Disney- Day 4 (Magic Kingdom and The Crystal Palace)

Originally, I had us doing Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios when Sisty and Granddaddy were there, and the last 2 days at the Magic Kingdom with Nana and Papaw.  But that was kinda silly.  (That was just how I planned it before we knew everyone was coming) So mid-week, we changed it and did a day at the MK with each.  That is what they remember as "Disneyworld" from when we were young, and I'm so glad they each got to experience it again as grandparents!

Sadly, Nana got a little woozy just out of the gate and spent the rest of the day spinning.  I felt so bad, and should have known better than to put her in a car that had a spinning option and a 5-year-old. 

Oh, the spinning...

She'll never look at Buzz Lightyear the same.

Keatyn made a little friend in line...  We stood in line for this one (Astro Orbiter) for 20 minutes, even took the elevator up to it.  But when I saw how fast it spun, Keatyn and I hauled our happy selves out of there and let the boys go it alone.  I learned my lesson from Nana.

Probably Trace's favorite ride of all...the Barnstormer. 

Had to do It's a Small World again (although Trace said it was a ride for girls, because it was nothing but dolls.)  He talked Sisty out of it the day they were there and I hate that for her, because I know how much she wanted to see it again.  Those grands let him get away with murder.

 Meeting Daffy Donald.  

 There's a funny behind that one.  When we got home from the trip, I put a few pictures of Facebook and in my "captioning" accidentally called Donald Duck, Daffy.  It was late, I had jet lag ;) and to be honest, I had no clue what duck that was.  Thank goodness, my Facebook stalking friend Lu sent me this text minutes after...

I was so thankful she cared enough to not let me become the laughing stock of social media.

Friends don't let friends mis-quote Disney characters on Facebook. 

(Nanny, I'm sorry I cussed.  Jet lag.)

And then on our way to lunch at The Crystal Palace, we walked right up on the parade.  It just keeps getting better!  This may have been my most favorite 10 minutes of the whole trip.  We videoed Trace dancing, and it was one of those moments mom's talk about where the pure joy of Disney you see on your child face fills your eyes with tears!

Love this one!!!  Worth every penny...

On to lunch with Winnie and friends...

Eyeore's coming...Abort, ABORT!!!

Keatyn was alright (sorta) as long as she was being held and on the opposite hip!

She had no idea who was behind her...

After lunch, Nana and Papaw gladly took Sassy back to the hotel and we met back up with Lu and her family.

 This was Trace's standard position on the majority of rides...

I'm not kidding...

Thunder Mountain Railroad.  LOVED it!  The only one we rode back-to-back.

 Splash Mountain.  Notice the old pros in the middle who knew to hold their hats as we plummeted off the ledge.  I, on the other hand, raised my hands like an idiot, and lost my visor.  Luckily, Kate was right behind me and caught it.  Way to go Kate!!!
( I'm not mentioning any names... but look who's sitting next to me holding on ;)  Love you honey!

That night it stormed pretty bad so we were stuck in the hotel room.  That was the only night we didn't spend at the pool.  We finally braved it and ran to the food court for dinner.  You could always tell when you walked in that place, what time of day it was.  The atmosphere of melting down toddlers, whiny kids, and exhausted parents made it very apparent that everyone was ready for the day to be over!

Off to bed...one more day.

Disney- Day 3 (Magic Kingdom)

Someone was a little giddy about getting back to the Magic Kingdom!

 I realized the day before that I had been a little overzealous in planning our sit down meals.  I had a warped sense of how long it really took to travel around the Disney World "compound."  Not everything can be magic.

You walk from your room a ways to the bus pickup, then potentially wait 15 minutes for the next bus to arrive.  Once on the bus, it may take up to 20 minutes to get to your desired park and then of course the walk in.  Two of the restaurants we had reservations for were at another hotel, which meant we would have to then take a water taxi after the bus ride to get there.  Too stressful and time consuming, especially with a toddler that still needed naps.

I realized our out of park dining experiences were quickly becoming a pain in Mickey's tail.  Who needs that on vacation?  So I dumbed it all down and changed our reservations so that we were eating our sit down/character meals for lunch at whatever park we were in that day.  MUCH better... you live and learn. 

We got so lucky and just happened to walk in at the same time the show at Cinderalla's castle was starting. Trace loved watching all the characters dance and sing.  We probably wouldn't have taken the time out of riding to walk all the way back to the castle, so we were excited to hit it at just the right time.

We went first to Splash Mountain, and Sisty kindly offered to keep Keatyn while we all rode it.  We didn't get any pictures :(  Trace loved it and we got a little wet which felt fantastic!  I had foolishly packed my flat iron and curling iron, but they never left my suitcase.  Between sweating and the water rides, my hair never left a ponytail or a hat.  Another reality you learn in Disney!

Next, we rode the Jungle Cruise (I took pictures, but have no idea what happened to them), which Jim and Sylvia remembered from bringing Jimmy almost 40 years ago.  (Sylvia informed Jim about Day 2 that if she heard him tell one more person, "Well, when we were here 40 years ago..." she was gonna smack him!  ha!)

After that, we split up and they waited in line to take Trace on Peter Pan (his favorite) while we took Keatyn to eat lunch at Cosmic Ray's and back for a nap. 

They stayed and had a great afternoon in Fantasyland before heading back to the hotel to hit the pool.  They were 2 tired grands and I'm sure were relieved to see the reinforcements show up!

Nana and Papaw had been in Orlando since we got there, but we didn't see them until Thursday night.

I told them I'm glad they had such a relaxing first few days... that was all about to change!

Jimmy and I took advantage of all the extra childcare and enjoyed a date night dinner at "Shutters" in our resort.

You feel like you're cheating the world when you sit down to a HUGE steak dinner and walk away only paying the tip... the meal plan is the BEST!! 

The face of exhaustion...

I was really worried about how Keatyn would sleep.  Being in a pack-n-play and out of her routine, I had prepared myself for some long nights.  But, everyone assured me that she would be so tired at the end of the day, she'd sleep anywhere.  And thankfully, she did!!

We are very spoiled vacationers.  We have never been in a single hotel room as a family for longer than one night.  The only place we've been for any extended amount of time is Destin, where we have 3 bedrooms, a full kitchen, and living room.  All being together in one room, it forced us to all go to bed early.  I actually slept more hours a night in Disney than I would have here.  And believe me, I needed it.  I know it was hard for Jimmy to turn off the T.V. at 9:00, who's usually a night owl.

Day 3 complete...

Disney- Day 2 (Animal Kingdom/ Rainforest Cafe)

Day 2 began with Grandaddy and Sisty at the Animal Kingdom.

The Tree of Life

 We started on the safari and saw all of the African animals.  Very cool.
(Please note Keatyn's safari themed attire.  That was intentional. :)

Then it was on to a train ride that took you to a little island and a petting zoo.

Love them...  They were so awesome to have with us.  I honestly don't know what we'd have done without them!

We had lunch in the Rainforest Cafe.  I have to say, that was the COOLEST restaurant I think I've ever seen.  The ceiling was covered in rainforest trees and vines, with monkeys and birds hanging from the limbs.  There were elephants and waterfalls, rainbows and aquariums with exotic fish everywhere you turned.  It was so loud in there, Keatyn could have screamed for days, and no one would have heard her.  A toddler's dream.

It was at that point in the day, that my head felt like this elephant tusk had been driven through it.  I realized as I was downing 2 of Sylvia's extra strength Tylentol that I hadn't had a sip of caffeine in over 36 hours.  Now, coming from a devoted sweet tea enthusiastic, this has probably only happened a hand full of times in my adult life.  I began chugging drinking my tea and although the howls of the monkeys and rumblings of the elephants were earth shatteringly loud, my headache actually began to dull. 

After lunch, Sisty and Grandaddy took Sassy back to the hotel for a nap and we hit the rides with Trace.

First up... Expedition Everest.  Now, he had ridden Barnstormer the night before at the MK, but that didn't hold a candle to this monster.  I tried to warn and prepare him.  I gave him every chance to get out of it like a man.  I had heard horror stories about this one from my friend Leslie, who had taken Jack (also 5) on it 2 months before.  She said everything was smooth sailing, until they started going backwards... in the dark.

But my brave boy insisted...

He did it!!  And did it proud.  When we asked him if he wanted to do it again, he politely said "No, thank you."  ha!  I love that kid!  His favorite part of riding any ride was watching the others go after he's gotten off.  We never left a ride when he didn't turn back and watch in amazement.

This one, we could have all done without.  The Dinosaur.  Notice the wee one in the back with his ears plugged.  Not our favorite.

The Kali River Rapids was closed because of storms in the area, so we headed back to the hotel and discovered we could have just skipped the parks and hung out at this pool all week.  Trace would have been perfectly happy. He went down these waterslides more times than I could count.  I was exhausted just watching him.

They even had a little water slide for her.
(She, could however, have done without the bucket overhead that filled with water and then dumped out on the children's heads.  She was not a fan.)

 She was completely enthralled with the refillable resort cups... which totally made up for the bucket o' water dumping on her head.

 We all slept like rocks that night amid the nightmares dreams of Everest and The Dinosaur.

Day 2.  Done!