Day 5: Magic Kingdom

We kept the streak alive arriving at the Magic Kingdom for rope drop. Since we have 2 days planned for Magic Kingdom our first day we planned for Fantasyland and Frontierland. We started in Fantasyland with Peter Pan as the lines get long quickly. The girls could have stayed and played with Tinkerbelle all day...the queue line for this ride is awesome!

The sass was strong on MK day.

We hit up It's a Small World, Pooh's Honey Pots, the Mad Hatter and some of the other smaller rides with no waits and then headed over to Big Thunder Mtn for our FP. It's a favorite. We then had lunch at Pecos Bills. If you’re not on a meal plan and you’re looking for quick, cheap (for Disney), yummy food in the park…look no further than this place. Major bonus, it’s air-conditioned, has lots of seating and offers more than just mac n cheese and chicken nuggets for kids. The girls loved their nachos with their own fixins bar.

After lunch we headed back to Fantasy Land for the rest of our fast passes. We had never ridden the 7 Dwarves Mine Train so we were excited to ride that one. The wait was at 75 minutes by the time we arrived for our fast passes so we were glad to be able to walk right on. It was a bit of a disappointment. After Big Thunder, it was far smaller and less of a thrill. There is no doubt our girls love amusement parks for the thrill rides and though everything at MK is fun, the girls are past the magic of princesses and are looking for the excitement of the big rides. I think we were under the impression with the long wait lines that it would be similar to Big Thunder, but it fell short.

We finished out our afternoon in Fantasyland since Splash Mtn was all we had left and the wait was over 80 minutes. We were able to ride all the rides in Fantasyland, Adventureland and Frontierland  multiple times with the exception of Splash mountain. 

Poncho or princess dress? She's got her curtsy down!

We had to battle a few afternoon showers, but that didn't slow us down. We threw on our ponchos and continued our adventures! We even got to ride the Tomorrowland Speedway in the rain...it was so much fun! We finished out the rest of the rain in Ariel's Grotto and Belle's house until the showers broke up and took the heat of the day with them. It was a relief as we were at MK on a hot one! 

Enchanted tales with Belle. 

We grabbed some dinner at Pinoccios (a fantastic, air-conditioned spot to rest and eat some delicious flat bread) and then jumped over to Adventureland to ride the Jungle Cruise in the dark. We then headed back toward the Castle to watch Tinkerbelle fly (so cool) and see the lighting of the castle and fireworks. Though the park stayed open until 1am, we decided 10:30 was good for us, no shutting down MK this time. By the time we caught the bus, showered, and goofed around it was still after midnight before heads hit the pillows.

You can't visit MK without visiting Mickey!

I love magic photos! Welcome to the family, Tinkerbelle!

Day 4: Hollywood Studios

There were no early magic hours at Hollywood Studios, so we enjoyed an extra hour of sleep and then caught the bus to HS. We were once again there for rope drop!

Ready for a full day of fun in HS!

We started our day at Toy Story Mania before the crowd arrived. With no fast passes and usual long waits, we wanted to make sure we got a chance to ride before things got crazy. We walked right on and stayed ahead of the crowds most of the day. 

There are new Sheriffs in town...

We missed the opening of Toy Story Land by a few weeks so we were bummed that it hadn't yet opened, but it looks super cool in there! The girls want to go back sometime and ride the Slinky Dog..it looked pretty cool! Of course, since we were in Pixar Village we had to stop off and see our friends Buzz and Woody.

The girls don't get too excited about characters anymore, but Norah was still a fan of Woody!

Afterward, we headed to the most talked about ride leading up to vacation: Tower of Terror! Norah was so brave riding it multiple times! There were so many adults shrieking in fear that I think she felt like pretty hot stuff walking around telling people that she rode it. 

5 thumbs up for ToT! We all survived the infamous Hollywood Hotel. 

From there it was off to Star Wars. There are some super SW fans out there, but I'm just not one of them. We checked out the Storm Troopers, watched Jedi Training, rode Star Tours (hello, motion sickness), but the girls just wanted to get back to the rides. So, glad we experienced it all, this "highlight" for most people at HS, just doesn't get our family too excited. 

That doesn't stop us from eating Darth Vader waffles though! :)

 After lunch at Backlot we headed over to ride Rockin Rollercoaster. We had fast passes coming up so we rode it once without passes and then got off and got right back on again with our FP. Our thrill seekers could have ridden this all afternoon!  

Yep, Emma is getting ready to smash her guitar in the pic!

Afterwards, we hit up some shows to stay out of the heat (Indiana Jones stunt show, Little Mermaid, etc) and then headed back out to re-ride a few more things. We once again were able to hit up everything in the park, with the exception of Beauty and the Beast which we didn’t much care for last time we were there, so we had a little dinner at ABC (super disappointing) and then headed over to Fantasmic! We grabbed a fast pass for the show so it was nice to show up last minute, not fight the crowds and still have awesome seats. This is one of my favorite night time fireworks shows in all the parks and a definite must if you’ve never seen it before. After the show then we caught the bus back to our hotel and called it a night. 

Mickey and his magic!

Day 3 – Animal Kingdom

We woke up and grabbed a quick bite of continental breakfast at our hotel (Quality Inn and Suites on Turkey, I couldn't recommend them more highly) and then took off early so that we could arrive at our Disney resort early enough to check in, park and catch the bus to Animal Kingdom. We got all checked in (Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort: Aruba) and hit the bus stop. We sunscreened, grabbed our daybag and strapped on our magic bands transitioning us over to Disney Time!

Magic bands ready!

We arrived at Animal Kingdom in time for rope drop and headed to Pandora. Even with the early magic hours Flight of Passage was a crazy long wait. Mark and the littles headed over to ride Navi River while Grace and I waited in line. By the time they got out we met back up and were ready to ride. It was definitely worth the wait as it was one of our favorite rides. By the time we got out off, the wait had soared to 210 minutes! It’s a great ride…but that is just crazy!

Pandora was awesome!

We left Pandora and headed counter-clockwise around the park to cash in on our fast passes. Norah was super excited about riding Expedition Everest so we rode that one a few times, hit lunch at Yak N Yeti and then cooled off at UP! Bird Adventure. Though outside, it was shady and breezy so it was nice to escape the heat a bit as it was HOT on Monday.

She might look scared before Expedition Everest, but this girl is BRAVE!

We then headed for our Safari. This is one of my favorites at Animal Kingdom and the girls were amazed at all of the animals roaming around “free.” It is pretty cool to see so many animals not contained and the use of natural barriers to keep the animals safe. Our driver was hilarious and though the lions were escaping the mid-day heat, we got to see tons of our other favorite animals munching and playing. 

Tons of animals, living and prehistoric!

After the Safari we watched the African dancers and the girls were invited up to participate in the Harambe Wildlife Parti! They had fun learning some African dance moves and were in awe of the dancers and their crazy climbing and balancing skills! 

All 3 girls on the left side learning the moves.

Mid-afternoon we knew we would be hot again so we planned a cool down at the Lion King show. It was just as magical as I had remembered it (a must if you’ve never been to AK). It gave us a chance to rest our feet a bit, cool down and rejuvenate for more thrills.

Of course, when it's hot a little frozen lemonade is a must!

By dinner time we had ridden everything, most things 2-3 times, so we headed back to Pandora where we started our day to ride one last time and take a final photo in front of the Tree of Life before we bid farewell to Animal Kingdom for the day. We figured we would catch the bus back to our resort and get settled in since our room was ready and then come back to AK at night for the Rivers of Light show.

We settled into our room and the girls' curiosity got the best of them so we explored our resort and took a dip in the pool. Since our resort was so close to AK we decided to watch the “River of light” fireworks show from the pool instead of heading back to the park to watch. The fireworks were incredible and we didn’t have to catch the bus or be among all the people. It was an awesome night.

After seeing the fireworks from AK we also got a glimpse of the Fireworks at Epcot (maybe?).

Day 2 - Orlando

The alarm was set for 4:30am to get on the road to Orlando. Erica hooked us up with Donut Country [best donuts in town] for breakfast before we took off… seriously though …isn’t she the sweetest?! We said our goodbyes and got on the road early so the girls would sleep the first few hours of the trip. Tennessee has some beautiful country and by the time the girls woke up we were in Georgia. We read some books, did a few crosswords and before we knew it, it was lunchtime. 

Emma knows more about Georgia than I thought!

We breezed through Atlanta...no traffic! I've NEVER seen it like this before, it's usually bumper to bumper!

Lunch in the car is the way to go! We always pack a cooler of “supplies” and the girls love having “four-course meals” on our road-trips. We start with the entrée, then fruit, veggie, and end with a dessert. It draws out the meal so time goes faster in the car, plus we save a lot of time and money by not having to stop for lunch. It’s a win for everyone! 

Check out those dance moves! They have no problem getting their groove on...thank goodness the seat belts hold them back!

After lunch we played a few games, knocked out a ton of plates in license plate bingo, had a few dance parties, and cruised our way into Florida. We pulled into our hotel about 4:30, made a quick grocery/gas run to replenish supplies and headed to the pools. Our hotel is ah-mazing and we spent the night having cannonball competitions, relaxing and hot tubbing under the palm trees. The pictures speak for themselves...

Road trip 2018

Road trip 2018 is underway!! This year we are headed to Florida! We woke up this morning and got on the road by 5:30 to get a jump on our day. The girls slept the first few hours as the miles disappeared under our tires. We had rainy skies which set the tone for a sleepy, lazy drive to Nashville. The morning was pretty quiet as we read books, did math packets (I know, homework on vacay – but it keeps them busy), and played a little car karaoke. J

Is this what your car looks like when you go on vacation?

Of course no trip south is complete without a stop in Metropolis to visit Superman. It was a great spot to stretch our legs, use the restroom and have a little fun. The girls practiced their flying and then we took our superpowers back on the road to continue to FL.

Then we hit Gilbertville and sat. And sat some more. We were stuck in traffic for nearly an hour when we saw fire trucks squeeze through and shut down I-24. Lucky for us, we had an exit ahead so we were rerouted around and about 30 minutes later we were back on i-24 and heading on our way. Not so lucky for anyone who was stuck after the exit as when we rejoined i-24 there was not.a.single.car. The interstate was still closed and they had not reopened to let a single person through. Yikes.

It was smooth sailing from there and we arrived in Nashville just in time to make Mass at the Cathedral of the Incarnation. This place was beautiful and, lucky for us, they asked if we would like to take up the gifts. It was a cool experience being in such a beautiful church and getting to participate as if it were our own parish. 

After Mass we met up with the Kearns! They relocated to Nashville in January and we haven’t seen them since, so it was great to catch up, see where they live and experience a snapshot of their new life in Nashville. Erica is always a phenomenal hostess and this time was no different. We met up in a cute, trendy little neighborhood in East Nashville for pizza at Five Points, supposedly the best pizza in Nashville! While we were waiting for a table we jumped across the street to Bongo’s café and game room for a few drinks while the girls played board games and we caught up. This place was so cute and a great place to hang out while we waited for a table. Then it was back to Five Points for dinner!

Five Points was amazing! With seating for about 40 it’s no wonder there is always a wait and a line out the door, but it is SO worth it. They started off by giving all of the kids a little pizza dough to play with and the girls (and Whitten J) had fun making sculptures, spelling out words and stretching their dough.  It was the perfect way to keep them occupied having sat in the car for 9 hours, followed by sitting through church and then a restaurant! Before we knew it, our pizza was on the table and it was NO LIE some of the best pizza I’ve ever had. Which apparently is a big compliment as Josh assured us that the pizza in Nashville is no good.

After dinner, we walked around the corner to the Pied Pieper. A cute little ice cream shop in a little bungalow. The city was alive with music and there were no bugs and it just seemed like a magical slice of Heaven in Nashville. We ate our ice cream and headed to the Kearns house to call it a night. They live in a gorgeous house in Murfreesboro and were such gracious hosts. The 4 girls had a sleepover together in the bonus room and we could hear their giggles and laughter down in the kitchen as they settled in. It was the perfect little trip to Nashville and it was so amazing to get to see Erica and her family again. You can tell the girls didn't have any fun at all! :) 

Niabi Zoo

The Niabi Zoo in Coal Valley, IL is the best little zoo if you are looking for an easy peasy afternoon with littles. It is relatively inexpensive, provides lots of shade, and can easily be tackled in a few hours. The girls and I were headed to visit my sister in Davenport, so we had to check out the zoo before she got off work. 

The gibbons were a favorite. These friendly little dudes kept photobombing us which, of course, the girls thought was hilarious. 

Emma loves signs. She has to read each one of them. This explains why it takes so long for us to get through any museum! She's a sponge!

Norah was a serious snake charmer on Thursday. This snake followed her every move...it was super creepy. 

The petting zoo is always a hit!

Obligatory photo on a hippo as we have this same photo from when Norah was a babe. 

Goofy monkeys.

Mt Vernon pool

We found a new hidden gem in the area. Since area pools haven’t opened yet since not all schools are out we had to search to find a fun place to cool down. We picked up Grace’s friend Gabby and headed to Mt. Vernon to meet up with some of Emma’s friends. The Mt. Vernon pool is AWESOME! Perk #1: none of my students were there…not even as lifeguards. Perk #2: slides, diving boards, zero entry...this pool has it all! Perk 3: homemade concession stand signs. This pool is all small-town cuteness. The people were friendly, the price was right and Emma got to catch up with her friend that moved from St. Matt’s to Mt Vernon a few years ago. It was a great group to spend the day with as everyone was so kind to include Norah since she didn’t have any one her age there and I got to catch up with some dear mama friends.