Back in December, George and I took SJ to Disney World to celebrate her 6th Birthday. We had such a good time on this trip. We also went last January for George to run the Disney Marathon, and that trip was a blast too... but we spent alot of time in The Magic Kingdom (which is awesome, and I am SO not complaining)... However, on this trip, we wanted to make sure that we saw it ALL.
The weekend that we went was also the release date for Disney's new Princess movie, The Princess and the Frog. Sarah Jane had the days marked off in her mind of when it came out. She was determined not to miss it. I wasn't sure how I was going to coordinate doing the Disney trip and the movie... But, since I am Super Mommy (yeah, right)- I made it happen. We checked SJ out of school early on Friday and headed to FL a little earlier than planned. When we got there, we found our hotel, threw our stuff in there and headed for the nearest movie theater. We made it to the 8:45 show and SJ LOVED it. I am not sure if she was more excited about the movie or the trip. Either way, seeing the movie before hand definitely made the trip even more exciting.
We just took George's small camera, so the picture quality isn't quite up to par - but the trip was amazing and I knew it didn't want to lug my camera around all day.
On the first day, we started at Animal Kingdom. I have to admit that I wasn't too excited about it. I mean... I've been to a zoo before. Well, I was wrong. It's awesome and probably my second favorite park (next to Magic Kingdom, of course). There were tons of things to do... including meet Jiminy Cricket and That monkey from The Lion King that says "It is Time"...
In addition to riding Expedition Everest (which scared SJ to death!)... We also rode a did two really cool safaris -- one on land and one on water. SJ even got to drive the boat on the water one.
Here we are on the way to the water Safari:
George couldn't resist a picture on this bike. SO funny:
After we had some fun in Animal Kingdom for about half a day, we headed to Hollywood Studios. George saw Hollywood Studios when he ran the marathon, but this was really our first trip. As we were getting there, they were setting up for a "Block party" --- I was just excited to be able to sit down. We watched for a little while as everything was getting set up... and then the music started and the cars came. People started jumping out of the cars. The cars opened up into trampolines. The Toy soldier started singing along... and then they pulled SJ out of the crowd to Dance. It was INCREDIBLE. She ate it up:
We had a blast seeing all there was to see in Hollywood Studios during the day... but at night is when the magic really happened.Here we are in front of a fountain:
George and I had noticed light on the buildings and people taking a seat along the curbs at around 4:00 or so... we had no idea what we were about to see, but we loved it!
George and I had noticed light on the buildings and people taking a seat along the curbs at around 4:00 or so... we had no idea what we were about to see, but we loved it!
When it got dark, all of the buildings started to light up. Music started playing. SNOW started falling... and the lights were coordinated with the music. It really and truly was magical.
The next morning, we decided to spend some time in the Magic Kingdom before we went to Epcot. Here we are on the Ferry Ride over:
Here is proof for Raleigh when he gets here that he HAS been to Disney World:
When we want to Disney in January, SJ was just a smidge too short to ride Space Mountain... which is George's favorite ride in that park. SO, this time... George wanted to make sure that she got the chance to see it. Here they are before the ride:
Here they are DURING the ride, poor SJ:
...and here they are after the ride:
Needless to say, she wasn't as fond of it as George was... 
Then, as quickly as we could... we made our way down to the dock to check out the show! Here is Princess Tiana and the cast of The Princess and the Frog on their Showboat Jubilee. They sang about 6 songs from the movie and SJ knew them ALL. I was so glad that we got to go see it before the trip:
Seeing Princess Tiana was all SJ wanted. I guess dreams really do come true at Disney:
After lunch, we decided that we would go spend the afternoon in Epcot before making our way back to Disney that night to see the fireworks. I didn't get any pics of Epcot... but we did have a good time there. George rode the racecar ride (I can't remember the name of it), we relaxed for a while on the Ellen ride, and we saw about all there was to see there... Here is SJ about to get on the monorail on the way there:
When we first got to the Magic Kingdom that morning, George suprised us and bought tickets to Mickey's very Merry Christmas Party. SO, we cut our Epcot time a bit so we could be back at the Magic Kingdom for that! I knew that it was going to be pretty stinkin' cool.. but I had no idea. Disney only sells so may tickets a day to the Party, so the normal crowds were no where to be seen and the lines were about 10 minutes long at the most. There were Christmas Carols playing on the speakers through out the park and everything was lit up:
When we were there in January, the line to ride the teacups was unbelievable, So SJ was excited to see that it was short - here she is on her first teacup ride. For some reason, she thought it was so funny to try to make me and George sick:
In addition to free cookies, apples, hot chocolate, and apple cider in the park...there were also several Character Dance Parties. There was a DJ set up close by to get things rollin' .... but there were all kinds of characters there just shakin' their groove thang. Sarah Jane was in HEAVEN:
After we all rode several, several rides and a SJ did a few more trips on Thunder Mountain Railroad (her favorite ride) with her Daddy, We ended the trip around midnight that night on the perfect note... with Disney's Christmas parade:
Here is proof for Raleigh when he gets here that he HAS been to Disney World:
When we want to Disney in January, SJ was just a smidge too short to ride Space Mountain... which is George's favorite ride in that park. SO, this time... George wanted to make sure that she got the chance to see it. Here they are before the ride:
Here they are DURING the ride, poor SJ:
...and here they are after the ride:
Needless to say, she wasn't as fond of it as George was... As we were going from ride to ride and show to show, we were asking people along the way where Princess Tiana was... but no one seemed to know.
Then later that day, as we were walking through Frontier Land on our way to our favorite Disney restaurant (Pecos Bill's)... we heard a man on the loud speaker ask everyone to make way for Princess Tiana and her Royal Court! ...SJ just started grinning and RIGHT where we were standing, out walked Princess Tiana and all the crew... They gave SJ necklaces and Princess Tiana waved and blew kisses to her and even told her Happy Birthday (thanks to the birthday button that she was wearing)! SJ was thrilled!:
Then later that day, as we were walking through Frontier Land on our way to our favorite Disney restaurant (Pecos Bill's)... we heard a man on the loud speaker ask everyone to make way for Princess Tiana and her Royal Court! ...SJ just started grinning and RIGHT where we were standing, out walked Princess Tiana and all the crew... They gave SJ necklaces and Princess Tiana waved and blew kisses to her and even told her Happy Birthday (thanks to the birthday button that she was wearing)! SJ was thrilled!:
Then, as quickly as we could... we made our way down to the dock to check out the show! Here is Princess Tiana and the cast of The Princess and the Frog on their Showboat Jubilee. They sang about 6 songs from the movie and SJ knew them ALL. I was so glad that we got to go see it before the trip:
Seeing Princess Tiana was all SJ wanted. I guess dreams really do come true at Disney:
After lunch, we decided that we would go spend the afternoon in Epcot before making our way back to Disney that night to see the fireworks. I didn't get any pics of Epcot... but we did have a good time there. George rode the racecar ride (I can't remember the name of it), we relaxed for a while on the Ellen ride, and we saw about all there was to see there... Here is SJ about to get on the monorail on the way there:
When we first got to the Magic Kingdom that morning, George suprised us and bought tickets to Mickey's very Merry Christmas Party. SO, we cut our Epcot time a bit so we could be back at the Magic Kingdom for that! I knew that it was going to be pretty stinkin' cool.. but I had no idea. Disney only sells so may tickets a day to the Party, so the normal crowds were no where to be seen and the lines were about 10 minutes long at the most. There were Christmas Carols playing on the speakers through out the park and everything was lit up:
When we were there in January, the line to ride the teacups was unbelievable, So SJ was excited to see that it was short - here she is on her first teacup ride. For some reason, she thought it was so funny to try to make me and George sick:
In addition to free cookies, apples, hot chocolate, and apple cider in the park...there were also several Character Dance Parties. There was a DJ set up close by to get things rollin' .... but there were all kinds of characters there just shakin' their groove thang. Sarah Jane was in HEAVEN:
After we all rode several, several rides and a SJ did a few more trips on Thunder Mountain Railroad (her favorite ride) with her Daddy, We ended the trip around midnight that night on the perfect note... with Disney's Christmas parade:
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