Disney World!

We had the best summer vacation in Orlando last month!  The week after Dan and Emma got out of school, we flew away for a week of fun.  Dan's parents joined us and shared their timeshare with us, which made the trip even better! We alternated our days at the park with days of rest, which saved us from getting too exhausted.  It was very hot, humid, and there were thunderstorms almost daily, but we dressed appropriately and made the most of air conditioned stores and shows when we needed to have a break from the weather. 

The pictures say it all!

Ready for our first day at Magic Kingdom!

The girls in front of Cinderella's Castle

Riding the Jungle Cruise ride

Emma loved seeing all the "animals"

The carousel was one of her favorite rides, and the line was always blessedly short.

Hallie and Dan watching the parade

After a few minutes, it was clear that Hallie didn't really care about the parade, so she sat in the stroller playing with a water bottle instead. Much more entertaining!

 

We escaped to the stores when the rain came

 

We met Tinker Bell!

And rode the Dumbo ride!

 

There was a stationary Dumbo for Hallie to "ride", too.

The girls stayed awake for the nighttime fireworks show

Disney does the most amazing job synchronizing their music and fireworks. The backdrop's not bad, either.

After the fireworks, both girls crashed in their strollers.

 

On our second day at Disney, we went to the Animal Kingdom.

 

Riding the Safari Ride. We enjoyed seeing all the animals, but they made the ride a little too realistic by not smoothing out the road. It was one of the bumpiest rides we'd ever been on. Emma loved it!

A young giraffe in the process of laying down.

We saw elephants and a bunch of other safari animals, too!

Not everyone was as thrilled about the jerky ride as Emma was. The rest of us felt a little beat up by the end.

We got a break from the heat by watching the Lion King show.

We also met some characters. We heard that the Animal Kingdom is the only place you can meet Mickey and Minnie in the same place. Pretty cool!

 

Meeting Pluto and Goofy! Hallie does not understand why we're asking her to smile when she's so hot and miserable.

 

Despite the heat, Emma had the best time playing at the Animal Kingdom's dinosaur play area!

They even had an excavation area where kids could dig up dinosaur bones.

 

On our non-Disney days, we enjoyed shopping and swimming in the pool at the timeshare.

 

 

There were some ducks at the pool one morning. Hallie was fascinated!

 

Playing with toys at the Disney Store

 

And building people and buildings at the Lego Store

 

We spent our last Disney day at Magic Kingdom again. I think we managed to meet all the princesses and ride almost every ride in the two days we spent there.

Meeting Tiana from "The Princess and the Frog"

And Rapunzel

Emma came away with a kiss from Rapunzel

Elena of Avalor - a new princess who stars in a Disney Channel cartoon

Cinderella

And Belle

Even though Hallie didn't care about meeting the characters, I tried to make sure she did. I figure in a couple of years, she'll want to see herself in the photos, too.

 

We rode some of the rides we missed on our first day

Mom and Dad Jester were nice enough to watch the girls for us (in air-conditioned stores) so we could ride some of our favorite rides, too.

 

Unfortunately, our trip home wasn't so magical. We managed to miss our early morning flight and ended up spending 12 hours waiting in Orlando and Baltimore before we finally arrived home at 8 pm. We made the best of it - playing games, looking in stores, napping, and watching movies on our phones during our layover.

 

At least Emma enjoyed her extra movie time that day. :)  And we were thankful to arrive home safely, after a wonderfully fun week!