Happy Monday!  What a GORGEOUS and FUN weekend we had. Pictures to come but first I need to close out the Disney trip!

After Friday at the Magic Kingdom and Saturday at Hollywood Studios, we finished the trip on Sunday at Animal Kingdom.  This was actually my first trip ever to Animal Kingdom and, while I don’t feel the need to go each time I visit Disney, it was fun – especially for my animal loving 3 year old!

The first thing we did was the Kilimanjaro Safari – a must to see some elephants!

We did see some elephants (phew!) and plenty of other animals too…

But the neatest part was when we were literally surrounded by giraffes and even had a giraffe meandering along the path in front of our jeep…as our driver said, we had a “giraffe-ic jam!”  hahaha.  I think doing it first thing in the morning before it got too hot was smart because all the animals were out to play!

After that we wandered around and checked out the park.  Pretty soon it was time to meet up with the cousins for a character lunch at Tusker House…

The characters there were great and I loved the food too – lots of good indian and other cuisines.  yum.  Plus, they actually had PBJ and apple sauce which made my boys happy campers!

Spencey slept through most of lunch…

but did get to meet Mickey before we left!

So fun for all!

After lunch we walked around some more, checked out the monkeys…

and then Robert and I got to ride the roller coaster Expedition Everest before leaving.  awesome!  🙂

We headed to the airport for a (thankfully) uneventful trip home.  I would like to officially thank the late, great Steve Jobs for inventing the iPads and making our travel bearable.

It was an exhaustingly great trip to WDW…can’t wait to go back!  🙂

By Saturday morning we had finally defrosted from our freezing cold Magic Kingdom adventure the day before and were ready to hit up Hollywood Studios in some new Mickey Mouse t-shirts!

The boys, GJ and I got there early and made a beeline for Toy Story Mania!

The sign said it would be over an hour wait but were were through the line and the ride within 25 minutes!  and we even got to wear cool 3D glasses!  🙂

A great start to a great day!  We met up with the cousins and Maxwell and Delaney basically did this all day…

We had Fastpass tickets to go see the Disney Jr. Live on Stage show and it was great!  Our crew is a little obsessed with the Disney Jr. Gang – Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, Doc McStuffins and Jake and the Pirates to be specific – and they looooved getting to see them all live!

even Spencer was mesmerized and sat still! a miracle!

We then had lunch reservations at Hollywood & Vine where we got to meet most of the Disney Jr. characters up close!  fun!  We met Dora…

update – was just informed this is not Dora but someone named June from Little Einsteins. I clearly need to watch more Disney Jr.

We met whoever this guy is….

We met Jake…

and we met one of Maxwell’s favorites, Handy Manny! (if you’re the parent of a toddler you are now very likely singing the Handy Manny theme song in your head. I know I am. Handy Manny!)

Spencer was pretty unsure of Jake…

and very wary of Handy Manny!

I can’t blame him.  I mean the guy thinks he has tools that talk for goodness sake!

After all the excitement, the boys thankfully did this for a bit so Robert and I could ride the Tower of Terror and the Rockin Roller Coaster!

After lunch it was time to meet the mouse!  We had to wait but it wasn’t so bad because we had interesting people to look at.  Case in point, the guy behind us in line…

oh  yea.

Maxwell couldn’t wait to see Mickey and wanted to give him a high five!

Not sure he and Mickey ever actually got that five in but Maxwell was a happy camper!

and, don’t worry, our “friend” in line got his turn with the Mouse too!

ha!  You see all kinds at WDW!

We headed back to the hotel late that afternoon for an early dinner and spent a little time burning off some energy at the hotel playground…

It was a fun, fun, fun day for this crew…

and for the parents too!  Believe or not, there is still MORE Disney to come!  You can hardly wait, I know…but you’ll have to wait until Monday for Animal Kingdom.  See you then!

After a fun 5 days in Naples, we loaded up our rented minivan and headed over to Orlando for a little visit to WDW!  I knew it was going to be a good trip when the boys did this the whole way…

ha!  They only did that for about 3 seconds and the rest of the trip was spent with Spencer sleeping and Maxwell blabbering away.

We got there and met up with the cousins.  Maxwell was immediately in heaven getting to be “best friends” with “Elaney”…

pretty cute bunch!

The next morning, Woody and Buzz fueled up on a good breakfast so we could hit up the Magic Kingdom.

But first, a stop in front of the Cars in front of our hotel – The Art of Animation.

It was pretty darn cold that day and this crew wasn’t so sure about it all at first…

ha! does that look like a mean looking bunch or what?!  But, they cheered up pretty quickly when we promised a visit to see the mouse!

When I say it was “pretty darn cold” I mean it was COLD.  I don’t think it got above the low 50s all day and the wind was strong.  Our first stop was to buy a blanket!

I probably should have also bought the boys another sweatshirt, hats, gloves and another pair of pants but, live and learn!

The park was SUPER crowded – like kind of miserably crowded – but we still managed to do some fun stuff like ride Dumbo…

Ride the train…

and meet Donald and Goofy!  (which went MUCH better than last time we met Goofy!)

The boys then (thankfully) fell asleep in the stroller…

and Robert and I had a little fun of our own.

Hey, when in Rome, right?! (ps – have I mentioned that Robert is a good sport? well, he is. a REALLY good sport!)

That afternoon we got to meet Woody and Jessie!  So fun even if Maxwell was too cold and grumpy to get out of the stroller.

Spencer wasn’t quite so sure about Woody…

but I had fun dancing with Jessie!

Us redheads have to stick together you know!  🙂

After that, the temps were dropping and we finally had to buy some awesome Disney sweatshirts for everyone.  Robert and I were cracking up at mine – especially the back…

but it was warm and I was proud to have it! and please notice Spencer’s little Mickey sweatshirt – he’s too cute in anything.

We then rode Maxwell’s favorite ride of the trip – Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin!

It was pretty awesome!  Then the kids got captured by Zurg!  oh no!

Luckily they escaped in time for dinner at Cinderella’s castle.  I loved that dinner because it was inside and it was WARM.  We were all pretty frozen and miserable by that point – but that’s nothing a royal dinner can’t fix!  Spencer spent dinner practicing his sword swallowing and charming the princesses…

See that smooch on his head? Courtesy of one Ms. Snow White herself!

And, finally, here’s an awesome picture of a picture of the kids with Cinderella.  Even she had on her coat!

After that we made our way through the crowds of Main St. and headed back to the hotel to rest up for another day of fun!  Well, some of us rested.  Some of us slept in hour long intervals while a little 3 year old snored in our face and kicked us in the ribs – but that’s neither here nor there.  🙂  See you tomorrow with Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom!