Disney-Day 1

So our first day in Disney was Saturday. We decided instead of riding in the car with 2 kids during the day we would rather drive all night and just be tired the next day. So we left Mobile around 11:00 and drove straight thru to Disney. We got there around 7:30. It was thankfully an uneventful drive and the kids slept until around 6 and then fell back to sleep right as we were getting there. I went and checked us in and got our park tickets while the 3 of them slept in the truck. On our first day we made the mistake of driving to the Magic Kingdom. BIG MISTAKE. The Magic Kingdom has 100 different means of transportation you have to take to get to the park once you park the truck. It was not fun.

Once we got in the park we took a quick picture in front of the castle before their clothes were messed up!
They weren't as excited as I thought they would be to see Cinderella's castle. I think maybe because I don't like cartoon characters so we don't focus on them at our house...who knows.

I had read a few guidebooks before we went and I knew to make our first stop in Magic Kingdom Fantasyland. It's the most preschool centric part of the park and gets packed quickly and stays packed all day. Our first ride was Dumbo, then we headed to Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, Snow White, The Carousel and Mickey's Philmagic.

Me and my girl on dumbo

There are 3 types of "rides" at Disney...the amusement park kind, the get in some sort of vehicle and ride through while it tells a story and then theater style rides. We like amusement park rides not really the other 2. Ryan has a 3 second attention span so the other 2 bored him and the kids. I wish in Disney there were more amusement park type rides.

Tanner pulling the sword out of the stone...or trying to at least!

Our next stop after Fantasyland was Tomorrowland.

In Tomorrowland we first rode the Buzz Lightyear ride. That ride was a big hit with Tanner he loved it!!

We then rode the Tomorrowland Speedway which is like go cart racing. The kids got to drive on that ride and they loved that.

We then headed to Toontown which was a lot of fun! The kids loved getting to play in Mickey and Minnie's houses. They also rode Goofy's roller coaster. Ryleigh liked it, Tanner hated it.

We decided to skip the lined to meet Mickey and friends since we were going to have lunch with them. Instead we stood in line to meet the princesses.

And Buzz Lightyear!

By this time it was time for our lunch reservations. We were eating at Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary Resort. We rode the monorail over to the resort for lunch. Normally I wouldn't want to leave the park for lunch but I had worked it out where we would eat lunch then go back and take a nap in our room since we had been up all night.

(Side note-The Contemporary resort is right beside Magic Kingdom and is suppose to be a moderate resort. I thought it was old and ugly. I'm glad we didn't splurge on staying there)

Chef Mickey's lunch was a huge hit with Ryleigh!!! Tanner at first didn't know what to think about all the characters. My kids know that they aren't real so he didn't know what to think about actual people being in there. He asked me if they would be nice people in there or not! :)

Ryleigh's favorite character...Minnie!!!! She loves her the most out of any Disney character and was so excited to meet her!

The character meals are the way to go. Hands down if there is one thing I had to say saved us the most time and made our dinners/lunches the best it was the character ones. The kids get to meet the characters without us standing in line for an hour and it gives them something to do while Ryan and I eat. The character lunches were our most enjoyable meals.

Ryleigh and Goofy being Goofy!

After lunch we made the hour trek back to the truck and went back to our resort. We stayed at Pop Century which is considered a value resort but we loved it! Maybe it was the price, maybe it was our room location but we loved this resort! It was perfect for our family. Especially for the amount of time we stayed in it. Which was just to sleep at night!

The kids had fell asleep on the way back to the truck so they didn't really want to take a nap. I managed to get them to lay down for about 45 minutes and then the 3 of us went to explore our resort while Ryan slept a little longer.

That night our plan was to head to downtown Disney but we made a last minute (like standing in line for the bus last minute) decision to go to Hollywood studios instead.

They LOVED the Honey I Shrunk The Kids Playground. LOVED it!!

We just walked around there and looked. We were planning on going to Hollywood Studios the next day so we were just scoping it out. I feel like we rode something else but I can't remember what.

We went back to our resort and had dinner there and the kids and Ryan played in the arcade while I went to play Santa Clause!!

Their favorite character are Buzz Lightyear and Minnie and thankfully we got to meet both our first day! So I went and bought them both something from the gift shop that they had been asking for all day long. Seriously every ride we went on or store we visited this is what they wanted. I got Ryleigh a baby Minnie and Tanner the Buzz lightyear gun.

The were so surprised when they got back to the room!! I wrote a letter from Minnie and Buzz to each of them. They seriously thought that they came to their room when we were at dinner.

They were so excited!!

The next day they were just telling random people all about the letters they got from Buzz and Minnie and how they came to our room when we weren't there!!

We had a fun first day but we were EXHAUSTED!!!

Next up: Hollywood Studios

Disney day 1

I'm going to do a in depth post on each day we were here but thought you guys might want to see some pictures from the first day of our trip! We are having a blast and the kids are being so good. It's hot but not unbearable.
Hope everyone isn't missing us to much! :)

Friday's Letter

Dear wonderful husband, Today is THE DAY!!! We leave for Disney in 13 and a half hours and I've never been more excited! I'm excited about our first "real" vacation as a family of four. I feel really grown up. You would think 2 kids, a mortgage and a real job would make me feel grown up but I think this trip is going to seal the deal! Dear Tropical Storm Matthew, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE hit any state but Florida this week. PLEASE! Dear Ryleigh and Tanner, I'm looking forward to a week with you guys making "magical memories"! (man that sounded corny! I think I've read one to many Disney websites this week!) Dear Sarah, I hope you are able to make it through the week while I'm gone. I know it will be hard but you can do it! Dear Dawn, enjoy your week off!! I know you are probably as excited as us to see us leaving! Thanks for all you do to help us everyday. Dear Ryan, the McDonald's Frappe you brought me to work this morning was the perfect start to my morning. You know how to make me smile. Love you more than Disney and Frappes!!

Peace out everyone talk to you guys next week!!

2 days!!

We've gone from 31 LONG days...

To just 2more days!

and we couldn't be more excited!!!

Weekend in the Woods

This past weekend my WONDERFUL mother kept the kids for Ryan and I so we could have a weekend away before we leave for Disney (in 3 days!!!!!!!!) We took advantage of her having them and went to our friend Traveis's hunting camp. We had so much fun!!! We left Friday night around 7:30 and got there around 9:30.

I love this picture of Ryan. He HATES having his picture made!

When we got there we loaded up the 4 wheelers and went riding. There is like 75,000 acres so there is PLENTY of room to ride!

This is my friend Shelby all dressed up and ready to go!
We rode until 2 in the morning! Yes, you read that right. I was up until 2 am! Actually 3 am by the time we got back and actually got in bed. I don't think I've been up that late since...well, ever probably! :)

The next morning we got up and cooked a huge breakfast and just laid around and watched college game day and the first part of the Arkansas and Georgia game. Then the guys wanted to go outside and shoot stuff.

Ryan got a new bow last year and has been wanting to practice with it. I really thought I would be able to do it.

But obviously I couldn't! I love the face I'm making in this picture. I was trying really hard!

Whitney commented on facebook and said "Do you always dress the part for whatever it is you are doing?" I answered back "Of course, doesn't everyone!" It's more fun that way!!

I can't wait for everyone to see our Disney shirts Gill made us to wear!

This is a look of intense concentration!

After the bow shooting they wanted to shoot clay disk...are they called skeet??
Unfortunately we didn't have a thrower so we had to do it ourselves. That's what I'm doing in this picture. Even though it looks like I'm an interpretive dancer or releasing a bird into the wild! I did throw it the complete other way than which way Traveis was aiming.

Those ears muffs were AMAZING!

I tried shooting the gun a few times. It was actually a lot of fun. It's a great stress reliever!

I shot 2 skeet when they were actually in the air! I was so excited! Even Ryan said he was proud of me.

After that though I went inside. It was like 100 degrees out there and everyone knows me + heat + outdoors = not a happy camper!

The girls took a nap and then we all watched the Bama game and cooked again.

We had a great time!!!

Thanks Traveis for inviting us up!!

Show us your life FRIDAY (on sunday!)

So I blog that I love to read is staring a series called Show us your life Fridays! Every Friday Kelly @ Kelly's Korner shows a different part of your house/life and encourages other people to join in and link up. My friend Sarah and I thought it would be a fun thing to do!!

This week it's show us where you live- Living rooms.

Ryan and I built our house about 3 years ago. I love it and there aren't many things I would change other than a 4th bedroom. But here is our living room....

This is when you come in the front door.

It looks kinda dark I should have turned the light on. I really want to get some lamps to put in there but there isn't anywhere to plug them in since none of our furniture or tables are against the wall. With 2 kids, cords going all over the place isn't a good idea!

This is looking in from the hallway that goes to the kids room. The walls aren't yellow I guess it just looks that way with the sunlight. I love the picture that hangs on that wall. My Nana painted it for me.

This is looking in from the kitchen. Notice the play cottage in the middle of the living room! We've actually come a long way from toys in the living room. They used to be everywhere but now we are down to just the cottage. There is no where to put it in Ryleigh's room and they still play with it pretty much everyday so I hate to get rid of it.

And here's our fireplace. I need to get our fall decorations out. I love our fireplace when it's decorated for a holiday!!

Next Friday is Master Bedrooms. Not sure if I'll participate in that or not since we will be on our way to Disney World!! Woo Hoo!!!