DisneyWorld

You know it has been a while when you go to make a new post and Blogger has COMPLETELY been reformatted. Yikes, Also depressing is my blog roll. SO many of you haven't updated in forever. I know I am slacking, but I refuse to give up & neither should you! lol. Wow. I should be hired as an inspirational speaker.

Back in May my parentals sponsored a family trip to the one and only DinseyWorld. To say my kids were excited is a complete understatement....and they had only seen about 2 Disney movies. Ha! Needless to say, we had to borrow some movies so the kids would know what to be excited about.

Thanks to my parents for this trip. There is NO way my little family would have been able to go otherwise. It was an 8 day trip - 5 days in the park - and it was amazing. My kids especially loved walking out of our hotel room and seeing their cousins every day. Geez I love my family.

Traveling with 8 kids under 8 is always an adventure.

Our resort.

 1st day was in the Magic Kingdom.

Meeting the princesses. Anna was nervous at first, but then loved it...of course. Evan could have cared less. Also, I loved how they had answers to all questions. Where are your glass slippers Cinderella? 'After I lost my glass slipper at the ball, my new MIL got me ones with straps so that I wouldn't lose it again'

Belle had some serious cleavage going on.

 Anna's favorite moment of her life was meeting Rapunzel. Good thing she gave me a great reaction because we stood in line FOR.EV.ER. and it was SO hot!

 Evan was excited to see Peter Pan...until we got up close. Can I blame him? That boy had a whole lot of make up on and looked a little weird.

He, did, however, want to go on the Toy Story ride repeatedly. Anna's favorite ride was the Peter Pan ride (she swears our ship REALLY was flying) and surprisingly...Splash Mountain. We didn't tell her about the drop (the girl is a worrier) and she did great. She asked to go on it about 100x more.

Day 2 was Epcot. And yes, with the humidity, I had already given up on doing my hair. Also, running at sea level is not easier when it is 90 degrees and 90% humidity. I wanted to die.

 Cooling off in the fountain/splash pad area while waiting for the Michael Jackson 3D movie (SOOOOO weird) and Evan is taking flight??

 Meeting the classics.

 Being Goofy with Goofy.

The whole family has to get in it for Mickey!

 Little Norwegian Anna.

Evan found this sword and wanted to fight the troll.

 Needless to say, we bought the aforementioned sword. And the boy loves him some

 'Wighten McQween'

And I love me some Mulan. She is the one 'princess' I can get behind.



Pretty sure Jasmin and Aladdin had a little something going on in real life.

Watching them flirt...was....ya.

Day 3 was Hollywood Studios...probably my favorite of the parks. Maybe because they had more 'roller coasters'?? I wish Ross and I could have snuck over to Universal Studios, but alas, a ticket for one day in their park was $140 a person and that was just not in our budget.

Anna LOVED this show.

And Evan loved the Disney Clubhouse show. He loves him some Mickey Mouse club house.

 Anna did so great on Splash Mountain that we decided to take her on Tower of Terror. She had no idea what was coming. I friggin LOVED this ride. Anna did not. She still talks about the ride (and the video that played before it) to anyone who will listen.

 Evan managed to convince his father, or more like it...the other way around, that he should aquire this Star Wars gun. The rest of the day was spent with him on my shoulders shooting 'all the bad guys' in the park. He could not have been happier. Until all his cousins wanted in on the action too. That ended up being quite the coveted toy.

 They have a live action car stunt show. Ross was in heaven. And of course, it features Lightening McQueen so that your kids will want to go. Lightening comes out for about 2 min and 'blows up' the 'bad guy car' even though they are about 100 ft apart and he does NOTHING but the kids loved that part. Those Disney folks sure know how to play the game.

 Day 4 was at Animal Kingdom - also a favorite. The jungle ride was awesome...almost as awesome as the faces this kid pulls.

None of these pictures even show much. That is what happens, people, when you no longer use an actual camera. I swear there were awesome animals everywhere.

The Lion King show was FANTASTIC.

I don't even like to think about lunch that day. For most of the trip we packed our food into the park - sandwiches and snacks (much to Ross' dismay who wanted to eat out for every meal). I finally caved and said ok to one expensive lunch. We went to the Tusker House. We had to pay for Anna to eat there even though she couldn't, because of her allergies, (and wouldn't) eat anything. LOVE paying $20 for her to eat 3 bites of watermelon. Needless to say, I acted like an 80 year old and packed the bananas and apples my kids didn't eat right into my back pack. Judge me.

 The kids DID love 'the experience' (DW's reason for us still having to pay for them even though they didn't eat) and not having to wait to meet any characters. Grandma Jane paid for all the kids to get their face painted. Evan loved being a zebra for about an hour and then he wanted it off. So we pretended to take it off. Which totally worked until random people would make a comment about him being a zebra and then he would look super confused.

We got stuck on the Himalayan ride for about 10 min. Good times. We went on the ride sans kids, so it was actually pretty relaxing ;) Who knew being with your kids 24/7 would make you appreciate time alone with each other SO much more?

We took the day off on Sunday and rented a car to go to church.

Then came back and hung out at the hotel and then made our way to Downtown Disney where I ate the worlds best sundae (The Haight Ashbury) at Ghiridelli. I took like 2 pictures of my food this whole trip. What happened to me? Oh yes. I was chasing kids.

One of the highlights of the trip was the ride home from Downtown Disney. The kids were wired and having a grand old time. Everyone else on the bus, however, was not. We got LOTS of stares, daggers, people plugging their ears and BEGGING to get off the bus. We are in friggin DisneyWorld people. If you can't handle excited kids, I suggest you go somewhere else.

Granted, they were a little out of control. But by Day 5..I don't really care anymore. So take that fellow passengers ;)

Our last day at the park was back to Magic Kingdom...by far the kid's favorite park.

Our kids look ridiculously happy, no?

Getting ready to race some cars.

Riding the magic carpets. Evan was not a fan. 

Ross and John think they are hilarious.

The last day we swam at the deluxe (seriously) hotel pool and then packed up to go home. The flight home was pretty sweet and the kids did awesome. Evan spent half the flight like this.

 And for good measure, I must include this adorable picture. The kids were hyper every night and refused to go to sleep. Yet about 2 minutes after they laid down they were out for the night. Dang that boys is cute. I think I need to get a comforter just like that one..so stylish..

I promise my next post won't take you 10 hours to read. Maybe.