My parents left today for an anniversary trip (their 30th)! They flew out of the Nashville airport at 6 am this morning so they came up yesterday afternoon and spent the night. All day I had been telling Will that Honey and Papa were coming to visit him. When the doorbell ring PA started barking her head off and Will started screaming “Papa, Papa, Papa!” What am I going to do with those two?!?! But Will was a little confused when they weren’t here when he woke up this morning

Yesterday I had a very productive day and I am trying to do the same today – so far it’s not going well I keep getting distracted by important things like planning our trip to NYC in October!! Whoo-hoo! We finally get to go back. The three of us and my Mom are going at the end of October and I can’t wait. (For real this time – the plane tickets are booked.) I want to check out a few places in Brooklyn while we’re there and of course see all our friends.

Remember when I said that Will did not prefer electronic toys? Well I think I spoke about 6 months too early! He has recently become very enamored with his tool bench and steering wheel that light up, make noises, and sing. I think he’s finally old enough to be able to manipulate them well and really enjoy what they do. He only takes sharp left turns with his steering wheel so maybe we have a future Nascar driver!

My posts seem to have Christmas movie theme this week! Tonight, 7 of us loaded up to go downtown to eat dinner and look at the Christmas scenes in the building windows. It was a fun night – Will especially liked the Christmas windows. I may have had grand ideas of the windows in my head – I mean, the last decorated windows I saw were Macy’s in NYC! But, it was a fun night with our family!

You may be asking yourself “What does this story have to do with Christmas Vacation?” Well, the picture says it all! Yes, the 7 of us loaded up into the 1995 station wagon complete with wood paneling and Christmas music blaring.

Bill, Amber, Dana, Will and Mom posing before piling in!

I have to admit it was completely my idea to go in the station wagon – and it was fun and something we won’t soon forget! Jonathan wouldn’t get in the picture and my Dad took the picture.

Will did really like the window decorations! They were decorated with animals, Santa, elves and reindeers and a lot of “nice” lists. Will’s name even made Santa’s list I can’t wait to make even more Christmas memories this week!

Finally! A Walt Disney World report. October 17 -23, the Dixon family loaded up the SUV’s and headed towards Orlando for a week at the happiest place on earth. We had a great time! Here are some highlights from the trip (in no particular order):

Bill, Amber & Will with Mickey & Minnie. Will was not afraid of the characters and it was rare to get a picture where he wasn’t staring at them instead of the camera!

Will loved riding all the rides! He was able to ride most of the rides in Magic Kingdom including: Dumbo, Aladdin’s Flying Carpet, the carousel, Teacups, & Jungle Cruise.

Here’s the whole gang with Minnie Mouse. Their matching Disney t-shirts were SO cute!

Will had SO MUCH FUN! We saw several shows and Will particularly enjoyed Festival of the Lion King and Beauty and the Beast.

One morning we had breakfast in Cinderella’s Castle – it was really neat. During breakfast we met all of the Disney princesses. Above is Will with Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty). At breakfast they gave all the princes a sword and Will has played with it everyday since!

Will and PawPaw on the Kilimanjari Safari in Animal Kingdom.

Our absolute favorite part of each park were the parades! Above Will and Bill are dancing in the Move It, Shake It, Celebrate It! parade. They take their dancing seriously!

Will and Nonny dancing! One afternoon Will was wearing his Disney shirt with his name on it and almost every character in the parade stopped to say “hi will!’ That was so much fun and probably my best memory from the week!

Aubrey and Mickey at Chef Mickey’s breakfast. Aubrey was so sweet and in awe of all the characters.

Will was in awe of the Mickey waffles.

We had a great week and I can’t wait to go back! It will be extra magical when Will can understand what he is experiencing.

I accidentally posted our vacation pictures on tinyworm! So, for the update – head on over!

Beach Baby Blog  – CLICK HERE

A couple of weeks ago we went to Panama City Beach, Florida with my parents. We even spent a few hours with Dana and the “Locke” family  on Thursday afternoon and for dinner! We have about 100 pictures – too many to post. Here are a few to enjoy.

Will feeling the sand for the first time.

Toes into the ocean.

Will LOVED the sand!

Bill and Will playing in the ocean. Will wasn’t too thrilled about it.

Papa and Will playing in the pool.

Honey and Will swimming.

Fun time at the beach!

Will and I had a staycation last week. I guess it wasn’t technically a staycation since we went to Chattanooga! We had a great and fun time. We started the week by having a Father’s Day cookout with the Dixon family. We had a fun time eating, playing with babies, playing cornhole and riding the Trikke. And Will spent a day later in the week with Nonny and PawPaw. No pictures from the Dixon party Anybody else have any?

Papa gave Will a flat-top – complete with Krew Comb.

Honey gave Will some chocolate pudding “to eat!”

Will had fun playing at the toystore downtown. Here he is riding an air pogo.

DeDe took Will on his first carousel ride. He loved it! He even knew how to hold on correctly.

Taking a second ride with Mommy.

Playing in the water fountain. This is a scream of delight!

This past weekend Dana and Jonathan came up for a visit. Dana and I had been “training” for the Mule Day 5K. We had a great weekend playing games, running and eating!

Jonathan and Bill had to hold hands as one of the “Roolz” in Quelf!

Getting close to the finish line!

A little closer…

Finished in just under 40 minutes.

Will and Mommy after the race.

Hey, hey the gang’s all here.

Will saying goodbye to Dana and Jonny.

Dana got Will ready for church – he looked so preppy.

This is from this afternoon – Will doing his favorite thing. Playing in the floor naked!

So cute I could lick him

This past week, Will and I spend a few days in Atlanta with Dana and Honey. We had a great time! We went to the Georgia Aquarium and that was a lot of fun. Will liked looking at the fish swimming by – especially the ones that were swimming in the ceiling. We also ate some good food at Legal Seafood and Maggiano’s. We stayed at the Omni Hotel which was very nice but we had to change rooms because our TV didn’t work. We already had the pack n play set up for Will so I just rolled him in it from the north tower to the south tower! We also did a little shopping in Buckhead and Dawsonville. Ok, by a little, I mean I spent all of my Christmas money But, there was a Pottery Barn Outlet! Pictures coming soon!