Our last day at Disney World was kind of tragic, in all manner of ways. What a fitting ending to a wonderful vacation, right? The first characters we spotted on our way to the World Showcase in EC were Jasmine and Aladdin. They were so much fun and engaged us more than any other character except for Ariel. They were hilarious and Aladdin got really upset and corrected me when I referred to Jasmine as his girlfriend. Obviously, I forgot that they married! While waiting in line to meet them, my camera lens met a very unfortunate end. It was hanging on the back of the stroller (where it had been all week with no issue), when Tax threw herself onto the ground and the stroller fell backwards. Onto concrete. Where my camera lens took the brunt of the fall. The camera center in EC had no real ...
Dailies / Week 24
162/365: Our second day at the beach had a similar forecast to the first, but the difference was our sweet daddy wasn't there. He had to work that Monday and since the wireless internet had been zapped by lightening the night before, he had to sit at Starbucks, twenty minutes away, and work while we played. Unfortunately, there wasn't much playing since the rain hung around. Instead, the girls played cards, I read books, ate too much pasta salad and after Josh got back we took a swim and a sanity drive. 163/365: Thankfully, Tuesday morning dawned beautifully and we packed our lunches and headed to the beach for the day. To say my children are beach babies is a gross understatement. I don't think there was a single complaint heard all day. 164/365: On Wednesday morning we spent some ...
Walt Disney World | Day Five
Since MK is clearly the kiddos favorite, we spent a lot of time there. It was especially easy to spend a few hours there on the days we did EC and HS since those could be covered in a relatively short period of time. When Ella & Molly posed for the picture above, the Disney photographer didn't tell them what they were so excited about. They loved it when we pulled the photos up that night in our room! Since our first attempt with Ariel was such a disaster, we decided to try again. Sophie was still pretty timid at the beginning, but she eventually warmed up. They talked about Flounder and Sophie FINALLY sang for her. It was adorable and worth the five day wait. We also managed to catch Peter Pan on our way to Adventureland. Sophie would have nothing to do with him. The only man ...
Walt Disney World | Day Four
Our original plan for New Year's Day was for the girls to rest at the resort with Gran, while Josh, Poppy & I headed to Universal Studios for the day. We were all so exhausted by this point, however, that we opted to spend the day in our pajamas instead. We waited until after dinner to head into the parks for the day and decided a quick evening in Hollywood Studios was the perfect way to spend our time. We headed straight to the arena to watch Mickey's Fantasmic show. It is a laser light and water show that is so much fun! The amphitheater is huge and the girls loved it! Josh & I enjoyed the Christmas lights so much the night before, that we decided it was a must see for the rest of our family, too. There is so much to look at, the lights are choreographed to "dance" with ...
Walt Disney World | Day Three
Our third day in the parks was New Year's Eve and was probably my favorite day of the entire trip. We had breakfast reservations at Animal Kingdom's Tusker House Restaurant before the park even opened that morning, so we didn't have to wait in any lines! I had read to avoid Magic Kingdom and Epcot on the holidays, so eating breakfast and spending the day here was an excellent choice. It was a chilly morning, so we were all bundled up, but it ended up being a beautiful day! We started out with a sleepy family picture in front of the Tree of Life from Disney's The Lion King. We spotted Everest while we were waiting in Africa for breakfast. My dad & I would later wait in an hours-long line to ride this roller coaster while the girls were enjoying nature trails with my mom and Josh. ...
Walt Disney World | Day Two
Day two was a VERY light photography day. We essentially repeated ourselves and spent another day in Magic Kingdom. We were only there until early afternoon so that we could get a nice long nap in that afternoon. We rode a hand-full of rides we missed on the first day and let the girls have an encore on all of their favorites from the first day. We started out by grabbing a fastpass for Space Mountain and then rode the Jungle Cruise while we waited on things to warm up a bit. The captains on the cruise are always pretty cheesy and witty, but the girls enjoyed all of the fake animals and it was a nice relaxing way to start the day. Especially considering the stress that laid out ahead. We told Ella that she didn't have to ride anything she didn't want to except for Space Mountain. She is ...
Walt Disney World | Day One
I was just as excited about waking up Saturday morning as the girls were. In fact, I woke up about 4:45 and just couldn't close my eyes again. I laid in bed reading until an acceptable hour and then it was time to meet the Mouse! We had heard from Guest Services the night before that MK had reached capacity and been closed for three days running, so our plan was to be there a half hour before the gates opened and it was a good one. The girls opted for the Ferry Boat to cross over to the park and I was secretly thrilled. I love riding the ferry because it offers the first glimpse of Cinderella's castle! We took Ella to Disney World in 2009, but it had been awhile. This was the first trip for SK and my cousin, Molly, so they were all understandably excited as we began our ...
Dailies / Week 23
155/365: I am still loving yoga class and I'm so sad when I have to miss it. I really wish I could squeeze an extra class in the week, but I don't have another night available. I'm gonna have to start doing it at home a couple days a week or something. I can tell a huge difference in my balance and flexibility! After class that night, I went through Ella's end-of-the-year stuff and found a list of her top 5 things about kindergarten. I love how she spells and writes! 156/365: On Tuesday, I ran. That's about it... 157/365: By Wednesday, K & I were having serious beach-related problems. We were so ready to go and all we did was text and talk on the phone about how terrible it was that half of our family was already there and we were still working. I know other people love the ...