Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Day 6, Hollywood Studios (Thursday)

Not the best picture but the ferry had so many characters!
Mickey in the show Fantasmic. Sadly, we went to this after terrifying Elli on the Tower of Terror. (She kept asking if she was going to twinkle like the people in the movie, i.e Twilight Zone. As we were flying down, Elli was near tears thinking we were going to twinkle away) Anyway, this show was about the evil characters trying to take over Mickey's imagination, so it showed all the evil villians very close up on the water spray background. Needless to say, Elli had a hard time sleeping that night. I found her the next morning still totally covered in her covers.
This picture cracks me up. She so wanted her picture with these actors. This was pose #5:)
Hollywood Studios:) Elli didn't like this as much as the other parks, since there were not so many rides, but the shows were awesome.
Meeting Quincy and June after seeing PlayHouse Disney live. She was quite excited.
We loved Beauty and the Beast, well most of us:) Elli only loved Beauty and the other girls in pink dresses:)
Play House Disney was a fun show, if you enjoyed sitting on the floor surrounded by lots of kids singing and dancing along:)

One of Elli's favorite moments was seeing The Little Mermaid show. She was a little confused about why Ariel wasn't swimming around though and was stuck on her rock:) Good thing she got legs at the end!
And yes, Minnie Mouse again. We wanted to go to the Toy Story ride first, but it was not working so we sent Brent to get a fast pass while we talked to Minnie. We did get to ride it later though as well as Tower of Terror.
Elli was making a wish while holding her balloon. Not sure what she was wishing for, but it is cute nonetheless:)

Day 5, Magic Kingdom again, swimming, parade and fireworks

Truly magical again!!!
I loved it. Firworks make me happy.
Elli was so surprised to see Tinker Belle flying from the top of the castle. I didn't get a picture of her, but Elli will not forget:)
We met up with some of the Raymonds. Elli was so excited! She asked all day of we were going to spend time with Lily. Sven took Caroline to another spot during the parade since there were too many people around. Elli was on Brent's shoulders, Lily was on mine. Some really nice people next to us held Andrew on their shoulders so he could watch the electrical parade. It was really cool.

Brent said he has a picture of himself in front of this mickey when he came to Disney World as a child. Fun times.
This was the pool at our resort with the pirate ship. It also had a big slide which Elli did all by herself! There were three pools there total. Lots of fun to be had! Elli learned to dive this trip. Always something new when she is in the water.
Yes, we saw Ariel again. I said Elli's name loud enough for Ariel to hear and then when she went up, Ariel said, "Hi princess Elli." Elli was amazed and knew for sure that they were friends after that!!!
We waited in line to see more princesses. Belle was wearing her yellow dress and Elli was ready to show off her own yellow dress. Elli really did love the princesses.
Cinderella again. We went back to the Magic Kingdom on Wednesday the 13th. Elli was ready to see more princesses and ride more rides. We went to Mickey's house and Minnie's, rode the Barnstormer, the carousel, Pirates of the Carribean, and some other things. We went back for swimming and naps then came back in the evening for parade and fireworks:)

Monday, October 18, 2010

Day 4, Animal Kingdom

We decided to go to Heather and Gary's room at the Dolphin after a long day at Animal Kingdom. We tried swimming but it was a little chilly, so we walked to the boardwalk and had dinner. Great ending to the day aside from Elli throwing up in their bathroom:)
Thank you Heather and Gary for letting us come over and for joining us for some time at the parks.
We all loved the Lion King show. It was so fun!!!
These monkeys were hilarious and fun to watch as they remained in character with all they did.
When I saw there was a petting zoo, I knew Elli would love to see goats:) What else can they safely put in a petting zoo? I was right though, she loved it.
Hi, Jiminy Cricket!
Pochantas was so sweet.
Finally a ride for Elli. There are more shows than anything else at the Animal Kingdom and Elli was getting a little restless.
Like I said, Elli hunted down Minnie mouse as often as possible.
Not the best shot, but we wanted a picture of the two of us in front of the tree of life.
The safari was awesome. We saw so many animals. Even the lion cooperated with a huge yawn, of course, right after I took this:)
Is this baby elephant the cutest thing you have ever seen? She was running after another elephant.
This giraffe was also running when we were going by. It was so much fun!
The safari was a great ride and we loved seeing all the animals. We saw an Okapi which Elli and I had just seen at the zoo. We love those animals.

Day 3, Magic Kingdom, Cinderella's Royal Table, Raymonds, O'Hannah's

Elli in line for the limbo. She was so sleepy and grouchy during this late dinner that she would start one of the kids activites and run back to our table crying. She did however make it through the limbo and parade. Poor girl was asleep after being in the car for about 1 minute:)
We ended our day with dinner at O'Hannah's at the Polynesian resort. Absolutely delicious and very fun. We all got out to hula:) After chowing down on dessert of pineapple unside down cake, ice cream and bananas foster, of which I ate the most, we decided to try to walk to our car which was supposedly closer than taking the monrail. We found it and took a sleepy girl back!
Finally we get on Dumbo. Heather and Gary rode with her so Brent and I would not have to ride anything else that went in circles:) Special time for them too.
The move it shake it party was fun for us, but not so much for Elli. She was scared of Mr. Incredible who was shakin his tail feathers right near us. We tried to get her out there to dance, but she was terrified:)
I cried all through the parade as well. Elli was waving to the princesses and calling their names. Finally Ariel rode by and Elli was waving like crazy and calling to her. Ariel looked at her and blew her a kiss. Elli was on cloud nine and I was bawling:) She totally believes they are real and that they are her friends.
Another coaster. We all rode the Big Thunder Mountain. Great fun.
Elli and Lily rode the Barnstormer together. Later we rode it together and she giggled and said it was more fun to ride with Lily.
Elli chose a purple page for the fairies to sign. Videa was happy about that:)
How could we not get a picture with Tinker Belle? This is the only place to meet her. Elli was shy in here. Didn't quite know what to think:)
We waited for about 45 min to see the fairies. We didn't wait that long for anything else:) We walked through the shrinking process and spent time with three fairies.
Then, the third surprise, we met up with the Raymonds!!!!! Look at the pure joy:) What absolute fun to surprise them this way.
The step sisters and step mother were hilarious!!! They asked Elli if she was a dancer to which she replied yes. Then they started singing and asked her to dance. She ran away crying:) So, Heather and I convinced her to come back up and get her picture. She would only do it with us.
After riding the carousel we saw Mary Poppins. Elli just couldn't believe that so many people came here:)
Seeing Belle again was fun for Elli. She loves all the princesses.
Ariel asked Elli to be her special helper. She walked around with Ariel to help her teach the girls how to make a wish. Watching Elli be in total awe of this experience made me cry!! Then, she made a wish, closed her eyes really tightly and looked in wonder as the lights went down and twinkled across the ceiling. So sweet. Later, we saw Elli trying to make a wish. She was looking up at the ceiling and nothing was happening. Wouldn't you know though that right after that, they did another wishing song:) (Now we did spend time reminding Elli that we do not wish on stars, but ask Jesus for what we need and want. Disney will try to make an atheist out of you so remember to speak truth often:)
Elli LOVES Ariel. She was so excited to see her. She followed her all around the room with her eyes until it was our time to visit with her.
This is a sweet picture.
Snow White is asking Elli about her little friends again. I love how they play their parts so well.

We couldn't resist a picture like this. Look how sweet Elli is. She loved meeting Cinderella and being in the castle.
So this may seem cheesy, but there really is something magical about the Magic Kingdom. I know it is more so because I was seeing it through Elli's eyes and excitement, but we loved it! Her little smile says it all.