Our 1st trip as a family of three!----Update 11/3 Our Favorites/Trip Wrap-Up

[LilAnn]

How cute that you gott a pic of your DD on her date with the little boy! That'll definitely be a cute story to tell her when she's older. Hehe, is your DH one of those fathers who does'nt want his daughter to date until she's 21?

Funny you should ask that. I do believe he said she won't be dating until she's 30 instead of 21! In fact, when I was pregnant and we found out during the ultrasound that we were having a girl, his response was "I need to go get a gun."

 

[jordanyosh]

We got to meet Belle in her blue dress as well, ot in her yellow dress. I don't think we ever got to see her in the yellow dress. Interesting how you only like that one version of her.

I think the blue dress Belle is I don't know....more accessible. If that makes sense. The yellow dress belle is too formal.

 

[jordanyosh]

Great PP pix!

Lock your DD in the closet until she's 25......

 

[cdotla]

Just finished reading your TR! Your daughter is absolutely, positively ADORABLE!!! She is such a little ray of sunshine!

In addition to all the great memories from the trip, you are so lucky to have so many wonderful pictures of her from this trip! Especially the family ones, and the ones with just mommy and daughter. I adore the one of each of you with your matching plaid shorts!

Now that I am finally all caught up, looking forward to hearing all about the rest of your trip!

 

[LilAnn]

I think the blue dress Belle is I don't know....more accessible. If that makes sense. The yellow dress belle is too formal.

You will then enjoy the pictures of her meeting Belle in the blue dress soon enough. "more accessible"

Great PP pix!

Lock your DD in the closet until she's 25......

Pretty sure my husband would try that if we wouldn't be arrested or lose her to DSS.

Just finished reading your TR! Your daughter is absolutely, positively ADORABLE!!! She is such a little ray of sunshine!

In addition to all the great memories from the trip, you are so lucky to have so many wonderful pictures of her from this trip! Especially the family ones, and the ones with just mommy and daughter. I adore the one of each of you with your matching plaid shorts!

Now that I am finally all caught up, looking forward to hearing all about the rest of your trip!

Thank you! I know, I was so surprised that we were able to get that many family pictures. Usually, my husband likes to pose for family pictures about as much as yours does. I didn't know if I was jinxing things by pre-ordering the PP cd, but now I am so glad I did. I hope to do a trip update later today or soon.

 

[LilAnn]

This is just a quick little side update as I don’t have time to write a full update just yet. Hopefully I’ll get one in later today or tomorrow. I know I have mentioned it many times, but I still can’t get over how changed our little girl was. When we took our August trip she was 22 months old and when we went in April she was about 2 ½ years old. Those few months in between seemed to make all the difference in the world.

Here is a photo that we took last summer at Sesame Place that pretty much shows you why we barely had any character pics from our August trip.

Do you see that scrunched up face? She was literally climbing up my body and clambering to get as far away from Bert and Ernie as possible. I couldn’t even stand near them. She liked the characters only from a distance.

This was the only way we could get a character picture in August.

Someone, usually Dad, had to hold her on the side farthest away from the characters. So I was truly in shock when we saw this scenario on our first full day.

I really was not expecting to have a Disney vacation full of character pictures. One thing that hasn’t changed between trips?

Her love of the pool and water parks.

trip update coming soon…

 

[DWGal210]

Such a sweet girl! What fun pictures! They do grow up WAY too fast, don't they?!

 

[dawnbu40]

It's so exciting as a parent to watch a child grow and learn. At her young, age 6 months can make a world of difference. I'm so glad you all enjoyed it all so much!!

 

[tinkgurl]

Aw..she has grown to liking the characters! What a great look at the progress she has made!

 

[ladybugmom]

Love the progression of the pics!! I'm sooo glad thet she enjoys the character interaction now!!

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Hi there! I have missed reading your TR. I am back from my trip & all caught up now. I know that I'm not remembering all of my comments, but here it goes.

The dance party at DHS looks AWESOME. I wish they would do that during regular hours & not just EMH. I think Dylan would love that. He loves to dance & he is getting better with the characters. Lily looks like she was having a blast. Definitely worth your time to go!

Yay! You went to Boma. I'm so glad that you all liked it. It's nice that they have the kids food but it is so great that she was trying all of the regular stuff. I didn't know that there were PP people at the resorts. We will have to look for them next time. Those are great family pictures.

Looking forward to your next update.

 

[LilAnn]

Such a sweet girl! What fun pictures! They do grow up WAY too fast, don't they?!

Thank you. Yes, time seems to be flying by with her.

It's so exciting as a parent to watch a child grow and learn. At her young, age 6 months can make a world of difference. I'm so glad you all enjoyed it all so much!!

Me too! I now just have to figure out a way to finance another trip to Disney soon so she can see them all again. She won't stop asking to go back!

Aw..she has grown to liking the characters! What a great look at the progress she has made!

Thanks! I'm so glad she loved the characters this trip. It made it that much more magical for us!

Love the progression of the pics!! I'm sooo glad thet she enjoys the character interaction now!!

Me too! It made such a difference.

Hi there! I have missed reading your TR. I am back from my trip & all caught up now. I know that I'm not remembering all of my comments, but here it goes.

The dance party at DHS looks AWESOME. I wish they would do that during regular hours & not just EMH. I think Dylan would love that. He loves to dance & he is getting better with the characters. Lily looks like she was having a blast. Definitely worth your time to go!

Yay! You went to Boma. I'm so glad that you all liked it. It's nice that they have the kids food but it is so great that she was trying all of the regular stuff. I didn't know that there were PP people at the resorts. We will have to look for them next time. Those are great family pictures.

Looking forward to your next update.

Yay, you're back from DL! The dance party is so much fun for the little ones! I swear, that was the only thing on my absolute have to do list for the trip. One day our little ones will meet and dance up a storm together!

I was thinking of you when we did Boma! I am so glad we decided to try it. We will definitely be going back our next trip. She even tried the hummus, but liked the pita chips and flatbread more.

I learned about the PP photographers from another TR, but kind of forgot about it until we actually came across one.

 

[praisehisname]

The family photo shoot at AKL turned out great! Such nice pics! I also really enjoyed seeing how much your DD has changed toward the characters!

 

[BippityBoo]

Hello!! I am back from vacation and all caught up!! What great pictures of your DD and the characters---she seems so happy to see them now! I am sure that makes Mommy very happy

 

[LilAnn]

The family photo shoot at AKL turned out great! Such nice pics! I also really enjoyed seeing how much your DD has changed toward the characters!

Thank you! Those AKL pictures probably only took about 2-3 minutes to take. I'm so happy we came across him. I'm glad you liked the random update. I wanted to be able to illustrate just how different her reactions are now.

Hello!! I am back from vacation and all caught up!! What great pictures of your DD and the characters---she seems so happy to see them now! I am sure that makes Mommy very happy

It made Mommy very happy!

 

[LilAnn]

After our delicious dinner at Boma and a wonderful night of sleep on those insanely comfortable beds at the Dolphin, we woke up completely refreshed and ready to go. We ate a quick breakfast in the room and headed out to Epcot. We had decided we wanted to try to save DHS and Epcot for the later in our trip since the resort was smack in the middle of the two.

This morning we decided to head over on one of the Friendship boats. Before we knew it, we were walking around the deserted World Showcase. Our little girl spotted some friendly creatures and wanted to stop and say hello.

Oops, it looks a little sunny out. Looks like she might need her sunglasses.

That’s better. And Annie is looking at the picture too.

We continued our walk towards Future World, but it wasn’t long before our little girl’s eagle eyes spotted a playground.

I don’t know where she is happier, in a pool or at a playground.

The playgrounds that were set up are so cute! I don’t remember them being around in August, but I may just have not noticed them. I wonder if they are just set up for the Flower and Garden Festival? They certainly seem to match the themes of the festival. I asked my husband to try to find a way to get her out of the playground so we could check out some attractions, and this was his method.

Sure, lure her with candy. Not just any candy, a lollipop the size of her head! Just what any toddler needs in the morning.

So with a toddler happily licking away at her lollipop, we headed over to visit Figment. This was one of her favorite rides our last trip, so we thought we would give it a whirl once again. Once again she was a bit apprehensive about going on another “ride,” but she made it through. She enjoyed the last part of the ride where you get to see Figment’s crazy techincolor upside down world. However, I think my husband and I were both relieved when we asked her if she wanted to go on it again and she said “no.” We definitely got more than our fill of that ride in August so we were content to move on to other attractions.

We played around in the Kodak gallery for a while then moved on to the Land. We stopped off for a quick lunch at Sunshine Seasons. We usually have a pretty good meal there and I wanted to try the strawberry shortcake that so many people on the boards talk about. Sorry for the lack of pictures in this section, but again, I wasn’t thinking that I would be writing a TR. Next time! After our yummy meal, we headed over to see Living with the Land. I love that you can relax on a slow moving boat ride in air conditioning and learn something at the same time. I love seeing everything that is growing there since I am most definitely lacking a green thumb. I can barely keep my plants alive at home. I found the plants growing on top of the aquarium to be particularly fascinating.

After our ride through the Land, we headed towards the front of the park. I can’t remember exactly what brought us out that way, but I have to say we were lucky that we did. We made it to the front just in time to meet this pretty character!

Daisy Duck! And with barely a line to see her too. We totally lucked out.

If you are wondering what is on our little girl’s wrists, I forgot to mention that we had stopped by Innoventions to play with the felt froggies. They will also give you a little wristband to stick your frog on after you finish, but we played around with some more of the frog accessories and came up with bracelets. The frog was massive on her arm, so she liked the size of these little happy face bracelets instead. Here she is checking them out again while waiting for Daisy to sign her book.

Watching intently to make sure Daisy really is signing her book.

Going in for the hug!

and posing for the picture.

Getting to meet Daisy Duck was definitely a highlight of the day. We were relieved to find her so “easily” since she was pretty elusive for us last time around. As we were leaving Daisy, we saw another furry creature off to the side. There was barely a wait for him as well, but we weren’t sure how our little one would react to this character. Imagine our surprise when we saw this……

Apparently, she wasn’t afraid of Stitch either! We were totally shocked by that.

She seemed to be having a blast with Stitch. I guess he’s pretty cuddly with all of that fur. And I guess if you had that many arms, you’d probably give some pretty great hugs, too.

I guess he only had two of his arms out today, though. Haha.

I love that she always turns around to wave good-bye to the characters. And that Stitch was waving back.

Since we were at the front of the park, we decided to stop off for some family pics. I had wanted to get a picture with the gorgeous topiary display at the very front of the park, but that line was outrageous. So we headed to a less crowded area to take pictures.

I’m still amazed that I was able to get this many family photos on this trip. I am so glad that I had preordered the PP cd!

continued in next post

 

[LilAnn]

We then headed back into the park to walk around some more. Our plan at this point was to make our way slowly through the park on our way back to the hotel. We’d stop by whatever attractions called out to us on our walk.

Our little girl stopped off to visit the giraffes.

Then we came across the butterfly garden! Score! Live butterflies and fairy topiaries? Our little princess was going to be happy to walk through this area.

The flowers are all just so beautiful!

I love how all of the fairies are represented as well. Hi Fawn!

Soon, we were inside the butterfly tent. The hot butterfly tent.

We stayed about as long as we could stand it inside there since our little one was loving it.

She even brought Annie in to show her the pretty butterflies.

Once we were back outside, we came across Tinkerbell.

Here she is trying to pose like Tinkerbell.

How cute are the little fairy houses? I love the effort that Disney puts in with all the attention to details.

So imagine my surprise when we walked a little further and saw this set-up.

While our little girl was happy to see Princess Tiana, I was a bit puzzled to see cardboard cut-outs. We went from meticulous detailing for the pixie hollow area, to randomly placed cardboard pieces? Luckily, our little princess didn’t notice as she was too busy working on her little coloring activity.

I thought that was a cute idea. It lets the kids participate in some fun activities while giving the adults a chance to look around.

Once they have finished filling in all of the spots, they get a little reward. Her very own crown!

She didn’t want to take it off, even though it was so hot outside!

Up next: more characters and AK evening EMH

 

[DWGal210]

Love the interaction with Daisy!! What a sweetie!

You are getting lots of great family pictures!! Christmas cards, maybe?

 

[DWGal210]

Love the interaction with Daisy!! What a sweetie!

You are getting lots of great family pictures!! Christmas cards, maybe?

 

[dawnbu40]

Great update! The fairy area was so pretty and had such attention to detail! We loved it!

The pics of Lily are all so precious! I love how she poses for the camera