DISNEY WORLD!

Wow, it has been a long time since I have updated this blog. Because of the recent lapse, this blog post will be LONG. (Just a warning!)

We had so much fun on our Disney World Trip. The girls were so good. We watched as parents all around us dealt with massive melt-downs and terrible tantrums, while we wandered happily with our happy children. Mikayla was so excited to be there. Gwenyth loved the shows and the rides. She enjoyed singing along with every song she heard. Her hair was inexplicable. It stood straight up and made people laugh the whole time we were there. It's that crazy Florida humidity! We dealt with immense crowds, heat, humidity, exhaustion and sore feet, but we had the time of our lives.. So, here is a just a quick run-down of our adventurous week.

Day One - Magic Kingdom!

Mikayla's reaction to seeing Cinderella's castle was priceless. I will never forget the look of wonder and awe on her face. She was mystified. She could not believe that it was so real. We just stood on Main Street for a while, with the crowd bustling around us, while Mikayla stared and stared. It was a moment I will never forget.

Our first ride was Small World. Mikayla loved it, but not as much as Gweny. She clapped her hands and sang along and just smiled and stared at all the little people. She loved it. We spent more time on rides, but then sat and waited for what I thought was the highlight of the whole week. We sat down two whole hours early (taking turns to take Mikayla on a few rides during that time) and waited for the Wishes show and fireworks. It was the most beautiful show. They lit up the castle to look like it was covered in ice. The fireworks and music were so amazing that it made me cry. It was so amazing!

Day two - Epcot

Epcot was not our favorite park. It was a little too advanced for the girls. We did, however, have a chance to stand in line to meet some of the characters. Mikayla was so excited to meet Mickey and Minnie. It was totally worth the one and a half hour wait to see them. We saw Mickey, Pluto, Minnie, Chip n Dale and Goofy. Here are a few pictures. Gweny loved it!! (yeah, she slept through the whole thing!)

After spending just a few hours at Epcot, we went back over to the Magic Kingdom and Mikayla met Ariel. Ariel is Mikayla's second favorite princess. She was a little star-struck. She didn't quite know what to say or what to do, but she still talks about meeting Ariel.

Days three and four - MGM Studios

Josh and I really enjoyed MGM Studios. After a lot of convincing, I finally got Josh to ride on the Tower of Terror. He hates rides that drop quickly, but ended up really liking the Tower of Terror. He actually rode it more than once. He thought it was pretty fun.

We also got to meet a lo of other characters. We met a few playhouse Disney characters, Donald Duck, FroZone, Mr. and Mrs. Incredible, the rats from Ratatouille, and a few others. Here are more pictures.

Mikayla also talked her daddy into buying her a Cinderella tattoo while I waited in line for the Aerosmith roller coaster, which was awesome, by the way.We saw Ariel live on stage, Belle live on stage, Fantasmic and had a great time at MGM.

Days five and six - Animal Kingdom

We chose to go to Animal Kingdom on Christmas and it was a good choice. The Magic Kingdom reached it's full capacity of 72,000 people by 11:00 am. There were not nearly as many peopleat Animal Kingdom. We really loved riding the Everest Roller Coaster. We went on a Safari and saw lots of Animals. We met Pocahantas and Rafiki and some Winnie the Pooh characters.

I was surprised that Gwenyth did so well with all of the characters. We thought for sure she would be scared. She was not afraid of any of the characters, except for Piglet. The most meek and mild of all the Disney characters. In this pictures, she is franically clawing at me to get away from him.We spent the last day of our trip in the Magic Kindgom. We rode more rides, saw more shows, fought our way through more crowds and waited in more lines, but we had more fun than we could have imagined.

And finally, the highlight of Mikayla's week (Maybe the highlight of her life). She met Cinderella. She was so star-struck. She just kind of stared at the floor and twisted her fingers and smiled so shyly. Cinderella was so nice and so pretty and it was a dream come true for Mikayla.

And now, I present the award for the funniest event of the week. And the award goes to....

GWENYTH ADAMS

We were walking down the street, on our way to the shuttle stop for our resort. It was only about a quarter of a mile walk. The walk was on street that wound around the pools and hot tubs. Gwenyth had a bottle in her hands and decided that she was done with it. She chucked it over the edge of her stroller. She could have chucked it in the street, in the grass, on the sidewalk. But no, instead Gwenyth chose the one spot on the street that had a gross, nasty rain drain. Yeah, she through her bottle right into the drain. We cried over the lost bottle, but laughed at Gweny' perfect timing. Way to go, Gwenyth!!