Vacation..Vacation..Vacation!

So for the very first time we took a family vacation. And what better choice of a destination than WALT DISNEY WORLD!

We headed to Texas first to get Caitlyn for the summer and surprised her a whole week early to be at her dance recital. OMG was she excited!

She did AMAZING in her recital and looked absolutely beautiful. We were so glad to have been there. Starting this coming school year we most likely are not going to be able to attend anymore due to the girl's conflicting school schedules. 

After a week of visiting with family and friends in Texas we left on Friday May 31 to head to Florida for our Disney Adventure. We stayed the night at a local hotel to make sure we were well rested for the week of AWESOMENESS we were about to enjoy.

On Day 1 we headed to Gatorland. Man that place was so cool. We have never seen so many Gators in our life. We also saw various types of birds, reptiles, and trees. Our favorite part was when we watched a man wrestle a gator. It was definitely a great way to start our Florida vacation.

 

After our adventure at Gatorland came to an end we headed to check in to our resort. The squeals and laughs of excitement coming from the back seat as we drove through the entrance were well worth the 12 hour drive. 

We checked into Pop Century and were greeted by a familiar face. Matt's cousin Ben is a chef on Disney Property and lives in Orlando. We were so happy to see a familiar face, but better yet, to have an inside scoop on everything Disney.

We got all checked in and headed to our new home for the next 7 days. Wow what an amazing place Pop Century is. Completely decked out in huge monuments of items that represent the last 50 years and Disney characters that are all to familiar to the Disney loving family that we are.

                                    

             

We got settled into our room and Matt and I surprised the kids with gift bags that had t-shirts for everyday we spent at the Disney Parks and autograph books. They loved them!

For our first night at Disney we decided to head to Downtown Disney. We made our way through several shops and watched some young kids dance their little hearts out to entertain the crowd. The kids favorite store was the Lego one, of course. They were in "ah" of all the characters that were made out of Legos. And of course the girls were so excited to get some Minnie Ears.

For dinner we headed to Planet Hollywood. We sat on the 3rd floor. It was so cool and Action/Adventure themed. We enjoyed some music being spun by a DJ. The girls loved the fact that the music videos played during the songs. We were definitely the party table, we had a grand old time dancing and singing to our favorite tunes while enjoying all the cool movie memorabilia and decor. 

Day 2, we got up early and very excited for our day at Magic Kingdom. It was truly a magical day as we embarked on our journey through Fantasy, Tomorrow, Adventure, and Frontier Land. The kids favorite rides were Little Mermaid, Haunted Mansion, and Toy Story. We learned kinda late into the day about fast passes and how they work, but glad we did because they truly saved us lots of time standing in line. 

We enjoyed an awesome buffet lunch at Crystal Palace with Piglet, Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore. The kids absolutely loved it. They were so excited to see, meet, and get their autographs. 

The rain stayed away all day, but decided to come while we were sitting and waiting for the Main Street Electrical Parade and fireworks. Thus, causing them both to get cancelled. So we proceeded to head back to the hotel. On our way out, we saw an awesome flotilla.

We didn't let the rain get us down though, we headed back to the resort and went to the Hippy Dippy Pool and enjoyed some splash time.

On Day 3 we all woke up super pumped for our day at Epcot. We started our day there with a ride inside the Epcot Ball on Spaceship Earth. It was so cool. 

We then ventured into World Showcase and checked out all the different countries. 

We had lunch at a little cantina in "Mexico" where little birds tried to steal our churros lol 

As we walked on over to catch a ride over California on the ride Soarin'. The kids were so excited to see a Monsters University themed bush. To make it fun, we told the kids Edward Scissorands cut it out ;)

For dinner we headed to Norway for dinner at Askerhus Royal Banquet Hall where we got to meet Belle, Cinderella, Aurora, Snow White, and Ariel. The girls were in total "ah" over seeing and chatting with the Princesses. The food was amazing and dessert was oh so yummy!

We topped off our night at Epcot with the amazing Illuminations water show!

On Day 4 we headed over to Animal Kingdom. We started our day with Brunch at the Rainforest Cafe. The food was great and our Volcano dessert was to die for!

We then headed over to the Lion King show. On our way we stopped by the tree of life. 

The Lion King show is a must see. It was soooo amazing. We all enjoyed it. The characters, the floats, the monkeys, the men on stilts...everything about it was awesome!

After the show we took a train ride to Rafikis Planet. We entered the conservation station and the kids got to hear rainforest sounds and see various reptiles. We also got to visit a petting zoo and see a beautiful owl.

We then headed on a walking adventure through a forest. We saw a Gorilla, various birds, bats, a meerkat and a Tiger.

Our favorite part of the day was the Kilimanjaro Safari ride. It was so cool to take a ride through an African Safari. 

After our Safari, we headed over to DinoLand USA. This was definitely B-Cam's favorite. We went on the Dinosaur ride, had some fun in Dino Rama, and enjoyed dinner at Restaurantosaurus.

Day 5 we headed to Hollywood Studios. 

We started out with The Voyage of the Littlle Mermaid Show. The wait was about 20 mins so I went and got us fast passes to the Toy Story Mania ride (glad I did, that ride had a 2 1/2 hour wait). Little Mermaid is a must see if you love that movie as much as I do. We then headed over to the Great Movie Ride. Matt and I love movies and that ride was pretty awesome taking you back through years of movie making awesomeness.

We headed over to lunch at Hollywood & Vine for a Disney Jr. play date. We enjoyed a great buffet while visiting with June, Jake, Oso, and Handy Manny. The kids loved getting up and participating in song and dance led by the coolest guy ever.

After lunch we headed over to get our fast passes to Star Tours and saw Darth Vader! He and the storm troopers were training new jedis.

While we waited for our fast pass time to come up we headed over to Muppets 3D and the kids got to meet Lightning McQueen. Brycen was all about it, but chickened out of taking a pic (lil stinker).

Our time finally came for Star Tours. Turns out they revamped it, and it is 3D now. It was so awesome!

Next up on our agenda we hit the Indiana Jones Stunt show. 

It was pretty awesome, from what we actually saw of it. In the middle of it they had to stop the show due to a torrential downpour of rain. They said we (the audience) could wait in the covered theater and the show would commence. But, no such luck. The show was cancelled and we headed back to the resort in hopes that the rain would pass. When we got to the resort we did what anyone would do on a rainy vaca day...we ordered pizza and sushi! And it was delicious :)

The rain did pass, so we headed back to Hollywood Studios to use those fast passes we had (can't let them go to waste lol). 

Caitlyn and I went on Hollywood Tower of Terror. Oh my gosh I screamed so loud! It was really fun and an adrenaline rush.

And our next stop was Toy Story Mania and it was well worth the wait. It was so much fun!

We closed the night with the Fantasmic show. OMG it was sooooo awesome. The technology and what they can do with water is just absolutely amazing!

Day 6 the storm decided it didn't want to let up. Thank goodness our days at the parks went off without a hitch. On this day we decided to just chill out and take a day to explore. We started the day out with breakfast at the restaurant Ohana at the Polynesian Resort. It is so pretty there, definitely plan on staying there one day. We got to meet Lilo, Stitch, Mickey, and Pluto. The breakfast was delicious and the Mickey waffles are yummylicious! 

There was something so special about this day too...when we first got to Disney, Alanna had wrote Mickey a note. She had looked all over and hadn't seen him at any of the parks. We knew he was gonna be at breakfast, so we just kept telling her she'd get to see him soon. Well on this morning she finally got to see and give Mickey her note. It was seriously the cutest thing ever! 

After breakfast we drove around for a bit and checked out ESPN World of Sports. We didn't get to do too much exploring like we had hoped thanks to the storm. So we headed back to the resort and let the kids have some fun in the arcade.

To top off this rainy Thursday, we decided to grab some drinks from the bar and head to the pool :)

For our last day in Florida we decided to take advantage of  Anheuser Busch's Salute to the Heroes and go to Sea World. Both the younger kids have been to the one in California but Caitlyn had never been and was really excited. But first we had reservations at Chef Mickeys where the kids got to meet Chef Donald, Chef Pluto, Chef Goofy, Minnie, and Chef Mickey. That by far was the best breakfast we have ever had!

After breakfast we were off to Sea World. It was a beautiful day! Perfect to see and spend the day with sea animals. 

There is no greater joy as a parent than being able to fill your children with so much joy and laughter. To see their faces light up when things they've only seen on T.V. all of sudden are real. We have been incredibly blessed and feel very fortunate to have been able to give our kids these wonderful memories they will remember for years to come.