Disney Days 3 & 4

On day 3 we headed to Hollywood Studios and then spent the evening swimming at the hotel.  The kids wanted their picture in front of Miss Piggy's fountain.  This was probably the most beautiful day of our trip.  We had great weather everyday and it was mostly around 73 degrees.

This is Eli getting into the action at the Phineas & Pherb movie set.

These were the only characters that Eli wanted to meet.  Emery & I were off waiting for the chef to prepare a gluten free pizza at Pizza Planet!

We visited the "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" play area twice that day.  Here's Em on a giant ant.  This place scared me a bit.  It was CRAWLING with kids and many areas had secret tunnels & hiding spots...it was very hard to keep tabs on your kids!  The kids loved it though.

The ice cream Mickey was a favorite!

We bought the quick service dining plan with our trip and we really enjoyed it.  On our next trip we will definitely go with the dining plan again.  The kids were able to have 1 snack a day and most of the time they chose ice cream.  I enjoyed the frozen bananas :)

Check out the chocolate faces!  This was the Backlot Tour ride and it was really cool.

We visited Disney World 10 years ago with my niece & nephew and I still remember the toy soldiers from back then.  The Toy Story ride was probably among our top 5 favorite rides.  It's a video game and super fun!  This was the only ride that we had to get a FastPass for.

We used the Magical Express service to get to and from the airport.  The return trip was SO quiet!  Everyone was worn out.  I don't think Em & Eli said one word on the 30 minute trip.

Scott & I were feeling pretty tired too!

Bye, bye Mickey!

Oh, the adventures of Eli...we were looking at the airport map trying to find a place for lunch and Eli headed straight for the fountain.  Next thing we knew, he was soaking wet!  We all had a great laugh about that one :)

Elese & Eliot were so excited to see us once we got home.  Emery is such a sweet sister.  She went right to work turning Elese into a princess.  She was recreating the whole Bippidi Boppidi Boutique experience.  She seriously repeated exactly what they said and did to her.

Emery even let Elese use the crown she got at the boutique.  Scott was Prince Charming bringing her out for all of us to see.

If you look closely, you can see the makeup!

Our Disney trip was truly magical.  We are thankful that we were able to experience this trip with Emery & Eli.  Thank you to Grandma & Granddaddy who kept the babies for us while we were gone...we are very grateful!  Our next trip will be in 4 years with Elese & Eliot and they can't wait!  In the meantime, we are hoping to try a Disney cruise.

Disney Day 2

We were up bright and early on day 2 because we had an appointment at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique!  Boy was this an experience :)  The Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique is nestled inside the castle and hidden behind 2 wooden doors.  A little mysterious :)

This picture shows the chaos when this place first opens up for the day.  There were little & big girls everywhere!  The ladies behind the counter are the "Fairy Godmothers".

Boys are welcome at the boutique too!  Sir Eli received the royal treatment as a young knight.

Check out the spray shield...hilarious!  I think I had one of these back in middle school.  This was by far a magical experience.

Ta-da!  My favorite picture from the whole trip...so sweet!

We quickly headed over to Adventureland to check out the Swiss Family Robinson tree house.

Here's a close up of the cool glitter that is part of being a knight.  They also painted a set of mickey ears on the back of his head.

Group shot!  We are in the front row of this show & notice that no one is behind us...it was seriously not crowded.

Aladdin's Magic Carpets!

Another favorite of Eli's was Tom Sawyer's Island.  He was all over that place!  While we were waiting for the ferry boat, the kids were climbing on the nearby rocks.

Cinderella's Castle!  This place is truly magical.  A huge construction project is going on right now at Magic Kingdom.  Toon Town is gone and a new plan is being constructed.  Everything was covered so we couldn't get a good picture of what was really going on.

Man behind the wheel!  Eli & I had a blast on these cars.  He couldn't quite reach the gas pedal so I kept it pushed to the floor while he steered us around.

Such concentration.

Scott & Emery were in the car ahead of us.  She didn't want to drive so Scott did.

My 2nd favorite picture of the trip...so beautiful!

Remember that monkey Eli bought at Animal Kingdom?  We came back to our room on day 2 and he couldn't find it anywhere.  We all searched high and low with no luck.  All of a sudden Emery opens the blinds and there it was!  We all ran outside to check out what the maid had done.

That night the kids wanted to go back to Animal Kingdom to eat and check out the dinosaur area.  We showed up at the dinosaur dig and jumped right in.  Well, Miss Emery wasn't having the tiny rocks that are in the dig.  The sign said, "Keep your shoes on!" but she just couldn't do it...those rocks were.in.her.shoes!  I was lucky enough to capture her running to me in the midst of all of this.  Too funny!

Here we are going to it.  We had a ball :)

Eli was right at home digging around.

I'm not sure what we were doing here.  I think I may have been telling the kids about how long the tail really was and that we needed to dig a little further.

This is a terrible picture of us but the Tree of Life at night is just BEAUTIFUL!

A little "Goofin" around at the gift shop before we headed to Epcot for the fireworks.

More of days 3 & 4 coming soon!

Walt Disney World!

Just a little warning...this may be picture overload for some of you!  I'm going to make 2 posts on our Disney trip.

On Friday we headed to Disney World with Emery & Eli!  Our flight left first thing so we were up bright and early and out the door.  Once we got to the airport the kids put on their Mickey ears to get pumped up!

We were still in Cincinnati and Emery was already spending some of her money (compliments of Grandma!).  She decided to buy a small Vera Bradley change purse that was 25% off.  I thought it was a great idea.  My girl is growing up on me!

Scott declared that he couldn't start his vacation without some Starbucks.  The kids chimed in too and soon they were all set with coffee and hot chocolate.  Again, this was all before we left Cincinnati!  Truly a vacation :)

These backpacks have been with us since the kids were each 2 years old.  They're still going strong and are great for school and trips.

How cute is this?

Poor Emery, she has her Mommy's stomach!  The flight was SO bumpy that we both clutched the barf  bags most of the flight.  Let's just say that we dosed ourselves up on Dramamine for the return flight!

We made it!  This was at the airport in Orlando.  Be prepared...many more self portraits to follow.

The kids were really pumped when they saw the Mickey Ears on our hotel rooms bed.  They really do make every part of Disney special.

In front of our hotel it spelled "All Stars Music".  There were signs that said, "Do not climb on the letters!"  Oh well, we had fun just this one time!

Eli loved the "S".  He said it was like a recliner.

Emery had to try it out too!  For some reason she's in this no teeth smile...not sure what that is about.

At Animal Kingdom there is this Bug's Life 3D show.  Here we are as bugs!  Emery was such a wreck during the show.  She couldn't keep her goggles on and was half scared to death the whole time.

Scott took this picture of us on the safari ride in Animal Kingdom.  This was a favorite park for Eli and me.  We were so blessed on this trip with the crowds and lines.  The longest wait we had for a ride all 3 days was 15 minutes!  Most of the time we walked right on to all the rides.

The money Grandma slipped Eli was burning a hole in his pocket so he just had to buy this monkey before we left the Animal Kingdom.  I will say this, he is our 1 child that actually plays with stuffed animals!

We finished up our first night at a restaurant inside the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  It is a dream of mine to stay there one day :)  The food was wonderful!  Emery & Scott met the chef personally and about 75% of the food on the buffet was gluten free.  We were amazed and just happy that they had so many options.  For dessert the chef made them these zebra cakes...which were super delicious!

Stay tuned for days 2 & 3!