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.

Day 2: An evening at Epcot

The Animal Kingdom closes early, so we headed over to Epcot afterward. Unfortunately I hadn't planned our time at Epcot because it was kind of an afterthought. I had spent a week planning every detail of what we would do at the other parks. Planning is really essential to get the most out of the experience.

Anyway, we got there too late for Elena to meet Mulan (currently one of her faves) or any of the other characters that you can only meet at Epcot: Tinkerbell, Jasmine, etc. I wasn't sure which countries had what, so we kind of wandered. Also, we had been giving the kids plenty of water, so Elena had 3 or 4 potty breaks in the 3 hours that we were there. We did do a couple of cool things. There was a Nemo ride, the different countries were beautiful, and we enjoyed...

Mexico! Loved the music, the shopping, and we went on the boat ride inside.

Kevin was so cute dancing to the music playing while we ate ice cream. He entertained us all for about 15 minutes.

The highlight of Epcot was probably getting to see Mater and McQueen. Kevin was really excited even though they were made out of bushes.