Magic Kingdom

Ok, so these pictures are now 2 months later, but better late than never! We arrived at the MK gates right as the train was pulling into the station with the characters on board and got to hear the welcome song. As they finished their singing, we headed over to get a wheelchair, then it was off for some FUN! Of course, we had to stop and get a photo with the castle in the background. We headed over to the Dumbo ride, as I had heard the line for this ride gets longer throughout the day.

Next, we went over to the Peter Pan ride and Winnie the Pooh ride. Dan decided to tell Eyore a secret before we got on this ride.
After Peter Pan, we rode the Snow White ride and then went to see the 3D show. It was excellent and I wish we could have made it over again to see it one more time.

Here are Jake & Lydia on the carosel.

Lydia really, really wanted to meet Ariel, even though I figured this process would take a long time and eat up some of our peak, morning time. But we were in that section of the park, so we waited...and waited...and waited. That, by far, was our longest wait time. Maybe an hour. Thankfully, they have a little water play area right there for the kids, so that it's just mom that had to save our spot. (Dan was resting in my chair at this time, and while Jake had no intentions of wanting to meet Ariel, he wanted to come along to take Lydia's pictures with Ariel).

Finally, it was Lydia's turn. I was taking some video, while Jake snapped a few pics.

Next came Jake and Lydia's first roller coaster ride, Goofy's Barnsider (I think that was the name). I wondered how they would do. I rode with Lydia and she had a look of fright on the way up the hill, but both she and big brother were all smiles when it was over!

Jake and Lydia inside Mickey (or Minnie's house)???



Inside the Buzz Lightyear ride...fun, but no where near as fun as the ToyStory Mania the previous day.


Again, Lydia would want this picture to be in here. This fellow was walking right around us, not scared at all, when we were milling around some food places, trying to figure out what to do for lunch. Lydia was pleading for me to hurry and get the picture.

Can you tell these kids need some food in their stomachs? We decided on an indoor lunch place and took our time to get a little break.


This picture was taken after we got off the Splash Mountain ride. Earlier in the year, when I showed Lydia this ride on the computer and asked her if she would ride it, she replied, "yes." My thought was that for sure, she would quickly change her mind as it loomed closer and closer and she saw how high the drop was. But she still wanted to do it, so after using our Fast Passes, we boarded the log boat. The story of Brer Rabbit and his foes, Brer Bear and Brer Fox, was a fun, cool, long ride. But I knew what was coming and I knew it was too late for Lydia to change her mind now. Sure enough, when we rounded the last corner and saw the steep hill we were about to ascend, Lydia's breathing became fast, very fast. I put my arm around her and held her tight and told her I'd be her seatbelt. Down, down, down we went and at the end, she was making a little, panicky sound. Then, she looked up at me and said, "Can we do it again?" That's my girl! After this we went to the Pirates ride, which was NONE to her liking.

View from Swiss Family Robinson treehouse

After riding the Flying Carpet ride, we went on a little boat ride. Another nice, relaxing break, with some fun things to see.

Just hangin' out after a little shopping...watch out, you're gonna fall in!

It's A Small World (and one tired girl)

After Small World, we split up. Jake wanted to ride the Speedway cars and Lydia wanted to repeat the Pooh and Peter Pan rides. Thankfully, while we on the way there, I learned a very valuable bit of information. For some reason, I thought we would get to meet the princesses on Sunday, while Lydia got her Bippidi, Boppidi, Boutique experience at Downtown Disney. I learned this would not be the case and so the two of us headed over to where the princesses were signing autographs. Turned out to be a good move since this area was much less crowded than it was ealier in the day. We waited about 1/2 hour and got to meet 3 lovely ladies. And speaking of it being a small world, the couple in front of us with their little 1 year old, who loved Cinderella, was from Troy, Ohio...about 45 minutes from Kettering!

"A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes"

"Tale As Old As Time"

"I Know You, I Danced With You Once Upon A Dream"

We met up with some friends of Dan, who also happened to have a daughter named Lydia. The three kids had so much fun playing together in the little amount of time we had with them. They live right there in Orlando, so were able to tell us where some good seats were for the parade. They went to ride a few more rides while we went to go sit down. We ended up getting a prime place right in the back of the castle. As it got darker and darker, it was so cool to see the castle being lit up in all different colors. Jake took this lovely picture, as well as the parade pictures below.

The parade was by far, my most favorite part of the day. We went to see the 9pm parade and stayed put for the fireworks that would come a little later. While we didn't have the best view for the fireworks show as the castle blocked a lot of them from where we were sitting, what was really cool was that we got to see Tinkerbell fly down from the backside window of a top turret of the castle (on a cable). That was really cool!!! After the fireworks, the kids begged to ride a few more rides. While we were exhausted, we also knew we'd be fighting a huge crowd if we left now. So, much to the delight of our offspring, we rode the teacups, Pooh, Peter Pan, and the carosel once more. Then we decided to call it a day. And we had some perfect timing again. As we left, we got to watch the 11pm showing of the parade and right when we got to the exit, the last of the parade people were starting down the street, so we beat that crowd as well! It was a magical day, at least for the kiddos! We had not had supper, so we stopped on the way home at a Burger King. By the time we got back to the hotel and started eating, it was one in the morning. Jake and Lydia find that very memorable...eating supper at 1am! Then, obviously, we all crashed.

Next post, will show our last day of our Disney days!