Princess Jenny

Disney Princesses / Princes - Day 2 (part 2)

Princessess and Princes - Day 2

Disney Princesses/Princes – Day 1

(For Jolie)

The Scaring of Jocie

Our first day at Disney we decided to head right into the Magic Kingdom and jump on all of the rides we could find. This included an annual trip to the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' that Jenny and I love so much…. Jocie… well, not so much.

Shortly into the ride, you pass through a dark tunnel and the boat you are travelling in makes a quick series of dips as you descend to a lower altitude of the ride. When we came out of the passage, Jocie had her smashed her face into Brooke's side in fear. In an effort to try and get Jocie to enjoy the ride, Brooke put the little one on her lap, but Jocie immediately pasted the backs of her hands to her eyelids as seen in the image below.

Every subsequent ride that Jocie went on throughout our stay that had even a faint hint of something that may scare her ended up with this same posture.

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Living the Dream - Back to Blogging soon

Right now, we're down in Florida at Disney World (don't worry, we've got someone staying at our house, so any would-be theives can stop their planning now).

Our days consist of getting up at the crack of dawn (thanks to our "Jocie Alarm Clock" that seems to go off at around 6:30am - 7:00am each morning and is severly lacking a "sleep" button) and go.. go.. go.. 'till around 10:30pm - 11:00pm when we come home, put the kids to bed, clean up, plan for the next day, post my 365 blog photo, and go to sleep at around 12:00 - 1:00am and start all over the next morning.

I've really got no time to post any of the many picutres (and I mean many... I'm over 1,000 "keepers" at this point and still have three days of vacation yet to shoot - plus, I'm not shooting everything like I've done in years past down here.... we've been here before and I've got the shots from before...).

So, in the meantime, here is a picture from tonight's "Pirates and Princesses Party" at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.

This shot was one of those wonderful times when a character connects to you through the lens (and in this case damned near scared me out of my pants seeing the expression he was giving me in between shutter snaps). The character is Captain Barbossa of the "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" movie and was seen riding on a float during the parade.

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The Joys of Being a Parent During a Vacation

Joey and Jessamyn sleeping after another long day... these are the moments we live for and the times that we know we're really doing something great for our children that they'll love and remember for the rest of their lives.

The next two pictures are Jessamyn showing us how "Cute" she can be by deliberately crossing her eyes while saying "I'm Cute!!!" (Yes, her daddy taught her this trick....).

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Abbey Road for the Pike Kids

We're currently far away from home, but the following picture set should give some explanation about where we are and what we're doing....

While celebrating their joy at being here, Joey and Jess decided to do some dancing while we were waiting for a bus to take us back to our unit. Jenny and I both loved the similarity to the Beatle's "Abbey Road" album cover in the fourth shot.

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Jenny's Mother's Day Present

These are the presents we put together for Jenny's Mother's Day. They are collages of photos taken during the past year. 6 8x10s, 8 5x7s, and a ton of 4x6s.

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Bronson Park Photo Shoot

Jocie's Dinner

Favorable weather blessed the first half of the weekend, and doused the “maternal” portion with a much needed helping of ill timed rain. As will be a commonplace event for the next six months, all of our immediate neighbors gathered together in the back yards and shared in a community dinner and subsequent evening. A dozen or so young children and their respective parents mingled through a vast chorus of food contributions there were brought in a “pot luck” style meal.

Our littlest daughter, Jocie, started off the fun during hor derves by walking from one adult to another and tipping each handheld plate towards her, examining the contents of each, and picking from the options that best fit her pallet at that moment. By the time each victim realized the action that had just taken place, Jocie was already moving on to the next plate and repeating the same action, each time shooting up a small and judgmental look that suggested either “oh, that was a good selection, I like you” or “wow, you didn’t think to get me anything? Harump!” Most of Jocie’s decision making criteria were based around dairy based options, specifically cheese with an occasional snatching of fruit or a non-salsa marinated corn chip.

Attempting to avert her appetite once the main meal was served, both her mother and I crafted a first, second, and even third plates of food for the little girl to choose from. Each time, she would eat most of the options, but become frustrated with having to be tethered to a specific seat at a table and opt for a “walk and eat” approach instead as she would find her way back towards either the adults or the food line.

Eventually the other children at the table left to run and play in the many games that each clique was partaking in (“swinging” for the boys, “dress up” for the girls, etc). This left a large number of now unlinked partially filled plates at Jocie’s disposal… and partake she did.

I became aware of the severity of the dietary corruption that the little one was taking part in when she passed me carrying a rather large piece of Colby cheese (something that neither Jenny nor I had given her) only to watch her then shove the whole length of it into her mouth while fighting a very visible gag reflex as her eyes spotted the next unsuspecting plate.

Trying to assuage the now endless possibilities in the immediate area, we removed all vacant plates, save for the one that her brother had just left as he ran inside for his habitual mid-dinner bathroom break. We were made aware of his return by his loud protests that Jocie had eaten most of his hot dog and a good chunk of what would most likely be the girls fourth chocolate chip cookie as she helped him vacate his plate of all “Jocie Approved” edibles.

In relative terms, were I to have eaten the mass quantities of food intake that this little child had, I should think I would find myself either being wheel barrowed into my house by my neighbors or riding in the back of an ambulance on the way to the hospital to have my stomach reattached to my body.

But not Jocie… no, like all Pike children before her, the excessive amounts of food only serve to further inflate her post dining energy levels and allowed her to spend the next two hours running the “roost” of the backyard jungle in joyous celebration. An equation has formed in my mind for our children that can only be explained when compared to explosive black powder: 1 oz food = 1 oz black powder of explosive child based energy.

Eventually the night found her tired at a somewhat acceptable time (say, 8:30 pm) and her mother rusher her to bed (the following day being Mother’s Day and falling into my realm of child care responsibilities giving her a much needed respite) only to wake her half hung over father at 7:00am the next morning.

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