Disney World

~ From Wednesday, February 13, 2013 ~

We woke up on Wednesday morning to go to Disney World.

We had been watching the weather all week and decided our best chance 

to be at the park without rain was on Wednesday.

We made it to the Magic Kingdom!!

The kids were so cute trying to see everything out the windows, 

which was not much, just the big sign to the parking lot and lots and lots of cars!

We parked in Simba and decided to walk to the monorail station.

The shuttles were filling up quickly and we had two strollers to fold down and it just seemed like a long time to wait so we just decided to walk over.

It's our tradition to go over to the park on the monorail and come back on the ferry.

(I use the word "tradition" loosely because we have only been to Disney World once before, 

but the kids liked the idea, so it's now our tradition!)

On the monorail.
Holden was so funny, talking all about how we were on a train,
going to Florida to see Mickey Mouse.

Cinderella's castle.

Reading the maps and finding the good spots.

First, we rode the race cars.

Tristan did not follow any of the posted rules and rode way too close to the car in front of him.

He also thought we were on bumper cars instead of race cars.  Poor Savannah!!

Ethan wanted to drive, but could not reach the pedal, so I gave it gas and he steered.

After that we went to the Stitch ride, which was not really a ride, but an "experience."
It was really scary for the little boys, and even Ethan who was freaking out
about not knowing what was happening.
It probably would have been helpful had they known who Stitch was.

Then we rode the Buzz Light Year ride, which was really fun.
When we came out, Buzz was right there, so we got his autograph and said hey!
He was the only person we saw all day long.
The kids were a little disappointed that they never got to see
Mickey and Goofy and all their friends up close.

After Buzz, we split up and let Tristan and Savannah go ride Space Mountain while we took the little boys on the space rockets.  Me, Jackson, and Ethan rode together while Holden went with Allen.

After that, we met back up with Tristan and Savannah and got Fast Pass tickets

to come back and ride Space Mountain again later in the day.

Ethan had my little camera and took a bunch of pictures.

This is right after we got off the monorail and parts of Main Street.

Ethan and the love birds!

While waiting for Space Mountain, we rode Dumbo.

I love the picture below, because if you look closely, you can see Jackson and Allen
with their hands up in the air.  Those dare-devils!!

We also found an awesome ride that became Ethan's favorite, Goofy's Barnstormer.
It was very similar to the Thunder Mountain Railroad, just faster and shorter.  Ethan and Holden loved it.
Jackson hated it. We rode it probably ten times before the day was over.

We Fast Pass-ed it too, as well as Peter Pan.

More of Ethan's pictures. 

On one of my favorite rides, It's a Small World.  The kids did not like it so much, but only because they said the song almost lulled them to sleep!  But, we were all singing the song for the rest of the day.

Another of my favorites, Pirates of the Caribbean.

Thunder Mountain Railroad.

Ethan cried the entire time we were in line.  He did not want to ride it.
But we made him, and I'm pretty sure now he hates us.  He did not like that it went underground.
It's pretty silly, because although it was longer, it was a much calmer ride than the Barnstormer,
which he LOVED and went back to over and over and over again!

Jackson hated all the roller coaster rides, saying they were scary.
But he never complained before hand, so we took him on everything
 that he was tall enough to ride at least once.  His favorite was Peter Pan and Aladdin.

Holden had a blast on all the rides.  He is going to love big roller coasters!

Climbing The Swiss Family Robinson Tree House.

By this time we were all kind of tired and the kids were getting hungry.
We had already eaten almost all of our food and it was much hotter than we were expecting.
Ethan was being really grumpy and complaining of a headache, so we decided to go into one of their cafes and rest and get water and some more food into them.  After that everyone was happy again.

About 6:00 pm, we decided to ride the train around the park, because the little boys, especially Holden,
love trains.  We were not on for more than ten minutes or so before it started pouring rain.
Jackson had fallen asleep, so we decided to stay on the train and rode it around the park twice.
Tristan and Savannah said they wanted to go ahead and go home.
It seems everyone else in the park had the same idea.

We had been expecting rain earlier in the afternoon, but were grateful it held off so long
so that we could do most of the things we wanted to do.
We got off the train around 7:00 pm and realized that the park
had all but emptied, so we decided to stay a little longer and go back to the rides
we liked the most, now that there was no line.

Dumbo was really pretty all lit up at night.

Riding the Barnstormer was awesome in the rain!
We also rode the race cars, Buzz Light Year, and Space Mountain
several more time without waiting in a huge line.

I'm so glad we stayed because we got to see the fireworks and the Electrical Parade.

While waiting for the parade to start, the colors on Cinderella's Castle kept changing.
At one point it was covered in hearts for Valentine's Day and even had two
Mickey Mouse ears made of hearts.

The Electrical Parade was so awesome! 

I remember seeing it when I was a little girl, but it was so much 

more exciting than I remembered.  I'm glad my kids got to see it too!!

We finally got to see some characters.

On the train were Goofy, Minnie, Mickey, and Donald Duck.

~ Tinker Bell ~

~ Alice in Wonderland ~

~ Cinderella in her pumpkin coach ~

~ Prince Charming and the Ugly Step-Sisters ~

The Step-Sister in the blue dress caught Tristan in her sights and just about fell off the float waving to him.
He was not even paying attention and thought she was waving to the little boys.
Savannah kept trying to get him to blow her a kiss, but he wouldn't.

~ Pinocchio and Gepetto's cottage ~

~ Peter Pan and Captain Hook~

~ Pete and his dragon, Elliot ~

The last float was this giant American flag with an eagle at the end.

We were all so tired by the end of the night.

We almost broke tradition to ride the monorail home, thinking it would get us there faster, 

but the line was so long and we did not want to stand for one more moment.

So we jumped right on the waiting ferry and I am so glad that we did.

Watching Disney World fade into the night is so much fun!

We loved being able to go to Disney and had so much fun together.
Even though we got rained on a bit and our shoes were soaked, we had a great day.

We won't talk about the speeding ticket we got when leaving Disney.
On a road that had no posted speed limit.  Stupid speed traps!