Summer Trip One: WDW!

YIPEE! It's finally summer break! This summer I am traveling all over the place. My first trip started right after school let out. We went to Disney World, and I got to take my cousin, Katherine with me! First we went to the lake house with Katherine and we played on my new zipline that I got for Easter.

This thing is so fun!

Go Katherine, go!

I don't know if this video will work. I don't have good luck uploading videos, but the zipline must be seen in action!

We introduced Katherine to many of our Disney traditions; such as stopping at Golden Corral in Georgia on our drive to WDW.

I like to pass some of the car time sleeping, especially after a meal at Golden Corral.

Katherine spent my nap time, playing her DS. I think she was scared Mom would take a picture of her sleeping!

Finally we arrived at the Wilderness Lodge! The drive was much more fun with Katherine in the car, and Mom had "boredom buster" presents for us.

Daddy always tries to convince me that any ride in an elevator could be like the Tower of Terror.

We love playing tetherball on the beach at the Wilderness Lodge.

Getting some pictures for our scrapbooks.

Glam Girl!

Mom secretly ordered this BFF basket to be delivered to our room the first night! What a surprise! Now we know why she wanted us to watch Bambi in the car!

We love this photo op at the Contemporary.

Ahhh, the Magic Kingdom! It's HOT, but who cares, we're at the happiest place on earth!

The "people mover" is always a good place to sit down and cool off.

Katherine and I had such fun riding the rides together!

I love having fun with my cousin! We're on the ferry back to the Wilderness Lodge.

On our official "cousins day", we went to Blizzard Beach. We had the best day there! We opened and closed the park! Mom and Dad splurged and got the private cabana and it was AWESOME! It rained around lunchtime, but our personal attendant got our lunch for us while we sat under the umbrella, and then the crowds cleared out because of the rain!

We always have fun at the Whispering Canyon restaurant. Here's Daddy's GIANT diet coke he got for breakfast! (He actually finished it!)

Our waitress really wanted Katherine to finish her pancakes.

I'm sure I can fit one more bite.

You never know what the waiters and waitresses are doing behind your back!

That waiter turned Mom into the Statue of Liberty. Ok, so what is up with Mom and the Statue of Liberty? Last year on the cruise, the waiter turned Mom into the Statue of Liberty too. By the way, always ask for ketchup at the Whispering Canyon.

We got our character meal at Chef Mickey's this trip. It's always so fun to see old friends!

Chef Donald!

Awww, Chef Mickey was great! He admired my Mom's Mickey necklace.

And of course, Minnie was my favorite! She spent lots of time with us!

We loved goofing around with Goofy!

Two Goofs!

Waiting for the ferry back to the Wilderness Lodge.

Daddy's scary shot! That flash in the dark will really scare you! And we were blinded for hours afterwards. ha ha

Hollywood Studios was very HOT! We got a Mickey bar on the way out, it melted almost immediately.

We played a hilarious "wrong answer" game at every meal time. Daddy would ask questions and you have to answer with a wrong answer very quickly. Kat and I were pretty good at it, Mom wasn't. She always answered with the correct answer.

What a fun trip!

Spring 2011 and the end of the school year-FINALLY!

After Spring Break, it was a whirlwind until the end of the school year.

Lucy and Lily came to my house for a week! They loved playing in the sandbox, lying out in the sun, barking at the neighbor dogs, and playing with me.

Lily even got herself wedged into Maisie and Minnie's clubhouse under Mom's bed.

The fifth grade class went to Space Camp for a week. It was really fun and especially fun because we didn't have homework that week!

Then we had some really horrible tornadoes hit our area. It was scary when the power went out and we couldn't find out what was happening. We all stayed in the pantry for a long time. Then the next day we drove to the lake house, which still had power, and we ended up missing a whole week of school while they were cleaning up and restoring power to our town. (It's still a mess in a lot of places.) We had to get a new roof and a pool umbrella, and a few fence sections fell down, but it was minor compared to what we have seen.

This is what I spend hours doing every Monday-Thursday. NOT FUN!

Guess how I feel about it?

At the end of the school year, Mom and I baked about a million madeleines for a french class party.

I was very happy to finish my quilt that I worked on all year in Sewing Club. It's a seasons quilt.

And to take a break from homework near the end of the year, I had a water balloon fight with Daddy.

Ooooh, got me!

Spring break '11 in Squaw Valley, CA

We went to Squaw Valley, California for our Spring Break Ski Trip this year. They got over 5 feet of snow when we were there!

Riding in the gondola on the first day. It was a good day of skiing.

Nice and clear, with not much wind.

That was not the case for most of the days there. Mostly it was very windy, and snowy and cold.

It was still fun, but it was hard to see.

We're over here, Mom!

One day it was snowing at the top of the mountain, but raining down in the village. Mom and I decided not to ski after we saw that Daddy was soaked from his morning skiing. We all had lunch in the village and definitely needed some hot cocoa.

And we all spent the afternoon painting pottery!

This was the view at the top of the big cable car. That water behind Mom is Lake Tahoe. This was on the last day when the skies were finally blue. It was still windy and snowy, you can see the snow whipping across Mom and Dad's faces.

Squaw Valley has lots of open bowls like this to ski in. So pretty!

Daddy in his new mustard suit. Hey, it's waterproof.

Me, hitting the slopes!

Mom is smiling because she just made it down the steep and very windy black diamond!

On our last day of our trip, there was another big snowstorm predicted, so we decided to drive to Reno, NV early and get a hotel there. We stayed at a huge casino that had a movie theater, shopping, restaurants, and a giant arcade in it. We all had to ride the mechanical bull in the arcade!

Daddy getting crazy on that bull!

The bull was so slippery, I had to hold on tight! It was fun and really funny when we fell off!