Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Disney World with our big kids



easy to fly with these two! i read an entire book. 


only bad thing about the airplane rides there; i left my nice camera under one of the seats. and didn't realize it until too late. ughhhhh. so, iphone pics were all i got this trip.  i've emailed and called and havent gotten any word that they've found my camera. had myself about a 30 minute pity party, and then decided that whoever now has my camera, must have really needed it. so i'm thinking of it as a donation. ;)



i am more of a beach person than a disney person. but still, we wanted to take our kids one day. i wasn't sure when to plan a trip with 4 kids, and taking a baby never sounded appealing to isaac or me.

several months ago, when some of our friends started planning for their second disney trip, they asked if we would want to join them. so nice! this would make the planning part feel less intimidating for me bc they knew the ropes. and then to seal the deal, another thoughtful friend suggested taking the older two now and then the younger two when they were older. isaac and i jumped at the idea of spending time with just our big two. thankfully, granny and grandad could watch the two littles for 5 nights for us. hard to leave them, yes, but worth it to have such fun quality time with annette and charlie. the little ones wouldn't have remembered the trip anyways, right?


the grand floridian hotel



Coolest fireworks ever that first night. this pic was taken near the grill at our hotel







we brought some disney pins i got off ebay. the kids liked trading them with the workers. you can find out so much info off pinterest.






very fun just watching their faces as they went through 'it's a small world' and all the other rides



annette wont even talk ab the tower of terror.  a tad to much terror for her.




we cleaned up and annette princessed up for our first dinner at california grill. 
we broke one glass, but other than that, it was perfect




electrical parade after dinner


day 2, we went to hollywood studios

if we hadn't run out of steam, we would have liked to stay longer here. 
we missed the toy story ride bc of a mechanical issue, and we didn't get to the indiana jones show in time. or the space tours deal.
but we LOVED the frozen show, the jedi training, and the foot long hot dogs ;)







you have to run to get in line for jedi training. line took us an hour, which wasn't fun. but, we got a spot in the 12;30 show. it was worth the wait. charlie especially loved it.











our hotel had a 'beach', pool with a really cool water slide. i went down it several times myself. we played here in the afternoons before dinner. we really liked taking a break from the big crowds and parks.


we went to the mickey's not so scary halloween party on tuesday night. thank you taylors for lending us costumes  if id had more time before trip, i would have come up with some costumes for isaac and me. i love an opportunity to do costumes, and i missed a good chance.    next time....


space mountain was a bit too scary for annette, charlie said he liked it ;)


be our guest dinner. we skipped the grey stuff. although it looked sort of delicious.



day 3 we went to animal kingdom. where my favorite two rides were, Everest roller coaster and the safari ride.













we played at the pool again (where we saw a beautiful rainbow) before a dinner at citricos, 
which was in our hotel.









we spent our last day at magic kingdom


this is one of my fav pics of whole trip. i love her little grin sitting at our table for 2. we got a breakfast reservation for cinderella's royal table breakfast just the night before. so it was a surprise to get to go do this. the boys rode some boyish rides and played in arcade while we had a princess morning.















we went to epcot that evening for our last night. 




the monorail was crowded and our kids acted crazy climbing the poles and fighting over stroller seats. i think the monorail needs to be bigger if anyone wants my feedback:)



all 12 of us ate at this yummy mexican restaurant at epcot. great way to end the trip.

this trip could not have gone better!! my babies did great with their grandparents, and i got to enjoy all these memories with my isaac and annette and charlie. 

it will be fun to go again when it is set and jane lauren's turn. we think 5 and 6 was a pretty perfect age to go. charlie was just barely tall enough for all the 44 inch rides. a very good thing!


my tips for myself for next time;
bring extra phone battery pack deal. our phones were dead mid day until we bought one.
don't leave nice camera under seat of plane. pack it in backpack. 
natives were the perfect kid shoe.
stroller is always a good idea bc they will get tired of walking. and want the shade.
i'll add here as i think of more.





 drumroll as i'd like to now give thanks to the following people... ha...

milkandhoney tees for our cute mickey shirts. hoping jl and set can wear them when we come back. thank you granny and grandad for watching babies, carrie for helping get set to mothers day out,  jessica for booking and helping plan everything, and isaac for giving us this gift of a trip and your vacation days. and God, for the time and means to travel.