We went to Disney in December of 2015.  I WE LOVE DISNEY! We go as often as we can. I love family vacation.  Especially now that I work basically opposite shifts as my husband. I give up many weekends for weddings and sessions that we just don’t always get to do fun things together.  I always vowed that my work was to enhance our lives.  Not only does my income need to help support our basic needs, but if I was going to work so hard and give up family time vacation had to be priority.  We were going to skip vacation last year due to a big project we were hoping would happen, but it didn’t.

So we booked our trip to Disney World somewhat last minute.  We booked in August for December.  We like to go for 10 days and this time we decided to do the parks for 8 days (warning, long post).  We knew we wanted 7, but instead of taking an ‘off’ day, we opted to pay the extra $10 per ticket to have one more day.  Even if we didn’t stay long.  We arrived at Disney with maybe 1 dining reservation.  We were bummed because there were many we wanted to try, knowing this might be our last trip for awhile.  eh hem Thank you to the Disney App because we ended up getting to eat everywhere we wanted to just by checking for cancellations! We got into Be Our Guest, Via Napoli, Tutto Italia, Rose & Crown, 50’s Prime Time Cafe & Sci-Fi Dine-In Theatre.  What are the odds? Lol I wasn’t thrilled with the Sci-Fi Dine-In, but really loved the others.

The day had finally arrived and we were off to Philadelphia airport to catch our plane.  We have been flying Frontier Airlines lately and saving a BUNDLE on our travel costs.  $49 each way, yes please and thank you!  We arrived early this time (haha) and the kids had fun relaxing before we caught our plane. It was a terribly stormy and rainy day so I was very nervous.  I always get very anxious during take off and landing.

Our first day, we decided to arrive for the Rope Drop ceremony.  I didn’t get any photos of it, because I knew when it was over there would be a mad dash so I saved my camera.  I will say that when the train came down the track with the characters on it, I started crying. OMG I’m crying now! I know it seems so silly but it was just a special moment.  I think it was most special because it was our first day.  It was about to begin and I was over the moon!Daddy was on memory duty! See him on the left. 🙂 

We drove these cars maybe 5 times during this trip, haha.  We loved them. I have some great video clips of Layla & Evan driving them. I crack up every time I see them!They LOVED Tom Sawyer Island! I highly recommend it. It was our first time venturing over and we ended up going over twice.  Almost 3 times, but Evan’s belly got upset.

It was time for the Move it Shake it dance party. This is such a fun idea.  I love that they do this with the kids.  Although, our kids were exhausted by then so we ended up leaving before we danced that day, but have no fear, they did it another day.  On our way out we stopped for some treats and Mickey Hats!Hollywood Studios!!! Their favorite is the Tower of Terror (although Evan doesn’t ride it).  Evan and Layla love Honey I Shrunk the kids area (I think Carissa secretly does too).  We saw the Fantasmic show for the first time and I was happy we stayed for it.  It was a great show.  We stayed for the last one, so we left after the park closed.  I cried during the Frozen show when it snowed.  Yes, Disney brings out all of my tears!

My mom and step dad live in Florida now.  So they made the trip up from Naples one morning to hang out with us before we went to Epcot.  We plaid the longest game of Disney Uno ever and then played at the playground area.  The kids had so much fun.Then it was off to Epcot.  Every time we went to Epcot, my oldest wanted to Cosplay.  She dresses up as a favorite character.  She was excited every time someone recognized her.  She had great fun doing it.  She is obsessed with London and all things British.  So we had lunch at Rose & Crown and it was the highlight of her day.She has always loved Alice.  We had to see her 3 times during this trip!  Once was to give her a photos she drew for her.Carissa also loves Japan.  So she spent a lot of her money here, lol.  She loved the candy and soda.  Although, we aren’t a soda drinking family.  I ended up getting sick during the trip.  I had a fever and felt awful.  I’m so happy for the photos because I was in a bit of a daze and they are helping bring the memories back.  It started sprinkling when we sat down with funnel cake. My fever must have been pretty high at this point because I remember feeling really bad and needing to rest.  I was laughing to myself at everyone scrambling for cover from the sprinkles.  It was just sprinkling lightly and it was a warm day, so it felt so great.  I was really thankful that I ended up getting sick and nobody else did. It was horrible and I was so exhausted, but I think any mom would agree, better me than them. Until another time, Mickey! I already miss you and want to come back!!!  I know I said this would be out last trip for awhile, but I’m just not so sure.