Disney World- Travel & Magic Kingdom Day 1

Get ready for {poor quality} picture overload. 

February of last year the Moore family asked us if we were interested in going to Disney World with them.  I remember it vividly, we were in Gatlinburg with my brother and his wife, we'd just had a miscarriage and Patrick asked me what he should tell them.  I was like "well, I don't know, we want to have another baby, do you really think this is a good time. tell them we'll think about it."  5 seconds later he said "I told them we wanted to go."  Well okay then.  I guess we're going to Disney.  I'm pretty sure Patrick thought I'd forget about that conversation and we'd never actually go but he was wrong.  Instead, I dove in head first.  I started reading anything I could find about planning a Disney World vacation.  We booked it 18 months out and the countdown was on.  I thought it would never get here.

We drove, it just made more sense financially for us and our kids travel pretty well. We drove half way and spent the night on the way down.  (We drove it straight through on the way home.) 

Here we are packed up and headed out.  We were all so stinking excited!

We stopped about 3 hours in so I could feed AveryAnn.  The boys got ice cream.  We got to our hotel for the night and the boys were wired.  I didn't think they'd ever get to sleep that night. 

UP bright and early for the last leg of the trip.  I didn't think we were ever going to get there.  We had several potty breaks.  The last hour was definitely the longest.

We both got texts saying our rooms were ready but they were on opposite sides of the resort.  So Jessica called and they were able to move them to right next door to us.  Our building was probably the furthest from the main building but I actually liked it because we were right next to a lake and could see the fireworks from one of the parks at night.
We unpacked the cars and got settled in, then we headed to Disney Springs to grab some food.

Going into this trip we didn't really know how Barrett would feel about riding the rides.  So when he asked to ride the carousel we were optimistic, then he chose the sensible bench seat and we all just laughed. I love this picture and his big smile up at his Daddy.

This girl was a trooper.  She rode in that stroller like a champ!

We were all nearly too excited to sleep!  Monday morning we had reservations at Chef Mickey before our day at Magic Kingdom. 

We were so excited about breakfast with Mickey.  I knew this would be the test to see how Barrett would react to the characters.  Much to my surprise, he did fantastic! 

He was not excited about the picture before our meal.

Goofy was the first character we saw and as soon as the boys caught a glimpse of him they started standing in their chairs and waving at him.  They were saying "Goofy over here", it was so funny. I was so excited that Barrett was excited to see him.  He wasn't scared at all.

I think it might have been around this time that Jessica started ugly crying.  I was so glad it wasn't me.  I knew that the emotion would catch up with me at some point during the week.  It's just so special seeing these things through your kids eyes.

Then the main man showed up.  To say Barrett was excited would be an understatement.

Even sister got in on the action.  She tried so hard to grab each character's nose.  I just loved the interaction they each had with her. 

Then Minnie showed up and the boys were smitten.  Jackson even gave her a kiss and Barrett was so funny.  He kept saying "Jackson and Minnie kissed!".

Donald Duck!  This was the only character meal we did and it was so much fun I was a little sad we didn't book any more.  I would definitely do this one again on our next visit.

We left there and headed to Magic Kingdom!

This was my first glimpse of the Castle.  I was so excited!

And this was our photopass picture of the castle.  Barrett was a little overwhelmed and didn't want his picture made.  My biggest regret will be not trying to get another picture.

Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin was hands down Barrett's favorite ride.    If anyone asked him what his favorite thing was he said Buzz every time.  We probably rode it 6 times all week.  Jeremy even got the highest score so he got a sticker and a card saying he was a "Galactic Hero". 

They loved the Tomorrowland Speedway too.  Seeing Barrett's smile all week was the best thing.  There were plenty of meltdowns, but that smile made it all worth it.

Barrett loved Dumbo.  And I was shocked at how many rides AveryAnn got to ride too.  I took them both on Dumbo and then there was a little roller coaster that Barrett didn't want to ride so I rode it with Jeremy, Jessica and Jackson while Patrick took the kids on Dumbo again.  I thought he looked so cute wearing the baby.

We used a snack credit at Gaston's Tavern.  I'd read all about the cinnamon rolls.  They were good but I don't need to have one again.  It was huge.

Magic Kingdom was open late that night so we decided to head back to the room and rest up.  The boys passed out hard.
We headed back around 7:00 and people were already lined up for the Electrical parade that started at 10:00.

The crane was down so I got a few pictures of the castle.  We ate dinner and really just walked around taking in the sights. 
We were walking along and then all of a sudden the fireworks started.  Barrett is terrified of fireworks.  He starts screaming. I scooped him up and ran in the first place I saw.  Then AveryAnn started screaming.  To be honest, we were on the backside of the castle and they were pretty intense.  Even Jackson, who isn't scared of anything, wanted to go inside.
After the fireworks we went to Aladdin and rode it and then walked on Pirates and Jungle Cruise.

It was the perfect ending to the first day.

We were able to catch some of the electrical parade and then we headed to the bus stop. 

Tuesday, we headed to Epcot.