Meeting Disney Characters!

One of my favorite parts of our entire vacation was watching Whitney's face light up at the sight of any character.  Every time there was a parade or we did a visit I told Vic that the trip was worth it just to see her light up & fully feel the magic of Disney!  

Minney Mouse was one of our first stops.

 Whitney's favorite was the princess room. She danced for each princess before she got her picture with them.

 When she met Cinderella she was sure to point out that she was dressed up like her & that she had a Cinderella doll.  I told Cinderella that she was Whitney's favorite & she really hammed it up & spent a lot of time with her. If I could tip a princess I would have!!!

Here is a movie of Whitney meeting her favorite character. 

(She asks to watch Cinderella every night before bed)

 Whitney was on CLOUD 9 during this moment!

Then after Cinderella got done doing multiple pictures with Whitney, she danced with her again! 

YAY Cinderella! :)

 Tucker liked the characters too!

 Tommy loves all of the characters on TV, but he was terrified of them.  I thought since he was dressed like Jake & everyone kept calling him that, that he might warm up to him a bit more, but he still was not happy to see him!

 He at least stood by McQueen, but did the potty dance the entire time.

 ...and FINALLY Goofy was the only character that he decided he was really excited to go see & was really happy about getting his picture with him & afterwards he kept saying how much he liked Goofy & how he was silly & not scary.  I thought that was funny because he is the tallest character there.

 I was disappointed that this is the only Mickey Mouse picture we got, especially because I bought a fancy Mickey frame to put our family picture in it for our front room!

 Guess we'll have to use this one instead!!

Animal Kingdom & Nashville, TN

On our final day at Disney World we went to Animal Kingdom.  The Safari ride was our favorite.  Here is Tommy by the hippos, he wasn't very excited about the ride at first.

 Then he saw this giraffe from quite a ways away & suddenly was chipper & happy.  Little did he know that  this giraffe liked him as well!....

 The giraffe looked right at as & walked up like he was going to run into us & the safari driver had to hurry & pull forward so the giraffe would walk behind us.  That really got Tommy excited.

 Which meant that he thought Mickey Mouse should see the rest of the safari as well.  This picture melts my heart because I thought it was so cute of him to have his little Mickey buddy.  These are the moments I want to hold onto forever & never let my kids grow up!

 I thought Dinoland was kind of old looking & run down, but the kids declared it their favorite & didn't want to leave!

 Especially the digging area... they loved this.

 We got stuck over on some island thing & we were one of the very last people out of the park!  The good part is that there wasn't much of a wait for the Rainforest Cafe.

 We all had a lot of fun there. I thought the highlight would be the elephants when there is a "storm" every 15 minutes, but the kids liked the silly bar stools, bright fish tanks, & of course this volcano brownie!

 Whenever a ride dumped us into a gift store as the exit then the kids ran around like expert little shoppers so of course I had to buy them those cute piggy banks & a few other fun little mementos :)

 We headed to downtown Disney to get our souvenirs.  The kids were in heaven picking out their toys. You'd think Whitney thought she met the real Cinderella again for how excited she was to get by this statue! 

 Also, Tommy claimed this train his FAVORITE ride and that it was much better than the big scary ones.... why did we pay for a Disney ticket?!  Haha, silly kid & his passion for trains :)

After Disney World we drove to Nashville, TN and I got to see an old high school friend, Mandy!  The first day we played at her house a bit, toured this downtown park, got ice cream, & then stayed up late playing games.... we had SO much fun with that girl!  She is one of those friends that are full of positive energy & fun and totally motivated me to find more balance between work, fun, & mommy duties :)

 The next day we went toured some botanical gardens that were inside a hotel.

 Whitney loved both Mandy's little girls & held hands with both of them for 2 days straight & now that is her new thing to do with friends & even Tommy. It's pretty darn cute! :)

And THEN our trip finally came to an end!!!

Hollywood Studios & Magic Kingdom Day 4

On Day 3 we switched over to Hollywood Studios.  Toy Story Mania was Tommy's favorite ride because it was so easy to do so he was pretty proud of himself for hitting the targets.

 Both kids really LOVED the Disney Junior Live on Stage Show so we went more than once in the same day! Tommy was cute when Jake & the Neverland Pirates came out.

 This view of gold dab-looms falling from the ceiling was heaven for Tommy both the 1st & 2nd time.

 He lost track of the show for a bit because he had to race around and gather as much gold as he could.

 During Whitney's nap time I stayed back at the park this day with Tommy to watch the Indiana Jones Stunt Show & Tommy liked it way more than I thought he would.  They asked for some volunteers to go down there at the beginning so throughout the entire show Tommy kept telling me that he needed to go down there, especially during the action parts.  I would have thought he'd have been scared of all of the fire & fighting!  He wouldn't let it go that he needed to "go down there" so I took him down to the set after the place emptied out & the Indiana Jones stunt doubles came over for a picture so Tommy loved that extra bonus!

 Tommy said he really needed this snake & in his plea for it he said he really needed it to scare Whitney.... hmmm.... for some reason he lost that one!

 Whitney was so not shy about dancing or running up to the characters.  A few minutes later I got video of her going right up to Goofy & grabbing his hands for her own private dance.  I loved the dance parties at night.  We did one almost every night, another item on my list of a magical world as I love to dance!

Other notes from the day:  It rained a lot in the afternoon so it was a good day to be at the studios to watch lots of movies.  Tommy's favorite was the Muppet 3D movie & Whitney's was Beauty & The Beast.  We ate at Pizza Planet for lunch & the kids didn't want to leave as they really loved the arcade games there.  I thought that was funny since we can do those anywhere.  My favorite ride for the day was the Rock n' Roller Coaster. I could go on that over & over!  Vic's was the Tower of Terror, which used to be my favorite, but this time for some reason it really creeped me out. Maybe because I was by myself or maybe because my world is happy bubbly toddler world right now so I'm not used to the scary stuff?!  The rain cleared up by night time, but they still cancelled Fantasmic, which was a major bummer as that is my favorite show at Disney World, but it did give us time to play at the hotel pool & the hot tub felt great on my sore feet & Whitney finally started growing a little more confidence... she keeps going back & forth on her fear of water.

DAY 4: MAGIC KINGDOM

By day 4 we repeated a lot of rides so we didn't take very many pictures this day.  We rode the tea cups & carousal over & over.  Tucker even tried spinning the wheel in the middle of the tea cups it was cute.  I think Tucker & Whitney's favorite ride was "It's a Small World" so we went on that twice too.  Here we are at the splash park area.  Tommy really liked this & it was a great way to cool off!

 After nap time we went to the Polynesian resort & got stuck there during an afternoon rain storm, but it was so nice because I went shopping & Vic sat there & watched baseball on the Ipad while 2 activity directors came over & entertained our kids.  Here we are before the luau. Everywhere you look at the Polynesian is covered in thick lush plants & beauty.  It would be really fun to stay there when I'm a millionaire :)

 Here is my cute kids before the show started.  I was worried that older couple next to us would be annoyed by our kids because they kept looking over at them throughout the night, but at the very end they both complimented us over & over on how great our kids were during the whole dinner & show.  I thought that was very nice of them because usually people only comment when they want to be rude about our 3 crazies.

 I couldn't believe how much meat they brought out so I took a picture!  I wanted just a tad bit more of pulled pork & Vic a few more ribs & so beyond this they brought out a massive plate of each which totally went to waste.  I felt bad & couldn't believe how much food got wasted!  Tommy kept asking when the fire was coming & he wasn't disappointed when the fire throwing guy finally came out near the end.  That was his favorite part & kept asking for more.

Other notes from the day: Tommy accidentally smashed my toe head on & half my toenail got ripped off. It was super painful & bled like crazy. I couldn't walk right after that so I got blisters on weird spots on my feet.  I was a trooper though & didn't let it slow us down!

Magic Kingdom Day 2

We only got a few family pictures while we were there so this one cracks me up... at least more than half of us were smiling!

 On all of the rides Tucker loved getting a little glimpse of me.  It was like fast paced peek-a-boo for him!

 This was one of Tommy's favorite rides even though he couldn't really shoot anything.

 My dead serious alien shooters

 I thought it was cute that Tommy wanted his picture with this guy every time we got off this ride.

Tucker's 1st carousal  ride... with no one holding him on!! 

 I love that my kids are finally to the stage that they are asking for their pictures to be taken... even if it is the same one as the day before :)

LOVED my little princess!

   I LOVE this picture!  Happy Princess with her #1 adoring fan, Vic.  She has her daddy wrapped SO very tightly around her little finger & she knows it!

 We went on the carousal so many times that Tommy started doing yee-haas & pulling back & forth, he loved it. 

 Teacups was the kids 2nd favorite ride so we went on that lots too.

 Magical moment for me right here... Tucker was adorable every time there was fireworks.  His head would shoot back & forth to follow wherever the next firework was & had a big grin on his face the whole time.  SUPER cute baby.... LOVE him!

 Whitney is quite the little dance queen so dancing plus characters put her on cloud 9.

 Tucker seemed to like the characters, but I think he likes everyone :)

 All 5 of us still smiling after 10pm!!!  We had another magical day!

Other notes from the day:  Tommy again wanted nothing to do with the characters & would hide behind our legs to get away from them.  Whitney was super cute with the characters with a giant adorable smile stuck on her face, especially when she met Cinderella.  We took a 6 hour lunch break this time & had fun shopping at the outlet malls & Tommy got special one on one time playing in the pool.  Tommy had looked forward to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad so we let him go on it, but I don't know why after he was so scared the day before w/ the mini roller coaster... he hated it & when anyone asked him what his favorite part was he was too traumatized to remember the fun parts, all he ever replied was "I don't like the big scary rides!"