Florida Vacation 2011 | Day 8 | Driving to Miami

Saturday morning we packed up Grandma Michele's car - stuffed it completely full - stroller on my lap and a gallon of milk on Mark's and drove the 4 hours from Orlando to Miami.  

 It was definitely a L.O.N.G. drive for everyone!  But we made it!  We were all very excited to get to Grandma Michele's and Great Grandma Mary's house!  Isaiah was especially happy because we made him wait to open his new legos until we got there.  After a few minutes of being there we were putting the dump truck together!

 We spent the rest of the day just enjoying our grandmas - and their puppies - and their puppy toys!

 The kids and I made a game out of the puppy bottles and the Frisbee.  I just couldn't get enough of the beautiful 80 degree weather!!

 The boys also LOVED the pool table.  They spent lots of time playing with "the balls."  They even convinced Great Grandma to play too!

Mark taught both boys how to hold the pool cue correctly.

 They also had fun playing in the dog kennels.  I think they were just so happy to be out of the car and free to just play!

Thank you Grandma and Great Grandma for opening your home to us!  (and giving up your bedroom!!).

Florida Vacation 2011 | Day 7 | Epcot

We woke up Friday to our final day at Disneyworld.  The weather was supposed to be warm and sunny again, but it was actually foggy and misty.  Oh well - it was still warm (like 70 something - a good 80 degrees warmer than back home!).   We took the monorail to our last park - Epcot.

 You can see the mist in the picture.  It actually turned out to be another sunny beautiful warm day!

 We were stopped by a cast member asking if we would mind taking a survey.  So I took the kids and  in to the Innovation Center and the boys ran straight for the firetruck! Mark came to say that he signed me up to be a party of a study that would take an hour but they'd pay me $100!  I didn't mind (you all know that!). 

 I had to be at the survey place in like an hour so Grandma kept Levi so Mark, Isaiah and I could ride Test Track.  The line was so short that they let us stay on and ride it twice in a row!  Isaiah thought it was very cool.  

 I went off to do my survey (I promised I wouldn't share any detailed information about it - but it was basically looking at a few Disney website designs and my opinions on each of them).  They were so nice to me and told me I could tell people that I work for Disney World and get paid $100/hour! :)  My survey was held back stage of the Seas with Nemo and friends.  It was very fun to use the employee elevator and see the back stage lounge of this attraction!  They said it is used for private parties for people who have lots of money!

They had all kinds of drinks and cookies for those taking the survey and they told me to take whatever I wanted - so I took 5 HUGE chocolate chip cookies - one for each of us.  The boys were pretty happy about that!  We let them eat it right before lunch - we were on vacation, I figured why not!

 We then went to China for lunch and ran into Mulan.  The line was pretty long, but both boys insisted that they wanted to wait (I was definitely surprised!) but we waited and have her autograph!

 Then we went to the Kim Possible booth to accept our mission.  This was a really cute "game" where Kim and friends gave you clues to her secrets through a cell phone.  We only did one mission through Germany, but I think Isaiah and Mark could have done this all day!! 

 Grandma had taken a seat on a bench and found some friendly ducks so the boys had fun feeding the them their leftover breakfast cheerios!

The boys had a blast playing the drums - I can't remember which country these were in - but Mark and Michele ran off to ride something and get a fast pass for Soaring (today was the busiest day all week I think - it was Friday and the park had extra hours till midnight).  

I finally tore the kids away from the drums, lost Levi's binky and then went crazy looking for it - finally found it in the middle of the street and just about ran a woman over as I rushed to it (sorry lady!) and then we went and found a place of peace and quiet so the boys could just play.  This was at the  Baby Care Center - it had several rooms for people with little ones - a nursing room, a changing room, a little baby store and this play room.  We ended up playing here for at least 30 minutes.

After our break on our way to meet Daddy and Grandma, we ran into Duffy Bear.  The boys did the absolute best meeting him compared to many of the other characters -- they were both so open to hugging him and talking to him.  He is the newest character that Disney has featured - I think he was a teddy bear in some of the very old Mickey Mouse cartoons (but I could be wrong).

 We got an up close meeting with Goofy and Minnie Mouse.

 Here we are on the Finding Nemo ride.  I honestly cannot remember what part of the day we did this ride, but it was pretty.  Levi, of course, was a little nervous, but made it through - although for part of it he was laying at my feet.

 As the day got hotter, the boys were ready to play in the water.  Isaiah said he wanted to go swimming, but we found something even better!

 The boys were a big hit for all kinds of people - people stopped and watched them play and even took their pictures.  We got all kinds of "they are so cute" comments.  We let them play here for a long time.

 Good thing we brought dry clothes!!

Toward the end of the day we went to the big Mickey Gears shop to let the boys each pick out a souvenir.  We had agreed on letting them each pick one thing on our trip. Isaiah really wanted legos or this HUGE dinosaur that he found at animal kingdom.  This store didn't have the dinosaur so he picked a Toy Story lego set.  Levi picked out a plush Buzz Lightyear.  I couldn't help but take a picture of him in the Goofy hat which did not come home with us.

 We then found our seats for our final event - Illuminations.  We waited for a long time - over an hour - in our spot to make sure we had good seats and to have a snack - popcorn and ice cream.  It was a beautiful show!

 We left immediately following Illuminations - we had no idea until this time that the park was open until midnight!  I'd have to say we got the least amount done here - we really only rode a handful of rides and barely touched on any of the countries!  But that was okay, we really enjoyed what we did have time for!

 We got back on the monorail and made it back for one last night in our hotel.

 It was a bittersweet ending - we were all so tired and ready for a break, but I really love Disney World and wasn't ready to say goodbye.  I guess I'll just be dreaming about our next trip back! Who knows when that will be!!

Florida Vacation 2011 | Day 6 | Magic Kingdom!

We got up bright and early again Thursday for our day at the Magic Kingdom!  This was the day that I was most looking forward to for our entire Disney trip.  I knew the boys would be amazed at the castle and all the magical things at the Magic Kingdom.  We walked to the Polynesian and took the monorail!

We posed for a picture right away when we got there. 

and then we walked through the castle.  The boys thought that was fun!

Right away we ran into the Sword in the Stone. Both boys tried really hard to pull it out but were unsuccessful.  I know that occasionally the sword does lift out; I guess we weren't strong enough that day! :)

We were able to make it on most of the Fantasyland rides right away with very little or no wait!  These included: Peter Pan's Flight, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Prince Charming Regal Carrousel, It's a Small World, Mad Tea Party, Mickey's PhilharMagic (well, most of it until Levi started screaming!), Winnie the Pooh - basically all of them but Snow White's Scary Adventures (there was no way we were even going to attempt that one!)

The boys LOVED the Dumbo ride.  We had been reading the Dumbo story regularly for about a month before we left so they knew the story well - we all thought it was neat that Timothy was on top of the ride (read the story if you don't know who Timothy is!:)  They wanted to go on this ride again and again!  (We only did it once!)

They also loved the Carrousel.  They did ride this one twice - or was it three times!?

Daddy and Levi

Grandma and Isaiah

Both Michele and I were excited about It's a Small World - Mark could have done without!

The boys both loved it.  Isaiah did great until he jumped from our seat to the one behind us - right in front of the cast member.  NAUGHTY BOY!

We happened to see Mary Poppins, Alice and Wonderland and Cindarella's evil step sisters/mother in this area, but the lines were quite long to see them and the boys were not interested (I was definitely not surprised - they had no clue who the Cinderella characters were--Isaiah refuses, remember? and Alice and Mary are girly! :)

But we did stop to meet Pinochio!  Grandma Michele spotted him and there was no line at all!

One of my only goals for the trip was to get a magical picture of the boys with Mickey hats in front of the castle that I could blow up in black and white.  Here is the closest thing I got to that dream on our trip -- maybe next time.

Disney has planned for a major expansion for Fantasyland opening in a year or so. They had pictures of the plans up around the area - Mark had to take a picture!

Isaiah has done the tea cups at Adventureland before, but all 3 boys enjoyed them here!  Definitely not one that I can do!

We then got in line for Tomorrowland Speedway - I think we waited the longest for this ride out of ALL rides/shows on our entire trip.  It was a silly little ride, but Levi LOVED it.  He just about refused to get out of the car.  If the line had been shorter (I think we waited about 20 minutes) we definitely would have gone again.

Mark rode with Isaiah.

Poor Grandma all by her lonesome!

By now we were ready for a break - Strawberry smoothies!  YUM.

The boys enjoyed the robot while the grown ups took turns going on Space Mountain - again we had NO line  and got right on!

We also saw a moving garbage can that the boys that was so much fun.  It was moving all around the area we were in and running into people (on purpose I'm pretty sure).  I got it on video, but I apparently didn't get a picture.  

We did several other rides including one of Mark and my favorites - Carousel of Progress and Buzz Lightyear's - Spin (see below)

We then caught the end of "Dream-Along with Mickey" a show on the castle steps - I looked at the time sheet wrong so we missed the first 15 minutes or so, but caught parts of it again later.

We jumped on The Magic Carpets of Aladdin which the boys LOVED.

Then it was time to head to the Pirates of the Caribbean -  the boys and I watched Captain Jack Sparrow's Pirate Tutorial while Mark and his mom rode the ride.  They thought it was so funny.

Then Mark and Isaiah got to go to their very special appointment - Pirates League!  They turned into pirates with their very own names and everything! 

Meanwhile Grandma, Levi and I went to the Swiss Family Treehouse - it was close so we figured we give it a try.  Well, Levi LOVED this too.  He went running up all the steps and had a great time.  When we got to the end he wanted to do it all over again!

At this point Levi really needed to nap and I had realized that I forgot our night time Mickey lights in the hotel room so Michele was so flexible and allowed me to run (literally) back to our hotel room while the boys were being pirates.  Somehow she managed to get him to sleep and I had to have ran 3 miles back to the monorail, to our hotel and back in like 45 minutes...and I came back to see this.

Aren't they the scariest pirates you have ever seen??

We found our seats for the Celebrate a Dream Come True parade and daddy got Levi a special balloon.  Levi loves balloons and they were selling these all along the streets - Daddy is a sucker for his little man.

Levi pulled too hard on the balloon string and up, up, up it went, thankfully a cast member was so nice and gave me a new one when I took the string and weight up to her (we really didn't want to pay another $8 for a balloon!).

This parade was great!  It had all kinds of Disney characters in it - Mickey and his pals, of course, all of the princesses and their princes, Chip & Dale, Woody & Jesse, characters from Alice and Wonderland, Pinochio & friends, Snow White, Peter Pan, Aladdin, Genie, Jafar, & Abu, Dumbo, and so many more!

The Little Mermaid is pointing to Isaiah in this picture and she said, "you are going to have to take a bath tonight!!"  He was just in awe! 

Next we went to visit Mickey's neighborhood at Toon Town - we were excited to be there before they closed this part of the park for good - which was on February 11.  Remember the expansion of Fantasyland? That means they are removing Mickey's house. bummer.

We rode Goofy's Barnstormer which is a toddler sized rollercoaster.

This was Levi's first experience on a rollercoaster! 

Here's Mickey's house 

and here is Minnie's

We then went back to the Pirates of the Caribbean for the "Pirate Parade"

All the pirates of the day got on stage and were "fighting" each other.  It was so cute.  Isaiah was such a rough pirate -- he definitely won the fight over several of the other pirates there!

Then they marched in a parade all around the Pirates of the Caribbean area.  Mark got to be the tail end of the parade and hold the rope that all the other pirates needed to hold on to.

Then we took a group picture of all the pirates of the day.  After the picture they got some real treasure (which were actual plastic jewels - very cool!)

We then went on the Jungle Cruise ride.  At the end, Isaiah got to dock the boat and earned an official Disney driver's license!

We ran into Woody and Jesse right as we were leaving, but they refused to allow us to meet them as they were heading back in.  This was probably the worst part of the tip (minus the puking) as Levi was S.C.R.E.A.M.I.N.G that he wanted to see Woody and the cast member refused to allow us.  Thankfully he stopped crying after a short while and we moved on...

to the Block Party Bash where we got to DANCE with Woody!  This was an incredibly fun event for the kids it was all kinds of signing and dancing in the streets with several Disney characters.

Shortly after this we went and had dinner at Casey's Corner on Main Street.  Mark remembers going here the last two times we came and wanted to continue the tradition.  The kids definitely agreed as they serve hot dogs.  We then found a spot to watch the Electrical Parade and the boys got to play with the Mickey lights I ran back for.  

Then it was time!!  I have fond memories of this parade when my family went to Disneyland as a little girl (just a year older than Isaiah).  I'm not sure I actually remember the parade, but I remember looking at the pictures over and over again as a child.  I couldn't wait to share the experience with my boys!

 Tinkerbell also pointed Isaiah out during this parade.  I think she said, "ohh a scary pirate!" or something like that.  

It was definitely another magic moment for me -- and I think the boys and Grandma too.

We then moved over in front of the castle to watch the Wishes Nighttime spectacular - a laser show and a fireworks show ON the castle.

We made it back to the hotel and were all exhausted!  It was a bit of a challenge getting a really tired pirate to agree to wash his pirate face off.  Poor little boy.

It was an amazing day - one I will NEVER forget!