We had the BEST time! Marshall made fun of me a little bit because there were actually a few moments that I was so overwhelmed with joy and excitement that I teared up! I’m not a tear-up kind of girl. I don’t usually cry just because. Maybe I’m getting old! 🙂 But seeing my kids so happy, and having uninterrupted family time with just the 4 of us never happens! And looking at them enjoying the same things that I enjoyed as a child, making memories that mirror my own childhood memories was exciting to me. I know that neither of them will probably ever remember this trip, but I will never forget it! Tucker hardly said anything. He seemed to have little to no reaction at all-until we were in the car on the way home. And then he kept talking about all the things we saw and did. Emmie, on the other hand, has never been so vibrant in her life. My Little Miss Fussy-Pants hardly cried the whole time we were there. And she’s never smiled so much in her life. As we walked into the park down Main Street, U.S.A. I could actually hear her gasp. She has never seen anything so grandious in her life, I’m sure. Main Street still makes me gasp a little, too, to be honest. And there’s definiately a reason it’s called the Magic Kingdom.
But on to the pictures and stories behind them. We got into town on Tuesday evening, and were able to meet Kimberly and Rob for dinner. They were planning to leave on Wed to head back up to Haddock for the wedding, so it was fun to get some time alone with them before all the wedding craziness began! Unfortunately our kids had been in the car all day long and we’re exactly the model of perfection that they usually are. (Ha! Ha! Ha!) But we had fun…it was DELICIOUS!!!!!!! After dinner we let the kids go to the LEGOland playground and get some energy out before bed. It is pretty cool to see all the things they’ve built out of Legos!
We got up on Tues morning and headed to the Magic Kingdom. And at the very beginning of our time in the park, I had a brief moment of hesitation…a “why in the heck did I bring a one and three year old to Disney World???” See, we were staying in one of the Disney resorts that required a bus trip to the parks. Apparently Emmie gets car sick if she’s not facing forward in a seat. We were almost to the Magic Kingdom when I felt it start moving. I knew that she was about to blow so I tossed Tucker aside-poor thing, I was holding both of them because Marshall had the stroller and I just kind of plopped him down on the floor beside me! But I ripped her hat off of her head and did my best to catch all the throw-up in her hat. Good plan except that I didn’t realize that we were about to take curve…so yeah, it ended up all over her and me and floor anyway. So we get there, get Miss Smelly off the bus, wipe her down, change her into her extra set of clothes which I am now SO glad that I decided to pack! And off we go…we considered the Tea Cups, but decided that might not be the best ride based on recent events. We let her stomach settle down a little bit and then Tucker wanted to ride the Dumbo ride. Ok…it’s not too fast, so it probably shouldn’t bother her. (It didn’t.) But as we were in line, Tucker-who was so excited about his first big ride that he couldn’t be still-ran into a handrail and got a pretty good little shiner on his eye. So here we stand with two weepy children wondering what we’d done…when all of a sudden we get on the ride and the real magic begins. From then on, there was very little fussing, very little crying, and a lot of smiles!
I think the highlight of the trip was getting private time with Mickey and Minnie. We waited and waited in line, and they took people in to see them in groups of 10. We happened to be at the end of a set of 10, so we were able to be in a room alone with just Mickey, Minnie and the photographer for several minutes. As you can see in the pictures, Tucker had his stunned face on. I don’t think he could really believe that he was actually seeing Mickey and that *the* real Minnie Mouse was hugging him! Emmie was hilarious. She couldn’t take her eyes off of Minnie. And she couldn’t stop grinning. The best picture is the one that the photographer got(I haven’t scanned it in yet…hopefully I’ll do that soon and post it, too). Mickey, Minnie, Tucker and I are looking straight ahead and smiling. Emmie is just beaming at Minnie. It’s adorable!
Emmie also enjoyed all the parades. She waved the whole time, every time. I’m pretty sure she thought that each one of the characters going by was waving specifically to her. And she was so happy to wave back and say “Hey Minnie” or “Hey Ariel” or “Hey Ter-Pan” (Peter Pan). Tucker did his usual. Stare straight ahead and try to soak it all in. Emmie really liked the SpectroMagic parade the best…it was like Christmas lights but they could move and sing! Tucker liked the SpectroMagis parade, too, but not the fireworks. He kept his eyes closed both nights. He said he wasn’t scared. He never cried. But he said he just didn’t want to watch.
We didn’t have a lot of time to spend at Animal Kingdom, but we went over there to do the safari. Tucker LOVED that!! I’m so glad we went over there because that’s the only place where he really seemed to be excited right then and there! We saw some cool animals, although we didn’t get to see the lion or tiger. We saw a giraffe running though. I’d never seen that before-they’re fast!
On Thursday, we did MGM-Hollywood Studios and Epcot. MGM has a Playhouse Disney puppet show with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, and Little Einsteins. The kids liked okay, but I was kind of disappointed because we were in the front row and could hardly see any of the characters. But there was good music and bubbles that came down from the ceiling. You can make anything better with bubbles! 🙂
In Epcot, we took a little time exploring slow-paced things like the Figment ride and Innovations. Tucker really liked this one thing that taught you about fire safety. They had a house that had 4 rooms and they had lights that looked like fire that would “burn” in the house. The leader taught the kids how and what to do if there is a fire in your home. At the end of each practice, you’d run the firetruck and it would ding and dong for you since you got out safely! It’s a cool teaching tool…and he didn’t even realize that he was learning anything! 🙂
We had so much fun together. We didn’t do a whole lot of rides, but it was enough since it was such a short trip. Hopefully next time we’ll be able to spend a few more days! We’re going to try to do the Disney Cruise Land and Sea trip next time…feel free to join us! It’d be fun to have lots of friends go together!!
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We want to come! That sounds like so much fun!!