Day 2
We started during Early Magic Hours at 8am at Magic Kingdom. We went right to Dumbo, which had been Abby's request. We learned quickly, that Abby's trouble with sharing extends to theme parks. She had no clue that we had to share with everyone around us. We were walking to Dumbo and she saw it starting to move. Se freaked out shouting "mom they didn't wait for us, they have to wait for us, they started without us!" It took her 3 rides before she figured out that other people could ride as well, and that we had to wait in line until it was our turn!

Maggie and Katherine also got their favorites out of the way with splash mountain and big thunder mountain. I fact, thanks to 'rider swap' they got to ride each one twice! We played until about noon and then went to the Grand Floridian for a quick lunch before heading back to the hotel for rest time.

HA! Rest time on vacation? Abby was not buying that one, despite really needing a nap, it took me about an hour to get her to zone out to the TV for 45 minutes, and that was all we got. But it was good.

While I fought that battle, Chris and girls spent some time with an animator, learning how top draw 'Squirt' the turtle from Nemo, and then they swam for a bit. (til they closed the pool for lightening, we never had rain)

After getting all cleaned up, we went to OHANA for dinner. It was delicious, even Abby and Katherine were happy with the food, and Maggie did try a few things. We enjoyed the wandering musicians, playing Ukelele of course. And the girls land I took part in the group Hula lesson!

Then it was back to MK to wait for the electrical parade. Let me say this, it is still as magical as ever! The girls loved it, convinced that every character who glanced in our direction was waving to only them! Aside from the man who squeezed in front of us and then took a cell phone call during the parade, it was fabulous!

Before bed, no one could decide on only 1 favorite thing from the day, success!



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Planes, trains and automobiles is one of my favorite movies.
Today, we had that kind of day, only with monorails, busses and a boat as well!
our flight to Orlando was perfect, full of happy families going to DisneyWorld. (yes, Nora, I talked to them,found out where they were staying, how long,etc. It's what I do,I chat!)
We had no wait for our Magical Express bus to our hotel, and arrived ahead of schedule. Of course, that meant our room wasn't ready, but no worries,we had lunch in the food court and wandered the incredible grounds. Ou r room was ready in plenty of time.
I encourage you to google Art of Animation resort, and look for YouTube videos or pictures. It is truly amazing. It's over the top, but not gaudy.ait is a child's heaven. I can't even imagine if our girls were big fans of CARS, because I'm not sure of they'd let us leave the hotel. It is really, very cool.
Once in our room, we got changed and headed to the pool. Again. COOL! It's a salt water pool, with zero depth entry, perfect for Abby. They had activities at one end, with dancing and music (think Hokey Pokey) but st the other end, it was just enjoyable,and if your wanted music, you could just duck under the water to listen to the underwater soundtrack, awesome.

About 5pm we we
Lint back, showered, and got ready towhead to dinner. We left about 6 for Downtown Disney. We went to Wolfgang Puck Express For fabulous meal, one of the best values for the Disney Dining Plan. The girls had nuggets and mac n cheese. It was "real" Mac, not Kraft, and i thought Maggie would reject it, but she devoured it!
I had a roasted chicken and garlic mashed potatoes, Chris had a roasted veggie pizza, we both had creme brûlée for dessert.

Next on our agenda was going to the Polynesian for the electric boat parade, one of Chris' favorite memories/must do Disney things. We were just going to take a bus to the hotel, but a different bus came fist, so we decided to go to that hotel (grand Floridian) and then monorail over to the beach.
Sadly, it was not a direct bus, in fact it was the slowest ever. And it was on the us that we noticed the lightening. Hmmmm, perhaps no electric boat parade in a lightening storm?
But we were meeting a college friend, so we pressed on. On the monorail we ended up in an overly crowded car with a crowd of Spanish speaking families. One woman ended up sitting on Maggie and poor Maggie wasn't sure what To do, she just cried out MOM! And I was able to move over so she could sneak out from under this woman. We made it to the beach to find out they would not be doing the parade, However, it was cooler, and delightful, so we sat down, let the girls play in the sand, and got drinks form the beach bar.

And then, more lightening, and more wind, and suddenly, a Boat! It was the shuttle over to Magic Kingdom, which is where we needed to be to get our bus back to out hotel. GIRLS, SHOES, LET'S GO,

We dashed out to the boat, and made it just in time. However, it's a bit unsettling when the boat captain greets You with a worried look, "where did all this wind come from?"
We made it halfway across the lake when one of the girls said, Look!
Sure enough, we suddenly had front row seats to the Electrical boat parade! It was as thrilling as ever, and then we continued our journey to MK. we found the bus back to our hotel, and ended up back here about 10pm

The excitement of Murphy bed and sofa bed led to many giggles, but eventually fatigue won out, and now everyone is happily asleep!

All this excitement, and we didn't even set foot IN a park today!

Tomorrow, Magic Kingdom!



View from our hotel room




In the sand

(Please ignore typos, doing this from iPad )

And we're off! Or, sitting at the airport, but we're almost off!

Everyone should be so lucky as to have a neighbor like Kathy! House-sitting, flamingo decorating, and beverage delivering-who could ask for anything more?

(and blog-reading, too! Hi Kathy!)

Half of the forty painted toes from this afternoon. We have to have pretty toes for Disney, right?


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Listening to the girls play twister is funny enough, but when they add Olympic medals? Hilarious!



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After story time, we enjoy iPad time. Love spending the afternoon with Gram and PopPop!



(Abby told PopPop,"your belly is squishy!"


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