This day was special! It was our last day to go into Disney and it was also Maryella's 3rd birthday! She was SO excited to finally have it be her real birthday. She had been anticipating it for weeks!
When we arrived, we got a picture of our whol group in front of Cinderella's castle. We probably should have walked a little closer to it, but we trying to stay in the shade.
Then I took a picture of Maryella by herself in front of the castle. While I was taking the picture, she kept shouting, "It's my birthday!" Several people chuckled as they walked by. I also got a laugh out of how she would periodically shout out "Dreams Come True!" as we were walking through the parks!
We had a better game plan this day and had mapped out what we wanted to do the night before. Our first stop was Adventure Land.
We rode the Magic Carpets of Aladdin first - again - no line! I was amazed! The girls loved seeing all the jewels that we stuck in the concrete around the ride! Kaylin didn't complain at all about getting on the ride. She did request that we not go up too high again. Other than that, she loved it!
Next we rode the Jungle Cruise. I think this may have been my favorite ride. I enjoyed all the jokes that the guy made.
The Enchanted Tiki Room was next on the agenda. Kaylin hadn't made it through that show when we came to Disney when she was 3, but I tried to prepare her this time and told her what was going to happen (birds coming out of the ceiling, singing, etc) and she did fine. She was really starting to enjoy herself.
As we were leaving Adventure Land, we needed to make a pit stop and saw Wendy from Peter Pan standing near the bathrooms. We talked to her for a bit and then we went to see Captain Hook and Mr. Smee. Captain Hook looked at Maryella, who was dressed in her TinkerBelle costume for the day and acted like he didn't like her. He wrote "tink stinks" in our autograph book. The girls all got a kick out of that.
Next, we rode Pirates of the Carribean. I was pretty leary about taking Kaylin on the ride. I didn't want to ruin all the progress she had made. But I hated to have her miss out. She was actually a little excited to go on the ride because her friend, Carson, is really into Pirates. She wanted to look for Jack Sparrow in the ride and take a picture to show Carson. I was completely amazed at how great she did on the ride. It even has a little hill that you go down in the dark and she ended saying that was her favorite part! Maybe she can be our roller coaster buddy after all! She was proud of herself and told me that she was "starting to get the hang of not being scared."
We ate lunch after that in Frontier Land and then left the girls with Mema, Papa, and Uncle Bobby while Heather, Rafael, me and Jeff went to ride Thunder Mountain Railroad. Another fun ride! Next on the list was the Country Bear Jamboree. I had gotten really tired at this point and didn't enjoy this show as much as I normally do. The girls liked it though. Maryella kept talking about the 3 little girl bears in the front that kept coming up and down. She thought it was pretty funny that they didn't have on any pants! 
The group split up for a bit after that. We took our girls to go meet Ariel (Maryella's 2nd favorite!) in Fantasyland and the rest of the family went to ride the Haunted Mansion in Liberty Square. While we waited in the hot, hot line to see the famous mermaid, the girls played in a little water playground and got soaked.
Then right before it was our turn to see Ariel, we had what is now known as the Poop Catastrophy of 2009! Maryella has been doing great with potty training, but we were putting her in pull-ups while we were in the parks, just in case. Apparently the pull-up had gotten pretty wet when the girls were playing the water and it wasn't working as it should. Maryella started saying, "oh no, Mama, look!" I look down and was totally unprepared for what I saw. I won't go into too many details for those who might be squeamish, but lets just say that it was nasty! I was wiping hands, legs, a hiney, even the ground! And at some point, Maryella even touched Kaylin's shorts and Kaylin went crazy (can't say that I blame her). But by some miracle, I got everything cleaned up, threw Maryella's Tinkerbelle dress on over her shirt and new pull-up (the shorts were unwearable!), got Kaylin's shorts presentable and got our stuff back together right as they were calling us up to greet Ariel. Ariel never even knew the near disaster she had avoided! (Can you imagine if it had gotten on her costume?!?!?!) No kidding, I probably got everything cleaned up in less than 3 minutes. I was in panic mode, I guess. Anyway, we got it taken care of and the picture turned out great. Well, other than Elianna being pretty engrossed with Ariel's seashell bra! Oh my!
After that, the rest of the family joined us in Fantasyland to ride it's a small world. Now, Kaylin has had a fear of this ride more than anything else. For some reason, she decided after our last trip that it was scary. She thought she had seen giant butterflys that gave her nightmares. I told her that if she could find a giant butterfly, I'd pay her $5. That's all it took to get her on the ride. She tried her best to find those butterflies, but never could. At the end of the ride, she had had so much fun that she asked to ride it again! (Sorry Kaylin, there's no time for round 2! We've got a schedule to keep!)
Next up was Peter Pan's Flight. We had wanted to get Fast Passes, but the return time was too late for us. But it worked out fine because we got to go in the wheelchair line since Jeff's parents had rented a scooter for the day. Jeff and I rode with Kaylin, Elianna and Maryella, who had a ziploc bag with some snacks in it. We were all enjoying the ride until Maryella says, "uh oh, my snack!" If anyone happens to go to Disney in the near future and ride Peter Pan's flight, be sure and look down into the streets of London to see if you see a baggie of graham crackers!
We were starting to wear down by this time, but wanted to see Mickey's 3D Philharmagic before we left. I'm so glad we did! The girls loved the show, although Kaylin kept taking her 3D glasses off because she didn't like seeing the things flying at her. Annlee laughed and giggled the entire show and made me laugh too. She absolutely loved it. Maryella had a hard time figuring out her glasses at first, but soon realized that it made the movie much better. She kept trying to grab the things that were flying around - to the point that she was about the crawl onto the people's shoulders in front of us! And when Ariel swam onto the screen, she went nuts! She kept screaming "Ariel! Ariel!" Like she was trying to get Ariel's attention. Hilarious!
We had really wanted to get a family picture with Mickey Mouse that day before we left. Our intention had been to do it 1st thing, but that area didn't open until 10am. So we ended up saving it for last. First, we walked through Mickey's house to get to the Judge's Tent where he was.
After seeing Mickey and Minnie, we folded up our now soaking strollers and got on the train to ride back up to the front of the park. It had been a full morning and afternoon and we were in need of a little break!
We went out to eat at Macaroni Grill and got the waitress to sing Happy Birthday to Maryella. She enjoyed it and the cake that they brought to her!
When dinner was over, we decided we had just enough energy to go back to the park to watch the night parade as a grand finale to our Disney vacation. A funny story - Kaylin had seen the Chip 'N Dale sign somewhere and asked us if Chip was inside of Dale!
On the way out, we were exhausted, but it had been so much fun. I was a little sad as we left, knowing it will be a few years before we go back. We're already talking about taking the girls again before Kaylin turns 10 and will considered an adult. Elianna won't be 3 yet, so that's another plus - she'll still be free!
When we arrived, we got a picture of our whol group in front of Cinderella's castle. We probably should have walked a little closer to it, but we trying to stay in the shade.
Then I took a picture of Maryella by herself in front of the castle. While I was taking the picture, she kept shouting, "It's my birthday!" Several people chuckled as they walked by. I also got a laugh out of how she would periodically shout out "Dreams Come True!" as we were walking through the parks!
We had a better game plan this day and had mapped out what we wanted to do the night before. Our first stop was Adventure Land.
We rode the Magic Carpets of Aladdin first - again - no line! I was amazed! The girls loved seeing all the jewels that we stuck in the concrete around the ride! Kaylin didn't complain at all about getting on the ride. She did request that we not go up too high again. Other than that, she loved it!
Next we rode the Jungle Cruise. I think this may have been my favorite ride. I enjoyed all the jokes that the guy made.
The Enchanted Tiki Room was next on the agenda. Kaylin hadn't made it through that show when we came to Disney when she was 3, but I tried to prepare her this time and told her what was going to happen (birds coming out of the ceiling, singing, etc) and she did fine. She was really starting to enjoy herself.
As we were leaving Adventure Land, we needed to make a pit stop and saw Wendy from Peter Pan standing near the bathrooms. We talked to her for a bit and then we went to see Captain Hook and Mr. Smee. Captain Hook looked at Maryella, who was dressed in her TinkerBelle costume for the day and acted like he didn't like her. He wrote "tink stinks" in our autograph book. The girls all got a kick out of that.
Next, we rode Pirates of the Carribean. I was pretty leary about taking Kaylin on the ride. I didn't want to ruin all the progress she had made. But I hated to have her miss out. She was actually a little excited to go on the ride because her friend, Carson, is really into Pirates. She wanted to look for Jack Sparrow in the ride and take a picture to show Carson. I was completely amazed at how great she did on the ride. It even has a little hill that you go down in the dark and she ended saying that was her favorite part! Maybe she can be our roller coaster buddy after all! She was proud of herself and told me that she was "starting to get the hang of not being scared."
We ate lunch after that in Frontier Land and then left the girls with Mema, Papa, and Uncle Bobby while Heather, Rafael, me and Jeff went to ride Thunder Mountain Railroad. Another fun ride! Next on the list was the Country Bear Jamboree. I had gotten really tired at this point and didn't enjoy this show as much as I normally do. The girls liked it though. Maryella kept talking about the 3 little girl bears in the front that kept coming up and down. She thought it was pretty funny that they didn't have on any pants! The group split up for a bit after that. We took our girls to go meet Ariel (Maryella's 2nd favorite!) in Fantasyland and the rest of the family went to ride the Haunted Mansion in Liberty Square. While we waited in the hot, hot line to see the famous mermaid, the girls played in a little water playground and got soaked.
Then right before it was our turn to see Ariel, we had what is now known as the Poop Catastrophy of 2009! Maryella has been doing great with potty training, but we were putting her in pull-ups while we were in the parks, just in case. Apparently the pull-up had gotten pretty wet when the girls were playing the water and it wasn't working as it should. Maryella started saying, "oh no, Mama, look!" I look down and was totally unprepared for what I saw. I won't go into too many details for those who might be squeamish, but lets just say that it was nasty! I was wiping hands, legs, a hiney, even the ground! And at some point, Maryella even touched Kaylin's shorts and Kaylin went crazy (can't say that I blame her). But by some miracle, I got everything cleaned up, threw Maryella's Tinkerbelle dress on over her shirt and new pull-up (the shorts were unwearable!), got Kaylin's shorts presentable and got our stuff back together right as they were calling us up to greet Ariel. Ariel never even knew the near disaster she had avoided! (Can you imagine if it had gotten on her costume?!?!?!) No kidding, I probably got everything cleaned up in less than 3 minutes. I was in panic mode, I guess. Anyway, we got it taken care of and the picture turned out great. Well, other than Elianna being pretty engrossed with Ariel's seashell bra! Oh my! After that, the rest of the family joined us in Fantasyland to ride it's a small world. Now, Kaylin has had a fear of this ride more than anything else. For some reason, she decided after our last trip that it was scary. She thought she had seen giant butterflys that gave her nightmares. I told her that if she could find a giant butterfly, I'd pay her $5. That's all it took to get her on the ride. She tried her best to find those butterflies, but never could. At the end of the ride, she had had so much fun that she asked to ride it again! (Sorry Kaylin, there's no time for round 2! We've got a schedule to keep!)Next up was Peter Pan's Flight. We had wanted to get Fast Passes, but the return time was too late for us. But it worked out fine because we got to go in the wheelchair line since Jeff's parents had rented a scooter for the day. Jeff and I rode with Kaylin, Elianna and Maryella, who had a ziploc bag with some snacks in it. We were all enjoying the ride until Maryella says, "uh oh, my snack!" If anyone happens to go to Disney in the near future and ride Peter Pan's flight, be sure and look down into the streets of London to see if you see a baggie of graham crackers!
We were starting to wear down by this time, but wanted to see Mickey's 3D Philharmagic before we left. I'm so glad we did! The girls loved the show, although Kaylin kept taking her 3D glasses off because she didn't like seeing the things flying at her. Annlee laughed and giggled the entire show and made me laugh too. She absolutely loved it. Maryella had a hard time figuring out her glasses at first, but soon realized that it made the movie much better. She kept trying to grab the things that were flying around - to the point that she was about the crawl onto the people's shoulders in front of us! And when Ariel swam onto the screen, she went nuts! She kept screaming "Ariel! Ariel!" Like she was trying to get Ariel's attention. Hilarious!
We had really wanted to get a family picture with Mickey Mouse that day before we left. Our intention had been to do it 1st thing, but that area didn't open until 10am. So we ended up saving it for last. First, we walked through Mickey's house to get to the Judge's Tent where he was.
Then it was time to go get the picture taken! We don't quit as spiffy as we did when we first arrived, but it turned out fine. The line we had to wait in was pretty long, but most of it was inside, thank goodness. The only problem was when we looked out the door we had come through and noticed the pouring rain. Oops! We had left the 2 strollers outside and Heather's carseat was in hers! Rafael went to get the carseat, but ended up not making it back for the picture. So sadly, he is missing from our group photo.
We were excited when we walked into the room and saw not just Mickey, but Minnie too! As we were waiting for the group in front of us to finish, Kaylin told Maryella that if Maryella would hug them, then she would too. I about fell on the floor. No way was this the same child that had been terrified just a few days before! Well, Maryella was in a mood and wasn't going to hug anyone at the moment, so I told Kaylin she should just go do it if she wanted to. Well, to my amazement, she did! I love this picture! I'm so proud of her for letting herself overcome her fears. And she was proud of herself too!
We were excited when we walked into the room and saw not just Mickey, but Minnie too! As we were waiting for the group in front of us to finish, Kaylin told Maryella that if Maryella would hug them, then she would too. I about fell on the floor. No way was this the same child that had been terrified just a few days before! Well, Maryella was in a mood and wasn't going to hug anyone at the moment, so I told Kaylin she should just go do it if she wanted to. Well, to my amazement, she did! I love this picture! I'm so proud of her for letting herself overcome her fears. And she was proud of herself too!
After seeing Mickey and Minnie, we folded up our now soaking strollers and got on the train to ride back up to the front of the park. It had been a full morning and afternoon and we were in need of a little break!
We went out to eat at Macaroni Grill and got the waitress to sing Happy Birthday to Maryella. She enjoyed it and the cake that they brought to her!
When dinner was over, we decided we had just enough energy to go back to the park to watch the night parade as a grand finale to our Disney vacation. A funny story - Kaylin had seen the Chip 'N Dale sign somewhere and asked us if Chip was inside of Dale!
On the way out, we were exhausted, but it had been so much fun. I was a little sad as we left, knowing it will be a few years before we go back. We're already talking about taking the girls again before Kaylin turns 10 and will considered an adult. Elianna won't be 3 yet, so that's another plus - she'll still be free!
And one more picture of a tired Kaylin and 3 other sleeping girls after getting back to the house that last night!
On our way back to Lake City on Sunday, I asked everyone what their favorite part of Disney was. Here was what everyone said...
Jeff - watching the girls see everything and being the Beast in the Storytime with Belle
Me - I love when you arrive at Disney and start walking down Main Street towards the castle. There's just something magical about it! I also loved seeing how excited the girls got at everything!
Kaylin - hugging Mickey and Minnie
Annlee - Everything! She said she couldn't pick
Maryella - seeing Tinkerbelle
Elianna - we decided that her favorite part was probable Belle's dress and Ariel's seashells.
No comments:
Post a Comment