We had most decidedly NOT gotten a good night's sleep.
There was tossing. There was turning. And a lot of talking. And the kids wouldn't sleep either.
But seriously, we hit the sack about 9pm, which is kind of late for our kids, and then they proceeded to talk to each other and to us for about an hour. They were so excited about meeting Mickey the next day!! I couldn't really blame them...We had been looking forward to this day for about a year! We were sleeping with Buzz and Donald in one bed, THE PRINCESS and I in the other. You may recall that MIL snores, so no one wanted to sleep with her. She went into her room as soon as we returned to the hotel each evening and went straight to bed, closing and locking her door. While I in no way faulted her for this (she HAD to be EXHAUSTED), I couldn't help thinking about how different it would be if it were my parents with us... We all just have such a good time together, and we would've treated those two rooms as one big one. There would have been laughing, and teasing, and complete silliness. MIL is not very silly. Which is a character flaw in my book.
Ok, so....The phone rings at 6:45am. Donald picked it up and dropped it right back on the hook. Oh, snap! I wanted to hear Stitch! Well, THE PRINCESS was already awake and talking to herself in the bed next to me. I got up and got in the shower. I began to mentally prepare myself for the worst. After all, no one had slept well. Maybe we should skip the opening show at MK and see it tomorrow?? Were the kids going to be cranky all day?? Well, Buzz does not get cranky - he is extremely good natured. But no worries... I did not get an uneven allotment of cheery-ness in my offspring; THE PRINCESS can be cranky enough for the both of them when she gets on a roll. But she can also be the very loving-est and sparkly-est kid you'd ever want to meet.
But I digress. Again. So, once I got out of the shower, both kids were up and boucing on the beds with their new Mr. Potato Heads. They were begging me to give them some clothes so they could walk to the bus. Ok. We were off to a good start. I forced Donald out of the bed, and in 45 minutes we were ready to go - we were ahead of schedule!
After tapping on MIL's door (she is so slow, but always on time during this trip! yay!), we took off for the food court. You see, we had brought along coffee, filters and creamer because MIL and I both need our morning coffee... Well, ASMu DOES NOT HAVE COFFEE MAKERS IN THE ROOMS! I am sure this comes as news to absolutely no one. And I should have known this, because I have stayed there many times. But I did not know this. I think I was still in POR-mode. I opted to wait and get coffee in the park, but MIL decided to go ahead and try the Nasty-Cafe. I had warned her, but she was desperate. She did not like it. But she drank it. We headed to the bus stop.
By 8:30am, we were standing in front of the train station, waiting for the opening show to commence and ready to make the mad dash for Dumbo as soon as they opened those gates. I LOVE the opening show. The kids were a little underwhelmed. At least, it seemed that way to me because I expected them to pop an artery in their excitement over seeing all those characters arrive by train. When I watch the video, I see they are happy. Just not jumping up and down.

THE PRINCESS was a teeny bit upset Minnie was not there.

I had kinda promised her she would be. Well, after I assured her we were having dinner with Minnie later that day, she was good to go.
Buzz was skipping down Main Street -just as I had envisioned it!!!!! Perfection!!!
We headed straight for Fantasyland, after taking a few moments to ooh and aahh over the castle, of course. THE PRINCES really wanted to walk through it, but it was roped off at that time, so we went around to the left... And of course, I had to get this shot...
Before I get into rides, let me tell you that we got a lot done today. I was impressed. We missed one or two things (HM and HOP), that I had on my list, but that was because no one had any interest in them

. I don't know what was wrong with these people....but anywho. Also, today was the warmest day of the trip...It may have hit 80, but maybe not. It felt awesome!
OK, so here comes the one little hiccup in our wonderful, stress-free, tear-free trip....I like to call it "Don't Go On Snow White First," or, alternately, "Don't Listen To Your Husband When You Know You Know Better Than Him."
We cruised on into Fantasyland, and even though there were tons of peeps at the train station, it was pretty deserted. Score! On our right we come upon Snow White's SCARY Adventures.
"Let's go on this, Heath...no line!! Wait time says zero!" Donald was so excited.
The CMs were practically beckoning to us, they were that desperate for someone to show their ride some luv.
My internal monologue...
"I have never been on this ride, but it says "scary" right in the title. THE PRINCESS don't do no scary stuff. She makes me skip the pages with the "apple witch" when I read her Snow White book to her. It will more than likely be very dark. This should not be our first ride."
Donald - while climbing onto the ride:
"Come on!! Hurry!!"
Kids:
"Look it's Snow White!!! Yay!!!"
Kids - immediately after we head into the mine and the doors close:
"Why is it dark? I don't like this ride! AHHHHHH!!! The Apple Witch!! Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
There was a brief moment of happiness when we saw Dopey, but other than that Snow White was a disaster. I was not feeling good at this point. I wanted to claw Donald's eyes out. I was worried the kids were scarred and would not ride another inside ride all day. We headed straight to Dumbo to counteract this bad juju.
Dumbo was a dream. Everyone loved it. Everyone was thrilled. Well, I can't say everyone, because MIL never gets thrilled, per se. She is very bottled up. But I did see a thin little smile on her face as we soared throught the air. You see, DOnald and Buzz rode together, while us girls rode together. You'll find this is a common theme. In fact, often both kids rode with Donald and MIL were on our own. Donald is crafty like that.
After this, THE PRINCESS spotted Ariel's Grotto, and we were stuck. This was the longest line of the trip...probably close to 30 minutes.

Buzz was saying he did NOT want to have his picture made with Ariel, but he did want her to sign his book. This would be his first chance to use it, and he loves to collect things. So getting as many autographs as he could was very important. Well, after 672 games of rock-paper-scissors, it was our turn. THE PRINCESS ran to Ariel and sat right up on that rock with her. Ariel engaged them both in silly conversation - it was so cute!!! After 43 pictures from the PhotoPass Guy and 73 from me, they got down off the rock, and Ariel says:
"Hey, handsome, come back here for a minute...."
Buzz went back, and she laid a huge. juicy kiss on his forehead, leaving perfect red lip prints....
The crowd went wild, and Buzz was kind of embarassed...He tried to act as though he hated it, but I think he kind of liked it. I know Donald was jealous!!! Buzz did make us wipe the lips off with a wet wipe before he would leave the grotto water-play-area-thingy. So we did. Sadly. It was so cute! And much darker red than it appears in this picture.
Next up was Philharmagic....No one knew what it was. They thought we were going on a ride. When they saw it was a show, Donald and Buzz were slightly disappointed. THE PRINCESS was thrilled to be seeing a cartoon. I assured everyone it was much more than "just a cartoon." Here we are in our "opera glasses."
You'll notice that in most pictures THE PRINCESS looks a bit peeved. That is because she is. She does not like having her picture taken. She says the flash "burns her eyes." You'll also notice that we keep taking her picture regardless. Because that's the kind of parents we are. Serisouly, though, once we bribe her with tic tacs, the burning flash doens't bother her so much anymore. So what you see in many pictures is her looking away from the flash, grimacing and saying "cheeeeeeeeessssssse...." between her clenched teeth.
Well, everyone loved Philharmagic, especially Donald and Buzz. THE PRINCESS really began enjoying it after I took off her glasses. Everytime something came at her, she jumped a foot in the air!!!
We reluctantly turned in our glasses (I am always temtped to pinch a pair), and headed to Peter Pan, which was ridden without much fanfare. Buzz really enjoyed it. I just don't really "get" that one - kind of ho hum for me. Please don't hate!! IASM would have been next, but we got word from folks in line (all 20 of them), that it was broken down. We decided to come back later.
On to Liberty Square!!! This is where I had planned to ride HM, but after the Snow White debacle, I no longer planned to take the kids. But Donald seemed ambivalent about riding it, so we moved on.

We strolled by HOP and I talked it up, but MIL and Donald thought the kids would be bored..
On the Frontierland! We grabbed some hot dogs and sat down the eat them and Hey Howdy Hey! guess what was coming on down the street?? You got it!.... Woody's Cowboy Camp!!
We had front row seats, so of course we stayed to enjoy the show. Many times they tried to get Buzz into the act, but he didn't want to. Which is kind of strange, for him, but oh well. MIL kept trying to talk him into it, but once Buzz has his mind made up about something, there is not much you can do about it. Even promising to buy him things will not work. Which she learned. Actually, they had trouble getting any kids at all into the cowboy camp, so it was kind of short. But cute. Afterwards we followed them out and got in line to meet Woody and Jesse - two more autographs! Cha-ching!
After this we headed to SM.... Buzz was not sure he wanted to go because he does not like to get wet unless it is a swimming pool or a sprinkler or some other sitch where he is in trunks and has a towel. I was honest and told him he might get a teensy bit wet, or a lot. I did promise to shield him with my body, but ultimately he decided to stay with MIL and his sister. Donald and I enjoyed it. He had never been on before and was surpirsed at how long the ride is....Isn't everyone the first time? Well, I love that drop and wish you could do it again and again...once is not enough. By the way, we had waited in line for about 10 minutes for this ride, and we had FPs for BTMRR for right afterwards. We took turns sitting out with THE PRINCESS. First Donald rode with Buzz, then MIL and I (see the continuing trend?).... MIL is Donald's mother, so I thought he should have taken more for the team, but that didn't happen.
Buzz loved the ride, and wanted me to take a picture for him to show his buddy Christopher, who had been to WDW a few months before...
It was about noon, and we had done quite a bit - I was impressed!! I had planned on lunch at CHH, so we headed back that way. After lunch, I planned for some shopping and relaxing time... And the parade, of course! So that is what will be coming up next!! Stay tuned!!