Kansas City Update

It's been a while since we updated so I will just jump right in.

In October, we loaded up the family and went to Disney World for our family vacation.  We stayed on the property at the Caribbean Beach Resort.  It was a very nice resort, but kind of like Vegas, we really only needed it to sleep in at night as we spent a bare minimum of 12 hours at the parks for the 7 days we stayed there.  A few highlights from the trip.  We were able to have dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table where we met Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora(Sleeping Beauty), Ariel, and Jasmine.  We also got to eat at Beast's Castle and of course took pictures with him in the Library.  The girls dressed up in their finest princess dresses and I must say they were absolutely beautiful.  We spent the bulk of our time between the Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios.  We lucked out that Kaitlyn was right at 40" tall and Ellie is about 49" tall so they could ride the majority of the rides.  For the ones that Kaitlyn couldn't ride, Ellie got to double up and ride with both Jana and I so she LOVED that.  On the 2nd day we were there, we got to Animal Kingdom at 7:30 in the morning and walked out of the Magic Kingdom at 2:30 AM.  Right before we left, Ellie and I rode Big Thunder Mountain 3 times in 16 minutes.  It was one of our favorites.  Ellie proved to be fearless and rode every ride we had the chance to ride.

  
 
 

Her favorites were Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Aerosmith's Rockin' Rollercoaster (her absolute favorite).

Disney had a HUGE Halloween party that we took the girls to.  We walked away with approximately 15 lbs of candy...the bulk of which, Ellie and I gathered in a mad dash around the park right before they closed down.  Because we are so clever, we even emptied our bags before we started the final push so they would think we didn't have anything.  I must say...it was genius.  All in all, it was a great trip.  The girls got to meet all of the Disney characters and all of the princesses.  It was a truly memorable vacation for all of us.  We walked miles and miles throughout the parks...except for Kaitlyn.  She walked about 50 steps during the entire time we were there.  The rest of the time we had to carry her or push her in the stroller.  But don't worry, we are fine and her little legs didn't get too tired.

We had a great Thanksgiving and Christmas with both sides of our families.  It is always nice to be able to stagger our family holidays between sides so we are able to see everyone each year.  In December, Jana an I started looking for a second dog.  She has always wanted a Boxer and we were lucky enough to come across a litter of puppies about 8 minutes away from Karen's house in Salina.  We went to look...and came home with a beautiful Brindle Boxer that we named Izzie.  She used to be tiny, but now she is getting huge.  She will be between 65 and 70 lbs by the time she is full grown...so we have that to look forward to.  She is a handful.  She chews on EVERYTHING and is a little lax in her house training so far but she will get better.  She does like to cuddle though and she sleeps every night crammed in between Jana's shoulder and pillow.  Her and Rosie get along swimmingly.  We were worried at first that they wouldn't be friends but they play together all the time.

Ellie is dancing again and playing basketball for a team that Jana is coaching.  She has drastically improved from last year.  Two games ago, she realized that she is pretty tall, can run pretty fast, can dribble the ball, and can shoot.  In her last two games she has scored 22 and 12 points respectively.  It is really fun to watch her run coast to coast and drill a shot from the lane in one smooth play.  Once she decided to be aggressive, she is also a legitimate lock-down, on ball defender.  Once she gets in front of you, it is really hard to get by.  Even for Jana and I.  As for dance, she has almost mastered the art of the cartwheel.  I know this because she does them all the time, always.  In the living room, in her bedroom, in the entryway, in the hallway, in the kitchen.  Anywhere, anytime.  Cartwheels and round-offs.  I will give it to her though, she has it figured out.  We look forward to her recital in June.  She will also play softball in the summer and both her and Kaitlyn will play soccer.  SO, we have a busy couple of months coming up.

 
 










 

I hope all is well with everyone else.  I will try to update more often as things happen on our end.  Have a great week.

John, Jana, Ellie, and Kaitlyn