Day 5 and 6: Downtown Disney & The Drive Home

Wow, I felt like we took so many pictures during our trip, but I keep thinking of things that we did that we have no photos of. I guess there's no such thing as too many pics on a family vacation. Let that be a lesson to me.
We checked out of our hotel and then drove to Downtown Disney which is full of stores and restaurants and has free parking/admission. Our first stop there was the Lego store. The next few pictures are all made of Legos.
These were taken in front of the biggest Disney Store in the world. The kids got their main souvenirs on this last day in Florida. Elena bought a small Tinkerbell doll with about 20 accessories and Kevin bought a Lego Duplo set of 2 of the cars from the Cars 2 movie.
Sweet little copycat Kevin admires Elena so much.
I bought my souvenir at Once Upon a Toy. Apparently the only photo I took of the store was this train. My most expensive souvenir was actually for the kids, but it was totally my idea because I thought it was so cute. They have a small box for Mr. Potato Head parts. You can fill it for $20. I had a cast member cram the box full for me with the items I'd selected. It was awesome. We now have all these Disney parts - Tinkerbell hair, Buzz shoes, Cruella DeVille purse, etc. The woman must have fit 25 things in there! I'll have to remember to take a picture of it all later.
We also ate good food, shopped in the Christmas store, and rode on the carousel. At about 4pm, we started to drive home. It had been a fun day and worth the late start heading home. We had tried to extend our original room for one night, but our Orlando hotel was booked for Memorial Day weekend. So, we stopped somewhere in Georgia. I'm so glad that we did. I was thinking we just drive all night. That would've stunk. Anyway - we stayed here:
We played in the indoor pool that night. Enjoyed our bigger and super clean room. In the morning we had their awesome free hot breakfast and swam in their outdoor pool. Kevin and Elena loved climbing on this counter and then sliding down the couch in front of it. He's showing off his new cars in this picture.
I wanted to take a picture of the kids sleeping in the backseat on the way home since we started the trip with them awake. Unfortunately, when they were sleeping, I was either driving so Dan could sleep too or else I was asleep in the passenger seat.
We had a fantastic trip and I'm so glad that we went! We are going to have to scrimp for a while to make up for it, but everyone needs an impromptu Disney trip every now and then. It was a great graduation for Dan and birthday for me gift. The best.

Day 4: Magic Kingdom

This was the most magical day. Prepare yourselves for lots of photos! Starting with the first ride of the day...Dumbo! One of my books gave us a tip to wait in line separately about 30 people apart, so when I got done on the ride with the kids, I handed them over the railing to Dan and he went with them on the ride again without them having to wait.
This was E's favorite ride of the day. Kevin was sleeping, so he missed out, but he did like the cups when he went on them at Busch Gardens a few weeks later.
We were able to go on a ton of rides at Walt Disney World, but of course, I don't really have pictures of very many of the rides. I do however have pictures of all the characters that we saw. Elena and Kevin were both very excited to meet everyone. That made it more exciting for Dan and I then I would have thought. For example, here is a photo with a talking robot trashcan.
I took pictures of some of the characters as we walked past, so that Elena will have proof of having seen them. For instance: Alice, Peter, and Rapunzel and Flynn. I know Elena would have loved to take a picture with the Tangled couple, but their line was was really long, so a photo from afar would have to do.

The Fairy Godmother
Mary Poppins was enthralled with Kevin's Lightning McQueen car. :)

The girl pirate from the newest movie. Angelina I think.

Sleeping Beauty has always been my favorite princess. There are a couple of reasons: Her pretty name, the idea that she was raised as a commoner and later found out she was a princess, and she got to marry the coolest prince of them all. Prince Philip is my favorite because he actually had to battle the dragon and he can sing. :) This was one instance where I was as excited as Elena. Aurora was very sweet to her and talked to for a long time before they even started to pose for pictures.

Mini-Belle and Belle

The whole time E was talking to Cinderella, Kevin was fussing to get down (I was holding him), so he could talk with her too. He loved showing everyone his McQueen car that we had bought the day before the same way that Elena showed everyone her new Tinkerbell necklace.

Other fun things that we did or saw:

The afternoon parade was great and we found a good spot again."It's Small World of Jeralls" (Haha - do you remember, Bethany?)

Kevin slept through the Winnie the Pooh ride

In Winnie's house

A robot Buzz we saw while in line for the Toy Story ride at MK

Trying on hats:

A Mater, Goofy, and Mickey combo. Could there be anymore characters on this hat?

Elena got to drive. She had so much fun. It was getting dark, so the picture isn't great, but it was a momentous occasion. Disney is so great, they even gave her a fake little driver's license when we got out of the car.

My little boy is so adorable, I just can't stand it! Seriously - look at this angel sleeping in the stroller!
Does anyone else remember this parade from when we were little? The Electrical Parade music was the same and everything! I used to play the record of the soundtrack over and over. Sorry, Mom, that was probably pretty annoying. :)
After the fireworks, we took one final picture and said goodbye! Isn't my brother the coolest to give us all his tickets?!

Day 3: Hollywood Studios

MGM was our favorite park as honeymooners in 2002 because of all the rides. We loved it again as parents because of all the shows and photo ops. K and E had a great day and K was able to have a great nap since we saw Beauty and the Beast and took pics with Handy Manny while he slept.
Here are our favorite photos from the day. I know there are a lot (but not as many as we'll have for Day #4). We were able to do and see so much! All due to the tips from this book which we could not have done without: The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. This one had some good info too: The Official Guide to Walt Disney World.
While waiting to take pictures with Buzz and Woody, we were able to take pictures at lots of different little set-ups. Good thing too since we had to wait an hour. That was the longest that we had to wait to get a picture with any character. Most of them only had wait times of about 10 minutes. Thank goodness went to Disney on weekdays in May and not in the summer or on a weekend.

I love how Buzz has his hand on Elena's head.

The parade was fun, and we got a spot in the front row.

This is what I saw the whole week: Kids in the stroller staying hydrated and Dan consulting the map or my list of attractions that we were going to visit.
Of course a photo doesn't show it, but this Stunt Show was awesome. We were able to sit in the second row (we had really good luck with all of our shows) and the driver's were amazing.

Handy Manny and Elena. We took a bunch of photos with him, but Elena said that she liked this one best because she was the most happy in the one that we are both in. Aw. :)

I wanted to make sure that she got some kind of picture with Mulan since we missed meeting her in China. Dan is holding her up.

The required Mickey Mouse picture:

Winnie the Pooh

Kevin was so focused on the Toy Story Mania ride. He was shooting like crazy the whole time! So cute. He may not have gotten the most points (they keep track of everyone in your section), but no one had more fun.
This green army man was walking the streets posing for photos and making men do push-ups.
You don't have to have seen Honey, I Shrunk the Kids to enjoy a playground where you are the size of a bug!

In a spider's web

All excited about the Cars 2 movie. We are going to see it on June 28th for Kevin's birthday.