Favorite Disney Moments So Far...

 Our family took the plunge and joined many of our friends here in Gainesville and got Disney passes! I haven't done a Disney post since we took Julian for the first time for his 3rd birthday, so I have LOTS of catching up to do here on the blog!

  We don't know where in the world we will be next year, so for now, while we are only an hour and a half away from Orlando, we decided to live up our access to Disney! Each time we go we find new things to do and try, sometimes things that we did not even know about before! It has been one of the most fun thing we could have done as a family...at some point during each trip, Stace and I always turn to each other and say "man, I'm so glad we did this!" And every time we're there I turn and look at my children and at our family and tears well in my eyes at the gratitude I feel for them.  We absolutely love this time while they are small, and it hurts to know that they won't be this small for long.  Of course I don't have to be at Disney to do this...it would happen no matter where I am, but that "magic" you feel there and that we see in their eyes brings it to the forefront of my mind throughout the entire time we are there.  

So, catch up time! Without further adieu...

I think I will be setting a new record of most photos in one single post ever (and I won't even include Animal Kingdom photos)! If you get through them all, I'll send you a prize...haha!

Here we all are crammed onto Dumbo together! On this trip, we discovered that Dumbo has an amazing waiting area and indoor playground under a big circus tent. It makes your wait time go by so fast, and it's just a blast!

 Fan favorite.

 We met up with the Glenn's one day and Julian and Julia were over the moon to be at Disney together!

Daddy smiling at Ella Grace on the magic carpet ride!

 It snowed at night time! Talk about magical:)

On our first trip to Epcot

We met up with The Glenn's again! Here are Julian and Julia captivated on the Finding Nemo ride!

 Upon exiting the Nemo ride, you enter a giant aquarium. It is awesome!

I love, love, LOVE this photo!!!

 

 The diver was so awesome. He sat there and played with the kids for a while:)

 I don't remember which ride this was, but they approved:)

 

 This was Ella Grace's first time meeting Mickey and Minnie! Mickey is telling her a secret:)

 She loves meeting the characters! keeses!

 Spinning around with Daddy...

 We love this family!

Another fun-filled day at Disney!

 When my mom came to visit we took her to Disney!  What an awesome day it was! 

 We watched a parade for the first time on this day. Ok, so, yeah...the parades will definitely make you cry! So sweet!

 I have a photo of me on the carousel with my mom's dad. I'll have to post that one of these days:) But for now, here is Gigi goofing off with the kiddos!

 Since Gigi was spotting the kiddos, Daddy and I got to sit back on our own little bench and just enjoy the view:)

Here we are waiting to go on the teacups ride for the first time. I didn't get any good pics while we were on it, but I love this one. Real men hold their wives' diaper bags...

 And shower kisses on their children:)

 Waiting in line to go on the "Astro Orbiter" for our first time on this rocket ship ride!  Sometimes the lines are long, and you have to get creative to pass the time...

 Belly button hunt!

 Sweet boy was SO excited! 

This ride was SOOOO much faster than we'd expected! Not the leisurely Dumbo type ride we were imagining:)

Elephant in the room, so I'm just gonna say it: my husband looks so hot in this photo:)

Cloud 9!

We went to Gaston's Tavern afterwards for the first time.  

 I just love all the exciting new additions there are to see in the new Fantasy Land, like Belle's castle and the Tavern (above), and the new Little Mermaid ride.  Just so amazing! Here is my mom marveling at all there is to see while on that ride! It's definitely a family favorite:)

 Mom bought a parkhopper pass so we went to Epcot with her, too: 

 So she got to try out the Nemo ride...

 And go to the aquarium!

 

Love this pic of Stace!

 Trying on these awesome Minnie ears!

 

When the day comes that Ella Grace wants a pillow pet, we found a few that she would love...

 This past Monday and Tuesday we took a little spring break trip to Disney!  On Monday we went to the Magic Kingdom.  We missed our exit for lunch before we got there, and accidentally went straight to Disney grounds. The only restaurant outside of the parks is McDonald's. So. The kids had their very first McDonald's experience!  Not a proud moment for me, but they got chicken nuggets, apple slices and skim milk...so really, it wasn't too bad.

Ella Grace's face might appear as though she didn't like her lunch.  That is not true.

I'm sorry, but I just love this little profile so. much. 

Our first stop at Magic Kingdom was to run to Dumbo after getting Fast Passes to the Little Mermaid (I love that Fast Passes were invented)! Here we are waiting without our shades on...

And then with them on:)

Gaston's Tavern...(has awesome cinnamon rolls!)

Stace and Julian went on the race car ride for the first time! (Hot husband comment also quite applicable here;)

Julian absolutely LOVED it!!! Julian said it was his favorite thing he did all day:) You know he felt so special sitting in that driver's seat. (I remember this was my favorite ride when I was little, too!)

While Julian and I went on the Goofy roller coaster (so fun!), Daddy and Ella Grace were going to go on the carousel. We met back up with them and found out they'd decided to get ice cream, instead! ;)

gain, something we'd never done before: "Storytime with Belle". We didn't really know what to expect. It was SO cute! You go into Belle's and her father's cottage, then walk through a big mirror that the Beast gave her dad so he could visit her anytime he wanted. When we stepped through the mirror, we were all of a sudden in her beautiful castle.  While we waited to surprise Belle for her birthday, acting parts were given to different members of the audience to act out the story of how the Beast and Belle fell in love.  There were about 15 parts given out to people ranging in age from young to probably 40. But the youngest child with a part was still at least three years older than J. But at the end, Julian raised his hand because he wanted a part, too!  He was to play the role of...

dancing dinner plate!

But then the little girl who'd been given the role of Chip (the little teacup) didn't want to play anymore, and Julian wanted to take her place!  He was ready for his acting debut!

Getting ready to hop on up to Belle. Seriously, he was the cutest little Chip ever!

Saying his lines...

Marching around the room...(no flash photography was allowed!)

That night we went on the Buzz Lightyear ride, and Stace and Julian were very much in character...

We watched another parade that night "The Mainstreet Electrical Parade"...so cool! By the time we left, Julian was absolutely passed out, but Ella Grace was wide awake! Everyone around thought it was so funny that "the little one" was so wide-eyed! She even tried to wake up brother!

On Tuesday we went to Disney's Hollywood Studios with the kids for the very first time!

 I had to get a picture of this...the kids both wanted to hold daddy's hands (fingers) while we waited:)

After getting our Toy Story ride fast pass, we went to the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playground...

 Can you tell I was in charge of Ella Grace and Stace was in charge of J? All my pics are of her! Plus J's too fast on a playground most of the time for me to get any pics of him!

 There's my handsome boy! After the playground we were on our way to a Little Mermaid show, but we passed the Toy Story ride and it said the wait time was only 20 min! We went inside right away, because before the playground the wait time had been 120 minutes! (Hence, the reason why Fast Passes are so good.) However, we ended up waiting 80 minutes for that ride!  Here we are at the beginning of that wait...

 We're real big on hugs in our family...

 Julian would have waited another 80 minutes for this ride. He absolutely loved it!!!

 Watching the awesome Hollywood Studios Parade!

 Parades can be seen better from Daddy's shoulders...

 So, Julian has never been big on meeting characters. That all changed this past Tuesday! He LOVED meeting Sulley and Mike Wizowski from Monsters, Inc.  After this happy little meet and greet, character introductions were smooth sailing and so fun all day for him!

 Look at that sweet, little, pleased-as-punch face!

 "No way is this happening" is what I'm pretty sure was going through J's head at this moment...

 "Hooray!!! Y'all. I just legit met Lighting McQueen."

 They were so neat!  They're eyes were some sort of computer screens or something because they moved!

 We went to a Disney Junior show. It was SO adorable!!! Here is J watching...

The great thing about meeting characters at Hollywood Studios is that the lines are all super duper short! (Except for Buzz and Woody- we didn't meet them because it was a 30 minute wait.)

 Jake sure is a sweet pirate, because he hopped on over to Ella Grace to say hi to her, too!

 She was quite pleased:)

 Julian looks so growney to me in the next two pics!!! He's so handsome:)

 He was also happy to meet Handy Manny! (He's never even seen that show;)

 We took Julian on Toy Story two more times that day with our Fast Passes. While Stace and Julian were riding, Ella Grace explored by foot and had a blast saying "hi! hi!" to all the birds!

 Next it was my turn to take Julian on Toy Story! 

 This baby girl would not take a nap on Tuesday!

 Again with the finger holding...so cute!

 Ella Grace gives the sweetest, hour long hugs!

And that's how we ended our Disney extravaganza on Tuesday.  Wonderful, wonderful memories, and more photos than I know what to do with! But I love & cherish each and every one of them!