Disney World

We spent the first two weeks of December with the Jackson family.  Sadly, Uncle Ben could not join us because he is still at school with the Navy.  We had everyone else together in Orlando for the first week and spent four of those days at Disney World, or MeMouse World as the kids call it.  We spent one day in each of the four parks.  During our days off we hung out and played horshoes and mini golf.  We also went out on the lake in paddle boats.  The kids insisted on standing up to dance every time we stopped paddling.  We also hit the pool three or four times during the week.  The day before we hit the first park, we had a little Christmas together, exchanging gifts between the families.  All in all everybody had a lot of fun.

When we did Christmas presents, Belle got a bunch of clothes for her baby Ruthie and some that matched for her.  This fairy outfit was one of them.  And this is the only picture I seem to have inside the time share.

Our first park was Animal Kingdom.  It was a pretty tame park and actually disappointed a few.  But it had one of my favorite rides of all four parks.  Expedition Everest is an amazing ride and Disney's first to have a ride vehicle go forward and backward on the same section of track.  Even Jackson loved it.  Sadly we didn't manage to save the pictures from that ride but it was fun.  The other favorite there was the safari, a rather long ride through a wildlife preserve.

Africa was one of the sections in Animal Kingdom

We all got first visit badges and Belle also got a birthday badge that she calls "my cupcake"

The kids picked out hats at Magic Kingdom.  They came with glasses and they wanted to wear those hats everywhere.

The second day we went to Magic Kingdom.  That was the one and only day of the entire two week trip where Jackson got completely lost.  Tom and I were on a ride and the kids were with the rest of the group.  They called me at the end of the ride to tell me they lost him.  We all panicked but an employee had noticed him and he showed the employee his bracelet.  The employee was just about to call us when my parents spotted him.  That was so stressful but I'm glad to know he actually knew to show his bracelet to get help.  Our favorite rides in this park were Splash Mountain and Pirates.  We did each several times.

Notice they are wearing their new hats again...

At the end of the night there was a big show and ceremony that ended with the lighting of Cinderella's castle with icicle lights for Christmas

The third day we went to Hollywood Studios.  I have to say it was one of my favorites. It doesn't have too many exciting rides, but the ones it has are great and I LOVED the shows.  I wish we had made it to the Indiana Jones show.  The cars show was great though.  Jackson loved it, especially the part with Lightning McQueen.  Belle loved the Beauty and the Beast show.  We stayed light for Fantasmic and it was amazing.  We took the kids to the Disney Junior show and they ate it up.  The bad part of that show was that someone stole my phone during the show.  I was in a panic for half the show looking for it.  It disappeared right out of my lap.  At the end of the show it was nowhere to be found, so we tracked it and pinged it.  After pinging it several times it was finally returned to an employee.  Thank goodness for phone tracking apps!!  The Rock N Roller Coaster was pretty fun and, surprisingly, I loved the Tower of Terror.  Jackson and Belle loved the Toy Story ride but the line was so long we only got to ride it once.  Maybe we can squeeze it in twice next time...

There were lots of shoulder rides at Disney World

Epcot was our biggest disappointment.  It had hardly any rides worth riding.  The kids loved the Nemo ride though and its accompanying aquarium, which has dolphins.  Of course, we all loved Soarin, but it has crazy lines so we only did it once.  Mission Space was surprisingly fun and we did it multiple times.  We never got to ride Test Track.  The Worlds Section was far more boring than I expected.  Evidently it's the best park for meeting characters but Belle is afraid of characters and Jackson only asked for one at Epcot, the "chickmunks".  I didn't even know he knew who they were, but we fulfilled his request. 

I think we waited about 30 minutes to meet them.  And then they teased him and stole his new necklace and he cried.  This picture was taken after they gave it back.

Belle could not get enough of the dolphins because she had been looking forward to swimming with the dolphins for weeks

  

Belle was not being cooperative but I got Jackson to pose by the Nemo statues

We also paid for the Disney PhotoPass +, but I don't have those pictures back yet, so I will put those in a separate post in a week or so.  

It was a really fun trip and I think the kids will remember it for so many different reasons for years to come.  If you have any questions for us about visiting Disney, feel free to ask....