It's that time again. Time for Together on Tuesday. This Tuesday, I'm linking up with Danielle at "My Peaches and Cream" to discuss vacations. We thought it would be fun to blog about upcoming vacations or recent trips we have taken. I loved this suggestion as my family just returned from Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL. It truly was a vacation of a lifetime. I could write a volumes about our trip. There are so many memories I want to try to capture, and preserve for years to come. I also realize that you people have lives, and do not want to read an entire novel about the three days I spent in Disney World. So, I'm going to try to break this post down into three parts: my expectations for the trip before we left, a few little snippets of our experience at WDW (which is how I will refer to Walt Disney World from here on out in this post), and of our return home.

Preparing to go to the Happiest Place on Earth:

In true "Michelle" form, I waited until about two weeks before our trip to actually get excited and start planning for it. I think the reason behind this was the fact that we wanted to wait to tell the kids about the trip until this time. We knew they probably wouldn't really understand what WDW was or where we were going, and there would be questions everyday about when we were leaving. My kids don't really have any concept of time. Even after all of this, Mia, my daughter would still say, "Going to Disney in two couple days!!" every day. She even said it when we were on the airplane.

Thankfully, my husband talked with his mom and sister, and took care of the details as far as where we were staying and what kind of park pass to buy. My job was to work on the small details of what to pack, and how to plan out our days once we got to WDW. To get prepared for the trip, I checked out the Disney website, but found that I was a bit overwhelmed with all of the information. The best advice I got was from my Aunt. She had this wonderful PassPorter book that gives wonderful tips about where to stay at Disney, where to eat, how the transportation system works, and lengthy descriptions about each park. I promptly went out and bought my own copy. She also let me know what to expect on different rides, and tips on how to avoid having meltdowns from my kids wanting souvenirs from the numerous gifts shops in WDW. She suggested we bring our own flashlights for the kids to use on the dark rides if they got scared, and turned me on to the penny pressing machines. I left her house excited, and looking forward to our trip. I started a "Count Down to Disney" for our kids about 5 days before we left. We would put up Mickey Ears with the number of days we had before our trip. This really helped my son understand how much time we had left before the big event, and it helped him get a little pumped up, too. We watched Disney movies, listened to Disney music (yes, I have CDs of The Best of Disney Volumes 1-7), and watched the promo videos of the parks on the WDW website. I think this helped pump up the entire family. We were ready to go.

Our WDW trip:

We left for WDW on Sunday, and arrived Sunday evening at about dinner time. We stayed through Thursday around noon. On Monday we spent the day at the Animal Kingdom. We spent most of the day Tuesday at Hollywood Studios. We went to Epcot in the evening for dinner and the fireworks. We went to the Magic Kingdom on Wednesday and about half of the day on Thursday before leaving for the airport. I will just give the highlights of each day.

On Sunday, we woke up, and rolled out. We listened to Disney music to get excited for the trip. My mom was traveling with us-which was a huge help, and we picked her up on the way to the airport. I would like to believe that my kids are travel well. They are experienced fliers as we have made numerous trips to visit family far away. Mia kept saying, "We're going to Disney, in two couple days!!" Sammy kept correcting her of course, "No, Mia, we are going to Disney, now!!" It was a long day to say the least. After a lay over in Atlanta, we finally arrived in Orlando. We tried to my kids for the bus ride it would take to get to Disney, but I don't think it really helped. Sam did really well, and loved watching Donald Duck on the video screens on the bus. I think this was his first exposure to the "traditional" Disney cartoons instead of what he has seen on Disney Junior. Mia on the other hand was not so enthralled. By this point she had enough. She was ready to eat some dinner, and go to bed. (She's used to napping, but did not take one on the plane-darn it!!) We stayed at the Boardwalk Inn on Disney property. We had four stops before our hotel, and at each stop, Mia was sure we were getting off of the "school bus" as she liked to call it. I tried to calmly tell her this was not our hotel, and point at the huge Swan on the hotel's roof, "see what's the Swan, this is the Swan hotel." She would promptly yell in my face (loud enough for the entire bus to hear), "That's not a SWAN!" Same thing at the Dolphin, "That's not a DOLPHIN." Duh-mommy. It was cute about the first 2 times, after the twentieth time-not so cute. Finally, we made it to our hotel, ate some dinner, and crashed for the night. Well, some of us were able to crash. Let's just say we have a couple of snorers in our group. Also, Mia did not want to sleep in the pack and play at first, and spent the first part of the night literally sleeping on top of my head. I tried to scootch down towards the foot of the bed, but she would just scootch down there, too. At one point she bonked heads with me, and said, "sorry mommy, sorry" and began giving me kisses on my bonked head. Too cute, but seriously, I just wanted to sleep. At about 4 am even she threw in the towel. She scooted down to the end of the bed, walked over to the pack n'play, threw her owlie in there, and looked at me, like, "Can you give me a hand here I need to get some sleep."

Sam waiting for the Magical Express.

Mia and Grandma on the bus to the hotel, you can almost see the grouchiness brewing.

On Monday morning we woke up very early to take advantage of the "extra magic hours" at the Animal Kingdom. Honestly, we weren't sure if the Animal Kingdom would have a lot to offer that our kids would be interested in-we didn't want to just visit a glorified zoo-this was our Disney trip after all. Boy, were we wrong. It was wonderful. We got our fast passes for the Kilimanjaro Safari ride, and then had some breakfast while we waited for our pass time. The ride was great. Both kids really enjoyed the bumpy cars, and looking at all of the animals. Sam was a little nervous when we saw the lions-he was afraid they might come after us. We saw the wildlife everywhere, and we even saw a cheetah jump into a tree-seriously!! After the safari ride, we enjoyed a nice relaxing walk through the Pangani trail. We saw all kinds of birds and even some gorillas. Then, we took in the Lion King show.   The kids and Jake, my husband, were able to sit on the aisle.  They got up close and personal with some of the cast from the show, and even received a high five from one of the monkeys.  It was amazing.  Next, we went to camp Mickey and Minnie where kids can get autographs from their favorite characters.  We waited in line to meet Minnie, Mickey, and Donald.  Mia and Sam both did fantastic.  They were so excited to meet each character.  Finally, after all of that we rode the Triceratops Spin in Dinoland and played in the dino dig area.  The kids were tired-and so was mom. As we left the park, Mia (going with out a nap once again) decided she was going to show off the skills she learned on how to be a lion at the Lion King show and "roar" at everyone on the bus.  She would stand in her seat and yell "ROAR!" at everyone.  It was highly entertaining for all of the bus passengers.  We ended the day with dinner in Downtown Disney at the T-Rex.  Picture Rainforest Cafe, but with Dinosaurs.  Sam was not a huge fan.  Mia was asleep when we got there, and I was worried she would freak out when she finally woke up.  She did okay though.

The family with Mickey at Camp Mickey and Minnie

Tuesday started off with a boat ride from our hotel to Hollywood Studios.  We knew this would be the place to meet the Pixar characters, and decided to do that first.  We had a very short wait and the line wound through different scenes from the Toy Story movies.  Both of my kids loved meeting Woody and Buzz.  We also took in the Disney Channel Jr. show, met Tigger and Eeyore, had lunch at Pizza Planet, and met an "army" guy from Toy Story.  My kids also loved meeting Mater and Lightening McQueen.  I think the high light of the day for Sam was riding the Star Tours ride with Daddy.  He built his own light sabre after that, and Mia of course, had to get a Jedi Mickey Mouse.  I'm only slightly concerned that Sam's color choice was red for his light sabre.  We also watched the Pixar Pals parade.  We were right on the street and positioned at the start of the parade.  The kids got a lot of waves and Mia even received a high five from one of the monsters from Monster's Inc.  I wasn't sure how she would take it, but she did well.  We left Hollywood Studios, took a short break at the hotel, and then caught the boat to Epcot.   Jake and I decided that there probably wasn't a whole lot at Epcot that our kids would enjoy.  We road on the Nemo ride, and did "Talk Time with Crush."  I think that the parents and grandparents got a bigger kick out of that than the kids did.  Crush is interactive-you can talk to him, and he can hear you.  It's pretty awesome.  We also road the "Spaceship Earth" which is the "golf ball."  The fireworks were amazing, but Mia crashed before she even saw a firework go off. 

Could you find kids more happy than this? I doubt it.

The Magic Kingdom.  What more can I say?  This is Disney World.  First, we got up at the crack of dawn in order to make it to Chef Mickey's breakfast buffet. It was totally worth it.  Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto all make their way to your table to meet your kids, sign their autographs, and get a picture.  Plus-my kids actually ate the food.  The big joke of the week was for Daddy to act like he thought Pluto's name was "Play-Doh" and Sam loved this.  He would always ask, "Now what's Mickey's Dog's name again?" just to correct Jake.  Mia was really campaigning for those characters to visit her.  She would stand on her chair, wave her arms in the air and say, "Mickey, ova hea, ova hea!!"  Translated that means "over here."  So adorable.  We were able to ride all of the rides we planned on visiting.  The Buzz Lightyear Spin was of course the hit of the day.  Sam was pretty excited though when he got of the Peter Pan ride.  He was talking non stop.  Mia really liked the Prince Charming Carousel, and the Tea Cups.  She fell asleep during the "Haunted Mansion" ride and slept through the train ride around the park.  She finally woke up on Pirates of the Caribbean.  We rode the Magic Carpet ride as the Dumbo ride was closed due to the expansion of Fantasy Land.  The camel on the Magic Carpet ride spits water when you fly by him-much to our surprise. On our way out of the park, we saw the line to meet the princesses was fairly short.  So we decided to try it.  Mia was not sure what to think of the princesses.  Sam was trying to impress the pretty ladies by puffing out his chest.  It was so adorable.  Belle gave Mia a big kiss on the cheek.  Sleeping Beauty asked Sam how many dragons he slayed that day and he said 5300, and they were all green.  So silly.  Our kids were exhausted so we decided to opt out of the fireworks show.  We did get to see two street performances and one parade though.  It was a wonderful trip.

This is Mia's "Ova Hea" video from Chef Mickey's

The last day of our trip was truly exhausting.  We woke up early so we could get to the park for the opening.  We only had about three hours before we had to leave and head out to the airport. It was the warmest day of the trip by far.  The kids were tired and pretty worn out by this point.  We rode some of our favorite  rides one last time, pressed some last minute pennies and purchased a few quick gifts before leaving the "happiest place on earth" to make the long trek home.  I think I was the saddest.  I will hold the memories from this trip dearly in my heart for years to come.  It was a special experience for me to have my mom there as well because we never got to make the trip to Disney when I was a kid.  

Once we were home, it took us all a few days to get back into our normal routine.  I think I had a little bit of the vacation blues.  It's hard to come back to reality after being in a place where dreams come true.  I've always loved Disney movies and music.  I think it was truly a magical experience.  To get over the vacation blues, I've already started planning our next trip.

If you have made it all the way to the end of this post-I thank you, and if you still have a few minutes to read, go check out Danielle's post about her vacation adventure at "My Peaches and Cream."