Magical Day: Part 2

Right when Kye woke up we left to go back to the park. I was INSTANTLY thankful we decided to leave for nap. While the morning part of our day was a BLAST…Kye benefited from the rest. He was in SUCH a great mood. We all were. It was my first time EVER leaving the park for naps and returning later in the day. All the Disney tips I read SAY to do it but I’ve never actually tried it before. I always figured it’d be more of a hassle than it was worth. But it wasn’t much of a hassle AT ALL and it was so worth it. Especially with us having access to the park for over 12 hours that day, it just made sense to take advantage of nap time. I’m thankful we did and we will do it again in the future 😉

Back on the monorail!

Now that we have kids it’s so easy to forget to take pics of us together haha

Showing off his Mickey shirt!

SO EXCITED 🙂

When we left for naps we had finished all of the park except for Tomorrowland. We always do that area last so we headed there first. We also skipped the magic carpet ride in Adventureland. I TOTALLY regret not going back to let Kye ride that. We heard about how we didn’t go ride the Aladdin ride like 1,000 times. Very annoying. I tried to use it as an opportunity to teach Kye about contentment and how he needed to be thankful for the rides we DID get to ride and not the one we didn’t. He eventually forgot about it but I promise you next time we go he WILL remember!!!

While I’m still thankful we left for nap…the park was more crowded when we got back there around 4ish. I assumed that would happen due to both the Electrical Parade and Wishes show that evening. We had to wait in line for every ride, still under 20 min each ride but waiting in line is waiting in line and we’re not big fans of that 😉 We hit up Buzz Lightyear first! I think it’s the first time in a LONG time that we didn’t ride it twice but we just didn’t end up taking the time to do it again!

He wanted a car to himself so he could focus on his game 😉

Hardcore concentrating 😉

Telling Zurg that we beat him!!!

All throughout the day we kept passing cast members wearing pins. We have to get used to this whole pin trading thing…we kept forgetting about it or wouldn’t feel like stopping to get Kye out of the stroller to do any trading. We left our stroller parked at Buzz and just walked around Tomorrowland without it so it was a great opportunity to let Kye trade his first pin!!!!

It was awesome! He really enjoyed it!!! And I like the lesson of the trading…he has to give something away to someone else in order to get something in return. I know there are secret mickey pins and pins that are more valuable and pins that you want to find the matching sets of…but really, I just want Kye to HAVE FUN with it and enjoy the pins he gets. He picked out a Donald Duck pin and was so happy about it 🙂 Zach ended up eating UP all the pin info the lady told him and he thinks it’s such a cool thing. He said next time he wants to start a collection too. I’m telling you…slowly but surely I’m turning him into a big time Disney fan. He mentioned looking into Disney Vacation Club…he suggested going early for the opening show and he said that he wants to collect the pins. SCORE 🙂

Something I LOVE about Disney (I mean, what’s not to love?!?!) is how every single time you go, you experience something new. This time we experienced three rides we’d never done before. The barnstormer that morning and the race cars and astro orbiter that afternoon! Kye was tall enough to ride the race cars…I opted to not ride. I like that the boys get to do “guy stuff” together 🙂 When it comes time for Britt’s Princess experiences I’m sure Zach won’t mind me doing that stuff with her either haha. Disney really could SO EASILY revamp this ride to be CARS themed couldn’t they?!?! Zach and I kept saying how SIMPLE it would be to convert the cars into Cars characters. Zach said “But you know Disney…they would do it RIGHT and just probably redo the entire thing” 😉 

Kye was excited to get to do the driving!

Zach’s knees…I’m telling you there are disadvantages to being a GIANT!

Kye’s license to drive 🙂

Since Kye was disappointed over missing out on Aladdin…we told him we’d drive space ships instead. I have NEVER ridden the Astro Orbitor. I’m REALLY not a fan of heights. At all. And we didn’t even have a clue as to how to get up to the ride haha. We had to ask a cast member! We assumed it was a ride just like Dumbo or Aladdin and that the little rockets would just go around in a circle and come back down. Um. We were WRONG.

I had NO CLUE what I was in for…

Getting to drive a space ship!

First and LAST time on this ride for Mommy…

When we first went up I thought “oh how pretty. the castle!” then about two seconds later I wanted to vomit. It’s not just a simple, gentle up and down only ride. It was FAST. And you’re like tilted. OMG. Zach rode it too and was in a rocket ship across the way from us. I could HEAR him laughing SO LOUD at me. But seriously. I was trying to not puke all over Kye. It reminded me of the time I rode the Back to the Future ride at Universal (which is a joke…if you’re going to a theme park…go DISNEY!). I legit closed my eyes the ENTIRE time and just prayed “please be over please be over” the whole time. When we finally landed Zach had to help me get out and I had to go sit down for awhile. I have motion sickness and I was FEELING IT bad. I did not want it to affect our day and thankfully we were going to a non-moving show next! Zach felt bad for convincing me to ride it but he honestly had no clue that it would be that way. Lesson learned!!!

We hit up Monsters Inc Laugh Factory! It never gets old for us 🙂 Someday we WILL get chosen to be part of the show. Maybe we need to get a funky hat or something…it seems like the crazy dressed people always get picked 😉

While we were at the condo for naps I did a TON of “disney research” to find out where the best spots were to watch the electric parade and the fireworks show. Sometimes I forget who I’m married to. WAIT to watch a parade?!?! YEAH RIGHT. We ended up going to eat dinner and Zach said we’d just find a random spot to watch the parade b/c there was no way he was going to go sit somewhere for an hour just to see it pass by. We ate at a restaurant in Adventureland so we could ride Pirates one last time and watch the parade from that area as it is one of the best spots to see it. 

We practiced our pirate faces while Zach got the food

Mickey Milk!

Cheat Meal (and it def wasn’t worth it…)

When we exited Pirates we went ahead and stopped to look around the shop. I know. We NEVER stop to look at junk. We like RACE through the shops so Kye won’t see anything haha. But I wanted to let him pick out a pin for his lanyard as his souvenir for the trip. If you’re looking for an affordable Disney traditional souvenir the pin thing is IT. This pin was like $6 I think? Perfect! And much better than some junky toy!

Loving the pins!

After riding Pirates and getting Kye’s pin we went to wait for the parade in Frontierland at one of the spots I read about. We ended up leaving the spot for various reasons but the main one being that we happened to stand in an area where crowds would be allowed through during portions of the parade, blocking our view. AND that it was where the parade ended so that would mean we’d be waiting longer. Instead Zach insisted on finding us a prime seating spot on Main Street. 10 minutes before the start of the parade. I mean DUH that’s impossible right??? Well…not for my husband haha. He found Kye and I a spot right at the front. The lady beside me made a comment nice and loud how they had been waiting there since 6:00 (so 2 HOURS) and how other people just walk up right before the start of the parade…I was pretty embarrassed. Zach went and stood somewhere with the stroller. Luckily the guy next to us was nice and I ended up grabbing a bunch of kids and telling them to sit with us too. So their moms were happy with me haha.

Watching the electrical parade as it came down Main Street brought back so many memories for me. I whispered in Kye’s ear that when I was a little girl I sat just like he was sitting watching the very same parade. How cool is that?!?!? It gave me chills watching it. With all of Main Street completely dark the lights just shown and sparkled. And Kye was in awe. First up was Tinkerbelle and he was SO excited. The parade, being so old, is all the “old school” characters which was perfect for us. Kye’s been watching Peter Pan and Pinocchio a lot lately and he was thrilled to see his favorites!!!

Captain Hook on his Pirate Ship

Pinocchio

This dragon was a cool float but who the heck is the kid riding him??? He was saying all kinds of stuff and laughing a lot and we couldn’t really understand him but we both were clueless as to who he is??? I vaguely feel like there was a movie called “Pete’s Dragon”??? Yup…just did a little googling…that’s who it must have been. I guess I need to rent that junk b/c I do not remember it AT ALL???

Final Float!

Right when the parade ended Zach found us and we went into a nearby souvenir shop to find a prize for Brittlynn while we waited for the fireworks show to start. We got her a little toy Mickey that she could chew on and found us an ornament for our Christmas tree. I think that’s all we bought? I feel like there was something else but I can’t remember what it was? Zach checked out and I kept Kye busy. We went and tried on hats 🙂 When remembering this day, THIS is the moment that stands out the most in my mind. You can do all the planning in the world, but you can’t plan which moment will be THE magical one for your Disney trip. Our first trip it was when Kye met Woody and Jesse. Our second one was when I saw Kye, in the pouring rain, smiling and laughing and catching the raindrops on his tongue in front of the castle. And Kye’s third trip? It was trying on Mouse Ears together and laughing at each other then being sneaky and hiding so we could jump out at Zach the minute he came looking for us. It was my magical moment 🙂

The Wishes show started at 9:00. Yes, 9:00. Am I a cool mom or whhhhat??? Even better? We totally let him have a cookie while we waited. Haha. We decided just to join the masses and stand in the center of Main Street to watch the show. FOR SURE not the recommended area. But we didn’t want to take a million years to try to leave when it was over so we just stood there and waited 🙂

Zach said it was his least favorite part of the day because it was SO
CROWDED. But we were standing in the middle of Main Street, facing the
castle, at the very end of the day…so what else could we expect
right??? I was excited for Kye to see Tinkerbell fly. Another one of
those wonderful, magical, Disney moments I remember from my own
childhood. We heard the music. We saw her fly. Then it began to POUR
DOWN RAIN. Like legit right after she flew haha. We heard the fireworks
going off as we ran for shelter. We raced back into the store from earlier and pulled out our rain gear (see my tips for more on that!). We got rain geared up then braved the weather to get back to the monorail. It was an insane amount of rain. Thankfully it waited until it was almost time to go huh??? Kye was a CHAMP through it though!!!

Waiting for the monorail 🙂

After surviving an ENTIRE day at Disney in the rain, this was nothing for us. But we did a learn a lesson from our last trip and invested in RAIN SUITS. They are heavy duty and very awesome. Only downside??? Mine was to my ankles. So I need to buy another one in a kids size or something for next trip because if I did have to walk around in this thing all day I would be in TROUBLE!

We got back to the condo and got Kye in the bed…he was asleep at 10:30. FOR SURE the latest he’s ever stayed up but it was totally, 100%, completely worth it!!! We were hoping he’d sleep in the next morning. But nope. Woke up at 7 right on the dot haha. Zach was super sweet and let me go back to bed after pumping…I slept for 5 hours STRAIGHT. And that’s right after waking up from a nights sleep. CRAZY!!! It was super sweet and thoughtful of him but I was pretty upset b/c he took Kye to the water playground without me and I had been looking forward to spending more quality time together before we left. I know a lot of people value sleeping and would be jealous of me getting to sleep like that, but in the long run I’d much rather be making priceless memories than sleeping ya know??? I know Zach was just being thoughtful though and obviously I needed the rest because I didn’t even hear them leave or anything. Haha. 

We packed up while Kye napped then headed home right when he woke up! Mrs. Charlotte was so sweet to come to our house with Brittlynn so we didn’t have to drive the extra 25 min to her house to pick her up. I was SO EXCITED to get my hands on my baby!!! It was a WONDERFUL trip with Kye, but I missed her so much. Even though I knew logistically it wouldn’t have made sense to have her with us at the park (like, it would have been a nightmare…) I still found myself wishing she was there. I remember visiting the park after we had Kye but before he was old enough to go with us and I’d constantly be thinking of him and what he’d enjoy and how excited I was for him to experience it all. It was the same way this time. I kept thinking of my sweet girl and how much fun we’ll have on her first visit. I cannot WAIT!!!! 

I’ve been having a rough time personally and this trip couldn’t have been better timing. It was my FAVORITE day of 2012. FOR REAL. It was a PERFECT Disney Day!!!!!!! More than that, it was just an overall perfect day 😉 Just remembering it brings me so much joy.  I truly am one of those people who could visit Disney every single day and never grow tired of it. I think the older I get, the MORE I love it. Being a grownup is hard. You have to make a lot of tough decisions and there’s a lot of worrying, responsibilities and stresses in life. But when you step foot off that monorail (or ferry!) it all COMPLETELY washes away. Seriously. Some people drink, do drugs, pig out on food, spend money like crazy, or other things to cope when facing struggles. For me? I’d prefer a trip to Disney 😉 For that day I was 100% totally and completely happy. It IS the happiest place on Earth!!! When we can we go back?????? 🙂

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Emily Parker

Hey Y'all, I'm Emily! I'm a stay at home mom and consider parenting to be my passion. Disney is my happiest place and I love making memories as a family together. I'm a big believer in transparency and share all of my real-life moments as a mother of four.

My work has been featured on Love What Matters, Today Parenting and Babywise.Life. I'm also honored to be a member of the Babywise Friendly Blog Network.

You can read more about our family on my About Me page. Also be sure to follow along with me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest!

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