DISNEY!!!

I'm pretty sure this is my biggest post yet.  Please keep in mind if you are looking at this that this is my way of scrapbooking and keeping a journal of our life.  If you are just interested in the pictures, you should now be able to click on a picture and view a slideshow of them.  Here we go!!....

Last Wednesday morning, we got up, finished packing up and took off to the airport to go to DISNEY WORLD!

The kids were so excited all dressed up in their Disney get-ups

The flight was pretty good - by the time we took off, it was naptime so Kylie slept most of the way.  Noah was too excited to sleep and skipped nap (as he did most of the rest of the week).

All set on the plane - checking out the photobook from our last trip to Disney

 Grammy and Papa were waiting for us at the airport and the kids were so excited to see them!

We arrived in Disney and checked into our hotel rooms - we had adjoining rooms which was nice.  We got settled in and then jumped right in and took the bus to the Contemporary hotel to have dinner with Mickey and friends at Chef Mickey's!  First, group shots while we were waiting for the bus...

Ready for some characters!

Kylie was SOO excited...

Until they got too close!  :-)

We weren't really sure how Kylie was going to do with all the characters. It's so interesting because Noah was all about them last time we went to Disney and he was just about Kylie's age.  Their personalities are so different.  :-)  She definitely needs a little more time to warm up to people - much less big characters!  She seemed to do okay when she was sitting with me (for the most part) so I had to get in a few pictures.  Noah on the other hand, was SOOO excited and had to give them all hugs and get them to sign his autograph book.

Coloring in the back of his autograph book - Kylie did the same quite a bit

Goofy made me get up so he could sit down in my seat!  :-)

The kids were exhausted that night and went to sleep VERY easily.  Good thing cause we had a busy day ahead of us at the Magic Kingdom on Thursday....

We weren't up quite as early as we thought we would be (a recurring theme) but still arrived to the park around 9:00 or so.  After a few pictures in front of the castle, we went straight back to Fantasyland.

Carousel time!

Daddy got in on the action, too.  :-)

 Then on to Dumbo!

Riding Winnie the Pooh with Grammy and Papa

Kylie's face through a lot of the trip!  She was amazed.

After a quick lunch, we went to Tomorrowland and Noah found the race cars!  He was so excited about this one and you'll see later that he rode it two more times!

He actually got to drive - Waylon had to push the pedals but he steered

Kylie watching Noah drive

So excited afterwards!

Then it was off to the Buzz Lightyear ride - we had to shoot these laser guns at targets to defeat the 'Emperor Zurg' (the villian in Toy Story).  :-)

Noah looks scared here but he's really just concentrating

Emperor Zurg locked up!

 Noah loved all the rides!  When we came out of this ride, Buzz Lightyear was there waiting so we got to meet him!

Love this shot of Noah - it fits his personality perfectly

Kylie waiting for Buzz  :-)

So excited!!!  :-)

We went back to the hotel around 1:30 for naps - the only day we went back in the middle of the day.  We were all so tired.

Noah got a 'monorail car' as his souvenir for the day and was so excited.  :-)

So tired on the bus ride back

Grammy and Papa were tired, too!

After we all rested up, we went back to Magic Kingdom for another character dinner.  We ended up having to wait a bit for this dinner.  It was raining and we think everyone was waiting for it to pass.

The kids were getting a little antsy but there were some silly moments

 This time it was Winnie the Pooh characters.  Kylie really liked Piglet.  She/He (Is Piglet a girl or boy??) gave Kylie a kiss on the cheek and she is still talking about that!  :-)  I guess it was pretty memorable for her.

What happens when they get too close.  :-)

Winnie the Pooh was a little strange.  He didn't really have much personality and it was pretty funny.

After dinner, we walked through the rain back to It's a Small World (for the second time of the day).  The kids loved this one - as did we all!

Then it was back home for bed around 9.  Everyone went to sleep very easily again.

A few snuggles before bedtime

Friday was Hollywood Studios.  Since we went to bed a little late, the kids ended up sleeping in and I didn't have the heart to wake them up so we were a little later getting to the park than we thought.  It actually worked out well though cause we let Kylie sleep in her stroller and Noah just skipped nap.  This is how it worked the rest of our trip and it seemed to work out okay.  Everyone was tired by the end of the day but then they just went to bed very easily.

When we arrived at the park, we went straight to get the fastpass for the new Toy Story ride and then took off to the Disney Junior show.  The kids loved this since they watch a lot of the shows that they featured - Mickey Mouse, Little Einsteins, Handy Manny and Jake and the Neverland Pirates...

Dancing to the music

 We caught a street show and Noah got to go up and dance with them!  :)

Waiting with Grammy and Papa for the Beauty and the Beast show to start

We had reservations for yet another character meal and we thought we were going to skip it but at the last minute we decided to go.  We were glad we decided to go cause it was fun.  The kids got to meet some of the Disney Jr stars...

Handy Manny

Leo from Little Einsteins

Special Agent Oso

June from Little Einsteins

 We decided to let Noah try the Star Wars ride.  The reviews said it could be a little scary for younger kids and he barely met the height requirement so I was nervous for him but he really loved it!  We got into a 'ship' and really felt like we were flying.  Pretty fun!  (Grammy and Kylie waited while Waylon, my dad and I went with Noah)

Waiting for the ride with Daddy.

Then we met Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater!

Watching a parade

 Kylie fell asleep after the parade and we just walked around and took a little break ourselves.  Then the last ride of the day was this really cool Toy Story Ride!

Grammy and Papa went to see a show about Walt Disney and the kids found hula hoops while we waited!

Noah did pretty well!  :-)

And so did Kylie!

Back at the hotel - storytime before bed.

Waylon and I went back out to the piano bar in the lobby after the kids went to sleep and waited for Leah to arrive.  She left after work on Friday and flew in for the weekend!

The kids were soooo excited to see her on Saturday morning and were telling her all about our adventures and showing her things!  Then we got ready and took off to Epcot!

A group shot waiting for the bus - Kylie wouldn't cooperate.  :-)

Wish this came out in focus - think it's an adorable shot!

I know they look like they are fighting here but they aren't.  They liked holding hands in the strollers.

  

Great shot by Papa

Epcot was HUGE!  We went straight to the Finding Nemo ride which was in a big building where they had an aquarium and a bunch of really cool stuff to see.  We could have spent a whole day just in that building!

The Finding Nemo ride

Kylie wasn't having this (Leah is holding her in there)   :-)

Checking out all the fish

 Then we went to 'Turtle Talk with Crush'.  This was really neat.  They had all the kids sitting up front and Crush (the turtle from Finding Nemo) talked to the kids.  He was (animated) on a big screen but actually interacted with the audience.  Pretty neat!!

 

Then we went to a different section of the park to get fastpasses for 'Soarin' - this ride was neat also (we did it later).  We were in some seats hanging in front of a huge imax screen and it looked like we were flying.  Pretty neat.  This was another one that Noah did - he barely met the height and I was nervous for him again but he loved it!

After lunch, we walked around the countries while Kylie napped in the stroller.

At some point, Kylie sat up and ended up like this!  :-)

After she woke up, we had popcicle snacks.  It was very hot all week.  Even when it rained, it didn't really cool things down!

 Before we left Epcot, we went on one more ride and they had this play area afterwards with all sorts of fun interactive things.  In this particular one, you jumped on these squares and they made noise and played music.  I have a great video of Waylon dancing!  :-)  Later, he told me that he found himself there alone - we had all walked away while he was turned around and he was left there dancing alone!!  :-)  Wish I had video of THAT!  Woops!  :-)

After we got back, we did a quick trip to one of the pools at the hotel.  It was such a nice one but we didn't get to spend too much time there cause we had too many other things going on!!

Kylie loves the water

Playing catch!

After the pool and a dinner in the room for the kids and my mom, Waylon, Leah, my dad and I took off to a fancy dinner at The California Grill.  It's on the rooftop of the Contemporary hotel and we could see the fireworks at Magic Kingdom.  So nice!  And big thanks to mom for staying back to keep the kids.

Dad with his girls before dinner

We don't often get pictures of just the two of us!  :-)

At dinner - SO yummy!

Sunday morning, we took off to Animal Kingdom and had a yummy breakfast buffet with Mickey and friends before starting the tour there.

Grammy and Leah checking out some funny pictures from the previous day

 Donald was there to greet us at the restaurant.  Kylie wanted to hug him so bad and tried quite a few times but could never bring herself to actually do it!  :-)

After breakfast, we took a train ride to 'Rafiki's place' and saw some cool animals and exhibits

Looking at snakes with Daddy

Noah loves snakes!

After we took the train back, we went on a 'Jungle Safari'.  It was so cool to see the animals close up from a big truck!  The kids loved it.  Kylie kept pointing out and naming all the animals.

Rhinos close up!

Then we took off to the show 'It's Tough to Be a Bug'.  This was a 4D show and the kids didn't like it at all.  It was the only thing they didn't like on the whole trip.  It was a little intense - big spiders looking like they are coming out at you, 'spitting' venom, etc.  Poor things!  :-)  They were cute and happy while we were waiting for it to start though!  :-)

Afterwards, my parents went back to the hotel to meet Jan and Joe who came to visit us and Leah, Waylon and I stayed and went to DinoLand with the kids.  Noah was obviously excited about this!  :-)

Riding a dinosaur ride

Leah, Kylie and I rode, too.  :-)

Driving a stegosaurus!  :-)

After we left Animal Kingdom, we made our way over to Downtown Disney to have dinner at the T-Rex restaurant.  Noah LOVED this!  There were tons of dinosaurs all over the place and every 30 minutes there was a 'meteor shower' and all of the dinosaurs would move.  It was pretty cool.

Noah and Jan had fun coloring together

Joe and Leah

 Kylie was very hungry and gobbled up our appetizer of chips and queso.  When the waitress came by, she was licking her plate!  :-)  So the waitress brought her out her own little plate.  :-)  She loved it.

They had a 'Build-a-Dino' store there (like Build-a-Bear), so we let each of them pick out something to build.  Noah was so excited about his pteranadon.  He named him 'Fella'.  :-)  The next day, he wanted to take Fella with him to the park but I told him no since he was so big - he had to have several 'talks' with Fella to make sure he'd be okay before we left.  :-)  And then when we got back home on Tuesday, he gave Fella a tour of our house.  :-)

Kylie chose a saber tooth tiger - Waylon helped name her Sally

So excited about their purchases!

Noah asked for me to take this picture with Fella's arm around him.  :-)

The 'kids'!  :-

When we got home that night, we said goodbye to Aunt Leah (she left early the next morning). At bedtime, Kylie wanted to sleep in Noah's bed so we thought, why not?  They went right to bed and slept great all night long!   They slept together the next night, too.  We were worried that they might want to do it when we got home but so far, it's been okay.  :-)

Monday morning, we went back to the Magic Kingdom for our last day at the parks.

Kylie and Grammy were excited!

We rode quite a few of the rides that we hadn't done the other day - and a few that we did!  :-)

Riding the magic carpets with Papa

We caught the street party and got to dance with Goofy!

Kylie and Grammy dancing

We went on a jungle cruise, and when we were done, Noah wanted to pretend he was driving a boat and made Grammy sit in his boat.  :-)

Grammy and Papa took Noah and Kylie to Country Bear Jamboree and Waylon and I went to ride a roller coaster.

Watching the show

Then we went back to Tomorrowland and Noah wanted to ride the race cars again.  This time he wanted Grammy to go with him.  And when he got off, he went straight back to the line and went with Papa!!  :-)

Papa's perspective.  He got a cute video of him driving and he kept sticking his tongue out cause he was concentrating so much.  :-)

We went to the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor show and in line, there was a note saying we could text in a joke and they might use it.  Noah wanted to send in his favorite - 'How do ducks fly?  They just wing it!' so we did and they used it!  They said it was from 'Noah in North Carolina' and he was so excited.  :-)

When we got out of the show, it was pouring down rain!  Quite a surprise cause when we went in, it didn't look like rain at all.  We went to the 'poeple mover' where it was all under cover and we could stay on as long as we wanted so we went around it 3 times waiting for the rain to settle.  We finally gave up and got all suited up to head back to Downtown Disney for dinner.

Ready for the rain!  :-)  Bye Disney!

This time, we went to the Rainforest Cafe - very similar to the T-Rex restaurant.  All sorts of animals and they had a "rainstorm" every 30 minutes.  They also had these cute barstools that Kylie wanted to try out.  :-)

Back home for bed and the next morning, we packed up, spent a little time at the pool, had some lunch and then took off to the airport.  We said our goodbyes and BIG THANKS to Grammy and Papa and flew back home to Raleigh.  Noah was exhausted...

It was such a great trip and can't thank Grammy and Papa enough for such a good time!  What fabulous memories we will have for a lifetime!

WE LOVE YOU GRAMMY AND PAPA!