Wednesday, December 5, 2012

A Magical Thanksgiving

Sorry for the long silence. It's been busy 'round here. Home with a sick girl today so I'll try to do a little catch up:

We were lucky enough to celebrate Thanksgiving this year in Disney World. Typically we host Thanksgiving but we were happy to take a year off and have fun in warm Florida. The big kids were so excited about this trip, they are at the perfect age for Disney right now. Still into characters, still excited about the parades and shows, and now big enough to ride mostly everything! We went to Jacksonville the day before to see my dad and the beach. Unfortunately the beach was like this:

so cold and windy, but it was still fun for the kids and they loved chasing the sea foam. We loved having our hotel doors open and hearing the (loud) ocean, eating coconut shrimp, and having a quick stop to break up the drive, thanks Dad! :)

Everything was already decorated for Christmas in Disney which was nice, we've been there at Christmastime before so it wasn't as cool as the first time, but it made everything pretty. I won't be able to post all the pictures here but I'll do some highlights:
Epcot:
One of our favorite places to just walk around and enjoy. Playing with the fountains, seeing the countries, etc.


Everyone (except little Miss M) finally got to ride Soarin' and the kids loved it! We enjoyed lunch in France and got to see Remy on a tray. (H) finally discovered he likes Spaceship Earth like the rest of his family, and we enjoyed a few fun International treats and drinks.
My always stylish girl 

Birthday Buddies!
Hollywood Studios:
Enjoying the ride in Mexico

Cousin love!

Waiting for a LONG time for the Toy Story ride

Me and my babies

She loved taking naps with her uncle

Magic Kingdom:
Everyone was so brave and rode Space Mountain!




Using your tongue helps!




We got there way to early so we rode the monorail over the the Polynesian and had some Kona coffee, then back to MK for the opening of the park show. Never knew they did this, it was great to see many characters come in on the railroad at the front of the park and then fireworks in the morning! Headed to Space Mountain first thing and the kids were moving too quickly to question the scariness of the ride, so they rode it and LOVED it. So fun! It was a long, busy day and unfortunately we didn't get to do everything, but we did have to leave early because of a very special Pirates and Pals boat ride to watch the fireworks. It was one of the highlights of the trip and well worth it. The kids got to meet Smee and Cptn. Hook before the ride and enjoy all kinds of snacks then we boarded a boat and got to watch the fireworks how over the MK. When we came back, Peter Pan was there waiting for us. It was awesome!

Animal Kingdom:
Took the morning off to sleep in and go to a character breakfast. 





1900 Park Fare for Thanksgiving brunch. Super fun and the mimosas weren't bad either! Plus strawberry soup which is my favorite. Mmmmmm!

Then we headed to Animal Kingdom for the rest of the day, my kids had never been to this Disney park, so it was fun to experience it with them for the first time. It was much less crowded today with it being Thanksgiving I guess so we were able to pretty much do everything. We even had time for an hour at the Bollywood dance party in Asia. *A* and her cousin danced it up big time!



I don't have any more photos of our time in this park for some reason, a few went back early, but the rest of us had a blast, rode rides multiple times and enjoyed an almost empty park after dark. That night poor (H) got sick and none of us slept well, but we were just thankful it happened on our last night there.

We headed home the next day, tired and over-stimulated, but before we left, we headed to the LEGO store in Downtown Disney:


The most amazing lego sculpture!

so hard to choose! 


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