Last Day at Disney World - Animal Kingdom

We spent our last day at Disney in the Animal Kingdom. It is the newest park and I had never been there. I was excited, but I knew we wouldn't get to see everything. Since we were leaving the next day, I wanted to get back to the hotel and get things packed up. But, we did get to see/do the most important things. Besides, that just leaves more for us to see when we go back in 4 years when it is John's turn to march. =)

We met up with Wendy, Jay and John again to ride a really fun roller coaster. Anna was about an 1/8" too short, so she couldn't ride. I guess we didn't have thick enough soled shoes! hahah She was really sad that she couldn't ride the roller coaster. It was a little scary and a little jerky in places, so it was probably a good idea that she didn't ride. The Maags left for another park and to possibly see Leah after that.

We moved on to see the some characters. We got to see Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald all dressed up in their safari gear. That was neat and the lines weren't too bad. Then we headed over to Kilomanjaro Safaris. That was the best! And, the closest that I will ever get to an African Safari. hahah

By then, it was super, super hot and humid and we were getting tired. Well, I was getting stressed as to how I was going to get everything packed and IF everything was going to fit in the suitcases. So, we headed to the hotel. We were able to meet up again with Wendy for supper that night before we headed our separate days on Thursday.

It was a great trip and we all had an excellent time! I can't wait to go back when the kids are a little bit older!

Disney Day 7 - Back to the Magic Kingdom

OK, so I just realized that I never finished our trip to Disney and the rest of the happenings this summer. Then I will have both kids starting school, so I really need to catch up!

On Tuesday, we went back to the Magic Kingdom. It was the big day to see Leah and watch her debut down Main Street USA. We had a blast again. Of course, the kids HAD to take Leah and John down Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain RR.

We were able to see and dance in the "Move it, Shake it, Celebrate it" parade this time. Anna was so excited she got to dance with both Woody and Jesse from Toy Story! As you know from the earlier post, Jesse is her favorite right now. It was so hot though and right in the middle of the day. Poor Anna was sooo hot and sweaty afterwards. Doug didn't even dance because he was too hot just standing there. We do everything to keep him cool and belly full. He easily gets too hot and then doesn't feel well.

We were able to all the extra rides that we wanted to do including DUMBO!! The only thing we missed was the Peter Pan ride. We had to check out of our resort and check in to another one for a couple days, so we ran out of time. But, the kids were able to get a little catnap because we were going to be at the park until 10 or 11p. I think it ended up being about 11 after the fireworks and we still had to get on the ferry and find the car. It was a loooong day, but very fun. It was also very hot and humid that day. We were standing waiting for the parade to start. The sun had gone down and we were all still just miserable because of the humidity. That is one reason we were happy to get back home to MN -- the summer as been really mild and some days pretty cool. It was so fun the watch the Spectro Magic parade as well. I remember watching that as a kid way back in 1982. Anna was more excitable than Gabe...imagine that!

Disney Day 6 - Blizzard Beach

Ok, moving right along to Monday of our vacation. As many of you know, the primary reason we booked this trip was to see our niece Leah march down Mainstreet USA. We opted to fly to FL, as did my sister. But, Leah had to ride the bus to FL. We got there on Tues, my sister got there on Fri and Leah didn't get there until late Sun evening. So, Mon was the first time we were able to see her. The band had an itinerary, so we tried to follow that as much as we could while Leah was there. It was only for 2 days, but that is the best we could do.

We were able to meet up with Leah on Mon at Blizzard Beach. It was so much fun. Our family really enjoys the water parks and swimming. But, I don't think it was the best planning to spend one day at the beach and the following day at a water park. By the end of this day, both Doug and I were sunburnt. Doug on his back and tops of the feet and me on my back, chest and tops of feet. And, yes, we had reapplied sunscreen like crazy. The kids were fine though. They had pink shoulders, but nothing that was painful. The painful part of the entire day was walking around on the HOT HOT concrete. They didn't have enough little sprinklers to keep all the sidewalks wet. As we were taking the stairs up to some of the slides, (of course the highest ones were the most fun!) there was no shade and I thought the bottom of my feet were going to fry off. I am not exaggerating here either. Thank goodness Doug and Leah are more athetic than me. Doug scooped up Gabe, Leah scooped up Anna and they took the stairs 2 by 2 because the kids were both crying. John and I just ran up the stairs and I thought I was going to pass out. (I have been working out, but not on steps. lol) Anyway, the slide was worth it and it was good to get some extra excercise. The kids wanted to do it again, but I said no way was I doing that again. So, we stood in line to ride the "ski lift" to the top. That was actually pretty neat. Ok, now that you have heard my ranting about the hot concrete...

They had a little area just for kids to play. It was OK, but Gabe was just about too tall. (He had hit 48" which was awesome for some of the bigger roller coasters, but also the cut off for the baby area.) And, it wasn't as fast as my daring daughter wanted. So, we headed over to the preteen area. They had a few slides, a nice pool and some floating ice to walk across. The kids thought that was the best. They both did it a few times. But, then it was on to bigger and better things. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures to share with you because, duh, I didn't want to ruin my camera. But, just know that we had a blast!!

Disney Days 4 and 5 - Relaxing and the Beach!!

On Saturday, we all just slept in and then hung out around the resort. We did some boring things like laundry and some grocery shopping. The kids were able to swim in the pool for a while. That was nice to just relax! After lunch, the "big kids" - me, Doug, Jay and Wendy went over to Downtown Disney to do some shopping. That was our big "buy all the souvenirs" day. Gabriel and Anna stayed home and napped and John stayed with them. That was so sweet of John to do.

Sunday we headed over to Cocoa Beach. It was about an hour from Orlando, but it was well worth the drive. We all had such a blast!! (Even though I had to deal with the sand. I do not like sand one little bit, but I managed.) I loved being able to teach the kids how to jump over the waves and just play. They had fun playing in the sand also. I was able to sit and enjoy a book on the beach also. Then, as the kids were in the water and we were relaxing on the beach, we saw a yellow crab. He was fun to watch. I had never seen a yellow crab before. I always think of them as red since that is the kind you get in the restaurant.

It was a very hot day though, so we had to make sure to keep the sunscreen going. We did a good job getting it on the kids, but Doug and I got a little sunburnt. Not as bad as it could have been though. The worst part was walking on the hot sand if you ask me.

Like I mentioned, it was just a great, great day and we really enjoyed the beach!

Disney Day 3 - Hollywood Studios

On Friday we went to Hollywood Studios. We weren't all that sure what to expect for the kids, but it turned out to be fun. Are you surprised? Anyway, it was here that Anna got to ride her FAVORITE ride -- Tower of Terror. For those of you not familiar, it is an elevator that you sit in that takes you up and "bams you to the ground!" (In the words of Anna.) You go down really fast and then back up and down a few times. It is fun and you really did need to be strapped in. There were lots of screams and giggles from our crew. It was also here that Anna finally got the toy that she had been waiting for. She was able to buy her Jessie doll. Jessie is the cowgirl from Toy Story 2. For some reason Jessie had replaced the princesses before we even left home. Not sure how that happened, but I guess it had something to do with the fact that both kids LOVE Toy Story 1 and 2.


While in Hollywood Studios, we also got to meet Woody and Buzz, along with Annie and Leo from Little Einsteins. Gabe got to see the Cars characters Lightning McQueen and Mater. Anna didn't want to have her picture taken with them though. We didn't get to see the parade here because of the weather. Of course, it rained almost every afternoon that we were there. Nothing too major, just a down pour and then the hot sun came back with lots of humidity. I am not used to the humidity anymore, since it is not as bad in MN as it was in St Louis.

The other fun milestone that we had in this park was Gabe riding his first upside-down roller coaster. He said it was fun and wanted to go again with me, but Doug said he was scared out of his mind. I think it was a little of both. =) I ended up not going on it..the standby line was getting a little long and I didn't want to wait in line. I was getting tired by that point in the day. And I was a little crabby having to put our ponchos on and off so many times.

After we were done, or had seen all we really wanted to see, at this park we decided to check in with Wendy and company. They were in Orlando and wanted to eat. Since Doug and I had been there a few days, we got to pick the restaurant. We ended up picking Outback Steakhouse. It was so yummy. Especially after eating sandwiches and "park food" for a few days now. To make it even better, we got here during happy hour so that made it better. The kids were so excited to see Aunt Wendy, Uncle Jay and John they didn't even want to sit by us. That's OK though, we know they love us.

Disney - Day 2 - Magic Kingdom

OK, so since my last post, I have put lots of pictures on facebook. But, I still wanted to tell you a little about our trip and each day. I have to say again, we just had an amazing time! The kids loved it and Doug and I enjoyed watching them have so much fun. Ok, so on to the Magic Kingdom... This park is really what I think about when I said Disney World. I know there are lots of other things to do in "The World", but this park is what always comes to mind.

We were up bright and early again this morning. We wanted to get to the park before it opened so we could start out right away. And, I knew that it took awhile to travel on either the ferry or monorail just to get over to the Magic Kingdom. It was a good thing our resort was so close. We were only about 7-10 minutes away, so that made it handy. Our timing paid off, we were the first in line to get through the first set of gates. Then we were one of the firsts to get on the ferry and one of the first to get off on the other side. Then we boarded the train and rode to the back of the park. We wanted to do the more exciting rides before the lines got WAY to long. It was awesome! We were able to get on both the rides twice and never had to stand in line!! The second time we rode Splash Mountain we all got completely soaked!! I am talking, undergarments wet and wet for hours soaked, even in the hot sun. It was kinda yucky! But, thank goodness I had my new mickey hat (which is made from recycled products - I thought of you Emily!) and my ponytail holder.

After that we slowly made our way to other parts of the Magic Kingdom. We even decided to wait in line to see Ariel. We saw her as a princess at the breakfast, but now we had to see her as the mermaid. We rode lots of rides, but only saw one show the entire time we were there. The kids were really into riding rides, so that is what we did. I didn't even get to take Doug to the Tiki Room...I was a little bummed about that. We did get to ride It's a Small World during a rain burst. Anna LOVED all the dancing people. (Doug and I vowed that we would start singing Zip a Dee Da Zip a Dee Aye if we got It's a Small World stuck in our heads. We did!) We did get to ride the Flying Carpets though. That was OK, except for the camel the SPIT on me during the ride.

We tried to watch an afternoon parade, but there was a thunder storm rolling in so they didn't dance in the street. But, it was still nice to at least semi-rest in one spot for a little bit. Throughout the day we saw a few different characters to get pictures with. But, the kids were not that excited about waiting in line just to get an autograph and a picture with the characters. So, we stopped at ones that didn't have long lines. =) We did take time to visit Mickey at the end of the day. We lucked out as Minnie was in with Mickey. So, we were able to get a family picture. I love it! Although it was at the end of a long, hot, rainy day, but we all look pretty decent considering...

The other thing I was sad about was that Space Mountain was closed for renovations. Well, next time we will be able to ride that. Gabe had a blast in the new (at least new since I was there last) Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger ride. You get in this car and get to shoot at Z targets. Well, the second time through Gabe scored 999,999 -- the highest you could get!!! We were all so excited for him. So, he picked out a Buzz Lightyear laser as his "big" souvenir from the money from Papa. It was another long day with lots of rain showers, but we still had a blast. And, the best part was it wasn't as busy as I had expected it to be!

Disney - Day 1 - Epcot

Our vacation to Disney World was absolutely awesome!! We had a great time and managed to fit all out souvenirs in the suitcases.

The kids had a blast on the airplane, but their mean mom did make them take a catnap before we got there. (We left our house at 7a to get to the airport early enough. Then we sat at the airport for 2 1/2 hours and then on the plane for 3 1/2 hours. They needed to rest and so did I.)

We went to Epcot our first day in FL because we had a Princess Breakfast scheduled. We thought it would be good to get it out of the way and a great way to start our vacation. Looking back, it was also a great way to get Epcot out of the way (sorry honey) since it isn't as exciting as the Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studios.

The breakfast was in the Norway castle in the World Showcase. It was yummy and lots of fun. Doug finally got to taste lutefisk. It wasn't that good to me and I think it was just OK to him. But, he REALLY felt the need to try it. We also managed to find a couple rides and some hands on stuff. The kids loved the GM Test Track. It was a roller coaster in a car that put you through tests they do on cars.

We did walk through all the different countries, but it wasn't so exciting. The kids were tired, even after a nap on the monorail, and I wasn't that interested. We did manage to see Donald Duck in a sombrero though, so that was fun.