Magical

Our last day in Florida found us at Disney World. I was excited that my Underground Tourist iPhone app predicted that Friday was a good day to hit the Magic Kingdom, crowd-wise.

I was more excited when we got there and found that there was a meet & greet with Ariel at the Magic Kingdom. I mean, Ariel is Mallory and Rick’s FAVORITE PRINCESS, so it could not have been more perfect!

After a quick picture with Pluto right when we walked in the park, and then a minor attitude adjustment for both kids (I was about to turn us around and write off our admission money – that’s how grumpy they both were), we went in search of Ariel.

When we found Ariel, Mallory was a little starstruck. Or just overwhelmed. Or maybe tired. Whatever. Here she is with her FAVORITE PRINCESS. I’m pretty happy that we don’t have video of these interactions because I think Rick & I were more giddy for her to see Ariel than she was. {She was happy to brag about seeing Ariel later, but in the moment, she was a little shy.}

And just to prove that I was at Disney, here is a picture with me and everyone ;-)

Carson doing what you do on rides (not sure why he’s sticking his tongue out) – this time on the Aladdin Magic Carpet ride.

Next we wanted to go on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and Mallory & Rick spotted Goofy. Notice she isn’t afraid of Pirate Goofy. I’m actually sad we don’t have video of Mallory after this encounter because she started telling us that pirates say “Argh!”.

Next up was Frontierland and ta-da – Donald Duck!

And then Mallory went on the Speedway ride with Rick. They waited in line for almost an hour so I’m happy to see how happy she was during this ride.

And probably the best BEST part of the day was when we stumbled upon Mickey & Minnie in a tent (just outside Mickey’s house in Toon Town). The line wasn’t very long (I think it helps that they are hidden away in a tent so you wouldn’t know they were there if you were just walking by) so we got in line.

I LOVED that they only had like three families in each room with Mickey & Minnie – I think it allowed Mickey & Minnie to take their time with each kid since they didn’t have a line of 100 parents (and corresponding kids) tapping their toes ;-)

You’ll notice that Carson is absent from most of the character pictures and here is the closest he got to any of them all day…and notice that I have my hand on Carson’s, making him touch Mickey Mouse’s nose.

I love this picture because I love that Mallory is holding Carson’s hand. She is awesome.

One of my other favorite things of the day was Mickey’s Philharmagic – it’s a 4D movie and it was AWESOME. The movie was actually just 3D, but then they also pump in smells to make it seem like what you’re seeing on the screen is more real, and then when Donald is flying on a magic carpet, they have air blowing in so it’s like you really are there with him. SO COOL.

And because I can – another attempt at a cute picture of me with Mallory.

We also rode It’s a small world and some other rides during the day.

OH – Mallory rode the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad twice – and she was totally laughing the whole time, and as soon as it ended she said she wanted to do it again, so thank goodness for rider-swap passes (since Rick couldn’t ride with us because he had to stay with Carson, they give you a ticket to skip the long lines so he could go with Mallory). We did the Goofy Barnstormer ride a few times too – I don’t think I ever posted that video from our May trip to Disney – I’ll have to find that.

I’m actually surprised at how many times we’ve gone to Disney – especially since I never fancied myself a Disney-freak. We’ve been five times but only once was it the purpose of our trip (trip #3).

1. December 2006 – Mallory was 7+ weeks old, we went to Disney Land in California (2007 Rose Bowl)
2. December 2007 – Mallory was 14 months old, Disney World in Florida (2008 Capital One Bowl)
3. May 2008 – the only true “vacation” (Mallory was 1.5 yrs old)
4. May 2010 – trip was planned around Rick doing Disney Half-Ironman (Mallory 3.5 yrs old, Carson 13 mos)
5. January 2011 – trip planned around work conference for me, marathon for Rick (Mallory 4+ yrs, Carson 20 mos)

We told Mallory that we weren’t sure when we’d be back; she’ll probably be in kindergarten next year (!!!!) which makes picking up and going on a trip like this tougher. And given my phobia of crowds and tons of people, I refuse to go when it’s busy (if I have a choice). This past trip – we were heading to the exits close to the 8p closing time and just as the fireworks were starting. I told Rick we needed to hurry because I didn’t want to be exiting with all the other people and then fighting to get out of the parking lot. Rick nicely pointed out that it wasn’t even that busy but I still didn’t want to deal. Am I a bad mom? RB promises that next time we’re staying until the very end.

Carson was asleep before we hit the exit and Mallory was sleep five minutes into our ride home. They both stayed asleep during transfer to the stroller to go inside and then again into their beds.

We are home and sooooo happy to be back to normal. Carson took a three hour nap on Sunday in his crib – I realized today that the last time he napped in his own crib was December 19! Between the bowl trip and this trip, we hadn’t been home for a weekend afternoon since then.

Countdown is on for our next trip – cannot wait!