Family Vacation to Disney!

I have not blogged in a while because we took a family vacation!! We got home Sunday night and had a wonderful time. Although vacationing with our three little ones was not relaxing, it was still lots of fun to go somewhere new and have time together. I will do another post on things I learned about traveling with the kids at Disneyworld.

We left last Saturday and headed to my mom and dad's house. We spend Sunday with them, and then we flew to Orlando on Monday morning.

Flying was one of our biggest stress situations of the trip. We had put a lot of thought into exactly how we would get through checking in, security, and keeping the kids entertained on the plane. I am so thankful for all the people at the airports who were so helpful. When we checked in, we were pushed to the front of the line. (when people saw us- they could tell we needed help!) When we went through security, we were able to get through quickly as well. The kids were such troopers on the plane! We were not able to sit together on the plane because there could not be 5 people on a row :(. I sat with Jack, and Josh sat with Maddie and Gus. The flight was only 2 1/2 hrs. We ate lunch as soon as we got off the plane, then road the Mickey Express to our hotel- Disney Port Orleans.

 

 

 We checked into our hotel, then rode a boat to Downtown Disney for the evening. The kids were exhausted and fell asleep in the stroller. (Jack was in the baby bjorn) We ate dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. (Gus slept through the whole meal in the stroller...)

Our second day, we had breakfast reservations at Chef Mickey so Gus could see Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and Pluto. We planned to ride the bus to breakfast. We were at the bus stop over 30 minutes before our reservation. We waited and waited and no bus came. We finally ended up taking a taxi so we wouldn't miss our breakfast. It was while driving to breakfast that I saw glimpses of Cinderella's castle for the first time, and I was excited :) The breakfast was a buffet and had so many choices. But the highlight of course was seeing the characters. Gus was a little shy. He enjoyed seeing them from afar, but when they were next to him he wasn't quite sure what to think.

After breakfast we headed to Magic Kingdom. Gus and Maddie really like Mary Poppins, and so do I , so I really wanted to see her. We asked where she would be and when, and then decided to wait a few minutes to see if we could catch her. I turned around and saw her walking across the street. Josh teases me because I got so excited! We quickly headed  to where she would be seeing people and got in line. Mary Poppins was so nice and did a good job talking to Gus.

 

 

We then headed to ride some rides.

 

We had a Fastpass for Peter Pan, and did that ride first. We then rode Dumbo, It's a Small World, and the teacups. Everyone was getting hot and tired by then. And there were a LOT of people there. We are not used to crowds at all!

 

 

 

We ate lunch, then rode the Jungle Cruise. We walked through the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse because that was one of my favorite movies as a kid. At that point we were hot and tired and needed a break. We headed back to the room to rest. It took us a long time to get back and then we relaxed. We looked at the radar, and it was supposed to rain most of the evening. We had planned to go back and see the fireworks, but we knew it was not worth it to fight rain with the kids. We ate at the restaurant at our hotel for dinner. It was raining the whole time, and we had to use ponchos and the cover for the stroller to get back to our room.

The next morning we headed to Animal Kingdom, We walked around a bit, and then had a fastpass to see Mickey and Minnie. We had to wait a while, but the kids were pretty good. It was SOOOOO worth the wait. Gus was ready to see Mickey this time. He gave both Minnie and Mickey hugs. Mickey and Minnie interacted great with Gus and Maddie and even Jack. It was that "magic" Disney moment. Gus wasn't ready to go when our turn was over :).

Animal Kingdom has many areas like a zoo, so we walked around for a while. We then headed to do the Kilimanjaro Safari. The line was very long even with our fastpass, and there were lots of people and it was hot. But seeing all the animals was great.

 

 

We ate lunch, then it was time to head back to the hotel for naps. Everyone started having a breakdown :) We tried to go to the pool, but the kids weren't really into swimming. It was going to rain again, so we took a taxi to our dinner. We ate at the Kona Restaurant at the Polynesian Resort. The food was wonderful, and the kids were good.

 

 

We thought about hanging around because you can see the fireworks. However, the kids started breaking down. So we headed back to the hotel for the night.

The next day we rented a car and left Disney. We headed to St. Augustine, Florida. We decided we wanted to visit that city because of it's extensive history. We toured an old Fort, and then checked into our hotel because it was raining again. We found a wonderful little restaurant to have dinner and the kids were good. We walked around downtown St. Augustine for a bit then headed to our hotel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We planned to go to the beach the next day, but it was going to be raining all day. We were staying the next night back in Orlando so we headed back. We beat the rain to Daytona Beach and had just enough time to walk on the beach for 10 minutes before it started sprinkling.

 

 

 

 

We headed to our next hotel and ate lunch there because it was raining. We all took naps, then went to another great dinner at a pizza place.

We headed to the airport early the next morning. Again we didn't have to wait long to check in or get through security. The kids were good again on the plane, and my dad picked us up at the airport. We spent the afternoon at my parents and my grandparents and sister and her family were there too.

And the next day we drove home. :)

We had a really fun trip! As you can tell, it was busy. We packed, unpacked, and packed over and over. Our bodies were sore. We were tired. But it was good :)

I will be writing about more of the detail about traveling with 3 kids 3 and under in another post! It was an adventure.