Disney

Be prepared, this will be a long post. I am playing catch up on the blog, a few months late, and I don't have the energy to separate out each day like I've done previously for our vacations. Sorry kids, but you all exhaust me.

We have been planning this Disney trip for months.  Back in October of 2011, we met our friends the Webbs.  They had just moved here and came to our church one Sunday. Damien met them and found out they lived on our street just a few doors down, so I introduced myself. We found out that they had a boy Dylan's age and a girl Natalie's age...perfect.  I really felt God had brought them in our lives for a purpose.  We became friends fast and within a month of knowing them, we asked if they wanted to go to Disney with us and they said Yes.  We knew that it was going to be a special time with them.

We held out on telling Dylan because we didn't want to hear every day, is today the day, like we did the last time.  My goal was to tell him when we got to the airport, but we ended up telling him 2 days before since we were having a planning session with the Webbs. They had told their son who told Dylan, we're going to Disney....which I had to interject, one day we will.  whew, crisis averted.

The Webbs drove, we flew. HA.  Made for a much quicker trip.

Fortunately we made it down there in time for the big SEC championship game between Georgia (the Webbs team) and Alabama (our team). This could set the tone for the week.  Fortunately, there were no hard feelings when Bama took the title. Here's the boys praying for their teams.

The boys were so excited about the upcoming week, they could hardly contain themselves.

The elves even decided to join us in Disney and they sometimes brought gifts.

One paticular night, we were staging the elves and Dylan walked out. I thought for sure he was asleep. I tried to convince him that the was sleep walking and dreaming the whole thing, but of course that didn't work.  Epic fail.  Good thing we haven't hyped up Santa too much. 

Our first day was the Magic Kingdom.

We made the boys autograph books so those were in tow, along with trading pins for Dylan.  I thought he might like that.  I found some pins on sale for a like $7 for a pack of 7. He's just going to trade them anyway for better ones, mwahahaha.

 Dylan rode every ride that he could, and I was proud that he tried them at least once.  I did the barnstormer, splash mountain and thunder mountain.  Of course all the other rides too, and met a ton of characters.

Natalie's first character experience....not so sure about this mom.

 They have a totally new section at Magic Kingdom that includes Beauty and the Beast and Ariel's Grotto. Dylan and Gaston muscled it up and took us to the gun show.

Ariel was a hoot and knew lots of fish facts.  She also was Merida when we went back to the park later that week.  Woman of many talents :) 

 Natalie and I enjoyed some one on one time while the boys rode the rides.

 We had the rider swap and fast pass system nailed.  Since we had 2 families with little ones.  We could just get one family to do the fast pass and they would also get a rider swap.  Half the group would ride once while some sat out with the ones that couldn't ride, then we switch. It was nice to find play places close by so the little ones could enjoy the time too.  We didn't wait in any line more than 15 minutes. It wasn't busy to begin with but with our process, BAM, we were in and out like bandits.

 We even got to sneak in some naps while waiting for parades.

 It was an enchanted night with the castle lit up.  Gorgeous.

The next day, we went to Epcot. 

This is where you see your main characters, because it's a lot less crowded. 

 I tried to convince Natalie that Pluto was a friendly dog.  She still wasn't having it.

 We visited the coke store for a little coke tasting. This may or may not have been a bad idea for 2 four year old boys.

The next day, we took a day off from Disney. The Webbs went to visit family, while we visited Gator Land. 

On top of gators, they had lots of other shows and animals. One being the upclose encounters show. Good thing they didn't get upclose to me or I may have killed their main stars. 

We watched alligator wrestling. 

 Damien and Dylan fed gators. Dylan talked a big game about feeding the gators but once they were inside the fence, he was all about letting Damien do it.

 They had a playground at Gatorland so we let the kids play a while...well mostly Dylan while Natalie slept until she woke up, smiling of course.

Hollywood Studios, here we come.  I enjoy HS. It's not that big, but there's still a lot to do. Of course I enjoyed finally riding the Aerosmith Roller coaster. Finally, I am not pregnant at Disney. 

The boys got to meet some of there favorite characters. 

 And you cannot go to this park without playing on the Honey I shrunk the kids playground.

 Natalie loved the water that poured down the "leaf" 

We finally found a character that Dylan was afraid of....Wreck It Ralph, who knew.  Guess he was "too big" 

 Back in our comfort spot, Toy Story. Woody is one of my favorite characters at the park. He always gets down on his knee at their level and hugs them. so sweet.

Animal Kingdom was next.  (A little tip, enter the park through the Rainforest Cafe.  Many people don't know this, but there is an entrance to the park at the back of the cafe. Enjoy that tidbit.) 

Finally found a character that Natalie tolerated...Doug, from UP. 

 and I finally got to do the Safari ride. Very cool . If I worked at Disney, I would want to be the driver of the tour to check in with the animals all day.

 My silly boy enjoying his day.

We got close to the Tree of Life and really checked out the animals carved into it. 

While waiting for the parade, the kids enjoyed playing the drums and dancing. 

Natalie loved the parades.  She pointed and waved to all the characters....that's as good as it gets with her Mickey. 

 Although I did sneak her into a picture with Donald.

 That night we had reservations at the Dinosaur restaurant. (think Rainforest cafe but with Dinosaurs). It was really cool.  Dylan picked us Disney treat out here...his Ankylosaurs that he named "Big Foot"  which can be seen in this picture.

Downtown Disney is always a lot of fun and the people are fun too.  

 The kids dancing on the lawn 

Our last day at Disney, we headed back to the Magic Kingdom. It's hard to do MK in one day.  You might as well enjoy it in 2 days. 

Dylan took an archery lesson while waiting to see Merida.  

His went right ino the bullseye and didn't fall through. She said only a few do that :) 

Here's Ariel, errr I mean Merida

We did the new show, Enchanted with Belle, where people were picked to be in the show. Dylan was selected to the beast. He had a lot of fun with his growling part.

 but not so much fun with the dancing and falling in love part. 

The one person Dylan was dying to meet, Peter Pan and we finally caught him and his shadow.  He really took his time and talked at length with the kids which was good but bad while we had to wait for him to talk to all the others ahead of us...he really is a rambling boy. 

His trip can now be completed. 

 They're so squishy ---ok wrong theme park, but that's exactly what I thought in my head.

 Magical week comes to an end with our last flight on Dumbo. We can't wait to go back in 2 years hopefully.