Disney Day 8 – Our last day

We took our time on Friday morning loading the car with our bags and souvenirs before heading to Sea World for a couple of hours. Our flight was at 4 and we had some time to kill.

By this point, Nolan was in love with Shamu (still is a month later) and carried his little figurine around everywhere. He was pretty pumped to see Shamu greeting everyone again. Luke was not feeling well and just wanted to rest in the stroller.



This is Shamu, holding Shamu, giving Nolan a kiss.




Both boys wanted to pet Mr. Ray again!




We saw 2 shows – the Sea Lion & Otter show and the Shamu Show. Luke was VERY tired and not feeling his best during the Shamu show so I just held him while Nolan was in awe of the whales.




We had some ice cream before leaving the park. Nolan and Luke fell asleep in the car on the way to the airport and, thankfully, stayed that way when we transferred them to their strollers, checked our bags in and wheeled them to security.

This is all sort of like a blur to me because it was so hectic and stressful, but we arrived at the gate, I got the boys some lunch, thought I lost my purse, forgot to take my anxiety meds for the plane ride (not good), had to chase Luke down the terminal, caught some Lukie vomit in my hands as Justin was waving me to get onto the plane since we were the last to board.

We weren’t late for the flight at all, the airline crew just boarded the plane crazy-early.

We had to do some seat-shuffling since I wasn’t medicated (have I mentioned that I’m a REALLY paranoid & bad flyer?) and was nervous about having both boys sit with me in our 3 seats – which is what the boys wanted to do. What can I say, they love their mommy! Thankfully, my amazing husband got me some meds, took care of the boys and we had a relaxed trip once we were in the air.



Also, you can tell from this last picture how nice my tan was from our week in Florida! Obviously I kid – we are an SPF family!

It was nice to walk through our front door and put the kids to sleep in their own beds, but I really did miss vacation and spending an entire week with my parents and sister. My mom even called the following day and told me she missed waking up with Nolan and Luke.

We have some small trips planned for the rest of this year, but nothing as big as Disney World. We’ll do some camping, spend time at the beach and drive out to Ohio to visit my parents and brothers. I love taking my little guys to fun places and am looking forward to a fun year with them!

Disney Day 7 - Hollywood Studios & repeat MK Day

I hadn’t been to Hollywood Studios (or MGM as I still call it) in years. I had fond memories of the Rock and Roller Coaster and the Tower of Terror, but just hadn’t returned to the park since 2000. It was just as much fun as I remembered and we had an awesome day!



The boys (obviously) couldn’t ride either of my two favorite rides, so we did them in shifts and luckily the lines were short enough that we were able to do the quickly!



We still had fun just being together while waiting for Grammie, Pop & Aunt Danielle to finish a ride!



After wandering around for a bit, we saw….



Jake from The Neverland Pirates (which is a show on Disney that’s on rotation in our house)! This was a huge deal for Nolan & Luke. I hadn’t seen them this excited yet! Luke could barely contain himself.



After the Little Mermaid Show (which was just amazing and the boys both enjoyed it) we went to the Prime Time Café for lunch. Since we had poor timing, we ended up waiting to be seated for an hour before we made it to our table. The boys were pretty upset by this point and I was starving, so it didn’t make for a happy combination. We sat, we ate, we left. The food was good (fried chicken – yum!), but I would have been happy grabbing a hot dog and ate that while walking around! There was so much more I wanted to do, but the boys were fading fast.



Yep, didn't ask them to hold hands...it's just how they roll sometimes!




We saw a couple more shows before Justin & I left with the boys while my family stayed. We took them home and gave them a nice nap before we met up with my parents at the Magic Kingdom later that evening.

Our last ferry ride over to MK!




We stopped by The Confectionary and loaded up with some goodies before meeting the rest of the group on Main Street.




We took a train ride halfway around the park then scoped out a good firework-watching spot.




Afterwards, it was off to ride some more rides. Luke kept asking to “shoot the bad guys” so we went straight for the Buzz ride again!



We had to sneak in a Space Mountain ride, so Nolan & Luke went on the People Mover with Grammie & Pop!




As we were leaving the park, I thought about how much fun we had and how different it will be for all of us when we come again in a couple of years.



A lot of people looked at me funny when I told them we were taking the boys to Disney at only 2 ½ years old, but I think it was the PERFECT age for them to really appreciate all that was going on. I know that they won’t remember this trip when they’re big, but I will remember it. A month later, they are STILL talking about Disney World and all of the fun things we did. Luke even remembers random, small events like dropping his “credit card” in the lake at Epcot!

I saved some events for future trips like having the characters sign autograph books and going to see the Luau at the Polynesian because I think they’ll appreciate that more when they’re a bit older.

I had a lot of trepidation about how the boys would behave during an 8 day vacation to Disney, but they blew my expectations out of the water. They were so well-behaved! I’m not saying both of them were perfect angels at every point on our trip, but they were both extremely good and really didn’t disappoint. I expected spending less time in the parks and more time at the resort resting, but they were troopers and wanted to keep going.

We still had a half day to spend in Orlando on Friday before our flight back home so we decided to pack on Thursday night and spend a couple of hours at Sea World again before we flew home the following day.

Disney Day 6 – Animal Kingdom

We spent our 6th day in Orlando at Animal Kingdom. I had only visited this park once before and didn't remember much except for the big tree. We arrived when the park opened and walked straight for the Tusker House in Africa so that we could have breakfast with the characters.

Look who greeted us outside!



We headed straight for the buffet and loaded our plates with yummy waffles and sausage to eat while we waited for the characters to visit our table. The buffet was a big hit with my boys -- they loved the freedom of choosing whatever it is they wanted to eat!



First up was Safari Mickey Mouse! Nolan just about jumped out of his chair when Mickey approached our table. He could not get to him quick enough.



Luke had a kiss ready for Mickey (while Nolan has waffles stored in his cheeks!)






Surprising to me, Luke was really excited about Daisy Duck and he flung himself into her arms when she came to our table! He's a real ladies man.






The Kilimanjaro Safari was so exciting!



We got to see a few animals that we haven’t been able to see at the Philadelphia Zoo like elephants and a lion. Nolan and Luke were most excited to see lion!






Then it was time for some fun dino rides before heading into A Bug’s Life!





Nolan and Luke fell asleep in their strollers in the late afternoon, so we took advantage of being able to ride the Expedition Everest coaster which was a lot of fun! The park was pretty crowded that afternoon, so we wandered a little while longer before heading back to the resort for some swimming. We went over to the main pool which has a kiddie pool next to it and let the boys loose. They had a blast and we had margaritas! It was such a gorgeous, hot afternoon and I’m glad we got the pool time in because it ended up being our last. The following day was supposed to be in the 60’s and that’s not swimming weather as far as I’m concerned!

Disney Day 5 - Magic Kingdom

Before Nolan went to bed the night before, he insisted in sleeping in his Crocs, so when he woke up this morning, I could hear his little feet march across the tile floor into our bedroom as I was drinking my coffee.

We left the resort early and went to The Polynesian to have some breakfast before taking the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom. We enjoyed the most delicious breakfast there!



The monorail was, quite possibly, the coolest thing that has ever happened to the boys (in their eyes, of course).




As you can tell, we were very happy to be at the Magic Kingdom!






We began our day in Tomorrowland and went straight for the Buzz Lightyear ride (or as Luke began to refer to the ride: “Let’s shoot the bad guys”).



(I’m taking a picture on the ride…naturally).




Next up was the Indy Speedway. At first my little guys didn’t understand why I wasn’t riding with them, but I loved seeing their faces as they drove past me on the bridge!








We managed to do a lot of rides (and the Tiki Room!) in Adventureland. I think Nolan & Luke’s favorite ride was the Jungle Cruise, but I preferred Pirates of the Caribbean!



We created little Pirates. Aaaarrrg.




Before we started back for Main Street, we rode the Haunted Mansion ride and I’m happy to report that the boys weren’t scared at all!



The parade was pretty cool. I’ve never actually seen it in it’s entirety because I always took advantage of the short lines during it, but I wanted my boys to be able to see some of their favorite characters ride by.




Of all the characters they saw that day, this guy was their favorite.


(they enjoy watching Jake and the Neverland Pirates).

Luckily the crowds weren’t bad this day and we were able to ride all the rides very quickly since the lines were so short. I don’t think we waited more than 10 minutes for any ride. The Speedway may have been the longest.

We went back to the resort and had a nice dinner. The boys went to bed and we stayed up to watch a movie. We could hear some rustling coming from their bedroom, but every time we peeked in, they were both in bed. Finally, we heard their door creek open and we spotted Luke peeking out at us. We told him it was bed time and as we put him back in bed he whispered, “no I don’t.” Thankfully he did because we had another fun day planned for Wednesday. We were having breakfast with the characters at Animal Kingdom!