Walt Disney World!!

We finally made it to Walt Disney World!!! We had an amazing time.  It was more than we could have ever expected.  We chose to go in Sept when it would not be so busy.  We also were able to take advantage of the free dining plan by staying on property.  We stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter and had a great location.  Our door opened up to the playground and pool and was the closest to the main building. 

Here are a few highlights (actually alot!) from our trip!

 We made it!  We picked Tate up from school and drove straight through the night.  The boys did pretty well.

 Tate was so excited to be in charge of opening the door to our room.  He kept trying and trying and then I realized we were on the wrong floor....

He's the right door!

 We got to our hotel several hours earlier then we expected.  We were able to go to the pool, let Cole nap then head to Downtown Disney.  There was a Phineas and Ferb event going on which was perfect because Tate was wearing his Perry T-shirt.  It was fun to get our pic with Phineas and Perry. 

 In case you didn't know it is VERY humid in Florida!  There were several times we would get our camera out and the lens would be fogged up.  I had to add this picture just for that reason. Notice in this picture my hair is down.  I was crazy enough to think I could actually straighten my hair and have it look good for the day.  Not so in humid Florida.  I was miserable so the rest of the week my hair was pulled back!

Our first day was spent at Animal Kingdom.  This was a good and bad idea!  Good because it allowed Scott and I to get a feel of the parks, hotel, food situation on a not so crazy day like we knew Magic Kingdom would be.  It was bad because Tate was wondering why we sat in the car for 22 hours to go to a big zoo!  We were able to find some fun things for him to do and he started to understand that this was not a big zoo but a pretty amazing place!

 Our first ride was the safari.  Cole loved every minute!

 We found these really fun bongos the boys played with!  You'll notice Tate is wearing a lanyard.  Some good friends of ours explained pin trading to us so we came prepared with lanyards and 25 pins for each of us to trade.  Tate and I had fun going up to employees to see what pins they had.  The only problem is I have not been able to locate the lanyards since we got home!  

We had a hard time getting Tate to go on rides.  Scott and I were very nervous for what the rest of the trip was going to be like if he wouldn't get on some of the smaller rides!  Scott tried bribery and I finally told him if he didn't get on by choice he was going to be dragged on.  Yes, I won parent of the day with that comment!

 First of many naps in the stroller.  He was a real trooper.

 We went to the Spirit of Aloha dinner show.  It was fun.  A little long for the boys but the fire throwing at the end of the show was great for Tate to see.  We were lucky to have front row seats.  Cole really took to one of the performers when the kids got their chance to go up to the stage.  Whenever he would come on stage he would always wave to him.  It was sweet. 

 We spent Scott's birthday at Hollywood Studios.  We were given a birthday button that he wore and everyone wished him happy birthday.  It was fun to have people on the bus, performers in the parades and our waitress tell him happy birthday. 

 One of the boys favorite attractions was the Disney Jr Live on Stage show. 

 Cole LOVES Mickey and once he saw him he wanted to run up   on stage.  So funny.  After Jake and the Neverland Pirates came out Gold Doubloons came raining down on us.  Tate immediately started gathering them up. 

 We had lunch at Hollywood Play and Dine.  It was a character lunch.  The boys were able to go sing and dance with a hostess and characters then each character came to our table.  I didn't put all their pictures on here.

Scott loved the picture of Cole crying with Jake in the background!  Tate had fun meeting Jake.  That is who he went as for Halloween.

 We found the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground.  The boys spent an hour here running.  Cole appreciated getting out of his stroller. 

We were able to spend quite a bit of time with Lightening and Mater.  It took Cole about 10 minutes before he would finally touch Mater.  They would rev their engines and he would run off.  We were able to take our time since no one else was in line.  Best part about going during off season!

Monday we finally made it to Magic Kingdom!  We got there before they opened and were pleasantly surprised to see how they opened the park.  They had a whole performance with the train pulling up and Mickey and Princesses getting off with singing and dancing.  So hard to capture in a picture.  It was so neat!

For all of you who don't know I am a HUGE Cinderella fan.  I felt like a little girl again when we were able to walk through the castle.  I'm glad we did so on Monday because it was roped off the 2 days we went back.

There ended up being no problem whatsoever getting Tate on the rides once we got to Magic Kingdom.  He would actually get quite upset when we had to take a break for lunch or dinner.  He would insist he was not hungry.  We would apply that we were!  Again, going during off season was amazing.  We hardly had to wait at any rides.  I believe we rode Splash Mt 4 times, Space Mt 6 times and Thunder Mt 4 times and that was just part of our first day!  Tate rode every single ride at Magic Kingdom and his favorites were the roller coasters.  A boy after my heart!  :)

Cole really enjoyed the fireworks.

Tuesday ended up being a bit of a catch up day for us.  We had our lunch, well brunch, reservation at 11:20 and didn't see much point in trying to get to Epcot to just have to leave after an hour so we let the boys play at the playground at the hotel until it was time for lunch.  They really enjoyed that.  This was the reservation I was most excited for.  Chef Mickey!!!  I have been overloading Cole with Mickey Mouse so he would be ready and excited when he got to see Mickey at Disney World.  I was not disappointed!  We were able to meet Mickey every single day.  Scott and I were laughing that when we left Disney Cole would be thinking, "this isn't right.  We are supposed to be going to see Mickey.  That's what we do now!"

I made aprons for the boys to wear.  All the characters were really cute when they saw them.  

 Love Cole's smile!

 Minnie Mouse was very sweet to let Cole explore her nose.

While we were eating music started up and all the characters grabbed napkins and started dancing around.  Mickey just happened to be coming to our table at the time so Tate got to dance with him.  After they were done Mickey plopped his napkin on Tate's head.  That napkin is now in Tate's room.  

Done with brunch now on to Epcot.  Cole had fallen asleep so the photographer had us do our shh pose.

 Tate got to help Agent P (note the shirt) with one of his missions.  It was a really cute idea but long.  If he were a few years older it would have held his attention a little better.

Tate giving a secret message to a worker so he could get his next clue.

It rained nearly every day we were at Disney.  It would just pour for 15 minutes to an hour.  Once it started we learned to take cover.  We ducked into a store and started trying on Mickey ears.  

We did not stay long at Epcot.  We were all worn out from our late night at Magic Kingdom (we left at 11:00 pm).  We headed back to the hotel where Tate continued displaying his never ending energy and Scott, Cole and I crashed for a few hours.   I finally roused myself and Tate and I explored our hotel. 

It was a beautiful hotel.  We even discovered a fire pit where 2 employees were letting people roast marshmallows.  This is one of Tate's favorite things to do. 

 During the parade we had the perfect spot to watch.  We just had this little corner that jutted out so every character that came by went up to Tate and Cole.  This Wicked Step-Sister offered Tate her hand and said, "I'm eligible you know."  Tate was thinking he was supposed to shake her hand.  Made me laugh.

We had dinner at O'hana.  It was pretty good although I did not eat much.  I was of course too busy taking pictures.  During dinner all the kids were invited to come up and play games and dance.  This was great for Tate who yet again was not impressed we had stopped the roller coaster riding to eat!

I wanted a picture in front of Mickey but this was as close as we could get.


Tate had a lot of fun looking for the Hidden Mickeys.  This is one in the foyer of the Polynesian hotel. 


Our last day at Magic Kingdom was a special one for me.  We went and saw the Princesses.  Yes I understand that I have 2 boys but I myself am a girl and by golly I wanted to meet Cinderella!  We waited a whole 8 minutes in line then were ushered into a room where Cinderella, Belle and Rapunzel waited.  They were all so sweet.  Cinderella referred to the boys as Prince Tate and Prince Cole and my silly active boys were enchanted.

 While Tate was with Rapunzel showing her how strong he was so he could come rescue her and I noticed we were the only ones in the room with the princesses.  They must have been getting ready for their break but it was so neat to have them all lingering and being so good with the boys.

 Scott discovered a small playground at the exit of Thunder Mt.  Cole spent a lot of time here!

 Picture of the entrance to MK from the monorail.

Tate caught Tinkerbell!

 Cole was in heaven getting to meet the Mickey with the red pants.  This was the first time we met the traditional Mickey that he is used to seeing.

This was the best family vacation we have ever gone on.  Scott and I are both excited to go back.  We immediately came home and started looking at prices!  Tate is already filling the jar back up with coins and Cole this morning was jumping up and down when he saw Mickey on TV.  It truly is a magical place!