Disney World

In early October we had the opportunity to take the kids to Disney World. We surprised them on Addy's birthday with the news via a letter of invitation directly from Cinderella. The girls were excited, although they really didn't know exactly what to be excited about since they didn't really know what Disney World is. The opportunity to meet the princesses was definitely the thing they were most looking forward to - and the thing we made a priority while we were there.

We saved for 6 years to take this trip - we used our Disney Rewards to pay for all of our tickets and a friend blessed us with a stay at their timeshare, which enabled us to have a two bedroom suite with a full kitchen and living room area. It was amazing! My mom and step-dad joined us for the festivities, which was a wonderful surprise for the kids too!

The drive to Orlando took us 2 days. As we neared the city, it began to rain like crazy. For kids who hadn't seen rain in four months (except for the one time it rained this summer for an hour), they were a bit excited about it. That is, until it rained our first day at Epcot and we walked around in the rain all day. Then Addy said, "I miss Texas! Texas is nothing like this!"

The first night we got there, grandma and grandpa had a little birthday party for the girls. Aunt Dane sent a big box of He-Man and She-Ra figurines, which our girls are huge fans of, and made them a birthday cake in the shape of She-Ra's sword.

As I said, our first day we spent at Epcot. It rained most of the day, which put a bit of a damper on things. The day was a bit disastrous . . . Isaiah broke Nathan's glasses and they were unable to even fix them enough to be wearable. Nathan basically went around unable to see all day (it was Sunday so he couldn't even get them fixed at Walmart) and spent much of Monday morning getting them replaced.

One of the most exciting things the kids did at Epcot was the Nemo exhibit. Mom and I traded turns taking the girls on this while Isaiah took a short nap in his stroller (this was during Nathan and grandpa's trip to Walmart for super glue).

Epcot was also the place where we did a character dinner - the food was great and the girls got to meet Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora, Ariel and Belle. We didn't have our autograph books yet (we were a bit disoriented from the rain and the glasses escapade), which was a bummer, but it was really fun anyway. The girls got their picture taken with each of the princesses and got to participate in a parade through the restaurant with Ariel at the end of the meal.

The second day we went to Magic Kingdom . . .

. . . and on Tuesday we went to Animal Kingdom. These pictures are from the safari we went on. Although it was nothing compared to the real deal (Nathan and I got to do a safari while we were in Kenya) it was a really fun second best.


I was a little disappointed with Animal Kingdom. Honestly, it was the park I was most excited to see - and it was awesome! But, unfortunately it wasn't built to sustain as big a crowd as the other parks and was horribly crowded. We spent much of the day just trying to maneuver through the crowds. We did get to see a GREAT 30 minute Lion King production and since I've wanted to see Lion King on Broadway for years, this was definitely a highlight.

Wednesday we returned to Magic Kingdom and the highlight for the girls was meeting Rapunzel. We left the park early enough to get the kids a nap and then returned for the fireworks show that night. After the fireworks show, grandpa plowed our little group through the crowd headed out of the park and we had about 2 hours of riding fun with little to no lines. It was great!! Definitely the best night by far!



Isaiah entertaining everyone - he is quite the funny man. I don't know who he gets that from . . .


Early in the morning (about 2 am) on Thursday, Jayden woke up with her thumbs hurting. A little further investigation revealed hundreds of bumps forming all over her body. Later that morning she started developing sores in her mouth . . . the dreaded hand, foot, and mouth disease. I've never seen a virus SO awful. If I had a worst enemy, I wouldn't wish this on them. We took her to a doctor in Orlando just to confirm what it was, since we'd never seen it before. We were also hoping to get some kind of ointment to ease her discomfort since we had two days of driving ahead of us. He said she had a very bad case of it. Awesome. The first two nights were pure torture. I laid beside Jayden through the night rubbing an ice pack all over her body to help ease the itching. Needless to say, neither of us slept much!

It was a bummer that we didn't get to go back to Magic Kingdom on our last day, but Addy got to enjoy some extended time at the resort pool which had water slides. She enjoyed herself very much while Jayden was very disappointed not to be able to swim. She did, however, get lots of extra frozen treats to help her mouth feel better.

I don't know if we'll ever have the chance to go back to Disney World, but it was a fun trip for the girls to take at least once as kids. Next up, we're saving our Disney Rewards to take a trip to Hilton Head Island where there is a Disney Resort we can use our points to stay at . . . in five or six more years:)