Disney World

On our way to Disney World!  Brandon and Emmalyn were on their first (memorable) airplane ride to Orlando.  They managed to stay entertained for the 2 1/2 hour trip.

Riding the train between terminals at Orlando Airport.

The first night after checking in to our hotel at the Caribbean Beach Resort, we let the kids play in the room to wait out the rain.  After it cleared up we headed to Downtown Disney for dinner.  They found a pirate...

and Cinderella (who is one of Emmalyn's favorite princesses) on the way to Wolfgang Puck Express for dinner.

We rented a double stroller for the trip.  It was a little awkward to handle when the buses were crowded, but well worth it when it got hot and the kids needed a break (or a nap!)

Here's the start of our second day at Disney. We were on the bus headed to Animal Kingdom.  Emmalyn took full advantage of not being in a car seat by standing whenever possible.

Brandon liked the mural on the wall of the restaurant we ate breakfast in.

Playing with the drums.

I hadn't thought to measure Emmalyn before we planned the trip, but luckily she was just 40 inches which made her tall enough to ride on a lot of the larger attractions.  This is after our ride on Kali River Rapids at Animal Kingdom.  There was a sign warning us that we'd get wet, maybe even drenched.  Well, I got drenched.  Even with the heat I was still a little damp when we returned to our hotel room about 6 hours later!  

After that ride we headed to Hollywood Studios for our dinner reservations at Hollywood and Vine.  We got there a little early, so we found an empty bench and let Emmalyn nap in the stroller for about 30 minutes.  We got lucky with the weather.  It poured rain while we were eating dinner, but was sunny by the time we finished.  We went on a few rides, including The Tower of Terror.  We all loved it!  I'm so glad my kids like being scared!

Here's the start of day three.  We headed to the Magic Kingdom and arrived early for the extra hour in the morning. 

Emmalyn was happy to pose with us by Cinderella's castle! Brandon managed to pose for a couple of shots.

Brandon took a break in the stroller while we posed for more pictures with Goofy...

and Dumbo.

The first ride they saw was the Merry-go-Round.

After that we went on It's a Small World and then we saw a 3D movie.  The kids modeled the lovely glasses for me.

Needless to say, Brandon was not a fan of 3D and kept his glasses off during the movie.

A couple of pictures in Frontierland.

When the kids started to get hot and whiny, we just went to the nearest ice cream cart.  We only spent half a day at Magic Kingdom, but we did ride on Splash Mountain, The Haunted Mansion, and the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in addition seeing a few shows and riding some of the smaller rides.  The best part about the big rides was the fast pass...we got to bypass the long lines and walk right to the front of the line!

We had dinner reservations at the Coral Reef, a seafood restaurant at Epcot.  So we spent the afternoon at Epcot.  

I think this is the only picture of the four of us from our entire trip.

The shark got them outside of the Nemo ride!  We didn't spend much time at Epcot Thursday night.  We only went on a few small attraction in the front of the park before heading to dinner, which was excellent.  I had mahi mahi and mom had halibut.  The kids also loved their pizzas!  We headed back to the hotel after dinner to "relax" by the pool for a few hours.  The kids had a ton of fun on the slides...they thought they were at a waterpark! (No pictures by the pool, I didn't want my phone/camera to get wet.)

Friday morning, our last day at Disney, we headed to Epcot for our breakfast with the princesses.  We arrived before the park opened for our 8am breakfast reservation.  We took a few pictures on our walk over to the restaurant.

You can't tell by this picture, but Emmalyn was very excited to meet the princesses.  I think she was a little overwhelmed! 

I finally got her to laugh and she was able to relax and take some nice pictures.  Here she is with Princess Aurora.

And Snow White.

Brandon didn't really want to take a picture with a princess, but I did manage to get one!

And here she is with her favorite princess, Ariel - The Little Mermaid.  The princesses came out after we finished eating our breakfast and spent time with each of the children in the restaurant.  The princesses also had a small parade through the restaurant with the children.  I think this was one of Emmalyn's favorite parts of the trip!  As a souvenir we had a professional picture taken with our family and Princess Belle.  Brandon was a bit skeptical about the princesses.  He asked if they were real.  I asked him what he thought...and he decided that they are because we saw them in person!

After breakfast we had to head back to our hotel to pack up our messy hotel room and leave our bags with the bellman.  We did manage to get a few more pictures on the way out just as the park was opening.

We had plans to head back to the Magic Kingdom after we were all packed up, but because of the heat, large crowds at Disney due to them being open 24 hours for a Star Wars attraction and tired kids, we headed back to Epcot instead.  The kids were asleep in the stroller minutes after we entered the park again.  

We headed over to Japan since we had missed seeing it the previous day.  Brandon was a bit crabby and not up for pictures, but Emmalyn was happy!

After our trip to Japan, it was time to head back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and head back to the airport to get the rental car for the second part of our trip...Ft. Myers!

If you're still with me after the longest blog post ever, I just want to give a huge thank-you to Pull-Ups for sending us on this wonderful trip to Disney World!