Disney World

To finish up our little vacation with my parents we drove up to Orlando. It was only a 3 hour drive which was so nice in comparison to the big drive we did when we moved. They had rented a mini van so we were able to all go in one car together which was fun. A little crowded, but not bad. Thankfully the boys did fall asleep for part of it. :) We stayed at Windsor Hills which was only 5 minutes from Disney. When we arrived to the condo, Gavin was SUPER excited about his room. It was covered in Mickey Mouse & friends.

 

Oh ya, and he got to share his room with his Aunt Laura. She was such a good sport about it too!

Magic Kingdom

We purchased the 3 day pass to Disney so that we could have ample time to see everything & do everything. The first day was pretty over cast & we were worried that it might rain. Well boy did it. It rained off & on all day long. Kind of a bummer, but we were just so excited to be there that it didn't really bother us.

The first ride we went on was Buzz LightYear. Gavin loved shooting the gun. Right when we walked out we saw Buzz & Gavin just ran right over there. Of coarse the closer we got the more nervous he became. He did pretty good & kept giving Buzz high fives & saying, "To infinity, & beyond!". It was super cute.

 

Happy boy staying dry.

Gotta love our ponchos!

The lines really weren't that bad until we got to It's A Small World. Gavin did pretty good waiting, but definitely got restless & had a hard time standing still.

Gotta love the creepy singing dolls!

You can tell my Dad was thrilled to on this ride. The singing must have lulled him right to sleep. :)

Liam & Daddy

Gavin really like the tea cups. But I think he like the mouse that pops up out of the center tea pot more. I forgot how dizzy those cups make you. :)

 The Winnie the Pooh ride was awesome. They had a ton of little activity centers all throughout the line so the kids didn't get bored waiting. Genius!

Drumming on some pumpkins & squash with Grandpa.

Liam finally fell asleep in Doug's arms while we were waiting for the parade to start. Don't think Doug was thrilled that he had to hold a chubby baby & an umbrella at the same time. The things we do to get our kids to nap.

We finished off day 1 with some old fashioned ice cream & watching the parade.

Liam's first ice cream cone.

Forget the spoon Dad. He loved it!

Grandma couldn't resist buying some treats from the candy store. Gavin loved his Mickey Mouse cookie. This little boy was in heaven!

Day 2- Animal Kingdom
was a little harder to get going because the rain was still at it, but this time it was pouring! But since we already bought our passes & didn't have any days to really spare we had to go. About 30 minutes after we arrived to the park it stopped. Hallelujah! It still lightly rained a little off & on, but nothing to how it had started.

 It was like a sea of ponchos!

The first thing we did was go on the animal safari. This was awesome! We all piled in a big bus/jeep thing & were given a tour through the safari/zoo. The animals were all really close & it was fun seeing them in more of a natural habitat versus caged spaces like a traditional zoo.

Rino

Alligators

Hippos

 There were a ton of giraffe's. They got real close to the vehicle too. Such beautiful creatures.

 I don't know what he was looking at, but the face was priceless!

 I don't remember what these guys were called, but check out those horns!

 Flamingos

 Can you guess whose eggs these belong to?

These fellas right here.

 They are ostrich eggs. Don't these guys look dirty & gross?

 Grandma, Laura, Doug, Liam, Gavin, me & Grandpa

 We saw a pretty cool bird show that had lots of beautiful birds. My favorite was the bald eagle. And I guess they are no longer considered endangered. That is neat!

We went to see It's Tough To Be A Bug thinking that Gavin would love it. What little boy doesn't like bugs? Well I had totally forgotten what the show was like & boy were we wrong. The second it turned into 3D & the cute little butterfly started flying around, Gavin began to panic. So you can only imagine the horror he experienced when the fog, water spray, black out etc effects took place. I've never seen him so scared. He was shaking & clutching onto us for dear life. I'm sure it didn't help that all the adults were shrieking too. We couldn't help but laugh a little at his expense.

 I was trying to get a picture of Gavin with Grandpa in their bug glasses, but Gavin would just NOT hold still. The above picture is of Gavin jumping up & nailing my dad in the face before falling forward. Nice.

 2nd attempt. Gavin apparently wanted to play leap frog & started hopping around. At least I got a good one of my pops! Not quite sure if he's genuinely that happy to be a bug or if he is just trying to cover up the frustration that pre-three year olds OFTEN bring. :) Thank goodness for patient grandparents!

 Love my little Bug!

 We went over to Dino-Rama & this was pretty much the only ride that Gavin could go on. But he really liked going with Grandpa on the Triceratops ride.

 Even Liam got to go on this one.

 Okay, so you gotta love my moms hat right?! So when we went to the Monsters Inc. comedy show they actually picked her out of the audience by showing her image on screen saying, "Look! Even the lady with the lamp shade on her head is here." We were laughing SO hard! That was definitely one of my favorite shows at Disney.

Gavin really wanted to meet Mickey Mouse. Animal Kingdom was great because they had little spots to meet the characters without having to follow them around the park. So we got in the long line to meet the famous couple. There was a Disney worker that was in charge of Mickey's line etc & Gavin got his attention by yelling to him, "Hey big man! Excuse me." And when the man asked what Gavin shouted, "There's DONALD!!!!" while pointing over to where Donald Duck was standing. It was hysterical.

 The pictures are really blurry, but at least we have it.

 And of coarse we had to go see the infamous Donald Duck. Gavin loved meeting them!

Our 3rd & final day at Disney was spent at Epcot. It rained there off & on, but by this point we were use to it. Me, Doug, Laura & my Dad went on the space launch simulator ride very first. Doug & Laura were quite nauseous & almost had to reach for the barf bag they keep on the ride. My Dad & I were just fine & didn't want the ride to end. It was SO cool! You really felt like you were launching into space.

We ate lunch in Mexico which was yummy! And then walked through all the countries & had to stop in Italy for some yummy gelato. We saw a face painter along the way & let Gavin pick out anything he wanted. He of coarse picked the Super Hero!

 I told him to say cheese & he immediately jumped into this pose. Must be his fighting bad guys pose. :)

 A simple cheese.

 BAM! Much better with the dramatic effect of the hands. :)
Love my little Super Hero!

When we were walking out there was a celtic rock band playing so we stopped to listen for a little bit. Gavin couldn't help but start dancing around. And even G'pa joined in too!

 And as always, Liam fell asleep on the walk out. He was such a good baby & quite the trooper.

The next morning my parents flew back to Utah from Orlando. I am SO mad at myself for not taking any pictures of our goodbye to them. This will be the last time I get to see my parents for two years as they are getting ready to serve a mission in Hawaii. We are so grateful for the good timing of everything & that they were able to come down to Florida to spend some time with us before they leave. We had such a great time having them here & doing all the fun things that we did.