Florida- Day Three

Do you need a break from these lengthy Disney posts? 

Well we sure needed a break day from living it all. 

A gift to one and all. 

My Aunt Jana stayed at an awesome Marriott resort so we went and mooched off her sweet pool. 

Isaac squirting innocent bystanders with the cannon...for 4 hours straight! 

Lucy getting brave out in her tube with Auntie Grace

Later that evening we walked around Downtown Disney. 

Highlights included the Lego store, free Ghiradelli samples, create your own Mr. Potato Head, hula hooping  contest, and shopping our Disney hearts out, of course! 

The best part of this day in my opinion, sleeping in, taking it easy and enjoying some ZZZZ's. 

Florida- Day Two

 I feel that I have scared my readers away with my extremely lengthy posts as of late. I am sorry.

 I am aware that they are long and no one is reading them. 

The words are for me, the pictures are for you...or anyone left who cares! ha! 

Magic Kingdom!! 

I can't believe how much we got done this day. 

It was all thanks to Rachael. 

She would run and get us fast passes while we went on something. Then go stake out a spot in line for us to meet a character she knew would be there at a certain time. She even got us "backstage" access to the princess'! It was awesome! She knows Disney so well and treated us like queens. We couldn't have done it without her! 

This picture makes me laugh...this is the tram ride at 8:30 in the morning. 

She is already sweating and looks exhausted! ha! 

First stop...

Lucy did pretty well. In her past experiences with large costumed characters she has completely freaked out! She was a little cautious and would not let me set her down, but she also was eager to meet them and blow them lots of kisses! 

Next stop- the Princess room, through the back door, no line for us! (thanks Rach!) 

As soon as we walked into the room Lucy's face lite up and she began calling "Roar-A", "Belle", "Rella!" and she tried to cut the people ahead of us to run and meet them. It was so cute! 

I was a little bummed she wouldn't just stand on her own with them for a picture. She was a little nervous still. So I get to be in all the pictures and have Lucy practically hidden by me. Wahoo me and Cinderella! haha! Either way, despite her star struck face, she was so, so, so excited to meet the princess, and so was I! 

These gift shops are death traps. I wanted to buy everything for her! She would grab anything Mickey, or Ariel and I would have to pry it out of her hands as we exited. 

Of course I had to buy Lucy her first set of ears. 

aaaand...she hated them. Rats! 

We were in line for tea cups and this huge sign for the coming Mermaid land was nearby, Lucy spotted it and  made a mad dash through crowds of people straight for it. ha! It was hilarious. It was very difficult to pull her away! Little did she know, that very soon she would be meeting the real deal! 

Little Mermaid is by far her favorite right now. She is obsessed! 

I wish so badly we had gotten better pictures. Lucy was stunned. As soon as they came out Lucy began shouting their names and asking where Max (the dog) was. It was priceless. I think she was actually more excited to meet Eric then Ariel...it was weird. They were so animated and quirky, it was hilarious! They asked how old Lucy was and Lucy held up 5 fingers and Ariel says "oh, a whole starfish!" I thought it was funny. 

Peter Pan ride! 

The hooligans cooling off in the fountains. I was about to jump in at this point! 

Waiting in line for the pirate ride 

And now the moment we had all been waiting for. We could not wait to meet Mary Poppins. Rachael is "friends" with her and arranged for us to have a private meet and greet. 

It was practically perfect, in every way! 

And she even brought her friend Peter Pan along. 

He was a hoot! He was literally bouncing off the walls! 

Mary's accent was spot on and she knew all the right lines to say. It was amazing to meet her! 

Right after we met with Mary the parade began and her and Bert where in it! Yay! 

 We also were the only ones on this side of the street (in the hot sun) which turned out awesome because every single princess and character waved or blew kisses to Lucy because we were the only ones on that side! It was magical to see her blow kisses back and just eat up the attention. She even kept on with her clapping! ha! 

We wore her out again! Another sweaty nap! 

DUMBO! 

While we were waiting for the kids to do Big Thunder Mountain Lucy went a little crazy with the spray bottle. She soaked herself! I tell ya that spray bottle was a lifesaver though, in many ways! 

Brave kids! This was a favorite of theirs. It was so nice with the baby pass to get to let these kids do things twice if they wanted and me and mom my to get to do everything we wanted to do without having to wait in line. baby pass+fast pass all in one ride= amazing...and that's pretty much what we did all day! 

We wanted to stick around for the light parade at night because Rach was also a dancer in that. 

It was really fun to see her. 

We also stayed and say the castle show and the fireworks. 

We were SO tired by the end of that night and it was SO crowded to get back to our car. The fireworks ended at 10:20 and we didn't make it to our car until 11:30! After the long journey to our car, we were so done!  But it sure helped that we were so tired my Mom and I got in a giggle fit and were just laughing at all the people who around us who looked just as miserable as us! haha! 

 We were definitely in need of a break day. 

But wow, what an amazing day at Magic Kingdom. It's one I will never forget. 

Florida-Day One

Sunday after church we headed to Florida. 

The girls napped awhile 

It was a squishy ride, again. 

Stocked up on all the goodies for the week! 

Monday morning we got up early and headed to Animal Kingdom

This was Rachael's day off so she got to play with us all day long!

It was the hottest day of my life.

First we went to Dino Land. There is a ride here that haunts my dreams. I don't know why, it's really not scary, but the Dinosaur ride is dark and things jump out at you, it's awful. This was the kids first ride and they both came off terrified! I went on it  (using the baby swap pass- a wonderful thing) and took Isaac and Rachael. I held on to Rachael's arm the whole time and still had my eyes closed for the majority of the ride. Guess I will have to go back to conquer my fear once and for all! ha! 

No, this is not the ride I am referring to.

 This was Lucy's first ride! 

She was crying and freaking out while in line, and I thought- 

"oh  boy, this will sure make this trip fun considering the main activity is riding rides" 

But once she realized I was staying on it with her she loved it!

 She had no other fears after that. Phew! 

 The Safari was definitely a highlight for Lucy 

She loves animals and looked like this the whole time! 

She went nuts when we saw the "lion king!" 

The girl is a Lion King fanatic!

Naturally, I really wanted her to see Rafiki. 

The line was long and she was scared

So, this is as close as we got. 

Good Enough. 

I think the shows were Lucy's favorite.

 I mean she is two, you would think that's when she would get restless and go crazy! 

No, she is so attentive and claps and gets so excited. 

First, we went to the Lion King show. 

I have never seen Lucy so excited. 

She was clapping awkwardly the whole entire show and shouting "yay!" 

She apparently was not happy with the lack of my enthusiasm

 because she kept taking my hands and making me clap as well! 

I really did love it too! 

 It's so well done, practically a mini Broadway production. 

It's amazing! 

She had to meet Pumba, aka the pig. 

She loves that big guy! 

We also went to a "Finding Nemo" show that was phenomenal. You have to go! 

It was made up of elaborate puppets, and songs, and it was just beautiful. 

And there was A.C. 

It was amazing. 

At the Tree of Life! 

(Not that tree of life! Shouldn't we copyright that or something? The kids were confused ) 

Love this girl so much! 

I loved getting to spend some time with her! 

It was also nice having the expert tour guide to show us around. 

Did I mention it was hot? 

Seriously, I have never been hotter. 

This is how we all felt after Animal Kingdom. 

We loved it, but it was ridiculously exhausting. 

Lucy was a trooper and finally passed out on me on the tram to the car. 

And of course, we were just crazy enough to park hop to Hollywood Studios. 

There were only a few things there we wanted to see there and had a few hours left in the day 

so, we dragged ourselves over there. 

Which was worth it because it was really fun AND

 it rained on our way over and cooled things down a bit. 

The Tower of Terror! 

We got the little kids on this ride too. 

Gracie sobbed through the whole thing and Isaac said he hated it. 

I on the other hand LOVED IT! So fun! 

Isaac got this adorable hat. 

Star Wars ride was his favorite. 

It made me sick! 

Lucy's souvenir. 

Minnie's skirt lights up and twirls when you push the button. 

Hours and hours of fun. 

I also took Lucy to see "The Little Mermaid" show that is at this park as well. 

That movie is her newest obsession and she loves Ariel. 

The show was a little lame for me, but Lucy loved it! 

Waiting for the show to start. 

This was a big reason we came to Hollywood Studios. 

They do the Fantasmic show here in this sweet stadium with a set and the water. 

It was pretty cool. 

We did learn however that you should sit up a little higher because if not you get a very annoying mist from the water screens spraying you in the face the whole time. 

We also learned you should sit near an exit...oh wait THE (one and only) exit.

 A thousand people trying to leave all at once out of one exit? 

Come on Disney.

 It was a nightmare. 

As much as I loved this trip, I do not consider it a vacation. Disney is hard work, it's hot, draining, exhausting, you sit and wait in lines and have to walk A TON and sometimes you look around at all the sweaty, grumpy people and think "everyone looks miserable! Why did we all pay a lot of money to come be miserable together in the happiest place on earth?" Ha! 

It really was worth it and I guess like child birth you forget all of the hard parts and just remember the wonderful moments and that's why you keep going back for more! 

but in the fall...not the summer. 

That's the end of a very long day with a ton of great memories for my kid, so that's what matters. Oh- except she is 2 and won't remember. So a ton of great pictures of my kid looking (somewhat) happy and I can tell her she thought it was awesome! ha!