Wow where to begin.....
Friday night before leaving.... we got the car loaded up and everything ready to go, ordered pizza and made sure all laundry and dishes were done and everything was picked up before we left for the week.
Saturday morning, me and Jas got up at 3:15 am and showered got ready to leave, loaded the remaining stuff into the car, then woke up the girls about 4:15, we needed to be out of the house by 4:45 to be in Indianapolis by 6 for the 7 am flight. There was no way the girls were falling back asleep in the car, they were so excited when we woke them up by saying, "It's Disney DAY!" We grabbed them a quick breakfast snack and headed for Indianapolis! Got through the airport fairly quickly and only sat for about 15 minutes before boarding the plane. Still no sleepy girls. After a 2 hour flight we arrived in Orlando about 9:20 am. The minute the plane door opened, i smelled "that" smell. The smell of the beach the humidity, the smell i love!! Since we were riding the Magical Express or as the girls call it the "Mickey Bus" we didn't need to pick up our bags, just headed straight to the Disney Transportation area where we were greeted with the big white mickey hand. As we boarded the bus, Disney music was playing along with the welcome video and the girls were given Mickey stickers. This was Jas's first trip to Florida so he took in the scenary as we rode into the Disney property. The bus ride took about 35 minutes from the airport to the All Star movies resort. The hotel was soo cute, Dalmations everywhere, Fantasia and Mighty Ducks. The lobby was filled with Disney memoriabillia, disney movies playing and a big souviner store (of course). After checking in and receiving our packet, we headed straight to the store to get mouse ears! Alivia picked out a pink princess mouse ears and Addison picked the old style black mouse ears. We were starving at this point and went and ate lunch. After checking out the 2 pools on property and finding our room, we all needed a nap. About 3pm we headed into Magic Kingdom. Since we were resort guests, we had transportation between all the parks and hotels which made things very easy. the girls' first view of the castle was priceless, the look in their eyes was unforgettable. I can't remember a whole lot from that first day since we were overly exhausted. But we did do the dumbo ride and the teacups (which you'll see from the pics was a HUGE hit) We had the first character meetup with Pooh and Tigger which made the homemade autograph books a HUGE hit with the girls. Headed back about 8 and had supper and went for a swim.
Sunday- Another day headed to Magic Kingdom, we had breakfast in the room and headed in about 9:30 to the park. We walked all around Magic Kingdom, did the Winnie the Pooh ride, went through Mickey and Minnie's houses which the girls loved and then went to stand in line for autographs and pics with Mickey and Minnie. Alivia had a huge issue with the characters and it didn't get better over the trip. She wanted their autographs but wanted us next to her also. We rode the train from Toon Town all around the park, then had a little snack and went into meet the princesses, Addie was thrilled! We decided since we were planning on doing the extra hours that night from 10pm till 1 am, that around noon we'd head back to the hotel and nap after a quick jump in the pool. We napped and had supper in the hotel and headed back into Magic Kingdom around 6. We had big plans for the night, did the Spectro Magic parade which was completely lit up and then watched the fireworks over the castle, they were the best i've ever seen. Afterwards we did some rides and some shopping and left the park around midnight.
Monday- We decided to sleep in a bit since the girls' moods and fighting showed us they were overtired. We casually got moving for the day, and headed to Hollywood studios. This was maybe my favorite park. We got there right away and got in line for the Playhouse Disney show. This is one of the girls favorite shows it includes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, and Tigger and Pooh. They had awesome effects and puppets that came up from the stage, you really felt like you were part of the show. Next we got some pics with June from Little Einsteins, another show the girls love on the Disney channel. We headed the the Ariel show next. This was VERY cool, characters were on stage and the whole auditorium was dark. During parts of the shows over the ceiling they used effects of being under the water with lights and sound. During the part of Little Mermaid where Ursula starts the large storm, rain mist and wind actually filled the entire auditorium, it was SOOOO cool. As we walked around, the girls found neat charm bracelets that you could buy charms for, so throughout the trip they bought charms all over disney. There was an 80's band in the streets of Hollywood that was very cool, i got a great video of Addison dancing to it that i will upload. The whole park made you feel like you were in different parts of the country, New York City and all. The girls got to see the Cars characters and we headed back early after too much fighting and our patience level being gone. After some much needed naps we hung out at the resort pool the rest of the day.
Tuesday- Animal Kingdom day. I wasn't all that impressed with this park, seemed like a glorified zoo to me, with the Circle of Life tree from Lion King in the Center of the park. It was very hot that day. We did however get to see Finding Nemo the Musical, which i think was EVERYONE's favorite part of the whole week. The puppets and costumes, lighting and actors, everything was amazing!! I also have a short video of that also i will add. We ate lunch at Rainforest Cafe then saw Balou (Jungle Book), Meeko (Pocahontas) before heading out of the park. Tuesday night, we had dinner plans with some wonderful people at Downtown Disney. Downtown Disney is basically a ton of shopping, great food and some neat fountains. We ate at Fulton's Crab House which is a steamboat in the middle of a lake. Let me tell you about the Bass Family. I met Kathleen about 4 1/2 years ago on my mommy board online, we've always clicked with our outgoing personalities and opinions. I've gone through both pregnancies with her on that board and she's watched the girls grow up through pictures. She and her husband Eric have struggled with infertility and have finally adopted the most beautiful little girl in April. Little Whitney now is 4 months old. We had a wonderful dinner and shopping experience with them, and have already made plans to visit during spring break and stay with them. They are awesome people!! It was so great to actually meet them in person and give lots of hugs and kisses to that little Whitney that so many people have been dying to meet and we've all prayed about for years!
Wednesday- Last full day at the parks. This was the Epcot day and Princess breakfast day. We had to be at Epcot at 9:00 for our character breakfast that i reserved 3 months ago. Girls got pics with each of the princesses as they walked around to each table. Very Neat!!!! Epcot was geared too old for the girls so we did the Nemo ride and saw the Aquarium there which was neat, after meeting Daisy we decided around 1:30 we were done! Got back to the hotel for some lunch and layed down then went for a swim. While we were ordering supper in the hotel, Addison walked up to me and slipped on water and completely fell flat on her back and her head on the marble floor. I was so worried, she was sobbing so much, i went up to the front desk for an ice pack and they immeadiately called the Medic, Medic came and checked her out, she was fine of course and the resort paid for our meal, took addie back upstairs and got her to eat a little before she fell asleep.
Thursday was check out day and BEACHday!!! We got up fairly early and ate breakfast, loaded up the rental car and hit the road for Cocoa Beach which was about an hour away. We pulled into cocoa beach about 11, grabbed subway and checked into the hotel. They upgraded us (for free) to a ocean view room!!!!! We changed into suits and headed to the beach which was about 50 steps from the hotel. I was in heaven and felt human again!! The waves were outrageous due to the Tropical storm out in the Atlantic, we did find some awesome shells though. After about 2 hours on the beach, the girls wanted to swim in the pool at the hotel. So me and jas grabbed a couple drinks and swam for awhile. We then got ready and headed down to Cocoa Beach Pier. This was totally not what i expected. It was the old fashioned wood pier, with resturants and shops that you basically walked through like a maze to get out to the end of the pier. There was a cute Tiki bar at the end of the pier, so we grabbed a drink and watched all the surfers in the huge waves. As the waves crashed onto the pier we could feel it move a bit. After the pier, we went back and put suits on and went for a walk on the beach and took some pics of all of us. It was windy and full of people waiting for the launch at Cape Cavaneral, it was supposed to be monday of that week but didn't end up happening till friday night. Once it got dark, we jumped into the pool again and grabbed a beer from the outside bar. Listening to Jimmy Buffet and laying in the pool and watching some fireworks over the beach, guess we ALL realized how much we want to be back at the beach and in the south.
Friday- Had to check out by 11 so we got up early had breakfast and headed down to the beach for a morning walk, the shells were awesome and Jas actually found a palm sized conch shell that we brought home. About 9:30 we bathed the girls and packed the rental car to go home. I was so sad, none of us wanted to leave. Before we left cocoa beach, we did a couple souviner shops, this town reminds me of Port Aransas in Texas, very cute beach town with a laid back feeling and beautiful landscape. We drove to Orlando and had lunch, did a little exploring of Downtown Orlando before heading to the airport mid afternoon. The airport was a nightmare, their security is crazy, only 4 lines and hundreds of people, it ended up taking us 45 minutes to get through. We grabbed supper before getting on the plane at 7. As the plane took off, i had tears in my eyes, i didn't want to leave, especially to come back to Indiana, makes me hate it here even more.
We had a wonderful trip and are sad to be home. I have about 500 pics i'll try to get on here soon, if not here's the link to my facebook album and i'll add the videos too. I am playing catchup from school this week, along with the girls starting their first day of preschool tomorrow. Very busy from here on out.
Okay here's a link to about 180 photos out of the 480+ i took.
