Disney World Part 1

For the past six months I have been planning our family's first trip to Disney World.  Sara, with Cupcakes and Castles, was terrific to work with and helped pull off all that I hoped for in our magical Disney experience!  Last Saturday morning we woke the kids up and served them a big Mickey breakfast.  I honestly think they thought we were just having a Mickey themed breakfast.  Finally, Adam broke the news to them and they were beside themselves with excitement!  (A big "Thank You" to my friend Jennifer who let me borrow all the cute table decorations and Mickey waffle maker!)

We have not ever flown with all our kids before so this was a new experience for us all…and I must say they loved it and were good little travelers!

We had a bit of a layover in Atlanta so we watched planes while waiting for a table at P.F. Changs.

We arrived late afternoon so we got checked into Art of Animation, ate dinner and headed to the pool, the boys were super excited!

After a good nights sleep, we started bright and early on Monday morning at Animal Kingdom.  We took advantage of the picture opportunity with this gy-nor-mous Christmas tree at the front gate as we waited for our early breakfast reservation.

Tusker House is a safari themed character breakfast buffet with some African food items, it was really good.  The kids got to meet Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Daisy.  The boys had a great time, Ava Jane was a little more reserved with the characters.

They got to help lead the parade through the restaurant, I think they had a big time (though Emerson was holding his ears because of how loud it was.)

As we started into the Animal Kingdom, you can't miss the huge Tree of Life, it was beautiful!

Our first FastPass was for the Jungle Safari ride.  It was awesome!  We saw some animals I'd never seen unclose such as an Opaki (a cross between a zebra and a giraffe), a hippo, crocodiles and flamingoes.  This ride was amazing!

We enjoyed the dinosaur area of the park.  It was super hot while we were there and we'd walked through a misting area (not on purpose) so Mom and I had some flat hair for sure.  While the bigs went with Dad and Adam, Mom and I took the littles to do some things that were more their speed.  The Dinosaur ride was a little bit scary!

Look at the size of those chompers!

The boys had fun on this spinning ride, no one else felt up for it, we didn't want to get sick!

Expedition Everest was a big hit for everyone!  Nothing like seeing the Himayalan Mountains too!

And of course Adam enjoyed his king size turkey leg!

Animal Kingdom closed early so we park hopped over to Epcot and strolled through the different countries, eating and drinking our way around the lake.  This was probably the most relaxing thing we did the entire trip.  Adam and I loved this evening because it was laid back and we could just take in the sights and sounds.  There were many choral groups performing Christmas carols which was so beautiful and truly magical with all the lights and Christmas decor that was everywhere.  We ended the evening by watching Illuminations, which is an over the top fireworks show that was stupendous!  It was the best fireworks display I've ever seen!

The kids enjoyed their ice-cream treats while we waited for the show to start.  Everyone loved the fireworks!  It was truly amazing to see!

It was a great start to our trip!  We literally walked over 35,000 steps this first day, averaging about 15 miles of walking.  So I must brag on my little people, everyone did great, thanks to my friend Carol who let me borrow her double stroller and to my loving husband who let Lawson give his traps a good burn as he rode on his shoulders much of the time.  So we may have been eating really great food, but I felt completely justified in doing so, since we only sat down for rides and meals during our 14 hour plus  days at the parks!