Disney - Day 7

We had to wake up super early to pack and check out and still get to Magic Kingdom when it opened.  We were at Magic Kingdom Monday and Tuesday and both days as soon as we walked in, there was an hour line to see Rapunzel.  Addison was dying to see her of course but the line was too long so we promised that on Friday we would go there first thing.  Well of course on Friday we went straight there but there was still an hour and a half wait.  I asked Addison about 10 times if she REALLY wanted to wait in the super long line or she wanted to go on some rides instead.  She insisted that she wanted to wait, she didn't want to do anything else, etc... so on we waited.  It was the longest wait we had all week and I'm not entirely sure it was worth it for me but it was definitely worth it for the kids.  Addison was practically jumping out of her skin to see her.  It was super cute.  

Rapunzel was reminding Addison to keep her frying pan at the ready at all times just in case of an emergency.  Love her!

I think Cooper was almost as excited as Addison.  He loves Tangled and really wanted to see her.  He was all smiles whenever she talked to him or gave him a hug.  I think he has a little crush!

Since we had already done everything we wanted on Monday and Tuesday we just did whatever we wanted and rode our favorite rides again.  Addison picked Peter Pan for the 3rd time, Small World, Aladdin's Magic Carpets and Splash mountain for the 8th time.  Cooper wanted to do Philarmagic for the 3rd time and we all wanted to do the Haunted Mansion and Pirates for the 3rd time.  It was SO nice to be able to take our time, do everything we wanted to and kind of relax a little bit.  The kids loved getting their ice cream treats everyday too.  We left around 4:30 to drop the stroller off back at the hotel and head back to my grandma's for the night.  It was SO nice to be able to go back there so we could have a full last day at the parks.  Addison was talking the entire way there about her favorite rides, Rapunzel, her favorite characters and it was awesome for her to be so excited about everything.  It was a success!

We really had a fantastic trip.  I truly don't think it could have gone any better.  Not a drop of rain the entire week, cool weather at the beginning of the trip, Cooper's cough went away after the first day, the kids were great the entire way there and back and the trip was planned to a "T" so we hardly had to wait in any lines and we saw tons of characters.  We even were able to see the Epcot fireworks every single night from our hotel which I loved since I LOVE fireworks.  I'm not sure how we'll ever top this trip!

Disney - Day 6

Animal Kingdom Day.  I had never been here so I didn't really know what was good to go on or how to make a plan.  My only plan consisted of going on the Safari ride first so thats what we did.  It was awesome.  We saw a ton of animals and the kids were so excited every time they saw something new.  

This rhino came right up to the truck.  It was awesome!

Surprised we saw a lion.  They are usually sleeping during the day.

Us with Dug and Russell from UP.  Addison loved it.

Triceratops Spin.  Basically Dumbo with Dinos instead

The kids LOVED this little playground.  It had a bunch of slides, climbers and these dino footprints that roared when you jumped on them.  They spent a good 20 minutes jumping on these.

Rawr!

We saw "Nemo, the Musical" which was pretty good.  I actually liked the songs and Cooper sat through the whole thing.  

We ate lunch with Donald and friends in their Safari gear.  We hadn't seen Daisy yet so Addison was extra excited to see her.  Besides the characters this was by far my least favorite meal.  First of all we had to wait 40 minutes after our reservation time to even get a table and then none of us even liked the food.  We all ended up eating mac and cheese from the kids table.  It was all African themed food and I tried about 7 different things but none of it was appealing to me.  The kids loved the characters though so it was worth it to me that way.

Daisy kisses

PLEASE let me go to sleep!!

Safari ride again

Kali River Rapids.  This was really fun and we got pretty wet.  It felt really good considering it was 90 degrees outside.  We spent lots of time in the shade with spray fans and ice cream cones. 

They had this great splash pad area that Addison was dying to play in.  Cooper would have loved it too had he not been asleep!  She had a blast even though she was annoyed that she was wet for the rest of the day.  Wonder what she thought would happen if she played in the water : )

On our way out.  Cooper was still fast asleep.

We had a great time today and the only things we didn't get to do on our list was the Lion King show and the Bugs Life Show.  I was actually really bummed about Bugs life but it was closed for renovations.  We would have had to wait an hour to do Lion King so we decided to skip it since it was unbearably hot and we didn't want to reach the point of completely miserable before we finished.  More swimming at the hotel tonight and then packing. I can't believe how fast this week has gone by!  We have to check out of the hotel tomorrow before we spend the last day at Magic Kingdom and head back to my grandma's.  None of us want to leave!

Cooper was finally awake when we did the kid's splash area.  He loved the little slides.  He did them about 50 times.  He did not however like the giant bucket of water that fell right on him so after that he was done and wanted to go to the big pool.

We let the kids stay up super late to swim and we ended up eating dinner outside while watching Monsters, Inc. that they had on a giant inflatable screen by the pool.  The kids thought that was cool.  We really, really loved the hotel and the pool and food court and general atmosphere.  I would definitely recommend it to anyone thinking of staying there.  

Disney - Day 5

Hollywood Studios Day!  We went straight to Toy Story Mania to ride it and get fast passes for later since everyone said it was really fun and worth riding a few times.  Cooper of course loved it.  It's a carnival style game ride where you play a bunch of different shooter games to get the high score.  It was really fun and I'm glad we got to do it twice.  They were out of fast passes by 11 am.  Crazy!

Then we saw Little Mermaid which was fantastic.  We had front row seats and the kids loved it.

Addison wasn't tall enough for Rockin Coaster so Phillip and I took turns going by ourselves.  I have come to the conclusion that I don't like roller coasters anymore.  It was way to jerky and fast.  It made me sick for 20 minutes after.  Extremely glad Addison wasn't tall enough to go because I had no idea it was like that. She would have cried for sure.

Next up was the Beauty and the Beast show.  I've seen this show a few times but we always seemed to come in late so we never got good seats but we had great ones today.  Even Cooper sat and watched it. It was very well done.

Cooper of course fell asleep right before lunch.  I originally made reservations somewhere else but this morning I decided Cooper would like to see some of the Disney Junior characters so this morning when we got there I switched to a character lunch.  Of course this is the one he would sleep through!

Addison and Special Agent Oso.  She just started watching this lately so she was excited about it.

Phillip tried to wake up Cooper so he could see Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates but he wouldn't wake up for the life of him.  It was actually pretty funny.

We FINALLY got him up to see Handy Manny.  I don't think he knew what in the world was going on.  He just wanted to sleep.

He was still a little sleepy because as soon as Jake left he had a cow that he didn't give him a hug or hi-five.  We all loved Jake.

Apparently this is June from Little Einsteins.  Nobody had any idea who this was and I ended up calling her the wrong name.  Whoops!

It wasn't very busy so all of the characters came around again and this time Cooper was much happier to see Jake.  Glad we got a picture of him smiling!

We went to a parade after lunch and we must have snagged a great spot because a lot of the characters came right up to us and gave hi-fives to the kids.  They loved it.

Obligatory picture of Lotso Bear.  Cooper loved him.

Addison especially wanted to see the Muppets 3D movie.  It was really cute and the kids have loved all of the 3D stuff.

Making a wish and throwing pennies in the fountain

Us in front of the big hat.  Unfortunately Cooper decided to pick his nose right then.  Oh well, guess they can't all be good ones!

We had a great time today.  It was MUCH hotter than it's been all week but it didn't seem too bad since we were inside doing shows a lot of the time.  We didn't wait in a single line today and did everything we wanted including an hour and a half lunch and we were still done by 5.  Now off to dinner and night swimming.  Yay for no more sunscreen today!