Disney Vacation 2014: Part 2

We stayed late enough at Hollywood Studios on Monday that we were really glad we didn't have plans on Tuesday morning.  The plans were to just go to Mickey's Merry Christmas Party that night.

 It was 60 degrees in Florida that day so what do Hoosiers do? We swim, of course! The pool was heated.

 It was a little chilly when we got out but worth it!

Tommy is a little water bug so he lurved it.

That night it was time for Mickey's Xmas party!! Obligatory pic in front of the castle!

 We watched the parade when we first got there.  Hey look, it's the Little Mermaid!

 Charlotte saw all kinds of things that she loved.

 Another pic of Tommy's fave!! This dragon was so dang cool.  It has a spinning wheel inside of it! Wowzers.

The Host/Hostess with the Most/Mostest!! Our kids were enthralled to see the power couple! :)

 We decided to try some rides because Tommy kept requesting it.  It's all he wanted to do.  Sorry about your Christmas Party, Mickey.  Tommy wants to get on those rides!

 First ride was Prince Charming's Carousel.

Then it was time for Dumbo! Charlotte and I were supposed to ride it at the same time as Andrew and Tommy but something got messed up and we didn't get on the same round. Oh well.

 We had fun by ourselves!

 Then we decided we were hungry so we partook in Christmas Party Festivities (hot chocolate and cookies, allergy free cookies and apple juice for the Tomster).

 Then on to more rides! This time the Astro Orbiter.  None of us had ever been on it before.  Sheesh! That almost made us sick.  Round and round and faster and faster! Tommy loved it.  He kept saying, "I see Planet Earth!!!"

 Then before the fireworks show ended, we decided to hop in line for the Seven Dwarves Mine Train.  This quickly became Tommy's favorite new ride.  There were many things to do while we stood in line and the ride is a super awesome roller coaster.

There's always something magical about Disney when I go where we can't figure out how they did something.  This was that situation.  We checked our photo pass account when we got home from the park that and these pictures plus slow motion videos were in our account!! They somehow connected our Magic Bands with our account when we rode the ride.  Normally you have to scan your band to get the pictures but they just showed up... magically!! Amazing! Loved it.  Loved it as much as Tommy loved this roller coaster!!

They took two pictures of each of us on the ride!! Love it!!

 Among other rides, we picked Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Adventure.  I love this ride.  It's so fun.  I think it's better than Toy Story Mania.  It's very similar but I like how this one works better plus they take your picture! Look how serious the T-burg boys are about shooting the alien invaders!

 Charlotte was a little scared of the aliens and how loud it was but she did great! My score wasn't too bad despite the fact that my controller stopped working and I was holding a baby (that's my excuse anyway).

 My dad was trying to figure out how to beat my mom's score in this picture I think. ;-)

We locked our kiddos up in Zorg's Prison cell and took off for Space Mountain!! They were not happy, I guess.  

 But we were! Just look at our faces.  Yikes Morg.  Scary eyes! I LOVE ROLLER COASTERS!! Ha!

 We didn't see the show with Elsa, Anna, Kristoff and Olaf when Elsa puts her magic ice touch to the castle but we did get a picture with the Frozen Castle.

 We also got pictures in front of the castle before it was frozen.

 It would change colors all night.  So cool.

 Did I mention we rode "It's a Small World"?  Did I mention it was definitely Charlotte's favorite ride?? She loved it!

One last mention... The park is always completely decorated for Christmas.  It definitely put us in the Christmas Spirit.

Especially when it snows on Main Street!! Yay Christmas at Disney!

Disney Vacation 2014: Part 1

We had an opportunity to go to Disney this year so we decided to go while Charlotte was still free and Tommy hadn't started school yet.  

 Charlotte did fantastic on the plane. Way to go, baby girl! She never slept but she was very good.

 Tommy rode with Grandma and Grandpa and he also did great.  MUCH better than his first plane ride.

 We landed and rented our minivan.

 The kids were super excited to be in Florida!!

 We decided to visit Hollywood Studios on our first day.  I really wanted to ride Toy Story Mania in 2012 but the wait was 3.5 hours long and never got any shorter.  This year the line was much shorter so we went for it.

 Tommy and Andrew rode together, Charlotte and I rode together, and Grandma and Grandpa rode together.  Watch out, they've got their cannons ready!

Charlotte DID NOT like this ride. It was dark, 3-D, and she hated the glasses.  It moved super fast and was unpredictable so she hated that too.  She screamed through the first 30 seconds and then all the sudden, she was fine with it.  I don't know what changed but she totally got over it.
Sidenote: REALLY glad we didn't decide to wait in line for 3 hours in 2012.  Totally not worth that wait time.

There were pretty much NO lines at any of the rides due to the fact that it rained most of the day.  We spent too much on ponchos even though we had these exact ponchos at home from the last time we came to Disney.  Hopefully lesson learned?

We went to the Frozen Singalong! Yay Frozen!! Both kids sat through the entire show.  I was really surprised how Charlotte sat and watched it without squirming.  The snacks really helped.

The adults even enjoyed it.  It was pretty cute and of course they sang the big number TWICE.  Crowd fave!

There is an awesome "bad guys" store at Hollywood Studios.  We were able to get Tommy's favorite, the Maleficent Dragon, and Prince Philip's sword.  He used it immediately to protect Hollywood Studios from the evil Maleficent.

 My parents were nice enough to trade off so we could ride the adult rides at HS.  We rode the Tower of Terror.  What a great ride.  I will admit, I screamed at each and every hint of a drop.  So fun.

Here's a pic from ride before the drop!! AAAHHHHH!!! 

Then we took the kiddos and my mom and dad went on the ride.  (Charlotte got a sweet new sweatshirt, by the way.)

 Here's my mom and dad's picture from the big drop!! AAAHHHH!! ;-)

We traded off one more time and we went on the Rockin Roller Coaster.  That was pretty crazy.  This is the picture they take when you go from zero to 60 in 2.8 seconds.  We were definitely not expecting that.  Another ride that was soooo fun.

 We went to Fantasmic that night. We went to the show last time but Tommy fell asleep so he missed pretty much the whole thing.

 He absolutely loved it because guess who showed up?? Well Mickey of course... but also Maleficent the dragon!

 He was excited to see all the characters on the big cruise ship that sailed by us.

We got one more picture on the way out of the park.  The kids had about had it at this point.  It was time to go. But a great day was had by all! We rode/saw nearly everything and lines were minimal.  Success!! 

Suuuuuper Quick Catch Up Post...

Ok folks. I haven't blogged in almost 2 months.  I barely remember how to do it.  So now I have to catch up... and catch up I will.  As Andrew and Samuel L Jackson say, "Hold on to your butts..." 

So what did we do in the last two months?? Well... 

 We went to a wedding with my parents of someone with whom I work.

 The kids had school pictures.

 We hung out with Wyatt, Harper and Everett.

We went to Burger King before Wyatt and Harper's b-day party.

 Even Andrew got in on the action.

The party was at a gym so all my pictures were blurry because there was so much action.  I got one that was sort of in focus at least!

 We had cupcakes! YUM!

 Wyatt and Harper did too! Super fun birthday party!

 Then we had T-burg Thanksgiving at our house!

Charlotte was a big fan of Thanksgiving!! YUM! 

 We also celebrated Tommy's birthday at Thanksgiving.  Dragon Party!

 On the Friday after Thanksgiving, my high school football team, the Renssy Bombers went to the State Finals.  THEY WON THE STATE 2A CHAMPIONSHIP! Charlotte cannot believe it!!

 It was awesome for so many reasons (such as this, and this and this this this...)

 It was a real high school reunion for many of the classes that graduated from RCHS.  We had over 6000 in attendance (more than the population of the town of Rensselaer) and people came from all across the country to see the Bombers play in the Luke.  People streamed the game online from several different countries and many, many states.  Very exciting.

The next day we set up our Christmas tree!

 And Charlotte had some yogurt!!

 We had Christmas with the Keipers at my parents where Tommy celebrated his birthday again!

 Tommy got a new chair as one of his gifts and Charlotte decided it was hers.

 Tommy had his own little glow stick party.

I temporarily considered using this as my Christmas card this year.

How does one get into a situation like this at Target, Miss Charlotte?

Final picture of the super quick round up... Uncle Adam took Tommy for a ride in a Target bag!

Ok so that was the catch up post... Now it's on to DISNEY! Stay tuned!!