Back In The Saddle Again

And....School's back in session.

I have to say that this summer was one of the best yet....Starting our summer off with the trip to Disney World, to spending all summer with our little LoveBug. I can't believe it's been over a month since we've updated the blog already! We're slacking!

So here are our Disney World pictures...from June! You would think I would have written about this at some point this summer. We both LOVE anything Disney, and we had the most AMAZING time! I was completely taken care of the whole time, thanks to my awesome hubby. The planner that I am did nothing to prepare for this trip! Believe it or not, I was busy with the end-of-school-year stuff and he took care of every detail..planning, booking, tickets, flights, reservations, all of it...I am one lucky girl for sure!

Matthew waiting for the boat to pick us up from our hotel and take us to Downtown Disney

First picture in the parks! Animal Kingdom

In front of the Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom

Matthew standing in front of Tower of Terror...no thank you...

Epcot

We met Mickey & Minnie...by mistake! We thought we were in line for a movie & it turns out we were in line for the meet & greet! Score!

And Handy Manny (Just for Sophia of course!)

Magic Kingdom
(My favorite...most Disney feel of all the parks!)

In person, this castle dwarfs the castle in Disney Land

We ended summer on a pretty busy note! After our week of camping, I think it took us two weeks to catch up on laundry! But the good news here is that Sophia is becoming quite the laundry sorter, and helper. If I give her a few wet socks, she will put them in the dryer for me, telling me "Lawnry" :) It really is adorable!

After spending the week outside (and inside the trailer covering from rain) I was going stir-crazy from the 2 weeks following camping. So, on a whim we decided to take a quick weekend trip to the San Francisco Zoo. Saturday night at church we asked Auntie Carly & Uncle Josh if they wanted to go with us. So we all packed up a picnic lunch early on the last Sunday of my vacation and off we went, with the intention of hitting the zoo in the morning and then going to Golden Gate Park for a picnic lunch. Driving into SF & over the Golden Gate was so foggy! Which was a welcome change from the 99'+ weather we'd been having.

Sophia and Matthew on the carousel

Sophia our "groundhog" exploring the tunnels

When we got to the zoo, we were shocked that it is literally ON the beach. And big! Right when we walked in we were able to watch the giraffes feeding. Sophia made it clear from the minute we were in the gate that she wanted to do some walking around. Forget the stroller. So she wandered with us for the majority of the day. Which really made it feel like she was growing up right before our eyes.

Being in the 95th percentile for height, she could be our little giraffe!

walking on the wall with Ti-Ta

Walking with Daddy

Watching the baby gorillas. "Baby"

We saw so many cool animals! It was such a fun day. In all, it took about three and a half hours to see everything...and that was with skipping the petting-zoo section this time...we were going on two hours and not a single minute of napping, so we figured we'd save that for next time when she's a little bit older...



After the zoo, we headed to Golden Gate park where we thought it would be fun to have a picnic lunch and then take some family pictures...But like most situations...our little toddler had other plans. She conked out the minute the car started moving. So lunch was quiet and peaceful, but there was no waking her for family pictures. :(

Exploring a turtle...don't worry, it's a fake one!

Carousel Ride

Watching the penguins with Daddy

Train Ride

The next few days were the last summer vacation days I had. We slept in (considering 7am is sleeping in at the Taylor home), played outside, blew more bubbles than we did all summer combined, finger painted, read books like crazy, watched every episode of Charlie and Lola that we own, danced to our Toddler Tunes CD "moo-zic"and then the best of all..

Her newest thing is cuddling with Matthew and I. And let me tell you...after months and months and months of her running around it is heaven. Seriously. She will walk up to us with her blanket and tell us, "cuddle." One piece of advice that I was given shortly after she was born was to enjoy every moment I was able to hold her. To enjoy even the late night wake-ups because there would be a day that I would miss them. And when I was waking up every 45 mins in the beginning, I'll admit, it was hard to believe that would happen. But it did. And now, I am so grateful to have this little love-bug who wants to cuddle again!

And to be honest, there is a little bit of relaxation that goes along with this cuddle time now! 10 months ago Sophia started walking...which we thought was an amazing feat for a 9 month old. As first time parents, we had NO CLUE that would mean being "on guard" from that moment on...catching tumbles in the beginning, blocking falls, detouring dangerous situations, baby gates to keep her out of the kitchen, no more emptying the dishwasher while she was awake, intercepting any dangerous item she was able to get to...all because she was mobile and could find ways to get into mischief. So now that we have a little downtime, we are soaking it up! Cuddles in bed on Saturday morning, cuddles on the couch in the evenings, all of it just amazing...

Which was just what I needed as I headed back to school.