Smokin’ Hot Fun with the CLQ and the Louisiana Crew Updated 10/5 COMPLETE! About This Page:

[bonphil]

Wonderful photos of all of you!

[Starla4436]

I love you the photo session pictures...you have a beautiful family that's for sure.

[patclairesmom]

Great pictures of your family. The girls are soooo cute and of course you and Thom don't look too shabby either.

[Luvsun]

Beautiful pictures Jill!
It is amazing how Mary Devall has just grown up in front of our eyes!
And now Miss Maddie is too!
Your family is adorable!

[LLaffinPlace]

Golly! What wonderful pictures!

Glad to see that you are able to get some updates done in spite of the PC troubles.

[lindawdw]

Your Photographer pics are so beautiful!!!! I love the color of the dress MD was wearing and the poses were just precious! I think my DD's would have lasted as long as yours did when they were younger too so 30 minutes was probably a perfect amount of time to get the shots that you were looking for! Thanks for sharing them.

[Jillybean]

Sunday, June 7 Day 4 Part Two

After our Photopass photo session, Brian told us that we could come back to look at the photos later since we had a breakfast ADR at Spoodles. We took the short walk over and got there right on time. Luck was on our side because we were seated in a large circular corner booth which gave the girls a chance to stretch out and yet still be contained by us.

This breakfast was absolutely delicious. I had the Classic Breakfast Flatbread (scrambled eggs, bacon, tomato, basil and mozzarella) while Thom had "The Italian" (two poached eggs on top of toasted focaccia with Italian sausage, tomatoes, peppers, onions, parmesan cheese, diced potatoes and fresh tomato sauce.) Mary Devall had the French Toast plate (and she made sure to ask if they could put some of that white sprinkly stuff on it ) and Maddie had Mickey Mouse Waffles. We all thoroughly enjoyed our first (and last ) breakfast here.

We had to wait a while for the bill, so I decided to start walking the girls back to BCV. Once we were over the bridge, I spotted Thom headed in our direction and pointed him out to the girls. They started yelling for him to run so the poor man ran to catch up with us. He went ahead to take them back to the room while I went directly to the PP kiosk in the BC lobby to check on our pictures.

Brian was back by this time, so he was able to quickly run through the pictures with me. At first, I was a little worried because Thom and I looked a little rough in the first few pictures. Apparently, the angle was just (really ) off though because the pictures improved drastically after that.

I ended up truly loving so many of them, but several of them just stood out. I actually almost stood there and cried when he went through the individual poses of Mary Devall and Maddie. When I booked this photo session, I had hoped to come away with just a few good family photos. I just never imagined that I would have so many sweet pictures that captured the very heart and soul of my girls.

After browsing through all of the photos, I chose a few of my favorites so that Brian could make the 4x6’s and 5x7’s that came with the package. By the time that he printed these, the cd of all of the pictures was ready too! This process just could not have been any more efficient!

I was back to the room within about 30 minutes and Thom and the girls were changed and ready to head out to AK. Before we left, we had one little matter to attend to first. Karen had slipped us today’s treats (code word: laundry) yesterday so that the girls would have their bags filled again this morning. I’m telling ya . . . she’s good at this stuff. The girls were just thrilled with their goodies. They even had bandanas for our night at Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue, so Thom packed them in the backpack since we probably wouldn’t be returning to the hotel room before then.



And the card for the day:





Karen, Zack and Sharon were already at AK and would soon be leaving for DHS, but we had hoped to catch them especially since Sharon would be leaving later that day. We were almost to AK when my phone rang. I assumed that it was Karen checking on our progress, but it ended up being Brian, our PP photographer, letting me know that he had forgotten to give me our PP card from our photo session. He told me that he could just give me the number to save me a trip back to the kiosk, so I found a piece of scrap paper and waited for the number. The funny thing was that we had arrived at AK at that exact moment and automated music and recording began playing on the bus. I actually had to get off of the bus to hear Brian read the number. Once again, great service on his part!

Once we were inside the gates, I called Karen and found out that they were at EE and that they had FP’s. After Thom grabbed FP’s for later, he and Mary Devall went off to ride with Zack while the rest of us headed to the Tea Cart for frozen lemonades and a frozen mocha for me. About the time that the CM told me that his stand didn’t have straws, Sharon magically appeared with some from the Yak ‘n Yeti CS bar. Hey, we give them enough business! Why not?!?

With purchases in hand, we went back to EE and found some shade while we waited and enjoyed our treats. Once the ride was over, Karen, Zack and Sharon had to head out. We all gave Sharon a goodbye (until Saturday) and told Karen and Zack that we would see them soon at HDDR.

Just for kicks, we wanted to see if Maddie was tall enough to ride Dinosaur - - not that we think she is ready for it yet. She stood under the height guide just smiling away even when it was obvious that she was still about an inch too short. She was just happy to be standing there. It was so cute and I could kick myself for not getting a picture, but I think the moment would have passed before I could get my hands on the camera.

We didn’t ask for one, but the CM standing there immediately gave us a rider switch pass when he saw that Maddie wasn’t tall enough. That ended up being great because the standby line was very long. Mary Devall and I took off with the pass and walked right into the pre-ride show. Pretty soon we were riding amongst the Dinosaurs and having a blast. The only slight annoyance was the mom in front of us who kept giving the rock and roll sign - - apparently she had been hitting the bong pretty early that morning and forgot what ride she was on. When we checked out our ride photo, she made the rest of us in the picture look like big goobs just for being in the car with her. I didn’t give her the stink eye though because she looked like she could easily beat me up.

In our absence, Thom and Maddie had taken a spin on TTS and were waiting for us at the exit. We headed back to Asia to check on the standby line for KRR since we knew Maddie was tall enough to ride it. Unfortunately, it was 60 minutes at this point, so we decided that it could wait for another day. Plus we had no plans to go back to the room before HDDR and we didn’t want to take the chance of being sopping wet all day.

Instead we decided to move on to Africa, but when the girls spotted fruit bars on an ice cream cart along the way everything came to a dead stop. Thom got in line with the girls while I took the opportunity to run for a Yak Attack. I was back before they even bought theirs. We found a table in the shade and just sat back and enjoyed our treats.



After our little break, we resumed our journey to Africa where the safari standby line was only 20 minutes. We were soon in our truck enjoying a fantastic trip and driver. For once, the male lion was awake and proudly surveying his land. We also had to sit for a bit and wait for a bird to slowly cross in front of our truck. It started raining while we were in our truck, but pretty much quit by the time our safari was over. I don’t think that the girls will ever get enough of this ride . . . and the bumpier the better!

Up next . . . characters, characters and more characters!

[lindawdw]

Sounds like a great time was had AK! Can't wait to hear about your evening at HDDR!!!

[dizzymom]

Your photo session would put a super model to shame. Lovely, adorable and handsome is all I can say

[chezp]

Another wonderful Jill - and I'm not surprised you were delighted with your photo session.

[mom2twingirlies]

What a lovely day! Cool treats, FAB's and a few rides - how very relaxing sounding.
I would be sad that Sha was leaving you, but since we know she is coming back, it's not so sad!

[Colexis Mom]

What a great time at AK!!

[Hugmonster]

Wonderful family shots. Makes me think DH and I might need to do that next trip. We have not had formal pictures since our wedding many years ago.

[coffeechef]

Great Family Photo shots. I really liked the ones where its the girls with each of you. The one with Maddie resting her head on your lap is adorable. What a wonderful idea for a Family photos.

[mcc0313]

What a great morning at AK, glad you were able to spend some time with Sharon before she had to leave (only to return a week later ). You are so right about the safari...we can never tire of that ride.