Already??

Just wanted to post this so when McCanless is a teenager and I wonder where in the world she came from, I’ll have a reminder that she was born this way.

Lately, when, after being told a thousand times not to do something, she will simply reply, “I didn’t do it, my (fill in blank here) did.” (arm, leg, sister, etc.)

For example, after repeatedly throwing a few paint samples out of our shopping cart yesterday at Lowes and watching and laughing at a very pregnant mommy grimmace as I bent over to gather them, I sternly told her not to do that one more time, or mommy was going to be very, very angry.

She gave me one of those “duh-looks” and said, “I didn’t do it, Mom. My hand did.” Is it just me or is age three a bit young for this? Where does she get this?

2007 Disney Trip-Day 1

On Easter Sunday night we boarded the train to head for Orlando.

This is McCanless clapping just as she heard the train toot before we took off!

It was very difficult getting to sleep; we were so excited!

…at breakfast the next morning in the “Dining Car” on the train.

On Monday, after a night on the train, we wanted to take it easy. (Mommy did, anyway) We went to Downtown Disney right across the street from our resort. It reminds me of Broadway at the Beach only Disney-style. McCanless had fun because everywhere you turned was a Disney themed store, statue, exhibit, etc.

She was thrilled to even see statues of her princesses…we kept thinking, “Wait until tomorrow!!”

Of course, she had to go shopping and buy a Jasmine outfit right then and there. (and put it on right then and there) Hmmm, in Disney for a few hours and already she has turned into a Princess.

We even ate at a Disney McDonalds!

After a quick stop at our resort, we headed to Disney’s Boardwalk.

There is always a moment in a family vacation when you think the trip may be ruined or take a turn for disaster…this was it. McCanless, while watching sea gulls and ducks rather a bit too closely, got her head stuck in the rails! Luckily, after a brief panic attack, a few screams later, a check from a vacationing pediatrician that just happened to walk by, and ice cream, all was well.

We even took a ride down the beach boardwalk in a covered buggy bike.

Daddy and McCanless were watching a magic show while we ate pizza.

After pizza, popcorn, funnel cakes and lots of fun, we headed back. We couldn’t wait to see her face the next day when we walked into the Magic Kingdom!

2007 Disney Trip-Day 2

After an early breakfast, we headed for the monorail and the Magic Kingdom!

…Daddy and McCanless on the monorail. I guess it was still a bit early for pictures for McCanless.

First reaction to Disney…

After running around in Ariel’s Grotto, McCanless got wet and of course HAD to change!

…poised and ready to go with her new autograph book and pen…

After seeing Minnie’s house, she wants to paint our house pink.

A ride on the Disney train…

After riding “It’s a Small World,” “Peter Pan,” “Winnie the Pooh,” and having lunch at Pinocchio’s, we realized that silky was no where to be found!! The only thing to do was find the closest, most overpriced silky that McCanless now owns!! (It does, however, have “Princess” embroidered on it.)

For those of you who don’t know, this is what McCanless does with her silky. She finds a perfect corner and twists it until she has it just right, then she sucks on it. I thought she was going to fall asleep standing…

After a moment’s rest in the stroller, she was ready to go again. (she never fell asleep, by the way…too much going on)

…here she is after choosing a pair of purple Tinkerbell Ears, on the floor of the store, watching a dancing Sleeping Beauty snow globe. Daddy didn’t like the Tinkerbell ears at all and bought the traditional ears with her name embroidered on the back. She still hasn’t worn them.

…McCanless making friends as we waited for the 3D Movie..At this point I asked her to, “smile with your new friend.” I got one of these looks, one might expect from an annoyed teenager, as if my request was just too unbearable.

McCanless didn’t like the movie much, she was afraid of the objects “flying” toward her. It was really amazing. Not only was the movie 3D and extremely realistic, we got sprinkled with water, wind gusts and even various smells throughout. I laughed as McCanless batted objects away and finally, frustrated, took off her glasses! However, she did put them back on for Jasmine’s magic carpet ride with Aladdin.

Even a bit of rain didn’t stop our fun! It was actually nice because it had gotten so warm.

2007 Disney Trip-Day 3

Wednesday, Mel simply asked and we were able to ride in the front of the monorail with the “pilot.” In this photo, McCanless is admiring the monorail “co-pilot” license she received. We decided to head back to the Magic Kingdom early to find a few more Princesses.

She wanted to make sure we got the autographs, but McCanless didn’t like Goofy or Pluto at all!

Below is a photo of McCanless as she watches Belle sign other girls’ autograph books…She was in awe.

This was the highlight of our entire trip…

After a morning of meeting princesses, we decided to head to Epcot for lunch. We boarded the Disney ferry and took off…

Daddy was having a good time, I promise!!

Striking a pose in Mexico…

After lunch in Italy, McCanless fell asleep…

France…

Morocco…

What a surprise to wake up to Sleeping Beauty!! If only she could come to our house every morning. McCanless was simply in heaven! (not her usual “just awake” mood at all)

On the ferry ride back to our resort, I tried to get a photo of McCanless’ new freckles…needless to say, she was a bit of a ham for the camera.

Once we got back to our resort, we decided to take a swim…it was hot, hot, hot!!

…this is how I usually saw Mel and McCanless as I hobbled down to the elevator. They loved to run down halls and play “catch me” …every time we came or left!

2007 Disney Trip-Day 4

Donning “skun scream” and swim suits, we headed to Typhoon Lagoon!!

The scariest three minutes of my life were spent waiting at the bottom of this slide. (over and over again) McCanless is now tall enough to go up the “big kid” slide alone, although she looked like the youngest. As soon as she would zoom down, she would swim over to the “mountain” and climb back up again.

up the mountain…

The only problem is, once she started up the mountain, I lost sight of her until she came sliding down…I would watch her walk up as far as I could see her, run/wade over to the bottom of the slide, pushing all of the other moms out of the way, (this was easy, given my current state and size) and just wait, holding my breath. There were several kids in hot pink swimmies that I almost grabbed. I’m sure their moms thought I was crazy.

Does this look like the face of a line-breaker?

After watching her partway up the mountain, Mel informed me that the only reason she came down so quickly was because, as she ascended up the mountain, she would pass all the other kids, smile, nod as if to be giving an “it’s okay” and nudge her way up to the top using her swimmies as leverage.

Oh well, the lifeguards at the top never seemed to notice as far as I knew.

Yes, even mommy had to cool off in the wave pool a bit!

After lunch, a long nap on the beach, a few more slides and many freckles later, we decided to change clothes and get ready to head home. (Daddy was turning purple at this point)

Mel’s cousin, Tim, took us to the train station and as you can see, McCanless was a bit tired/bored as we waited for our train.

At 6:00 PM we boarded the train to head for SC, and although McCanless was ready to see her “blue house” she wasn’t thrilled to be leaving behind the princesses.

Goodbye Disney!

After waving goodbye to Disney and dinner in the dining car, we were all ready to go to bed!!

Happy Birthday Steve Spurrier

Daddy’s pants were given to Coach Spurrier for his birthday by the Darlington County Gamecock Club. Mrs. Spurrier got a new Stadium Skirt too!

www.stadiumpants.com

We’re famous…

Check out the first family under ‘portfolio’ on www.steveroos.com! There are even a few of McCanless under ‘children’

Easter Morning 2007…

Unfortunately my camera is broken, so we had to borrow PaPa’s for the day and for our trip to Disney. (thanks, PaPa!) These pictures are of McCanless after church at our Easter egg hunt and at home later, post lunch at Grandmother Redfearns, post nap on top of Aunt Liz, hair tangled, and somewhat of a mess.

Heading to Disney World!

That’s right! We are heading to Disney on Easter Sunday night. Mel and I decided that we wanted to take McCanless now while she is so into all of the Disney Princesses and to have one last “family of three” hurrah! We’ll board the train out of Cola Sunday night, be in Disney Monday morning, Tuesday, Wednesday and ride back to Florence on Thursday. We are staying in the park, and have plans to go to Typhoon Lagoon, visit the Bibbity-Bobbity-Boutique and of course lunch with the Princesses! McCanless is thrilled!

McCanless loved the train ride to Florida last summer, so we had to do it again! We are getting a sleeper car again so we’ll have plenty of space, sleeping quarters and private potty quarters, which is great with a 3-year-old. She loves “camping out” with Mommy and Daddy and eating on the train, so we are all very excited about the train ride, too!

I’ll post pictures as soon as we return!

McCanless’ first portrait…

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while…just now dug it out of her “McCanless’ 2-year-old project box.”

McCanless drew this back in November and has since gotten a bit better. She did this one day at home without any direction from me at all. …and those circles on the side of the head aren’t ears, as I assumed. They are cheeks, she quite frankly told me.