Kate talking about her new ring

:)

Upward Begins

Another year of Upward basketball is here. It seems like we just finished the year last year. Time is just flying by. This year Ben and Walker are on the same team and Brett is their coach. Their team is the Pistons. Ben was on fire Saturday. He was oh so cute running down the court after he scored. I'm not sure exactly how many he scored, Will says he scored 18 points. Jason said he quit counting. Will and Drew are on the same team this year and Jason is their coach. Will scored 12 points and Drew scored 5 points. He got fouled and got a shot and sank it beautifully!! Our Saturdays for the next 7 weeks will be spent playing basketball so if you need us, you can find us at FBC!! The boys love basketball more than any other sport, at least right now they do! Hope you are all staying warm today. We are at home for a weather day. And it didn't turn out to be as bad as they thought. I feel like we are wasting it! Oh well, I got to sleep late so I guess it was worth it!

Capital One Bowl

This year Alabama got the Capital One Bowl and since it is in Orlando we wanted to go. It was the perfect way to end our wonderful Disney Vacation! I'm sure you all watched it so you don't need my replay. It was a great game and just if Alabama would have played like that the entire season we may just be back at the National Championship but oh well, we can't be stingy, we need to share. I mean we do have 13, we could get Auburn get at least 1 not counting the one they claim from years ago. The kids had a blast but Kate wanted to know after the 1st quarter if it was over yet! She asked me that a million times!! We are so glad we got to watch the TIDE ROLL and we are looking forward to the 2011 season!! Roll Tide!!

Disney World

Since Alabama was selected to play in the Capital One Bowl in Orlando, we all got bowl tickets and Disney World tickets for Christmas. The Capital One Bowl was perfect for us! We left the Monday after Christmas and headed down. Jason flew in on Wednesday. We planned the trip on such a short notice that no one checked his schedule and he had a council meeting that he could not miss! I found him a one way ticket out of Montgomery for cheap and he could get to Orlando by 9:45 that Wednesday morning! It was perfect. I followed Elizabeth and Brett down and the kids were great! It was an easy drive. It always is on the drive down! We checked into our hotel and then headed to Downtown Disney. It was already about 4:00 in the afternoon and we didn't want to waste a days ticket just on a couple of hours. It worked out great! Tuesday morning we checked out of that hotel and headed over to Disney World to check into our hotel at the Resort. We stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort this time. It was nice but nothing like what we are use to with our Vacation Club points. The rooms were pirate themed and the boys loved those! Kate obviously did too since she tells you the hotel was her favorite thing if you ask her! After we got checked in it was off to Animal Kingdom. We hit our park favorites and timed the safari ride just right. We got off just in time to see the Jingle Jammin Jungle Parade. The parades are a favorite of all of ours! This year we thought Kate was big enough to do the Disney stroller, thank God I decided at the last minute to take her stroller because she didn't do the Disney stroller. Luckily I was able to get a refund! That night we headed to Epcot to eat in Mexico. It was delicious counter service! It was soooo cold though we went back to the hotel as soon as we finished eating. Wednesday, Elizabeth and Brett did the Vacation Club tour while we waited on Jason to get there. We all went on the tour and got fast passes for the day for all the time we lost in the parks. Jason took Disney's Magical Express from the airport to the hotel and got there just as we were pulling up from our tour. We ate breakfast and then off to Hollywood Studios we went. By the time we got there all the fast passes we gone for the 3 rides we wanted to ride. But that was okay because we were able to take Kate to the Beauty and the Beast, the boys went to see Indiana Jones and we finally got to see the entire Block Party Parade. I wasn't all that impressed with it. Later on in the afternoon, we headed back to the hotel to re-fuel. We ate supper and back we went to HS since it was Magic Hours. We were able to ride Toy Story Mania and Kate, Ben and I watched One Man's Dream and Voyage of the Little Mermaid. The others waited for the Rock n Roller coaster and Brett rode Tower of Terror! The Osborne Family Festival of Lights at Hollywood Studios were amazing! On Thursday we started out to Epcot. Ben got sick while waiting in line for Soarin' so he and Jason went back to the hotel to rest. While everyone else was riding Soarin' and Test Track I took Kate to ride Nemo and Friends. We never have a wait for that ride and we waited for 25 minutes. That is when I really realized how crowded it was. Later in the afternoon, Kate, Lacey, Liz and I had lunch with princesses in Norway. Kate loved it! Afterwards we got to see Snow White, her favorite! Friday was New Year's Eve and we save this day for Magic Kingdom. Jason and I got our kids up and headed on over for early morning Magic Hours. We rode everything we wanted to ride by the time it got crowded and had fast passes for the things we wanted to ride later. The perfect way to go. However, it was so so crowded that we headed over to the Polynesian Resort to watch the Holiday Fireworks. It was the best seat in the house and far enough away that Kate didn't get scared by the loud boom!! We were all (my family) asleep by midnight!! As we are most every year! We had a Magical time at Disney, I am glad we went but we most likely won't ever go back the week after Christmas! Too many people!

Animal Kingdom

Hollywood Studios

Epcot

Magic Kingdom