Disney: Final Day!

We let Logan choose where she wanted to end up on our last day at Disney and she chose Magic Kingdom.  there was still so much she wanted to see and do, so we woke up early and headed there!  The kids were so excited when we got there.

The very first thing Logan wanted to do was meet Merida (the princess from Disney's movie, Brave).  Thankfully, we got into the second group of people in to see her, otherwise, our 20 minute wait could have easily been an hour and a half.  That girl was popular!

 Merida is Irish and while we were in line and Logan was listening her converse with other little girls she looked at me, confused, and asked, "why is she speaking Spanish?"  ha!  Anything that sounds odd and not like normal American dialect to her is Spanish.

After Merida, we met up with my old college roommate, Rachael and her husband, Drew.  My parents took Brody to the circus area and we took Logan to Splash Mountain.  She seemed a little nervous, but had so much fun!  She was so excited to conquer the mountain with daddy and mommy and talked about it non stop the whole drive home.  She actually still will sit outside and have Brody sit next to her in a "log" and play splash mountain.  They scream as she narrates all that's happening on the imaginary ride.

After the ride I took Logan back over to the Fantasyland dress rehearsal and we went through the Belle story experience together.  While we did that Brody and daddy hung out together.

We finished off the day by heading back to meet the princesses again.  The one princess Logan had been itching to meet was Aurora.  She's recently become her favorite princess because she wears a pink dress.  Surprise.  Anyway, we hadn't found her, but thankfully, she was at the princess meet and greet on our final day!  Along with Cinderella and Rapunzel.

After we finished with the princesses, we went outside and watched their big afternoon parade.  The kids were pretty beat (as evidenced in the next picture) but it was a big highlight of the trip.  

This was such a memorable trip for all of us!  We had such a fantastic time spending time with family, and together as a family and making memories with the kids. (Rachael get's credit for the next picture, thanks for coming and hanging out with us!)

Disney Day 3

Day 3 we spent at the Magic Kingdom!  Logan was so excited to be near "Cindalella's" castle.

The first thing she wanted to do was ride the carousel.  It's all. she. talked. about.  for days leading up to going.  

Brody was excited that he was big enough to ride this one, too!

This is the face Brody made when the horse started going up and down, it was so fun to watch him recognize that he was able to ride the ride, too!

I think this was the day when Brody finally began to enjoy himself.  He became much more independent and wanted to walk more, see more, and do more.

I'll preface this next little section by saying that we actually planned our trip in October so we could see the new Fantasyland that they've been working on.  We had originally thought about going in July but decided to wait when we realized the opening date was set in early October.  We were SO disappointed to realize before we left that they had postponed the open until November!

We randomly had chosen day 3 to go to the Magic Kingdom and were beyond thrilled to find out that they were previewing the new Fantasyland on that day.  They didn't advertise it, you just had to happen to be there on the right day to get to experience it.  I was probably the most excited--it made the trip for me!  I tried to excite Logan by telling her she'd forever be able to say that she got to go into the new Fantasyland on the very first day they let people in, but it didn't seem to excite her the way it did me.  :)

This is a picture of Ariel's grotto, the place where she kept all of her human things in the movie.  It's what you walk through when you're in line for the new Little Mermaid ride there (which is fantastic).  They did a great job with the whole experience.

They also have a place, now, where you can meet mermaid Ariel!  Previously, you've only been able to meet Princess Ariel with legs.  Logan was intensely fascinated by her fin.  It was like she had walked right into the movie.

Brody still wasn't thrilled with the characters...

You can see Prince Eric's ship and castle in this picture...

Also in Fantasyland is a whole section devoted to Beauty and the Beast.  Part of it is her little town square.  So, they have a pub, her cottage and a little store that's designed to look a bit like the library she goes to in town.  We stopped in at the pub and got some Lefou's Brew, which appears to be Disney's answer to Harry Potter's Butterbeer.  

In front of Gaston's Tavern:

Belle's cottage: 

Beast's castle is in the background, here:

Blurry, but Logan wanted me to include the picture of Belle and her mom reading from inside of the cottage:

You took a tour through her cottage and into Beast's castle for a story activity.  Here's the talking wardrobe who told you about it:

And then you walked into Belle's library in the castle where you met up with Lumiere who helped retell the story of Beauty and the Beast:

The Beast's castle is also going to function as a restaurant!  They started taking reservations for this months ago and will open Nov. 19 but are already booked through March!  We took a tour of the dining room, it's BEAUTIFUL.

We headed over to ride the Buzz Lightyear ride after.  Logan was excited about this one, she rode with daddy and Brody rode with me.  

I WISH this picture was more clear, but I was taking a picture of a picture so I knew it wouldn't be.  Mike looked a little.....intense....about shooting the targets.  I almost bought the picture because it made us all laugh so hard.  Competitive much?  

The original hotel we stayed at we enjoyed, but we were happy to upgrade on Friday night.  About the only nice thing that came from Mike's time away from us this summer were all of the Marriot points he was able to earn.  With the points we decided to get one free night at a nice, upscale hotel in Celebration.  They didn't have a couch and the rollaway beds cost a pretty penny so Logan was excited to get to snuggle up in bed with us!

Disney Day 2

We woke up early Thursday morning, ate a good breakfast and headed off to EPCOT!  We hadn't planned it this way, but our trip happened to land during EPCOT's food and wine festival.  We were so thrilled that it did!  Our wallets were not as thrilled...

Logan designed this dress specifically for the day she was to meet the princesses.  A couple months ago she picked two of her dresses and said she wanted the front of one dress and the back of another.  And Aurora on the front.  :)  So I worked some magic and catered to her requests.  I added some capris to help complete the look!

It was H-O-T that day.  It may have only hit the mid 80's but it felt a lot warmer.  Both kids did such a good job, though, despite being so warm.

Logan met Snow White in Germany while Mike was in line for some food.  

Grandpa and Aunt JoAnne met up with us while we were there, too!

We stuffed ourselves full of all kinds of fun cuisine-- Japanese, German, French, American....  It was fabulous.  Then we cooled off with Mickey and Pluto in the Disney Cardholder's lounge.

When we were done with EPCOT we hopped on the monorail and headed over to the Magic Kingdom to meet the princesses before the end of the day.  We had planned on hanging around for the parade and fireworks but were disappointed when we realized they had special events going on there at night and we would miss it the night events there entirely on our trip.  Thankfully we made it there before the park closed and Logan was able to see the princesses in her princess dress!

The line was so small that each princess was able to devote a few minutes talking to her.  She was thrilled!  Rapunzel talked about how similar their hair was since they both are blonde and had braids....

Belle and Logan talked about Aurora on Logan's dress.  Logan told Belle that she and Aurora were her favorite princesses and Belle responded by telling Logan that her favorite book is Sleeping Beauty and so they had something in common, too!

Cinderella wanted to know if Logan had special birds who made her clothes.  Logan was a little baffled (she hasn't watched Cinderella in it's entirety yet) until Cinderella explained that she had birds that made her clothes.  Logan proudly exclaimed that she and mommy made them together.

I was able to get each precious conversation on video for her.  It's hard to hear so it's probably pointless to post them here, but I'm sure she'll treasure them.  And if she doesn't, I will.  It was so fun to see how magical and special it all was for her.  I would drive the 10+ hours again just to see her face with those princesses.

Before leaving for the evening, we did pop in to Mickey's dressing room to say goodbye to him.