We got back from our Disney trip yesterday and I went through all my pictures. It is hard to choose which to post but I hope I did a good job picking out some of our most favorite adventures. We went on the trip with our good friends Matt & Brenda and their 4 year old daughter Anika. It worked out wonderfully and I think everyone had a great time.
To start off our adventure, our flight was delayed by 3 hours. Thankfully the girls were still very well behaved.
This was our building at the condo. We were in building 1 and the girls are all ready for their first day of our trip!
We went to Denny's for breakfast and there was a balloon lady. Emily asked for an Ariel (the little mermaid) balloon and I couldn't believe how awesome the lady did!
The place we stayed had a huge pool and also a splash pad for the kids. Here is Em and Ani running around the splash pad.
Me and brenda enjoying the sunshine. It was beautiful weather down there. Not too hot, not too cold.
The daddy's went to the resort concierge to get our Disney tickets for the week and came back with these balloon butterfly wings. The girls just loved them and had a riot trying to walk around and not hitting anything.
Here is a video of her walking through the resort - it is hysterical:
We went to Downtown Disney on our first day for dinner at Planet Hollywood. Very cool place!
On Monday, we decided to go to Magic Kingdom for the day! We ended up spending 11 hours there and had a great time!
Here we are getting on the ferry boat - Em in green stroller with Kory pushing her
Our first view of Cinderella's Castle - it was beautiful!!!
Who knew these boys would meet in elementary school and 25 years later would be taking their 2 amazing daughters to Disney World? So cool!!!
The first ride we went on was a Belle show where you get to act out the movie and be different characters then at the end Belle comes out.
Here is Emily talking with Belle - she loved her!
Our second ride was The Little Mermaid ride. It was a cute ride and showed some fun scenes from the movie. After the ride we went to Ariel's grotto and guess who we saw???
Em with her most favorite princess!!! She was just in awe. It was so cute to see the girls with her.
Tea cups! Em was trying to spin it as Daddy was trying not to puke :)
Emily met Pluto and it was so cute because he had her put the autograph book up on his nose. Here she is trying to hand him the pen. He even signed her book upside down which she thought was a complete riot. She kept saying "That silly Pluto!"
Here we are on the Buzz Lightyear ride. You get to shoot these guns at targets and score points. It was really fun. Daddy did good - Mommy not so much as I had to share my gun with Em and take pictures :)
We even got to catch part of the daily parade. Em just loved it. Minnie saw her holding a doll of Minnie and pointed her out. Check out this cute video:
Here are the girls waiting for the last thing of the day - going to meet Mickey! Em has her Minnie and Anika has her Sully. They were so adorable!
One of my most favorite pictures. Emily with Mickey!!!!!
On Tuesday we went our separate ways in the morning. We initially went to Hollywood Studios. It was totally packed so we only got one ride and it was more of a show for the Little Mermaid. Was a really cute show where Ariel came out on stage and sang and everything. After that we decided to meet up with the Reel's at Animal Kingdom. Emily and Ani were happy to be back together :)
Giving hugs!
Family picture
After the Animal Kingdom we went back to our condos and ordered pizza for dinner. We took a little snooze and took the late shuttle to Epcot to see the fireworks.
Here are the girlies so excited to be sitting all by themselves on the shuttle. Such big girls!
The fireworks at Epcot were awesome! Em kept calling it "Efcot". LOL!
Here she is being goofy eating her Mickey Mouse isce cream bar
On Wednesday, we decided not to hit any parks. We did the 4-day park hopper option so we had to skip 1 day. Decided to make it in the middle of the week which is just what we needed to split it all up. Otherwise you just get on overload and Emily was exhausted too!
Our condos were awesome - they did all sorts of activities for the kids each day. Usually we were at Disney but on Wednesday we decided to hit up the hotel activities.
Here is the girls bouncing in the bounce house
Playing jump rope with Brenda and Daddy swinging the rope
Brenda and Ani with Me and Em in the lazy river. It was a beautiful day to spend it at the pool!
Once Matt got done with his PGA show he met us back at the hotel and we had some lunch there then headed to Downtown Disney to walk around. Lego land was our first stop. Emily picked out some adventure land legos that we already started putting together today. Super fun!
Anika with Buzz and Em with Woody - these were so cool made entirely out of legos
They had a section outside where you could just build legos.
We met up with another group of college friends. Was kind of random but ended up being super duper fun. So Kristen and Jordan (couple on the far right) went to college with me and Matt. I had posted something on Facebook about being in Orlando and Jordan saw it. So he messaged me and said they were there too!! So we decided to all meet up for dinner at Downtown Disney. It was so much fun!
L to R: Kory, Me, Brenda, Matt, Jordan, Kristen
Had to get a picture of all the kids. Lucy, Anika and Emily with Jack in the background.
We ate at House of Blues that night and just had a great time reminiscing about good old Winona days. It was fun to catch up and let the kids play. They just had a great time too!
On Thursday, we went to Epcot for Emily's special princess breakfast. Jordan gave us a list of rides to hit (in order at Epcot) so we didn't have to wait in so many lines. We went on 4 rides all before breakfast!! Woo hoo!
Mommy and Emme on one of the rides
The breakfast started off with a special picture with Belle. We actually got a really nice 5x7 and 2 4x6 photos of her and Belle.
Belle signing Em's autograph book
At the end of the yummy breakfast each of the princesses came out to our table and talked with Emily. Then they signed her book and posed for a picture. It was so sweet to watch her (and all the little girls) get so excited.
Emily and Aurora (Sleeping Beauty for all of you people who don't know who Aurora is...I didn't. HA!)
Emily with Cinderella
awe...she loved giving hugs!
Emily and Snow White
Emily and Ariel
After the meet and greet they did a parade all around the breakfast place. Emily followed Snow White. This was the end of the parade and you can see her at the end of this video:
After the princess breakfast we went to the Chevy Test Track. Tht was a really fun ride and one of Emily's other favorites.
Here we are in the front of the car...
On our way out of Epcot
We decided we wanted to get home rather quickly to spend a few hours of this beautiful day at the pool. So we took a cab ride. Em was floored!
Emily's first ever cab ride!
Back at the hotel, we had a great time. Emily met a new little friend at the pool named Finnley - their family was from LaCrosse so it was fun hanging out with them and enjoying the sunshine.
Our bathing beauty :)
Emme and Daddy
Ice Cream sundaes from the activity center in the pool area - Yum!
We stayed at Wyndham Bonnet Creek and I highly recommend it. It's just off Disney property and has free shuttles to and from Disney. There was so much for the kids to do. Several bars and restaurants and it was just gorgeous!
Our resort
On Friday morning, we headed to Downtown Disney for Emily's princess makeover. She was soooo excited!
Getting her nails painted and talking to her fairy godmother
Getting her eye shadow done
She loved her cheek sparkle!
Em lucked out and had TWO fairy godmothers. This was her other one and she helped with Em's hair.
Getting her sash on
At the end they get to make a wish....
The big reveal!!!!! She loved it.
The bippity boppity botique asked for HER autograph since she is now Princess Emily for the day. What a cute idea :)
After her princess makeover she got to pick out a few gifts as she still had Birthday and Christmas money to spend from my Aunt Carol & Uncle John, my Grandma Walker and Kory's Grandparents. She had already gotten a few things with that money but was ready to spend the rest of it :) She picked out the Ariel barbie, the pink sparkle tiara barrette and a HUGE Cinderella castle that we are having shipped to the house. Here is a link to what we got for her: http://www.disneystore.com/cinderella-castle-play-set/mp/1254691/1000265/
She is going to be so darn excited when it arrives!!! Thank you to everyone for letting us help her spend her money there. She got a Minnie Mouse, a Nemo, a big lego set, and an Emily necklace all earlier in the week and it was just fabulous to be able to let her get things without feeling too guilty :)
Em with the Aurora statue outside the Disney store
She loves her Ariel doll!!!
After her makeover at Downtown Disney we went to Magic Kingdom for one final day of fun! It was super cute as she got extra special attention because she had been to the Bippidy Boppity Botique that morning. Everyone was bowing to her and saying "Hello Princess" or "Enjoy your day Princess" - it was so stinkin cute!
Emme and Daddy excited to go on Goofy's Barnstormer again - one of her faves
Waiting in line picture with Momma
She LOVES Goofy's Barnstormer. Hands up!!!
We met up with the other 2 families later that day at Magick Kingdom. Here we are waiting in line for Big Thunder Mountain.
Em loved holding hands with Lucy
All 4 kids picking the noses of the statues outside the Haunted Mansion - YES - we took Em on that ride. She loved it!
Family shot :)
Em and Ani all ready for the Mickey 3D show. Em had never been to one before so it was super cute to watch her duck and try to grab things as they came at her face. Too funny...
Emily and Lucy waiting for their ice cream sundaes
Em and mommy on a ride
All the kids
Our last time all together! Thanks Jordan and Kristen for being our own personal disney guides. Couldn't have done nearly as much without you guys there!!!! Hope to see you again in less than 12 years :)
The very last thing we did was go to see the princesses one more time!!!
Her first time meeting Rapunzel...or Tangled as she calls her :)
so pretty
She was telling Aurora that she had breakfast with her yesterday :)
Emily and Aurora
Cinderella checking out Em's bippity boppity botique shirt
Emily and Cinderella
Wow! What a trip huh? I am sure I forgot a gazillion things but hopefully this gives you a peek into our once in a lifetime trip. Emily was such a good girl. We saw a lot of naughty kids so it made us realize how lucky we are - she is really amazing. She was always polite and friendly and stayed close to us so we didn't have to worry about losing her. She was a great listener and it was so much fun to watch the world of Disney through her eyes. She is amazing and I'm so glad we got the opportunity to take her. Thank you so much to Daddy for enduring a trip that I know wasn't his "cup of tea" so Emily could have a trip of a lifetime. She will remember this forever and I am so, so thankful.
