You can see Part 1 of our day at Magic Kingdom here! When we got done riding the choo choo it was perfect timing. We got off and ran into the crew that had rode Splash Mountain. They had gotten done a couple minutes before us and happened to check the spot where we saw Woody and Jesse on our last trip to the park. Woody and Jesse were actually THERE! We assumed with the bad weather that we wouldn’t get the opportunity to see any characters. Not only were they there but there was practically no line (a wonderful theme for our day!).
Waiting his turn
Showing them his Woody shirt
He was pumped for another Jesse kiss…
LOVE!
Haha Jesse wanted to give him a kiss on his hand
Payton’s turn. She’s so precious how she gets shy with the characters, it’s adorable
Colt wanted G-Mama to go with him
The kids with their favorites!
Jordan’s poncho hahahah
Trey and Jolee
After our meet and greet we headed over to Adventure Land. Time for Pirates!!! It’s still Kye’s favorite ride and I wish we would have been able to ride it more than once. But by the time we finished the park later that afternoon the weather was worse so no one (me most of all) wanted to trek across the park to go back to one ride. We plan to ride it multiple times when the three of us go back in September!
Had to have a pirate face picture!
He rode with Big Papa since he wasn’t with us to ride it last year
Time for the Jungle Cruise!
The Jungle Cruise made me a little sad. The ENTIRE ride Kye kept pointing at all the animals and said “is that real?” Like over and over again. I liked that he thought they were real last time! It’s crazy how fast he is growing up and how quickly kids catch on to things like that. I didn’t want to lie to him so, of course, I told him that, no, they were not real. He’s too young to get the fun of the ride (b/c DUH the best part is the sarcastic captains!) and now too old to believe the animals are legit. We’ll for sure ride it again, because it’s a Disney CLASSIC, but it won’t probably be a favorite for a couple more years.
Action shots on the ride
After Jungle Cruise the rain was BAD. We raced over to Tiki Room and took a much needed break from the weather (you still get wet on Jungle Cruise even though it’s covered). We dried out and ate some snacks. Mr. Rusty took a little nap during the Tiki Room show. Kye enjoyed it more this time! Which made me happy as I’m alllll about the Disney original stuff. I love that they changed the show back to the original one too!
Following the Tiki Room a bunch of us rode the Magic Carpets but I passed. I instead hit up the bathroom 🙂 The one thing I really wanted to do during the day was catch the opening show…the one thing Zach really wanted to do was to get another Orange Float like we had last time. You can only get them at one spot in Adventureland so we wanted to make sure to have them! Stupidly we had Mr. Rusty and Trey, I think, go buy them for everyone…when DUH Zach or I should have been the ones to go. When they came back they had some strange orange ice cream and it was not very good. Kye had his only real upset moment of the day…I didn’t know that Colt and Payton were each getting their own ice cream so I figured Kye would just share ours. He was upset not to have his own. Thankfully, I didn’t like that junk so I just gave him mine. Problem solved. Happiness restored 🙂 I’m a firm believer in making Disney a HAPPY experience and try to avoid disciplining at the park when possible!!! We’ve seen plenty of kids have what we call “Disney Meltdowns” and we’d rather not experience that ourselves!
Zach went back to get himself the legit orange float and it was good!!!
While the whole float debacle was going down Courtney, Mrs Charlotte and Payton ran down to where we were told we would possibly be able to meet Ariel. Mrs. Charlotte came back and told us that they were stopping letting people get in the line and wouldn’t reopen it until 3:45. Luckily the lady said she’d let Payton be the last child in the line. Great for Payton…but what about the other kids? I knew Kye would want to meet Ariel too. And you all KNOW my husband will not stand in a princess line for his son so this was a great opportunity for me to see my favorite princess and to let Kye meet her too. I kinda insisted on figuring out a way for us to join in the line and when we got there the girl had no issue with all of us getting in line to meet Ariel! It was about a 45 minute wait. By far the longest we had all day. The girls all stood in line together and the boys all went in a nearby stroller station, that was covered, and enjoyed their ice cream treats and played while we waited.
It’s always neat when you experience “teachable moments” and we had one while in line. Kye was with me and he wanted to play with the ropes that kept the line organized. I told him no and that it was a bad choice. He noticed another girl up ahead of us who kept playing on them and pointed it out to me. I explained to him how sometimes people make bad choices but that we can be good examples by still doing the right thing in those situations. He was super pumped about being the good example and it made me proud that he understood that concept!
I LOVE the Disney Princesses (I INSISTED on meeting them all when we went to Disney for my 25th birthday…remember?). They are so sweet and always stay in character. Payton got SUPER shy when it was her turn and Ariel handled it so well. Mrs. Charlotte held Payton and Ariel came to her. Payton’s dress had Ariel on it so they started talking about that then Ariel said “You have legs!!! I just got legs, can you show me how they work?” So perfect! It worked like a charm 🙂
I prefer the mermaid version of Ariel but she was SO nice that she made up for lacking a fin 😉
Kye is typically Mr. Outgoing. We have to be careful as he’ll talk to anyone and even will want to go up to people’s tables to talk to them when we go out to eat. He’s never had issues with characters or been afraid or anything. I’m not sure if it was because Ariel is such a beautiful princess or because Payton had been so shy around her, but Kye was so shy! He hid behind me…it was pretty adorable…
We actually talked about it later and explained to Kye that he doesn’t need to be afraid of pretty girls…that those are the best kind to talk to haha
He would NOT go near her!
It’s funny b/c Prince Erik was there too…but we politely asked him to step out of all of our pictures…the kids only wanted Ariel!
She chased him even…too funny
Love this 🙂
Of course the guys all wanted pics with a Disney Princess!
It was AWESOME being the last in line because we could take as long as we wanted, poor Ariel was probably ready for her break!
Watch out Erik!
ALL Disney moments are wonderful and magical and special. However, I think there is always that one moment from any trip to Disney that just MAKES IT. That moment that you always smile when you think about and that you’ll never forget. Our last trip that moment, for me, was when Kye met Jesse and Woody. Seeing his proud smile and excitement melted my heart and brought tears to my eyes. It was my Disney Moment. This time it was something very random. After Ariel we headed to Tomorrowland. Zach is a get-where-I’m-going type person so we would get way ahead of everyone else and have to stop and wait a lot. The rain was so bad it was coming sideways. Kye really, really does not like rain. We stopped near the castle to wait on everyone and I went to check on Kye…I expected him to be upset with the weather. To be miserable. Grumpy. Most likely needing a pep-talk from me or a reminder of what rides we were going to be riding. Nope. My child was sitting there with his mouth wide opened attempting to catch the rain. It was just SO cute to me and made me so happy to see him having SO much fun!!! Being soaked to the bone didn’t bother him one bit. 🙂
Our lone Castle Pic from the day which is SAD to me because I LOVE pictures in front of the castle. I hate that Courtney’s fam didn’t get to have any and, really, that we didn’t either. It’s something I think is important to do on EVERY trip to Disney, don’t you? The rain was just too bad to stop and I snapped this one literally on the go!
Buzz being an obvious favorite we decided to ride it first then ride Monsters Inc then Buzz again. We only had a few minute wait but took advantage of the time to DRY OFF. We pulled out the towels and tried our best to at least dry out the kids. Kye had just finished up his strep antibiotics three days prior. I didn’t want him to get sick again!!! (Sidenote: I actually ended up having strep a couple days later! Boo!).
Wet but happy!
Zach takes Buzz pretty seriously so I rode with Kye both times. He LOVED it. Even more than last time because he’s a little older and understood more what was going on. It was so fun to watch!!!
Courtney and Payton
Our scores…
Next we went over to Monsters Inc Laugh Factory. Another great opportunity to dry out a little. And it’s SO fun. I love how funny it all is and it’s so neat how they incorporate the audience. Everyone enjoyed it and we headed back for our last ride of the day…one more round of Buzz Lightyear!
Our final scores!
Kye told me to take a picture of “Buzz’s Daddy”
When we all exited the ride we saw Brad just bolt. It was funny but he saw Buzz and was on a mission for us to get to meet him. How lucky did we get with all the character meetings?!?! It could NOT have worked out better!!! Literally we had 2 people in front of us in the line!!!
Waving at Buzz
This Buzz was SO much nicer than the one last time.
Kye told him “I helped you beat Zurg!!!!” He was pumped!
Colt told him the same thing haha
While we waited on everyone at the stroller station Kye and Zach did a rain dance
Trey wanted a castle pic…this is the best we could do!
We did it ALL and battled the weather and still finished up before 4:00!
It was SUCH a successful day at the park!!! I had a GREAT time but I did miss Brittlynn. It was silly because it doesn’t make sense for her to be there, and I knew that. Especially with the rain. Can you imagine dealing with a little baby in that kind of situation?!?! Mema LOVED keeping her at the condo and she was an angel all day. But still. I had a wonderful day but just felt like a little piece of me was missing and that my fun wasn’t complete. Ya know? I was SO happy to see her when we got back!
We were all starving so we drove through to get early dinner on our way back to the condo. We got Taco Bell and Wendy’s (Casey and Jordan rode with us). I’m not sure where everyone else stopped but we all just grubbed out when we got there. We gave the kids a bath to help them warm up and put on their pjs early to curl up and watch The Little Mermaid.
We fed Britt dinner then just enjoyed hanging out. Brittlynn was being SO SWEET and funny, she was cracking us all up. Colt and Kye are attached at the hip but poor Payton gets left out a lot. It’s SO precious to watch her with Brittlynn. She’s so excited to have a girl cousin and I think they’ll be very close as Britt gets older. Payton adores her and is constantly giving her affection. She didn’t care about the movie one bit because she had her cousin to play with!
G-Mama had gotten each grand baby a prize for the trip…we lined ’em up and told them to close their eyes
Kye thinks if his hands are near his eyes then they are closed 😉
Brittlynn got her first Minnie Mouse!!!
The boys each got a Goofy and Payton got Dumbo
Cousins and their Disney prizes!
My babies
I LOVE this. You can tell she loves her G-Mama!
We all stayed and put the kids to bed then the “big kids” (not sure how we still fit into this category?!?!) headed back to the park. It was Courtney, Brad, Jordan, Casey, Trey, Jolee, Zach and I. Truth be told Zach and myself were BEAT. He was just getting over strep like Kye was and I was just starting to feel sick. We’d been in the rain ALL day. We’re also kinda old and lame. We refused to be uncool though and wanted to prove we could still hang so we headed back out into even worse weather. Like it looked like a hurricane. The street lamps were blowing in the wind even! We made a stop on the way to invest in new ponchos for those who had theirs ruined that day then headed back to MK!
I do NOT ride “adult” rides. No roller coasters. Nothing scary. None of the mountains. Thunder Mountain was closed due to the weather…but we hit up Space Mountain first. I stayed in line with everyone then just held all of their ponchos and stuff while they rode. I think they did it three times in a row? When they went to ride Splash Mountain I did a little shopping. I got Brittlynn a birthday present. When they rode it again I decided to check into starting Kye on a Disney Pin collection. I walked down a bit to the best shop at the park for pins (The Trading Post in Adventureland…near Country Bear Jamboree) and learned a LOT about the world of pin trading. I bought him a lanyard, 1 pin to keep and they gave me a starter pin for him to trade when we come back in September. I thought it’d be a fun souvenir to buy each time we go to the park, don’t you? And I LOVE the trading idea! I want to buy him some from Ebay to take with us to trade but I’m a little nervous to make sure I get authentic ones…anyone have any pin tips???
At 10:00 the fireworks went off so we watched them from the store by Splash Mountain (Briar Patch). Courtney and I stayed back while everyone else rode it one more time then we headed to Main Street to GRUB OUT. I told them all I didn’t care how many times they rode the rides as long as we had enough time for me to get a snack 🙂 We rarely buy park food and I thought it’d be fun!
Biggest Cinnamon Roll EVER
Yummmmy chocolate cake and ice cream
Trey got the cinnamon roll, cake and cookies…
Ready to chow down!
When we all planned the trip we decided to do Chef Mickey, Magic Kingdom and those that wanted to stay Monday would also go to Hollywood Studios. We are trying to be smart with our finances and it’s been a tough year financially in a lot of ways so we told everyone in advance that we would not be going to Hollywood Studios with them on Monday. We didn’t think it was smart to spend money on the tickets. We also thought it was best for Zach to get home and get to work that day. It worked out well that we didn’t plan on going since we had Brittlynn with us! That would have been tricky to work out!!! Everyone else checked out of the hotel, did Hollywood Studios then drove straight home. We just didn’t see Kye skipping a nap two days in a row, being that wet for that long (it poured almost the entire time they were at DHS too!), then driving home as being something that we’d really enjoy, especially when it’s over $90 a ticket!!!
I got up super early that morning and happened to see a text from Robyn that she was in labor! I wanted to leave RIGHT THEN but instead I just hurried. I was hoping to make it home before she had the baby but I didn’t. He was born right about the time we were hitting the road. It all worked out as no one waited at the hospital anyway so I didn’t miss too much. It was another reason I was glad we went ahead and came home…I wanted to see that baby!!!
Kye and Brittlynn did pretty good riding home. Kye was content with his breakfast 🙂 Brittlynn didn’t scream as badly as she did on the way there which was a big win for us!
Literally as soon as we walked in the door I nursed Brittlynn then went to the hospital. I looked awful but didn’t care! I wanted to see Robyn and get to meet the baby! I didn’t know his name until I arrived (which all of you know by now…Cooper Bryan Mullican!). It worked out GREAT because Zach worked from home that day so I could spend as long as I wanted to visiting with Robyn, Matt and Cooper!
I’m SO thankful to Mrs. Charlotte and Mr. Rusty for taking us all on such a wonderful vacation! It really couldn’t have been better and the kids getting to all experience Disney together was awesome. I hope Mr. Rusty realizes he’s started something now with this…can’t wait till we go back again when Britt is older and when we have more cousins with our future babies and Casey and Jordan’s kids! 😉
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Oh, it looks like SO MUCH fun!!! Chris and I have been talking about when we want to do Disney with our kiddos. When we do, I'll definitely be referencing your Disney posts 🙂