Lovely Little Blessings: First Disney Trip

As you know, we went to Disney for the first time Sunday.

We were signed into Disney's Animal Kingdom around 9am.

Our first stop was the Island Mercantile shop (where Gramm worked on the weekends a few years ago) to get the girls their very first pair of Mickey ears.

Madison decided the pink Minnie ears were best.

After trying on several funny pair for pictures

Including the pirate one (arg!)

we had our ears and were off to the animal safari in the Africa portion of Animal Kingdom.

(just turn your head sideways, it took forever to get these photos uploaded)

Madison had a great time deciding between Pop's lap

and Mommy's

looking out for 'lions, tigers, and oh my' as she says.

We saw elephants, giraffes, a lion, lots of other animals.

Uncle Matt held Kennedy,

who liked the bumpy ride so much she fell asleep. So sweet.

Kennedy napped on and off throughout the day.

Sometimes in the stroller

Sometimes in someones arms and of course, her favorite sling during the afternoon parade... more on that later.

After riding through the safari in Africa

and walking the trek in Asia

(tigers, monkeys, etc) we headed over to Camp Minnie-Mickey to see some characters.

We made a short stop on the way there at the It's Tough to be a Bug show under the big tree (all the characters from the movie A Bug's Life are in the 3d show).

Madison was excited to wear her special 3d bug glasses.

She was a little scared when the big grasshopper 'Hopper' from the movie came out and was very mean.

Once the nice bugs came back she was happy again.

After the show we popped into the Pocahontas story time on the way to Mickey.

Madison hasn't seen the movie Pocahontas so she wasn't super interested. One special fellow caught her eye though.

We had to have pictures with Flik from A Bug's Life. He was standing in the back of the amphitheater listening to the special story time.

We also ran into our friends Chip and Dale.

We danced while we waited...

Kennedy slept through this stop.

Next we saw Donald (who stomped his foot when he saw Madison's Minnie ears instead of Daisy ears)

Goofy

Minnie

(who was quite excited to see Minnie ears on the girls)

oh yeah- Kennedy woke up in time for Minnie

then Mr Mickey Mouse himself.

Madison got a little time by herself to hug and kiss Mickey

then Kennedy joined the party

Madison went for a potty with Gramm and Kennedy got some alone time with Mickey.

He wiggled his nose for her and she squealed with excitement, then tried to put his nose in her mouth. Of course the only photos we have of that are the ones Disney took- at $12.95 a pop, we decided to keep this memory in our minds instead.

She LOVED Mickey.

Madison was doing so well all morning but started fading fast after characters.

We decided a stop to Dino-land might help.

We were right.

Uncle Matt and Mommy rode the 'Priceritops' ride with Madison...think Dumbo but with Dinosaurs.

After the ride she was ready for a nap.

We strolled out of the park with a not so happy Madison and napping Kennedy.

Madison wanted Mommy to give her a piggie-back ride to the car

During which she promptly fell asleep.

She slept a short time in the car and was happy to arrive at Disney's Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM Studios)

We rode the 'special train' aka the tram to the park entrance then high tailed it to lunch at the Commissary restaurant.

Lunch helped rejuvenate all of us and get a great game plan for the afternoon-parade and characters.

By the time we finished lunch it was nearly time for the 3 o'clock Block Party parade with all Madison's favorite Pixar characters.

We stopped for a little water painting.

Uncle Matt says Madison was learning how to clean.
When the parade got started Madison was clapping, jumping up and down, and dancing with all the other kids around us.

They asked for help to play with a parachute while the parade stopped to entertain the first half of the parade route and Madison was happy to oblige.

The bigger kids around her practically lifted her feet off the ground pulling the parachute up and down. She wasn't about to let go though. She had SO MUCH fun- I'm surprised her little arms had any strength left after 15 minutes of that.

When the parade took a turn and stopped in front of us she hung out on Uncle Matt's shoulders so she could get a better view of Princess Ada, Flik, Heimlich, and all the special dancers and Army man leading the fun.