It seems we can't let a year go by without returning to our favorite family vacation spot. Disney is the place everyone talks about and so we don't stray far from it when we go to plan vacations with the kiddos. This year was no different! We planned 4 days packed full of Disney fun with my side of the family. (Side note: we will never do four full days without a day off again. Always plan a day or two in the middle to take a break!)
We're HERE!
Day 1 we met my old college roommate, Rachael, and her little boy at Animal Kingdom. It was so hot we all only made it about 1/2 day before deciding to head to the hotel. You'll notice that Logan is conspicuously absent in many, many pictures. She hit the "you can ride every ride" height this trip and so she and her dad spent a lot of time hitting every single roller coaster that they could while I hung back with the boys.
Thankfully, there were plenty of characters to occupy us.
We stayed at the Art of Animation and the pools there are phenomenal! We spent several hours our first afternoon in the water.
I planned all of our meals this time, as we were on the Disney dining plan. We've been wanting to eat at O'hana since before we got married but they're always booked and so we've never been in. As soon as I knew we were going I went to book our meals and they had ONE time slot left at 8:30pm. I was a little nervous, but was reassured by several Disney mommas that 8:30 is not that late at Disney and that there would be plenty to keep them happy there. Sadly, our reservations were over an hour late and by the time 9:30 rolled around and they seated us, the kids were hungry, tired and cranky. We made it through our meal without too much of a fuss and we were so thankful for a fireworks show and the restaurant honoring our request to be by a window to see it. While it wasn't a pleasant meal, per se, at least it was entertaining. And the food was fantastic.
Day two we woke up a little later and met up with Mimi and Grandaddy for breakfast. Then we headed off to Magic Kingdom for the morning.
I thought Lincoln might nap in the stroller at the park so we could make it until dinner, but alas, he hit a breaking point after lunch. Everyone else wanted to do Splash Mountain (even little Brody was tall enough), so I trekked back to the hotel on my own. This next picture was a victory picture I took when we made it back (Mike didn't know I had left the park, initially the plan was to get Linc to sleep while they rode, but that didn't happen, so I sent him this picture when we made it). Let me tell you what a feat it is to be pregnant and haul a sleepy, cranky toddler AND a double stroller back to a hotel. Collapsing that thing and getting it on the bus is a venture of it's own without a child....but we made it!!
And he napped for a long time and was so much happier for it!
That night we went to Cape May for dinner. It was so good and was much less eventful than the night before. It was also wonderful to have extra hands to help with the kids!
Day three the kids woke up excited to be heading to EPCOT. They weren't as excited when we got there. ha! We passed this area every morning when we went to breakfast....Lincoln really liked to get down on all fours and pretend to be Simba.
I wanted so badly to get all three kids in a picture together daily to showcase their outfits we all had fun making together, but it rarely happened. Poor little Logan could. not. keep her eyes open for the life of her because of the sun this day.
Mimi and Grandaddy took the older two to ride some of the rides in the early evening and Mike and I took Lincoln to meet some characters. He LOVES Mickey!!
Mike and my parents hung out with the rest of the gang (JoAnne and Grandpa included) to watch fireworks and Lincoln and I headed back to the hotel for bed. Before we went to our room we stopped at the giftshop where he had been eying this massive Mickey for days. We had to pick it up for him, of course.
He proceeded to carry it everywhere the next day.
Our last day we went to Hollywood Studios and had breakfast with the Disney Junior cast.
Logan, once again, headed off with my dad and Mike to ride the rides while the boys, my mom and I walked around to find other things to occupy us. Mater and McQueen were a good distraction.
When we met back up we headed off to meet Woody and Buzz.
Here's one of all three of them!
And then Logan disappeared again. Ha! So onto more characters for the boys and me.
Logan was having the time of her life on all of the big kid rides. Her favorite was Rockin' Roller Coaster. This picture is my favorite.
We finished off our day with our feet barely hanging on. We packed up the car and then said goodbye to Mickey and friends....until next time!
