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Wordless Wednesday

Today I'm thinking back fondly to sunsets on the beach, salt in the air and wind in our hair.

Re-entry back into the real world has been difficult and I'm JUST NOW feeling like myself again.  I wouldn't trade it for the world and feel blessed that we got to do it.  Next time I'll be more prepared for re-entry.  READ: Next time I won't book a trip on the first part of my kids Spring Break only to come back and have ANOTHER FULL WEEK with them AND all of our POST VACATION BLUES.  A definite thumbs down for all! ;)

WINNER Wednesday!

 

*****EDITED: POST CLOSED!  WINNER SELECTED!  COMMENTOR #10 HAS BEEN RANDOMLY SELECTED AND NOTIFIED!!! LIZ COOK!  Woo HOOOO!*****

Some of you may have heard that I turned the big 4-0 last Wednesday while on vacation!!?!?  Yes?  Well, I had good intentions of having a post ready to go BEFORE the trip ... but we all know how good intentions go! Especially when getting a family ready to travel away from home for 7 days and nights!

When I took my TRIBE to Arizona last month I also took a suitcase full of treats for them!  It was my intention to give daily or nightly "pillow presents" to my girls as a thank you for coming and joining me on the trip AND as a way to spoil my besties with a few of my favorite things.  It was really fun and I think they enjoyed it too.

Turns out, I cannot order proper numbers/quantities of things and I had several extras!  How better to use those extras then to host a giveaway!?!?  Here's the loot ONE of YOU can win!

My favorite Trader Joe's Chocolate covered almonds; a beautiful gold print verse from Etsy; an Urban Halo from the new spring collection (LOVE THESE!); a beautiful gold arrow necklace from Etsy that I ADORE and the card it came on is beautiful too; and a sweet little bracelet also found on Etsy.  

You like?  I had so much fun gifting these treats daily and I'm excited to give one lucky person a fun goody pack too.  Just leave a COMMENT telling me ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE THINGS right now and I'll randomly select a winner on Friday!

How's that for a HAPPY birthday giveaway?  GOOD LUCK TO YOU!

Ten On Tuesday: The First day.

I set out to write a post about my FAVORITE 10 moments/photos from our recent family vacation to Anna Maria Island but as I scrolled through the photos I just COULD NOT NARROW DOWN 10 from the whole trip. So instead, I selected my favorite 10 images ... from the FIRST DAY.

To be fair.  We had an epic first day.  It. Was. Perfect.  The weather.  Our home that we rented and the Island itself the beautiful beaches.  EVERYTHING.  That first day set the tone for the rest of the trip!

As you can see from the photos, we had a BIG day.  Beach. Pool. Beach.  Yep, it was rough! ;)  Well, anyone traveling with children DOES understand that there are tough aspects to doing these things.  But it was worth it.  TOTALLY WORTH IT.

And one more for good measure of our first Island sunset from the beach ... simply heavenly!

I hope to share more about our trip in the coming days!  Happy Monday!

Ten on Tuesday - Duluth

Ten of my FAVORITE photos from a little 24 hour getaway to Duluth, Minnesota this past weekend.

I got a little "bug up my butt" last Tuesday and asked Mike what he thought about a weekend trip to Duluth.  I knew I didn't have photo shoots and the weather looked like it was going to be nice -- great end of summer beginning of Fall weather.  We had never been to Duluth (a three hour trip to this town on Lake Superior) and I had never seen Lake Superior.  Before you know it, I booked a hotel, asked for suggestions of "what to do" on Facebook and on Saturday at 11am (after Bella's cheer leading) we hit the road.

We crammed quite a bit into 24 little hours but suffice it to say ... I fell in LOVE with Duluth.  It could have been the BEYOND PERFECT weather.  Those blue skies made my heart sing and just escaping reality for a teeny bit was refreshing too.

We have so much great stuff right in our backyard.  I'm super stoked that we got out to explore it a little bit.  Makes me want MORE!  We still have challenges with the kids ages/demands/needs/whining but we have got to get out and do these things ... for them ... for US.  Over the next few years I hope to do it more and more.  For now, a three hour drive from home to this breathtaking location is about perfect. :)

Ten on Tuesday: Favorite Cabin Moments 2014

Last week we spent a full week at a cabin we rent on a little lake in Wisconsin.  We found it via our friends (friends who are more like family) who cabin right next door.  After learning it was a rental we said "is it weird if we rent it?!??"  Thankfully they said NO and we've done this a couple of years.  It is BY FAR the most FAVORITE WEEK of the year for my kids, HANDS DOWN (note:  last year we didn't rent the house in order to save $$ for Disney!  However, we were invited to our friend cabin for a long wknd so the kids LOVE "the cabin!")

Noah was in full scale countdown mode.  He was so patient each day when he'd wake up and say "today we goin' to da cabin?"  I'd respond, "no buddy ... three more sleeps."  Then it was THE DAY and he asked NO LESS THAN 150 times "when we goin' to da cabin!!!!??? YOU SAID TODAY!!!!"

My very favorite thing about the cabin ... oh gosh.  There are too many.  But one of the favorite things is having our friends next door.  The kids literally have a constant playmate from dawn til dusk.  NO ONE TIME did my kids say "what can I do" or "I am bored."  And this year it was even better because they all had an awarenss about them that they KNEW they had to wear a life jacket ANY time near the water.  It was never a fight.  If they were going to the water, they'd grab their jackets.  It was a huge relief to my mama worry heart -- thus allowing me to actually enjoy this "family vacation" (ahem, family trip) that much more.

Here is my highlight reel.

1.  That golden hour is soooooo good at the lake.  I ate it with a spoon.  I so enjoyed the sunshine dancing off Bella's blond locks and giving the best glow.  LOVE.

2.  Luke being Luke.  Every year I'm reminded about his need for and the value of "wide open spaces" for Luke.  He thrives in this environment.  He still gets into mischief, but it is fairly safe and closely monitored mischief (oxymoron?).  I love watching him be in his element and wander to his hearts content.

3.  Having my parents join us for half of the vacay.  Sadly, Mike's parents were unable to join this year! :(  It was great grandparent time.  Good (awesome) time with my parents/mom to connect and chill.  AND, it was great watching them UNWIND.  My mom did a self-imposed social media break and I think she really enjoyed that.  Here she was catching some rays and reading a magazine.  I love that shot!

4.  SUNSETS.  The cabin faces west and we enjoy the most beautiful sunsets.  My favorite part of each day.

5.  Best Buddies.  Noah and his buddy Alec were inseparable.  I loved watching their budding friendship.  Their conversations were delightful and their laughter contagious.  I love these toes and these little boys so much.  It brings tears to my eyes thinking of how they will grow up together!

6.  Skiing!  This is a photo of Mike at dusk (another gorgeous night when the lake was glass and glowing in golden light!) slaloming.  He did an AWESOME job this night and I was able to get up and ski myself!  I love making sure I still "have my skills" in this department!  We worked hard to get some of the kids up but we were unsuccessful!  NEXT YEAR!!

7.  AHHH!  Playing with the sunset silhouettes!!!  My FAVE!  I got a lot of great shots this year and I'm super happy about them.  I'm in the upper left with Bella, slightly after the ideal time for these but I still love it.  My sweet Bella wanted to "hold the sun" and so we shot that shot of her with the sun in her hands which I think is beautiful.  And finally, my beautiful mama and Bella.  So cool.  These NEVER get old for me.  (sorry if they do for you!)

8.  FISHING!!  The kids were WAY into fishing this year!  The little boys (Noah and Alec) fished with a weighted fish on their line and the other kids eventually all used a hook and a worm.  Wanna guess how long until someone was hooked?  A remarkable 6 days!!!!  And the victim was Bella! :(  She recovered fine but was slightly traumatized!

9.  Firepits, s'mores and cocktails.  Loved that my Dad carried around his Box O'Wine the whole week! :)  Lots of cigars were smoked all in the name of "keeping the bugs away" which worked a teeny bit but not by the looks of Bella and Noah's limbs!

10.  And finally, having Daddy for a WHOLE WEEK to ourselves!  More than that actually!  He was off from July 3-13!  TEN DAYS!  We sure enjoyed having him around for a long period of time.  It's just not enough to only see him a couple of hours a night.  We really enjoyed our time together.

Ahhhh.  It was good.

I KNOW that these memories will be the ones we laugh about, talk about and share for YEARS to come.  I know these memories will be the ones that linger in their brains far longer than what "cool toy" they got for their birthday or a day camp.  Digging your own worms and fishing with them and then catching a FISH!?? YES!  That is what memories are made of.  Cheers to the cabin and here's to hoping it is a tradition we can long continue with our family.

Ten on Tuesday: #mommydaddyvacay

1.  Escape.  Book a babysitter, hire a nanny or beg your parents/in-laws!  You MUST get away kidless from time to time!  Although we went to my High School Reunion last fall it wasn't the same.  It wasn't TRULY getting away together.  We were busy, had obligations and heck, I even did a day of photo shoots.  This time together was fun and lovely but NOT an escape.  We needed an escape.

2.  Check out Sanibel/Captiva!  WHOA!!!!  It.Is.Awesome.  Beautiful, relatively easy to get to, white sand beaches and all-around a great spot.  We picked it while researching places we could stay that were not TOO far from an airport (Ft Myers) and where there was a Marriott that we could use our points at.

3.  Relax.  We went WITHOUT an agenda.  And while that is awesome, in some respects it was really dumb.  We knew NOTHING about Sanibel.  INCLUDING the fact that we were not ON Sanibel Island, but we were on the Harbour.  Which in the end, turned out perfectly.  We taxied to our hotel then rented a car from the hotel for 24 hours to sight see and beach hop and it was perfect.  We had the right amount of exploring and lounging for the time we had together.  And still, we had no plan.  We went where the wind took us (or rather, where a few people recommended!)

4.  ENJOY.  We worked hard to not work hard.  We also realized that since our time was so limited that we needed to unplug quickly.  Is it just us or does it sometimes take a few days to fully unwind?  We knew that going in so we really tried extra hard to ENJOY it from the get-go.  

5.  Sleeping in.  Although it can be challenging sometimes when you are so used to getting up ... but we really  tried extra hard to sleep any extra we could!  We KNOW this is limited at home we were NOT going to let go of it on vacation.  Now, sleeping in for us was between 7-8am EST which is 6-7a CST ... so essentially we didn't sleep in ... but it sure felt like it!

6.  RECONNECT!  Talk.  Listen to one another.  Laugh.  Share thoughts, ideas, stories.  Ahhh!  I enjoyed this so very much.  This was my favorite part of our whole vacation ... and the reason we went!  It's just so important to date your hubby.  To flirt.  To have fun.  To tease.  To indulge.  All of it.  Do it all!

7.  Drink.  When $2 Lime-A-Rita's present themselves poolside it is as though they are practically TELLING you to drink and enjoy.  SO WHY NOT!  Why are those so darned good?  I tried Raspberry and Mango this time!  Mango was goooooooooooood.

8.  SUNSETS.  Catch the sunset.  This hotel is FABULOUS in it's location but also that it's rooms with balcony's are facing the west for viewing the most perfect sunsets.  I honestly could NOT get enough of them.  The first night I was on the cabana of a restaurant.  The second night I made Mike pull over at this little castaway beach because we were almost going to miss it (they go so fast!) and the last night, the most beautiful one, was from our balcony.  LOVE THE SUNSET.

9.  Sunscreen.  Don't forget the sunscreen.  I did not.  Hubby did.  (cough cough, it is NOT because it wife didn't remind him I might add!)  The part I did get sunscreen on him was great, the other parts?  Not. So. Much.  Tourist.

10.  Take lots of pictures and don't call home. :)  HA!  I started out checking on the kids and QUICKLY stopped.  I knew via Facebook/Instagram that they were in AMAZING hands and I trusted that they would call if there were an emergency.  Instead of fretting over the kids, I gave 100% of my time and attention to my husband and it was a WIN for ALL.

Photos to come!  I havent' even unpacked my bags or loaded my photos yet!  Still adjusting to "re-entry" of being home ... it's been a tough adjustment!

Day 4. Hollywood Studios

And all good things, must come to an end.  We chose to spend our last day at Hollywood Studios.  I was really excited about Hollywood Studios!  From everything I read, this was going to be a character place that my kids would LOVE!  A lot of Disney Junior characters (including new ones like Sofia the First and Doc McStuffins!) and a lot of great movie characters (Incredibles/Wreck it Ralph).

It was another nice day, meaning HOT. ;)

First stop (after photopass ops!) was breakfast at Hollywood and Vine with the Disney Junior characters.  Once again, character meals are the way to go!  We eat good food and we then have character visits! We saw Jake, Oso, Einsteins June and Handy Manny.  If you didn't know, Noah LOVES LOVES LOVES Little Einseins! (Whittle Whinesteins at our house! ;) )

 

After breakfast we headed to Indiana Jones.  That is where the Daddy of the family vigorously volunteered to be IN THE SHOW and was selected!  The kids FLIPPED OUT and really enjoyed watching the show and Daddy in the show!

Here we were waiting for one of the attractions ...

After Indiana Jones we watched the Star Wars show.  I suppose if there was one thing I would have done differently was investigated getting Luke into the Junior Jedi training program.  We were there to SEE it, but not participate in it.  HE WAS BUMMED.  It was a cute cute cute show and those little Jedi's LOVED battling Darth Vader.  I know Luke would have loved that too.  I just didn't know ... or rather, didn't look into it in advance.

Noah and I split up from the group for a bit and explored Pixar Alley and met a Toy Story army guy and had some fun with that.  While we did that, Bella and Luke rode the TOWER OF TERROR with my parents!!  Crazy kiddos!  They loved it.  Little thrill seekers!

Mike and I met up and took Noah to meet Vanillape and Ralph.  That was fun!

Don't ask about his shoes.  On the last day he was sick of them for some reason and spent much of the day barefoot.  Whatev.  By the 4th day in Disney your cares about piddly things like shoes wanes! ;)

And then we met up with the rest of th crew to watch the Beauty and the Beast stage production, which was wonderful.  Bella was all eyes on the stage  -- LOVED it!

After the stage show it was almost 3:45.  I decided to head back to the hotel with the boys and let them swim swim swim until their hearts content.  (It was also at that time when Noah officially "peed a tree" at Disney.  I'm not proud but yep, he did.  Quick and dirty)  We got back to the hotel and changed into our suits and swam for over THREE HOURS!

Noah was so completely exhausted from the swimming that he literally climbed out of the water onto my lap and collapsed into a sleepy pile.  I then transferred him to my Grandma who held him for an additional hour!  Poor buddy was just SO TIRED! :)

The rest of the gang hung out at the park until it closed and watched the Fantasmic show at the end of the night!  Bella loved it and was carried home sleeping in Daddy's arms.  A sign of a good day. ;)

I would have loved to spend more time at Hollywood Studios, but I knew my boys needed to go back to the hotel and just swim.  In the end, it was the very best thing for everyone.

I can hardly believe this was the last day of our trip.  It went too fast and was so much fun!  It was hard and tiring and exhausting and exciting and magical.  It was all of that and more.  I'm already excited to go back ... but I think our next BIG family trip ... will be to the beach.  We need to show these kiddos the ocean. :)

Day 3. Epcot + Magic Kingdom

Whew!  I got away from posting there for a few days but no worries!  I'm BACK to finish up this series and telling you about our trip!

Something I failed to talk about in TWENTY TIPS was the option of using the Disney Photo Pass.  As a photographer myself it seems pretty dumb that I'd want to buy the Photo Pass.  But I'm also a MOM.  A mom who is consumed with keeping the party of 10+ we were rocking straight at all times and a MOM who wanted to BE IN THE PICTURES!  Suffice it to say, the ONLY PHOTOS I am in, are the ones from PhotoPass. :)  It is expensive (but take a deep breath of Disney air and you'll fork over your credit card too! HA!).  No really, I purchased it before we event got there and tried to use it to the max.  Even that being said, I wished I'd used it even more! :)  We even had some FUN with it as you will see below ...

We had a BIG DAY PLANNED for Friday, our 3rd day at the Disney Parks.  We had NOT planned on going to Epcot originally.  However, when we figured out our reservation for our Princess Lunch was at Epcot, it made the most sense, to start our day there. :)  I booked some Fast Passes for us at Epcot to entertain the kids at the start of the day.  There is a NEMO ride and next door is a Crush Talk that is AWESOME.  We all really enjoyed it.  We also road the Soarin' ride (which nearly made me hurl) but the kids loved it.

Did I mention it was HOT HOT HOT this day?  The hottest day I think.  DRIPPING WITH SWEAT.  As a Minnesotan, I did NOT complain. ;)  But no worries LUKE did enough for all of us!

Here we are, entering Epcot!

Bella wore a Cinderella dress this entire day.  Something really cool and MAGICAL about Disney is that they really go out of their way to make children feel special.  ALL of the girls are called Princess ... even in the pool!  ("Princess, careful on the side!")  When the little girls are dressed special EVERYONE takes note "Hello Princess, you look pretty in your dress today!"  I TRIED to get her to do her hair but she wanted nothing of it.  Oh well, can't win em all!

We made our way to our Princess Lunch and before seating they usher you right to meet Belle and take a photo!  We took several different shots with Belle. (the luxury of the photo pass is that they specialty photos are automatically part of your package.  Where they try and sell others the 8x10s and 4x6 prints, ours were givento us!  It make it great for sharing the photos right away!)

Again, the character meals are AWESOME.  We eat, they mingle around and visit!  Here they also had a "Princess parade!"  CUTE CUTE CUTE.

After lunch we left Epcot ... not before taking a few photos though!

Yep.  We did that.  WHO DOES THAT IN DISNEY?  Um, us.  :)  We had a lot of giggles at this photo stop! :)

And then we headed over to Magic Kingdom for the rest of the day.

And from here on out the rest of the day, I didn't take many photos. And honestly I'm bummed out.  This day we spent the rest of the time at Magic Kingdom and then participated in the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party and that was SUPER FUN! The park closed at 7pm to regular guests and stays open extra hours for party goers.  The place really thins down a TON and bracelets are checked to make sure you are party-goers.  We easily rode more rides and walked the park without a complete cluster! :)  Maybe that is why I don't have photos, I was having FUN! :)

I brought the kids Halloween costumes and they all wore them (not until after dark because it was TOO HOT to put them on!) and attended Halloween festvities including trick-or-treating!  We had fun.  It was a highlight of the trip in my book.

That night was also the Lunar eclipse.  It was BEAUTIFUL.  My dad and I took Bella and Luke on Splash mountain and at the top of the last hill his an amazing view of the castle and the moon looked equally amazing.  Right before we went down the hill I WISHED I had my phone ready for a photo ... but I didn't.  I did grab this photo a bit afterwards though.  The photo doesn't do it justice.

This night we stayed very late.  There was the parade, an awesome illumination show, a stage show and then fireworks.  Noah passed out after the parade and Luke was extremely unhappy.  Bella LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT (and so did I!  It was awesome!).

We were pretty tired after this VERY FULL AWESOME DAY. :)  Oh Disney, how fun you are!

Ten or TWENTY on Tuesday - the Disney thoughts/TIPS edition.

I feel like I need to get these "TIPS" out now while they are still somewhat fresh on my mind!  Also, I have friends going to Disney SOON who need to know these tips! :)  

Things to note.  My kids are 6, 5 and 3.  Little kids for the most part.  These tips are for this age kid right now.  I have NO IDEA how this will evolve and change over the years ... but I know most certainly it will change and be different with time.  If we are lucky enough to go again in the future ... I suspect our kids will be drastically different ages! (not because we don't want to go again soon ... but because its an enormous financial undertaking!)

1. If it is your first trip to Disney, use a Disney Vacation Planner.  I have one to recommend if you need one.  I began pinning and prepping years I advance.  And every time I did I felt OVERWHELMED.  So much to know about and where do you begin?  Using the Disney Vacation Planner (not a cost to YOU, they are compensated by Disney!) made it easy for me.  I told her what I wanted.  I said ... I want to be at parks 4 days, I might want to hop around, I want to stay at an "on property" hotel with a pool and I want a meal plan.  She developed the plan for me, watched for specials and booked reservations for me regarding meals and so forth.  It REALLY made it easier on me and way less stressful.  I also gave her my budget and she stayed within that budget.
2. For my age of children who had never been to Disney I chose to TELL THEM ABOUT THE TRIP and then countdown with them.  We said "in general" we are going to Disney someday.  I didn't tell them how many days until about 30 days out.  Then I ramped up the Disney talk, the Disney TV and the Disney music.  It was Disney movie marathon around here in prep for Disney world.  As first timers, they didn't KNOW what was going to happen.  I knew it would be overwhelming and just the excitement of GOING would be awesome.  Now, if I go again, I might make it an "airport surprise" that I don't tell and video tape, etc.  I think that is pretty awesome too!
3. Take a stroller.  What stroller?  We have a gazillion strollers most of all loving our BOB collection of strollers.  However, BOB single is bad for storage.  BOB double is too wide and we knew we didn't want to navigate that through WDW (Walt Disney World).  So we opted for the "Sit and Stand" stroller.  It is an in-line stroller that offers the front rider a seat and room to jump on the back for bigger kids.  ALL OF MY KIDS CAN FIT ON THIS AT THE SAME TIME.  That is key. If little feet needed a break, they jumped on.  The front was cozy enough for Noah to sleep ... and that he did!  TIP:  You will be parking and finding a parking spot for your stroller OFTEN.  Do not keep anything valuable in it or time consuming to empty every single time you park.  We took and wore a back pack and kept everything in there so we could easily dump the stroller to ride rides, etc.  TIP2:  That stroller got us through the wheelchair lane at TSA in Orlando ... apparantly they are too cumbersome in the regular line and it essentially bought us a "fast pass" through security. SCORE!!!
4. Buy some Disney brand items ahead if you can via Wal-Mart, Walgreens end of season deal or even on Amazon.  I used these for a varitey of things ... airplane treat bags (coloring books, trinkets, candy, etc) ... rewards for good days at the parks and for ... "Tinkerbell Treats."
5. What are "Tinkerbell Treats?"  Bribes.  I told the kids that each day they had a "good day" at the park Tinkerbell visited them at night and left treats!  Luke said the first morning "I didn't believe in Tinkerbell but SHE DID COME and leave us a treat so now I believe!!!"  The first morning they got their autograph books, pens, lanyards to wear and a couple of pins.  (All bought ahead of time)  It was fun to do and see their faces.  I will say I did pick up a few things at the park as well that I saw they were interested in and added that to the stash.  (shhhh .... My mom and I think Disney is like Vegas where they pump in air that makes you want to buy stuff/gamble!)
6. Use the APPs.  I used the My Disney Experience app that coordinated with my reservation info that I entered on-line and could access at ANY time. I also used this APP to book Fast Passes and it was AWESOME. (note: max of 3 fast passes a day doing this.)  The other APP I bought in the park was Magic Guide.  It was AMAZING. It is $5 but totally worth it.  I could stand in the park and find the wait for anything, the directions and the exact location.  Worth it (again, that Disney air pumped in making the purchase easy peasy!)
7. MAGIC BANDS.  We were a part of the test program for Magic Bands.  Little bands that are waterproof that you wear.  They are your hotel key, credit card, meal plan, park tickets, fast passes and identity!  They were HANDY and amazing.  We had an amazing experience with them.  They are also CUTE.  They also sell little trinkets to add to them in the gift shops, similar to Crocs Jibitz.  Of course my mom bought us some of those, TOO CUTE.
8. Meal plan.  For my family, the meal plan was perfect. It was a plan that allowed 1 snack, 1 fast food and 1 sit down meal for each person of your family each day of the trip.  This was the perfect amount for us.  We typically really filled up at the sit down meals and didn't need a square "three meals a day" for our family.  The food was good and the options were good for everyone.  The Disney Cast helps you/reminds you what all is included with your meals.  It was also nice NOT TO WORRY about the cost of items on the menu and fret over pricing ... we had already paid for it all.  SOME PEOPLE who like 3 square meals a day and heavy snacks (ahem, my Dad) ... ate through the family meal plan REALLY FAST.  I'm not sure in the end if the meal plan was the BEST option for them but mom will have to weigh in on that.
9. Snacks.  We did bring our own quick "kids" snacks and water bottles to the park each day.  Crackers, fruit sticks, rice krispie bars were easy snacks to give the kids in a pinch or when they needed a little energy boost.  As for the park snacks, we consumed our fair share of Mickey ice cream and it was YUMMY! :)
10. Fast Passes are key.  I didn't understand the fast pass thing.  But I did understand that I didn't want to wait in line for 40 minutes with my kids.  The first day was hard navigating that. but soon I thought ahead and settled into a rythum figuring out and using he fast passes.  Also, fast passes are good for the entire hour that you pick so you don't have to be there at the EXACT time to use your pass.  Come any time in that hour.  TIP:  the downside to the fast pass is that the kids often want to do a ride again ... it's hard to explain to them that then you have to wait in that long line to do the ride again.  Catch 22 for kiddos.
11. Four parks in four days was CRAZY for kids of this age.  We PUSHED them (and ourselves for that matter) to the brink. They did great given that level of exhaustion.  HOWEVER, if I had the time and money to do it differently, I'd stay in WDW a full week.  I'd do one day on park day, one day off at the pool or exploring other areas.  For this age kids ... the POOL was a big deal.  To give ourselves that break would have been HUGE.  However, that comes at a gigantic cost and would have doubled our vacation costs.  You do what you gotta do.  It was important to use to stay on site for this trip ... maybe next time we stay off site and stay a week.  Its all about trade offs.
12. It's all about WAITING.  Those first days were hard with the amount of waiting the kids had to get used to.  EVERYTHING IS A WAIT.  A wait to eat, to get on the bus, to scan your tickets, to ride a ride, to see a show, to meet a princess, to do ANYTHING, you wait.  It is a tough lesson to learn and there was a lot of entertaining and "a few more minutes" said on our parts.  I'm not sure how to warn or prepare children for this type of thing. :(
13. Meeting Characters.  I was under the illusion that we'd see character everywhere ... like run into them.  Um NO.  They are at specific "meeting spots" and you can stand in a line and meet them.  BE CAREFUL WHO YOU CHOOSE TO MEET ... are they a favorite?  Are they worthwhile?  Do they interact with the kids?  Are you already going to see them at a character dining event?  Think through these things.  Again, you can use either of the Apps to find out when and where characters are going to be to try and meet them.  We didn't meet HALF of the characters I thought we would.  To be honest ... we didn't want to spend our 30-40 minutes waiting to meet some of them.  Had the kids been more into it ... we would have.  But they weren't. (Shhh, I totally WAS!  I loved meeting the characters!)
14. Which leads me to ... Character meals!  We had 4 character meals on our vacation and it is a MUST.  If you are on the meal plan this is a Table Service (buffet) meal and totally worth it.  Disney has this all laid out.  You eat, characters roam from table to table.  GENIUS.  We met nearly 20 characters over our dining experiences and never stood in line.  It was efficient and well orchastrated.  LOVED IT.
15. And finally, INTERACT WITH CHARACTERS!  Only the Princesses talk but the others mime, mimic and communicate too.  If you know their movie lines -- say them!  They willa ct them out or show surprise or do something to surprise you.  Some of our favorite characters are Russel and Doug from UP!  We waited to see them because we are UP fans.  When we got there I yelled SQUIRREL!!"  Doug (the dog) stops everything and points and looks for a squirrel.  Hysterical!  I asked Russel where his "GPM" went and he motioned ... ut the window.  Too cute!  This activity made it so fun to play around and engage with the characters! (maybe that's why I liked them so much?)
16. Stay on property.  I'm not totally sure about this one BUT, we stayed in a value resort (they offer value, moderate or luxury accommodations) to save money.  And as far as I can see ... no matter where you stay you still have to get on a bus to get anywhere you want to go.  (unless you stay at the contemporary which is amazing and the closest hotel to Disney)  If you aren't going to be at yourhotel much, why pay more to stay there?  I don't know.  I'd like to hear what others have to say about this but that is how I feel now.  Plus, our value hotel was FANTASTIC (all star music for anyone interested in knowing!)
17. Go with the flow.  We created a loose plan.  That plan involved a general plan of which parks for which day with room for flexibility.  We also had one reservation per day so we sort of just planned about that. And that was the character meals so it was soon a favorite meal anyway.  For instance, we didn't plan to got to Epcot, but it just made sense when we realized our Princess Lunch with there anyway.  We made it work and it turned out great.  Some days we called it a day early, other days we pushed it.
18. Halloween/Christmas Party.  We bought tickets to the "Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party."  This is a "private" party for ticket holders only when the rest of the park closes.  This particular party includes trick or treating, no waiting on lines, a special parade, light show, fire works and more.  It was AWESOME.  It thinned out so much that we could easily ride rides and walk around the MK without GOBS of people.  It is expensive.  However, how often are we in WDW with our 6,5 and 3 year old to celebrate Halloween?  Likely never again.  Again, just take a deep breath of Disney air and open your wallet! ;)  HEE!
19. Lights, lights and more lights.  Disney makes a killing on light up crap.  My kids (and most kids) love it.  And honestly, there is no replacement for Disney ears and hats that glow and dance to the music.  I couldn't buy them random LED lights to make up for it when the blinking Disney ears are everywhere and what they really wanted.  Luckily we had Grampy along to take care fo fun light up toy purchases.  Just know that they love them, they are fun and the starting cost is $15.  Plan for it.
20. And finally, your kids will want to buy treasures and trinkets.  They will love it for 5 minutes and loose it or misplace it or break it or not play with it when you get home.  How did I make peace with this?  Each kid got birthday money this summer.  I saved it for them and had $100 cash on hand for each kid to spend as they chose.  I tired to limit them to 1 thing per park but it depended on the cost.  Each time they wanted something I asked it they wanted to spend their money on it.  They then made those choices.  It made it PAINLESS for me.  I wasn't nit-picking their choices or saying no all of the time ... I put the ball (aka, money) in their hands and allowed them to make the choices.  Fun for all!

Whew.  Anyone still here?  Sad thing is ... I could probably go on! :)  I'll stop at twenty!  I hope your trip is MAGICAL and MEMORABLE.  I know our memories will last us a lifetime.

Day 2: Chef Mickey's + Animal Kingdom

(I failed to include a BIG moment from our first day ... a stop to meet some Princesses.  Hindsight, I would NOT have waited the 30 minutes to do this had I known/remembered that our Princess Character lunch later in the trip would have meeting these princesses ... however, it was  memorable and special.  I was bummed that Luke did NOT decide to interact with Cinderella and Aurora!)  Here are two photos from that at Magic Kingdom...

So on to Day 2. :)

This day we took a little slower approach to getting moving, simply because we had a late breakfast reservation at Chef Mickey's for 10:25am. (if I could do this over, I would have made the reservation for earlier, this was a late start and ate into our day ...)  But, it was nice to have a "lazy" start to the day and the kids even went swimming in the morning BEFORE leaving!  WIN!

My grandparents "winter" in Florida.  Part of my planning this trip was so that we could enjoy some time with them while on the trip.  They live about 20 minues from Disney property (hey, did you know Disney is 47 SQUARE MILES big???  HUGE!).  Since my grandparents are so close, they joined us on ANY downtime we had at our hotel and went with us to this Character breakfast on Thursday morning.  Chef Mickey's is at the Contemporary Resort.  We had to take a bus to get there.  Our plan for the day was breakfast, then heading to Animal Kingdom.

(note.  Friends, I am NOT a glamour queen on this trip.  Know that I hate that.  But honestly, it is NOT a trip for that.  I wore comfort clothes that could get wet, withstand caring for kids, walk miles upon miles a day and endure sweat with 95 degree temps.  The pics are for the memories, not the glamour!)

I must tell you the CHARACTER MEALS ARE THE TICKET.  It is the most convenient way to eat a good meal (really fill up actually) and meet many characters that COME TO YOU.  They have ti all organized, you just show up.  And that we did and met many Mickey and crew!

This next shot is a favorite!  Noah doesn't miss a meal (he's sorta like his mama on that one!)

(the shot above is a good one of the shirts my mom got the kids ... Mickey, Minnie and Goofy bodies with no heads for the kids head.  CUTE.  Thanks Gaga!)

Although breakfast was good...we had issues here.  The waitress completely screwed up our billing and we waited NO LESS than 45 minutes for bill issues.  That was really frustrating and made our already "late day" start later.  They "made up for it" by giving us more fast passes.  Although it was a good gesture, the inconvenience was HUGE.  After breakfast we had to take another bus to Animal Kingdom. There was a lot of shuffling around this day and that is hard sometimes.

But we made it!

First up we met some of our FAVORITE characters, Doug and Russel from UP!  We love UP!  It was one of Noah's early favorite's as a babe and so we all know the movie well...quote-ably well.  Here is a tip.  If you are meeting characters that don't speak (only princesses do) you can still interact with them.  I found that quoting the movie lines and asking them movie questions made them interact in FUN ways.  For instance, when I saw Doug standing there I yelled 'SQUIRREL!" And he did what he does in the movie.  SO FUNNY.  I also asked Russel where his "GPM" was and he mimicked that it flew out the window ... which is what happens in the movies.  Although my mom said it was "sick and twisted" that I knew this much of the movies ... it made is SO MUCH MORE FUN for me! ;)  And the kids giggled like crazy too.

We did the 3D Bugs Life experience which Noah HATED!  "I don't wike dat bugs wife!"  But it is a cute show that we easily walked right in for with a low wait.

We took a couple of little side treks to see animals and this cool bridge.

Then we took a safari.  We had a fast pass for the Safari and it was at 3pm.  I wasn't sure if the animals would be active or not, but to our delight, they were! :)  It was a fun ride and the animals were pretty close.  

And this crazy couple were always muggin' for the PhotoPass camera ...

And then we headed to the Lion King show at the end of the day.  I only took one pic with my iPhone for that one and didn't load it yet.  That show is AMAZING!! I know we did a bunch of other stuff this day but I either can't remember or didn't grab a photo of it.  The day seemed short though because AK closes by 5 or 6 most nights.  I still feel like we saw a big part of it but I know we did NOT see it all.  In addition, it was another scorcher.  The kids each bought those water spray fans that day with their money because they were sweltering.  They DID help keep us cool though by pointing them on us!

That evening we ate a late dinner poolside with my grandparents.  We had thought about going back to MK for the parade, but were just too tired.  The kids enjoyed the pizza and pool party instead!  PLUS, the next day was a BIG ONE and we wanted to get some rest.

Whew!  Reliving it and sharing it is really helping me remember all aspects of this EPIC trip. (I didn't share Luke's epic meltdown upon entering AK, how Mike had to run back and forth from exhibitis to find his parents and make sure they were OK, how my grandparents sneaked my mom and dad some honey whiskey into the resort that night OR how my sister arrived on her late flight that evening!  All in a days adventure!)