The Wonderful World of Disney!!!

 Just last week, we returned home from a LONG trip to Florida at Disneyworld!!!!  We had an absolute BLAST and did EVERYTHING on this vacation!!! Here we are in front of Cinderella's beautiful castle!!

This kids were amazing the whole time but boy did we tucker them out just going and going and going!!

 The very first ride we went on was Jasmine's magic carpet!!  Ryan and Jane had the honors, first.

 Jane was THRILLED to meet her long time favorite princess, Ariel!!! Ariel and Eric were super sweet to Jane and had a nice long conversation with her :) They made her feel very special!

 Of course, we had to meet Tinkerbell- and even though I don't have a picture here of her, we also got to meet Tinkerbell's sister, Periwinkle, from the new movie coming out soon!!

 It rained 4 out of the 8 days we were there...ugh!!  But we were prepared and made the most of it :)

 Jane and Beckham were both so excited to meet our newest favorite princess, Merida!! She had the Scottish accent and everything- she was alot of fun.  Jane and Beckham both got to shoot a bow and arrow just like Merida does :)

 Here is the Beast's castle from the new portion of Disney World that is being built!!

 Jane and Ryan on the Winnie the Pooh ride...one of our favorites!!

 Here is Beckham enjoying the night time magic of Disney on the Dumbo ride:)

 Ryan saved us a little money by making the kids each a package of things that you can get from the Dollar store that Disney sells for 3x the price- like, glow sticks, glow balloons, character signing books and Disney character pens and Disney stickers etc etc.  This kids thought this was a very special treat and had a blast opening their packs!!

 We got to eat a very special breakfast at Cinderella's castle and meet many of the princesses- it was so much fun!!

 Here we are at breakfast- it was delicious!!

 meeting Snow White!!

 They even gave Jane a very special birthday treat.

 We loved meeting the wicked step sisters and step mother!!  They were hilarious and quite perfect :)

 Swiss Family Robinson house.  This was very nostalgic for me:)

 Oh the Pirate's League was such a treat for the kids!!  Beckham and Jane both got the star treatment as they were transformed into a pirate...

And a Mermaid...  The kids even got to go into a private, pirate's treasure room and get some treasure!!!

 Beckham says his favorite ride was the cars.  I suspect it was because he got to drive the car all by himself:)

 This is yet another wonderful character dining experience!!  It was delicious...

 ...and we got to meet all the characters from the Hundred Acre Woods!!

 Another special experience we had was to trick-or-treat at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!!  It rained the whole time- but we still had a blast and the kids got tons of candy!!  At the party we got the meet all seven dwarves at once- this is the ONLY time that can happen so it was pretty special!!!

 The Halloweed parade was amazing.  Here are a herd of Zombies dancing!!

 We ate at the awesome Dinosaur restaurant because we knew Beckham would love it...and he did!! So did Jane- it was very cool. 

 The new part of the Magic Kingdom with Belle's house and the Beast's castle were still closed off, but we managed to get grabbed by some workers to come into it with some other people to experience it!!  It was really amazing and Jane got chosen to be part of the show!!!

 At the Animal Kingdom we went on a spectacular African safari and saw tons of amazing African animals like this Rhino!!  He was like several yards away from us!!

 We also got to see a really fun Finding Nemo show!!  It was wonderful!!

 And this was a special treat, we were able to catch Pocahontas, right before she had to run off!!

 Jane and Beckham in the shark's mouth- haha!!

 Epcot was our second favorite park!!  It was so much fun with a ton of great shopping and delicious foods to eat from different countries!! Here we are in the United Kingdom!!  All the workers from each different Epcot land were from the country that was represented.  It was alot of fun!!

 We got to meet Mary Poppins- my favorite!!!

 We also met Mulan in China!!!

 Here we all are in Germany!!

 Our last day was spent again at the Magic Kingdom and we got to meet Tiana!!

 Jane and I rode Jane's favorite ride, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, one more time!! 

We had such a blast and feel so blessed to have been able to have such a wonderful vacation!!!

Best Brother Ever!!!

 Several weeks ago Ryan, the kids and I had the opportunity to have one last summer adventure!!!  We got to go see my brother, sister-in-law and nephew in New York!!!  The trip was so memorable and so much fun!!  My brother, Bryan, was super sweet and went above and beyond to make this trip really nice for us!!

Here is the perfect example of this...Bryan made us a delicious, gourmet meal- beef satay with a thai peanut sauce!!  It was absolutely delicious!!

 We all looked through a book that claimed to have the top fifty things to do with kids in New York, and we decided on a few fun places to check out. Well, two out of the three places turned out to be put of business.  Soooo, we did hours of walking and managed to only get in a nice lunch and trip to Central Park to see the Belvedere castle!!!  This was worth the walk; it was really cool and Jane loved walking through a "castle"!!!

 Jane and Beckham both LOVE riding the trains!!  Jane felt like such a big girl standing all by herself on the train!!

 Of course, we had to make the short trip to "Jane's Carousel"!!  All the kids had a blast!!

 We also played on the beautiful park right next to Bryan and Wendy's apartment in Brooklyn!!

 Here we all are on top of the Belvedere castle!!!  Such a beautiful view!!

 There is an amazing little cookie shop right next to Bryan's apartment where we got a little treat!!  Judging by our plate, they were a hit!!

 I just had to throw this one in of my big boy Beckham!!!   Aw, they just grow too fast :(

 Here's the amazing view from their apartment!!!  I feel so lucky to have family here and to have the opportunity to visit this amazing place so often!!!

Ryan has yet to email me the picture that we got when we went to see "Into the Woods" in the theater in Central Park!! This was AMAZING and Bryan and Wendy were just so sweet to make this opportunity possible for Ryan and I!!!  I really do have an amazing family that I feel so blessed to have some of them near by!!  Thank you so much Bryan and Wendy for having us and making our last summer adventure so amazing!!

What's been up...

 Well, we are back in Dover and life has not slowed down!!  Right when we got home, we all got terribly ill with a NASTY case of Hand Foot Mouth disease and were down and out for a full week...yuck.  But, on a happy note, Ryan won Yard of the Month for August!! He has put so much time and energy into making our yard look nice, so it was nice to get recognized for it :) A full Bird Colonel came to award Ryan with a certificate and a gift card to Lowes. We were also in the base newspaper.  It was really cool!!!

 I am doing preschool for Beckham starting in September and we are both super excited!!!  My curriculum came in the mail and I have been having so much fun setting up the room and getting everything organized!! Beckham cannot wait to start school with his buddies!!!

 Here are the "All About You" sheets all filled out,  for all the kids in Beckham's class!!

 Also, we got a fish!!!  My kids have LOVED this little guy and help me feed him every morning!!  We got him to be Beckham's class pet.  But we are having alot of fun with him in the mean time.  Jane and Beckham decided to name him "Goldie"...not a very manly name- but it works :)

Just a quick update into life in Delaware...we are having a blast finishing out our summer with a bang:)

Utah, Utah and more Utah!!!

The fam and I had the amazing opportunity to go home to Utah!! This is the trip I have been waiting for ever since I moved to Delaware.  This trip was absolutely the BEST trip ever and we all had a fabulous time visiting with family, friends and just re exploring Utah.  We made several wonderful trips to the Riverwoods Mall splash pad!!  Jane wasted NO time jumping right in :)

 What a sweet smile Beckham!!

 While in Utah, we had the wonderful opportunity to go to Idaho for the very last "Harper Camp". This has been going on for 60 years and has turned into an impossibly large event.  The whole town of Ketchum Idaho was saturated with Harpers from all over the place :) It was a lot of fun to be there!  Here is me and Beckham with my sweet Grandpa Harper!!!

 The kids LOVED having time to spend with Grammy!!

 Beckham was getting a little too adventurous with the pool and was having a grand ol time jumping in with all his might and giving his mama a heart attack :-/

 Here are Edward and Jane sitting on the high chairs at the restaurant.

 On our last day, we had a picnic at a beautiful little park.  Of course, swim suits or not, the kids had to partake of the splash pad fun!!

 Here are Ryan and the kids in awe of the lush, gorgeous, green lawn at the Dick's house...grass in NOT like that in Delaware...

 We were very excited to explore temple square and the new City Creek Mall!!  It was amazing!!

 Love it!!!

 They had so many really artistic and cool fountains.

 And the view of the temple is always stunning!

Here are Jane and Beckham with all their cousins from the Dick side of our family (minus Emma, Jacob and Jack).  Such a beautiful bunch of kids :)

                                                       The Dick Clan :)

 Of course, we made a trip up Provo Canyon to Sundance!!!  It is just so beautiful up there and I have sooooo many amazing memories up that canyon!!  It was really quite magical (i know I am nerdy)

 We rode up the chair lift and was in awe of Utah's beauty!!

 I was thrilled to meet my darling little nephew, Tyson, as well as all of his sweet family, whom I miss a lot!!

 Me and sweet little Mae at Malawi's pizza!!

 We just HAD to hit Bridal Veil falls!!

 It was fun to do fireworks with Ryan's family!!  It made me miss holidays in Utah our family!! I had so much fun!!

 The kids did do!!

 One of the highlights of my trip was going to see my mom in the play "Crazy for You" at the Hale Center Theater!!  She was amazing and it was so special to be there with all my siblings and my daughter, Jane!!

 We had lunch with my dear cousin Natalie and my fam at the Orem Mall!! This was a darling picture of my newest sweet niece, Claire, with Jane!!

 One of our last nights in Utah and this is what I found...

On our way to the airport, we HAD to stop to see our dear friends who lived one house away from us in Delaware until not too long ago they moved back to Utah.  Jane and Addy were such dear friends...

 I miss my sweet friend Christa so much.  She is what made Dover feel like home for me...and she is greatly missed there :(

Every moment of this trip was so wonderful and I feel so blessed to have been able to go!!! I didn't even get pictures of my brothers Matthew and Bryan who were there in Utah,  nor with my Best Friend and SISTER, Christina :( But I had so much fun.  I just LOVE my family and friends so much and am so grateful for the place I grew up- Utah is so wonderful!!