Showing posts with label princesses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label princesses. Show all posts

Sunday, July 7, 2013

The Pool and "Apricot"

Visiting Disney World was obviously the girls' favorite part about our trip to Florida, but the hotel pool came in as a close second. 

Sweet sisters, walking to the pool (and hunting for lizards on the way)

They love their swim lessons at the Y, but there's just something about an outdoor pool that makes it infinitely more fun than an indoor pool.  Add in grandparents to play with them, a little island complete with plants, and a waterfall, and they thought it was paradise! 

LOVING the pool
 
Needless to say, we spent many hours at the pool.
 
Climbing up the pool chairs
 
Amelia has told me more than once over the last month that she wishes we lived in Florida.  When I asked why?  Because then we could have a pool!

The pool waterfall, from the front and the back!

After two days at Magic Kingdom, we decided to take the morning off from amusement parks.  Turned out to be a good decision, since it decided to rain on Wednesday morning.  A good decision for most of us, anyway...  Chad, his dad, and mine had picked Wednesday morning to golf.  They got rather wet, but had a good time anyway!  As a bonus, the girls each got a solid, much needed nap. 

Relaxing in the hotel with Louisa

After the guys had a chance to clean up after their round of golf, we headed to Epcot - which Amelia initially called Apricot - to see some more princesses and some other characters and to have dinner.
 
Such a cool-looking building!

Before we got to Disney, I had purchased a couple of little notebooks for the girls to collect character autographs if they wanted, but I suspected that they wouldn't really be terribly interested in doing so.  Boy, was I wrong!  Amelia became obsessed with collecting signatures from every character possible, and because Amelia was doing it, Ramona wanted to, too!

Waiting out a brief rainstorm in a store in "Morocco"

One of the characters Amelia most wanted to "meet" was Mulan, and the only place that we could find her (at least while we were there) was Epcot, so that was where we went!  The girls also got to see Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto (who Louisa loved), and Aladdin and Jasmine while we were there.  And let me tell you, Aladdin was a tough one to see!  After having the line closed just in front of us twice (once at Magic Kingdom and once at Epcot), we finally managed to meet with Aladdin and Jasmine in "Morocco".  Worth it, I guess, because the girls had a great time with them, talking about where Abu (the monkey) and Rajah (the tiger) were.  (Abu had eaten all of the funnel cakes at Epcot earlier in the day, and so he wasn't feeling well.  And they had to leave Rajah in Agrabah because they brought their four-tassel carpet instead of their eight-tassel carpet, and he can't ride on the four-tassel rug!)  We learned that meeting the characters was a lot more fun when the girls had a question or two in mind beforehand!

Characters at Epcot

By the time we finished with the characters, it was past the girls' bedtime (even though it was still light outside!), so we got some frozen lemonade to enjoy on the walk back to the parking lot and returned to the hotel.

Next up - Universal!

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Our Disney Trip (Days One and Two)

We spent the last week of May in sunny Orlando, Florida, mostly at... you guessed it, Disney World!  (I know, I know, I'm way behind - AGAIN.  I took over 1000 pictures during our week in Florida, though, and it took me a while to work up the nerve to tackle sorting through and editing all of them.)

We flew down the Sunday before Memorial Day.  My parents got into town the same day, and Chad's arrived the next day, which was GREAT.  But even though we had six adults to wrangle three kids, we were still exhausted at the end of every day!  Attributable, I guess, to the heat and the crowds and the lines...

Despite all of that, we really had a such a fun time.  Amelia especially.  She adored every minute of our trip - highlights for her were lunch at Cinderella's castle and meeting as many characters as possible - and was SO well-behaved!   

Ramona?  Not so much.  She really liked certain parts (the characters, some rides) but didn't care for the heat or the noise.  Or the dark rides.  So she was perfectly happy half of the time, and super grumpy for the other half.  Poor Grandpa (Chad's dad) bore the brunt of her moodiness, quite literally: Often, Grandpa carrying her was the only thing that prevented Ramona from dissolving into a teary mess.  And Ramona is NOT a small child.  :) 

Louisa actually handled the whole amusement park vacation better than I expected.  She was generally content as long as I had her.  She ended up in the carrier most of the time, checking everything out and falling asleep when she was tired. 

Oh, did you want to see pictures? 

Here you go!  Pictures from Days One and Two, at Magic Kingdom:

Welcome to the Magic Kingdom!

On Main Street, USA

Meeting Belle and Gaston (he was my favorite of all of the characters - hysterical!) and going on some rides

Archery practice and meeting Merida!

My three little princesses! 

Lunch at Cinderella's Castle and quality time with a few princesses - Amelia's favorite part of the whole trip!

Post-lunch - see what I mean about Ramona being grumpy?  (Skipping naps is hard for her.)

A couple last shots as we headed back to the hotel after Day One

   
Meeting some fairies and some princesses - the girls loved Rapunzel's hair and Tinker Bell's wings

Meeting Buzz Lightyear (Louisa LOVED him) and riding on spaceships and magic carpets
 
The coolest balloon ever and a REAL GLASS SLIPPER!!!
 
Do you think she's enjoying herself?
 
More to follow soon, I promise!