Cruisin'

After Dana and Eric's wedding we settled into our awesome little cabin and prepared for a day at sea. Molly loved being on the cruise and especially liked the cute little towel animals that were placed on our bed at night. Monday morning we woke up in Freeport, Bahamas.

Molly woke up in a great mood and headed straight out to our balcony to check out the view as we pulled into port.
We only had a few hours in port so we decided to take a glass bottom boat tour and spend a little time at the beach.
Molly found a coconut and kept herself entertained for quite a while trying to crack it open.
First she smacked it on the ground...
Then tried cracking it open with her head...And after throwing it around for a while tried to crack it open with another coconut.Back on the ship we took a little rest then got cleaned up for dinner.Dana and ScottyDana's mom, Jamie, and her sisters, Pat & SueStar Gazing Eric and his family watching the Ohio vs. Texas game... we won't discuss the final score...

FINALLY... the reason for the road trip!

On Friday Jan 2nd we headed back to Cocoa Beach before finally celebrating the reason for the entire road-trip... Dana and Eric's wedding!!

We met up with Dana, Eric, Scotty and Robbie Friday night and spent a fun day Saturday together. Paul and Eric took the kids to the beach and the pool while Dana and I enjoyed some kid-free girlie time at the nail salon. Saturday afternoon we all hung out at the beach together where Robbie and I enjoyed bickering in the sand while Molly and Scotty had fun in the waves. That night everyone met up for a fun pre-wedding dinner at a local seafood restaurant.

Sunday morning Dana, Molly and I headed out for our 9am hair appointments only to learn there was one small problem... when we arrived at the salon we realized that even though Carnival supposedly booked our appointments, the salon was closed on Sundays. We quickly headed to the local Wal-Mart for some styling supplies, then back to our hotel to quickly do our own hair in less than 30 minutes. Not the ideal situation on your wedding day, but luckily Dana was able to quickly style her hair and I managed to get Molly's hair under control. We then headed to meet everyone at the port to finish getting ready for the wedding!Grandma Jamie pinning Molly's sash in placeDana looking beautiful despite the hair drama!Molly said that she wanted to be a "Star Wars" flower girl and even though Aunt Dana told her she could wear her hair in Leia buns for the wedding, I vetoed the idea, but allowed this little compromise... R2D2 and Princess Leia were clipped to Molly's flowers.The Happy Bride and Groom!My little familyScotty enjoying his "cocktail"Molly and Daddy dancing to "My Girl"Showing off their signature flipMolly & JocelynDana's brother, Wil and sister-in-law, AprilMe and Joc

Disney's Animal Kingdom, The Beach & Epcot

Animal Kingdom
12/30/08
Our third day we woke up early, ate a quick breakfast at the hotel and headed for Disney's Animal Kingdom. Molly's favorite ride at Disneyland was the Matterhorn, which is pretty much the same ride as the Himalaya at Disney World. Molly was so excited to take Daddy on her favorite ride, so off to Animal Kingdom we headed... with about 10,000 other people. Turns out the week between Christmas and New Year's is the busiest time of year for the parks... Danielle kept telling me that, but did I listen? Noooo, of course not. Not only was the park super crowded, by the time we finally made our way to the Himalaya ride, we realized that the ride is MUCH bigger and more intense than the Disneyland version, making Molly about 8 inches too short for the height requirement. Not only we were still stuck with massive crowds of fellow tourists, we now had a heart-broken and hysterical 4 year-old to contend with. To cheer her up we headed out to see Mickey, Minnie and Donald (all with their own lines that lasted anywhere from 10-40 minutes each!) We did have fun at Dinoramma (a dinosaur-themed mini park inside Animal Kingdom) where Daddy won Molly a stuffed animal and we got to ride the smaller kid rides. By the time we left the park Paul and I decided not to do three straight days at Disney - we were FRIED.Molly and Daddy in front of the Himalaya... before we realized she was too short for the rideRelaxing bubble bath after a hectic day...

Cocoa Beach
12/31/08

The next morning (New Year's Eve) we headed an hour east to Cocoa Beach where we had Uno's Chicago-style pizza for lunch and spent the afternoon on a not-so-crowded beach where we all were able to relax and enjoy some peace and quiet. Molly spent the majority of the time running shells and water to and from our sand castle... she seemed quite busy and on a very strict time crunch. Every time I'd ask her to play with me or go look for shells, she'd tell me she was "busy." Needless to say she sacked out on the drive back to Orlando. Just like Paul and I like it, we celebrated New Year's Eve by being in bed by 9 that night.
Epcot
1/1/09

New Year's Day we woke up super early and headed to Epcot. We were some of the first people in line and headed straight to the Finding Nemo ride. Molly loved it but was even more excited to go to the "Turtle Talk with Crush" show. That was awesome - it's an interactive show where Crush actually talks to the kids in the audience. Molly had been watching the Disney preview channel in our hotel so she was super excited about getting to talk with Crush... unfortunately, Molly didn't catch Crush's attention and didn't get to talk to him, so she ran to us with tears in her eyes when the show was over. As any good parents would do, we got right back in line for the next show and were so excited when Crush picked Molly out of the crowd and talked to her about swimming. Of course as with all Disney rides and shows this one exited through Nemo themed gift shop, where Molly sweet-talked us into buying her a Squirt stuffed animal. (You remember Squirt, Crush's little dude?) That pretty much made her day. After a sushi lunch in Japan, we toured the rest of the countries in Epcot and had a lot of fun. We capped off the day with one last visit to Nemo where Molly waved her Squirt doll in the air until she got Crush's attention and got to talk to him one last time.Lunch in JapanGoofball in CanadaFeeding the seagulls in ItalyMaracas in MexicoView across the lake at sunset