Disney World

WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN?? This was definitely the most anticipated part of our trip. Over the past few months I turned the Disney channel on whenever I could to introduce Grace to some of the characters. It didn't take her long to fall in love with Mickey and Minnie! Jon and I tossed around the idea of staying at Disney for two nights so that we could leave during the middle of the day and come back at night. I got lots of great ideas from Sarah at Disney Mom Style and will use many of those in the future (This girl knows her Disney stuff so if you are thinking about going anytime in the next year or two, visit her blog and read her tips.) In the end, we wanted to be able to spend more time with our family and decided to go for one day and hang out as long as we could. We were pleasantly surprised by free tickets from a friend of my Dad's who works at Epcot. We met him at Epcot at 9:00am and then we were on our way to the Magic Kingdom! Here we are waiting on the monorail or "choo-choo."

After getting on two fairies (had to get off the first for a minor emergency with another guest) we finally made it to the Magic Kingdom!! I know that Grace's head had to be spinning with excitement. There is just so much going on the moment you step in that it's about impossible to take it all in.

Before we could get any further into the park, a parade started and we had a perfect place to watch it.

I'm so glad we saw this parade because this is the only time we saw Minnie Mouse! We were told by another guest we saw in line that she was at her playhouse but when we went there and asked a cast member, she told us "Sorry, she's probably out baking cheese cakes today." Um, ok. Jon and I really did not know how to reply to that so we just laughed! That is one thing I will do better next time - figure out where the characters are and/or go to a character dinner. Grace couldn't have cared about who she saw but I can see where a 4 year old would DEFINITELY mind!
More of the parade...

Grace's Nana made her dress and it was perfect! Several of the cast members commented on how cute she looked in it.

We only rode two rides - It's a Small World and Pooh's Adventure. Although it was not that crowded, the wait time was about 45 minutes for all the rides and you can't take a stroller through the line, which means Jon held Grace most of the time and she didn't like waiting.... nor did she like getting off of the ride and pitched a fit. You can see how Disney World can be quite confusing for a two year old!

Not surprisingly Grace's favorite part of the day was doing something you can do just about anywhere!
After lunch she took a long nap while Jon and I had an ice cream sundae. We stayed until about 3:00 and took one final picture before calling it a day...

Note: I know that I have no business wearing a halter top!! However, it was HOT and HUMID and I figured I wouldn't see anyone I knew. I guess I wasn't thinking about taking pictures!
It was such a fun day and I will try to do another post about tid-bits I learned and things I want to remember. Next time we are absolutely spending time at one of the resorts so that we can enjoy more time at the park! My favorite photo from the day...