Magic Kingdom Day 3

When I was the age my kids are, you would never have caught me on a roller coaster of any kind. My kids are obsessed! Journey wasn't tall enough for some of the rides, but the other 2 were. Here we are just after the big drop on Splash Mountain


Eric and Jeb on Thunder Mountain Railroad

I had spent the last year telling the kids that the characters won't talk to them. Jeb understood that it is because they are just people dressed up, but the girls didn't get that yet. We walked into Town Hall to meet Mickey with our hats (Eric and I got our hats when we were there on our honeymoon in 2007!) and Mickey greeted us and made small talk! After telling the kids so many times that he wouldn't talk, they were a little stunned. Then Jeb, my little thinker, was trying to figure out how it worked by asking very specific questions. He asked what Mickey's favorite color is, and Mickey said "hmmm, well haha, I don't know!" So he tried asking a couple of other questions to get him to answer. A couple of weeks later, he said that he could tell it was radios that made him talk :)

Jeb used some of his gift money to buy a Buzz Lightyear toy. So of course we had to take a picture next to the giant Buzz Lightyear at our hotel! The kids are standing down by his feet, they are hard to see!

There's Journey with her Journey doll that she bought. She sings Its a Small World in English and the language of whatever country she's from (Kenya?)

Happy boy-at Disney, wearing a t-shirt in December, running through Toy Story statues with his brand new Buzz Lightyear

We had gone back to the hotel to nap because the park was open really late that night. I think Jeb was too excited to sleep much in the hotel room, so he fell asleep on the bus!

All the kids' favorite ride, The Barnstormer! Or as Vivi and Journey call it, the Barn Farmer :)



And of course, the Dumbo ride!

Magic Kingdom Day 2, continued

Journey loved the Small World ride, especially these girls, which she thought were her! Every time we saw one of them, she would say "Journey is dancing! Journey is riding on a horse!" It turned out they sold those dolls in the gift shops, and she ended up buying one for herself :)


Jeb told Prince Naveen a pirate joke-what do pirates like to drive? A carrrrr!

Then Prince Naveen told Jeb a pirate joke! Where do pirates keep their cookies? In a cookie jarrr!


I <3 this picture, and I'm so glad our girls have a role model princess that is the same color as they are :)

Magic Kingdom Day 2

Cinderella is Vivi's current favorite princess, she was SO excited to get to meet her!

Sleeping Beauty

Disney Day 2: Character breakfast

We had reservations for a character breakfast at Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom, so we got to go into the park before it opened. It was fun to see Main Street and the castle without the hordes of people everywhere.



All of the kids were excited to meet the Winnie the Pooh characters, but Journey was the most excited. We were seated, then went through the buffet to get our food, and then the characters started making their way around. Winnie the Pooh came up right behind Journey, and when I told her to turn around she was so excited!


She barely ate any of her breakfast because all she wanted to do was wait for her next friend to come hug her :)

Bouncing with Tigger

Magic Kingdom: Day One

On our first day of Disney, we were tired from getting up early and spending most of the day on the plane and checking in at the hotel, but once we got to Magic Kingdom, we didn't waste any time finding all the good rides!


And of course, eating our first Mickey Mouse ice cream bars!


Vivi had a hard time adjusting to all the new sights and sounds, so after awhile when she'd had enough of the rides, we spent some time wandering in a gift shop. And since I just had her with me, we were able to share some cotton candy (Jeb and Journey can't eat artificial colors). Nana found us and kept us company for awhile too :)

Disney Trip: The Plane

My parents celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary this year and took us and my sister's family to Disney to celebrate! We thought it would be a good idea if we all met at my sister's house the night before and ride out together. It turned out not to be a great idea because the kids didn't sleep and it turned out to be a night of very little sleep for everyone, and we had to leave for the airport at 6am. It didn't take too long to get 6 adults and 4 small children through security and we had plenty of time to hang out before boarding.

Jeb was SO excited to see our plane! He wanted to hold his bladder so that he could make sure to use  the plane's bathroom, but we eventually convinced him to go before we got on, and of course he had to use it on the plane too :)
 

Journey looked so cute in her own big seat like a big girl! She thoroughly enjoyed every part of it, from opening and closing the windows, to getting pop and a cookie from the flight attendant, to taking off and landing. She had a few funny moments-the plane pulled away from the airport and went to get in line to take off, and when it stopped in line, Journey said "Now we are at Disney World!". When the flight attendant gave her Sprite and a cookie, Journey gasped and said "That's so special!" and then when we were getting off the plane, the flight attendant pointed Journey out to the pilot and told him the story :)

Jeb loved every part of the flight and spent most of his time staring out the window. Vivi did better than I expected, and luckily took a nap for the second half of the flight. After we got to the Orlando airport, we grabbed a quick lunch and then got in the loong line for the Disney shuttle to go to our hotel, where we waited an hour and a half to check in because of some miscommunications. The kids got some money for a couple of family members to spend, so we had been browsing the gift shop and then wandered around the hotel campus. As an apology for such a long wait, they gave all the girls a stuffed Minnie Mouse and Jeb a stuffed Mickey, and the girls got princess coloring books while Jeb got a little Mickey car. We also ended up in a closer building than we were going to, so it ended up working out alright :)

Finally we were headed for the bus to our first visit to the Magic Kingdom!

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