Saturday, May 05, 2012

A Magical Week at Disney

We have been home from Disney World for two weeks.  Ethan still tells me every single day that he misses Mickey.  When he tells me, we think back to where we were and what we were doing that day we were in Disney.  We left for Orlando after work on Friday, April 13th and Ethan, Brad, and I made it to Crestview, FL.  We arrived in Orlando Saturday afternoon, just ahead of Nonnie, Poppy, and Kinley Rae.  Instead of taking a rest that evening, we headed to the Magic Kingdom to see the light parade and ride a few rides.  Ethan was too excited to ask him to wait another night to see "the happiest place on earth."

 Just inside the park (the castle was lit up and the color kept changing)
 Nonnie, Jill, and Kinley Rae
 First ride, Dumbo
 Ready for lift-off
 Kinley's favorite napping spot, on Poppy's shoulder.
We watched the fireworks from the new Fantasy Land.
 Ethan's first ride on It's a Small World - he requested this be the last ride all four evenings in the Magic Kingdom



We raced over to Epcot Sunday morning because it was the last day for Test Track to be open before renovations.  Ethan loves to talk about the racing ride and how the next time we go he'll get to pick his car out!
 The only ride we really waited in line for!
Thankful for FastPasses and not a busy time of year
 Epcot celebrates their Flower and Garden Festival from March-May and we enjoyed the beautiful topiaries!

Once Test Track was marked off our list, we headed back to Magic Kingdom because we had a surprise in store for Ethan.  We had signed him up for the Pirate League to be transformed into Jake from "Jake and the Neverland Pirates."
 First character sighting, Pirate Goofy!

 Signing the Pirate Book because his autograph is now famous ;)
 Nina turning Ethan into Jake
 Our newest Jake in Pirates of the Caribbean.  Look at E's shirt and you can see Jake with his spiky, black hair and red bandanna.  We already have a Halloween costume!
 It's time for a break with Mickey ice cream!
 First bite, Mickey's ears
 Kinley doesn't ever want to be left out

 Aladdin and Princess Jasmine
 Back to the Pirate League for a Pirate Parade
 Scary Pirates
 On stage with Captain Jack, promising to be a good pirate
 Nonnie and Ethan after an "AWESOME" ride - E loved it!
 Cinderella's Castle is so amazing!
 Buzz Lightyear ride

 Dance Party with Pluto...
 ...Goofy...
 ...and Stitch.

 Ethan reminded me as we were walking up to the carousel that at Disney World you can ride the rides as many times as you want! :)
 Poppy loves watching us ride horses, even if we aren't at Texanna!
 Love the sign, the station, and the Mickey head made out of flowers

Monday was our day at Hollywood Studios (the old MGM Studios).  The boys left early to catch some popular rides and mom and I let Kinley sleep in.  Lack of beauty sleep can really take a toll on a tiny princess.  Oh, and everyone at Disney calls little girls "Princess!"
 Daisy, Ethan, and Minnie - Hollywood style
 Pixar Studios have their own little section, a favorite for us!

 Ethan loved Star Tours and the boys rode it twice
 Chasing down the bad guys on a speeder bike
 Poppy, Ethan, Brad, and Uncle Alex saw the Muppet 3D movie together back in December, so it was another MUST on the list
 Lightning, Ethan, and Poppy - all in red
 Phineas and Ferb with E
 Ummmmm
 And, the girls arrived!  Waiting in line for Buzz and Woody.  At least they had is in an air conditioned little are with cute, cute, cute photo ops
 At Pizza Planet, in the Space Crane
 Sid's Backyard
 And to the stars of the room, Buzz and Woody



 Marching with the Green Army Man
 Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
 She is not afraid!



 Jake!  See the resemblance from yesterday?!

 Disney Junior show and the Hot Dog Dance
 Grabbing a snack and a break while waiting for the Pixar Parade
 Kinley was Minnie!  Polka dot hat, Minnie Loves Mickey tee, and her adorable Minnie shoes.  
 Dressing in Disney attire was so much fun! (Mickey, Minnie, Mickey and Minnie, Ariel, and Clone Wars here)
 Monsters, Inc.
 Russell from Up!
 Lights, Motors, Action was a fabulous stunt show that also featured a real Lightning!




We took Tuesday off from the parks to rest up.  Hanging out by the pool and visiting with a dear family friend, Ms. Betty, were on our list!  After relaxing all day, we needed more Disney and headed to Downtown Disney, just a mile or so from the condo.
 Ethan's favorite part was the Lego store
 That box he's holding up, yep, Avengers!  Ethan did chores leading up to the trip and earned Disney Dollars.  He used a chunk of his Disney Dollars to purchase this brand new set of Legos.



Wednesday was a split day (yeah for the Park Hopper).  We started the day off in Animal Kingdom.
 On our safari ride
 Kinley had gotten down the art of pointing at this point.  She's either wanting us to see the white cranes or the hippos underwater.
 Ethan and his obsession, gators
 Super close to that giraffe
 Elephants
 This little eatery just made us smile :)
 Here you can see Mt. Everest in the background, which just happened to be our next stop (ok, Nonnie took the kids to Dino Land and Brad, Daddy, and I rode it twice, very cool roller coaster)

 Our crew and the Tree of Life

 Beautiful "carvings" in the tree
 A monkey behind my monkeys (notice the matching t's!)
 Patiently waiting for Chip N Dale 


 Kinley understood that there was something special to that little book she kept handing over to the characters because she wanted to write in it, but not tear pages out.


 Telling Rapunzel a story



 The best way to finish off Wednesday night?  Seeing Mickey and Minnie, of course!



 and Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)


 Belle
and Cinderella where Ethan told her that her castle is pretty and he just saw her mice at the parade.  Such a sweet boy!

More to come!  We still have two days to cover and I'm cutting down from the 1000+ pictures we took!

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