The most vivid memory I have as a child was walking into Disneyland and seeing all the beautiful buildings and Cinderella's castle. I remember riding the Sky ride which were little carts which floated along the top of the park and you got to see everything that was happening below. I remember riding in the glass bottom boat through the jungle tour, and I remember the tune from It's a Small World staying me for the longest time. I wanted all those first memories for my girls, and so we decided that they were finally old enough to take them to Florida for them to experience it themselves. It was the best vacation we have ever been on. My dad works for one of the Disney resorts and therefore is able to get us into all of the parks for free. This people, is major. We got to see and experience so much, and rode nearly every ride at the Magic Kingdom. The girls, of course, were a little nervous about the characters and basically made a bee line in another direction every time they saw one, but they admired them from afar. I was worried about whether or not they would be able to handle some of the rides, but they were both real troopers and actually shocked me quite a bit. Their favorites...Splash Mountain (Tori laughed hysterically on the way down and said she wanted to get back on it), Goofy's Barnstormer, Pirates of the Caribbean, and It's a Small World. We were at the park from the time that it opened to the time that it closed and loved every minute of it. We can't wait to go back.

This is about as close as they got to any of the characters that were not princesses.


In awe as they watched...

this. The first show that we saw as soon as we got there.


Waiting to see Mickey's Philharmonic. Tori didn't like wearing the 3D glasses much.

Meeting and taking pictures with the princesses was one of the highlights of the day. The girls were speechless. Little did they know that is would get much better.


One of the coolest things was touring through Mickey and Minnie's homes. You felt like you had just stepped into a cartoon. The microwave in Minnie's kitchen even turned on and popped popcorn in it. So fun...




And finally the Spectral Magic Parade at the end of the night. We had the perfect seats, thanks to some nice guy at the park who gave us info on where and when to park ourselves for the parade.





Belle also got to experience a little magic that I'm sure she will always remember. While we were waiting for the parade to start, Alex walked her up to the castle so that they could see the inside. Well, while they were up there, Belle noticed that this guy was down on one knee,out in the performance area, proposing to his girlfriend. She of course said yes, and Belle was so excited about it. She came down and told me all about it and then insisted that i go with her so that she could show me who they were. What an awesome thing for her to see there in the Magic Kingdom.

Okay, I'm off to bed. This post took much longer than I thought it would. I will post more pics of our trip tomorrow.

Have a great night.
*ciao*
deb