The Magic Kingdom

We had SO much fun at Disney this year!! I have about a million pictures so I've decided to break them up into at least two posts. Every year my dad and Jayne take us all to Disney World for two days and every year it's like an invasion of whatever color shirt we're all wearing - this year blue. It is such a blast to get to all be together with our kids and watch them experience the magic that is Disney - and this year I felt like a kid again myself. We usually go at Christmas, but with Shannon and her family and our family living overseas they graciously changed the date to July so we could all be there. I was apprehensive about doing Disney in the middle of summer, but I have to say that most of us thought it was our best year yet!

We spent our first park day at Blizzard Beach, one of Disney's water parks. I don't have pictures from that because I was too busy having a blast and reliving my own childhood with the girls, and I didn't want to risk getting my good camera wet. I was grateful that sweet Hope came with us - it not only was a huge help with Ellie in particular, but it also gave me a chance to play. All the girls love, love, loved it - and the big girls relished their freedom as the four of them (Meggie, Katie, Samantha and Lilly) got to wander the park alone for awhile.

We stayed in Fort Wilderness - I'll post some photos from there in the next post - and it was fantastic. We took up 5 cabins and practically had our own little cul-de-sac! It was so close to the Magic Kingdom that we were able to go home for a rest/swim in the middle of the day and then head back over for the late afternoon and evening.

Anyhoo - here are some fun pictures from our day in the Magic Kingdom:

The girls after they rode with Uncle Brian on the teacups - Lilly looking a bit queesy!

Samantha, Anna, Josie, Lilly, Katie, Meggie and Ellie with Stitch.

Many of our gang - Jayne, Meggie, Stacy, Lilly, Anna, Ali, Dad, Katie, Shannon, Ellie, Josie, Hope, Ellie and Brian.

Hope, Ellie, Anna and Josie head off on the Pooh Bear ride.

The kids table at dinner - Josh sat at the big table.

Me and my girls.

The two who made the whole trip possible - Dad and Jayne.

Ellie LOVED the roller coasters - all the girls did.

The day we left we had lunch first at the Fort Wilderness Lodge - the meal itself was one of the highlights of the trip as the waiters were hilarious, there was no problem with the kids being loud and rowdy, there were even horse races around the restaurant! Dad decided to eat at the kids table - here he is with all of them but unfortunately you can't really see Chris and Will.

Katie is well-known in our family for drinking a LOT and loving soda. She kept asking for refills of her diet coke until finally the waiter brought her this:
Everyone thought it was really funny that I got to drive home with her after she drank this - and she did her very best to finish it off! Surprisingly we made it home without a bathroom stop, but there was a lot of energy in the car thanks to the excessive amounts of caffeine.