This summer, our family was fortunate enough to take a trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL. We rented a house about 30 minutes from the Magic Kingdom gates and spent a week with our closest friends - our family! Dianna, Darby, Shanda, Brian, Hunter, Ben, Jackson, Parker and I has the most amazing time ever!
The drive down was not so much fun, of course, but we had too much crap to fly. Traveling with kiddos is a lot of work. Traveling with a baby is like a monumentous task - stroller, pack-n-play, car seats... Driving was the best choice. We left after I closed the restaurant around 4 AM on Sunday, got to the house around 6:30 PM. (Not bad time.) We tried to find the stupid Hard Rock Cafe, but after an hour of driving in circles, we gave up and decided to go to Olive Garden, but they had a 2 hour wait, so Wendy's it was!
Monday morning we went to Magic Kingdom. I have dreamt about this for literally my entire life. I spent months researching it and trying to find deals and the best plan to do the most in the smallest amount of time. I worried if Jackson could handle the stimulation, I wondered if Parker would be bored since he couldn't ride everything... As it turned out, our first moments were not so magical. All I wanted was a family picture in front of Cinderella's Castle. Well, I'll post what I got in a second. It wasn't magical.
Then, we went off to Tomorrowland and got right on the Buzz Lightyear ride, then Space Mountain and the Astro Orbiter. It was awesome! The coolest part for Jackson was "Rider Swap" - since Parker is too small to ride the rides, we tell the Cast Member at the beginning of the line we need to kid swap - then we wait thru the line. Jackson and Ben would ride and I'd stay with Parker, then I would go thru the exit with Jackson and get right back on the ride. He got to ride everything twice with only one wait!
That night, we went on an awesome pirates and pals cruise with Peter Pan and Captain Hook. It was so awesome! There really aren't that many cool things for boys - girls have character breakfasts, Cinderella's castle, Bippity Boppity Boutique... The "boy" character stuff was not the stuff my boys know. Chip and Dale? They have no clue who that is. Next time, though, we will definitely do Chef Mickeys because Parker has become obsessed with Mickey. Anyway, on this cruise, you got to have snacks and drinks and the boys played limbo with Hook and Smee, then we boarded the boat to watch fireworks. They also had a little trivia thing where they gave kids prizes. The very last question for the very last prize, Jackson was brave enough to raise his hand and answer - and it was about Darth Vader! He won the exact thing he wanted, which was a sword. THEN, to top all that amazement off, we got off the boat and Peter Pan himself was there!! (Yes, I have pics!)
The next day, we went to Hollywood Studios - the highlight of Jackson's trip, I think! It had Star Wars guys, Indiana Jones, Tower of Terror... it was awesome! (By the way, his favorite ride is now Tower of Terror. Yep, he's mine!)
We also went to the beach - in Clearwater. We took a real pirate cruise - it was such fun! The boys loved the sand. Parker didn't really care for the water so much until about 5 minutes before we headed home.
On the last full day we were there, we planned to go to Universal Studios - Spiderman, Hulk, and the new Harry Potter area. Well, Jackson decided he'd rather stay home and hang with his cousins and swim! Alright with us! Ben, Shanda and I decided since we saved so much by not going to Universal, we would get some extra souvenirs that we weren't going to get. We spent a few hours shopping and lunching. It was a fun way to end the day.
That night, we went to dinner at a local steakhouse right by our rental house and it was great! We should have eaten there more! But, poor Hunter was so tired, he fell asleep at the table!
The ride home was good, the boys were pretty well behaved.
I have tons of pics and lots more to say, but PhotoBucket is taking too long, so I'll be back to this later!
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