When You Wish Upon a Star

Disney was AMAZING. We has a blast. I have to admit that it was kind of a dumb idea. Take your 2.5 year old who doesn't even like to visit Santa to Disney World of all places. Oh yeah and 5 months pregnant with twins to boot!

We were supposed to go in January but it just wasn't in the cards because I was soooo sick. Thank goodness we waited and went the end of February instead. Leslie put us in contact with her wonderfully sweet aunt Janette who got us into the parks for free because she works for the Disney cruise lines. Perfect strangers and she gave us the gift of being able to do everything we wanted to on our vacation. Kindness and generocity must run in Leslie's family :)

We got there on a Wednesday, leaving behind a awful snow storm that we drove through on the way to the airport. Orlando was raining and kind of cold so we decided to go to Downtown Disney instead of Sea World as originally planned. Good thing becasue that was the night that the killer whale killed his trainer. Which we had no clue of until people started texting us thinking we were there.

We decided to go to Sea World the next day anyway. Only the whale show was canceled and I had already purchased tickets online before we left. Grace loved the dolphins and penguins. We even got an up close and personal view of a dolphin feeding and a dolphin nursery. The Dolphin show was really cool, it gave me goosebumps there was so much going on.

The next day we went to Magic Kingdom. A little princesses paradise. (notice the Minnie Mouse dress that my dear friend Lori gave her, she wanted to wear it every day after this and since)

Grace loved Dumbo. While waiting in line for dumbo we were surrounded by 4 sets of twins, 3 of them being identical! Can't be that hard if they are bringing them to Disney, right? lol.

This was just a magical day from start to finish. Grace pretty much loved every minute except the dark scary rides like Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan. We just happened to get caught in the center of the afternoon street parade and had a 360 degree view of the festivities. This is where the floats stop and the characters dance and sing and the audience is encouraged to participate. G danced in front of Minnie and Minnie came over and shook her hand. You should have seen her face, pure joy. I actually got teary eyed it was so special. Pregnancy hormones or not, it was a moment and I will never forget it.

From that moment on Minnie was pretty much her favorite. She really liked the princess show and anything having to do with the castle too. Adam is pretty much the best daddy to little girls ever. He totally embraced all the girly Disney things and got into it as much as G did. There is just something about seeing my very masculine, strong husband love his little princess. Absolutely melts my heart.

That night we ate dinner in the park and stayed for the fireworks. She was amazed by Tinkerbell flying out of the castle but was a little concerned as to where she went and if she was going to come back to the castle to sleep. We had to field Tinkerbell questions all the way back to our hotel.

The next day we went to Epcot. It was rainy and cold so it was a good day to do all the inside Epcot things. The first thing we did (and probably the highlight) was meet Daisy. You can just see in her face how thrilled she is. (and I thought she would be terrified- shows how much I know).

Grace liked most of the 3D shows too. Not sure if the actual show or the glasses were the best part for her.

On Sunday we went to Animal Kindom. This was Adam and I's favorite park from when we went in 2005. We ended up having a beautiful sunny day for it too. G really liked the dinosaur ride (just like dumbo). Daddy is riding in the back.

She also liked the play area with the dino bone dig. The safari rife is always fun. We saw all of the animals pretty up close and personal. Grace really liked the baby elephant. Daddy bought her some Sleeping Beauty shades to keep the sun out of her eyes. Finding Nemo the Musical was also really neat and new since we had been last. BUT a dark autotorium and no nap and G was out cold about half way through. Adam and I enjoyed it anyway.

The highlight for Grace was once again meeting Minnie. This is my favorite picture from the trip. She is the happiest little girl in the world.

We ended our day at AK with another really cool parade. G waved to all the characters. It was pretty much the cutest thing ever and they must have thought so too because a few (like Pluto) came over to give her some love too.

The next day we sadly departed for Michigan. We wished we had just a litlle more time in this fantasyland. Grace was just such a joy the whole week and it was so fun for us to see her enjoy it so much. It was a perfect last vacation as just the 3 of us :)