Our Magical Vacation

John and I surprised the girls with a trip to Disney World a couple of weeks ago.  We kept it a secret until three days before we left!  We have been wanting to go during the Christmas season for quite some time.  And I'm so glad we did!  1) The park was so quiet.  2) The weather could not have been more perfect.  3) The Christmas festivities were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!  I could go on and on about it for hours, but I don't have hours to sit here!  So, I'll try to make this quick and narrow my 759 photos, (Yes, you read that right.  Yikes!) down to a reasonable amount.

Off We Go!  (Airline DirecTV was a great babysitter!)

We stayed at the Swan this time.  We really liked the location.  We could walk to Disney's Boardwalk and catch a ferry to the parks.  The rooms were a little on the small side, but were nice.  The pools were awesome, and heated.  And the food was really good!

Day 1 - Epcot

Waiting for the Ferry

Spaceship Earth - Fun Ride!  The characters were so life-like!

This was a pretty neat video at the end of the ride.  They created it using our answers to questions they asked us during the ride.

Soarin was Hadyn's favorite ride, and maybe mine, too!  It was amazing!  I videoed part of it, but of course, it was much better in person.  They actually blow scents in your face to match the environment!

Dining with the Princesses

We watched a Chinese Acrobat show that was unbelievable!

We went to Magic Kingdom that night to catch the parade and fireworks.  The lights on the castle were absolutely gorgeous!  I can't even begin to imagine how long it takes to hang those lights!

Before

After

We found a front row spot for Disney's Main Street Electric Parade!  And it was worth the wait!  OMG, it was amazing!  An employee told us that it travels from one Disney Park to another all over the world and was only supposed to stay in Florida for the summer, so we were very thankful it was still there!  She thinks it is headed to Japan next.

Here's a quick video clip.  The music was just magical!

This is one of Hadyn's favorite Disney activities, making colored sugar tubes!  She remembered this from last time when she was three!

And after the colored sugar was gone, we just got more by way of ice cream cones after the fireworks... at 10:30.  The girls are in charge at Disney World!

Day 2 - Animal Kingdom

The Tree of Life was gorgeous!

This lady came out of the bushes right beside us!  It was wild!

Petting some sort of animal... can't remember what it's called.  I'm terrible!

We saw a lot of neat animals on the Safari Tour.  It was really neat!

Hadyn with one of her many "prizes" for riding a ride she DID NOT want to ride!  We're not above bribing.

They got to design their own Disney t-shirts at Downtown Disney!  Great fun!

Lego Statues

Makeovers at the Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique!  They LOVE this!

Hadyn chose to be Ariel Bride.  Super cute!

And Kenedy thought she was too old for the princesses, so she picked Hannah Montana.

Riding the bus to the Magic Kingdom for the Christmas Party!

You can hardly tell, but it was "snowing" on Main Street!  That's my kind of snow, in 75 degree weather!

Watching the performance in front of the castle.

The park was open until 2 am that night!  We made it to about 10:30 and the girls crashed on the bus.  We rode a few rides, including Hadyn's all-time favorite, It's A Small World!  I love it, too!

Day 3 - Hollywood Studios

We made a mad dash for the Toy Story ride, it's the most popular one right now, and it was already at an hour wait... so we waited, and waited, and waited.

The "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" play area was awesome!

I have ALWAYS wanted to ride this:

And I finally did, but by myself.  I couldn't convince anyone to ride with me!  And I didn't get to thoroughly enjoy it because I promised them I would video it.  Great ride, though!

We were so excited to eat at Pizza Planet, from Toy Story 3!

Lots o' Huggin Bear, from Toy Story 3, was the only character they wanted to stand in line for!  And his strawberry scent filled the whole room!

The parade at Hollywood Studios is a street Block Party.  They stop and dance for about 45 minutes.  It was so much fun!

Hadyn had been begging to go swimming since the night we got there, so we left the parks early on day three and did just that!  I never thought we could experience Disney at Christmas and go swimming outdoors in the same vacation!  Perfect!

After drying off, we walked across to the Boardwalk, played a few games, and then walked back to Epcot for a few rides and their fireworks show!  (We left the room at 9 am every morning and rarely got back before 10 pm!)

Here's a cute video of the girls asking Crush some questions during the interactive show!

We stopped on the walk back at the Boardwalk Bakery for some goodies.  Look at this cake they were working on!  Amazing!  (We're certain it doesn't taste as good as Lisa's Cakery, though!)

And I only gained six pounds... no, I'm not exaggerating.  :(

Day 4 - Magic Kingdom

The girls are wearing the shirts they designed!

Kenedy and I rode Space Mountain for the first time!  We loved it!  However, DO NOT put your sunglasses in the nice little pouches they designed to keep your prized possessions safe.  They are not safe.  Apparently they already know this, but don't care to share that info.  Boo!!!  (I'm still having some anger issues over that one.)

Off to Mickey and Minnie's!

Dinner on the Boardwalk

The girls wanted to rent this bike carriage, and OMG, it was not as easy as it looked!  Ouch!

They had neat little acts going on all the time there and Hadyn was picked to help out the magician!  Too funny!

We had an absolute blast again!  I never went to DIsney as a child, but I can't imagine it being as much fun as seeing it all through the eyes of my children!  It truly is a magical place where everyone is happy and worry-free!  We enjoyed every minute of it and are ready to go back!

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