Mattie Mays Excellent Disney Adventure - Day Four

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATTIE MAY

FIVE YEARS OLD

Mattie May went to bed a four year old and woke up a five year old. Believe me, there was no way she was letting us forget that today was her birthday. We all sang happy birthday to wake her up. We had a few gifts for her to open, including her birthday ears. I've decided that everyone should wear Mickey ears on their birthday! They're just too much fun!

We had a great breakfast at Chef Mickey's where we were joined by the big guy himself. Mickey, Minnie, Donald Duck, Pluto and Goofy were all there. They each came to our table to wish her a happy birthday.

They were all great and the food was fantastic. Donald duck was even able to get a smile and a laugh out of Frank! We all know how difficult that is!

There was so much going on, she was having trouble eating. And before she finished her breakfast, our waitress brought out her birthday cup cake. The candles and the wrapper were the only things not edible. Even that little Mickey face was made out of chocolate.

Look at the five year old smile! Who couldn't love this kid?!

About all she could finish was her milk and then she was ready to ride the monorail to EPCOT. By the way, did you know EPCOT is an acronym? Do you know what the actual name is? Well if you promise to read to the end of this post, I'll tell you! As anxious as she was to find Mulan, she asked to go in "the ball" first.

OK More useless trivia - do you know the ball is called Space Ship Earth? That is also the name of the ride inside!

While we waited for our FB time for Test Track, we watched Captain EO. Let me say, that movie is 25 years old but the special effects are still really cool. They must have really been ahead of their time when they filmed that! Mattie May was so excited that she was getting to watch Michael Jackson, but when the villain cat lady thing appeared on the screen, I started looking for a way for us to get out of there! She screamed this terrified scream, a truly blood curdling scream. Katie got her to take of her glasses and sit in her lap until she calmed down. She put her glasses back on and just closed her eyes when "the scary cat lady" came on the screen. She was very happy when she turned into a nice person at the end of the show. As we were walking out, she just kept jabbering about how good that was and if we had time could we see it again. I guess she has a love/hate feeling for Captain EO.

To waste more time we rode Imagination w/Figment. That is a really cute and educational ride. We had a pretzels and popcorn for snacks because we couldn't find an ice cream stand. We looked all the way to Test Track and never did pass one.

Test Track is amazing!! We were a bit concerned about the simulations of wrecks (we're all still a bit jumpy from last year!). OH MY GOODNESS! That was the most awesome ride! Trina, I'm really sorry you didn't get to ride it, but now you have a reason to go back! It is so cool!!!

Heading into the World Showcase, we found Mattie May an ice cream stand! She hadn't had any all day and we were afraid she would go into withdrawals! That kid loves ice cream! She would eat it every day at every meal if we would let her!

We visited Mexico for a while, walked through Norway and found the castle where we were to have her birthday dinner and then made a bee line to China. This was going to be the most important stop on our entire trip.

Why?

Mulan is in China!

We had to wait about fifteen minutes for her to come out but it was worth the wait. Mattie May patiently waited her turn with all the other princess in line. I don't think I have ever seen that child's eyes light up like they did when she saw her. When it was her turn, Mulan motioned for Mattie May to come on up, but before she took a step, she respectfully bowed to Mulan. It was so cute and Mulan was very impressed with her. Mattie May explained to Mulan that she liked her so much because she knew karate too. Mulan asked her what belt she was and asked her to show her some moves. She did part of her kata for her and gave her a bit of surprise when she did her little yell! Mulan said "Every good warrior packs a surprise!"

Mulan was impressed with Mattie May's kata.

They talked for a bit longer and Mulan signed her book, then they posed together for some pictures. I think Mattie May could have stayed right there for the rest of the day and been happier than any other child in the park!

Mulan asked for a Warrior pose!

Mulan gave her a great big hug, wished her happy birthday and told her to keep practicing her karate. Maybe next time they see each other, they can demonstrate some of their weapons skills! LOL

Always time for a silly picture!

After we watched an amazing movie on China in a round theater, we headed to Germany. Katie, Mattie May and I waited in line to see Snow White and Grumpy disappeared! He reappeared just as it was Mattie May's turn to speak to Snow White. He was a very happy camper with a bratwurst, sauerkraut and beer in his hands! Snow White got pretty amused when Mattie May told her she lived with one of her dwarfs. She asked which one and Mattie May told her Grumpy and showed her where he was sitting. Snow White waved and blew a kiss to him! It was just priceless!

From Germany we walked to Italy where Frank insisted that we try some gelato. It was only about 45 minutes before we our dinner reservations, but we had some anyway. I had never had any and it is probably a good thing that there is no where near home that sells the real stuff or I would be huge!!!! That is some yummy stuff!

Italian Gelato on the way to dinner?

Of course! It's Mattie May's birthday!

It started getting cool and we forgot Mattie May's jacket, so as we walked through Italy, America and Japan, Katie and I would walk through the stores looking for a child's jacket. We could only find clothes in adult sizes. It was so strange. Finally in the Japan pavilion I found some cute hooded jackets that Katie liked, so I got one that would fit her and we rolled the sleeves up and Mattie May wore it the rest of the night when we were outside.

It was taking so long that Frank and Mattie May came in to find us. While they walked around, they found the oyster bar. Not an oyster bar for eating but one for buying pearls! Frank had snuck around and bought two oysters for me for our anniversary. He knows how much I love pearls and I can't wear my pearl stud earrings any more.

This store was so much fun. I don't remember the conversation, but the little girl helping us got Mattie May to count for her in Japanese. She, the girl helping us, got so excited! She had all the other girls in there listening to her. I think she would have taken Mattie May home with her if we would have let her!

She was also the person that opened the oysters to find the pearls. After she opens the oyster, she leads everyone in a count down in Japanese as she takes out the pearl. When she did our pearls, she had Mattie May lead the store in the count down! I think everyone in there was amazed that this little girl with blue eyes and blonde hair was counting in Japanese!

Both of my oysters had pearls and they are very close in size but one has a yellow tint to it. They wanted me to change one pearl so they would match, but these are the ones I picked and the ones I wanted. Besides, they are on opposite sides of my head and so far, no one has noticed the color difference!

When the girl finished getting Frank's order on how he wanted the earrings, she came from behind the counter and had an origami crane she had made for Mattie May. She sang happy birthday to her using the crane like a puppet. She not only gave her the crane, she gave her a huge hug to go with it!

Because we had spent so much time in Japan, we had to practically run through Morocco, France, the United Kingdom and Canada to get back to Norway for dinner! Our reservation was for 7:55 and we walked up at 7:53! Yes, we were rushing! And all for nothing. They were running behind and they pushed our reservations up until 8:15! I'm glad we were doing so much walking since we seemed to be eating later and later each night!

To pass the time while we waited, we road Maelstrom, the Viking boats telling the story of Norway and the Vikings. It was another fun and educational ride, but I was just glad to be sitting down not rushing.

Our dinner was very good. We all tried something new, including Frank! I almost fell out of my chair! He never tries new stuff!! Mattie May was pleasantly surprised when she figured out she was having dinner with the Disney princesses. As much as she wore a tiara when she was little, she is not much into the princesses now. But she still had fun. During the Parade of Princesses she not only got to walk in Arial's group, but she got to hold her hand during the entire parade.

Her Mattieism for today wasn't something she said, it was something she did. As all the princesses, big and small, curtsied at the end of the parade, Mattie May bowed at the waist like she does for karate! All the people around her noticed. We actually didn't notice until we were watching the video and saw some customer's point and laugh.

She was promised she could have anything she wanted to eat as long as it wasn't ice cream or cake, it had to actually have some nutritional value! I guess when it's your birthday, any meal can be special! HAHAHA!

A hot dog for her special Birthday dinner!

Frank and Mattie May walked outside to find out what all the noise was we could here. It was the laser/fireworks show. They couldn't see all of it from where we were, but they could see enough to know it was an amazing show! And when they came back in, we surprised Mattie May with another birthday cake! It was a great chocolate cake and it was delish! We carried most of it back to our room because we also had dessert with our meals. Our waiter brought us one of each thing they had and we shared them all. And I wonder why I didn't loose any weight while we were gone!

On the way back to the monorail, we were finally able to take our time and not rush. My feet and legs were very grateful for that! I never complained, but I wondered with each step when my legs were just going to stop and say no more!! Next time I go, I'm not going to forget my pedometer so I'll know how far I walk each day!

We thought Mattie May was going to fall asleep on the monorail ride back to the hotel, but she didn't. And we walked back to our room just in time to see the lighted boat parade, so we went down to the beach and watched the rest of that. Lots of great Disney movie songs. Katie and I sang as many of them as we could at the top of our lungs. I am sure we woke some people up, but I didn't think about that until later. We were having to much fun!

Tomorrow is Disney Hollywood Studios!

God Bless!!

EPCOT is an acronym for Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow. That's your useless trivia for today!

Mattie Mays Excellent Disney Adventure - Day Three

I have had so much fun posting Mattie May's journal. Have you had fun reading her post? I really can't wait (well, I really can) until she can really write things herself. I can't tell you how many hours we spend, she has pencil in hand and paper in front of her and she just asks how to spell each word that she wants to get on paper. She tells me all the time she is going to be a writer.

I am definitely not the writer that she is, but I can add captions and comments to pictures. Although I don't have many pictures to choose from seeing as how I left my camera in Texas!

Day three of our adventure is actually day two of our time in Florida. Traci had told Mattie May about the safari ride at Animal Kingdom and shown her pictures, so this is where she wanted to go on our first full day. We caught the bus and off we went. This was the same bus ride where this happened.

As soon as we got off the bus, Katie and I both realized we had left our sun glasses in the room, including Mattie May's. So we stopped in the first shop we saw and got some. I don't think we could have survived without them. Seriously!

Katie's are super cute! Little Mickey's on hot pink!

Animal Kingdom still had their Christmas decorations up too. My favorite trees of all the parks. I thought of my mom when I saw these trees. Wild animals and prints all over. It was amazing. We found the PhotoPass photographer at this tree and she let us in on the secret of the Magic Photo. They are so cool. You will get to see them when I get my pictures from Disney. They are so neat.

" I look just like Tigger!"

As we headed up the path to the safari and saw the Tree of Life for the first time. Katie got so excited, I think she shed a tear. See, she does take after me! It was amazing. We have seen it on TV and in pictures many times, but it is kind of like the Grand Canyon, pictures just don't do it justice. You have to see it for yourself and feel your breath being taken away.

Tree of Life

It looks like it is coming our of our heads!

We ran into Lilo and Stitch. Mattie May had a great time with them. She had Kia Lan on her shirt and Stitch kept trying to get her to get a different shirt. It was great.

We got tickets for the safari and had more than enough time to head to Rafiki's Island?? The train ride over was nice. We really enjoyed "the island". It was fun and educational at the same time and that is always nice. Here, we met:

Pocahontas

Jiminy Cricket

and of course, Rafiki.

Mattie May wasn't real sure about him. I don't think she has seen the Lion King and isn't familiar with his character. But she did fine.

It was time to head to the safari, but as we were walking out Mattie May spotted the ice cream stand. So naturally we had to get ice cream. We met Casey here. She just started talking to Mattie May as if none of us were there. Of course she had to wish her a happy birthday because she had her birthday button on. Mattie May said to her "Thank you, but my birthday really isn't until tomorrow."

"REALLY?!?!?" Casey squealed, "Tomorrow is my birthday too!" Mattie May ran around the back and gave her a big hug and told her happy birthday too! I think Mattie May would have stayed with her the rest of the day. And to make things even better, Casey gave her her ice cream for her birthday!

Casey

The safari was so cool. It was very much like the drive through safaris that are all around, but oh so much better. This ride created another Mattieism. After she saw Traci's pictures, she kept telling us "you take a safari in a cari!" LOL So that was the name we gave it!

The Safari in the Cari

We think we get so close to the giraffes at the Abilene Zoo, but there is still a fence between you and them. Look how close we are to the one in this picture. Remember this was taken with an iPhone and no zoom! If only he would have looked my way!

Now she wanted to go ride the mountain. This was the ride we learned the importance of the FastPass! It was a two hour wait and the had given out all the FastPasses for the day. So sadly, we didn't get to ride this one. Yeah, some tears were flowing but after the promise of a snack, Katie settled down and got ready for something else.

We walked right up on the line for "Finding Nemo, The Musical" and of course, they were just shutting it off. Another disappointment until the girl saw Mattie May's birthday button. With a quick happy birthday wish, she let us in and told us to walk to the front! We had great seats! And it is a definitely a don't miss show. We had fun watching how they worked the puppets, especially Crush. I think that took five people to work! I don't know how because we were so close to the front, but Frank enjoyed a little nap while we were here!

Finding Nemo Musical

We headed over to the dinosaur part to see what was there. The roller coaster there looked really cool, but Mattie May was too short to ride. Frank decided he could get her on and the entire time we were in line, Katie and I kept telling him he would be the one dealing with Mattie May's tears this time! He kept telling us he would get her on there! Guess who was right? Yeah, Katie and I were! Thank goodness there was a popcorn stand nearby and a big bucket of popcorn can chase the biggest tears away. Katie also found the first hidden Mickey in this area!

We got in line to see Pluto and Goofy while we enjoyed our popcorn. A very interesting artist came by while we were waiting. At first we thought she was a member of the clean up cast, she was caring a broom & dust pan and dressed just like them. But the dust pan was full of water and the broom was formed into a giant paint brush. She would "paint" the characters from memory.

She said this was much more fun in the cooler weather. In the hot sun, her "art" doesn't last very long. It wasn't to much longer until we got to see Pluto and Goofy. These were the first two characters that Mattie May really interacted with. She couldn't wait to give them both a kiss on the nose!

Pluto & Goofy

Back to the Tree of Life we went. It was time to see things Through the Eye's of Bugs! This started out Innocent enough, but then the big hopper came out and Mattie May was in Grumpy's lap in a flash. Thank goodness she was there when the spiders started coming down from the ceiling! She was not a happy camper and tried her hardest to crawl inside his shirt! Katie and I were enjoying the show until the hornets stung us. Lets just suffice it to say, Mattie May didn't see a need to do this show any more!

Bug's Life

The Rain Forrest Cafe is just at the entrance of the park and that is where Mattie May wanted to eat. I don't know why. She hates it when the animals start going off and we were right in front of the big male elephant. After the first couple of times she realized he wasn't actually going to run over her and she enjoyed the rest of our meal.

We caught one of the last buses back to the hotel. Everyone got bathed and ready for bed. Tomorrow was The Big Day! Mattie May's birthday, our reason we were on this excellent adventure in the first place.

This was the wreath on the end of the Contemporary.

Tomorrow - Day Four - Mattie May's Happy Fifth Birthday!

God Bless!

A Very Special Lady

My family lost a very special person yesterday. Most of the world knew her as Fonda Day, but in my family she was either Fonda Mae or Granny Grunt. She was Mattie B's youngest sister, but there where times when I was young that I thought she was one of my grandmothers.
Following are just a few of the wonderful memories I will always have.

When we lived in Midland, I would get to spend several weeks in Abilene during the summer and some of those days were spent with her, just the two of us. On most of those nights, she would take me to Dairy Queen to get a dipped cone, take it home to eat outside as we put the birds to bed. We would sit in her back yard at dusk as the three large trees filled with birds settling in to roost for the night. And most of those nights she would get so mad at me. I would eat the chocolate off the dipped cone and then give her the ice cream to eat. I don't guess she was very mad since this scenario replayed over and over.

I'm sure we were going to a wedding and we were talking about getting married for some reason. I have no idea why this seemed important to me as a little girl, but I told her I wanted her to wear a red dress when I got married, Many years later, on February 4, 1984, she waltzed into Mom's house dressed in the prettiest red suit I had ever seen, ready to see Frank and I get married! She also made sure I was wearing "the ring" that night, just as she did for Katie on her wedding day twenty one years later.

There was one Christmas eve, either in the late 60s or early 70s, when all my cousins came in wearing go go boots. I wanted some so bad, and I really don't know why I didn't have any already. They were so cute. Being the sweet little unspoiled only child that I was (am), I'm certain I wasn't pouting or anything like that and I'm not real sure what all she had done to make this happen, but Granny quit what she was doing, cooking or some unimportant task I'm sure, and told me to go to the car. As we were walking out the door and everyone was asking where we were going, all she told them was that we would be right back. We drove to Thornton's and she bought me go go boots! I'm positive there was not a happier child on that Christmas eve.

Granny traveled to Houston often to see her family, Bill, Karin, Marcia and Greg, and one of us (Mattie B's granddaughters) would usually get to go with her. There will always be a debate in our family who was her travel companion on more trips, Trina or me (I say me! LOL). They were fun trips and for some reason, I always got the hiccups. Every time, she would slap a quarter on the dashboard to "buy" them from me. It always worked, once the quarter was there, I didn't hiccup again. But on one trip, she didn't have a quarter so she put a dollar bill there. Evidently, she put it up there to soon, because I had one hiccup left in me! Not only did I get the dollar, I don't think I got ever got the hiccups again on one of our trips!

And Marcia Kay, all I have to say is hippity hops, kissing table, bubble bath in the pool and starch in the bathroom! LOL Trust me, that's all anyone else needs to know!

When we started "bringing boys home", we were always embarrassed when she would hardly let them get in the door before she grabbed them and planted a huge Granny kiss right on their lips. Oddly enough, some of those boys would be brave enough to come back and some have stuck around for years!

There was never a child that went to visit her that she didn't find something for them to take home with them. Be it a piece of candy or a couple of pennies (with advice on saving them!), children were not to walk away from her empty handed. Even when we would visit her in the nursing home, she would find something, usually candy, for Mattie May to take with her.

Granny, I will miss you, but I know I will see you again some day.

Mattie May's Excellent Disney Adventure - Day Nine From Her Journal

Well, this is it. Her last entry in her vacation to Disney journal.



I am too lazy to go back and look at my other post so I may be repeating myself on this. The entire time we were gone, she kept telling us she was ready to go home any time. We would ask her if she was not having a good time and she would tell us she was, but whenever we were ready to go home so was she. We just couldn't figure this one out. We knew she was having fun. Who wouldn't? We played all day, ate things we shouldn't have been eating at times we shouldn't have been eating, ice cream before meals, meeting all sorts of characters, and lots of laughing. She would never mention going home when we were working on journal. We just couldn't figure it out. I think when you read the last line of this entry and see the picture, you will have it figured out too!

Can you believe this was on her mind the entire time we were gone?! She has the most amazing mind!



God Bless!

Mattie May's Excellent Disney Adventure - Day Eight From Her Journal

OK! I'm back on track!

This journal entry is a little bittersweet for me. It was our last day in Florida. I was very ready to get back home to Texas and my own bed and house, but we were having such a great time that I didn't want it to end. And I must admit, when I called Mom to tell her we were heading to the airport, I had to choke back some tears. I'm sure part of that was because we were so tired, but most of you know, that's just me, the crier!

I just love her drawing in this post. When she showed it to me, she pointed out the crooked windows. She was extremely proud of those. LOL. Silly goose. If you haven't figured out the H Hotel, it is the Holiday in Express. We stay in them almost every time we travel. It took us a couple of times to figure her out, but look here at their logo. That is where she got the name. She is learning to read and she definitely has her letters down! Just love her!

See you tomorrow for her final vacation entry.

God Bless!

Mattie May's Excellent Disney Adventure Funny Thing Day Three

I had some technical difficulties getting her journal scanned today. We will continue with that tomorrow. I am still working on getting pictures order from Disney PhotoPass so no pictures to post. And to add to my headaches with pictures this month, Scrapblog is combining with MixBooks. I have to download all my pages or I will loose them! Argh! Oh well, I'll get it done.

I just didn't want to miss a post so thought I would give you a funny.

We ate a quick breakfast at The Contempo then caught the bus to Animal Kingdom. These buses are usually crowded but the best way to travel between the parks. Frank was standing in front of me, Katie to my right and Mattie May on my lap looking out the window over my shoulder. We picked up some passengers, some non-English speaking women, and one set beside me.

As we were traveling down the road, Mattie May whispered in my ear "I tooted." As I was explaining that we shouldn't do that in public, we heard Frank "Mattie May?! Was that you?" I smiled but then got tickled when Katie grabbed my knee and nodded to the lady next to me. She was trying to politely hold her nose while giving Frank a very stern look. She thought he had done it! We couldn't help but laugh out loud and try to explain that MM had done it. We think she understood because she too started laughing!

One of the more priceless experiences of our trip!

More tomorrow.

God Bless!

Mattie May's Excellent Disney Adventure - Day Seven From Her Journal

So Tired! We have been cleaning house all day! I mean really cleaning! Getting rid of things that we don't need! Even Mattie May has been a great help. It looks like a bomb went of in my front room, but it will be cleared by tomorrow night.

Mattie May's journal entry for today is about Thursday, our last full day in Florida. It was a great day other than starting to be a bit cooler than the rest of the week, but it was a great day of course!

God Bless!

Mattie May's Excellent Disney Adventure - Day Six From Her Journal

Whew! I'm tired from all this walking around the park! LOL This entry from Mattie May's journal is from Thursday January 6. By this point of our trip, my feet and legs were so tired and swollen, I didn't know how I was going to make it through the last two days. But I did and we had a blast.

You'll also notice, her entries are getting shorter. She was one tired little girl every night. And even though she didn't take any naps while we where there, she never really complained! Of course, how could she? We were at the Magic Kingdom!

Enjoy!

God Bless!

Taking Note of the "What Ifs'

A year ago today at 6:01 PM, while on our way to church, Mattie May, Katie and I were hit by a drunk driver. You can read about it here. In this post, I talked about the what ifs that I had then. I still have them, lots of them. And when I see a report about a wreck caused by drunk driving, I get them all over again. This scripture will always remind me how blessed we are to have had only bruising and soreness. There are so many others that had so much worse. It is almost always so much worse.

We still can't drive through that intersection that Mattie May doesn't remind us that it's where the crazy lady hit us. We asked her this morning if she knew today it had been a year that we had been in that wreck and she reminded us that we were going to church to eat lasagna and cake. She still remembers.

I am too lazy to go back and check if I ever posted the girls blood alcohol level. In Texas, the limit is .08. She registered a .38! If you don't know, .40 is alcohol poisoning! From the time I saw her car, I knew she never tried to stop. I thought maybe she had reached for her cell phone, but I will always believe now that she was completely passed out. Her blood was almost 50% liqueur!

So just a reminder to everyone, please don't drink and drive. Don't let anyone drink and drive. It really isn't worth it.

God Bless

Mattie May's Excellent Disney Adventure - Day Five From Her Journal

Wow! The day almost past me by again! Here is her next journal entry. Note the picture is a bit better than normal. She just insisted she couldn't do this one so she enlisted Grumpy's help. Smart girl!

i will eventually get back to some of my own post and pictures, but hers are just to good to pass by!

God bless!

Mattie May's Excellent Disney Adventure - Day Four From Her Journal

Oops! I missed two days! Sunday ended up being a pretty busy day for us and I really try to stay off the internet (not the computer) on Sundays. Yesterday (Monday) was an accidental holiday for Frank and I. Mattie May was out of school for MLK day. One day last week Katie had mentioned that if one of us could take off work to keep her that it would help her out a lot. Well, we both asked off and didn't tell the other one. Wow! Great communication skills there! Oh well! It ended up being a great day. We started by taking Tramp to the vet for his follow up puppy shots and just a check up by our doctor. Good news! He is very healthy and in overall great health. And he wasn't to afraid of going to the doctor! It was good too for Mattie May to be in on the responsibility of talking to the doctor and to see that Tramp didn't cry when he got a shot like she does!!

After breakfast at McDonald's we had planned on going to the zoo but it was still a bit too chilly, we went to the movie instead. Mattie May and I finally finished reading "The Chronicles of Narnia - The Dawn Treader" right before Christmas, but there was so much going on we never made it to the movie, so that is where we headed. It was a good movie but not as good as the first two in my opinion. The first thing I noticed was it was not a Disney movie. Why did Disney not do this one? I guess I need to do some research and find out.

Now to be perfectly honest, I have not read the books that the first two Narnia movies were based on so I don't know if this was the case in those movies, but Dawn Treader was all out of order! That really bothered me. And I guess that is why they had to add some things that were not really in the book, to make the movie flow. I am glad we saw it, but I am also glad we waited until we had finished the book. Mattie May is only five, but she kept noticing and telling me what was different in the movie. Hopefully this will keep her interested in books and not rely so much on movies!

We did manage to make it to the zoo. When we left the movie, it had warmed up considerably with just a little wind. We had an enjoyable time. I just love watching Mattie May (and Frank) try to get the animals to interact with them!

Now on to Mattie May's journal entry that should have been posted yesterday. It is from the fourth day of our trip which was her birthday. I think this was my favorite day of the entire trip. Maybe it was because of all the attention she received from it being her birthday, or maybe just the way she was able to interact with the people in the different countries pavilions in EPCOT. Or it could have been that was the day Frank got my pearl earrings! I don't know but enjoy her entry!

I just love her artwork!

God Bless!

Mattie May's Excellent Disney Adventure - Day Three From Her Journal

I have been working on my pictures tonight, the few we have from our phones. I can upload them to my PhotoPass account and they will be on the CD I order. My neck is so tired! I was so intent on getting them finished that I almost forgot to post this page of Mattie May's journal! I hope you have a great night, what's left of it anyway. Until tomorrow...God Bless!

Mattie May's Excellent Disney Adventure - Day Two From Her Journal

I love her concept of things. Look at that castle on the bottom of the page. She loves to write and draw so what better way to record her thoughts on our adventure. This is something I will probably do on our trips from now on.

God Bless!

Mattie May's Excellent Disney Adventure - Day One From Her Journal

I finally had to time to scan her journal. It is in my writting but in her words (mostly). At night we would quickly go over what we had done that day, talk about who she had met and got autographs, and she would give me one or two of her favorite memories from that day. She would start out dictating to me, but most of the time she would fall asleep. The next night, I would have her draw her picture and then we would start on what we had done that day.

I think she enjoyed doing this! I have always hated keeping a journal or diary, but maybe this will be a start to her keeping one.

If you have trouble reading it, I think you can click on it to make it larger. Enjoy!

Until tomorrow, God Bless!

Mattie May's Excellent Disney Adventure - Day Two

Even though day two was long, there seemed to be quite a bit of down time. We had time waitng at the airport, flying to Florida, riding the bus to the hotel, checking into the hotel, figuring out what we wanted to do first. But at the same time, we seemed to be busy the entire time. It will be easier to tell about this day in pictures. Enjoy.

Watching this video, you wouldn't think this child was going anywhere special. Not much excitement here!

Mattie May and I chillin' in the airport. This was just before I realized I left my camera in the shuttle!

Grumpy and Mattie May checking out the sun rise and our airplane.

On the plane finally! Just love that smile!

She was trying to play on her DS using earbuds but they wouldn't stay in her ears. So... we used the orange belt off of Googily Bear's gi to hold them in place. Katie calls this picture

Tu-Pac Sha' Mattie! LOVE IT!

For the first time today, she finally shows some excitement of being at WDW!

Our first look at our home for the week, The Contemporary. We loved this place. Nice rooms. Great employees. Fantastic food. If you have never been, I would recommend anyone to stay here.

We were so happy to see that we were getting to see the Christmas decorations. We understood that the decorations would be taken down that night, however, we got to enjoy them all week in each park. They are simply amazing!

It didn't take Grumpy long to loose all his inhibitions! LOL! Another video I absolutely adore!

And finally, after five years of waiting, five years of watching Disney movies, looking at this in the opening, she saw Cinderella's castle for the first time! And let me tell you, this picture was taken after she calmed down a bit and let everyone within hearing or really shouting distance know that this was the first time she saw this castle!

I love this video. It is hard to hear Mattie May, but I'm sure it will bring a smile to your face too!

See you tomorrow for day three! God Bless!

Mattie May's Excellent Disney Adventure - Day One

I haven't scanned Mattie May's journal yet, so I am going to begin about our adventure in my own words.


We left for Dallas Friday December 31. Frank wanted to leave earlier than I thought he would. I wasn't quite ready but what would a Mixon Vacation be without starting a little rushed? We packed quickly, prepped the house for the cold weather that had been forecast and headed east. Of course Mattie May wanted me to sit in the back with her and we watched a movie, played games and tried to get the truckers to honk all the way to the Metroplex. We were all a bit surprised at how light the traffic was. Traffic is always bad around the DFW airport and this was not only New Year's Eve, but Texas Tech had a bowl game at the Cotton Bowl on Saturday.





We checked into the hotel and took our bags up to the room. While we were deciding what to do, we watched the airplanes coming and going into the airport. We had a great view of this!

When we pulled into the "H" motel as Mattie May calls it, we all decided we were hungry. There was a Red Lobster right next door. Mattie May said that was what she wanted to eat. We had a great lunch and a great waiter. He fell in love with Mattie May and when he found out it was her birthday, he asked if he could buy her dessert! Of course!! We were on vacation and vacation is all about dessert! No worries about eating right for an entire week! Naturally he brought four spoons with it. There was no way one person, especially one under four feet tall, could have finished that by themselves!


Some of the many faces of Mattie May

Then the truth came out why Frank had wanted to leave home early. We were not very far from Bass Pro Shop, the greatest store in all the land (LOL). We did some shopping there and then visited Grapevine Mills mall. Katie wanted to get an Otterbox for her phone and I decided to get one too. Mattie May asked if there was a Build A Bear Workshop there and as hard as we tried to get out of there without going, she spotted several children carrying boxes from there, so of course we had to take her. She built Googily Bear. We normally don't buy clothes for her creations, but I found a gi that has changeable belts and this grandma felt she just had to have it. She got him dressed (with an orange belt of course), got him registered and back we went to the hotel.





We made sure that our carry on luggage was ready to pass through security and off to bed we went. New Year's Eve and we were all asleep by 10:00PM! The alarms were set for 3:45 AM and when we landed in Florida we didn't want to slow down for naps!

If I get a chance to scan Mattie May's journal, I will post that tomorrow. If not, I will tell you about day two!

God Bless