Our trip going to Florida couldn't have gone smoother. I think we were asked only three times when we would be there. For a thirteen hour trip, that's pretty great. Paul planned where we would stop and what we would be eating, so we knew what to order when we got there. Sometimes this can take a while with indecisive kids. We ran into no traffic and didn't have to make any emergency potty breaks.
This was the beginning of our trip at 5:00 a.m.
After breakfast when we were a little more awake and a lot more excited!
We FINALLY made it to the sunshine state. Land of the crazy drivers! And after unpacking and Clorox wiping and lysoling our hotel room, we relaxed a little by the pool.
Our first day we headed to The Magic Kingdom. The most crowded place on earth. Paul and I had went to Florida on our honeymoon. While we spent one day at the Magic Kingdom, we don't remember much about it. I think we might have purposely blocked it out of our memory. It was very overwhelming for our super laid back, don't wake up until 8, calmly go through our day, kids.
Only at Magic Kingdom do you see a family of ducks trying to make their way around. Poor ducks. They had a rough journey ahead of them.
We decided to start at Frontierland and ride the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We waited in line for about 25 minutes and then Lauren said she had to go to the bathroom. Well, since we weren't back tracking through the line, I told her she would have to wait. Once we got on, Lauren started crying immediately. Since the girls had to sit behind me, I was halfway turned around trying to hold her hand, but she had a death grip on the bar. By then Kristen was crying and I was so scared Lauren was going to pee her pants that I just started praying that the ride would be over and the seat wouldn't be wet. I had no time to worry about Dallas, who was riding with Paul, and who absolutely loved the ride. Once we were done, I quickly hopped out, helped Lauren out, checked the seat and gave both my girls big hugs. Not the way I wanted to start our day.
Next, we hopped on the train and rode over to Fantasyland.
The kids wanted to ride the Dumbo Flying Elephant Ride. I didn't look at the wait time, but it looked to only be like 5 people in line. Once we got into the air conditioned tent, after my initial thought of, "Oh, thank goodness." My next thought was, "Oh, the noise." The only thing worse than waiting in a 40 minute line, is waiting for 40 minutes in an inside play area designed for toddlers who don't want to leave the play area to ride the ride. Kristen said, "I think I would rather just stand in line." My thoughts exactly. Poor Paul waited outside. I thought for sure he would have wandered off trying to find us, but there he was. Waiting to get our picture on the only ride the kids were excited about.
By this time it was lunch. Yes! Two rides and lunch time. The place we were going to eat was very packed, so we decided to head over to Tomorrow Land and grab a hot dog and pretzel. Even the pretzels were shaped like Mickey Mouse!
The kids had spotted a car ride from the Dumbo Flying Elephant ride and wanted to cruise around. We had just enough time to ride this then head back to Frontier Land for the parade, which I was very excited to see. That is one of the few things I remember from our first trip. We were hoping Kristen and Lauren could ride together, but they couldn't. I ended up with Lauren and Dallas and Paul were together. Kristen could drive by herself, but couldn't have anyone ride with her that was younger.
Once we started going I realized the petal was pretty hard to push. Kristen was barely putting along in front of us, so I knew she was having a hard time making her car go. At one point she stopped and looked back at me crying because she just couldn't do it. I tried to give her a pep talk, but what it really took was Paul yelling, "Push the pedal Kristen." Then she was off. Going faster than I could keep up. She overcame a stressful difficult situation and pushed through, even though she didn't think she could do it. I was proud of her and glad I didn't have to push her around the track with our car.
The parade was great. It was good to just sit for a few minutes with a lemonade slushy to drink.
The pictures do not capture the awe of the parade. They captured all the wonderful things from Disney movies. Here are some, well actually a lot, of pictures from the parade.
After the parade and dinner, we came up with a plan so we didn't feel like we were aimlessly wandering around. The kids really only wanted to ride the Carrousel and get autographs in their autograph books. Totally doable!
The carrousel was the shortest line we waited in all day!
When we went to Disney, way back in the day, the characters walked around and you could get their autographs then. Now they all had a certain place they were in, which made it better. You always knew where they would be. The line however, was longer. Luckily, one worker was nice enough to give us a fast pass when we asked if we had to stand in line again to see Cinderella and Rapunzel. We thought one line was for all four, but we somehow got in Tiana and Elena's line. It was fun meeting the princesses. They acted, spoke and even wrote their name like them.
Not all of our three were fans of the characters in costume.
We did get to walk through the castle and got a picture of the kids in front of the beautiful storybook wall.
Lauren tried to pull the sword out of the stone.
Kristen tried out the pillory.
Here is a picture of the kids and I on the ferry ride.
We also rode the magic carpet ride a couple times. That was a favorite since we could all ride it.
One of the many exciting things was going to Enchanted Tales with Belle. Belle is one of Kristen's favorite princesses. Little did we know that all the kids would get to participate in the story. Kristen was Maurice, Belle's father. Lauren was Sultan, the dog turned into a footstool. When Dallas learned he could participate, he quickly sought us out because he did not want to be a participant.
We finally talked Dallas into going and sitting with everyone else, so he could see.
We ended the day watching the firework show, which was truly magical.
The best part of the day was during the fireworks. Kristen started crying and said to me, "Thank you for bringing us. I'm so happy to be here." That made it all worth it.
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