The Sunday morning after Jack's tractor party, Mimi took Jack and Murphy back to Wilmington, and Will and Anna and I hopped on a plane to Disney World!! You can read about our last trip in November of 2011
here. It was a fun trip, but Anna and I were both sick and the trip definitely suffered because of it. That's why Will and I were both shocked and excited when we WON a trip to Disney this past summer. We went back and forth a million times about whether we should take Jack since it was a trip for four. We ultimately decided that we should just do a do-over and leave Jack at home. It was definitely the right call. There were a handful of times that we wished he had been there, but really enjoyed the flexibility that came with just having a five year old. I won't bore you with photos of Anna with every character under the sun--I made her a photo book with all of those photos. Here are just a few to recap the trip!
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This trip is starting out right--
a doughnut for breakfast!! |
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| Passing time in the airport with the "magic computer". |
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| Ready to take off! |
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| On the bus, ready to be at Disney World! |
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We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge--
it was modeled after a mountain cabin
and was gorgeous! |
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| Mickey was waiting in our room! |
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| Anna was pumped about the bunk bed! |
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| The first night we went back to Chef Mickey's. |
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| Family photo with Donald |
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| Minnie and Anna |
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| Monday we headed to the Magic Kingdom. |
It was funny to us because last time, Anna was scared of the dark and didn't
want to ride anything that went in the dark. Even the People Mover goes in the dark for a short time! Instead of riding a lot of rides, we focused on seeing the princesses and getting autographs. This time, Anna was all about the rides!! She rode everything but Space Mountain (still too much dark) and Splash Mountain (closed for repairs). It was such a different experience, especially since all of us felt fantastic!
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| At the end of our fun first day! |
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That night we went to Ohana's.
Anna looked sassy with her Shirley Temple! |
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| Tuesday was Hollywood Studios. |
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| We loved the Beauty and the Beast show! |
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That afternoon we came back to the hotel
for some relaxation and pool time.
Anna went down this water slide at least 167 times! |
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Wednesday was Epcot and Anna was super excited
about finding Mary Poppins since it's one
of her recent favorite movies. |
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| KidCot extraordinaire! |
We all really enjoyed Epcot this time. Anna loved Soarin' and the Nemo ride and we rode both Test Track and Spaceship Earth twice! Anna also had a blast in the World Showcase because of a new-to-us program called KidCot. At each "country," there was a KidCot table set up. The kids picked a paper puppet on a paint stick and could color it in with the basket of markers on the table. The staffer manning the table would then stamp the back of the puppet with a stamp from that country. Some of them drew the country's flag or some symbol that was pertinent. Anna even got her name written in Chinese, Japanese, and Aramaic! She was all about getting her stamps and so we ended up going into every country. It was cute!
For dinner that night, we ate in Norway at the Akershus Hall with the princesses!
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| Thursday was Animal Kingdom. Anna even rode Expedition Everest!!! |
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Thursday night, we headed to Downtown Disney.
Anna begged to get her face painted
and then we ate at Wolfgang Puck's. |
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Friday we went back to the Magic Kingdom to make sure
we rode all of our favorite rides and got all of our autographs.
Goofy's Barnstormer roller coaster was Anna's favorite! |
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Back at the pool, Anna just had to have
her hair wrapped! |
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| So proud! |
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Her sweet friend, Rebecca, that she made and
hung out with all afternoon at the pool. |
Friday night, we headed over to Fort Wilderness for the Hoop-Di-Doo Review. Although it was late (our reservations were at 8:30!) it was so hilarious. I haven't seen Anna laugh that hard in a long time. It's definitely something we will do again when we go back with Jack.
We had an absolutely fantastic trip! We are so glad we got the chance to go back and experience everything again--and with no sickness!! We created some amazing memories!
And Jack was pretty happy the whole week getting to be the only child (for once) at Mimi and Papa's. He got to watch "tractors" at the construction sites every morning and went to the park several times with Mimi. He played with Nellie and rode the tractor with Papa in the yard. Our sweet boy had a large time himself! We owe a huge thank you to Mimi and Papa for keeping him for us!! This mama sure was glad to get him back in her arms again!;)
