Magic Kingdom

Friday was our last full day in Florida so we decided to go back to the Magic Kingdom. We even managed to be there for the opening (which Henry thought was really loud), but we didn't have time to take pictures of Minnie, Donald Duck, Mary Poppins and the princesses - we had to get to the Dumbo ride, right?


Quick family picture...

Can't get enough of Dumbo:








The Carousel, which oddly, wasn't playing music on this morning. Henry prefers to ride in the sleigh instead of on a horse, which always surprises me.


Henry trying to pull the sword from the stone...


By this point, Walter had enjoyed seeing the horses pulling the trolley on Main Street and just taking in every moment. The only thing on Henry's mind all morning had been getting to the Buzz Lightyear ride so he could shoot Zurg with a laser gun! So we skipped some rides and made a bee-line for Buzz. If memory serves me, we went at least four times in a row. The one time Henry and I rode together, he didn't even touch his laser gun - he just sat back and took in all the sights!








We grabbed a few smoothies for our walk to Frontierland.


Mimi #2 and Henry tried on masks while waiting for the next ride.


The other favorite: The Jungle Cruise. The only place where you can see butterflies whose wingspans range from 1 foot to a whopping 12 inches! The boys liked seeing the resident crocodiles (you just have to look out for Ginger because she snaps) and the elephants (it's ok to stare at because they were wearing their trunks). The best part of this ride, after 5 trips, was watching the reactions of Walter and Henry. It was very real to them - they even ducked when we were under attack and had darts coming at us! Not the best pictures, but good memories.








There was more fun waiting at the boat racing area. We didn't even have to put in any coins because the boys were content with using their imaginations! I know there are too many pictures, but they look so cute in the shirts grandma got for them.












Sawyer Island - Henry still talks about the "Barrel Bridge" (which was challenging when carrying an almost 2 year old) and just today told me that the caves were scary!


Playing checkers with Grandma.




It was definitely time for lunch after lots of running around and shooting on Sawyer Island. We were all hungry and tired. After a quick lunch in Liberty Square, Nate I decided it was time to head back to the condo. Walter was out after a few minutes, and we stopped to get a silhouette done. It was really amazing to watch this guy work so quickly...

Thankfully, Walter was sleeping...otherwise this would not have been possible.


Henry enjoyed looking at all the animal cards they had while we waited.



The castle

The Train Ride
This was the one ride I thought Walter would love...but he was sleeping the entire time. Guess we'll have to go again!









Had to get a picture of Walter in front of the train named for Walt (Walter) Disney.


After the train ride, it was time to leave. Grandma and the Mimis were going to stay a little longer. "I want to go on more rides!" Henry told us. We didn't think there was any way he'd be able to last until 6 p.m. in the sun and lines...but he convinced us that he really wanted to stay.

First stop was meeting Mickey Mouse...turns out Henry didn't really want to meet Mickey ("He's old and dusty."), so the Mimis took some pictures with him.


Apparently, Henry was interested in having some peppermint bon bon ice cream!








The first day we were at the Magic Kingdom, Henry was disappointed that the lines weren't long enough for him to play with the fun things they had set up at the Winnie the Pooh ride. Grandma and the Mimis were kind enough to take him back, just so he could play for a few minutes.


The last ferry ride back from the Magic Kingdom to the parking lot. So sad...


He was such a trooper and had so much fun. This was Henry just a few minutes after we picked him up a little after 6 p.m. He only said, "I'm not tired," 2 times before starting to snore!






Meanwhile, Megan was kind enough to squish between 2 carseats again, so Walter could sit by her. In the picture he was having fun watching her hair getting blown around with the windows down.



The end of a fun day at the parks. Mimi #2 is right, someone from Disney could run the country - Disney's clean, not a piece of trash to be found on the ground, all the "cast members" (otherwise known as employees) are friendly and polite, and this place runs smoothly!

Still Day 6...

Back to our last day at the Animal Kingdom...

We were told that the bird show was amazing and we happened to walk past just as it was getting ready to start, so we grabbed some seats.


Walter had a hard time seeing...


... and Henry thought it was too loud,


they did like watching the birds, but Erin and I ended up taking them out for a walk for the rest of the show.

The boys really wanted to go to Dinoland next.

Tricera Top Spin ride - Walter really likes these kinds of rides, so he wanted to get right back on again.



After two spins on the dinos we were in need of a snack, some water, and a rest. Here's the popcorn bucket that we paid a pretty penny for to remind us of our family trip whenever we eat popcorn at home!

After we caught up with Walter, who was chasing Goofy, the boys had lots of fun in the Boneyard play area on the slides, ropes and digging for bones in the excavation area. I even made it up a rope ladder while carrying Walter - thank goodness for the kind lady at the top who took pity on me and helped me off! Henry enjoyed "driving" the jeep in the playground and digging in the sand.








Family Pic under Dino-Sue






We needed lunch in a big way after all the playing and digging. Henry had to stop and admire this skull on our way to lunch.


Of course, we practically had to force Henry and Walter to ride in the stroller, but this was the scene about two minutes later!


When nap time happened upon Henry and Walter, we were headed for a walk on the Maharajah Jungle Trail because the boys wanted to see the tigers. Lots of animals to see, including these enormous bats...not as scary when they're not flying above your head at night!


While I pushed our sleepy-heads in the stroller, everybody else watched the 3D movie, "It's Tough To Be a Bug." It's hard to see, but here are the Mimis modeling the 3D glasses in front of the movie poster.


Of course, Henry woke up after the movie was done and still wanted to see the tigers, so we walked back to the trail to see all the animals again. Walter even saw a few animals at the end of the walk when he woke up. After a long, fun day we drove home (OK, so we stopped at Baskin Robbins on the way!).

When we got back to Orange Lake, I had to take pictures of this because it was so sweet. Mimi #2 was reading on the balcony, and Henry want to do exactly what she was doing - I think he actually asked her to move so he could sit in her chair!









Reading Night-Night Little Pookie to Mimi and Walter.


Nate ordered pizza for us, but we were still waiting for them an hour later. Turns out we got a free dinner from Papa John's but it was a very late dinner - while we waited, Nate and I took the boys for a swim at the pool.

Getting ready for bed - watching Wallace and Gromit with Mimi and playing with Bapa.

Animal Kingdom Again

Back to our week at Disney World.

We appreciated our mid-week break on Wednesday. Walter's fever didn't come back, so we decided to spend Thursday at Animal Kingdom again. There were a number of things we wanted to do again and a few things we hadn't been able to do the first day we were there.

We drove into the park as it opened ("Have a wild day.") and made our way to the Safari. There were 2 little boys who loved seeing all the animals again. The animal pictures are for them...