The Parade of Pictures Begins!

The good thing about looking at someone's vacation photos over the internet is that you can close the page anytime you want.  You are about to be overloaded with Sevin family vacation photos. Feel free to close the window if you start to feel lightheaded or nauseous from all of the adorable smiles and magical times.  haha! Seriously, there are a lot of pictures.  I will say though that for most of the trip I wish I just had a simple point and shoot instead of my DSLR. It was a bit clunky considering the lens I brought with me for most of the time.  And it was just so darn hot most of the time I did not want to sit around and play around with the shots. So I might as well had a P&S. Oh well!  The pictures still capture the fun we had on this trip!

 Have fun looking!

Our flight left at promptly 6:20am last Sunday. Yeah...that means Brendan and I were up at 4:30 and the kids got up at 5.  That was a little rough....but then we remembered where we were going and all was right with the world!  We had yummy doughnuts for breakfast and started our day!! Charlotte insisted on having the blue donut. There was no blue doughnut option. So being the good mother that I am, I bought her the chocolate one.  Then she saw Cole's pink doughnut and said "No, my want blue doughnut!"  How was I supposed to know blue meant pink?! She ate the chocolate one just fine.

Thankfully Cole loves movies so he settled right in and watched Cars for the duration of the flight.  

Charlotte will not watch tv...at least not for more than 10 minutes. She and I played and read books...for 3 hours.   Brendan sat in the adjoining aisle and listened to his IPod.  Ahem.

Another treat that morning was eating fruit snacks on take off!  We did this when we went to NV and when we flew back to NH last fall. Since fruit snacks are not common (at all)  in our house, they are great treats for airplane rides! And the chewing of the fruit snacks helps their ears during lift off. Win-win for everyone. 

(Can you start to see a trend here of sugar overload?!)

Our flight was early and pretty easy going.  I LOVE the Orlando airport.  We took a tram from the Southwest terminal to the main terminal and that was a hit. Then we saw the Disney store and we all got very excited.  I don't know why because we can go to the local mall and see the Disney store anytime we want!  Charlotte was especially excited to see this princess. She even gave her a kiss which of course I didn't have a chance to capture. 

This is what awaited us in our hotel room!

Magical Mickey Ears!

Brendan had done a lot of research on when to see the parades, what parks were the busiest etc. He even had a whole spreadsheet of it all! So our trip was nice and organized and it all worked out so well!  Having two young children we had to leave the parks each day for a nap which took a chunk of time out of seeing everything but if we didn't have them take naps then we would have had two very cranky children who were no fun and I would rather take time out of the day to get the naps in!  

The afternoon we arrived we went to Animal Kingdom to see the parade and see the Lion King show.  I will say this lots but Disney is not just a theme park...it is an experience.  It really is like no place on earth and I just love it!

However, it was HOT and HUMID!!  I made the mistake of doing my hair and putting on makeup the first day.  Forget it. By the first hour my hair was pulled back and make up was gone.  I didn't make that mistake again during the day!  

I don't know why but I just love this one of Charlotte.

We finally wised up and were suckered in to buy the Disney water spray bottles/fans.  The $17 for each one was well worth it.  I really tried to find nonDisney spray bottles at Target before we left NH but this being NH they did not carry spray water bottles yet (with the fans).  Oh well!

The parade begins! You can see Charlotte clinging to Cole on the right. She is definitely more shy and apprehensive than Cole ever was!

Our first Mickey siting!

The kids went to bed relatively easily.  I will say that they were often very weighed down under the humidity and once we were in the air conditioned room their energy sprang to life and they went a little nuts. So sometimes bedtime was a little nuts too.  

Anyway, here's the views from our balcony by our room. Port Orleans French Quarter is a fantastic resort! I definitely recommend it. Although when we went to Disney 2 years ago we stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge which is a step up from the French Quarter and I definitely thought the rooms were a bit nicer. Well, we weren't there for the rooms, right?!

Another good thinking on Brendan's part. Prior to going to Disney we ordered groceries for our room, including essential Coronas. Brendan brought a lime from home.  After the kids went to bed most nights Brendan  pulled the chairs on the balcony and we enjoyed the night. It was quite nice!

The first full day we went back to Animal Kingdom!

Safari ride was the first one we went on. The animals were up and about and we beat the crowds!

I won't bore you with the animal pictures but there was a baby rhino!! So cute!!!

They have a 3D Bugs' Life show inside the Tree of Life. This is where I first learned how much Charlotte hates the loud shows. She snuggled into me as if her life depended on it (maybe she thought it did!) and wouldn't let go until the show was over. Cole and Charlotte sure have different personalities. I love them each for their differences but it is just interesting to see!

We saw random Florida wildlife in the park roaming about. I'm pretty sure they know it is the happiest place on earth too.

Best. Invention. Ever. The Fast Pass.  Little known fact! Did you know you don't have to use your FP during the hour that you can return? You can in fact use it all day after your "return hour" has been reached!  Not many people know this! Brendan learned it from his extensive research before the trip and we were able to gather lots of FPs and use them often! :)

Excuse the glorious picture of me.  Cole and I went on the water rapids ride. We donned ponchos but got wet anyway!

Brendan's turn! 

In front of the Kilimanjaro roller coaster ride.  Brendan had ridden this 2 years ago but we didn't have enough time for him to go again this time. (Darn those naps again!)

I wanted to get a photo of the entire elephant with the kids but if I did that I couldn't see Charlotte's face! This was by far her favorite ride. ("Dinosaurs go up and down!")  Same idea as Dumbo and the Magic Carpet ride in Magic Kingdom. She loved it. She and I rode it 3 times. :)

Our first character meeting!  Charlotte was very hesitant. This was after she talked non stop about Goofy before we went in to meet him!  No matter how many times we saw Goofy over the course of the trip she wouldn't say hi to him. :)

We walked by these cut-outs several times and Cole really wanted his picture with them.  :)

Just a cute one.

The bus ride was always a big hit.  Charlotte loved it.  I remember when we took Cole to WDW when he was 2, he loved it just as much.

We rode the rapids ride with Cole 2 more times that afternoon.  Charlotte literally entertained herself for 30 minutes by transferring water from each of the three bottles into one another over and over again. 

Yay! We love vacation!

AK closes pretty early....5pm. So we went to Downtown Disney that night. I love it there!  

Did I mention we are excited to be here?

Whoa Charlotte! Careful!

Just. So. Excited!!

I have no idea what they are looking at but this photo makes me laugh.

He looks like such a big boy here!!

Charlotte, darling, can you please sit with your brother for a  picture?

Charlotte's grumpy that she has to sit for a photo.  Cole is about to sneeze.

Bless you Cole!

And that makes Charlotte smile!

A boat takes us from our resort to DD!

And we see "Bu 'ight 'ear" (as Charlotte calls him!) for the first time, the kids buy light up toys and stuffed lovies, I buy the family matching tshirts, we buy big ice creams, and ride the carousel.

So tired and so beautiful at the same time. This is the only  picture I found myself editing of the vacation photos.  

Tomorrow....more pictures! Thank goodness, you say! :)