Day 6 - The Final Magic

As the sayings goes, "All good things must come to an end", and so it was with Disney. We originally purchased 4-day park hopper tickets, but it was only $9 to add another day. We decided that was well within our budget:). We asked Elle and Grady what one more thing they wanted to do on Friday: Buzz Lightyear and Goofy's roller coaster! {technically two things, but since they were at the same park, we knew we could do both!}. Since we had been out so late the night before, our teenage members of the party needed to sleep in. Mom graciously kept Reese there with the sleeping beauties so the four of us could take on Magic Kingdom one. more. day. I know I mentioned how easy it was when we went back without kids, but it also seemed extremely easy without Reese. Now don't get me wrong, Reese was an absolute angel and strolled for more hours than one should have to stroll. He very rarely fussed and was always easily soothed. But we always had to strap him in and out of the stroller to go on a ride with us, or someone stay with him while the other parent rode with the big kids. We were a whole lot faster. It did feel very strange without him though.

We were there when the park opened and we were like Disney pros. We got on Buzz with no wait time, and grabbed a fast pass for one more ride on our way out. We rode Peter Pan next, and I'm so thankful we did, because it ended up being Grady's favorite. He has been acting out Peter Pan and requesting that book since we got home! Finally, we made our way to Mickey's Toon Town for the roller coaster. This was Elle's favorite. And although Grady dug his nails in to my arm and screamed the whole time, he liked it when it was over. But not enough to be his favorite. *Buzz was a very close second for them both.*

It started raining after the roller coaster {we got more than our money's worth out of our $4 Publix ponchos!}, so we headed in to the closest shop. Elle still had a little birthday money to spend and Grady, well, he liked to think he had some birthday money to buy stuff with. Thankfully, we steered him toward the $3 Captain Hook's hook and Elle bought a cute little Minnie with tons of changeable outfits. I will say Minnie is already missing a leg thanks to Grady's gentle touch. Maybe we can make her a peg leg pirate to join in with our Peter Pan escapades...

As soon as we got home, Mom and the girls were off to spend their last day. The one thing on Mom's must-do list was the Epcot firework show. Our first try was rained out so we thought we'd try again our final night. The boys opted to stay home and Elle and I went to Epcot around 7:30 to meet Mom, Maddie and Emily.

We had time for one more round with our Nemo friends.

Mom secured an amazing spot to view the fireworks. She had only been sitting there, holding our bench, for 2 hours prior to the show! It was a great end to our vacation. We would get up the following morning, pack all our stuff, and begin the trek back home. We left at 9 AM and got home at 7:45 PM. Nothing like an 11 hour trip with three kids:). We did make several stops and spent a little time back in Dothan at Dad and Sandi's. There were times when I thought the kids really didn't care if we were at Disney or the pool, or that they were not having fun. But since we've been home, Elle has drawn pictures of Cinderella's castle over and over. They have acted out stories, talked about rides, and said they "missed" Disney. So while I am thankful that they seem to be content no matter if we go to the beach and do nothing but play in the water or if we go to Disney World for a week, I do think it was so worth it. And we will hopefully go back. Maybe in another five or ten years:).

Day Five - Hollywood Studios

On Day 5, we let Reese take a morning nap and took the hotel shuttle to Hollywood Studios around 11:00. Mom and the girls had gone on earlier so we met them there. First we watched the Playhouse Disney Live show. While Reese and I held our place in line, the kids got to see Leo and Handy Manny. Everybody was already famished by the time the show was over, so we grabbed a shady bench and had our lunch (that we brought with us!). Next, we went to the Little Mermaid show. Both kids loved it, although Grady did keep his hands over his ears the entire time.

We made our way over to Luigi's Garage to see Lightning and Mater. At this point, we (mainly Grady) were approaching breaking point. It was extremely hot (always!), and it was approximately mid way through the nap nobody was having. The plan was to stay until the parade at 3 because it had lots of the Pixar characters the kids love. Well.... right about 2:50 the bottom falls out and the wind is whipping. After securing some shelter and some rock candy suckers (to aid in maintaining sanity), they annouce over the loud speaker that the parade is cancelled. We decided to call it a day and headed out to the car, once again, in the rain:).


But that wasn't all of our fun for the day. We put the kids to bed early, {plus Mom the babysitter} then Steven, Maddie, Emily and I headed back to Hollywood for the night. The girls had secured some fast passes earlier in the day and I really wanted to see the Fantasmic show. I can't tell you how much fun it was to go and 1) not have a double stroller or any of the occupants and 2) not have to carry a bunch of snacks, drinks around! We had such a fun night. We rode the Tower of Terror, which is by far, my favorite ride... possibly of all time. Steven and the girls rode the Rockin' Roller Coaster and then we got to do Toy Story Mania with our fast passes. Last, we waited in line for about 45 minutes for the Fantasmic show at 10:30. It was pretty cool, but I have to admit, we were making just a little fun of Mickey's dance moves:).

Day Four - MK and Epcot

Sorry if my few readers are sick of Disney. Only a few more days... I promise:).

At the close of Day 3, I reminded our party that our "shuttle" was leaving the hotel promptly at 8:15 AM in order to be at the park when it opened. Would you believe everyone was ready and we were gracing the gates of Magic Kingdom at 9:05! Mom, Maddie and Emily got in an early Space Mountain ride, then headed off to Epcot for the rest of the day. We knocked out several rides that morning: Buzz Lightyear, Astro Orbiter, Monsters Laugh Floor, Tomorrowland Speedway, It's a Small World, Winnie the Pooh, and Goofy's roller coaster.

One of the many snack-shade-drink-misting fan stops. It was HOT!

We parked ourselves here for a little lunch and ice cream. And we were just in time for another chance to watch the Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Street Party. Meanwhile, Reese was snoozing in the stroller...

We stayed to watch one more live show right in front of the castle. Grady and Elle both loved seeing Peter Pan and Captain Hook, probably more so than the princesses and princes dancing. We called it a day and headed back to the hotel for naps and a much needed break from the hot sun.

The plan was to meet up with Mom and the girls at Epcot that night for a few rides and the fireworks show. Steven and I got to ride the Test Track as soon as we got there. It was really fun {and the first adult ride we had been on}! Next, we visited all our favorite Nemo friends. And finally, Mom left her cell phone on a ride, and Maddie went to get it. In the 30 minutes it took to be able to find the phone, a huge, strong storm blew up and we ran for cover. Elle, Grady and I were able to dash in to the character greeting place and see Mickey, Pluto, Minnie, Donald and Goofy while the hurricane blew over. Unfortunately, the fireworks were cancelled, but we had a lot of fun running back to the car in the rain:).

Day Three - Pool and Downtown Disney

We took a break from the parks on our third day and hung out at the hotel. It had an awesome kids' pool complete with leaking "pipes" and fountains. Right next door was a little playground. Elle and Grady were beside themselves. They would jump in the pool for a minute and then say, "Let's go play on the playground!". They would be on the playground for about 10 seconds and say, "Let's go get in the pool!". And back and forth it went. The big pool had a really cool water slide that both kids went down with Steven. It was a nice day spent relaxing and catching up on some much needed nap time:).

This was Reese's first experience with the pool. He was not remotely impressed. I was sort of shocked because he absolutely loves the bath. I'm sure with time, he will grow in his love for all things water.

Since we were so well rested and we had to eat, we all headed to Downtown Disney for the night. I had tried about a month prior to our trip to get a reservation at TRex, but none were available for our size party and before 9 PM. We tried our luck just walking up and got a table within 5 minutes! This restaurant was a lot of fun. At times, the dinosaurs were a little loud for Grady. But then again, he did spend a great deal of the week like this:

Feast your eyes on "Chocolate Extinction"! An amazing dessert that seven of us could not finish!

After dinner, some walking around, browsing through the Lego store and the World of Disney, the attempts at a family picture began. The best one I put as the blog header, but I thought this one was funny. Mom said, "It looks like you are giving yourself an uppercut." Or I'm making up my own glamour photo shot?!

**Quick story so I can remember that my child do love each other: We were in the World of Disney and Elle found a Jessie doll from Toy Story that she wanted to buy. She had a good bit of birthday money to spend at Disney. Grady grabs the Woody doll and starts to throw a minor fit about wanting to buy him. Elle looks at me and says, "It's OK, I'll use my birthday money to buy it for him". Of course, we got both dolls and I didn't even take the money for Woody out of her stash:). Later in the week, Mom bought Bullseye for Reese. Now the family of cowboys/girls is complete!

Day Two - Animal Kingdom

Our second day at Disney we ventured to Animal Kingdom. We got a bit later start {which might or might not have been due to the other half of our party's length of preparation time} and we had an early lunch reservation at the Rainforest Cafe. We ran to DinoLand and hopped on the TriceraTop Spin before heading back to the restaurant.

After our fun lunch, we walked the trails around the Tree of Life. These pictures do not do it justice but this creation is amazing! It is 14 stories high and 50 feet wide, and there are 325 animals carved in to the bark. We spent a lot of time just looking and finding all the different animals... until the first short down pour!

Another favorite was the Kilimanjaro Safari ride. We timed it right and were on this safari vehicle when there was a 10 minute second downpour. It really felt like we were in Africa! The animals were very beautiful and healthy looking, not like at a lot of zoos I've been too. And it seemed like they had a lot more room to roam. Elle loved that the vehicle road through the water. Doesn't take much to amuse these kids. Several times, Grady would call out excitedly something like, "Hey, look there's a gate!" Yes, kids, we came all the way to Disney World to check out the gates:).

We came out of the safari just in time for Mickey's Jammin' Jungle parade. I didn't get any pictures of this, but the costumes and parade "animals" were incredible. We tried an almost all-dayer-no-napper and by the time the parade was over, the kids were done. And so were the adults:). We didn't make the Nemo show, which I was a little disappointed about {and the kids wanted to go}, but I learned quickly that it's pretty close to impossible to do everything you think you're going to do. The best part was when we got back to our car in the parking lot, my windshield was cracked basically the entire way across from the heat. At least we ended up making it all the way home without it shattering...

Day One - Birthday Party!

Wow. I am not sure I really feel like we just went on "vacation". I think it's safe to say that Disney World is not necessarily a relaxing and restoring vacation spot. I do know I couldn't possibly have gained any weight {no matter what I ate!} because I walked at least 25 miles per day and 90% of that time I was pushing a double stroller with 50+ pounds of children in it. But, despite going 90 to nothing five of the six days we were there, we had a wonderful time. The kids were amazing.

We left last Friday night headed down to Dothan to spend the night and take the first 2 1/2 hours off the drive. The rest of the trip on Saturday went well. Our kids are not car sleepers. I repeat: our kids are not car sleepers. A few Disney movies on our hand-me-down DVD player that only plays in black and white, one or two emergency bathroom breaks, and 6 1/2 hours later, we were there!

We stayed here and it was a really great place. The location was wonderful. Very close to the parks without being in the middle of a bunch of busyness and traffic. The hotel room was nice and we had excellent service every day. Awesome kids pool and playground and a not-too-scary water slide in the big pool. We got settled in Saturday night, went to get groceries for the week and made our attack plan for Disney!

Sunday was Elle's 5th birthday. It also happened to be my sister's 14th birthday. My mom, sister and one of her friends, Emily, met us down there for our celebration week. After a nutritious birthday breakfast of Lucky Charms (Elle's choice!) and fruit, we set out to conquer Magic Kingdom.

One of my favorites was the Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Street Party. We were able to catch it just before lunch at the castle. Steven and I sang the song for the rest of the week! "Hey, get up, get loud, we're pumping up the party now!"

The first "characters" we saw were Mary Poppins and Bert. Elle gave Mary Poppins the longest hug she's ever given anyone. So much so, that Mary had to physically remove her saying, "Oh, what a nice cuddle that was!", in her perfect English accent. Hilarious!

The highlight of the first day was definitely lunch at Cinderella's Royal Table in the castle. They called us in for our reservation and we got pictures with Cinderella. Then, Elle was chosen as the "Princess of the Day", given a special wand and pin, announced to the lunch crowd and got to lead everyone up the spiral staircase to the dining room! The food was incredible. The service was amazing. The dessert was quite possibly the best thing I have ever put in my mouth. Snow White, Belle, Princess Aurora and Jasmine all made it around to our table for pictures and autographs. Our two little knights also got swords:).

Our crew took a break in the middle of the day and went back to the hotel for naps. We went back to Magic Kingdom that night for a few more rides and the Wishes fireworks show. I was not, in any way, wanting to force the kids to ride anything. Or even try to talk them in to riding something they weren't totally sure about. We had some time to kill and the line for Pirates of the Caribbean was very short, so I suggested to Steven that we ride it. The kids were all for it. Mom and the girls were elsewhere so I went to check with an employee if it would be okay for our whole family to ride and if it was scary for a "not quite 3 year old". "No, not at all", she reassures me. Let me assure you: it is scary for young children! As we were in pitch darkness, descending down a steep slope, I prayed my kids would not be scarred from me taking them on this ride?! So far, there doesn't seem to be any harm done:).

We crashed close to midnight that night, but it was an awesome way to spend a 5th (or a 14th) birthday! Next up: Animal Kingdom...

Vacation

We just got home from our vacation week here

celebrating this!

I'll be working on some summary posts this week for our memories so check back if you are interested in how our tremendously fun {but not remotely relaxing:)} vacation went!