Where Dreams Come True: WDW Highlights

Our trip to Disney was exciting, sweaty, exhausting-in-a-good-way, magical, and most of all, so very memorable.  Over the course of our stay, we spent time at the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Downtown Disney.  We saw as much as we could see in our four and a half days, and still, of course, there wasn't enough time to see it all.  I can't wait to go back!

Between the three of us, my mom, sister, and I have tons of pictures.  I'm still trying to sort through them all, reliving the various moments we captured as I go.  The meltdowns (Sara's and mine, to be fair) were minimal, so the bulk of our memories are nothing but sweet!  I don't know how I'll ever decide which pictures to print and frame.  In the meantime, I'll post some highlights here.

When we arrived at our resort on Saturday, we checked in, ate some lunch, and headed directly to the Magic Kingdom. On our bus ride to the park, we all joined together in an incredibly well-done version - if I may say so myself - of "Yo-ho, yo-ho, a pirate's life for me!" We hit up all of our favorite rides including It's a Small World, Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Haunted Mansion, just to name a few. That evening we had a character dinner with Pooh and Friends. We weren't sure how Sara would react to the characters, but she loved them. She readily gave out hi-fives, hugs, and kisses. I think she may have experienced a little slice of heaven.

On Sunday we spent the bulk of our day at Epcot enjoying the World Showcases.  While we ate lunch in Mexico, we all agreed that Germany was our favorite country of the trip.  For one thing, Snow White was in Germany and Sara was beside herself at getting to spend time with the beautiful Snow.  During our day at Epcot, Sara also met Sleeping Beauty and Belle.  She was thrilled to hug so many princesses.  She managed to get Grandpa Todd to buy her a Snow White of her very own ... imagine that.

Germany was also stocked with excellent adult beverages and brats and pretzels the size of Sara's head.  What can I say, we're easy to please.  We opted to return to Germany on the evening of the 4th to watch Epcot's incredible fireworks display.  For me, that was one of the highlights of the trip.  The tribute was incredibly moving, and on top of it, we had a great spot right on the water with good food and drink, and even better company.

Oh, yes she did eat all but about two bites.

Waiting for the fireworks to begin ...

No matter how old we get, my sister and I will always love It's a Small World ...

... and Mary Poppins.  Spit-spot.

Other highlights included a character breakfast at Animal Kingdom with Mickey and pals where Sara almost missed meeting Mickey due to an unfortunate bowel situation. Grandpa Todd mentioned that she must have just been really nervous about the big meet and greet. I don't know why, but traveling reeks havoc on Sara's little system. I won't go into details, but I will let you know that we had to buy a new dress last minute in the resort gift shop yesterday because our bags had already been checked (and we'd already gone through the extra clothes I had with me), and we opted to leave the stroller in a trash can at the resort after all was said and done. But I digress ... not really a highlight, I suppose.

We rode the Tower of Terror (it was worse than I remember ... I never need to do that again thankyouverymuch), we met all the friends at the top of the list, we probably lost at least five pounds each thanks to the combination of walking and sweating, Daddy bought Sara we bought too many souvenirs, I got an awesome backpack tan line, we had a front-and-center view for the Magic Kingdom parade, and overall, we all had a vacation we won't soon forget.  Truly, we have just come home from the Most Magical Place on Earth.