A Magical Visit with Conner

At one time we told Conner that when he’s four years old we’ll take him to Disneyworld, and he didn’t forget.  He turned four on December 31 so, while we were staying at Fort Wilderness Campground, Conner came to visit and we went to see Mickey at The Magic Kingdom.


His mommy told him to be good and turn on his listening ear, so he did!


He was anxious to ride the ferry and hurried on ahead.  Don’t worry Jaime!  We were right behind him.


Pappys are nice to hug when you’re tired in the morning. 


We took him for breakfast at Chef Mickey and he wanted to see Mickey!


Goofy came out first.


Conner really liked Donald and offered him a grape!


Here he is, the head Mouse, Chef Mickey!


Minnie wanted to stand with Conner and Pappy for a picture.


Goofy made Conner laugh.  I asked what was so funny and it was Goofy’s long tongue!  He was giving Conner a high five, or maybe a low five.


Conner and Pappy both needed hair cuts so I made appointments for them at the Barbershop on Main Street USA.


Conner had a great seat!  The parade forms near the barbershop and he was very excited when the parade started.


Our handsome little grandson, Conner Thomas Sharitz.


He liked the Swiss Family Robinson tree house, but it was not a good place for a little boy that can do everything all by myself, including going up and down all those steep steps.  Grammy was nervous.


Hi Pappy!


Conner was excited about driving a race car.  He wanted to drive, NOT Pappy!


There he is, behind the wheel, and Pappy is fastening his seat belt.  He’s getting ready for a wild ride.


Pappy’s waving hi to Grammy in the stands, but Conner is driving and having a great time.


They made it back.  Pappy said it was a little rough in the beginning, but the little boy caught on fast.  Another Jeff Gordon?!?!! 


Race car drivers get tired and need a break sometimes.


Teacups!  Grammy liked the teacups!  He made ours S P I N!!


Pappy, Conner, and Grammy in front of the castle.


They’re watching Peter Pan fight Captain Hook.



The next day we went to see the horsies.  They have all the horses used at The Magic Kingdom in the barn at Fort Wilderness.


This is one of Cinderella’s ponies.


Grammy was happy here.  They let the adult that brings the child for a pony ride lead the pony!  


Pappy always wears his cap, and Conner needed one too.  It was a fun trip to Disneyworld with Conner!

Jaime’s First Half Marathon….with Donald Duck and Mom

I love to run half marathons, it’s my favorite distance to run and Jaime wanted to give it a try.  I already ran a full marathon with Beth and have the best marathon picture ever to prove it!    Now Jaime’s going to give the half a try.  Let’s see how she did!


Here she is at the race expo.  She’s excited!


Bob was our support crew, and he traveled by foot, bus, and monorail to get into the Magic Kingdom by 5:30 a.m. so he could take our pictures and cheer us on.  This is the tree on Main Street USA and he claims it was crooked.  It’s ok Bob, it’s 5:30 a.m., and we’re glad you came to see us.   


The castle was lit and waiting for the runners to run through it.


He’s watching for us, there were a lot of people running, it’s got to be hard to find us.


Because of his vast amount of experience as support crew, he found us!!  I heard someone shout JAIME!! and we ran back for a quick hug and pictures!!


We love the castle, we could hardly wait to run through it!


There were thousands of people waiting on Main Street.


Bob made his way back to the finish line and is waiting for us again.


Here we come!  She did it!  Jaime just finished her very first half marathon!


Good job Jaime!


After I finish a marathon I always celebrate by eating an entire bag of cheese puffys myself.  A whole bag just for me.  This was a half marathon so we each got a half bag of cheese puffys!  It was a fun time with Jaime, and the medals, as you can see, were huge Donald profiles.

We’re On The Road Again!

We had a fun Christmas, including a visit from Beth and Andrew and the running of the Jingle Bell Jog, but as soon as everyone left the house was pretty quiet and we knew we were ready to hit the road again.


All it took was this dusting of snow to convince us that it was time to get out of there!


We headed south, like the rest of the snowbirds on I-81, and made a few stops along the way in friendly campgrounds.


We followed the sun to Orlando and stayed with Mickey Mouse at Fort Wilderness Campground.  Oh my, it is really fun camping with Mickey and, after one day, we extended our reservations from one week to two.  We only went to the “parks” twice, but had a great time walking, running, and riding our bikes to explore this huge place. 


We did go to Universal Studios one day and I thought the Dr. Seuss area was exceptionally colorful and cute.


The main reason we went to Universal Studios was to see the Harry Potter attractions.  We found platform 9 3/4 and I wanted to ride to Hogwarts.  The train was fake!


It was very, very crowded, but this section was fun, at least it seemed to be when the crowd parted enough for us to see. 


The parcels in the Owl Post were cleverly wrapped.


Isn’t he cute!!


There it is!  Yes!  There’s the castle!!  Too bad it took two hours of waiting in line to get in.  TWO HOURS!  After we finally got into the castle we chose the single rider line or we would have had another hour wait.  Unfortunately, this meant we didn’t get to see the inside of the castle.  Someone wasn’t happy.


Oh look!  Hogsmeade!  The butter beer was very sweet but good, and the pumpkin juice was fun too.


Hagred’s hut looked just like it looks in the movie and my imagination.  No, he wasn’t home the day we were there.


The carrousel was so cute.  All the characters were just so true to the books but, Universal Studios, in my opinion, is just not as much fun as Disney.  In our next post you’ll see why we like Mickey best.