First trip to Disney in 2012

Bottom Line: We like Disney World. All of us. I have officially converted Curt to my side on this one. We sat down on a Sunday afternoon and discussed our options for where to buy family passes with some of our Christmas money. There were options that were more budget friendly than Disney, but none that we knew our kids (and us) would enjoy as much. And these were Curt's words. He has come so far! There are some perks to living in Florida, and our closeness to Disney, and the reduced prices that come with that, are some of them. So, after talking about it on Sunday, we went on Monday.

That night, Mackenna woke up coughing. Curt brought her into bed with us and then promptly went back to sleep while I laid awake as she repeatedly coughed in my ear. We moved to the lazyboy sometime around 3 am. I was worried this would cause us to cancel our plans (we hadn't told the kids yet). In the morning, I asked Mackenna how she felt, and she said "great," even before I asked the question, "Do you want to go to Disney World today?" Ha. What kind of question is that. Mackenna responded with her high pitched "yes." Micah responded with "after I watch my shows."

We reminded the kids on the way over to Disney of our new family mantra, "no crying at Disney World." They get it, and pretty much live by it. We can't wait for them to teach Jocelyn the motto too.

We left the house sometime after 8 and were in the gates by 10:30. It was probably our latest arrival at Disney World yet, but having multiple day passes helped us keep a rather low key attitude about the whole thing. Remember - even for mamas - no crying at Disney World.

We did all of our favorites, and some new things too. Dad and the older kids rode Buzz Lightyear, while Jocelyn snoozed in the stroller. We rode the racecars. We were able to do a baby swap for this one, so Micah and Dad waited in the line while Mackenna, and Jocelyn, and I hung out - and even met the White Rabbit. Then Mackenna and I were able to go back and ride later without waiting. That worked out nicely. Mackenna and Dad rode the teacups; Micah passed this time. We ate lunch and then attempted to all ride Small World. We learned that Jocelyn does NOT like the Ergo carrier at this point. She only wants to face out. And she does not want to sleep in our arms. So after screaming through line (only her, not me), we decided it was best to not subject everyone in our boat to her screaming during the ride too. She and I excused ourselves and she happily went to sleep in her stroller.











We took turns using our fast passes on Peter Pan and then decided it was snack time. Usually snack time comes during Micah and Mackenna's nap time in the stroller. Since those are things of the past, we all got to partake in snack time. They had their first Dole Whip experience. It was definitely a hit. Mackenna was happy to share with me instead of Dad since I'm still watching the amount of dairy I eat for Jocelyn's sake (but I'm thrilled to report that I'm eating much more dairy than I ever thought possible!)









We explored Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse for the first time, and then headed over to Tomorrow Land because Micah wanted to ride the airplanes. We stopped by the castle because we realized it was almost time for the parade. We got a good spot, and I took Jocelyn into the babycare center to feed her. I would have stayed and rocked her longer, but I realized that if I didn't leave, I was going to be trapped on the opposite side of the street during the parade.





How did they get so old?







He honestly was turning around to say "MICKEY!" to me in this photo. Precious.





Curt then took the kids on the airplane/rocket ride....that they insisted that they wanted to ride. Afterwards they decided that it was too fast and too high. Yay. That line is too long anyway. We all rode Buzz Lightyear together - Jocelyn's first ride. We then needed something else to do and someplace to sit for a minute, so we ended up at the Monster's Inc Laugh Floor. Funny story (at least to me). I decided to take advantage of a show and the sitting down to feed Jocelyn. I was covered, but it is still fairly obvious what I was doing. I realized after the show got started that they incorporated live video feed of audience members into the show. Oh well - surely we won't be on the screen. But one of us was - not me thankfully - but Mackenna was picked to be "Boo." It was so cute and shocking to see her up there. The show is really cute.

We ended our day with seeing a bit of the show at the castle, taking some pictures by the castle, visiting the princesses (Mackenna) and Mickey (Micah). We also had Jocelyn take a picture with the Minnie statue. We wanted to find something that we could count on being able to photographer her with each time we are there. If we go a few more times this year, it will be a cute way to document her growth. Next time, I'll have her looking at Minnie, don't worry.











Telling Cinderella that she is three. (Again, I was the least impressed with Cinderella. She doesn't live up to her much anticipated reputation.)



Since this was our first Disney trip in the "post nap" era for the twins, the level of tiredness at the end of the day was at an all time high. They seriously were asleep before we got on the monorail. This was cute and all, but then we were left at the tram station realizing that there was no way we could get two sleeping toddlers, a baby, our bags, and our collapsed stroller onto the tram. We had to walk to the car. Which wasn't that far...but at the end of the day, it feels far...because it actually kind of is. We ate at Chick-fil-A in Kissimmee, put jammies on everyone, and had them all in bed by about 8:45. Not bad. It really is crazy how much we were able to do at Disney and we weren't really even gone from our house for much more than 12 hours.



A few other random memories:
- We met Mary Poppins for the first time. Micah didn't want to hug her. Mackenna did. She was charming, as expected. Characters like that deserve way more money than the ones who get to hide behind costumes and not talk to children.
- I asked Mackenna who her favorite princesses were that day. She said all of them.
- Micah said his favorite thing that day was the Monster show. (For the record, he acted bored and asked for a snack the whole time we were there.)
- Mackenna said her favorite thing was the Rabbit in Wonderland.
- They both agreed that their other favorites were Peter Pan and Small World.
- Mackenna insisted that the next time we are there, she is going to ask Alice if the Chesire Cat is there that day. We'll see if she remembers.
- I can't believe I actually managed to go to Disney for a day and not ride Small World. Wow.