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[PirateKate]

Cute picture! Have a happy Easter!

 

[CAStevens218]

You got a great picture with the Bunnies this year!

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!!

 

[Dugette]

Love those bunnies. Very cute! Happy Easter!

 

[jane2073]

Great picture!
Disney knows how to make good bunnies!

Have you seen the ones at Walmart? The heads are two sizes two small. They look so bad!

 

[jc040404]

The Easter Bunny had a different outfit at EPCOT!

They were looking into the sun, so that picture project didn't go quite as well!

We decided to be crazy and spend our Easter holiday at WDW this year! I'll probably post about it in a future TR, but we had a great time! I expected the parks to be super crowded, but it didn't seem that bad at all.

Cute picture! Have a happy Easter!

Thanks! You'd probably like the other, not posed, shots better though. They all had a fun time hopping like Easter bunnies. Hope you had a great holiday, too!

You got a great picture with the Bunnies this year!

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!!

It did turn out nice! They were a lot of fun. Hope your holiday was nice!

Love those bunnies. Very cute! Happy Easter!

Disney has the best bunnies.

Great picture!
Disney knows how to make good bunnies!

Have you seen the ones at Walmart? The heads are two sizes two small. They look so bad!

I've never seen Walmart rabbits, but that mall bunny was too scary. Plus, everyone working the little picture area was so rude! We left the line and went to MK the next morning. Not that we wouldn't have done that anyway..

 

[eecteacher82]

I'm back! After being a horrible DISer and not reading or posting since November I'm back! I read all of the updates I missed since then! I can't remember everything I wanted to comment on, but you guys did some great stuff! I'm so excited you got APs again, and I can't wait to hear about more adventures!

 

[jc040404]

I'm back! After being a horrible DISer and not reading or posting since November I'm back! I read all of the updates I missed since then! I can't remember everything I wanted to comment on, but you guys did some great stuff! I'm so excited you got APs again, and I can't wait to hear about more adventures!

Glad you're back & all is well!

 

[jc040404]

Saturdays are supposed to be the one day of the week that I don’t have to bolt out of bed before six. With today’s plans, that wonderful lazy morning was not going to happen. Who would mind it? We were at Disney Unfortunately, one little boy didn’t agree with missing his extra weekend sleep. Despite not being up any earlier than on school days, Andy-Roo was grouch from the moment that phone rang.

Assuming his attitude would improve with some food and those first sights of the MK, we all decided to ignore it for now. We’d cut back on the crazy happy mood a bit and hope for the best. Andrew’s usually a grump until after his oatmeal anyway. It would pass.

John took care of our water bottles while I checked out the stroller. On our last park day of the AP year, we’d hit a nasty bump that the stroller just couldn’t handle. (It happened on the way from parking to the TTC and I totally forgot about it!) I thought its days were done after that visit, but that was okay. The Aria had been a great purchase, but it had a lot of miles on it now. We’d had it since Andrew was nine months old!

With so much silly sentimental value built into it, I just couldn’t let my favorite stroller go down without a fight and brought it anyway. Besides, I was having a terrible time deciding what to replace it with! She’d have one last park battle in her before retiring for good. In an odd way, this day is kinda sad to me. We don't have any stroller trouble at all, but it is the last time we used it!

Loaded into the car, we were off to the TTC. MK was opening early, and no one wanted to miss the welcome show. Andrew’s mood was already improving as we boarded an empty monorail. The rest of us slowly began to turn up our excitement!

This early, we had to take the resort monorail, and it wasn’t the quickest way to MK. With the resort stops, we were also pausing quite a bit. I was anxious, even though I knew we were going to be quite early.

what's that?

With the stops, we still made it in plenty of time to see the show. All that worry for nothing. Again. I couldn’t wait to hear those first few notes and feel my heart race. I even welcomed the tears this time. It felt so good to be back!

As we stood around in front of the Mickey floral, Andrew played with his camera. Blake did his best to hide from brother’s pictures. John and I mostly people-watched. A woman carrying around a costumed Duffy bear caught my interest. She was running around like a child and posing the toy for her camera. The guest reaction seemed to be mixed and I found it very entertaining. Only at WDW can a grown adult act so completely nuts and be met with (mostly) sincere smiles!

What a let down. The welcome show wasn't anything like it had been. No train. Half the music and dance. While still fun to watch, this wasn’t how I’d seen the day starting.

Good morning, strangers opening the park!!

Into the park, our first project was to grab a times guide and check for Santa Claus. We had lots of time yet and moved into the park.

Andrew was taking lots of pictures!

We all paused on Main Street for those castle pictures. Blake grew impatient in the stroller, wishing we’d all just keep walking. We have a “jillion” castle pictures anyway. How silly. You can never have enough castle pictures! John decided to share a camera to cheer the little guy and gain a few more minutes for Andrew. My little man hopped out of the stroller and lined up his shot. I loved seeing the castle from his perspective.

It looks reeeeally far away!

my castle pic!

True to our past routines, we walked straight back to Fantasyland. FPs were collected for Pooh’s ride and a special flight started the fun. Dumbo hadn’t really be in the plans, but couldn’t be skipped when we saw the wait time. A-5? Andrew starts with that letter, and he’s five years old The elephant was calling him.

Better than walk-on! We went straight to loading, and even watched a Dumbo flying around with no one in it!

Exciting!

Done with our elephant flight, the boys ran to the yellow Dumbo on the ground. They loaded in for a pic. With the lack of any real future plans, this could be the last time we see it here.

Too bad Andrew was annoyed by the sun!

Coming sooooon... more.

 

[Dugette]

what's that?

The electrical water pageant floats!

Sad that this day was your stroller's last journey. Glad it worked okay. Too bad that the welcome show was lackluster this day. I love Blake's view of the castle. I don't know what A5 means, but way to go getting right on Dumbo!

Looking forward to more!

 

[AprilRenee]

I love Blake's castle pic!!! I love when you post pics the boys have taken. It's so cool to see the park from their vantage point.

 

[CAStevens218]

I just love seeing the Christmas decorations! I love the Magic Kingdom all decked out for the holidays!

The picture of the castle from Blake's point of view is fabulous! Its so cool to think back on being that little and how everything looked then.

Sounds like your day was off to a great start!

 

[jc040404]

The electrical water pageant floats!

Sad that this day was your stroller's last journey. Glad it worked okay. Too bad that the welcome show was lackluster this day. I love Blake's view of the castle. I don't know what A5 means, but way to go getting right on Dumbo!

Looking forward to more!

Oohh.. You're so right. I wonder why I didn't think of the electrical water pageant floats before.

It's weird to be sad over a stroller, I think, but I do get attached to odd stuff. It had been with us through so much since Andrew was a baby. John still hasn't officially tossed it! It's in a closet for no particular reason. That monster double we had was donated away the second we decided Andrew was too big for a stroller!

Whatever A5 really means, it'll be Andrew5 to us!

I love Blake's castle pic!!! I love when you post pics the boys have taken. It's so cool to see the park from their vantage point.

Isn't it neat? I wish I could switch places with him for just one day sometimes. I'd love to see the park through his eyes! It must be so magical for a child. (Not that it isn't for an adult, but you know what I mean!)

I just love seeing the Christmas decorations! I love the Magic Kingdom all decked out for the holidays!

The picture of the castle from Blake's point of view is fabulous! Its so cool to think back on being that little and how everything looked then.

Sounds like your day was off to a great start!

It's kinda funny to think that this was before Christmas as I write it. Time really flies!

Blake's pic is the best. Some of his shots are a little wild, but this is one I'll always love. He's been asking to take pictures a lot lately at home. I'm trying to remember to let him play with cameras more on our visits.

It was off to a nice start, but it sure isn't the most exciting morning we've had! It was all more of the same, but still so wonderful to be back to WDW.

 

[jc040404]

Next up should be Peter Pan’s Flight. This early in the day, we would still be able to walk right on and it would be a mess in an hour. Sticking to our usual routines is the best way to get to the tougher wait rides. Back to the grump state, Andrew immediately argued. He wanted to ride the Peoplemover!

“Difficult Andrew” showing his face again wasn’t going to make for a fun day. We’ve never cared about missing a ride completely, but going all the way to Tomorrowland right then was not going to happen. This was a completely different kind of park day for us and one Andrew just wasn't used to. We were only here with one day tickets and no plans for the future just yet. If we skipped the easy waits of early morning, I knew Andy-Roo would be a bigger grump later when we couldn’t accomplish his favorites!

We had a mini family meeting to go over our goals for the day. We were only planning to be at MK until just after lunch so it was definitely now or not at all. He complained again, but did skip ahead to PPF when he remembered how long the waits can get for this!

crowded morning, right? I can't believe he wanted to pass this!

Next up, Blake suggested Snow White’s Scary Adventures..

The boys took quick turns at the immovable sword..

and Andrew chose the carousel next. With Fantasyland as empty as it was, we let the boys race ahead wherever we went. With no one around to be bothered by it, I love letting them think the world is theirs'. It makes my heart so happy. ( we definitely do not allow this when the parks are even the teeniest bit busier than this!)

Unfortunately, Blakers must've been too caught up in the wonder of Fantasyland because he ran too far! We called him back to the entrance.

How ugly is the carousel like this? I can see why the little guy was unsure of where to go! None of us had a clue that anything was being done to it at that time, and weren't fans of this mess. The boys did enjoy the added fun of trying to find their father outside for a wave when we passed whichever opening he might be waiting at!

Our Pooh ride FP time was due and fit perfectly into our plan next. Not that we needed to use them! The boys had fun playing through instead.

That boy is growing up too fast!!

Fantasyland routine continued with a stop at IASW before moving on. We were lucky enough to catch the clock as it opened, too!

my girl!

OT moment - John and I celebrated eight years of marriage earlier this month. (The 040404 part of my name ) Looking over pics of our honeymoon to Disney, I found that John took a pic of her even then! We didn't take many pictures really, so I thought it was pretty awesome he caught something I would love so much in the future.

After a short water refill, the Haunted Mansion finished up our fun for this part of the park!

Meowww...

It wasn't the most exciting morning, but it was going well and we'd managed several favorites in a short amount of time. This was important and something I had worried a bit about. Each boy presented his list of "must do" attractions for our one day visit and I reeally hoped to get to them all. After Santa, it would be park hopping time! With waits like this, I knew it would be problem-free. We were off to Frontierland to catch an old favorite next!

 

[Dugette]

Wow, such an empty Fantasyland!

That is weird with the Carousel all wrapped up like that.

How cool that John took that picture of your girl way back when! And happy (belated) 8th anniversary!

 

[GaRain]

Hooray!!!

 

[jc040404]

More Disney related OT..

I'm listening to Disney music while working on the TR when "You'll Be In My Heart" from Tarzan starts tonight.

John says, "We should go to AK. It's been a long time since we saw that one."

I ask what he's talking about and he says the Tarzan show! Ummmm.. That's been gone for a while now, silly!

I wouldn't ask him for any Disney planning advice!

Wow, such an empty Fantasyland!

That is weird with the Carousel all wrapped up like that.

How cool that John took that picture of your girl way back when! And happy (belated) 8th anniversary!

I didn't expect the park to be very crowded this early anyway, but it was pretty awesome.

The carousel looked just awful like that. Of course, the boys didn't mind it at all. I think they've gotten used to MK looking like a mess!

Hey, thanks! I can't believe it's been eight years already!

Hooray!!!

I'll always support more Hooray's in life.

 

[jc040404]

The old favorite we were about to check out was BTMRR. Neglected in the second Disney year, Andrew and I missed it. Along the way, John and Blake broke off from our group for a few minutes, so Andrew and I decided to take advantage of an empty character line!

Maybe it was the long break without seeing any, or maybe it was being without a brother and father to impress.. Whatever it was, Andrew was back to his old character meeting self! Even though he knows the “secret” now, he acted as if this was the real Donald and had too much fun meeting the duck. It was sweet and reminded me of those days before he decided to start growing up. We had a fun visit and our missing family members soon returned.

After hearing big brother got to meet Donald, Blake insisted on a turn, too. The line was only a few families, so we hopped right in again. Blake loves his character pictures and proudly posed with a smile. The CM with Donald laughed.

“Back again?” she asked Blakers.

Being the shy guy that he is, my little man didn’t respond. I did smile anyway. Maybe my boys look a little more alike than I think? She thought it was Andrew again! I’ve got to give her credit for remembering me with a child anyway!

The plan was to grab BTMRR FPs, but a low wait meant we could run right into the line. Before separating, one important picture called to us. How close was Blakers? I tried to convince him to stand under the measuring stick while John grabbed our FPs.

My efforts were in vain. Blake wanted to know just how short he was and couldn’t care less about the photo. Mommy was ignored while he measured the space above his head and marked off the lines. Oh well. I try not to be a picture pusher and just snapped him checking things out. A nearby CM giggled at his game and said she had something special for the little guy.

Completely unknown to us, these big kid attractions seem to have special someday cards. Blake was given the first we’d ever seen to bring back when he was finally tall enough to ride. How nifty, right? I thought it was so cute!

Blake is was so excited over this little card, so we put it at the top of his measuring chart. Lots of encouragement to eat your veggies! (not a problem for Blakers!) And get plenty of rest at night. (HUGE problem for Blakers!) I couldn’t believe that I’d never heard about them before, but we’ll later find out why that might’ve been a good thing!

John had better luck with that picture project than I did!

With only a ten minute wait, Andrew and I were in our train in no time at all. We both thought this would be a two-turn experience. All of our wait times had been excellent. We didn't have any!

Our ride was lots of fun, as it had always been, but we wouldn’t manage another turn. Andrew’s tummy didn’t like it all that much, so we held tight to those FPs for later. He took the stroller from brother to relax a bit. It was no trouble to Blakers, who had found a special leaf and pointed us to POTC for our next ride.

I had to take that one for Blakers! He still calls for the redhead!

I can’t decide which side I’m on, the puppy or the pirates..

Almost time for pirate’s tutorial, all of my boys wanted to stick around to see it again. The last time had been awesome with Andrew being a part, but I didn’t want to waste a bunch of time on this. I lost that battle. We found spots to wait for showtime.

There was a bit of time to kill, but a nearby photopass photographer made it fly by. He played with the boys and tried to get them into silly poses. While they were simply standing, he caught a picture that I had to buy! Disney gets me when they send those "three download" emails. I always find a few I like.

When the show began, I saw we had the usual pirate for Mack and I didn’t pay attention much. Neither boy was picked to be a part of it, so I excused myself for a mommy moment of shop exploring. I kinda knew how it was going to end and they were so glued that neither noticed I left!

They did get pulled up to get a diploma again. I thought this one was cute. Glad John thought to take a pic!

When it was over and we were a whole family again, it was time to add some holiday to our "holiday" visit. To the front of the park we went, in search of Santa Claus!

There was a little bit of a wait once we got there, but it was fine with us. The boys entertained each other with Andrew’s camera, and we all caught the street party as it began. I was so excited with our timing perfection. I could catch another “Christmas present” picture under the big tree!

I probably find that more amusing than I should!

Santa time!

Santa wasn't quite as impressive as the year before, but still lots of fun! Andrew was getting hungry, so I know he wasn't super into this. We knew our next stop had to be CHH!

 

[CAStevens218]

Wow, a big update!! Such a fun day so far! I just love the mornings when the park is empty and it feels like it is open just for you! It is so much fun to walk on to ride after ride after ride with no wait!!

That carousel set up is pretty sad! I'm glad the boys had fun finding John anyway.

I love fronteir Donald! So cute! He was one of our first character pics on our first trip together!

That photopass picture of the boys is super cute! The photographer did a great job there!

How cool that John got a picture of "your girl" on your honeymoon! We are starting to nail down our honeymoon plans! We will be there July 23 to some time in the first week of August. This is the longest I've ever waited to plan, so I'm getting nervous, but also super excited! I think we will stay at POR in a royal room for most of the trip, and we are hoping to move to AKL for a couple of nights at the end!

 

[PirateKate]

That looks like it was such a fun morning! The emptiness of the park is incredible. I love the picture of the boys running ahead in an empty park.

How old were your kids when they were able to ride the carousel without someone standing next to them? I'm pretty sure Carter could handle it now, but I'm not sure about Landon.

 

[jc040404]

Who wants to go to Disney today?? I do! But it's supposed to rain, so we didn't.

Next weekend!

Wow, a big update!! Such a fun day so far! I just love the mornings when the park is empty and it feels like it is open just for you! It is so much fun to walk on to ride after ride after ride with no wait!!

That carousel set up is pretty sad! I'm glad the boys had fun finding John anyway.

I love fronteir Donald! So cute! He was one of our first character pics on our first trip together!

That photopass picture of the boys is super cute! The photographer did a great job there!

How cool that John got a picture of "your girl" on your honeymoon! We are starting to nail down our honeymoon plans! We will be there July 23 to some time in the first week of August. This is the longest I've ever waited to plan, so I'm getting nervous, but also super excited! I think we will stay at POR in a royal room for most of the trip, and we are hoping to move to AKL for a couple of nights at the end!

I have been updating more. This day didn't start with much to say, so I had tough time beginning. I was happy to start getting through it!

It is heaven to have such an empty park and the morning went great. I loved that photopass managed to get both boys in a picture together. They weren't so cooperative when it came to together pics then. I was probably easily impressed! It did turn out nice though!

Seeing "my girl" in an old pic made my day. Your trip is sounding great. I can't wait to try a royal room, and ending at AKL sounds wonderful! We didn't even stay on property for our honeymoon! John had some deal on a suite through work, so we didn't do much research at all. It was a nice room anyway!

That looks like it was such a fun morning! The emptiness of the park is incredible. I love the picture of the boys running ahead in an empty park.

How old were your kids when they were able to ride the carousel without someone standing next to them? I'm pretty sure Carter could handle it now, but I'm not sure about Landon.

It was nice. Getting there early almost always is. I like that they get a bit of freedom, too.

I really don't know on the carousel. I still stand between them. I know neither needs it, but I guess it's just routine for us now. You can see how we are about sticking to what works for us! I do remember the first, and only, time I took a carousel horse for myself though. Andrew was three yrs, three months.

Memories