We woke up early Thursday morning to catch the characters ride in on the train and open up the park. Too bad we didn't realize that Magic Kingdom opened early on Thursdays and we totally missed it. Rather than staying bummed, we took advantage of being at the park early!
Good morning, Castle!
Poppy and Nonnie outside of the rose garden
We all road Buzz Lightyear and here's a shot of Brad and Ethan riding the game. Serious concentration from both boys
First character sighting, Stitch
Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!
Our next stop was Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary Hotel. We had so much fun hanging out with the characters and eating a delicious breakfast buffet.
Ethan's favorite was the Mickey waffles
So sweet!
It was time to celebrate another guest's birthday, so everyone danced around, waving napkins. Kinley loved the dancing, but Pluto got a little too close in this picture. Thank goodness Poppy was close by to keep her safe.
Back to the Magic Kingdom!
We got there just in time for a parade! Haha, we love those things! Hi, Baloo!
And, we got to meet Ariel and Prince Eric! Since The Little Mermaid is my favorite Disney movie, I couldn't help but join in on the fun :)
Precious!!!
And Ariel gave Ethan a kiss on the cheek. I thought it was adorable; he was embarassed.
Another flight with Dumbo
After the Goofy rollercoaster, Dumbo, a trip around the park on the train, the speedway, and a snack in there too, it was time for dinner. We packed sandwiches since we knew our brunch with Mickey and his gang would be a great, big meal for the day. Mom read up and found out there was a show happening at dinnertime. It was perfect!
Lots of magic
This next group of pictures is the best. I love how happy we all were and it was great not to ask Ethan to smile for pictures the entire trip. Kinley said "Cheese" all the time and thought picture time was the best.
Photographer Ethan wanted us to be silly
My favorite picture, hands down. You can see how genuinely happy Ethan was and Kinley Rae showing off her darling Minnie shoes that Nonnie knew she needed for our trip.
Ethan requested another silly pose
Our last ride on It's A Small World. We looked for hidden Mickeys and found all three.
Thursday night we ended up splitting up because:
a. We had been up super early to catch the characters come in (oops)
b. Kinley was DONE
c. Ethan had a meltdown that he had to see the electrical light's parade again, for the third time
d. Brad and I weren't really ready to leave the Magic Kingdom either
So, awesome Nonnie and Poppy took Kinley Rae back and Ethan, Brad, and I hung out for another couple of hours.
Can you tell how excited he was?! I know, you can't see his eyes or his beautiful smile, but you can still tell
Leaving the park, so sweet
So, we tried the character opening again and made it! Nonnie stayed back and let Kinley Rae sleep in. Sidenote: When we planned the trip, we were only going to go to the parks for four days due to cost of the tickets and we wanted to give our kids days to rest in between. Can you tell how well that worked out? Yep, we spent 6 days at parks (if you include the first night we got there and spent about 3 hours at Magic) and only one day off. We found a great deal on Park Hopper tickets and couldn't get enough of Mickey or those smiles our kids kept showing us.
Because Disney recently bought Marvel, they wrapped one of the monorails in the Avengers crew. Ethan LOVED it.
Mornin' Pal!
Our last monorail trip was to Epcot and look which train we got!
Super cute area at Epcot with Nemo stuff - we hung out there for a few hours
lunch at the aquarium - great view of sea turtles, sharks, etc.
Photographer Ethan! I love this picture, just wish E was in it
Every time we let Ethan take pictures, he loves it. But, we have pictures of us getting posed and standing up, too. Not showing those!
Epcot had the Flower and Garden Festival going on while we were there; it was beautiful!
Taking a break and letting the kids play! Both needed some unstructured time.
The monorail goes through Epcot, pretty cool
Hidden Mickeys!
And we had to tell everyone Bye! Here we are with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, Goofy, and Chip-N-Dale. Ethan got an awesome souvenir out of the whole thing!
M-I-C-----See ya real soon!
K-E-Y-----Why? Because we love you!
M-O-U-S-E!
