The Daniels: Disney Part 1

I have been putting off posting about our Disney trip for quite sometime now...just because of the number of pictures I needed to go through. I had pictures from 4 different cameras on my computer, plus my phone pics. We had lots of picture takers on our trip! Anyway, here is the long overdue Disney post from our trip in October.

Much thought and planning went into organizing this trip and it was so much fun! Exhausting, but so fun! We had quite the crew with us on this trip. MiMi, PaPa, DD, Great-grandma, Great-grandpa, Travis, JJ, Barrett, and Madison were all there. Some for just one night, and some for the whole week. The kids did great on the plane and couldn't wait to get there.

We stayed at the very cool Disney's Art of Animation. We stayed in a Cars themed family suite. The whole resort was decorated in Little Mermaid, Nemo, The Lion King, and Cars decor. It was so cool!

Monday night we went to Texas De Brazil for dinner to celebrate Travis' birthday and upcoming deployment. It was so great to celebrate and honor him, and the food was delicious too!

My little appendage under that blanket.

Daniels family picture

Tuesday morning we headed to the Magic Kingdom for our first day of fun! This was the only day great-grandma would be with us so we decided to do the Magic Kingdom first!

So excited on the ferry ride over! Thanks Aunt JJ for the awesome shirts!

The park was decorated for the fall and Halloween! It was so pretty!

I cannot even begin to describe just how nice and friendly all the staff at Disney are. Very helpful, very engaging with the kids, and very on top of their customer service. They truly want you to have a "magical" experience and do a great job making that happen!

Things were a little hectic the first day as we figured out where everything was, how to work the fast pass and magic band systems, and how to move such a large group through the Disney crowds. But we still had a great first day and enjoyed some really fun rides!

This was the kids favorite ride...Splash Mountain (AKA the "log ride") Thanks to the very awesome fast pass, magic band, and rider swap system they have a Disney we were able to ride this multiple times without waiting at all. In fact we didn't have to wait more than probably 15 min for any of the rides and walked right onto most of them. They really are very efficient with moving people through rides.

Great-grandma didn't have a magic band so we had to "work the system" on a couple of rides and let her use Avery's... and Avery became my little baby. In true Avery fashion, she didn't mind being the baby one bit!

Family pic

Cousin Pic

Just about everything was Mickey shaped.

Someone needs to visit the dentist!

By the end of day one, everyone was worn out.

I can't remember the last time these two napped in a stroller.

Monday night Shane and I got away for a little date night, Disney style. The Food and Wine Festival was going on at Epcot during our stay and my most favorite group from my childhood, Wilson Phillips, was playing at the "Eat to the Beat Concert Series." We of course had a little date night crasher with us, but MiMi did watch the older two, so that was great. He slept pretty much the whole time and Shane and I got to walk around, eat yummy food, drink some adult beverages and listen to some great music. It was so fun! Travis and JJ met up with us later in the evening. Thank goodness for Grandmas! We stayed and watched "Illuminations" the fire work show over the lagoon in Epcot. It was really cool.

Wednesday morning we had reservations at Hollywood and Vine restaurant in Hollywood Studios. It was a Disney Junior Character Breakfast. I knew when I booked the reservations that my kids would love this! Carson got to dance with Jake and June (Avery was being a little shy)

Then all the characters walked around and took pictures with the kids at their tables.

Jake and the Neverland Pirates is one of Carson's favorites.

As well as Handy Manny

But the man of the hour was definitely Special Agent Oso. Carson had been looking forward to meeting him for weeks!

Avery agreed to a picture, but only if I was holding her. Cade didn't know what to think.

Avery warmed up some more once June came over.

We were able to get into the park early with our breakfast reservations which ended up really working in our favor because we were able to get ahead of the crowd and get Carson signed up for the Jedi training (a very hot ticket at that park...the spots fill up very quickly). While I was signing Carson up, Shane and Travis sprinted to the Toy Story ride to get fast passes (the other hot ticket at Hollywood Studios....the guy told Shane that the fast passes for this ride were all gone within 15 minutes of the park opening the day before...crazy).

The Jedi Training school was pretty fun! Carson doesn't really know anything about Star Wars, but he does know what a light saber is and was pretty excited about getting to fight Darth Vader!

This park had all the Disney Junior characters at it, which is right up Carson and Avery's ally these days. They love Disney Junior! Avery was excited to meet Sophia, however the line was an hour long, so we settled on taking a picture with her from afar. Ha!

The Toy Story Mania ride was really cool.

It was a 4D midway type ride.

Carson, of course, loved it because it involved shooting things.

We ended the day at Hollywood Studios by watching the Disney Junior Live on Stage show. Carson literally fell asleep sitting up during the show. He was having a hard time with skipping naps and going nonstop all day. Poor buddy!

We went back to the resort for a few hours of rest and then headed to Magic Kingdom that night for the Electrical Parade and Firework show. Avery dressed as Cinderella for the night. Pretty princess!