Mother’s Day Weekend
We had a very busy week getting ready to go out of town this past weekend. Donovan and Roxy knew that we were going on a trip but they didn’t know where exactly we were going. Grandma Lisa and Aunt Jennifer came with us on this trip so we thought the kids wouldn’t suspect a trip to visit family in Oklahoma. The kids were very excited to visit family but what they didn’t know is that we were heading South, not West.
On Thursday morning we woke up after driving all night to Ocala Florida and loaded up the car for one more hour of driving. The kids were sitting and playing with their leapsters when Aaron and I decided to tell them where we were really going…
Yep…we were going to Disney World! We had a very busy weekend planned and we were going to be moving non stop so ready, set, go!!!
I took this picture right when the kids saw the Walt Disney World sign. We drove directly to our Disney Resort called All-Stars Sports Resort to check-in and pick up tickets. This resort was a host for the Expedition Everest Challenge and we wanted to take advantage of the buses chartered for the event. The lobby was a lot of fun to look at!
We were assigned “Touchdown” which had a bunch of huge footballs and helmets as the décor. The stairs for our building were actually in the footballs. The kids thought that was so much fun to walk up and down inside a giant football.
We brought our luggage upstairs to our room and then we immediately headed out to our first park of the trip…Hollywood Studios.
Our first ride had to be “Toy Story Midway Mania.” That is currently Aaron’s favorite ride and Donovan loves Toy Story.
Aaron won of course but surprisingly I was right behind him. Next time Aaron will get Jojo as a handicap!
Jordyn was ready for a nap and we were only in the park for twenty minutes!!!! Good thing Daddy has a comfortable head!
Donovan got to go on The Hollywood Tower of Terror for the first time!!! Way to go Donovan!
After Tower of Terror we went on Aerosmith’s Rockin Roller Coaster and that ended up being Lisa and Jennifer’s favorite ride. They wanted to keep going on it for the rest of the trip! Roxann and Donovan didn’t want to hang around that roller coaster too long because neither of them are tall enough…yet.
So I took the kids to “Disney Junior Live” and we got to watch Mickey Mouse, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Little Einstein's, and Handy Manny.
We got to meet Handy Manny when the show was over!
The park closed at 7 so we had time to go back to the hotel and eat some dinner before a nice evening swim at our pool.
Day Two—Epcot
Jennifer and Lisa have never been to Epcot so we wanted to make sure that they would be able to see everything they wanted. This park is so big that we actually ran out of time and we were there until midnight!!!
Aaron and I were on the Dining plan so we had to sit and eat one meal in a restaurant for every day we were staying at the hotel. We decided to try Akershus Banquet Hall for breakfast. We had all the eggs, bacon, sausage, and potato casserole we could eat! The princesses came by one by one to visit with us and Donovan liked them all very much. Roxy wore her new Ariel dress and received many compliments.
Aurora and Donovan
Roxy and Mary Poppins
Everyone with Ariel
We were very surprised to see Cinderella!
Everyone gets a nice picture with Belle before you are seated
We met up with Grandma Lisa and Jennifer and we went on Soarin. After Soarin we headed over to Nemo and Friends. Jordyn loved looking at all the fish!
While everyone went to see Captain EO, Jordyn and I meet Vidia and Rosetta. They are some of Tinkerbell’s friends and Jordyn eventually warmed up to them.
We were getting ready to eat dinner and the kids discovered a bunch of fun hats. So we let them try on as many as they wanted. Donovan never laughed so hard and Jordyn was also enjoying herself because she was acting like her big sister and brother.
Dinner was at the Garden Grill with Mickey, Pluto, Chip, and Dale. There is a ride that you can go on, “Living with the Land”, and you see all the food being grown for the restaurant to use. It was delicious!
They have a berry cobbler with hand whipped ice cream topping that was amazing!!! We had about three of them until we had to force ourselves to leave.
We spent the evening at the “World Showcase” but it wasn’t enough time to walk through all the pavilions. Next trip we really want to leave plenty of time for this part of Epcot. I would have to say it is my favorite part of Walt Disney World (Magic Kingdom is a very very close second).
Day Three-Animal Kingdom
Today was the actual day of Aaron’s graduation ceremony so I wanted to make sure he knew how proud we are of him. I found a Party City and I got him some balloons and the chef’s from the “Grand Floridian” made him a customized brownie cake. He had no idea and was very surprised when we sat down to eat.
Jordyn enjoyed the balloons a lot!
We had breakfast with Lilo…
and Stitch!
Today was the day of the 5k Expedition Everest Challenge and Aaron and I wanted to get acquainted with the park before the race that evening.
Jordyn really enjoyed Kilimanjaro Safaris!
Donovan got to go on Kali River Rapids for the first time. He was soaked!!!
Mommy went on Kali River Rapids with Donovan and Roxann then Daddy went with everyone and Mommy and Jordyn laughed as they got drenched.
One princess that Roxann hasn’t met yet was Pocahontas. We found out that she was at Rafiki’s Planet Watch and meeting people all day. We took the little train up there and she was there along with other friends. The best part? There was no line to meet her or her friends!
Jiminy Cricket and Donovan were being silly
Rafiki was there to say hi to everyone.
After we met our friends, we went outside to pet some goats and donkeys. Donovan loved brushing the little goats.
The park closed at 5 and so we had about an hour and a half until we had to be back for the start of the race. We ate dinner at the resort and put the kids in their pajamas. They were going to spend the evening with Grandma Lisa and Jennifer and Aaron and I were going to run in a 5k race…ugh. When we got there I was feeling pretty good but I was looking forward to the scavenger hunt instead of the run. There were a lot of kids and it turns out that kids can participate when they turn 9. We thought that Roxann would love to do this with us once she turns 9. Her and I can be partners and Aaron can do it as an individual. He didn’t mind because I honestly held him back on that run and I really think he could have won the whole thing if I wasn’t so slow.
Anyway…we finished 167 out of 785 and we rode Expedition Everest a couple of times and Dinosaur before we decided to head back to the hotel and get some sleep before tomorrow. Jennifer was still awake and told us that she had sooooo much fun with the kids and she loved every moment watching them. I told her she was welcome to watch them anytime!
Day Four—Magic Kingdom
At last we made it to the Magic Kingdom. We thought this park would be the best to go on Mother's Day. All Mother's received carnations and mine didn't last very long once Jojo got a hold of them. We were going to get the kid’s haircuts in the morning so we had to be at the park before opening. Lisa and Jennifer needed more sleep so we encouraged them to sleep in and we will meet up with them later in the day. They were very happy to hear that and by 7:30 we were out the door.
Donovan got his first haircut at the Harmony Barber shop. The place gets very busy but the price is the same as a haircut at Fantastic Sam’s and Sports Clips so we thought Donovan would have more fun getting his hair cut here.
Roxy had fun too! The barber put “pixie dust” in her hair when he was done. Roxy only wanted a trim. We are planning on bringing Jordyn here for her first haircut.
After everyone was polished up we decided to go on Thunder Mountain first and then Splash Mountain.
While waiting to get our haircuts, we saw the first people RUNNING through the gates and we assumed they were running toward Splash and Thunder Mountain. But when we got there it was empty and we had the rides to ourselves. We went two or three times on Thunder Mountain but only went once on Splash Mountain.
Roxy was pretty upset when we got off of Splash Mountain. We were completely drenched and their shoes were floating in a huge puddle in our boat. I’m not exaggerating…. at least 6 inches of water went into our boat and their feet were completely submerged. Roxy didn’t want to go on the ride anymore.
Lisa and Jennifer met us at the tea cups as we were finishing our ride. Jordyn was hilarious and did not want to spin at ALL. Roxy and I wanted to meet Rapunzel and Flynn so we thought we would stop by after the tea cups and see how long the line was. I asked the attendant and she informed us that the 2:30 group was lining up right now. A 4 hour wait to meet Rapunzel. Now we know where all those people were going. They were running to meet Rapunzel and Flynn. I talked to a family who were waiting in line for Tiana and they told me that they were there at opening and ran to meet Rapunzel and still had an hour wait….crazy. Roxy was upset but I told her that Leah will most likely want to meet Rapunzel too so one morning we will make a special effort to see Rapunzel with Leah. That made her feel better and we moved on to Buzz Lightyear.
Donovan wanted to go on Pirates next and he loved every moment. I got yelled at for taking this picture…no flash photography.
Enough time passed and Roxy finally agreed to ride Splash Mountain again. Jojo and I went to the laughing place and she was having a lot of fun while we waited for everyone to get off the ride.
Aaron and I had one more table dinner to use so we went on the monorail to the Grand Floridian and ate dinner at 1900 Park Fare. Lisa and Jennifer were still full from lunch so they decided to take the monorail for a spin all the way to Epcot and meet us later for the Electrical Parade. While eating dinner we got to meet Prince Charming…
Cinderella…again….
Anastasia…
Drizella…
and Lady Tremaine. Donovan liked the “Bad Lady,” she told him to eat all his broccoli and he thought that was so funny!
Roxy really wanted to meet Rapunzel but I let her know that Tiana was also here and Prince Naveen and we can meet them if she wants. Roxy was really excited to meet Tiana and especially Naveen.
Prince Naveen asked Roxann for a kiss. She smiled and gave him a kiss as we were leaving. While we were walking back to the parade, Roxy said “Hey Mom, did you see that Prince Naveen asked me for a kiss? And I gave him one and I didn’t turn into a frog! Do you know what that means? I must be a real princess because I didn’t turn into a frog!”
We have the best viewing spot for the parades and we all really enjoyed this parade.
