Fall Vacation--The Magic Kingdom

It was a beautiful fall day at the Magic Kingdom

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Abbie was OK with getting close to Peter Pan.

Abbie loved the carousel.  She wanted to ride it again and again.

Abbie enjoyed Peter Pan's flight this year with Aunt Martha and Uncle Matt.

The whole group at Mickey's Toontown (slated for demolition next year).

Matt V. had the highest score on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin thanks to Abbie's skillfull maneuvering.  He obtained the rank of Space Ranger 1st Class.

Abbie is decked out with glow-in-the-dark stuff for the night parade.

The Main Street Electrical Parade is back at the Magic Kingdom.

In January, we participated in the "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" program by volunteering at a thrift store one morning.  By doing so, we received two certificates for admission to a Disney theme park for one day.  We finally used our certificates to take the family to the Magic Kingdom this past Monday.  Uncle Phil came with us, and we met Aunt Martha and Uncle Matt at the park.  We started off by riding the Dumbo ride, the carousel, and Peter Pan's flight.  We alsosaw Mickey's PhilharMagic movie before moving on to the Tomorrowland Speedway, and Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor.  Surprisingly, Sophie really wanted to ride Space Mountain with her uncles and aunt.  She survived.  Our family returned to the hotel in the afternoon for naps.  At night we returned to see Mickey and Minnie's house and we watched the Electrical Parade.  It was a fun, LONG day.  We didn't get back to our hotel until very late!

Animal Kingdom

Matt and the girls playing the drums

Tom, Teresa, Abbie, Phil, me, Sophie & Matt at Animal Kingdom

a giraffe we saw right next to us on our safari ride

While we were at Disney, we visited each of the four main parks for at least one day each. I loved Magic Kingdom with the kids and I also really enjoyed Animal Kingdom. On Wednesday, when we went to Animal Kingdom it became extremely hot and stayed that way for the rest of our trip. My parents and my sister, Martha, headed back to TN on Wednesday while the rest of us stayed in Orlando. Matt and I and the girls as well as my brother, Phil, moved over to the timeshare where Matt's family was staying because there was plenty of room there. We ended up splitting Animal Kingdom up over two days. I really loved the Finding Nemo show there and the Lion King show was good too. I also loved the Mt. Everest ride there and the safari thing was cool too. While we were in Orlando, they were experiencing record highs for October (in the mid-90's). We weren't really counting on it to be that hot but at least you can go into some indoor rides and shows and cool off. Plus, the girls went back each day for a nap so some of us could usually get a break from the heat. All of the parks had some fun things to do. All in all, it was a wonderful trip! I look forward to going back in a couple of years when Abbie can enjoy it more.

Random Disney Pictures

we've got the power

Abbie in Minnie Mouse's house

Sophie's serving tea at Minnie's house (Both of our girls loved Minnie's kitchen)

Abbie and I riding in the racecars. This was one of Sophie's favorite rides. She also loved Goofy's Barnstormer roller coaster, Peter Pan's flight, It's a small world, and a few others.

Meeting the Princesses

Sophie & Snow White-can you see the pure joy on Sophie's face?

Abbie's checking out Snow White-she kept calling all of the princesses Snow White or Cinderella since that's who she and Sophie were dressed up as

Jasmine and Sophie

me and the girls with Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)

Breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table was fabulous. I got the French toast and it was amazing!! The service was great and we all enjoyed meeting the princesses. Sophie got all of them to sign her autograph book. I think she just wished that Ariel had been there too but she's a mermaid! =) Matt felt like Abbie needed to dress up like a princess too so she bought her this Snow White outfit before the trip. That was a sweet thing for a daddy to do! When we asked Sophie what her favorite thing from the trip was, this was definitely one of her favorite things (a lot of times her answer would change because there were so many fun things I guess!).

Cinderella's Royal Table

Snow White and Cinderella (AKA Abbie & Sophie)

Abbie's ready to meet the princesses

our whole gang before breakfast

our family with Cinderella

One of the biggest highlights of our trip was eating breakfast with the princesses at Cinderella's Royal Table! Matt had made reservations for us well in advance and it was definitely a very special time, especially for Sophie. When you attend this meal, you actually eat upstairs in Cinderella's castle and have a beautiful view of the park. Before you go upstairs to eat, you get to meet Cinderella and get professional pictures made with her that you can keep. Once you go upstairs to eat, the other main princesses start coming around.

"Goofy" and Goofy with Sophie

Phil, Leia, Mickey, Sophie, and Martha

Here's just a couple more pictures from Chef Mickey's. Matt still had his Goofy hat from a previous trip so he enjoyed wearing it a couple of times. Here's some of the crew with Mickey "the chef". We rode the monorail back to the Magic Kingdom after dinner. It was the first time that the girls had ridden it.

Chef Mickey's

Minnie Mouse & Sophie

Pluto and Sophie

me, Minnie Mouse, Sophie, Martha, & Abbie

Goofy and Sophie

Do you notice who is not in many of the pictures of the characters? That's right. Abbie. She didn't really want much to do with them. She usually got really scared when a character started approaching our table. Sophie, on the other hand, loved all of the characters! We had a really nice meal at Chef Mickey's and enjoyed meeting the characters there. Sophie asked if Mickey was cooking our meal since it was called Chef Mickey's so we had to try to explain. =) Minnie Mouse was the sweetest of the characters, I thought. She came over to our table and signed Sophie's book, took pictures, etc. Then, she knew that Abbie was scared so she pulled out a chair at our table and sat down a safe distance from Abbie so that she could see her better but wouldn't be as frightened. Sophie kept wanting to meet Daisy Duck but she's not at Chef Mickey's. Sophie finally met her later in the week!

Disney Vacation-Day 2 (EPCOT)

Phil & Abbie in a play area

Oh no! Look out Sophie & Daddy

Nana & Abbie

Sophie & Paula

On our 2nd day of vacation, we all headed to Epcot. All of us who rode Soarin' really enjoyed it and Test Track was fun too! There were several rides that Abbie couldn't ride but she could ride a few. I thought that the Turtle Talk with Crush from Finding Nemo was really cute. Abbie enjoyed hanging out with her grandparents at times since she couldn't ride all of the rides. There was this really cool indoor play area that she loved!! Either on the first or second day of the trip I got laryngitis and had it for a few days because I caught a cold just before our trip.

I can't remember every little detail about our trip but we got to do the main things we wanted to at Epcot. Either on the first or second day of the trip I got laryngitis and had it for a few days because I caught a cold just before our trip. A lot of the things at Epcot are more for adults so we didn't do a lot of the countries, etc. After catching an afternoon nap, many from our group went to Chef Mickey's for dinner and that was a lot of fun!!

Lunch with Pooh and Friends

Paula, Matt & Sophie with Goofy

Nana and Sophie at the Crystal Palace

Sophie says, "aww..Piglet, you are so sweet!"

Paula & Sophie with Tigger (Abbie's in the background crying)

On our first day at Magic Kingdom, we had lunch at the Crystal Palace with Pooh and friends. Abbie didn't want anything to do with the characters however, Sophie loved them! She got an autograph book that first morning and got an autograph from Goofy right away. We enjoyed having lunch with everyone at the Crystal Palace. After lunch, we saw part of a parade and then the girls went back for a nap. (it was the routine pretty much every day for them to go back for a nap at some point). Some of our group would usually stay and enjoy the parks while some of us enjoyed having a break from the sunshine and could just rest. That night, we headed back to Magic Kingdom to ride some more rides and watch the SpectroMagic Parade. It was really great! We all loved it and found a nice spot to watch it from even though it was really crowded. We also saw Paula Deen there who was in the VIP section with all of her family. She had some escorts that were walking with her and my mom spoke to her! =)

Our Disney Vacation-Part 1

our family on the 1st day before going into Magic Kingdom

us with Matt's family

Cinderella's castle

can you see how excited Sophie was?

We headed to Disney World on Friday, October 2nd. We've been planning this trip for the last year so we had all been anticipating it for some time. My parents, my sister (Martha), and brother (Phil), all flew with us to Orlando. Matt's parents and sister, Leia, also came in from Virginia for the trip. It was nice flying with several other family members that could help entertain restless little girls. We stayed in the Pop Century Resort which is one of Disney's more reasonable resorts. It wasn't anything fancy or anything but they had some swimming pools, a big food court and gift shop at a resort. It was also nice for shuttles to come and pick you up and take you right to the park.

Saturday was our first day to head to the park and I told Matt that we had to do Magic Kingdom the first day because I knew the girls (especially Sophie) would just love it! All of us met up with Matt's family that morning and headed into the park to ride some of my favorite rides-Dumbo, It's a Small World, Peter Pan, etc. Sophie loved most of the rides but Abbie didn't like the rides that were very dark inside so the grandparents took turns walking her around.