Disney World!!

Our very first family vacation (without either of our parents) since we have been married!  That's kinda crazy, right?  We had the best time at Disney World with Usborne Books & More last month!  

-- Sunday: Travel Day & Disney Springs --

I don't know why Jacob fell asleep on the Disney Express bus from the airport to our resort.. he's the one who wore us out on the airplanes! 

Santa Claus was hanging out in Disney Springs when we arrived, and thus began Jacob's journey of being terrified of everything Disney World had to offer!  Ha!

-- Monday: Animal Kingdom & Usborne Private Event at Disney's Yacht Club --

On Monday we hit it hard.. got up early to take the bus to Animal Kingdom in time for Extra Magic Hours.  And at 8 am, it was totally blazing hot.

Our first ride was Triceratops Spin.. and we rode it no less than 8 times.  Jacob loved going "up!"

Ben & I took turns riding "DINOSAUR," and yeah.. I was totally scared!

One of our highlights of the day was the Kilimanjaro Safari ride.  We saw so many awesome animals and Jacob loved it!  He also thought we were riding on a "swish swish swish" - a street sweeper.

Jacob fell asleep after The Lion King show (which was awesome!!) and part of our plan was for him to sleep for a good amount of time in his stroller each day.  But... that didn't really work out.  I think this nap was like 30 minutes max, and he was not happy.  I had FastPass tickets for a Finding Nemo show a couple of hours later that I was determined for us to use because Jake has been loving that movie recently.  So, we had a few hours to kill with a cranky boy, on the hottest day ever.

We found The Boneyard which was a really fun place for Jake to get his wiggles out, rode Triceratops  Spin one more time, saw the show (which wasn't our favorite), and then we were out of there!  Time for naps & the swimming pool before Usborne's private event at the Yacht Club later than night!

-- Tuesday: Resort Swimming Pool & Magic Kingdom --

We went all in on Monday and... with a toddler, that was kind of a mistake.  So, we spent the first half of Tuesday at our resort's pool & water slide, which was a blast.  Then we let Jacob take a nap in our hotel room and headed to Magic Kingdom for the late afternoon & evening.  

Our first ride was It's a Small World (Disneyland's is better), and when we came out of the ride there was a MAJOR storm!  The lightning sounded like it was right there!  We were all huddled under the exit of the ride, but the cast members kept yelling at us that that was an exit, not a rain shelter.  So, we made a break for it and waited in the cue area of the carousel.  Too bad it wasn't running during the rain!  At least it kept us dry.

Once the torrential rain had passed, it was time for our dinner reservations at Be Our Guest in the Beast's Castle!  We were sopping wet so the air conditioner was a little chilly.  Jacob was absolutely terrified of the whole experience so we ordered him chocolate milk & french fries and let him watch Netflix on my cell phone.  That is what I call winning at parenting.  Ben & I thoroughly enjoyed our dinner and then meeting the beast afterward!  Jacob, on the other hand, absolutely did not care for the Beast!

After dinner we enjoyed a spin on the carousel and on the Tomorrowland Speedway cars.. where Jacob INSISTED on driving.  That went well for about 30 seconds, while our car was just going crazy back-and-forth on the metal divider with him at the wheel, and then he somehow hurt himself and cried the rest of the ride.  We were totally squashed in that little car and Ben held down the pedal and reached over Jacob to drive.  Oh well.  It was hilarious!

-- Wednesday: Hollywood Studios & Resort Swimming Pool --

On Wednesday morning we headed right to Hollywood Studios.  I took a turn on The Great Movie Ride while Ben battled Jacob in the gift shops and the heat.  Afterwards we used our Fast Passes for the best ride - Toy Story Mania!

After that ride, Ben waiting in line for us to see Woody & Buzz.  Jacob and I hung out at the gift shop next door where they had a play mat and some toys out.  Seriously, that is the best idea ever at DisneyWorld.  I never saw it anywhere else, but it was soooo nice for Jacob to just have some quiet time to play with toys and not be go-go-go.  Plus, it was in the shade!

Jacob has been watching Toy Story practically every day lately and I wish we'd let him do that before DisneyWorld, in hopes that Woody & Buzz might not have been as scary.  They are huge, by the way!  Even though Jacob was scared, he did great, and at the end of our little meet & greet, gave them both high fives.  Such a great memory for him because they are his favorite characters now.

We stopped by the toys one more time and then Ben took off to go ride the Tower of Terror.  Buddy & I hung out with the toys for a while more and before we left, one of the cast members gifted us with a new toy - one that Jacob had been playing with the whole time!  That totally made my day.  Our budget was super tight and he looooved the Woody & R.C. toy car; to get it for free was just such a happy, happy thing for us.

On our way to meet Dad at the Tower of Terror we ran into one of my Uzzie Buddies and had to take a picture.  Both of our kiddos are 2 years old!

While we waited for Ben to finish the ride we took advantage of another photo pass spot!

Then we met up with Ben, I rode the Tower of Terror, and we called it a day for the parks and headed back to our resort to go swimming!

Check out Jake's cool new toy car!

-- Thursday: Private Usborne Breakfast in Epcot, Epcot, & Resort Swimming Pool --

Thursday was such a fun day!  We were bussed over to Epcot with all of the Usborne Books & More people early in the morning before the park even opened.  We had a private catered breakfast in the Italy/Germany area with lots of characters to meet and take pictures with!  Mickey & Minnie were our priority.

Here we are with Randall, the CEO of Usborne Books & More!  He is such a fun & personable guy.. always chatting it up with the book ladies and their families!  He promised me our next book could be "Lift the Flap: Why do I need to wear shoes?" because Jacob seriously did not wear shoes the entire time we were at DisneWorld.

Jill is my Director with Usborne, and these are all the ladies on her team that came on the trip!

After breakfast we rode the Finding Nemo ride which Jacob loved and then did Turtle Talk With Crush and ran around the aquarium.  It felt nice to have some air conditioning.  We also rode Living With the Land, which was kind of boring.

We had Fast Passes for later, but it was soooo hot, so Ben & I sat in some shade while Jake had the most fun ever in this little splash pad.  Talk about pure joy!

We got all cleaned up and headed to the Frozen ride which is MEGA popular and supposedly amazing.  I say supposedly because we were about to get on when the ride shut down.  We waited around for a long time but finally decided we needed to call it a day like we had planned, for Jacob's sake.  

On our way out we met Pluto, which was Jake's favorite character to meet (not so tall!).

Thursday afternoon we decided to go swimming at our resort's sister resort.  We took a short boat ride over and had a totally fun afternoon!  The most surprising part was when Jacob just started climbing up the stairs to go down this water slide!  Ben followed him up and said that Jacob was determined, so, I went right over to the bottom and as he came down his face has the most hilarious look of terror.  He wasn't wearing a life jacket (they are all way too big on him) and he flipped over and went into the water head first.  I scooped him up and gave him a big hug!  I was so shocked and proud of him!  The life guard was not that happy about it, haha.

After swimming we got dinner at this resort's cafeteria and then got stuck in the biggest lighting, thunder, and rain storm I've ever seen!  The cafeteria was awesome, though - it had a TV playing Disney Jr. shows and a table with coloring pages & crayons AND a cast member there to help the kids so Ben & I got a little break.  We enjoyed beignets (at the French Quarter resort) and I got myself a hot chocolate (wearing a wet swimsuit and being blasted with A/C is cold!).  We finally got too bored so we braved the downpour to catch a bus back to our side of the resort.  Such a funny evening!

Starting on Day 3, Jacob refused to nap in his crib.  It was kind of terrible, the crying and screaming.  But, I decided to let him sleep with me (Ben slept in the other queen bed) and it was kind of the sweetest thing EVER!!

-- Friday: Typhoon Lagoon & Magic Kingdom --

I really can't decide which day was my favorite because they were all pretty awesome.  But if I had to pick, I'd probably choose Friday.  Part of Usborne's package for us trip earners was free entrance to one of DisneyWorld's water parks.  We went to Typhoon Lagoon on Friday morning and it was SO FUN!  I'm not even a water park lover.. more of a hater.. but I could totally go here over and over again.

The kids' area was so much fun for Jacob!  We were so proud of him being brave enough to go down some of the little slide!  

I did a few tube rides by myself when we first got there and after we had played in the kids area for a while, Ben & I took turns going down some bigger rides while the other person waited at the bottom with Jacob.  Then we got lunch and hung out some more.. and then the usual afternoon torrential downpour began!  The park shut down due to lightning so we bussed it back to our resort.  That bus ride, oh my heavens.. It took 2 busses to get back to our resort because we had to make a transfer at Disney Springs.  We also had to wait in line for about half an hour because everyone was leaving the water park at the same time.  It was pouring the whole time and the thunder was SO loud.  Jacob slept through it all.  The thunder, the rain, the bus ride, the transfer (sprinting in the pouring rain to our next bus), and the last bus ride.  We were freezing on the air conditioned busses and it was so crowded.  Just such an adventure!!  

After a little rest, cleaning up, and letting the showers subside we headed to the Magic Kingdom for our last night at DisneyWorld!  Our adventures included Aladdin's Magic Carpets, Pirates Of the Caribbean, dinner, the Jungle Cruise, Dole Whip (loved by all, especially Jacob & myself), a train ride around the park (what Jacob had been looking forward to and talking about for months!), Space Mountain (for me), and the fireworks which were AMAZING!

Jacob fell asleep during the fireworks - his defense mechanism during the whole trip was to bury his head into our shoulder and fall asleep whenever he was scared and he did this during the fireworks - and didn't wake up until the following morning!!

What a sweetie.  What an amazing trip with my little family!!  Thank you Usborne Books & More for allowing this fabulous opportunity, thank you DisneyWorld for being magical, and thank you family for being the best!!  #cheesy