Disney Days #1-#8 - Matt's camera version

 

some from matt's camera that were fun. pretty sure this is a before shot. haha.

after the beauty and the beast show. our little climbers

sibs. another angle.

and we're all in the middle, the ones not there are #1 and #6.

more toy story ride cuteness.

playing in some of the first rain we got on our day at Hollywood studios.



more toy story fun. we really liked that ride.

cute miniature village in epcot. or ep-I-cot if you're addie.

now everytime we see the castle before a Disney movie the girls say "we've been there!"

girls enjoying it's a small world.

frankie Andretti on autopia.

she be a serious drivah.

creepy caves under the sea before the little mermaid ride.

safari'ing it up at the animal kingdom.

d the pest.

i love how it looks like you could just reach out and touch the zebras. you couldn't, but it looks like that.

matt thought it was so funny that everything was named harambe. something about the guys at work, idk.

holding some dung on discovery island.

and riding the train back from discovery island.

a ray with the ray's on the little mermaid ride.

i guess you can tell we rode that a lot.

frankie sparrow after some pirates action.

 d getting some pirates action. the size of the drop on the pirates ride was just about perfect for Delaney. not too high, not too short.

 and this splash mountain was more addie's style.

 this is addie and I totes posing for a selfie. hahaha, perfect timing!

 remember that beautiful sunset we caught while we rode autopia? matt's view from over the bridge.

alli and franks

 taylor and lanes.

 and the silly step-sisters.

 it would be fun to play them because they just act silly the whole time and make fun of peoples kids. I can totally dig that.

 laney was all like, oh ok, we're posing?

and then of course our little chatty cathies and all their observations and questions.

 we had fun with them.

 prince charming's carousel.

splash mountain junkies.

 the most magical place on earth.

 dance party with the incredibles!

 they were jamming out!

 and fist bumping with frozone.

and our trusty steed. I love this tank. I can't believe she's 9 this year!

she doesn't look that old, right?

 on the road again! looooong drive!

 and lastly, our little disco queen after eating a very disappointing (for momma at least) lunch at hardee's.

I am so glad we went. we had neither the time, nor the money, but we did it and made some memories to last a lifetime. I know it was only 2 months ago, but the girls still talk about it alllll the time and we've got books and pictures and a million blog posts to help them remember should they forget.
it was a week to remember!

Disney Day #8 - the long drive home

Saturday morning came. We bathed kids and fed breakfasts. Alli took Frey and Taylor to the airport as we all packed and prepped. And then just like that it was time for goodbyes. It's so funny that these cousins are only a month apart!

 

Max ain't nobody's baby. 😂

These kids had so much fun! Climbing in lines, riding the rides, cheesing it up with the characters. It was wonderful. 

 

They love each other. 

 

And finally max decided to get in on those group hugs. 

 

We left around 9 or 10. Apparently I was all pictured out because I didn't take a single pic of the ride home. It was easy and uneventful, thankfully. We watched movies and went through drive thrus, read books, and listened to moana and trolls. Sarah had made us that cd, and we seriously listened to it every day. The 30 minute drives to and from Disney were rocked out to with moana and Trolls. Haiiiir up! It was so fun!

We realized somewhere in nc that laura and David were just about 60 miles ahead of us. So funny and random. We rolled into the smc around midnight. We brought in just the essentials, kids, toothbrushes, and perishables. And then we climbed into our beds where, grateful for an amazing week off of work, playing with our family, seeing new and fun things, and eating all the food, we fell fast asleep. 

And a bonus picture of some Epcot treats from France. Because food is where it's at. 

 

Disney Day #7 - Magic Kingdom (again, again) - Last day!

Our last day at the MK. We got there in good time and made a beeline for the newest ride, the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Or actually, half our group did, while the others took the kids on a ride and were going to use the 3 baby swap passes since D didn't want to ride. We had it all planned out. Only they wouldn't give passes without the "baby" with the riders. The only ride we encountered that enforced this policy, and incidentally, the only ride where we didn't have the "baby" with us. So then the rest of us busted the move to the ride, and then proceeded to cut through an hours wait worth of people. I have thick skin about a lot of things like that, but this was too much. I was so upset that the workers were just like, yeah, go find your group in line. Our baby swap was legit, Delaney wouldn't ride it, we weren't trying to pull a fast one on anyone, but it resulted in some serious embarrassment. I spoke to a manager (like I do) to express my disappointment with the lack of concern of employees, and the fact that we'd been at Disney for 5 full days and had never encountered this strict rule. She said that tour groups had been abusing the baby swap passes on the Mine Train, which then made their lines even longer, so now they were only doing them if they could see the baby (or child in our case). I get where they are coming from, but it was still crappy. But we did get to ride and we didn't have to wait anywhere close to an hour, so I guess all's well that ends well. 

Woo hoo! Last day antics!

 

On the morning of our last day at the parks I woke up to find that my phone had not charged that night. 😬 so the good news is that there aren't many pictures because amy took most of them, and you know that story.  We set out to get our last few characters. We found the fairy godmother, but as we were waiting for her, the step sisters replaced her. And then we waited again for the godmother since she was supposed to come back, but then found that she'd gotten sick and was done for the day. Bummer. 

 

The step sisters were super fun though. Someday I'll share a good picture of them. (:

 

We also waited for probably an hour to see tinker bell. It was one of those things where it was supposed to be 15 minutes, but then it was 30, then 40, then we had already invested so much time that we had to stay. Those pics to come. But hmm, writing about all the frustrations of the day make it sound not so fun. But it was really fun. 

And D, on her own, decided she'd like to do Splash Mountain again! Woo hoo!

 

Too bad she was wearing a poncho and we can't see her adorabley scared little face. She still didn't love it, but I was so proud of her that she was so brave. Also, we were dabbing. I guess I forgot to look down. I'm not the best dabber. 

We rode several more times, and Addie decided (or maybe was slightly bribed) to put her arms up. She wanted to hold Matt's hands, but I think it still counts. 

 

 We checked out the Christmas Shop and got the kids each an ornament. 

 

And we perused some more shops. 

 

The 3 littlest fell asleep so amy volunteered to sit with them. Matt took Addie to ride Splash Mountain and Peter Pan, while I took franks to ride some rides she wanted. We did Dumbo and also Goofy's mini roller coaster. We'd done that all together another day and Delaney was angry about it (too scary), so we never could get her to ride it again. Franks wasn't thrilled to ride it again, but I was able to talk her into it. 

 

The cousins were twinning. It was a long week for these little bodies!

 

Everyone loved our token boy. 

Especially the ladies... 

 

#hadto

 

We were able to do all the rides a few times that day. We decided to wait in line for Peter Pan, to see the character and the ride, which was actually fun because the line goes all through the house and it's really cute. We did Carousel of Progress, which I'd never done but actually really enjoyed. And the Monsters Inc. laugh floor, which is an interactive comedy show. Since it was our second time and we knew the ropes, we had each of the kids submit jokes and Quinn's got picked, so that was exciting. We did the people mover a bunch, that was definitely one all the kids enjoyed. 

To end the night two things happened. First, we found that Addie, or someone, had lost her sweater. Matt and I set off to retrace our steps all.over.the.park. To no avail. I called the next day and a few days later and no one had turned it in. :( Then we also decided to finish out our week at Disney with a couple rides on the Mine Train. That is one smooth roller coaster, from the lap bar to the ride, it was really nice. And that wraps up our Disney fun. For now. (: