Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Disney Day #3 & 4

After our first day at the Magic Kingdom, we were all ready for another day of fun!  The second day was fun to get ready for, because this time both kids knew exactly what the day held for them.  Before, Cooper knew we were going somewhere fun, but he really had no idea about what Disney World really was.  This day, he knew exactly what was coming!

Of course when I take a picture of Matt with the kids, I take a million until I get one with at least mostly normal faces.  This is what I get when Matt takes one of me and the kids --- classic.  A tongue and a nose picker.

We did get one that was *almost* normal.

We're working so hard to get Cooper to actually look at the camera when we ask him to.  But he is just not interested!

While we waited for the opening show, Cooper enjoyed playing his hidden hand game from the day before.  He is such a goofy boy!

Sometimes he'll look and smile!  This was perfect!  But it also sometimes takes a lot of crazy faces from the person behind the camera. 


I love these two!


We had one major goal for this day: meet Elsa and Ana.  Even with a very low crowd level, the lines to meet Elsa and Ana were over 2 hours at their worst during the day.  While the opening show played outside the park, we did not try to get a spot front and center.  Instead, we got as close to the entrance as we could.  When the started letting everyone in, we literally ran for where Elsa and Ana were!  Even with going as fast as we could (it was crazy!) we still ended up with about a 20 minute wait.  And we got there about 5 minutes after the park opened!  But it was so worth it.  LL was so happy and so in awe!


Cooper, however, was not quite as excited - haha.  He's such a typical younger brother.

Right after this picture with Ana, Cooper got super embarrassed and threw himself on the floor.  Ana tried to get him to look at the camera, so she tickled his ear.  It embarrassed him and he laid down and started crying!  Poor guy!  But it was so funny because we were all just shocked that he got so embarrassed.  That hasn't really happened to him before.  I told him not to worry, his daddy used to do the same thing in front of pretty girls.  ;)

After meeting Elsa and Ana, Matt took Cooper (who was still crying about Ana) to go ride the carousel while LL and I jumped in line for Rapunzel and Cinderella (which was right next door to the frozen cast and literally had no wait.  We walked right in).


The boys had fun riding while we met more princesses.

When I was going through the pictures on Matt's phone, I literally laughed out loud when I saw this one.  I have no idea what Cooper is doing, but it's hysterical.

LL and I got in line to ride the carousel, and we had fun waving to Daddy and Cooper.

We all four rode together, and I had fun snuggling this sweet boy!

After the carousel, it was time for another go at Small World.

Since we had had such a great, full day the day before - our goal on day 2 was to re-ride all of our favorite and to hit a few rides that we had missed.  Dumbo was one of the rides that we had not done the day before, so we made sure to do it on day 2.  I was really surprised at how excited Cooper got about Dumbo.  He doesn't know who he is, but he was pumped about the elephants ("el-fents!")

Of course Cooper isn't looking - haha.

Daddy and LL had a blast!  Their elephant went super high and LL loved it.  Something was wrong with the elephant that Cooper and I got, and it didn't move at all.


Another ride that we had not done the day before was the Speedway in Tomorrowland.  This was a hit.  Both kids had so much fun!



The new Ariel ride is one of our favorites.  We rode it again, and then we waited in line to meet Ariel.


We also wanted to make sure to meet Mickey again.  This was probably one of Cooper's favorite things from the day before, so we for sure wanted to do it again.  Here's a video of Cooper waving to Mickey while we waited in line.  In this video, you can hear Mickey talk to the kids.  When we came last year, Mickey didn't talk!  And at first I figured it was all just pre-recorded stuff, but then I really started paying attention.  Both times we met him, the people in front of us were foreigners.  And both times he spoke to them in their language!  Once in Spanish and once in Japanese!  And the stuff he said to my kids was also pretty personal - like he sang LL Happy Birthday.  Or when he tried to get Cooper to act like a pirate, he said "Aww, it's okay.  Don't worry about it little buddy".  So I have no idea how it all worked??  But it was very neat and made it all so believable for the kids!


You can tell that Cooper was just so in awe of standing next to Mickey Mouse!

Cooper earned his ears on this trip!  We waited until day 2 to get his ears, and he was so excited to pick some out!  He wanted about 5 pair, but he finally settled on Lightening McQueen.  We left them to get embroidered while we met Mickey, and then picked them up on the way to meet Tinkerbelle again.

He's such a handsome little stud!


Cooper was fading fast at this point!  It was about 2:30 and he hadn't had any nap.


After meeting Tink, we decided to go ahead and head back to the hotel.  There was a bad rainstorm moving in, and we wanted to try to beat it back.  I was a little nervous that we'd leave and it would blow over quickly, and I would regret wasting time not at the park.  Well, that is absolutely not what happened.  It was a super bad storm and it did not let up.  And it was torrential rain, thundering, and lightening.  And it did that straight until the next morning.  If people stayed at the park, I really would be super shocked if they were able to do any rides or anything.  It was bad.  

When we got to the monorail to go back to the parking lot, we were pretty much the only ones in line.  We got right at the front of the train, and Cooper said hey to the driver.  I joked with the driver that we paid all this money for Disney, and Cooper's favorite part was the monorail.  He just laughed, but then he came back to find us before the train left to give Cooper and LL some "wings".  It was so sweet and thoughtful!  We stuck Cooper's on the back of one of his Mickey ears so that it would be there forever.

To no one's surprise, Cooper fell asleep in the car on the way back to the hotel.  He also slept through putting him in the stroller and walking to the room.  And then he slept in his stroller for another hour once we got back!  Disney will wear a boy out!

While Cooper slept, the rest of us chilled out and LL got some alone time to play with some of her new toys.  Cooper woke up about 4:00, and we all snuggled on the couch/bed and watched TV and the rain for a little while.  It was some much needed down time after a busy two days!

I don't get calm snuggles very often, so I take them when I can get them!

We spent the rest of the night hanging out in the hotel room because of the flood going on outside.  I ran through the rain to get us to-go dinner from the resort cafeteria, and it really ended up being the best thing.  The kids split some pasta (their favorite) and it was so fun to spend some time in our room, the kids stripped down to just a diaper and underwear, eating a good meal, talking about our trip, and enjoying each other's company.  It was simple, but we all loved it.

The next morning, we got all packed up and headed to Downtown Disney for a little bit more shopping before heading home.  LL was such an amazing girl on this whole trip.  Especially to Cooper.  On our last day, she wanted to push Cooper through Downtown Disney.


After some shopping, we stopped by a Chick-Fil-A and got some lunch to go.  We ate in the car while we drove home, and it wasn't long until I saw Cooper like this.  Completely asleep, snuggling Olaf, and holding some vanilla wafers.  I'd say that is a sign of a fantastic trip!

This was seriously the best trip of my life.  My family needed this time so badly, and we all had the best time together.  Everyone was in a great mood, was happy, was nice to each other, and enjoyed every moment.  After this trip, I think we've all caught the Disney bug for sure (even Daddy!).  Maybe we'll go ahead and start planning our next vacation.  ;)


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