it all again!

World's Greatest Zoo - Disney's Animal Kingdom!

We were both pretty excited when we woke up on Day 4 because we had planned to spend this day at the Animal Kingdom! We had lots of fun memories of Animal Kingdom from our 2005 trip to Disney and couldn't wait to go back and see all the animals. Plus, we knew they were building this...


Expedition Everest Roller Coaster...and it was our turn to ride it!


A very foggy Animal Kingdom when we arrived, but you can see from the Everest picture that once it lifted, it was the most beautiful day!

Beautiful day for a Kilimanjaro Safari

They are actually helping to reintroduce the rhino population through Disney's Worldwide Conservation Initiative.




Didn't actually zoom in very much for this picture...it was that close to us!


One of the best shows at Disney!


I was too caught up in the show to get many pictures =)


I waited quite a while for this hippo to come up for air so I could take this picture. I love it!


Finding Nemo, the Musical!!


Another fabulous Disney production!


Yet another gigantic Christmas tree


Love the Animal Kingdom!!

Our Favorite - Hollywood Studios!!

On day 3 we ventured to our favorite of the four Disney parks...Hollywood Studios! We actually got up that morning and headed to Downtown Disney to pick up a few Souvenirs and then made our way to the park. We spent both Day 3 and Day 5 at Hollywood Studios because it was just that much fun!!


We love Hollywood Studios!!


First stop, the extreme stunt show! They were building this when we were last in Disney in 2005, so we couldn't wait to see it!


It was "extreme" indeed! We got some pretty neat video of some of this show, but haven't been able to successfully upload to our blog...will have to try again later.


These two have been known to pull some stunts of their own!
G, make sure Zack sees this one...I took it just for him!!


My favorite princess and Disney story again!


Hollywood Studios Christmas Tree


Boat of Characters at Disney's Fantasmic Show...where we sat on the front row...and found out you will get a little wet =)


The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights!!






It was so amazing! Again, we have video, but can't upload...I can't wait for you to see it...the lights dance every ten minutes!

A Day at the Magic Kingdom

We woke up on day 2 to much different weather...record heat!! The temperature reached 89 degrees on our Magic Kingdom day...much different that the 40 degrees we had at Epcot the day before. Back to short sleeves and Florida weather =)


Hanging out at the castle with my Prince Charming


Gotta love the Pirates!


So we waited for a little while in line for something called the "Astro Orbiter." We couldn't see what we were waiting in line for since it was on top of a building above our heads, but we thought, "Why not?" Once we arrived at the top, we discovered it to be something similar to the Dumbo Flying Elephants...definitely a kiddie ride, but since we had waited so long, we (yes, the two of us) crammed ourselves into a rocket and rode it anyway =)


Bayou Boat to celebrate The Princess and The Frog


Cinderella and her Prince Charming (though not as handsome as mine :)


My favorite Disney princess, Belle


Magic Kingdom Christmas Tree
Looks like it was about to get stormy, but thankfully, it didn't!


The ONLY kind of mouse I love, ha!

I took this picture to show Kade, our almost 3 year old friend, that we went to see Mickey Mouse. The night before we left, I told him that I was going to tell him a secret...we were going to see Mickey Mouse! To this he thought for a minute and responded "Well Lissa, I'm gonna tell you a secret...I'm going to see Goofy!" It was kind of like he was saying "Yea right, and I'm the Queen of England!" It was so funny, as Kade always is, so I took this so I could show him, we really did see Mickey Mouse....


...and Goofy too!