My Dad is awesome! While Chris and I went on our cruise, he came to Florida to get the kids through their last week of school (including Aly's End of Course exams). He took them swimming, to see Maleficent, to the Go Cart park, and of course, ice cream. Not only that, but at the end of the week, he also drove the kids down the 7 hour drive to meet us in Orlando and spend another week with us at Disneyworld. Super Kudos to my amazing Dad!
My brother, Matt, was also able to fly in for a week of excitement and thrills at Disney. The girls loved having their Uncle and Grandpa along on the trip. (Chris and I were pretty stoked to have them along as well.) Plus, the 1:1 ratio of adults to children was uber helpful. :)
This trip was to be our "Hooray Daddy's Home from Afghanistan/Au Revoir to Florida" adventure. And what an adventure it was! Let's just take it day by day:
(**Disclaimer - there are a lot more pictures of Kate and Kylie, since many times Aly and Lise were off with Chris and Matt riding roller coasters. But even though not shown, they were having just as much fun, I'm sure!)
DAY 1: DOWNTOWN DISNEY
When everybody arrived in Orlando, we headed to Downtown Disney for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. The younger girls were loving all the animals.
Since we were staying on the resort, we were able to get the "extended park hours", one of which was at the Magic Kingdom that night from 1-3am. Matt, Aly, and Lise went to that and hit a ton of rides while the rest of us got a good night's sleep for the next day.
DAY 2: EPCOT
Early that morning while everybody else was still in bed, Chris took the little girls for a walk outside. You wouldn't believe all the wildlife they saw! From ducks and wild turkeys (which they got to eat out of their hands) . . .
. . . to lizards and an alligator! Between the animals and the pool I think they could have just stayed at the hotel and been happy all day! However, we did come here to go to Disneyworld. So eventually they came back and we headed over to Epcot. Then the adventure really began.
Okay, here's what I remember about this picture. We had just walked into the park when we saw Pluto on the side. I asked the girls if they wanted to get their picture taken with him and they said yes. This line was going to be like 10-15 minutes long. Within 2 minutes of being in line Kate and Kylie are restless, hanging on stuff, wandering off, whining about how long the line is, and Chris says he's ready to "drop kick both of them." At this point I'm thinking to myself, "Oh man, we're in trouble. I sure hope my peacekeeping skills are on their A-game today or we may just all go home." But look how great we all managed to smile for the picture! :)> Luckily, once we got the girls on a few rides and they figured out the whole "standing in line" thing, things got much better. Another key was maintaining everyone's blood sugar levels (adults and kids alike) and taking a rest break every few hours or so.
This was a bit of a slower day to ease us into everything. We hit Turtle Talk with Crush, Soarin', and a few other fun rides, then walked through a few countries to eat dinner in France.
We were waiting for the older kids to go on a ride and join us for dinner. That's when Kate and Kylie decided to start fishing coins out of the fountain. Classy - that's us. (I did make them put it back . . .)
For some odd reason Princess Aurora was in France instead of Belle. But that's okay, we like her as well. Especially since the girls had just seen Maleficent.
Caught kissing in the phone booth in England!
Still happy on our way out of the park - and oh, so happy for strong guys to carry children on their shoulders.
As for Analise, it was a good thing that the parks weren't too crowded, because whenever there was space, this is how she would travel through the parks.
Hold up that Ball, Aly!
DAY 3: THE MAGIC KINGDOM
Kate and Kylie started this day out a little rough as well (probably tired from the day before). Luckily, the first ride we went on was the Winnie the Pooh ride, which had tons of hands on activities for the girls while waiting in line. I actually think they liked the line better than the ride!
We were also able to have Pooh Bear and his friends visit us for lunch, which was awesome.
For some reason, Eeyore brings out the best in my Dad. He was the most excited about him - love it!
Even Aly's getting in on letting the little 'uns ride on her shoulders.
Here's Kylie and I staking out our spots for the parade while everybody else rode Splash Mountain. Poor girl was the only one too short to ride all the fun roller coasters - Thundermountain Railroad, Space Mountain, etc. She deserves that cotton candy!
The parade was awesome! The girls were able to see Anna and Elsa (so much better than waiting in the 4 hour line to see them!) and many more of their favorite Disney Princesses.
It was interesting to see the different stages of our girls on this trip. Aly was of course beyond being a little girl and just wanted to go on all the "cool rides". Lise was happy to go on them as well and excited to be tall enough to ride everything. Kylie was still completely engrossed in the magic of it all and it was awesome to see how excited she was about everything. Kate was stuck somewhere in the middle. She was tall enough to be able to go on most roller coasters - which she was obsessed with, by the way - but still loved the little kid stuff as well. However, she was determined not to get snookered by anything and spent the entire time trying to figure out what was real and what wasn't - especially on the Haunted Mansion ride. On other rides, like Peter Pan, she would keep telling me how fake everything was until I finally had to tell her that a lot of the fun of Disneyworld was using your imagination. That seemed to satisfy her. But I think she was pretty sucked in to the ghost in our "Doom Buggy" on the Haunted Mansion. She could never quite decide on that one . . .
DAY 4: ANIMAL KINGDOM/ISLANDS OF ADVENTURE (HARRY POTTER WORLD)
So, having been to Disney quite a few times myself, I knew that going to amusement parks for 4 days straight would be torture for the little kids (and me) and doesn't bode well on the morale of the group either. However, we also had our personal Energizer Bunny, Aly, who wants to keep going and going and going all the time. Luckily, Matt had offered to take whoever wanted to go with him to Harry Potter World. So Matt, Aly, and Lise spent the day at Islands of Adventure where they enjoyed the Hogwarts' castle, Quidditch roller coaster, and all the Butter Beer they could hold, along with the Hulk and some Seussland rides. Unfortunately there aren't any pictures of this awesomeness because Matt lost his phone hanging upside down on the Hulk. :( Bummer. Meanwhile, my Dad was kind enough to take the little kids to the pool so that Chris and I could do a session in the Orlando temple that morning. Super battery recharger!!(When you live 5 hours from a temple - you've got to go every chance you get!) We met up for lunch and then headed over to Animal Kingdom for the afternoon.
We went on the Kilimanjaro Safari ride where Kylie was ecstatic to see a few giraffes. We also saw hippos, zebras, elephants, lions - you name it!
This park was not crowded at all, so even though we were only there for about 4 hours we were able to ride just about anything we wanted - multiple times. We went on a roarin' rapids tube ride - twice! Kylie was just barely tall enough to ride it and was so, so, so excited to ride it - until we went down a slide and she got sopping wet! The look of shock on her face was classic. She stuck it out though and dried out fairly quickly. (Below: 2 bags of goldfish - $4. Girls happy while waiting in line - priceless! Oh, and the spray bottles with a built in fan weren't a bad investment either.)
At this park we also hit Kate's favorite ride - the Yeti (or something like that - it's a modernized version of the Matterhorn.) This roller coaster went forwards and backwards, through the dark. You never knew if you were coming or going. The line was 5 minutes long and Kate went on it 3 times in a row while Chris, My Dad, and I alternated between taking her. We were all spinning by the time we were done and she was like, "Let's go on it again!!"
Here's Kate, running screaming from the dinos in dino land.
DAY 5: MAGIC KINGDOM (AGAIN!!)
For our last day we went back to the Magic Kingdom to hit all our favorite rides. Of course Pirates of the Caribbean was on the list. "Yo ho, Yo ho, a Pirates life for me!"
One of my funniest memories of Kate was when she was supposed to ride Thunder Mountain Railroad with Matt, but when it came their turn to get into the rail car she was so excited that she jumped in and pulled down the hand rail before he could get in. So he ended up squeezing into the car behind Kate with Analise and I. We spent the entire ride playing "corners" and watching Kate slide back and forth in her car, squealing all the while. Classic.
Here is a picture of Kate eating a turkey leg. And below you will find Matt's reaction to that. ;)
On our final night we did some shopping. Kate and Kylie got princess jammies, and Kylie is in love with her Minnie Mouse, whom she made come to life with her magic. (Kylie does her magic by blowing on her finger and then making her fingers on both of her hands "sparkle away." So cute) Analise came away with a Merida Bow and Arrow set and a quill pen from Hogsmead, and Aly got a couple of T-shirts - one of Mickey, and another one from the house of Slytherin. Hmm.
So, when it was all said and done, I think everybody came home happy. Exhausted, but happy. Look at the smiles on those faces! I always say that these type of vacations are better in pictures than in real life. And as I've gone over the pictures and memories in this post, I've already started to forget the tired feet, whining, and stress of trying to keep everyone happy, while remembering the smiles, the joking around, and the excited looks on my girls' faces. Also, thanks to Chris, my Dad, and Matt for helping meet the girls needs and make it fun. It was a great trip. :)
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