The Happiest Place On Earth

Our Disney World vacation was nothing but extraordinary! I am going to try and capture as much as possible on this blog post, but in reality I know it's not possible. Too many memories, too much fun, laughter and excitement to put into words. It makes me all giddy just thinking about the magic that took place over the week. 

There are so many pictures and so much to say, so hang with me. If at best just look through the pictures and try to get a glimpse of how epic this trip to Disney World was....

Here we go!

Dan and I knew we were going to have a family vacation that was just our family for a while, but we couldn't decide on where to go or what to do. We knew we wanted it to be a real vacation. Not just a weekender or a drive away, but somewhere that we could actually feel like we got away from our responsibilities and could enjoy our family for a week. 

Many of Dan's co-workers go to Disney World a lot! I mean they are every year kind of people! So of course they kept putting it into Dan's head to go there from day one. We were hesitant because our children are still very small and would Disney World actually be any fun with such small children?!? 

Dan took it upon himself to research it out and see if it was actually possible... He loves researching trips. I sometimes wonder if he gets more excited about the planning process than the actual trip itself?! No complaints from me... He always makes vacations the best they possibly can! He even told me to not plan a surprise get away for his 30th birthday because as part of his gift he would like to plan it! haha silly guy!! 

He made Disney World happen!

He did it all, and with consulting with me, and wam bam we had our vacation planned to Disney World. Disney World definitely knows how to cater to small children and they made it possible for a 2 year old to have such an amazing time. We didn't have to worry about a thing! LOVE DISNEY! 

 It was scheduled clear back at the beginning of March. But it was still fun because Disney kept sending us packages with all sorts of fun things inside. 

Part of our Disney Package that we booked was to get wrist bands. They were our everything! (Dan and mine) Owen and June's was mostly just for looks. They had no power. 

These wrist bands were our keys to our hotel room, how we paid for everything, and how we got into the park. We didn't need anything except for these wrist bands. And plus they were fun to wear! 

June and I made a Disney World Countdown and we were so excited each to to rip off a link and see our chain get smaller and smaller.... It's still hanging up because it's just too sad to take down yet! 

THE DAY OF OUR TRIP: 

Our flight was at 7:55 in the morning, so we had to be up and going pretty early that morning. We waited until the last minute to wake the kids and we would put them in regular clothes later in the day! We had a friend drop off Ranger at the kennel since we left to early in the morning.

Waiting in the security line!

After dropping off our bags and getting through security we boarded the plane! We were pretty excited that none of us could fall back asleep! 

Well except Owen... The rest of us played games, watched movies on our iPads and looked out the window. The flights were pretty smooth. We did have one good size drop with the turbulence that made everyone on the plane shriek a little bit but it smoothed out and all was well! 

We landed and headed down the the Disney resort transportation center. Disney took care of all our transportation needs! They even took our luggage and it was delivered to our lodge room, so we didn't have to worry about picking it up or dragging it to our room! So fantastic! 

Seeing how happy she was here, I couldn't wait for her to meet Mickey in real life!!! 

Our bus shuttle played old Disney cartoons.. I mean really old! It was fun to watch and they were actually pretty funny! The ride from the airport to our resort was about a half hour. Not too bad, but we were so excited to get there that it felt like forever! 

Our resort we chose to stay at was the Animal Kingdom Lodge. VERY suited for young children. June loves animals and their pool was zero entry so we knew thats where we wanted to stay! 

Right outside our balcony was our own private view of a bunch of different animals! We saw giraffes and Zebras, plus a bunch more that I'm not really sure of their names. 

We got all settled in, had a late lunch and then headed down to the pool. 

The weather was so beautiful that day! It was definitely swim weather. We even got Owen in the pool and he had his very first swim. It's funny that we have a pool in our backyard, but it still was his first time swimming! 

June and daddy just taking it all in!

p.s. There are a lot of photo bombers in these pictures. Get used to the random children, men and women that seem to appear in pictures that you didn't even realize were there! 

Owen fell asleep after a good swim, and June got a bit chilly, so they were both wrapped up in towels, even though it was 90 degrees outside!

After a couple hours of swimming we went and got ready for the night. We wanted to explore Downtown Disney and get a water bottle and autograph book for all the characters that we would meet throughout the parks the following days. 

hahaha don't they look thrilled?!? We were just s smudge tired from a 4 am wake up call but we knew we had to take advantage of every minute! and trust me we did! 

This is OD's favorite toy to play with. No word of lie. He loves it. Ranger got a hold of it one day and put a nice hole in it's face, so it's a bit creepy, but it keeps the boy so happy! 

Downtown Disney was a blast. There were a ton of shops restaurants and just a lot to look at. 

Outside one of the stores were these statues. Just another one to get excited about when she would meet the real one! 

We got June a couple souvenirs and treats for the next day. 

We were walking out of the park when June's favorite song came on over the speakers.. 

"Happy" by Pharrell Williams 

It's her absolute favorite. We have a dance party to this song at least 10 times a day. We realized that there was small dance party going on and June ran to it! We danced for a good 45 minutes to all the music... I love that she enjoy music so much. It's so good for the soul. 

We were hoping for a little bit earlier of a night since we had some big days ahead of us, but our dance party kinda threw a kink into that. Totally worth it!

The next morning, we woke up, and did some more animal watching. giraffes are June's favorite so whenever they came wandering by, we had to go out and watch them. 

Then it was off to our first park. Magic Kingdom. 

It just felt so good to be here with my family. We were all in such giddy moods, happy and excited to be there. No better feeling!

Our first ride was buzz lightyear's adventure. We had a fast pass to this ride, but we didn't really need it. In fact the lines were hardly anything! Not what we expected for Disney World. 

Then we went to the Monster's Inc. Laugh floor. The Monster's put on a comedy routine! During the show they picked random people from the crowed to play different characters and June got to be Boo! She was loving all the actions, and the laughter. 

We really wanted this trip to be easy and low expectations, so when June chose to ride the carousel then that's what we rode. 

We had lunch at Pinocchio's cottage. 

Tummy's were full, including Owen's and it was time to meet the fairies... I know I said no expectations but we had to meet them! Tinker Bell is June's favorite! We got to meet Rosetta and Tinker Bell. 

I will be honest. As I was taking these pictures I totally started to cry. June was just over the moon to be meeting Tinker Bell and her face lighting up like it did when Tinker Bell gave June a hug was worth the trip right then and there. It was a heart stopping moment. 

After meeting the Fairies we went and got the kids a couple more souvenirs. June got Minnie and Owen got Mickey. (Sorry for the blur) 

We also picked up the classic Disney hats and had their names embroidered on the back 

Our next ride was Aladdin and the Magic carpet. Most of these rides were the same... Lifting up and spinning in circles, but June loved them and we knew we didn't want to miss a single ride so we went for it!

Even Owen got to fly!

We went to The Little Mermaid Under the Sea adventure, which was just characters and the plot of "The Little Mermaid" It was really cool! 

We then got in our longest line of the day. The Peter Pan flying ride. We ended up waiting about an hour for, and we had no idea it would take that long. Half way though we saw that Peter Pan was out taking pictures... June and I jumped the ropes and ran over to hopefully get his picture... 

The guy in charge of Peter Pan said that it was time to end and there would be no more pictures... We got a little sad, but I told June to just wave goodbye to Peter Pan and say bye, well the guy playing Peter Pan told us that we could sneak in for one last autograph and  picture! It was so nice of him. I am sure that he was very exhausted from the day, but it very much made our day to get to see him and have June give him a hug.

Though he looks kind of creepy in this picture... haha! He was super nice! 

Our continued long wait in line!

So... If you ever do decided to take small children to Disney World or anywhere that has long lines, here is a tip! Bring fun things to do while you wait. We had a bag full of bubbles, balls and fun little things that would keep June entertained through the line. It kept her nice and calm while waiting and other kids in line joined in the fun! It made standing in line much more bearable!! 

We met Rapunzel.. known to June as "Tangled". June didn't know her all that well, so she was a little shy. I had to help her along with this one.    

Then we met Cinderalla. It is very cool how much the people act out there characters to the fullest! They are amazing people for doing that all the time and being so happy! I couldn't believe how they had the character's personality traits matched to a perfect 10! It's so believable!! 

This is just priceless... 

Dumbo was one June really wanted to ride. She has never seen the movie Dumbo but we read Disney Books to her all the time and so she has seen the Dumbo characters a few times. 

Owen had fallen asleep in the stroller and we thought it was best to let him sleep, so we tag teamed it and I took June on Dumbo.

And Dan took her on the Tea Cups. 

For dinner that night we ate at the Crystal Palace. We got to meet all the Characters from Winnie the Pooh! Eor, Pooh, Piglet and Tigger were there. 

Sadly both Dan and my phones died so we didn't get any pictures of Tigger and pooh, but it was still really fun having dinner with all the characters!

At the end of the day we were all pretty beat. We went a solid 12+ hours at Magic Kingdom. June and Owen were both incredible for pushing that long. I couldn't believe that we actually made it the entire day without taking a break back at the hotel... They sure were troopers. 

The next day we all slept in. Until about 9, so with breakfast and getting everyone ready we weren't out the door until 11. All of us needed the sleep and it felt good to not feel obligated into getting up. 

We headed out to the Animal Kingdom. 

Our Fast Passes were all back to back so our morning was non stop rides and shows. The first one we went to was "It's tough to be a bug" -A bugs life... It was a pretty good show, though June didn't get her 3D glasses on very long, she did seem to love the show. 

Then it was a hop skip and a jump over to meet Mickey and Minnie Again very excited to meet them and to have June get so excited to see more characters in real life. 

Owen was passed out and there was no waking the mister up for a picture. 

After Mickey Mouse, we went to "Finding Nemo" The Musical. It plays out the whole movie of Nemo just Musical style. It was like a broadway. Very cool!

We stopped and had lunch before we had to be to our next fast pass. Our lunch breaks are more like pit stops, where everyone goes potty, diapers are changed and everyone, including Owen is fed. Then we make sure everyone is happy before we would head out for the next few hours. By the end of our trip Dan and I had such a great system down that kept everything  running smoothly. We sure do make a great team and I think that was a big help with making this trip possible. Dan and I always made sure to be on the same page, switch with kids, and not get to burnt out ourselves. 

After lunch we had our wild ride Safari. It was fun to see animals so close without any fences or barriers blocking the animals. We saw a lions so close I felt like you could reach out and touch them. We saw hippos, and rhinos... too many to name! It was really fun. June loved it. She has such a thing for animals that she could hardly contain her excitement when a new animal was spotted. 

The animal tree, or "The Tree of Life"... It's carved with a bunch of different animals. It's really cool. 

June wanted a picture with the snowy mountain. She thought it was Elsa's castle mountain from "Frozen" 

After walking around and looking at all the animals we went and found the kids more souvenirs... ya exactly what they need. Every hat right now is a ho ho hat to June. 

A little, but big rain storm made it's way through and we decided to head back to the hotel since we had a babysitter coming in a few hours. We thought a little calm down time would make it easier for them. June wanted to play in the rain so her and Dan walked while I covered Owen with the Poncho. 

I put Owen down for a nap and we all decided to catch up on technology... 

We went and had dinner down in our hotel and then get the kids bathed and ready for our babysitter...

Dan and I really wanted a night to ourselves where we could go on the big rides throughout the parks. Disney resort offers in room babysitting... it cost us, but it was totally worth it! I was very hesitant and first, like almost backed out, because really I was going to leave my babes with a complete stinger?! but then she came to the door and she was an older lady, very nice and really seemed like she knew what she was doing, it put my mind at ease and I felt better about the whole situation, so Dan and I took off. 

Dan and I had a blast riding all the rides and not having to worry about the kids... It seriously was so much fun and being foolish and running around like we did, made me fall so much more in love with Dan. 

Our first stop was over to Hollywood Studios. We were taking the kids there the next day, but we wanted to go do some big rides first. This was the Tower of Terror. MY FAVORITE!! I have been to Disney World before and I could do this ride over and over again. Dan isn't too keen on the dropping up and down rides but he did it for me and ended up loving it! 

Then we went over to Star Wars. This ride made both of us a little nauseous. Still fun but both Dan and I were a little wobbly after... 

Once we saw how long the wait times were for lines we decided to leave Hollywood studios and go over to Magic Kingdom to ride the classic rides of Disney World. 

Our first ride was over in Tomorrowland. Space Mountain. I have never been on this ride but it was so much fun. I love the rush of it all! The poor girl in front of me probably was so sick of my screams by the end of the ride! 

Thunder Mountain is always a blast. The wait time wasn't long at all. It has been so long since I have been on a roller coaster! I forgot how much I love the thrill ride!

Neither Dan nor I like to be scared, but The Haunted Mansion is just one of those rides we had to do. In the end it wasn't all that scary, it was more of just looking around at old creepy things. Luckily nothing jumped out at us!

The parade and firework shows were going on the time that we were there, so it made the ride lines super short!! 

We got to ride splash mountain twice. Just hopped off and then hopped back on! That's how short the wait was! It was very nice not having to wait in line!

Our night alone came to an end and we had to head back to the hotel. It was fun just walking around,riding crazy rides, and just having the evening me and him. 

Our resort lobby. It was so beautiful that I had to take a picture. 

We got to our room, and the kids were both asleep and our babysitter was sitting in the bathroom reading. She was so fantastic. She took the kids down to the kid activity center in the hotel and  got both of them to bed. 

We said good night and then went to bed. 

The next morning none of us woke up until 10. Including Owen. So we rushed out the door to make sure to take advantage of our last day at the parks.

Our first stop was to Hollywood Studios. We had lunch reservations there so we got there early to look around and see if we could catch any rides before we needed to be at the restaurant. 

June got to meet Chip and Dale

And got to step in Mickey Mouses's shoe prints. 

We had time for one ride so we went and did "The Great Movie Ride" 

You ride around and get to see the different era's of film making. It really made me want to go back to all the classics and watch them again. 

After the ride is was time to go have lunch at "HollyWood and Vine" 

This lunch was where we got to meet al of the Disney Jr. Characters... June was in Heaven. All of her favorites were there!

Sophia the First

The obvious favorite, Jake. 

Doc Mcstuffins... Sorry if you have no clue who these people are! But I'm sure if you have any children younger than 4 then you know exactly who they are and can probably sing along with their theme songs. Disney Pandora is on constant at our house, so we have about every song down by heart!

Also meeting Handy Manny! 

Owen couldn't handle all the excitement and he fell asleep.

After getting more autographs and having a delicious lunch, we headed over to PIXAR.

We rode Toy Story Adventure 

And went to Disney Jr. Live on Stage... JUNE LOVED IT! It's just like singing time at the library but 100x cooler and better! They sure know how to get little kids excited! 

We also went and saw "The Little Mermaid" Under the Sea adventure. That was pretty cool. I little scary but still fun. June told us she was ready to be done half way through... I get it! 

Waiting for the show to start 

After all our fast passes were used up and we were done with all our shows, we stopped for a potty and feeding break...

Just one of the many stops to feed the little monster 

Dan was getting some treats for us, so I told June to stand by Mickey for a picture. Right as I clicked she yelled "OH! I have a wedgie" and started giggling. hahahaha silly girl!

We finished with Hollywood studios mid way through our day, and we thought it would probably be better to end our trip at the Magic Kingdom, so we headed over there for our last adventure of the week. 

We went to go see how long of a wait it was to meet Anna and Elsa from "Frozen" We said we would be willing to wait an hour... We get there and there is a 5 HOUR WAIT!!!! CRAZY PEOPLE!! So we skipped seeing them. Thankfully we didn't say a word to June about the whole thing! 

The wait time to "It's a Small World" wasn't long at all so we decided to go on it. It's a Disney classic also, and we are so glad we went on it! JUNE LOVED IT! She kept poking Dan's knee saying "Daddy, daddy look at this, Daddy daddy look over there.." She just couldn't get enough of the bright lights and all the dolls dancing. I loved that Disney has kept it at it's original state. They haven't tried to update it or do any big changes and that's why I loved it so much!

OK. So as many of you Know the movie "Frozen" right now is huge... and we are on the bandwagon with all the other crazies out there. ANY kind of "Frozen" item at the Disney parks were IMPOSSIBLE to find! and I mean IMPOSSIBLE! As soon as anything related to the movie was put on the shelves they were gone in no time...

Well we were wrapping up our day and we walked into a souvenir shop one last time, and low and behold there was a rack of "Frozen" Dolls being hung up. One side is Elsa and then you flip it and the other side is Anna. There was a crowed of people. 

If you know anything about me, you know I love this kind of stuff, so of course I got right into the action. I basically threw the stroller at Dan, and made a mad dash for the dolls. I fought my way in and GOT ONE!!! It happened all in a matter of 2 minutes and all the dolls were gone. Just like that! We were at the right place and the right time. I will be honest. I was super proud of myself!!  

After my awesome catch with the "Frozen Doll" It started to pour down rain... We went and had one last lunch in the park and called it a day. On our way out we got to catch glimpses of the rain parade. 

We got to the exit and it just dropped rain in bucket loads on us. I had on flip flops so Dan took the stroller and bolted for the bus to take us back to our hotel. Luckily it's Florida so the rain is warm, but still! 

That night we got the kids bathed up and started packing to head home. 

June loved her new pajamas and kept looking at herself in the mirror and running around. 

(don't mind the messy hotel room... we were packing!) 

The next morning we said goodbye to all the animals and headed out the door. Disney took care of our luggage and our checking in at the airport so we were able to just go straight to security...

The flight wasn't too bad. Everyone mostly slept, and continued to be adorable!

Owen did wake up and he had a fit! Nothing would calm him down... Dan took him and he became so happy. Poor Dan he was so tired and Owen just kept laughing. I couldn't help but laugh either! Owen is such a mini Dan!

After loading up all our items one last time we stopped by our vet, picked up Ranger and then came home. That's where it hit me.... My wallet is still on the plane...
Sadly I lost it all, including my adorable wallet from SanFrancisco. Now I get to spend the next few days trying to get everything replaced before my in-laws get here and then I leave to Idaho! NEVER A DULL MOMENT!!

Thankfully it all can be replaced pretty easily. And I am staying positive in the fact that I get a new ID picture, because mine was taken when I was 34 weeks pregnant! Swollen face and all! So that's a plus!

We are still in recovery mode. The kids are all off their schedules, we are still a bit cranky and we are looking forward to at least a couple of days of downtime, until Wednesday, then Dan's parents arrive!!

So Disney World was incredible! Every minute was worth it. I honestly wouldn't change a thing throughout this whole week. Disney World really does create some sort of feeling inside that makes you feel so happy and light. I really do understand why they call it The happiest place on Earth!!