The Vacation that Never Ends...Magic Kindgom!

When you've spent almost the whole month on one vacation or another, why stop? So, we decided to make our trip to Florida into a family vacation and made plans to spend a few days at Disney! When you figure the money your spending to fly out there, rent a car, etc. it doesn't make sense to only stay for the weekend. Kendall was afraid to ask for even more vacation days at work, but then we found a great Disney package and turned our trip into an official family vacation. Disney has these great packages that include tickets for four to any of their parks for three days, hotel and all your food! Once you make it to the Disney "World", which truly is its own little world, you don't even need a rental car since they bus you anywhere you need to go! Unfortunately we couldn't convince Grandpa and Grandma Walker to extend their trip three days, so they headed back to Missouri without us, which turned out to be a blessing because Grandpa Walker ended up having gall bladder surgery as soon as they made it home.

Otherwise our plans worked out perfectly once we checked out of the condo, returned the rental car and had them drive us back to the airport where Mickey's bus picked us up and drove us to our new "home" for the next three days, The Coronado Resort at Disney World! We knew once we were delivered to Disney we wouldn't have the luxury of leaving, so we packed plenty of food and snacks and brought along cheap umbrella strollers (picked them up at a garage sale and they worked great, smaller, more easily folded to transport and cost a $1.00 each, so no worries if someone decided to walk off with them at Disney).

Needless to say there were plenty of people enjoying the Magic Kingdom along with us and of course September in Florida is still pretty hot outside, but it wasn't ever too overwhelming to ruin our fun! The decisions for each day were pretty much based on when and where naps would take place. I have to say how well Ashlyn and Preston both did with the change in schedule and never knowing when and if they would get a nap. The first day at the Magic Kingdom we started with naps as soon as we made it to the hotel, which enabled us to stay late at the Magic Kingdom to watch the fireworks without having to worry about any meltdowns. Ashlyn, who just turned 3, was great at going strong all day long without any nap, but as soon as we loaded the bus each night back to our hotel she was out cold! Preston, only 18 months at the time of this trip, was also a trooper as he still relied on multiple naps each day, so he just grabbed a good nap wherever he could find one riding around in his stroller. It worked out beautifully then we could squeeze in the most amount of fun each day, without a single meltdown and Kendall or I would just take turns riding rides with Ashlyn while Preston caught a nap.

It's so exciting to be at Disney, especially seeing it through Ashlyn and Preston's eyes for the first time. I think sometimes Kendall and I were even more excited then they were! First stop in the Magic Kingdom was of course a visit with Mickey and Minnie Mouse. We passed everything else in the park and went straight to their house to finally get to meet them. Ashlyn made sure everyone knew that she was going to Mickey Mouses house, so we had to be sure we go there right away! Disney does have quite a system, although the lines appear long, they move pretty quickly. I think the longest line we waited in was 45 minutes, and that was only once, waiting in lines was probably the hardest part of each day for Ashlyn and Preston. They set up multiple rooms with multiple "Mickey's" and only bring a group small enough to fit into one room so they can shut the door before opening the next room for another group. No one is ever the wiser, you just assume your with "the" one and only Mickey!

Ashlyn got to meet all her favorite princesses, pictured above with Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Mermaid! We met Belle, but Ashlyn wouldn't go near her, I guess we've never seen the Beauty and the Beast movie. Preston, he's never seen Princess Belle either, but didn't hesitate to give her a hug!

As you can see we had a ton of fun, even the newlyweds Brian and Nichole were able to join us at the Magic Kingdom. It was fun getting to spend some time with Brian since we had just met him at the wedding, turns out he is great with kids and the only one with the energy to keep up with Ashlyn and Preston at Disney!

Ashlyn and Preston got to enjoy 3-D movies for the first time, we made sure to see every one. Ashlyn wasn't so sure about the experience at first, but at least she wore her glasses long enough to see the difference. Preston still doesn't really know what it's like to watch a movie in 3-D, since he never kept his glasses on long enough to watch.

As you can imagine there was plenty of waiting in lines which was always the hardest part for Preston. Luckily we never waited painfully long, and all of us managed the patience and were able to see all the shows and ride most of the rides. As Preston slept, Ashlyn and either Kendall or I would take turns riding the rides Preston was allowed on. Ashlyn's proudest moment was enduring the Pirates of the Caribbean adventure with Kendall. I was surprised she was willing to try this one; however, she was always willing to try something at least once, since she really didn't know what she was getting herself into until afterwards. Needless to say she only rode Pirates of the Caribbean once and said she had to close her eyes for part of it because it was too scary. I'm just glad I got to sit out with the sleeping Preston, it wasn't one I even wanted to try!

As you can see it was plenty hot, which is why the Disney meal plan was so wonderful. It included two meals and a snack everyday, so whenever we needed something to keep us going we'd just stop for some ice cream, a drink or snack. One meal a day was "dinner" which simply meant you could reserve your meal at one of the more nicer restaurants. The problem with this is that most people make these reservations months, even years, before they actually take their trip to Disney. Seeing how our trip was only planned two months before, all the reservations were gone. Kendall however kept calling and checking each day to see if anything at any restaurants had opened up and we managed to actually get into some nice sit down "dinners". Of course, sometimes that mean having to eat "dinner" at 3:00 in the afternoon, but it was a nice change from the burgers, chicken strips and fries we were eating around the park. The meal plan really did work out great and added much needed convenience to each day at the park.

For our first trip to Disney, there's no way to see it all the first time, we really were able to see and do a lot. I was so proud of Ashlyn and Preston for being so flexible and handling all the excitement without any meltdowns. Kendall and I also praised our $2 strollers daily, what a wonderful investment. There was actually one ride we were hurrying to get on so we left the strollers, along with many others, in a "No Parking" zone. When we returned from the ride they were gone, I panicked, not because I was out the $2, but because we'd surely be carrying Ashlyn and Preston around the park for the rest of the day! Luckily, they had just been moved to a "legal" parking location, but I'll tell you we had to hunt through many a stroller to find our beloved umbrella strollers.