whobody went to disney world? {dw one}

As I have mentioned....last week we took the whole family to Disney World...I only have 1073 pictures :) but I promise I won't share all of them. 

 

There are a lot of great ones to share...so I am going to just go day by day...and share the best ones!

 

We really had a great trip.

This picture was actually taken on our last day!

Funny...I made the kids take off their sunglasses for this picture, but I forgot.

 

 

As I said, we had a great trip.

But, there were moments.

 

Moments that I felt like our kids were too young. 

 

Moments that I felt like it was way too much work to go on a trip like this. 

 

Moments that I felt like we were pushing our kids too hard and too late. 

 

Moments that I felt like we were setting our kids up for having way too high

of expectations for having fun. 

 

Moments that I felt like a trip like this turns my kids into spoiled brats.

 

Moments that I felt like my husband would lose his 'good sport' attitude and probably hate me forever for thinking this trip was a good idea. :)

 

Moments that 4 kids felt like way too many.

 

 

 

BUT, there were also lots of

 

Moments that I could literally see the magic in my kids' eyes. 

 

Moments that Lola was smiling so big that her face had to hurt. 

 

Moments of wonder that my kids had when they were looking at the characters. 

 

Moments of excitement in the rides...especially the roller coaster. 

 

Moments when things just went right. 

 

Moments of my kids making great memories with their grandparents. 

 

Moments that I loved being on a vacation with my family.

 

Moments when 4 kids felt completely manageable. 

 

 

FIRST....the first picture I took. 

 This was the the kids on the bus that took us from the Orlando airport to our hotel....

yes, they were a little tired from traveling all day.... (I would have loved to taken a picture of the kids at the airport and on the airplane...but... just....well, things never seemed calm or in control enough to do that....and I really wasn't feeling well that day....

AND I was holding Cruz....)

 

 

We flew out of Minneapolis (which in hindsight, a smaller airport would have been much easier on this anxious Momma.)  Our flight was early, so we spent the night in a hotel in Minneapolis the night before.  The kids LOVE staying in a hotel...and really enjoyed just hanging out in the room.  Grandma Tractor actually sent along some books and popcorn that the kids really enjoyed! Did I mention this was Lola's birthday too?

 

They all slept good, except Cruz, who ended up waking up in the middle of the night with a fever. :(  We got up early and made it to the airport in plenty of time...and checking in and everything went perfectly.  I am SUCH an over packer...luckily Jason is patient with me....and strong enough to carry all of our bags.

 

The flight went well. The gate attendant really helped me out and got us ALL 6 in the same row...(she upgraded the passengers who were supposed to be sitting with 3 of us so we could all sit together) and she also 'blocked' the seat next to me so me and my "infant in arms" could have more room. (Praise the Lord!)  By the way... I love referring to Cruz as an infant....he is SO not an infant.  Cruz fell asleep on me as we were taking off....which I LOVED (and very much enjoyed throughout the trip).  Cruz doesn't normally just snuggle in and sleep on me...he is the type that just wants to be laid down in his crib and left alone.  SO...he slept for a little while and just sat nicely for the rest of flight.  It went perfectly!  We took the "Magical Express" to our hotel....and my parents met us there.

 

 

Luckily, Grandma Piano was there to help the kids check in while I checked into our room.

 

 

We then walked from the main hotel to our part of it using the 'sky bridge'...Nash LOVED this sky bridge because you could see the castle and Magic Kingdom on one side, and a lake on the other.  Although, he was convinced that the castle kept moving from one side to the other...he didn't quite 'get' that we were going different ways every time. 

 

By the way...notice Nash is rolling the suitcase along...he insisted upon being in charge of that "shuitcashe" in the airport AND at the hotel.  Little stinker.  He slowed us down a little (a lot), but felt extremely important rolling it along.

We spent a little time in our hotel room regrouping...and then headed over to Magic Kingdom for the evening.  There were lots of good things about our hotel room....full kitchen, 2 bathrooms, washer and dryer, we could see Cinderella's Castle and the fireworks from our room....but the BEST thing about it was that it was within walking distance to the Magic Kingdom.

 

  No matter how 'convenient' the monorail or any other form of transportation is...WALKING was the way to go....because then we knew exactly how long it would take. There was no waiting for anything (except Nash)...we just walked.  Here are the 3 older kids on our first walk to the Magic Kingdom. 

 

 Let it be known. Nash was ANYTHING but cooperative when it came to me taking pictures....which I think that you will notice after looking at all of our trip's pictures....

 

ALSO he is holding his Mater with wings....I picked that up for him to play with on the trip (I put it in the bag he got to open when the plane took off)....this proved to be an excellent toy for Nash. He really played with it the whole trip!

 

 

Another picture of us on the walkway (or as Lola saw it, the runway....look at her hair....your hair doesn't do that when you are walking).

 

 

When we got into the Magic Kingdom, Grandma Piano took off with the stroller and Cruz to head to Fantasyland, while we all hopped on the train.  I believe Cruz was napping.  Let me just say, if you go to Disney World, take a nice stroller.  We had a very nice double stroller to use (thanks to Elsie) and it was wonderful to have (and a dream to push...even with lots of pounds in there)....Nash was pretty stubborn about riding in it unless we forced him to...but Keaton and Lola actually hopped in there more than once...

 

and we obviously kept our

thirty-pound-non-walking-one-year-old-

who-sleeps-all-the-time-especially-when-

he-is-a-little-under-the-weather-

best-and-most-tolerant-little-brother-in-the-world

in there pretty much all of the time. 

 

My dad spent a lot of his Disney trip sitting on a bench next to Cruz in the stroller while we went on rides.  If Cruz was awake, we took him along, but if he was asleep...he stayed with Grandpa Sheryl. (I think they both enjoyed this...)

 

Did I mention that we got the kids up at FIVE that morning to get to the airport? and NONE of them slept on the plane...well I guess Cruz did for maybe 20 minutes? and I think that Nash and Cruz just took a short nap on the bus to our hotel? and that was it?

(THIS was one of those times we pushed the kids too hard...

stay tuned to the rest of the day) 

 

 

Below is a picture of Keaton on the train....he was very excited to be back at Disney World...and was actually feeling not-so-hot this day,

(of course...this wasn't a very healthy trip for us...this day

Keaton, Cruz & I were just not feeling good)

but was still a great sport and had lots of fun.

 

 

Lola was also excited for the big Disney return.

She had just turned 4 the last time we went, but remembered every bit of it....

and was very excited to experience it as a brave six year old.

 

 

This is Nash waiting in line for Dumbo.... a little worried...but mostly excited.

 

 

 

AND this is one of my favorite pictures... :) just because it is so cute. Jason and Nash in a Dumbo across the ride from Lola and me. 

We rode Dumbo countless times...and every time Nash would yell

"HEY MOM! OVER HERE MOM!

I BEHIND YOU!

 WOOK OVER HERE!

HEY GRANDMA!

WOOK! HERE I AM!" 

He really liked the Dumbo ride.

 

 

The other 'family favorite' in the Magic Kingdom is the carousel.  We were lucky enough to get on both of them lots of times without waiting long.  That night it rained a little while we were on the train...(so only my mom got soaked) and then just misted the rest of the night. It was enough to clear the crowds out of the park a little...but not enough to ruin our night.  It was actually pretty refreshing to be in a warm rain!

 

 

 

 

I had to take a picture of the castle...they turn it to "ice" with the lights...

and I thought it was so pretty! 

 

The only way to get out of the Magic Kingdom is through Main Street....and there was actually a "Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party" going on which we were not a part of...but explains all of the people in the background. 

Part of the party is that they make it "snow" on Main Street.... so I wanted to take a picture of the kids in the "snow" in Florida!

 

I know what you are thinking....Cruz isn't in any of these pictures from your first day...

you are correct. :( He just stayed in the stroller, protected from the light rain...and slept. He was tired...and I didn't want to mess with him. I promise, I do have pictures of Cruz....just not from this night in the park.

 

 

I know what else you are thinking....those kids must be exhausted!!!!!!! 

I bet they are heading back to the hotel room for a good night's sleep....

 

not.so.much.

 

So...we actually planned the trip a little bit last minute (in Disney time)...and didn't actually make reservations til August...turns out that in order to get things like character meals you need to have them booked a little earlier than that...especially with 8 people.

 

SO...after leaving the Magic Kingdom, we headed back to our hotel for our

9:00PM

reservation at Chef Mickey's.

 

smart. I know. 

 

In my defense...anytime I have every flown with any of my kids, they have pretty much slept the whole time....I thought with traveling all day, they would sleep all day...and that paired with being in a different time zone....well....I hoped it would end up being a better idea than it was...Oh well!  It still was fun...

 

Next up: our meal at Chef Mickey's (way past bedtime)