DisneyWorld!!!

I wish I would have done this post right when we got back from Disney. It seems like it was at least a year ago, even though it was only 2 months ago, and I can't seem to remember very many details of this trip! Sad.

I do remember that the kids did awesome on the flight over to Orlando but they crashed as soon as we got our rental car. 

We were suppose to get a mid sized car and were just going to squeeze in all our car seats but the guy at the counter gave us a free upgrade to a van! Sweet!!

Day 1: Animal Kingdom

I forgot to mention that our good friends, The Sanchez Familia, came with us! They just moved to the Phoenix area last summer from where we used to live in Mexico, and Eduardo works with Justin. They were troopers to travel with our crazy clan!

This is Anette. She is 10 yrs old and is so nice to Ethan. They are good friends and her English is getting SO good!

*Just as a side note, we did pretty much everything in each of the parks but I wasn't very good at taking pictures of everything. Turns out trucking 3 little kids around DisneyWorld is a lot of hard work!! But so worth it :)

These are pictures of the kids playing in the Dino sand pit digging up some dinosaur bones. Poor Mason was strapped into a stroller all day long and REALLY wanted to crawl around in the sand. Because he didn't have any shoes on, they wouldn't let him....

 The Lion King show was a hit for the kids and I am happy to report that our stroller was not stolen this year while watching it. We learned our lesson with bringing expensive strollers to theme parks :)

Mason and Ellie were best buds through our Disney trip. When Mason would fall asleep, he would lay his head on Ellie. It was so cute!

Things to remember about Animal Kingdom:

-Ellie and I dancing with the BollyWood dancers (I think that was in Animal Kingdom?) Ellie has some moves!

-Ellie did not like the Dinosaur ride (like Indiana Jones) and slept with the covers over her head for a few weeks after so that the dinosaurs wouldn't get her.She still talks about how she didn't like it. 

-They loved Expedition Everest

-Animal Kingdom is beautiful

The next day we tried to go to Magic Kingdom but we got rained out. So instead, we went to Disney Quest which has to be the coolest gaming facility on earth! We had SO much fun there and Ethan LOVED it! Justin and I commented that this place would be the ultimate fun date night.

The virtual reality helmets are pretty hot, yes?

They had all the old school pinball games and old video games there that Justin grew up on which was really cool for him. One thing that I thought was really neat was they has the Wreck It Ralph game there. I'm embarrassed to say that I had no idea Wreck it Ralph wasn't a real game before the movie came out :) They make it look pretty believable that it could have been an old school game!

Justin and Ethan on a inflatable boat ride. 

After we had our fill with games, we walked Downtown Disney, got a bite to eat and let the kiddos play in the splash pad area. 

Ellie knows no stranger and makes friends really easily...

Mason knows no boundaries and had no idea that he was about to get sprayed by that hole in the ground he was playing with.

Ellie also thinks that she is Mason's mommy and carries him all over the place "helping" him. Mason is such a trooper and lets her have her fun. Ellie is sure a sweet sister. 

Do you remember rolling the hula hoop and jumping through it as a kid??

They wanted me to try but there was no way this 5'10" frame was fitting through it!

The next day, we went to Typhoon Lagoon water park and had a fun filled day! I can't believe I don't have any pictures. 

The next day was Sunday and we went to church at a local Spanish branch so that Eduardo and Gladys could come with us. After, we went over to the Shillig's house and chatted with Jake about China while all our kids played together. Caroline had to leave to TX for an emergency but I got to chat with her over ice cream when she got back. I can't believe I don't have any pics of that either. I know I have a picture of our kids together but I can't find it... Hmmm... I think I'm missing some pics...

Anyway, HUGE thanks to the Shilligs for everything!!!! We love getting to see y'all!

On Monday, we went back to Magic Kingdom and had quite a magical time. 

And yes, keeping with tradition, I cried walking into this place. I also cried walking through a tribute to Walt Disney himself and cried even harder watching the movie. It's just so magical and there's something spiritual about this whole place. Maybe I'm crazy. 

To start off the morning, we went on the Magic Carpet ride and Jasmine and Aladdin sat right behind us!! Ellie was mesmerized and kept staring at them the whole time. Ok, maybe I did too.

The pictures of all the rides were the best! I love Ethan's face on Space Mountain..

and I love the guy in the very back on Splash Mountain too. 

Mason was SO chill and easy. He was so good to just ride in the stroller all day long. As long as he had food and his water, he was good.

Ellie's favorite rides were Ariel's Grotto and the Finding Nemo ride. Short and sweet, just how she likes em'. 

On our way to Belle's Enchanted Castle, we met Gaston. He was so good and played the part perfectly. I guess you wouldn't expect anything but that in Disney.

I have pictures of Belle's Castle but I'm having trouble getting them off of my camera. (All these pics were taken with our phones, hence the not so good quality). Belle's Castle was amazing and we even got to meet Belle herself! It's an interactive story and so all the kids get to be a part of Belle telling her story. It was really neat for the kids. 

That night we watched the Electrical Parade.

Don't you just love Ellie's crazy curly hair! That right there folks is what my hair looked like when I was little. Out of control, beautiful curls!

We laughed and laughed at how tired the kids were on our way out. Ethan was totally asleep like this. I don't think we could've woken him up if we tried!

Look at these sleeping beauties...

They were definitely worn out every night and had no problem falling asleep!

Then came Epcot....

Epcot is always a lot of fun and I love the fireworks show at the end of the night. 

The countries are also really cool and very well done. Here  are the kids in front of Anette's home country, Mexico!

Ellie loved Soaring and raised her hands the whole time saying "woo-hoo!" 

Ethan acted all brave on the Spaceship ride but afterwards felt pretty sick. I guess he got his daddy's weak stomach when it comes to spin rides :)

The next day was Hollywood Studios.

This picture of Ellie on Star Tours cracks me up! She is such a funny, cute little girl. 

The kids were beyond excited to meet Phineas and Ferb! 

And Ellie was clearly way beyond excited for the Disney junior show!!!

This right here folks, is pure joy!

She was dancing and singing and clapping along the whole time. I got way more excitement out of watching her than I did watching the show.

The Tower of Terror!!

Ethan couldn't stop talking about how excited he was to ride it the whole day but when it came down to it, he got scared and didn't ride it anymore. Being the terrible terrific parents that we are, we bribed him to go on it and he like it. Ellie had no idea what was  coming and was oblivious to what she was about to do (that's the great thing about her age). After the ride she said she didn't like it but really didn't show any emotion either way. We think she secretly liked it though. 

On our last day there, we went to Blizzard Beach, another Disney water park. 

This was our first time to this park and we loved it!!

Awesome kiddie pools and fun rides for both kids and adults. It was pretty impressive how well they stuck to the blizzard theme. They even had a ski lift that would take you up to the rides!

Mason got to hang out with Eduardo while we went on a big kid ride and he was as happy as can be when we came back!

Even though Disney was a LOT of work with 3 little kids, it was so worth it! We love taking family vacations and I'm so grateful that my husband is always on board to do them. 

Until next time Disney!