Disneyworld Adventure

We had planned a trip to Disneyworld to round out Cooper's 3rd Birthday celebration at the Magic Kingdom- schedules and non-night-parade weekends at the park pushed our trip back about a month. We traveled to Orlando Friday May 7th. The goal was for the kids to have the best time of their little lives thus far- the bonus was that the two of us as parents did too! Cooper got to wear a special Disney provided Birthday pin for his entire trip, the park staff did an excellent job of telling him Happy Birthday and a few extra special perks for his Birthday celebration, which we were told to expect. It made me feel happy to see him getting such special treatment. When our boys faces lit up at the sight of the rides, the characters, the castle, the parade.....they lit up our world.

The trip started like this- we departed and stopped to get coffee before we hit the freeway, at that point we realized the kids Mickey Mouse ears were missing, but how they just had them while in the driveway. We drive back to the house and they are lying in the driveway! Who's trip to Disney could not begin without wearing Mickey Mouse ears? haha.

Itinerary:

Friday- arrive in hot Orlando and head to the resort pool around 2. The pool was huge rocks and caves with water slides and a kiddy area that had slides and water barrels. Cooper jumped right in and slid right down and Carter needed a little time to warm up. We hit the showers and headed out to Downtown Disney for dinner. Everyone was already tired so we did a little walking around and turned in early to gear up for the next big day.

Saturday day- arrived at Magic Kingdom at 9:20- no lines for probably our first 3 rides....a nice way to get everyone excited. The boys fell asleep around lunchtime so we found food and air conditioning to re-charge. After everyone ate we were ready to get back out there. Meredith met up with us around this time and joined us for the afternoon parade. The boys were so excited to see her and it was nice visiting and having an extra set of hands and eyes. We hit maybe another ride or two then decided if we were going to come back that night we needed to head to the room for showers, dinner, and a possible nap.
Saturday p.m.- we headed back to the park around 8p.m. to find the perfect spot to watch the Spectromagic parade of lights and floats. We were all exhausted, but fascinated at the evening of lights and fireworks. Walt Disney Magic Kingdom truly is a magical place!

Sunday- We had a Mother's Day brunch scheduled at another resort. It was delicious and fun- could not have spent my Mother's Day better than watching my children light up with joy interacting with Donald Duck, Goofy and Minnie. Donald even sang Happy Birthday to Cooper and he shared his cupcake with Goofy. Our Magic Disney adventure had ended but the fun and smiles stayed on our faces for days. On the car ride home, Patrick was already planning our next trip down. Haha he said, that was the first family vacation that the boys have really had so much fun and always had something to do, unlike the beach or something. Um well it is Disneyworld and that is kind of the point.

We stayed at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort in a pirate themed room- the beds looked like pirate ships, their were treasure chests and barrels all around, the carpet looked like wood ship planks, and their was a carving of the pirates of the caribbean ship carved in our shower. (somehow I made it out of their with not one picture of our fun room)

I think Patrick and I both thought Carter was going to maybe hold us back a little or not have much fun, but we could not have been more wrong. He truly came out of his shell, yelling for each of the characters when he saw them and repeating everything Cooper said about a ride we were on.

Cooper was on a mission for a character he likes from a Disney book we read and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show named "Big Bad Pete". Of course, he is quite uncommon and we were worried he might be disappointed if he was never spotted. Thankfully, the day of Magic Kingdom Cooper decided he cared about seeing Donald Duck, so when we ran in to Donald it was very exciting. And by chance they have a rest area called Pete's Garage and that satisfied him too! Cooper has nicknames for everyone, it's hilarious. Hey, there's Pinoc or Hey Goof.

We had several friend that had done this trip before his that offered tons of suggestions. This is a hilarious quote that came from our friend Meaghan that went the week before us: "I worried when my boys started crying or having a melt-down but looked around and realized everyone cries at Disney". It was so true, meltdowns were so little and there were times when I felt like having one from being so hot and tired and sore and cranky but we all pushed through. Many of you may think I'm crazy for saying this, but I really would go back tomorrow if I had the chance.

The rest of the photos can be found on our Picasa web albums site- just look at the top right of the blog and where it says "PHOTOS" click on it and it will take you to all of our viewable photo albums. Photo disclaimer: I did carry my huge camera around my neck the entire trip but every one of us was so stimulated, character star-struck, and excited that it was very hard to get what I might consider good shots. You might think it's funny I say that when looking through the 289 pictures. The intention of taking so many is to go through, pick out the good ones and delete the rest.......right, how do you delete each little expression that tells a story? Anyway, enjoy looking at our fun trip pics!