Adventure #9: Firsts, a Dream, an Anniversary, & Three Destinations...

...I need another drink! :hammer:

I know I've neglected a whoooole lotta TRs out there for a long time. There's a reason for that. I vowed to myself to stop reading and start writing. I also vowed not to even begin posting until the report was completely written and assembled so posting would literally be cut & paste. This puppy was quite the monster to tackle but I did it! Enjoy.



Greetings to my dedicated readers, friends, family, and noobs alike! Boy, do I have a story to tell you so let’s get this thing rolling...

First, the basics:

Who? The usual suspects, of course. That would be me (The SweetPee), the old man (Tracey), the 15 year old all-knowing son (Chandler), and the 13 year old not-so-baby-of-the-family son (Brian). Later in the trip you’ll see a character from my very first trip report return for more fun. Yep, you guessed it! My big brother, the uncle extraordinare, Jerry!

What? Duh. Vacation. Anywhere but home fits the bill. Thankfully, we had 3 awesome destinations to hit. And celebrating. Can’t forget that we celebrated our 18th anniversary in style!

When? September 9 - 24, 2011.

Where? September 9: on the road & Hampton Inn, Clermont
September 10 - 15: Wilderness Lodge
September 15 - 18: Disney Cruise Line’s Dream
September 18 - 24: Yacht Club

If this is your first time reading a SweetPee report, feel free to peruse my previous reports down there in my signature. There’s better intros with pics there.

Like most folks, it’s amazing how much life you can live in less than a year. When I last left y’all at the end of our 8th adventure in November 2010 I wasn’t 100% sure where or when we’d be back. I wasn’t even sure WDW would be our destination of choice. I managed to find us some new Disney experiences to try...one of which has taken over our souls! You won’t believe it! We sure don’t!

Life has a way of keeping the adventure alive. Towards the end of January this year Tracey got sent on a project in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Don’t know where that is? Yeah, there’s a reason for that. LOL! It’s about halfway in between Dallas, Texas and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The good part was all the moolah all that overtime brings + paid expenses. The bad part was ice, snow, and working 7 days a week for months on end. We got to see a different part of the country, experience real snow & ice (which completely blows), see the Oklahoma City National Memorial, meet new people, and learn new things. After Tracey finished up in Oklahoma he came back to an assignment on a project that was plagued with deadline challenges. Again, great to have all that income from the overtime but bad because he never had any days off. Literally. The only days I think Tracey had off this year were when the snow & ice were dangerous enough for the project to shut down, Easter, and a couple sick days. That’s it. Not even July 4th or Labor Day. And so, that’s how we funded our adventure and were able to shoot for the stars. Tracey worked so hard for so long. If he said “upgrade us to club level” or “add another day to the front of the trip” I didn’t argue. He earned it.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Friday, 9/9: On the road again...

I had notes written for this day in my iPhone but like a big dummy I deleted them. I’m such an idiot. Thank goodness it was just a travel day. I’ll use my pics and fill in the blanks the best I can. I jumble stuff up really bad so hopefully I’ll be able to piece together a good timeline.

I love road-tripping! It’s such fun! This year all 4 of us made the drive together. We had a 3rd driver among us to take advantage of, too.

Everything was mostly packed the night before. The goal was to get to bed early but that didn’t exactly happen, as usual. We were up late getting things ready to roll in just a few short hours. Of course I couldn’t pack a thing the way I wanted to before Tracey was asking, “Is this ready? Can I take it?” This results with me feeling rushed, forgetting things, and not packing as efficiently as I can. One of these days I’m gonna get ready a week early and follow Tracey around asking him, “Are you ready? Why isn’t that packed? What are you waiting for? Can this go to the car???” LOL!

So in the wee hours of the morning, I’m guessing around 2:30, we got up, dressed, threw the last of our stuff in our bags and finished wedging everything into the car trunk. Lemme tell ya, packing for 4 people (including dress-up and portrait clothes) for 2 weeks is a big job. Fitting all that gear into the trunk of a sports sedan is pretty much a magic trick!

And here we go!

Oh look! Apparenty, we made it through Louisiana and into Mississippi. The time is 7:26. Making great time.

I know we were all getting hungry and needed our first potty-stop in Gulfport, Mississippi. Krispy Kreme seemed as good an idea as any for breakfast. Unfortunately, we have found the first ever Krispy Kreme that can totally ruin their own doughnuts. I have no idea what these people did but those were NOT our beloved KK’s. If Chandler throws away doughnuts you know something is seriously wrong.

We got back on the road set to make some good time kickin’ on towards Florida.

I’m pretty sure it was on this stretch of highway that I discovered one the major things I had forgotten in all my rushing to pack: my Spanx! Sweet Holy heck! How could I forget that?! I had to wear dresses on this trip, one of which I’d totally annihilate without some heavy-duty help from the spandex Gods! I was in a panic! I didn’t want to stop and buy another because as us girls know, Spanx ain’t cheap. I texted my mother-in-law back home to see if she would be able to go fetch it and mail it to me. I had a hard time nailing down the right address for our 1st resort so I sent off an email to my killer travel agent to get that straightened out. Thank goodness all was not lost this morning. My fellow gals came to the rescue: MiL was able to ship within hours and my travel agent was able to ensure it went to the right place. Hafta send a huge shoutout to the best TA evah: Tammy, you’re a hero! Thank YOU! ((My blue sundress thanks you, too! LOL))

I think it was around 9:30-ish when we arrived at our next stopping spot, the most heavenly of places to be on Earth:

What?! You didn’t recognize it?! It’s my Gramma’s house! See how the sun shines down from the heavens???

We hadn’t really planned to stop for a visit. In all our excitement we had originally planned to push through and get on down to Central Florida. My mom and grandmother had been asking in the weeks leading up to our departure if we’d be stopping. Then, a day or so before we were leaving my mom called in tears telling me how she missed us and she hadn’t even seen Tracey since Christmas. ((Told ya he’s been working non-stop!)) So Mom & Gramma cooked up a couple pounds of bacon, bought doughnuts and bagels, and put on a fresh pot of coffee for us. How sweet! We had a fantastic visit that was all too short. We took a few pics on my iPhone (they’re terrible) to mark the occasion:

Tracey, Mom, & me:

Mom, Gramma, & me:

Brian, Tracey, Gramma, me, & Chandler:

I’m so glad we stopped for the visit. Thanks for calling me on an emotional day, Mom! Tracey can’t resist when I tell him you cried for us. We pulled back out on the highway around 11 or 11:30 but not before changing things up a bit:

Strap on your seatbelts, folks! That’s Chandler at the wheel!!! He got his permit in early June and has been working all summer to be able to take a shift driving for this trip without totally freaking his dad out. I’m the laid back one when Chandler drives. Tracey? Notsomuch.

Tracey kept a close eye on the kiddo. Chandler did a great job driving from Pensacola all the way to Tallahassee. Tracey found a Chevron station for the next pit stop and got it all squared away on the GPS.

And Tracey took back over the wheel. No road trip through Tallahassee is complete without this random jewel:

(for those who don’t recall, when I was a kid this random office building was a landmark my brother and I always sought out and photographed on our road trips to/from visits with our dad when we were growing up.)

 

[sweetpee_1993]

It’s 2:53. Where are we?

What are the boys doing? It appears Brian was asleep but I woke him up playing with my iPhone camera.

Okay. I’ll find another victim if you don’t want to play, Brian.

Oh yes! We have another contestant!

Good stuff! Making progress as we make the turn!

3:44 and on I-75! Yaaaayyy!!!

What is this?!?! Water falling from the sky?!?! We haven’t seen this in sooooooo looooooooong over in Texas!

Oh look! There’s MORE!

Oh yeeeeeesssss!!!!!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

This is our home for the night. Free stay on points. Can’t beat free, right? (pardon the photo, it was taken later in the evening but placed here for story-telling purposes)

Our lovely FREE room at the Hampton Inn, Clermont. It’s so nice to see more fruits from Tracey’s long stay in Oklahoma.

We settled in a little and unwound. Dinner had to be found so we set out in search of whatever was close and appealed. Not wanting to go far and always in search of things we can’t have at home we found this lovely little spot in a strip center right next door to a Publix. Perfect. So we had Calabria Ristorante for dinner.

This night was like a sign of things to come. For some reason this whole trip we ended up in restaurants sitting near screaming babies or wild, unsupervised children. This night we had a group of adults very into gossiping and discussing their meds for their various mental health issues while ‘Little Susie’ and ‘Little Johnny’ had the run of the restaurant. Literally. Running. And screaming. At one point the owner came out and said something to them after ‘Little Johnny’ was doing his best to destroy the vertical blinds in the front windows. Niiiiice. Then the mom-person wanted to get snarky. WTH?! Do your job, lady, or put your animals on a shorter leash. Sheesh!

Thank goodness the pizza was yummy.

We couldn’t get out of dinner fast enough, though. We ran next door to grab some sodas and bottled water to have for our Disney room. Then it was an early night for Tracey. He didn’t nap in the car at all. I’m sure he crashed around 8:30 if memory serves. I stayed up late balancing bank books, paying bills, and having all that fun on my iPhone all by my lonesome! I’m pretty sure I didn’t get to sleep until closer to 11.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Saturday 9/10: The next Wilderness Family arrives!

I think I just totally dated myself with that title. I wonder if anyone else will catch the ‘70s nod...

The earlier and later pics today are via my iPhone. It’s convenient, what can I say?

My alarm was set for 5:30 a.m. but I didn’t drag my body from the bed until 5:45. Why so early??? Because ya just can’t get to WDW early enough! We were up, dressed, car was packed, and bellies topped-off with free breakfast at 8:00. We had to stop for gas in the car and a run thru the carwash. ((Yeah, we’re kinda crazy about keeping our car all pretty & shiny.)) I was kinda on the fence with the next pic but if you’re gonna get to know my family you’re just going to have to accept the lengths Tracey & I will go to to completely disgust our teenage boys. It’s fun for us. Being a parent has it’s little perks. Freaking out the kids is one of them.

Fun in the carwash:

Now that you’re all grossed out, too, pretty morning sky:

Sooooo close:

The approach:

And we’re here!

Hey look! It’s a Disney bus drag race!

The winnah!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Passing the ever-famous Non-Disney Big Bass Resort (that’s what we call the Dolphin):

Oh-so nice to see you again, Mission: Space sign:

Ain’t this a sight for sore eyes???

The Wilderness Lodge! We are here!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

We checked-in at about 8:30. Yay for early arriving! To our surprise our room was ready. What’s better is we got a 1st floor room which we have always enjoyed at other resorts. We were in room #1020. For those familiar with the Wilderness Lodge, walk from the front desk towards the Roaring Fork. Continue on straight past RF, past the elevators and laundry facilities, then hang a right when you get to the big hallway. We were like 4 rooms down on your left. Very convenient location!

Yes, the Wilderness Lodge rooms can be sorta dim. Trying to photograph the room with an iPhone doesn’t help this.

The view from the door looking in:

A few steps in and this is to your right. The fridge is down in the bottom. Love the well-themed “rustic” look of the furniture. Intentional? Hmmm....

To the left is the vanity area:

Continuing on, here’s the room as you enter:

As you enter the room, if you turn to the right there’s this cool little gem to hang your bags and stuff from:

Unlike others, I can’t keep my family out of the room while I shoot pics. They will shove me out of the way and rush in even if the room was on fire. Please pardon the interference with the family here. LOL!

Continuing into the room, to the right is the tv, dresser, and small table w/chairs:

The table w/chairs:

A look back over towards the bunks:

 

[sweetpee_1993]

On our bed:

Hard to see in my crappy pics but the carved details in the headboard and the bed posts can’t go without noting:

And then there’s the patio:

Some of y’all may know that Brian is my nature-obsessed, animal-lovin’ adventurer. Here’s his new favorite spot:

Here’s our scenery. Looking just slightly left from the patio:

Straight out from our patio:

Looking left we see a wonderful example of a long-neck blue crane:

I don’t think it’s intended for anyone to walk out in the grass because they don’t keep it mowed so that it’s conducive to exploring. Nevertheless, I wanted a picture looking back at the room so I carefully made my way far enough out to get this shot of my guys on the patio. They aren’t having any fun, are they? Good job keeping with the theme, Chandler! No rabbit ears. Nope. We get a moose rack for Brian!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Bell services soon arrived with all the luggage. We unpacked, settled in, then headed to the Mercantile to get the boys their cutomary souvenir fund gift cards. I told the kids they had to rub Humphrey’s nose for good luck for a great trip.

Brian had a case of the sillies. My guess would be his impression of a bear’s growl?

When Chandler takes pictures he takes too long to get ready. After you stand there for an awkward amount of time then finally unfreeze your smile to ask if he’s going to take the picture this week he’ll snap the picture capturing off expressions. See?

Just outside the Mercantile Brian points out our ship:

Is that really it? Is it the Dream? Why yes it is!

We hopped on a bus to AK at 10:40. Upon arrival Tracey headed to Guest Relations to “upgrade” his unused 10-day MYW pass from last year to his seasonal pass. The boys & I stopped in the little gift shop outside the bag check area to get Brian a hat & sunglasses so he’d survive in the sun.

First PhotoPass shot of the trip!

Once inside the park we were pretty hungry so we headed over to get a bite to eat at Restaurantosourus. I love the details here!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Tracey & I split a grilled veggie sandwich w/sweet potato fries. I didn’t take a picture. It was just as good as last year. Loooove that sammich!

Gee whiz! We’re at Disney! It won’t kill ya to smile, Brian!

Try #2. This could be a nice shot with Brian and the fun details on the wall behind him. “Be still and smile.” This is what I got:

“Come on, Brian! Work with me!” This is what else I got:

I give up! All over the walls there’s depictions of all kinds of dinosaurs made with what appears to be greasy hand-prints from the mechanics who supposedly would be working in this area:

Unfortunately, as we sat down to eat we were graced with another arriving family with aggravating little kids. Little Johnny, prob’ly 4 yrs old, enjoyed the loud noise that pushing chairs around made. Daddy told him to stop probably 4 or 5 times before he actually did something to make Little Johnny stop. Boy was Little Johnny mad! We could tell just how mad he was from his screaming. Oi vey.....

Moving on. The boys were itching to ride E:E so we headed that way. I forget what the standby wait was but the line looked sorta long. We grabbed FastPasses.

Boy, was it hot outside. As many of y’all know, we typically visit WDW during cooler weather months. We live in Southeast Texas and our climate is fairly close to what Central Florida’s is. Our summertime temps commonly hit the 100‘s, it’s very humid, plus this summer was a brutal one. Normally we get the afternoon rains but as y’all know, this year was different in the precipitation department. We all knew WDW would be hotter than we normally do but didn’t think it’d be a big deal because we live with that weather. Serious underestimation! Yes, we live with hot & humid but we don’t go outside in it much. We stay inside. If we go outside we do so early in the morning, later in the evening, and only for very short spurts of time. This is where we discovered that the heat will definitely be a big influence in this trip...

...starting with what to do before our FastPass return time. Ice cream. We hit up the soft serve spot nearby to try to get some relief.

While we sat in the shade eating we met a nice lady and her family that live near where we used to in Louisiana. They were just one of a whole lot of homeschool families we met on our trip. So cool! I know, doesn’t seem like a big deal to the rest of the world. In everyday life when people find out you homeschool you get all sorts of reactions. Everything from disapproving to curiosity to folks who say they wish they could but are afraid (like I used to be). Sometimes I avoid people knowing altogether just so I don’t get asked questions. The boys, however, love it so much they want to announce it to the world. It’s a nice little treat when I don’t have the awkward moment to deal with. Thus, randomly running into other families who also homeschool is a refreshing little gift.

Brian waiting for the rest of the family to be ready to finish up:

Moving on, we decided to go see what the Kilimanjaro Safari looked like. Not bad. We walked on. No animal pics. You’ve all seen ‘em before.

On our way over we stopped for a Photopass pic:

After KS we headed back over to cash-in our E:E FastPasses. As per our usual, we waited the extra train or two to sit in the front. So fun! A little girl sitting behind us didn’t like it so much, tho. She cried. Poor dear. My heart went out to her.

The boys wanted to ride E:E again but us old folks weren’t up for it. We let them go back thru the single rider line while we sat and enjoyed a frozen strawberry lemonade, one of Tracey’s favorite treats. I caught up on my notes while I had a moment.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

When the boys returned we were pretty tired from our early morning, the scorching heat, and the long drive the day before. There was nothing else we felt like sticking around in the heat for. Even tho it was only 2:00 we decided to just to go on back to the resort for a rest.

Heading out:

While heading back out Tracey noted the beefed-up security all around. There was a dog with a security guard handler that, after buses would empty of arriving passengers, would board and sniff thru the length of the bus before departing passengers were allowed to board. Looots of security walking around the bus areas, the fronts of the parks, and lots of police/sheriff’s personnel. Very interesting.

When we got back to the resort Brian and Tracey took short naps while Chandler and I showered. I cannot stand the sticky feeling from being sweaty. We took a little time to press the guys’ dress shirts and shorts for the following morning’s activities. We grabbed a quick bite at Roaring Fork then wandered the resort a little. I took my little nap while the boys all went to check out the arcade.

After I woke up we wanted to go somewhere and do something so a discussion of what’s next ensued. Tracey’s suggestion was a unanimous hit: Downtown Disney for ice cream at Ghiradelli’s!

On the way out the vallet guy who brought our car around sure seemed to be having a good time in our car. He came whipping around the corner to the port cochere at a pretty good speed. When he opened the door for Tracey, Tracey was just grinning. Poor kid could tell he was busted. He smiled back sheepishly and said, “Sorry. Nice car.” This, of course, starts a whole conversation about Acura’s, differences between the valet’s Integra and our TL, etc. The valet kid said he thought our car was a rental. Made us laugh. No, not mad. I guess other people might be but we have...uh...fun...driving our car, too. LOL!

At Ghiradelli’s, Chandler anxiously waits:

Tracey didn’t wait for a pic:

My yummy bit o’heaven:

As usual, Downtown Disney was pretty packed. Brian went into Team Mickey to create a RideMakerz car. Chandler helped him. They both carried on for a while about how much fun it was to do that together. Gotta love something they do without fighting. LOL! Meanwhile, I browsed thru Tren-D checking everything out. They had plenty of things I liked but nothing I’d spend what was on the pricetags to have. I ran over to Little Miss Matched to see it. I love their socks and have bought several pairs at Toys-R-Us for myself. The store was really bright and colorful but I didn’t end up buying anything. I just wanted to see it. We looked in Mickey’s Cupboard to see if there was any new dishes we haven’t seen yet. Nope. Then we stepped inside World of Disney which I totally know better than to do on a busy night but did anyway. Geez. That place was an absolute zoo. Within 2 minutes of walking in we got separated from Chandler. Took 20 minutes to locate him again. Didn’t see any merch that was worth all that insanity so we headed on back to the resort.

We had an early morning tomorrow so getting some rest was going to be needed. I had to wash my hair (such a chore) and Tracey was sweet enough to stay up so he could blow dry my hair for me. What a sweet husband I have!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Sunday, 9/11: Capturing another moment in our lives...

I bet by know some of you (especially those who “know” us) are wondering why all the hullabaloo about getting to bed early, washing hair, and ironing dress shirts & shorts. Back in December 2007, before I had discovered trip reports, we had a private family portrait sitting in the Magic Kingdom done by Disney’s Photographic Services (not PhotoPass!). It was a wonderful experience and I’m so glad we were able to have such beautiful pictures that captured a memorable time in our lives. Here’s a few of those pictures:

That was 4 years ago. It was time to have family portraits done again. Of course our obvious choice for setting is WDW. We’ve already done the Magic Kingdom and have the castle. Our next shoot couldn’t be anywhere other than Epcot’s World Showcase. It was the next step.

My alarm woke me at 5:45 a.m. These early mornings are brutal! Everyone was dressed and looking sharp by 8:00. On our way out to the valet we got plenty of looks and smiles in all our summery-finery.

We were instructed to park at the Beach Club and meet our photographer & assistant at the International Gateway. The Beach Club is so pretty in the early sunlight:

We were a little early arriving but there was already a line of folks waiting to get in. We walked past the line to the CMs at the turnstiles to see what our next step was. Before we could say anything a nice lady CM said, “Portraits, right?” Yep! We were instructed to wait right there outside the turnstiles until our photographer came to get us. No problem.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

At about 8:35 our photographer, Dean, and his assistant, Tina, rounded the corner by the shop. The CM motioned us on thru into the park. Introductions all around then Dean asked what we had in mind for our photo shoot. I quickly explained that we wanted less posed and more candid type shots. We wanted pictures of the family together but also some of just Tracey & me since we were celebrating our anniversary. We also wanted pics of the boys together and individuals of them since we homeschool and don’t get the annual school pics. I explained about our last shoot in the Magic Kingdom and requested at least 1 good family shot with SSE in the background. Also, especially with it being 9/11, it wouldn’t seem right to be taking pictures in World Showcase without at least 1 in the American Adventure area to capture the day. Which countries, etc. I would leave to the Dean trusting that he knew the settings and lighting best to get the best shots. We headed off towards Italy as our first destination.

I can’t not mention how sweltering hot it was on the walk over. Good Lord. We were all sweating like mad. It was humid as all heck. I knew my hair was frizzing up more and more as each moment passed. What can ya do, tho? It is what it is. Oh well. As we walked along we chit-chatted with Dean & Tina, get-to-know-ya type stuff. Dean gave us a bit of his background, how he came to work with Disney as a photographer, and mentioned he’d been with the company for 12 years. He also asked me about our last photo shoot with several very specific questions about what our signature castle shot looked like. He let me know he wanted to be sure to take a picture that would compliment that picture well. I’m now loving our photographer and the thought he’s putting into our portraits!

We started off in Italy back by Via Napoli:

These were the first of maaaany laughs or funny comments whenever Dean would tell us to get close or put an arm around each other. We were all soaking wet with sweat. Every time we had to touch each other there’d be an “eeeeww” or “Do I have to????” followed by some giggles. We were all good-sports with it.

Right away Tina was interacting with us and staying a step ahead with the flash apparatus thing (Tom is totally laughing right now at my lack of knowledge of what to call the equipment they had!). Throughout our hour-long sitting Dean periodically got an opinion from Tina on shot setup or angle. It was neat to see the two of them work together like a well-oiled machine. Smooth and seamless, really. I especially loved having Tina along because she caught girl-details for me. Like she’d step in and move my hair over my shoulder or turn the clasp of my necklace back out of sight. More than once she straightened a collar, instructed one of the boys to position their hands differently, adjust the guys’ shirts, or make funny comments to get the boys to laugh or smile. These two were just amazing!

Next Tracey and I were sent up to the top of this archway. We had to step carefully into position. The spot we’re standing on up there is the only little island on that walkway that wasn’t about 2 inches deep in water.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

At the bottom of the steps below where the archway was we stopped for some pictures.

Moving a little further out:

Next is the series that were intended to give us our signature SSE shot to compliment our castle shot from December 2007. First, here’s December 2007:


And September 2011:

I’m absolutely captivated by the way those were done. I thought the shots would be done in the most obvious, simple way: to park us by the rail out on the isola or something. These are so much less intentional or forced and far better than anything I had envisioned.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

From here we moved into the covered area by the shop. I meant to bring a white hand-towel in case I had to sit on anything. Geez, I’m wearing white, for goodness sake! As usual, I forgot. I think another sign of a good photographer is one who comes prepared. Dean had a small white towel that he laid down for me whenever I had to sit anywhere. Thanks, Dean!

My mother-in-law thought we looked hot (temperature-wise) in some of these:

 

[sweetpee_1993]

And bringing the guys back in:

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Awwwwww...

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Last set for Italy:

Next we started back towards the International Gateway. We stopped briefly at the American Adventure. Because of the direct sunlight the only real option was for us to stand in the shaded area near the entrance to the theater across from the pavillion area. The problem was the sprinklers were all on. I think we were standing in 1 of 2 spots not being sprinkled at that moment. Dean was standing in the other. LOL!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Continuing on, we were led back into the farthest areas of Morocco. Here is where I’m starting to really drink in all the amazing details around us. When there’s other guests around you don’t always see all the nooks & crannies so well. When you’re alone with only a random CM passing every now & then it’s so much easier. I cannot describe how beautiful each pavillion was as we moved through them. Everything was peaceful and serene. It was like everywhere you looked things just glowed in their own awesome little ways. So here’s Morocco!

I love these next three:

As far as favorite family shots, I think this would be my overall pick:

Again, love how the less obvious can be understated:

 

[sweetpee_1993]

My babies...er....young men....**sniffle sniffle**