Disney World

Disney was tons and tons of fun. We LOVED sharing it with our kids AND my parents. We went for 3 days: Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. That was PLENTY. I was exhausted at the end of each day, and I couldn't imagine how tired my kids and parents must be! Although Adeline had too much stuff to lug around, and Josiah was scared of EVERYTHING, the kids were absolutely wonderful, patient, cheerful, obedient, content--THAT is the magic of Disney.

The first character we met. Sweet Sam has tears in his eyes. He gets pretty insecure about things, and this was no exception, although he's learning to wipe it away and move on, especially when he had to have this picture for his joke: (They're learning about the solar system at school, so Sam said "Hey, Mrs. Barrett, I'm going to see Pluto next week!)

I don't know if you notice, but we're not exactly wearing "Florida gear". It was dad-blasted COLD. I mean, maybe for you Minnesotans it would have been shorts weather, but 50 degrees and windy is COLD at Disney. The good news was, 2 days of cold and one day of rain meant absolutely no lines. none. nice.

Then, of course, the princess must meet the princesses. Now, the only "non-magical" part of this is that we've already ruined our kids' sense of awe and wonder when we chose not to "do Santa." So our kids did not arrive at Disney ready to meet "the real Mickey" or Cinderella. Believe it or not, they had a good time anyway.

Animal Kingdom was probably my favorite. Jess and I took Sam on an easy roller coaster. I LOVE roller coaster, so it was fun introducing Sammy to them. Speaking of roller-coasters. Ella had a blast on the kiddie coaster in Magic Kingdom and begged for us to find her another. We had no luck.

Hollywood Studios was COLD. Sam really enjoyed the animation attraction, where they taught him how to draw Donald Duck. Everyone loved the shows, and Jess and I got to ride the grown-up rides.

At MGM, our timid boy joined the characters in a block party dance. I was impressed!

We ended our stay with a dinner at T-Rex. You know, since Si hadn't been quite terrified enough on Buzz Lightyear or Indiana Jones' Stunt Spectacular. I mean, sure, he screamed and begged to leave them, but was he really that scared? Nah. So we took him to the restaurant where a giant moving, growling T-Rex greets you and you eat in a forest, which, every 20 minutes or so, gets dark and loud and the dinosaurs around you become restless. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.

he actually did OK, once we got him through the entrance and tied him to the high chair so he couldn't run.
boy, we were glad to have Mimi and Papa with us!
this Lego store was as good as a ride any day for Sam.

and that was Disney.

Oh, wait.

Mom, you didn't think I'd forgotten, did you?

There are just a couple of other pictures.

There's YMCA

And the Twist. . .

And the Hustle. . .
And I'm really not sure what this was. I think she's out here cause Dad was trying to convince her she was too old for the roller coasters. She showed him.