Kia's Little Family

Day 2- Sunday June 19th-Day 2 had a bit of a slow start because we were all a little tired from flying the day before. Plus, it was Sunday so a few members of our party had opted to take it easy and not go into the park until out dinner reservation at 4:45pm. Caleb and Cody chose to spend the whole day sleeping....I'll be honest, I was a tiny bit jealous! Well, around 10am Eric, Tiny, and I got up, got ready, and headed to Hollywood Studios with Ted and Marilyn.

I don't know if I've mentioned this but it was BALLS HOT! We were sweating from the second we stepped outside...there was really no hope for us. Anyway, so we got there and went straight for "Star Tours" to get fast passes. Star Tours had just re-opened a couple of weeks before, the redid it and made it all 3-D and awesome!

After that, we went and saw the Indiana Jones: Stunt Spectacular which is off the hizzy cool!

the Stunt Spectacular, Ted went back to the hotel to get Julie so she could be there for dinner. So Eric, Tiny, and I spend the rest of the afternoon with mom.

We waited in line FOREVER for the Narnia thing which was super lame! But we also went on the Great Movie Ride which was super nostalgic for mom and visually stimulating for Iz. Around 3 or 4 the family started showing up.

Caleb, Cody, and I wandered off and saw some storm troopers

and the rest of the family sat with Julie while she got a delicious snack from some cafe. (Also, Tiny practiced her pole dancing which was REALLY funny

..til she hit her head, then it was less funny but still cute).

Then we all headed to Hollywood and Vine for dinner!

It was a very yummy buffet style restaurant with lots of options (Good when traveling with a Tiny!). One of the reasons we decided to do dinner here is the have a Fantasmic and Dine package. This means if you make reservations at one of the selected restaurants during the required times you also get backdoor admission to Fantastic. We figured it was better to not wait in the huge line of people for Fantasmic and the food sounded really good, so it was win-win! After dinner, we headed straight for Fantasmic.

We got to walk up a ramp around the back and go in before everyone else did.

There was an amazing sunset as we were walking too!

We had decent seats even though we had to sit on the back row (because we had rented a scooter for mom...I don't think I had mentioned that...).

Anyway, Fantasmic was awesome and I was really impressed how well Tiny did. She LOVED the fireworks and wasn't scared at all! My tough little girl! After Fantasmic most everyone headed home. Eric, Tiny, Caleb, Cody and I stayed for a bit though. Cody and Caleb watched Tiny for us

while we rode Star Tours, Tower of Terror, and Aerosmith and also walked through the big Star Wars souvenir tent that was set up for the end of Star Wars Weekend.

Then we all headed home for sleep after an awesome first day in Hollywood Studios!!

Monday-Hollywood studios, lunch at Sci-Fi dine in, Disney Jr. onstage, baby care center, Eric sick, Tower of Terror, dinner at 50's Prime time, swimming, palm tree
Monday brought the first full day we all spent in the park together! It was awesome! Eric and I slept in with Tiny while everyone else headed to the park early. We met them at 11 for our lunch reservations at the Sci-Fi Dine-In. This restaurant was one of Eric's favorites from our honeymoon. The family wasn't crazy about it (I think because it was so dark and we couldn't all sit together) but it remains a favorite of mine! It is just what it sounds like, a restaurant made to look like an old drive-in that plays cheesy 50's Sci-Fi movies! Its awesome! The food is decent, not the best Disney has to offer but it's not Hot Dog's either. I had a yummy shrimp pasta dish that Izzy helped me eat and Eric had some sort of ridiculous burger. After lunch the group wanted to do the Backlot Tour. Eric wasn't feeling great so he stayed out with Izzy drinking water (he even bought a water bottle fan...did I mention it was hot???). Naturally I went because I love when the earthquake happens and all the water comes splashing down! The rest of the backlot tour is 'meh' but I really do like that part. After we got out of the Backlot Tour the family was headed for Lights, Motor, Action which I LOVE but Eric still wasn't feeling well and wanted to do something a little more calm so we took Tiny to Disney Jr. Onstage. It was actually pretty cute, Tiny wasn't as in to it as I would've liked but she had fun dancing along with the songs. I think a year or so from now she'd really enjoy it! (THIS IS VERY FUNNY TO READ NOW, A YEAR LATER! IT'S TRUE, IZZY WOULD BE CRAZY ABOUT THAT NOW!) After Disney Jr. Eric was actually dying, or he felt like he was anyway. We escaped to the Baby Care Center (My favorite Baby Care was this one in Hollywood Studios by the way) because Tiny was in need of a change but mostly because the Baby Care Centers are air conditioned! Sitting in the dark air conditioned room didn't help Eric so he decided he was going to go to the hotel and try to make it back in time for our dinner reservation. I was kind of freaking out about about taking care of Izzy in this crowded park but it would've been worse to have him there being miserable! Luckily the family was willing to help me out
Tuesday-Magic Kingdom, breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table, hanging with Caleb and Cody, why the mean grass, cody nap, Rainy, dinner at Ohana (bread pudding), Fireworks and awesome castle show (link), baby throws up.
Wednesday-Animal Kingdom, breakfast at Tusker House, waiting for Safari, rain, Nemo and Lion King, Jeff, Lunch at Yak and Yeti (coconut curry seafood deliciousness) where Caleb ruined Christmas, Everest, 5 times on River rapids, dinner at Boma (hot chocolate), SLEEP
Thursday-Blizzard beach, baby pool, pretzel dog, cool family slide, Caleb forgets, dinner at Narcoossee's AMAZING, Isabelle screams for boys
Friday-Epcot, Capt. EO, Imagination, lunch at Biergarten, Segway, Characters, Norway, dinner at Akershus, Mission: Space, rain rain rain
Saturday- Running around like mad people, check out, downtown disney, almost missing bus, running, airport, flight home not as good, finally home!

Considering that it has now been exactly a year since our trip to Disney World I figured I really should finish this and get it posted. It didn't help that I completely forgot I had a blog for about 7 months....But here it is at last. Better late than never right??

Successful trip to Disney World, in June, with an 8 month old....CHECK! It was a crazy whirlwind trip! I wish I would've taken more time to just sit and enjoy being there with my family. Nevertheless, it was a fantastic vacation!

Day 1- Saturday June 18th- It all began Saturday morning. We got up early, like butt crack of dawn early, to get to the airport by 7:30.

At this point, of course, I was wondering what in the world we were thinking going to Florida with a baby! But we pushed through and Tiny was fairly happy

and she fell asleep right as we were boarding. She slept through take-off, which was awesome.

She started getting a little wiggly about half way through our flight and the sweet stewardess came over and took her from me. She had her for almost an hour. She walked her up and down the aisles and showed her lots of things. She introduced her to her fiancé (who was the head steward) and Tiny was LOVED him. She reached out for him right away and they were the best of friends from then on. It was so adorable. For the most part, the flight went smoothly. Tiny fell asleep again right before landing so we had no ear popping issues on the first flight. We had a layover at the Cincinnati, Ohio airport.... that is in Kentucky!

Ha! I've never been to Kentucky so Caleb and I went and found a souvenir, a horse magnet, it's really neat. So after an hour we were back on the plane almost to Orlando! The second flight was short and sweet. Tiny had a little bit of trouble on take off but she was okay the rest of the time.

Poor little Amanda threw up (I blame the McDonald's she ate at the airport, not the actual flight) but we arrived, for the most part, without incident. But we were definitely all very tired. In the bottom corner of the Orlando International Airport (Which is by the way a beautiful airport. It was fountains and trees and even has a hotel attached to it!!! That's crazy business!) is Disney's Magical Express.

We went there and got on a bus to take us to our hotel, didn't have to pick up luggage or anything!

**Just had to mention that when we got off the bus Tiny kept trying to grab the air because it was so humid. Absolutely adorable!!**

I wish I would've had more time to spend at our resort, it was beautiful! We stayed in the "Jamaica" building

and our rooms were all done up in Nemo.

It was adorable! After we figured out where we were it was time for dinner so we headed to our resort food court.

We had the Disney Dining Plan, which might be the most amazing thing in the whole world...let me explain.

The Disney Dining Plan let's you pay for all of your food when you book your vacation, so it just gets added into the price of your room and park tickets. This means when you get there your food is already paid for so you can eat anywhere on the property (parks or resorts) and the only thing you ever have to worry about is a tip! We got the Deluxe Dining Plan, which meant that we had 3 full service meals and 2 snacks everyday. Needless to say, we didn't eat nearly that much food. Partially because we were busy and partially because we didn't realize just how much we had so we thought we needed to be frugal the first few days when we didn't need to be. ANYWAY, it's amazing and I would NEVER do Disney World with out it because one of my favorite parts of Disney is the FOOD!!!! So we ate our delicious dinner and then....sleep! *sigh*