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!

Robert’s parents recently bought a house in Highlands, NC and we all had the chance to go up there last weekend.  What fun!  We didn’t leave until after work on Friday so the 4.5 hour drive in the blinding rain at night wasn’t so fun, but we made it.  We were happy to be there to see most of Robert’s family, check out the new house and explore the mountains.

One of the reasons we went last weekend was to see the little Christmas parade through town.  Maxwell and Spencer were real excited, can’t you tell?

ha!  Despite those faces, they were excited and it was a cute little small town parade complete with camels, trucks of all kinds, and even some grown men dressed as some pretty fancy tooth fairies!

and who was at the end of the parade?  The jolly man himself, of course!

That brought out some good smiles from our crew!

After the parade we grabbed some food in town and I got to eat lunch with these sweet girls…

these cute guys…

and this silly boy!

Lots of cousin fun!

After lunch, Lulu stayed home with Spencer so he could get a nap and the rest of us got some golf carts to explore the golf course inside the house’s gated subdivision.  It was cold but beautiful!

Our favorite part was this awesome waterfall!  not to mention that awesome house at the top!

Of course we all had to get out and take pictures in front of it!  🙂

Love this pic but too bad you can’t really see the waterfall!

This is better!

That night we all stayed warm and cozy inside the house and let the cousins play.  We headed out around lunch on Sunday and made the 4.5 hour trip back pretty easily despite the blinding rain yet again.  It was a super fun weekend and we can’t wait to do it again!  Thanks again Lulu and Granddaddy!