When we finally made it to Tampa, GJ was there waiting for us. Maxwell couldn’t run up to her fast enough!  We all piled in the car and started driving. Maxwell thought we were going to Naples but, about 2 hours later, he saw some giant Mickey ears and knew we were at Disney!  Even better, we were going to get to see Nate and Delaney!  fun!  Well, mostly fun – I honestly think Maxwell was a little disappointed we weren’t going to Naples.  🙂

Doesn’t he look excited…

But, when we got into the park (with only minutes remaining on our First Pass I might add!), Maxwell was super excited to see his cousins (and clearly I was too!)…

We quickly hopped in line for our first Fast Pass…

which was to see Mickey Mouse of course!  He actually talks now…fancy!

I just love being at Disney and so do these little cuties…

This one wasn’t so sure about being stuck in the stroller all day.  Poor guy!  I tried to let him out as much as possible but he’s fast and can get away quick!  He wore me out!

Still, we all had a blast riding our favorites in the Magic Kingdom.  We hit up Dumbo…

Buzz Lightyear…

Winnie the Pooh…

and ended the day with Small World which was a total flashback for me as I hadn’t been on that ride in probably 20 years.  I loved it and Maxwell did too! Poor Spencey was half asleep the whole ride.

By that point, it was around 6:00 and we had already had a very full day of travel and fun so we called it quits and headed back to the hotel.  Besides, Maxwell had already told GJ an hour earlier that he was ready to go to Naples now!  🙂  We had a restful (lie) night all sharing one hotel room…

and then had plans to swim the next morning before heading out.  The weather had other plans though but it all worked out fine.

After some Mickey waffles and fun around the hotel…

our tired little guys were happy to get in the car and head on out to GJ’s house!

Full Naples fun to come but for now I say…

ps – happy April Fool’s!  I got nothin for you this year but check out some of my best tricks in 2013 and 2011.

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!