Our Disney Vacation

For Christmas, we gave the kids a trip to Disney World. Last week, we finally took the trip! We left our home on Friday, January 22nd and flew into Orlando around 4:30 in the afternoon. We checked into our hotel and then went pretty much straight to the Magic Kingdom to catch the Spectromagic parade and the fireworks. First things first, though - we headed to the hat shop to let the kids each pick out their own Mickey ears.


The kids loved the firework show. It was a great way to start our Disney week.
The next morning, we got up early and headed to Hollywood Studios. It was a long, but really fun day. Highlights included the Toy Story ride, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and the Block Party. Well, Avery loved the Block Party, Donovan had to be carried out crying after one of the Monsters, Inc. characters came up and tried to dance with him. Scott's highlight was the Tower of Terror (of course). We had read that Fantasmic would be performed that night, but it turns out that it wasn't. It was a bit of a disappointment, but we were so tired, I'm not sure if we would have made it through anyway.
It was a bit hot that day, so we shared some frozen lemonade. Mmmmmmm:


Singin' in the Rain:

The next day was Sunday, so we kind of took it easy, and didn't go to any of the parks. Instead, we drove out to see the Orlando temple, which was beautiful:

Monday, we went back for a full day at the Magic Kingdom. The kids loved the 3D show Mickey's Pilharmagic. Donovan had never seen 3D before and it was hilarious to watch him try to catch or touch the things that popped out of the screen. He giggled through the entire thing.

Avery was a huge fan of the Mickey and princess singing and dancing show in front of the castle. Dono thought it was cool too, but not as cool as Avery thought it was.

We loved the Tiki Room, but this is them acting scared after the show. They weren't scared, but they are great actors, don't you think?

One of their very favorite rides was Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride. I think we went on it about 8 times.

I think Avery's favorite ride was "It's a Small World." Donovan thought it was just ok.

One of the highlights of the whole trip was lunch on Monday. We made reservations a long time ago to attend the Princess lunch in Cindrella's castle. Avery was beside herself. First we met Cinderella in her reception room:

Then we went upstairs for a delicious lunch. The room was really cool and overlooked Fantasyland.

Avery received her own magic wand:

And Donovan received his own Knight's sword. He thought this was the best part. He wasn't so into the princesses.

Then Avery got to meet Jasmine:

Snow White:

Belle:

And Sleeping Beauty:

She was pretty happy about the whole thing:

And she thought the chocolate crowns for dessert were pretty cool:

After lunch, we spent some more time in Fantasyland riding rides:

Dumbo was probably the biggest hit there:

Everyone liked the teacups except for Scott:

After Fantasyland, we went to Toon Town, where the kids and Scott rode Goofy's roller coaster. Avery took some convincing, she didn't think she'd like fast rides. I was hoping that it would be a good starter roller coaster and then she'd feel brave enough to go on some of the bigger ones. She said she liked it, but had no interest in going again or trying out a bigger roller coaster.

Donovan, on the other hand, loved every minute of it and wanted to go again immediately. He was also ready to try the Big Thunder Railroad, which he rode with Scott SEVERAL times.

This train was more Avery's speed:

We stayed until closing again, and watched the parade and fireworks again. This time, we were much closer for the parade. Donovan thought it was a little too loud:

But by the end, he was waving at all the characters as they rode past. He loved it, so long as they didn't try to come up and say hello to him.

Watching the fireworks on Scott's shoulders:

Tuesday, we headed back to the Magic Kingdom for another day. This time, we started out in Tomorrowland. We made the mistake of starting on the Stich ride, and both kids were in hysterics by the end. It was pretty scary. They loved the Toy Story ride and insisted on going a few times on that. Afterwards, they got locked in jail with Zerg.

They took turnes driving the racecars on the Tomorrowland Speedway. This ride was a huge hit. Avery drove first:

And then Donovan:

We watched another parade. The parks were so empty that we could pretty much walk up right before the parade started and get a great seat right on the parade route. We also didn't wait in many lines longer than 5-10 minutes.

Avery's goal for much of the day was to make it to Minnie's house. I think she remembers going there when she was Donovan's age. It didn't disappoint, she thought it was pretty great.

Wednesday morning, we went to the Animal Kingdom. Scott had to work in the afternoon, so we only spent a half day there, but I think that was the perfect amount for us. They had a great safari ride that was a lot of fun.

Donovan told me his favorite animal we saw were the crocodiles.

Avery's were the pink flamingos.

After dropping Scott off for a work conference that lasted until Friday morning, I took the kids swimming. The hotel had a great kids pool with lots of fun stuff to play with.

As I was watching the kids swim, I looked over and noticed that the lifeguards were dressed like this, and I about died laughing. It felt pretty warm to us!

We swam some more the next day (Thursday) and then went back to Hollywood Studios to catch Fantasmic. It did not disappoint.

Here are the kids waiting for it to start:

There were a couple of parts that were slightly scary to Donovan. He is a huge Mickey fan, and there is a part where a giant snake sneaks up behind Mickey. Donovan started yelling "Watch out, Mickey! Look behind you, Mickey!" and stuff like that. He was a bit distraught at the thought of Mickey getting eaten by that snake!



Friday, we picked Scott up from his conference in the afternoon and headed over to Epcot. I had never been there before. There was more cool stuff there than I thought there would be.

We loved the Chinese Acrobat Children. They were amazing!

Other highlights included the Test Track (Donovan and Scott), Soarin' (Donovan wasn't impressed with that one), the Japanese drummers, the Nemo ride, and especially meeting up with our friends the Christensens.
Donovan and his buddy Ben:

Avery and Emma:

We didn't get home from Epcot until after 11 and we were pooped!

On our final day, our flight didn't leave until 4:30, so we headed back to the Magic Kingdom for one last time. Even though it was Saturday, the threat of rain seemed to keep all the crowds away. We really lucked out with the weather and the crowds the whole time we were there.

Monorail on the way home. We were so sad to leave, it was a fantastic week.

Of course, it didn't make it any easier to be done with our vacation when we got home to this..... SNOW and 17 DEGREES!


The kids are already asking when we can go back. Next time, I might actually be in a few of the pictures, since I won't likely be 8 months pregnant!