First Day in Magic Kingdom

We got up early on Saturday morning for our first experience at Disney!  Here are the kids with the big ole double strollers in the background....in the parking lot before tram and the ferry ride over.  It was quite a process actually getting TO the Magic Kingdom, just from the parking lot!  Plenty of time of photo opps.

This is the beginning of the boys lugging the double strollers.  Notice they're still smiling here.  By the end I couldn't have taken this picture for sure.

Charli and Landon (the big kids!) taking in the view from the top level of the ferry over.

And then off the tram with double strollers loaded...headed straight to Fantasy Land!









We started off with Dumbo.  Landon and Grant were both impressed with the peanut impressions on the sidewalk leading up to the ride...let alone the ride itself!  Landon rode with me and Grant with Daddy.  The boys did well and seemed to really like Dumbo....and THEN....

...we rode the Goofy Barnstormer...which I should've looked at a little more closely before putting our boys on it first thing...our boys who haven't ridden anything except the giant slide at the state fair and the carousel at White Oaks Mall.  Here we are BEFORE the ride...Afterwards Landon for sure wasn't smiling.  Grant was terrified the entire time, and had this look of sheer horror the whole ride, and then when it was over he couldn't decide if he should laugh or cry.  One look at Landon sealed the deal and he decided he didn't like it either.

After the Barnstormer we took a little break in the splash park area, where Landon wasn't much into splashing.  He was officially in a funk and pouting over the Barnstomer.  After trying to talk him out of it, to no avail, we went over to meet Goofy and Donald at Pete's Silly Sideshow.  I was super excited for our first character meet and greet but Landon pouted the entire time and was finally told he'd have to snap out of it or meeting Star Wars characters the next day would be out of the question.  Grant on the other hand was pretty into it and it was very appropriate the first character we met was Goofy...his favorite.

Kristi had this great idea of having a pillowcase for the characters to sign, so I added some ribbons and names to our pillowcases.  Here's Chad and Grant getting the Goof's autograph!

After our Star Wars threat...Landon sucked it up for the Great Donaldo picture.  You can tell from the picture it was not a whole hearted effort though.  haha!

We decided to head over to Tomorrowland to get Landon back in the mood...so we hit up Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin.  We had watched a little of this one on YouTube so the boys both knew a little more what to expect.  This one was more Lando's speed....he rode with me....so I don't have any pictures of him.  Grant and Chad rode behind us so I got a few pictures of them...which I LOVE.

...especially this one.  This is what I'm calling "Grant's Ride Face"  because he looked like this a lot at the Disney parks.  Poor kid didn't know what to think.  He always laughed when we were finished, but wasn't really sure during a lot of the rides.

This one all ended well, because we defeated the Evil Zurg, of course.  

...here are Grant and Blake...good buddies.  Right after I took this picture they both wiped out.

After the Buzz Lightyear Ride we hit up the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor which was super cute, too.  It's a little show hosted by Mike Wazowski and his comedic monster friends.  They are working to fill up a laugh tank for energy for Monstropolis of course.  The monsters come out and put people in the crowd up on the screen, tell jokes, and kind of make fun of people...all with intentions of making the crowd laugh.  After this one Landon perked back up.  Phew...thank goodness.

Here's Grant waiting in line at the Laugh Floor.
He was getting used to his car naps....Magic Kingdom was wearing him out!

After the laugh floor we rode the People Mover, which was a little train tour of Tomorrow Land.  

When we came out we got in line to meet Buzz Lightyear!

We were really lucky!  Buzz normally signs with a stamp but he used a marker and did a signature on our pillowcases.  Thanks, Buzz!!!
...time for a cool drink!  Blue Swushy (as Grant calls them) to share!

We ate lunch at Cosmic Ray's...great food.  We discovered that even though grilled cheese wasn't on the menu they'd make it for you if you asked.  Landon was on cloud nine....and so were we when we realized they charged us a buck seventy nine for it!  WHAT?!  Grilled cheese every meal for Lando!  (kidding)  Grant wasn't hungry at lunch...but after we left Cosmic Ray's, he was, of course.  So we got him a Mickey Pretzel....it's the only thing that can beat a Target pretzel.  ;)

We rode the race cars at the Speedway.  It was Grant's turn to ride with me.  He said he wanted to drive, but then when we got in, decided he didn't want to.  So I 'drove' around the track from the passenger side of the car which was a good excuse for me because I had a hard time keeping the stinking thing in the track without it bumping me back and forth!  Landon and Chad were ahead of us...there were signs for no bumping so I of course obeyed the rules...til the very end when we did just a little love tap into the loading zone.  Landon let me know about it afterwards.

We rode It's a Small World, and the Country Bear Jamboree before the parade through Liberty Square.  Grant was so tired, but refused to give up for a nap.

Here are the boys...prisoners to driving the cumbersome double strollers....we said putting the strollers in the picture would be a good idea, but no one had the energy to lift them up there.  That's how heavy these stinkin' things are.

waiting on the parade!

Love these pictures of Jessie and Grant

and before the parade was even all the way through, it started raining.  It stormed pretty bad....with really loud thunder and some serious lightning.  Poor Grant fell asleep while I was holding him with a death grip on his ears.

Here's a view of the front of the strollers while we hovered in a restroom pavilion...

...and the back of the strollers.

 After many times checking the radar (how did we get by without internet access on our phones?!) we decided to pack it up for the day.  On our way out of the park they cancelled the evening parade and fireworks.  It also made much more sense as to why the park didn't seem that crowded earlier in the day.  People must've known it was coming.  Not us people though.

We decided to drown our disappointment in Giordano's pizza.  That's right....as in Chicago's best...which was entirely TOO close to our house to not have it a couple times in the week that we stayed.  :)   We also needed to move to a different house.  The one we stayed in the first night was just a temporary stay until our real house opened up.  Amazing how much STUFF we have...and how at home we made ourselves in a matter of one day.  After the big move there was some tub time....had to scrub off all that sunscreen...or at least what was left of it that the rain didn't get.  Probably the last tub shot we'll have of all four of em!  Don't think we'll be able to squeeze them in there!

 That night, Landon wrote in his journal:  "I rode the Goofy Barnstormer and boy was it scary."  Ha!