Disney, the picture edition

Well, we're back! It was so hard to leave. Disney truly is a magical place. I believe Anna-Kate summed up all of our feelings when she said, as we were driving away, "but I don't want to leave Disneyworld, not ever!".

The four of us at Magic Kingdom:



Ryan's first ride on Dumbo:



Anna-Kate's first ride on Dumbo: (it's her "faybrit")



Unfortunately, our attire for most of the trip...the Disney poncho. Fortunately, we discovered that if they rip (which they often do) Disney lets your swap them out for a new one. We each had one, and had 1 for the stroller. Let's just say it was a production to go anywhere.



Anna-Kate loves to carry the umbrella. I think she feels like a big girl. Here, at Animal Kingdom, she walked over to me (I was also holding an umbrella) and said, "cheers" and tapped my umbrella.



This might be my favorite picture from the trip. Both happy, smiling, and wearing their mouse ears! (these are the ears I scored for free. I'm telling you, it pays to be nice to people and to talk to people. Asking for things never hurts, all they can say is no, and often, people will surprise you and say yes!)



Family picture with Minnie and Mickey.



The birthday girls. We ate so well on our trip. This was the birthday dessert at the Rainforest Cafe. It was SOOO good! Happy Birthday Mom and Anna-Kate!



On our way to Animal Kingdom Wednesday (early!) morning. Anna-Kate loved riding the Disney buses, Ryan, not so much. Ya, he was that kid screaming on the buses usually. Unless I was holding him. Sigh.



The whole family at the "tree of life" at Animal Kingdom. As Anna-Kate would say at every possible appropriate time, "yay, it's not raining Momma, see?"



The only picture I have of the entire week where we are showered and halfway decent looking. :) We are at the Animal Kingdom lodge, Disney's newest resort, to have dinner at Boma, a buffet of amazing African inspired cuisine.



On Friday, our last night in Magic Kingdom, we ate dinner at Cinderalla's Castle. We had been talking about it for months and Anna-Kate told anyone who would listen that she was having dinner at Cinderella's house for her birthday! It was an excellent meal, and the kids had a great time. Fairy godmother and some mice came to sing, dance and entertain while the food was being served. A wonderful experience. Here is Anna-Kate with Cinderella:



And the family:



The princesses all received a blue wand/sceptor, while the little prince's got a sword. Ryan is all boy--he loved his sword, and has hardly put it down!



The castle during the AMAZING fireworks show. Unfortunately, both kids had fallen asleep by this point in the stroller, but the adults enjoyed it--wonderful!



We stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort on Disney property. It was so pretty!



The pools were awesome! There was a kiddie section with a shipwrecked pirate ship--there were slides and cannons shooting water and it was a zero entry kid pool, being about 1 foot at its deepest. Sorry, no picture. :) The "big" pool had 3 water slides and another zero entry section. We are in front of some other water shooting canons in this picture:



My dad took this picture from the top of the tallest water slide. I am waving. You can kinda see the resort area, and how great the pool and cabana area are. The sand "beaches" to the back left were around the whole thing (connected by a bridge) with playgrounds and hammocks everywhere. That was relaxing. During naps, I read a magazine and layed in the hammock. Ahhh.



The last day we went to Downtown Disney to eat lunch on our way out of town. Anna-Kate really wanted a picture with Pooh, so, here we are. We had such a wonderful time. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for everything! Can't wait to do it again!! :)



And they lived happily ever after....