The Most Magical Place On Earth - Part 3

The final day at WDW was spent at Hollywood Studios.  This was another favorite park for us when we lived in the Sunshine state.  Andy was able to join us for this day thankfully.  I was more than wiped out from the solo trip to Magic Kingdom and was grateful for the help!

Hollywood Studio Highlights:

~Watching the Beauty and the Beast performance and seeing Kendall's reactions to seeing Belle and the Beast on stage as well as Chip, Mrs. Potts, Lumiere, etc.

~Riding the Tower of Terror with Riley.  Lucky kid got to ride it with dad and again with mom!

~Walking right onto (well, almost) the Toy Mania (Story) ride.  I've never seen that ride have less than an hour wait!  Ours was about a 10-15 min wait and the longest of the day!

~Meeting more characters such as Woody & Buzz, Minnie, Daisy and Donald, Stitch, the green army man, a storm trooper, seeing Darth Vader as well as McQueen and Mater, etc.

~Taking Kendall to see the Little Mermaid show - she was a little afraid at first but got over it by sitting on my lap the entire time!

~Taking Riley on the Rockin' Rollercoaster for his very first time - TWICE in a row!  He loved it as much as Andy and I do!  He and I used our 4 fast passes and then Andy rode it twice by zipping through the single rider line.

Meeting Woody & Buzz after the Toy Mania ride

Can't get enough of the classic Disney characters!

I think Kendall is often inspired by Stitch!

Lovin' her some Minnie Mouse!

Check out how excited she is to talk to Minnie!

Watching the Beauty and the Beast show

No afraid of Darth Vader one bit!  Waving and saying hi to him!

Not afraid of a storm trooper either!

We found a green army man trying to hide behind a tree

After an exhausting day at HS, we figured out how to manipulate the bus system and get ourselves to Downtown Disney for free!  We walked right into the T-Rex Cafe and got seated immediately...again, something we've never experienced there before.  That place usually has a few hour wait if you can even get in!  This place was perfect for Riley and his dino obsession.  It's similar in design to The Rainforest Cafe (same owners).  Lots of dinos everywhere and they move and make noise during your meal.  The kids had a blast!

Afterwards we headed to much anticipated Lego store.  Riley could have spent an entire day there!  Kendall was just as happy to build Lego creations while Riley drooled over all the different kits.  They even have a Maersk train engine and a container ship kit!  Then we took Kendall shopping for her Minnie Mouse doll - just like I got on my very first trip to Disney.  She sleeps with Minnie every night (she has two now, the pink dress one she got last year for her birthday and the red dress one she got on our trip).

Hanging out with a Buzz Lightyear built out of Legos

By the time we returned to our hotel, we were all wiped out!  We went 3 days at Disney non-stop, no naps, from sun up to sun down.  We got our money's worth for sure!  I'm so glad it worked out to take the kids.  Both kids had such a great time and it was fun to surprise them!  We were able to create some great  family memories!

The Most Magical Place On Earth - Part 2

The next day of our Disney trip, I ended up taking both kids to Magic Kingdom by myself.  Not what I had planned, but Andy was swamped with homework for his grad classes and needed the day to get some done or he'd be too far behind.  Thankfully I know my way around that park like the back of my hand.  I was shocked at the lack of long lines (not that I'm complaining!).  I expected Labor day to be more crowded at least with locals.  We walked right on almost every ride including Peter Pan and It's A Small World!

Magic Kingdom Highlights:

~Showing Kendall Cinderella's castle in person.  We walked through the castle to get to Fantasyland and she got to see the story in the tiles on the walls.  That was magical for her!

~How terrified Kendall would be over the Snow White ride!  She still won't read her Snow White book even being home for an entire week!  She puts the book back in her drawer when it's out!

~Meeting more princesses including Cinderella and Tiana, Mickey, Minnie, Peter Pan (the only one Kendall refused to greet), Chip N Dale, Buzz Lightyear, etc.

~Riley riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad all by himself!  I was not allowed to accompany him through the line because Kendall was too small so I fast passed it for him and he did it by himself!  It's his favorite ride in all of Magic Kingdom and thankfully he was very familiar with it.

~How well behaved BOTH kids were for me that day!  Riley was super helpful all day and earned himself some extra bucks to spend at WDW!

"It's really Cinderella's castle!"

A classic favorite of Kendall's

The Mad Hatter's Tea Cup ride

Finding Buzz Lightyear outside of the Toy Story ride

Chip N Dale were in Tomorrowland too!

The only character Kendall wouldn't greet - little did she know he's Tinkerbell's best friend!

My two little angels

Having fun on Aladdin's magic carpet ride

Pirate Goofy was the best part of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride for Kendall

Found Donald in Frontierland

Tiana was in a little gazebo near Liberty Square - we found her by accident but thrilled with the chance to meet her!

We hunted long and hard to find Cinderella!  Caught up with her & her friends in the Main Street area.

A prince has to see the princesses too!

She couldn't wait to show Minnie her dress!  She loves being twins!

My favorite picture of the trip!

I am so thankful the kids were well behaved and were very helpful with I was navigating the park solo.  I was also thankful for little to no lines so I wasn't waiting for rides with two hot, cranky, tired kids by myself!  We had a great time and wished Andy could have joined us!

The Most Magical Place On Earth - Part 1

Andy's company was planning their strategic planning meeting to be held in Jacksonville at the Ponte Vedra Inn the week of Labor day.  They were generous enough to include spouses and children on this trip.  Once I looked at the calendar and realized we were going to take the kids out of school for 3 out of 4 days of school, I suggested why not scrap the entire week and spend the long Labor day weekend at Disney World.  It's only a 2 hr. drive from Jax and we've been trying for the past two years to make a trip back there for the kids.

So that's exactly what we were able to arrange.  Thankfully the company picked up the tab on the airfare, rental, etc. and we were only responsible for our Disney related expenses.  Sweet deal, right?  The most difficult part of this entire vacation was keeping the Disney part a secret from the kids until we arrived in Orlando!  I'm not the best at keeping secrets that I'm really excited about but was hoping for one of those Disney type commercials where the parents surprise the kids and tell them at the airport type of things.  Yes, I deserve a big pat on the back because I kept this secret from the kids since April/May until we were eating dinner in Orlando!  HUGE for me!

I have to say that Riley started to figure things out once we landed because he could read "Orlando" everywhere in the airport and saw all the Disney, Universal, and Sea World related ads.  He wasn't shocked at all once we spilled the beans.  Both kids were so wound up that first morning when I woke them.  They jumped right out of bed and got dressed immediately!  The couldn't wait for their first day at Disney.  Kendall remembered nothing of our many trips to WDW when we lived in Jax so this was like her first time.  She had no idea what to expect except she was really hoping to see some princesses as well as Minnie Mouse!

We started our 3 day visit to WDW at Epcot.  That's the one park we never took Riley to because we didn't think he'd appreciate it as a 3-5 yr. old.  That was a good call because he only enjoyed parts of it as a 7 yr. old!  Kendall didn't know any better and was happy to see characters and ride a few rides.

Epcot Highlights:
~Kendall's dash to be the first to meet Minnie Mouse for the day - and she was successful!  As soon as the characters were finished singing at the fountain, they headed to the meet and greet area and Kendall took off right after them - not caring one bit where her family was!  She had made friends with the character handlers on the way there and they introduced her to Mickey and all his friends!
~Test Track was one of Riley's favorite rides at Epcot.  He begged to go on it again and again!  Sadly, it was the only line at Epcot that was considerably long.
~Germany's Oktoberfest:  Andy and I found a beer that we BOTH enjoyed!  It's and Oktoberfest beer brewed only in Germany and WDW has a contract with this small brewery that they will not ship to anyone other than Epcot!  That beer tasted good before I knew all that info - then it tasted even better!  Andy and I have NEVER agreed on a beer - EVER!
~Dinner in Norway with the princesses!  Kendall was in heaven meeting all the princesses.  We got a family picture with Belle, then got to meet, Snow White, Aurora, Alice and Ariel.  Both kids got signatures for their autograph books I made for them as well as lots of pictures to eventually put in them.  Kendall made her way to Ariel for the parade at the end of the meal and managed to grab Ariel's hand and not let go for the entire parade!  Kendall's excitement through that entire experience were worth the cost of the meal for sure!

Bruce the shark at the Nemo ride

Our little vikings visiting Norway

Meeting Belle and Beast in France!

Pure love and adoration here

We found Pooh and Tigger while visiting England

Too much excitement got the best of her!

Getting ready for dinner with the princesses!

Meeting Sleeping Beauty aka Aurora

She loves Sleeping Beauty

Meeting Alice for the first time

Kendall didn't know who Alice was until this moment, but she fell instantly in love with her - we had to buy an Alice in Wonderland book once we returned from our trip!

Even a prince likes Snow White's autograph

Princess Overload!

Check out that smile!

So much fun for all of us!

We had a great time at Epcot.  Not a place we need to visit again anytime soon, but we're glad we did!

Who Knew?

That playing in the mud with your best pal could be so much fun?  Kevin and I signed up for the The Dirty Dash a few months back to motivate us to run this summer.  Little did we know how hard it is to run with 5 lbs of water and mud in your shoes!  We had so much fun and have already started planning for next year.  We want to get a bunch of friends to join us and maybe try the MS Mud Run in August and then do the Dirty Dash again in September.

Here are a few pics from our day:

Pre-race photo at the start - yes that is a mud slick on the hill behind us!

After swimming through the waist deep mud hole

Post-race, pre-shower photo

Enjoying a refreshing beverage post-race!

Click HERE to see a youtube video that Kevin created of me in the mud throughout the race...notice how he captured all of my bloopers and out takes!  Kendall kept begging to watch it over and over after telling me it was "yucky" and "gross."