Walt Disney World Day 2: The Magic Kingdom

Day 2 was the big day: the Magic Kingdom! Even as an adult, I loved that magical feeling that came as Mickey came out to open the gates and start our day.

 Sarah was up crazy early that morning, so she was napping when the big park opening moment arrived. 

 We started our day on Splash Mountain-one of my favorite rides.

 Too bad we had to take turns-one of the downsides of having small children with you. Next time we need to bring Grandma. 

 Sarah thought the Enchanted Tiki room was pretty fun. "Birdie" is one of her favorite words to say.

Sarah took about a 3 hour nap in the afternoon, so Kelson and I had lots of time to stroll around peacefully exploring.

The new Fantasyland section of the park is really cool. It feels like you are wandering around the worlds of the Disney princesses. Fun!

Kelson has found his dream job-Disney cartographer!

 We saw lots of princesses at the parade.

 We were excited to take our little princess to meet Cinderella and Rapunzel. Sarah was not feeling the magic. Princesses were quite possibly the scariest people at Disneyland.

 Save me, Mommy!

 Sarah was also really excited to get on the carousel-until we got on the horse. It was apparently also very scary. Sorry for traumatizing you, Sarah.

 We took a break from scary princesses and went on Space Mountain. Zooming through the dark is kind of freaky.

 Next was the teacups. Sarah thought it was great. Much better than scary carousel horses.

 Our little Rapunzel was happier exploring Fantasyland without any princesses present.

 Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!

 Silly Sarah

 We took a break in the afternoon and went back to the hotel for dinner and a swim. Disney is apparently thirsty work.

 We went back to the park for the evening festivities. The park is even more magical at night!

 For the night show, they project different scenes on to Cinderella's castle. It was incredible!

 Let it go! There may have been one or two girls belting out the song at this point.

The night ended with fireworks. What a magical day!

Walt Disney World Day 1: The Animal Kingdom

We had originally planned to spend a week on the big island before we left Hawaii, but our plans were disturbed when Kelson broke his foot. We decided to give the foot a few extra weeks to heal and then go to Disney World instead before we checked in to Kelson's new job. I absolutely love Disney, and I couldn't wait for our vacation!

We flew into Orlando (which is only a 2 hour flight from Norfolk) the evening before our first day in the park. By the time we took the shuttle from the airport to our hotel, which was on the Disney property, checked in, and made our way to our room, it was after 10:30 at night. We stayed at the All-Star Movies resort. Sarah's favorite part was the giant statues of the dogs from 101 Dalmatians.

 Every time we walked through here on the way to our room, we would start hearing lots of excited woofing from the stroller. 

We spent our first day at Disney World at the Animal Kingdom. Lots of fun animals to see with a heavy dose of Disney Magic.

 The Harambe Wildlife Safari was our first stop.

Look at all the animals!

Rawr!

Doing a little African drumming.

Fishies!

Headed into Asia. The park wasn't especially crowded that day, which made it a nice, relaxing day.

The Finding Nemo show was a hit. The bubbles were definitely a bonus.

The Tree of Life

Disney World is exhausting. Sarah took some epic naps in that stroller. 

It got pretty warm that day, so we were more than happy to get wet on the river rapids ride.

Strolling through an African village listening to the street performers.

Woohoo! On the train to the petting zoo.

Kitty!

Sarah was a big fan of the petting zoo. We had to stop petting this goat because he was a little too nibbly.

Yay sheep! Right after this, I turned my head away for one second and turned back around to find her sticking sheep poop in her mouth. Seriously? She won't eat any of the delicious food I give her, but she will try to eat sheep poop? Gross!

Sarah got to go on the triceratops spin, which is a lot like the Dumbo ride. She really did think it was pretty fun. She especially liked getting to steer with the lever.

Kelson & I took turns going on Expedition Everest. It was a great roller coaster, even if going backwards through the dark was pretty freaky.

 We ended the day with the Lion King show. Sarah loves songs and lions. Rawr!

What a fun way to end the day!

 We were honestly pretty happy that the Animal Kingdom closes early so we could head back to the resort for dinner, put Sarah to bed after saying good night to the dalmatians, and then having a relaxing evening. 

This picture pretty well sums up how we felt about our first day at Disney World :)