So Much More to Post!

We really packed it in on our vacation to Florida, so there will continue to be more posts! On Wednesday we were planning to drive down to Tampa to use our Busch Gardens passes at BG Tampa. G and I decided we really didn't feel like driving an hour and a half to the park, especially since our resort was so close to everything we could possible want to do. SO, we changed our plans and surprised everyone with a 1-day visit to the Magic Kingdom at Disney! When we told my brother at dinner the night before, I thought he was going to launch straight up out of his chair! That was a fun surprise! I'll go ahead and admit that it was an ambitious day with 3 small kids, high temperatures, crowds, and great anticipation, but I think we actually did very well. We went in with a list of highlights that we wanted to be sure to see/do - the Dumbo ride, visit with Mickey and the Princesses, It's a Small World, the Carousel, Big Thunder Mountain, etc., and I think we accomplished everything on our list except for riding Space Mountain, which we would have done except that it started pouring rain around dinner time and things kind of shut down. The late afternoon rain really put a damper on things, and we spent more time than I would have liked in some crowded gift shops, but we managed to make that fun trying on hats and hunting for the perfect souvenirs that the kids could spend their trip money on. We're really looking forward to taking them back in several years when everyone is bigger and we can spend a week. ( in trying to condense the post, I made some pictures very small, so just click on them if you want to see them larger).

The kids' first ride - K shows off his speedway license.

EB's first ride - Winnie the Pooh. A tries to remove the sword in the stone

G and EB ride Dumbo

Visiting Minnine's house and Mickey's house

K tries out the giant light switch at Mickey's house

A was excited to meet Mickey and Minnie, but I don't think K knew what to make of it. They were confused about why their mouths didn't move. :)


the highlight of A's trip - meeting her beloved princesses.

Mickey in the mid-day parade

my fearless little A rode Pirates of the Caribbean with me and Jordan, singing "yo-ho-ho" and "shiver me timbers" the whole time. Then we all got to meet the pirates while G and Jordan rode Big Thunder Mountain. EB did NOT like the characters.


Trying on hats in the gift shop, waiting for the rain to let up

checking out his souvenir ears in the gift shop window

K was a little giddy by the time we decided to leave. This was A's official pose of the vacation - she started doing this hand thing for all pictures - maybe she saw a character do it and she adopted it.

horrible picture, but proof that I DID actually go on this vacation!