Vacation Continued....

 After our fun day at Magic Kingdom, we took the kiddos to one of Disney's water parks.  It was super fun and they had a great kid area but if I could go back, I probably would wait til they're older to do a water park again.  It made me realize that fast passes make a huge difference.  Unfortunately, there are no fast passes at water parks.  Bummer.  We really did have a great time though.  Anna was probably enjoying it the most.  She was so brave and loved all the slides.

 Oh, to be a kid again.

 The following day, my sweet parents watched all three kids so that Josh, LG, and I could go to Universal Studios.  I was a little nervous to leave all three kids.  I knew my parents would be great with them, but I'm just never away from them for more than a couple of hours at a time.  I thought about them all day and squeezed their guts out when we got home.  Universal was super fun and very different from Disney.  It definitely had a different feel to it.  I think that Disney's employees were much more professional and really played their part well.

 Josh and I were SO excited to go see Harry Potter World.  It was so, so cool to be there.  They did a great job creating this.

 You know you're a Stewart child if....

 It was so fun to go in all the little shops.  Everything was just decked out.  Super cool.

 There's the castle.

 This was in line waiting to go on the ride through the castle.  They had talking pictures.  I tried desperately to get a picture of them but flash or no flash, they just did not turn out.

 Right before we went on the Dueling Dragons roller coaster.  We basically just walked right on.  This was my first roller coaster of the day so I was a little nervous.  Ok, I was REALLY nervous.  It was a blast though.  The first time, we didn't ride in the front and the next time we did.  It was like a different roller coaster being in the front.  It was way more fun and more exhilarating to be in the front.  Loved it.  Only afterwards did Greg tell me how after this roller coaster, my brother Bryan threw up and threw up and threw up.

 This was the. lamest. "ride". EVER.  That's all I have to say.

 Waiting in line for Spiderman.  Look at these tough guys.

 The ride through the castle was super neat.  I love modern technology.  The first time we went on it, it kind of stalled so we got to get immediately back on and ride it again.  We were stoked.

 We had to get a butter beer.  It tasted like caramel cream soda.  We loved it.  We went back for one more on our way out.  It was such a fun, fun trip.  A big thank you to my parents who made this happen.

Our Trip to Disney World

 I have been SO excited to do this blog.  If you thought the last blog had a lot of pictures, just wait.  Josh and I got to take our kids down to Disney World a few weeks ago.  We knew it would be fun but our expectations were far exceeded.  It was truly magical.  The kids thought everything was real.  Real princesses, real castles, real homes for the characters.  I loved watching their eyes LIGHT up with wonder.  We could not possibly have had more fun.  They are BEGGING for us to take them back.
The picture above is of us riding the tram over to the park.  I think it took us about 45 minutes JUST to get into the park.  It was crazy.  Below is a picture we took just as we began our fun adventure.

 Our first ride was the teacups.  We saw that there was no line and jumped at the opportunity not to wait.  What made Disney World so fun was that we never waited more than 20-30 minutes for a ride.  We couldn't believe it.

 The kids really liked it.

 We got to go with the amazing Uncle Greg.  He was SO much fun to have with us.  He was a really, really good sport about going on all the kiddie rides with us.  Not only was he super fun but he was SUPER helpful.  We would not have had the same experience without him.

 Here is the famous Dumbo ride.  They had two Dumbo rides set up and a playground in the line.  You give them your name and they give you a buzzer.  Your kids get to play on the playground and when your buzzer goes off, you get to get on the ride.  Genius!!

 Here we are in the Ariel ride.  We went on this one a few times.  It was a HUGE hit with our kids.

Every time Andrew saw Ursual, he shot webs at her because she was a bad guy and he was Spiderman.

 Josh and Greg went to get fast passes while we played in the water.  I would say we went to cool off here but the weather was unbelievable!  It was so, so nice that we never once felt hot.

 Daniel got a good nap in.  He usually doesn't sleep very well if he's not in his crib but we wore him out pretty well.  He slept great!  What a blessing, huh!

 This is part of the playground in the Dumbo line.  Andrew was having so much fun that we could only get a picture of the back of his head.

 How happy does he look, huh?

Here we are at the Buzz Lightyear Ride.  This was probably Andrew's favorite ride.  He loved killing all the bad guys with his "shooter gun".

 You can see Buzz in the background if you look closely.  Andrew totally thought he was the real thing.  He was SO excited to meet him.

 Andrew crashed during lunch.  I'm so glad he napped because it allowed him to go a lot longer.

 They do a parade in the middle of the afternoon with all the characters.  It was wonderful.  The kids were content with that so we didn't have to wait in line for 30 minutes to meet just one character.  We were thrilled!

 Waiting in the line for "It's a Small World".

 This is a terrible picture, I know, but we thought it was funny that it looks like Daniel is holding the camera and taking the picture himself.

 We just ADORE Uncle Grease.

 Daniel danced the whole ride on Small World.  He was just laughing and squealing the whole time.  Totally hilarious!

 It rained, and rained, and rained, and rained.  Then it rained some more.  We were totally drenched.  Anna even got a bad rash for wearing wet clothes all day.  Her legs were super chapped.  Poor girl.

 I took this picture just to show how totally wet we were.

 A while ago, our friend Greg told us that he took his daughter on Splash Mountain but didn't tell her about the drop beforehand so she wouldn't freak out.  Well, that made Josh convinced that he was going to do that with Anna.  I was adamantly opposed to this idea.  As we approached Splash Mountain, Anna yelled out, "Oh I can't wait to go on that one.  Won't it be so funny when we go down that big hill?"  I looked at Josh and gave him the OK and off they went.  My stomach was in knots the whole time, worried that Anna would be ruined and not want to go on any more rides.  I looked at every boat that came down hoping it wasn't hers, hoping that maybe she changed her mind.  Finally, I saw them.  I ran to the bridge to talk to her and she was crying a little.  By the time she got off the ride though, she was SO happy and said it was her favorite ride.

 She did it!

 It was Andrew's turn next.  We knew he may be a little small for the ride but we tried anyways.  Josh took him and as they approached the lady who was checking heights, there was a couple in front of them.  Josh says the little boy was probably 39.99 inches tall and you have to be 40 inches.  The worker was super hesitant to let him on.  Josh just knew Andrew wouldn't make it, (he's about 38.5 inches).  As the worker was checking this boy in front of him, Josh scooted around them and told the lady there were two in his party.  He got on and LOVED it.  When I went to the bridge for him, he was laughing at the bottom of the drop.  My kids definitely get that from their dad.  Their mom is a scardy-pants.
What's Disney World without some Mickey Mouse ice-cream ears.  I was actually very impressed with the taste of it.  I loved it!

 This is us at the 3-D movie.  It was so, so cute!  We were all super impressed.  The kids kept trying to reach out and touch things that they thought were right in front of them.

 Here we are at Pooh's Hundred Acre Wood.

 We stayed til closing.  We had to see the electric parade.  It was wonderful!  The kids could not have been happier.

 Only at Disney World do you buy $9 lollipops.  They did have planes that lit up and flew on the top though, perfect for an electric parade.

 Come on, that's pretty cool!

 Daniel was just eating it all up.  He was so good for us that day.  We were pretty worried how he would be but he was wonderful.  All of the kids were.  No fighting, just happy, excited kids.  That made for happy, excited parents.

 More to come.