"I'm going to DisneyWorld!"
"Hey Tim, the Chinese have just suspended military exchanges with the U.S. in protest over arms sales to Taiwan. What are you going to do next?"
"I'm going to DisneyWorld!"
It's sad, but true. A window of opportunity opened up as a result of China's suspension of military exchanges with the U.S., and I was able to take two week of leave so we headed to Orlando, Florida to warm up and have some fun.Our agenda:
Monday: drive to Orlando, pick up Tim's parents at the airport
Tuesday: Rest day, stroll through Downtown Disney
Wednesday: Magic Kingdom
Thursday: Disney's Hollywood Studios
Friday: Rest day
Saturday: Sea World
Sunday: Rest day
Monday: Epcot / Magic Kingdom
Tuesday: Magic Kingdom
Wednesday: Mom & Dad flew home; drive to Tampa
Thursday: Tampa, visit good friends
Friday: Drive back to Virginia
While not necessarily chronological, this post focuses only on our days at Magic Kingdom. We stayed "off property," so while the drive from our hotel to the parking lot was less than 10 minutes, getting from the parking lot to the park was still a hike. We could take the monorail or the boat... this day we took the boat... it's more "magical..."
The first day we went it was actually "cold." It reached a high of 60 that day, was cloudy, and a very cold breeze blew most of the day.Morgan wanted me to leave my jacket in the car when we arrived, then wanted to wear my jacket the rest of the day!
The boat ride there was particularly cold with the breeze...
The nice part of the cooler temperatures is that it kept the crowds away!
Seeing the Disney castle just reminds you of its inspiration, Neuschwanstein, in Bavaria. Blast from the past pic... our 2004 trip to Germany (Morgan pregnant with Adayla)...
The rides are fun for the kids. But the parades/shows and seeing/meeting the characters are what it's all about at Disney. 
Think Ryann's bum was cold?
Watching a performance at the base of the Disney castle...
Couldn't believe when Gramps picked up Tally and put her up on his shoulders!
Tally earned a new nickname at Disney. "Totally Tally" with the emphasis on "ToTally!" Tally saw her name on this ice cream stand sign...
We rode the Goofy airplane ride several times... the girls loved it!
Hands up!
Thanks to Mom & Dad for staying with a sleeping Ryann while we rode the rides.
These are the only cars the girls will be driving until they're 25...
Crazy drivers, watch where you're going!
Magical ponies...
for the whole family to enjoy!
The 3D and 4D (scents/water/temperature changes) movies were fun. Ryann loved the movies and often put her hands out to touch the things that were coming out of the movie screen at us! That was pretty funny to watch.
Ryann's pouty face...
Meeting the characters. We were impressed by the character meetings. It wasn't just "take your picture and get out of here" but rather took time to actually engage/interact with the kids. The girls' loved every moment of these...
Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty... I didn't know she had a name!)
Cinderella...
and Princess Belle...
Belle, who loves to read books, asked the girls what their favorite book was and they responded "Pinkalicious." Belled didn't know that book (perhaps she's not allowed to endores non-Disney books... how could she not know Pinkalicious?? They're currently in Burger King's happy meals!)At any rate, Adayla promised Belle that she would give her a copy of the book. Didn't think anything of it until that evening when Adayla asked for some paper and a pen to write the story down for Belle. And she did, from memory! After Adayla went to bed, Mom looked at what Adayla had written and thought that was too precious to give away and wanted to keep it for herself. So she did, and we told Adayla that the cleaning lady must have accidentally thrown her story away. Undeterred, Adayla wrote another book for Belle and successfully delivered it to Belle the next time we went to Magic Kingdom."
Fortunately the next time we went to Magic Kingdom, it was warm and sunny! A beautiful day in the high-70s... perfect!
The Royal parade...
Ryann didn't see this guy coming for her...
But she totally loved it.
The entertainment while waiting for the parade to start. Lots of retirees work here at Disney. You forget that the high school kids who normally work at amusement parks are in school and can't work year 'round...
Splash Mountain... we loved it! Rode it several times. Might just be the best log flume ride ever built (not a big fan of log flumes, but this one was fun).
A big bonus of the Disney parks is that you can bring food/drinks into the park. Prices for food are just ridiculous... didn't need to buy any of it, and our food was better, too!
While eating our lunch, we watched as these birds swooped into the stroller parking lot to find what they could get. It was quite entertaining to see the birds opening bags to get the treats inside. Here are a couple of them with their stolen French fries. We wanted to see what the reaction would be of these people when they came back and their large fries was empty, but we left before then.
Having fun in Bruce's mouth at the Finding Nemo ride...
There's Walter Disney and his beloved Mickey... What a dream!
Thanks Grammy and Gramps for coming!
Family picture 1:
Family picture 2:
Notice Ryann's positioning above? There's a little story to it...In March of my senior year at the Air Force Academy, my squadron (~100 cadets) took a trip to visit our sponsoring operational squadron to get a glimpse of the "real" Air Force. Our sponsor squadron was at Patrick Air Force base in Cocoa Beach, Florida... the launch operations at Cape Canaveral. We had a day off and went to DisneyWorld. That's where I bought my graduation shirt" with the big '97 on it. Morgan has been trying to get rid of the shirt ever since we've been married, but with no success. I wore my shirt proudly this day at Disney, even though the shirt is now 13 years old! Morgan said now we can get rid of the shirt, I said "Not so fast... I need to wear it in 7 years when I retire!"
At any rate, she wanted some family pics without the big '97 in the picture, thus the placement of Ryann in picture #2 above!
A great trip with memories lasting forever... Don't need to go back to Disney any time soon (or ever again, actually!), but the trip we had was wonderful!
3 comments:
Looks like you guys had a great time! I love Disneyland, but have not been to Disney World. Can't wait to go someday though. Your girls are so cute! I can't believe how big they are now!
I looked at these while in Utah but did not have the opportunity to respond. They are so luckty to have all the esperiences and the minds to remember them. They are adorable. So glad the grammy and gramps had the chance to go with them.
I spent a fantastic and lazy weekend catching up on your adventures and reminiscing about my and Steph's trip to China and our visit with you there. Hard to believe it was a year ago already. You guys do a great job of keeping this blog updated and I love seeing the girls. My gosh they are all growing up so fast. They are so adorable. Sending our love and Aloha to you all.
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