Disney Trip

We got back home yesterday from our Disney trip - our children's Christmas present.

Short version:  We had a great time!

Longer version:  We have never been to Disney World before.  Well, **I've** been there before, but it was like 25 years ago on a school fieldtrip (when my family lived in South Florida).  In fact, when the hub-bub died down after the children opened their envelopes and read that we were going to Disney...Daniel piped up, "What is Disney World?"  Needless to say, he now knows what DW is...and they all loved it!

We spent four nights there, and went to the Magic Kingdom for two days.  While that was quite enough time-wise and expense-wise, I now understand why people often buy tickets to visit the park for an entire week...we barely began to scratch the surface of what was available in Magic Kingdom.

We stayed in a Cars-themed building in the "Art of Animation" Disney resort.

...and the kids love staying in a "who-tel" so much, no matter the reason, that we practically could have just done that and skipped the park!

But we certainly didn't skip the park.

From the shows...

...to the rides...

...we really had a great time.

Even Mr. Gabriel thoroughly enjoyed himself.

He happily rode in the Ergo the majority of the time...but we would get him out to stretch when we stopped somewhere for a while.

Watching from the sidelines as the bigger kiddos swam in the too-cold pool.
Mama and daddy just watched also...it was too cold for us!

In between our two days in Magic Kingdom, we spent a down day (at the wonderful advice of friends who are seasoned DW-goers).  We spent some quality time in Downtown Disney...at the Lego store, of course.

The kiddos each brought some spending money on our trip, and Noah, Daniel and LK left some (or all!) of theirs at the Lego store.

Elisabeth, on the other hand, chose to spend some of her money at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.

She went in looking like this:

And she came out looking like this:

And I just want someone to tell me:  Exactly WHEN did my little girl grow so big...and beautiful???

We also spent one evening in Fort Wilderness at the campfire/movie event.  (Thanks for the great tip, Sabrina!)

More proof I need to figure out the night-shots thing.  I want to take pics without the flash!

But I'll have to figure it out later...for now I just turned the flash back on.

We roasted marshmallows outside WHILE watching a Disney movie on a big screen (back behind and off to the side of the children in this shot).

It was pretty chilly, but we just hung close to the fire and enjoyed ourselves.

Well, Mr. G actually slept through the whole thing in the ergo:

Noah never did really get the hang of the marshmallow-roasting thing.

Even though we have a sharp divide in what sorts of rides our children like, we were able to keep everyone happy.

Daniel and Elisabeth?  

"Space Mountain" all the way, baby!

Noah and Lily Kay?  They think that "People Mover" is a wild ride, thankyouverymuch.

They talked everyone into going on People Mover on our second day.

When the cars started moving "faster" (a relative term), G started squealing and flapping his arms up and down furiously.

I'm pretty sure he'll be hanging with Daniel and Elisabeth in a few years.

This picture with Mary Poppins is the only pic my kids wanted with a character. 

That was a nice part of bringing older children...they didn't care to have pics taken with characters, therefore we didn't have to wait in the long lines I saw waiting for those photo opportunities.

But, my kiddos are not too old to want to ride on a Carousel!

And on our last night, after an afternoon swim-break at the resort, we took the ferry back to Magic Kingdom to see the Electrical Parade and the "Wishes Nighttime Spectacular" fireworks show.

Mr. G did NOT sleep through this evening's activities...

...and he thoroughly enjoyed the goings-on!

It may not look like it, but this is an excited face.

 We had a fantastic time...and we are truly blessed that we were able to take this trip!