We will be coming to Iowa the first weekend of Dec. to celebrate Krista’s Bachelorette party so we spent our first Thanksgiving in MI this year. Our amazing friends, the Thornton’s invited us to spend it with them (from the moment we moved here they have welcomed us to their table).

 
John’s brilliant idea- make your own Macy’s Day Parade! They had a parade route, balloons (Elsa, Anna and a sword), spectators and more. 
    
 The Gale Family tradition was shared with our friends. TURKEYS!  

   

   

New Family tradition was possibly started this year. We (by that I mean John) cut down our familys first real Christmas tree.

 
Cooper was on a mission to find the best tree.   

We FOUND IT!

    
 
 Timber!

   
  A little break for Hawkeye football. Cooper is wanting to sign up for tackle football 😕next fall so he is showing a bigger interest in learning the rules.   
The one time of the year the space above the door gets cleaned 😁    
    
    

   

John and I didn’t use Internet for the last 5 days- it is good to be back????

Our Disney cruise was great, but to be completely honest after such an amazing Disney World experience we could have ended our trip four days ago. We don’t want to seem ungrateful but we wanted to relax and the cruise really wasn’t as relaxing as we had imagined. 

One thing I can say for Disney Cruises- they take cleanliness VERY seriously!! Anytime you walk onto the food floors you are handed a hand sanitizer wipe. They have bathroom attendants for every bathroom by the pools and restaurants- they are always in tip top shape. The employees are always wiping something down inside and outside the ship. The utensils on the buffets are changed frequently. 

Here are the best things about the cruise: family time, food (I am pretty sure I gained at least 5lbs.), sun, and shows. The kids took full advantage of the unlimited pop and ice cream. 

Audra’s favorite- We played in a Family Fusion game show the first night and we led until the very end. 

John’s favorite- watching the late showing of Dr. Strange with Cooper

Cooper’s favorite- The Leap of Faith water slide at the Atlantis in Nassau, Bahamas

Bella’s favorite- princesses. She met Anna and Elsa (which even though we were on a Disney cruise was a very hard ticket to get). 

We have had a full week of family time. John and I were hoping to get a little bit of alone time together but it didn’t happen. They had an Oceaneers club where you can drop the kids off to play and they will babysit for you. It is open 9am-midnight. The kids went the first night for about 30 minutes and then we couldn’t convince them (mostly Bella) to go back. 

As we sit in the Orlando airport for the next five hours waiting for our flight, I am reflecting on the memories we made the past week. Yes, we are a little tired of each other, the kids just want to play and not be dragged everywhere but we realize how extremely blessed we are to have experienced this together. 

  
Cooper’s face when he saw the Dream for the first time- it is HUGE!!

  
We were contestants on a game show!

  
This girl was writing the entire trip!

  
  Bella was wearing her Elsa dress while carrying her Anna doll, she didn’t want to leave anyone out 😉 
Cooper in front of The Leap of Faith waterslide. It ended next to an aquarium of sharks! Check it out on You Tube- the water slides at this Aqua adventure were the best I have ever been on.

  
  
SHARK!!!

 
Cooper was a big eater on this entire trip. We joke that he probably grew an inch. He had 2 servings of meat every night.
 
Towel animals were waiting for us every night before bed.

   Pirate night! 😂
  
It isn’t every day you run into Belle walking to a show!

  
   
 
Snorkeling anyone?

  
Crandell Family vacation 2016= SUCCESS!!!

8am-8pm today at Hollywood Studios. 

We used our first hour to sign up for Jedi Training. Kids ages 4-12 could sign up, John wanted to do it so badly and wondered why there wasn’t one for adults. We tried to convince Bella but she decided to sit this one out, afterward she wanted to be a Jedi too.    
  

 
  
Breakfast with Disney Jr. Characters. Cooper loved Jake and the Neverland Pirates when he was about Bella’s age. Bella loves watching Sofia the First and Doc McStuffins. It was a yummy way to start the day.

   
   

We separated for most of the afternoon. Audra and Bella went to Voyage of the Little Mermaid and Frozen a sing along celebration. John and Cooper went to Tower of Terror and Indiana Jones. 

   

   
Watch this video and you will realize why my favorite was Frozen, the look on Bella’s face is priceless. 

A side note, Bella came to Disney wanting to purchase an Elsa plush with the money Gramy and Gramps gave her to spend. We have yet to find one, we found Anna. It seems crazy to me that Disneyworld doesn’t have a huge Else selection (we aren’t going to Epcot but maybe they have them there).

   

 
   
 John favorite- watching Cooper in his Jedi training

Audra’s favorite- Frozen, A Sing-along celebration

Cooper’s favorite- building his 7ft long lightsaber (thanks Gramy and Gramps)

Bella’s favorite- seeing the princesses in Fantasmic to end our time at Disneyworld

We went hard three days in a row and are really looking forward to some relaxation. Cooper is excited to be done with the PhotoPass, look at his face in the last picture. Tomorrow we begin our cruise on the Disney Dream. Thanks for following our Disney journey!

After a FULL day of Magic Kingdom, we had a feeling today would be tiring. We lasted 9-4 at Animal Kingdom- not too shabby! We are currently sitting in our hotel room relaxing. Next up- pool time!

Here are some highlights-

   
 
We started at Kilimanjaro Safaris. Bella got to see Elephants and the boys saw their cheetahs. 

   
    

Bella rode on her very first real rollercoaster, Expedition Everest-Legend of the Forbidden Mountain. To say it was scary would be an understatement, look at her face! The next picture has the coaster pictured behind us- she was so proud of herself, but she never wants to go on it again. She was incredibly pale at the end!

   

Treat time!

   
    
 
Festival of the Lion King- INCREDIBLE!! I forgot how much I love this movie.

   
   
Tree of life

   
    
    

Now it is time to relax, Hollywood Studios is tomorrow! Early bedtime for everyone.

   

Cooper’s favorite- Expedition Everest- Legend of the Forbidden Mountain

Bella’s favorite- It’s tough to be a bug (Cooper was able to see the 3D images- something doctors have told us he shouldn’t be able to see. He was jumping up and down that he could see the images coming towards him ☺️).

John’s favorite- Kilmanjaro Safari

Audra’s favorite- Festival of the Lion King

  
Space Mountain and Splash Mountain- Cooper’s personal favorites.

  
Buzz lightyear space ranger spin 

   
 
One of our family favorites was Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor. It was a comedy show and they use the audience by putting their picture on the svreen. Cooper had his face on the screen. They asked, “Show me what your face would look like if you broke your friends toy?” Cooper was nervous so he smiled and tried to hide behind me. These comedians were quick on their feet, the response, “he must not like his friends very much.” Cooper talked about that moment for 30 minutes straight!

   
    
 
Our first ride was Seven Dwarfs Mine train. Super fun!

  
We are wearing magicbands, they are our ticket into the park, our credit card, room key, etc. Well, we found out it is also a GPS. There were three times this magic happened to us. 

1. Seven dwarf mine train- we didn’t scan anything to let Disneh know we were on the ride but the picture above just appeared in our photos.

2. Eating at Be Our Guest. After ordering our food at a kiosk we could sit anywhere. Your food is just magically delivered to your table.

3. It’s a small world ride. We get to the end of the ride and see our names on a screen. We did not scan anything to show we were there.

Disney is tracking our every move with these bands 😨

  
  
Haunted mansion- the kids did great 
John’s favorite ride- Monsters Inc. Laugh

Audra’s favorite ride- Under the Sea- journey of the little mermaid

Cooper’s favorite ride- splash mountain and space mountain

Bella favorite ride- Pirates of the Caribbean

The Hall of Presidents was also pretty emotional because of he upcoming election- I may have shed a tear.

THIS is the day I have been most nervous about because it contains the most magic. WOW- it was an incredible day. 

We arrived at the park at 8:00 for breakfast at the castle. This was by far the most amazing experience! We were in the park before it opened so the crowds were not huge. The princesses were all wonderful but our personal favorite was Aurora. She spent extra time with Bella and made Cooper blush. When she signed his autograph book she kissed it and left a lipstick mark- he was so embarrassed. Then she came back a little later to say HI to him again and play a little hide a seek.   
 

We took SO many pictures today. I can’t even begin to share them at this point but here are a few 😉

   
    
    
    
    
 

  
Fun filled day! We were at Magic Kingdom from 8-9:30!! Totally worth our sore feet. 

Now we are off to bed. Animal Kingdom tomorrow. 

P.S. I ran into Mrs. Kathy Evans, my fourth grade teacher. And, no joke, it was when we were at ITS A SMALL WORLD. Such a small world seeing a familiar Iowa face.

I am a Disney believer. As we were walking from the plane to our bus to take us to The Art of Animation, Bella was twirling in her dress and said, “Belle is going to hug me!!”  

    
    
    

    
    
    
    

 
  We are staying at the Art of Animation. It is definitely geared toward younger kids and it is amazing the amount of detail that goes into everything. Look how cute the room is? John and I have a room and the kids can decide to sleep on the pull out couch or the table that becomes a bed- they are so looking forward to changing it up each night. We also have two bathrooms!

The food has been amazing! We are figuring out our meal plan- yes it seems like a ton of food!

We tried out one of the pools, simply beautiful. Definitely for younger families.

  
    
    
  
    
    
    
 

I had my first experience with things not going as planned. Bella had an appointment at 4 and we arrived at the bus at 3:10. The bus, which is supposed to come every 20 mins didn’t arrive until 4:15. We were 30 minutes late for the appointment and in my head I thought it would have to be cancelled (this is an event many people have told me was their daughters favorite activity). BUT, Disney for the win again! They got us right in and made sure we had time to get to our dinner reservation. I am glad I learned early that Disney is very accomadating!  Look at our little princess 

   
    
    
   
Dinner at Chef Mickeys! Cooper hugged all of the characters (except Minnie)- he is much more into this than I had anticipated. Both kids broke in their autograph books.

   
    
  
   

 

 

    
 
Our sleeping beauty couldn’t make it any longer and fell asleep on the bus.

The day has finally arrived! After a year of planning it is DISNEY time!  We had good intentions of going to bed early, but of course that didn’t happen. The kids were in bed by 8 but were “too excited to sleep.” Game 7 of the World Series was on and John was not about to miss this piece of history (we all know how that turned out 😀). The 3 am wake up call actually wasn’t so bad but we will see how everyone feels this afternoon.

   
    
 Gramy and Gramps the luggage worked perfect, they both were able to wheel their own luggage in! Thank you!

  Cooper has so many questions for John about the plane.  The excitement in his voice is priceless. 

   

It is the night before Disney and all through the house, no one is sleeping not even a mouse.  How can we sleep while thoughts of Mickey and Disney princesses dance in our heads?