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 ...
vacation
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 ...
The Disney Surprise
If you've been reading my blog for more than six months, then you know what a big surprise we had in store for the girls on Christmas morning. Unfortunately for you, it's been a long time since then with no photographs or updates on how well that all went over. I decided that since it's finally 90 degrees outside, we could all cool down with a few posts from our wonderful week between Christmas and New Year's Day. For those of you who are new to the blog, let's recap. Josh & I took Ella to Walt Disney World in the spring before her third birthday. It was a spur of the moment decision that followed an almost month of work-related travel for me. I was exhausted and I missed my family like crazy and we got the awesome opportunity to stay in an all-expenses-paid time-share not far from ...
Happy Campers
In case you're new around here, you might not know what our summer vacations look like. I wrote a little bit about why we camp the summer after Sophie was born and again the year after that and you can read about last year's adventures here and here. I've never not camped at the beach during the month of June with the exception of the summer before SK was born. That is 34 summers in Gulf State Park. I am so lucky that when Josh was introduced to this road trip almost seventeen years ago, he didn't run screaming. 30 people, 7 travel trailers and one beautiful beach makes for quite a memorable vacation. We owned a small trailer after we got married, but we sold it after I got pregnant with SK. It wasn't large enough for a family of four, so we've been renting the last several summers. Our ...
Our Magical First Day
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 approach. One ...
Our Big Surprise!
My girls were beyond thrilled with their Christmas gift this year. The most exciting part was the instant gratification; we were leaving in two short days! The video of them "opening" their gift is precious, but we've been celebrating Christmas, taking down our tree, packing and driving for the last 72 hours, so I haven't had time to even think about uploading images and video yet. I have plans to fill your January full of Christmas cheer and our Disney Experience, so bear with us just a few more days. We are currently soaking up the Happiest Place on Earth with our favorite two people in the world! ...