Disney World Day 6

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Our last full day at Disney World. By this point, we had done pretty much everything at all four major parks, napped or otherwise relaxed for at least two hours of every day and had wonderful evenings at Epcot exploring the World Showcase before dinner. Given that, we decided to take the morning and just hang out around the hotel.

The kids with Ariel right outside our hotel.

Our first morning we had breakfast at this restaurant at our hotel (Cape May Cafe) that we had made reservations at 6 months ahead of time. This morning we decided to try our luck at walk up service. They gave us a buzzer, told us it might be 20 minutes and in less than 5 we were seated. It was a really fun breakfast because it was the only meal all week that it was just the four of us and we didn't have anywhere to get to, so we could linger over our coffees and waffles as long as we liked.

Lennon and Minni fell instantly in love.

Mia liked seeing the characters, but I think she's already old enough that some of the magic of them is already lost. I don't want her to grow up!

Donald making Lennon crack up

My pretty little baby

We celebrated both kids birthday one more time this morning. Lennon, of course, didn't even ask if he could eat his. He doesn't care about sugar yet, thank God!

Lennon got more and more excited about the characters every time he saw them.

After breakfast we went out to the massive pool at our hotel. Mia had wanted to get her hair wrapped all week and Uncle Kelsey and Aunt Bethany paid for her to do it for her birthday. It took about 15 minutes so Daddy and Lennon went on over to the pool and started swimming.

We probably spent about half an hour or so just swimming in the pool and exploring around it, but then the majority of our morning was spent sliding down this slide and the slide across the water at The BoardWalk Hotel. This one was long and mostly straight and started at the top of a wrecked pirate ship. The other slide was twisty and spit you out the mouth of a clown. Both slides allowed Lennon to go down all by himself which he thought was just too cool! We were always waiting for him at the end of the slide because it was deep water. Both kids had such an awesome time. After all the water play we were almost too tired for lunch so we just went back up to the room and laid down for naps.

In the afternoon we went over to Epcot and did a few more rides. One of which was The Seas With Nemo and Friends. You sit in giant sea shells and see scenes with the Nemo characters and it all ends with you looking into an actual aquarium with Nemo characters projected onto the glass with the real fish. We rode it once before dinner and once after.

Our family in the mouth of Bruce the shark

One of the best parts of the trip was getting to know Reagan a little better. Living so far away from Peyton and Reagan is so hard, but I think I made some real leg way throughout the week with Reagan. She's such a sweetie. Now, if I could just need to work a little harder on Peyton liking me.

By the end of the week dinner was so much better with Lennon. I learned from LeNan and started bringing stuff to occupy him and he also got used to the idea that he had to sit around for a while and that there were a lot less time outs and griping from Mommy if he just behaved.

Lennon was getting a real kick out of Grandaddy saying "I said a say sonny" with a lisp. He kept trying to say it back and laughed hysterically.

The restaurant tonight was a seafood place. Supposed to have the best seafood at WDW. And one whole wall of the restaurant looks into an aquarium. Since Lennon loves fish, we chose this restaurant to celebrate his birthday. They brought him out this big plate with several different little cups filled with sprinkles and stuff to make his own sunday. The sweet little guy spent so much time making it just ride and really concentrated on it and then gave it to Mia. He didn't care at all that he wasn't going to eat it.

Here he is dumping the last bit of candy on top.

Mia was very grateful for the yummy dessert.

Lennon made a train out of salt and pepper shakers and such toward the end of our meal.

Mia riding a ferry over to the Magic Kingdom for the parade and fireworks. Cinderella's castle is in the background.

When we got to Magic Kingdom the streets were already pretty packed. This nice man showed us this little spot next to his daughter for Mia to sit up close. It was perfect. We were just behind her and she had a little friend to chat with and trade pins with during the parade.

The parade that was there when I was a little girl was back and it was really fun to see some of the older characters like Pete and his dragon.

I love the looks on the kids faces while they watch the night time parade go by. I wasn't able to get a shot of Mia's face because of her position.

Mia and Granmommy patiently awaiting the start of the fireworks show.

It was pretty awesome. We didn't have the absolute best position for viewing the fireworks, but I thought it was pretty awesome. Tinkerbell flew right over our heads at the end of the show.

Disney World Day 5

Monday, June 21, 2010

I was already starting to be a little sad about the trip coming to a close today when we had less time left than had already passed.

The kids already excited for the day. We had to wake them both up today to get to Hollywood Studios by 7. They were in a super good mood nevertheless.

Coffee in hand, kid in stroller, bags packed with snacks and cameras and we were off on our short walk to the ferry that would take us about 15 minutes down the water way to Hollywood Studios. I set my coffee down to take this picture and forgot to pick it back up. I'm such a nerd.

We got to pose with Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater (although Lennon calls him Rusty and won't let anyone get by with calling him by his real name.) We wished they had let the kids play around in the cars, but they wouldn't even really let you touch them very much. Weird.

Aunt Bethany being silly.

Just starting our Studio Backlot Tour. We got to see a flash flooding of a canyon and an instant fire and lots more cool, behind the scenes stuff.

Grandaddy helping Lennon with his $18 water spray bottle. Disney is lots of things, cheap is not one of them.

Riding some kind of Star Wars flying motor cycle type thingy

Eating at The Sci-Fi Dine-In Theatre. The booths were convertible cars and they were all facing a giant drive in screen that showed really old "horror" movie clips. Stuff like "The Man Who Wouldn't Stop Growing." It was really funny.

After lunch Lennon fell asleep in the stroller so Shelby took him back on the ferry to nap while Mia and I hit a couple more rides one more time. Early in the morning everyone except me, Lennon and Granmommy did Tower of Terror and Rockin Roller Coaster before meeting up with us at Toy Story. We thought we'd get fast passes for use right away since that was the first thing we did once inside the park, but we still had to wait like three more hours before riding it. It's so crazy popular. So, while the other guys rode the big rides Granmommy, Lennon and I waited in line for 20 minutes just to obtain the fast passes then rode The Great Movie Ride. While on Tower of Terror Grandaddy lost his clip on sunglasses. Later, when Mia and I went back we thought we'd try to be the heroes and check if they'd been turned in. Miracle of miracles, they had! And they were in one piece. I was worried that if I put them in my back pack they'd get crushed, so I just carried them gently in front of me and we were heading straight to the ferry. About one minute later, I dropped them and they broke instantly upon hitting the ground. So, in the end we got to tell him "the good news is, we found your sunglasses. The bad news: we then broke them."

There is a picture of Jeremy doing this the "stud" sign near this same car from a trip to Disney when we were both still in high school. This pic was for Jer.

LeNan was always so good and prepared for meals. Her kids were perfectly behaved during dinner every night. Here is sweet little Reagan with her coloring book.

Aunt LeNan got in lots of cuddles with the four kids during the week.

All our dinners were great, but this night we ate at Epcot at The Odyssey Room. It was a special International Dinner with reserved viewing of the night time fireworks, laser show. Dinner was great because there were so many different types of food to choose from. Everyone got plenty to eat. There was also lots of entertainment. Here, the kids have joined in a congo line.

Mia loves her family so much!

One of the best pictures of my kids ever. I love this one.

A Mostly Fun Family Day

We headed out early this morning with fresh fruit from our local farmer's market and our swimsuits on to spend the morning at BreakHeart. Mia has gotten really good at going up and down all the hills on the way to the beach and playground area. The kids played a while on the playground and then we got settled in by the water. The water was the most perfect temperature and it was in the low 80's. The kids wanted to build a castle with a moat and large gait and tunnel and all the fixin's - and that's what we did.

When we realized it was too late for Lennon to have a nap we headed out to Chick Fil A and also ended up getting both kids new sweatshirts for the quickly approaching fall.

Once we were headed home we realized that Mia had left her brand new Barbie in the lake. She is pretty bummed. She'd been dreaming about that Barbie for months and she finally bought it just last week with some money Grandmommy (Mary Beth) sent her for her birthday. Shelby even went back to the beach to see if he could find it to no avail. We just checked her wallet and she has just about enough to buy another one, but she's still pretty bummed to have lost it and now have to spend more of her money getting another one. Hopefully this will be a good experience for her to learn some responsibility. She's such a sweetie pie and I hate seeing her sad, but I think it will be good for her.

Shelby's at school now registering for the semester and it looks like he'll be able to be in Nashville from Tuesday morning until Monday morning over Thanksgiving. Yea!

Mia thought this looked like a T-Rex head.

Mia and Lennon happily smashing the T Rex head.

best friends

when we went to Nick and Katie's wedding I met a girl named madison.

We played together. we had a blast.

I played cops and robbers,maid and ice fight.

--Mia

A Little Comparison

It's always hard to believe how big Mia is getting. Here she is four years ago during her first visit to DisneyWorld. She wasn't quite 4 yet and had the time of her life at The Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.

Thank You Papa!

Chocolate crown at Cinderella's Castle now...

And then!

DisneyWorld Day 4

A Fairy Tale Father's Day

Sunday morning we all got up and zoomed over to Epcot at opening to try to ride Soarin' before the lines became hours long. Well, that didn't exactly work out the way we had hoped. We ended up with Fast Passes to ride right after breakfast, but at least we got a nice brisk walk in before stuffing ourselves yet again during this week of delicious and constant gorging.

We all had breakfast at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall with several of the princesses. Mia especially enjoyed seeing Jasmine since she was wearing her Jasmine costume from Aunt Hillary.

Lennon really liked all the princesses too.

After breakfast we went back and most everyone rode Soarin' then we did some other Epcot rides. Here we are about to ride Living With The Land, something everyone was big enough for.

In Living With The Land they talk about some research they are doing into sustainable farming practices. Farming without soil and all kinds of interesting ideas.

We also rode Ellen's Energy Adventure and got to see some cool dinosaurs during that. After some fun at Epcot we went back to the hotel for the boys to nap and the girls headed over to The Magic Kingdom for Mia's appointment with her very own Fairy God Mother!

Mia waiting anxiously for her appointment. Which, by the way, was super late. They didn't get us in until more than an hour past our appointment time. Granmommy, Bethany, Mia and I rode a couple things and tried to watch the afternoon parade while we waited, but the parade was cancelled due to rain.

Before

Sweet Mia being primped and pampered

Looking thrilled with the outcome

All decked out in Jasmine and pink, of course. Pink was her theme of the week it seemed. Everything she chose was pink.

When we were done at The Boutique the boys met up with us next to Cinderella's castle where we were going to have dinner. Here the kids are trying with all their might to pull the sword from the stone, to no avail of course.

Our little princesses with Snow White.

One of my favorite princesses with three of the kiddos.

This Ariel was especially sweet to Lennon

After dinner most everyone headed over to Hollywood Studios to see Fantasmic! Lennon and I stayed at The Magic Kingdom and had some Mommy and Me time. It was super fun to get some one on one time with him at the park since Mia and I had lots of one on one time while he napped throughout the week. Here we are in Mickey Mouse's garage with his tools. One of Lennon's favorite books is about Mickey and Goofy building a tree house and they use lots of tools, so this was one of his favorite parts of the house.

In classic Lennon style, he had to get inside Minnie Mouse's refrigerator.

About to ride what would become Lennon's favorite ride at Disney, Goofy's Barnstormer

Quite obviously, having a blast on this kiddie roller coaster

We also rode the Tomorrowland Indie Speedway, saw the parade and got a new balloon for Mia who left hers at the castle at dinner. We got home super late and he was such a trooper!