Animal Kingdom...

We spent Wednesday morning at Animal Kingdom. We enjoyed Lion King, Nemo and Bug shows along with going on Safari.

Brayden got a turn to become a Superhero by becoming the Flash

Sarah got her own painting with a Henna tattoo.

Sarah took her turn going up Everest along with Jason, a roller coaster. She loved it!

Animal Kingdom wasn''t our favorite park, we found the park was a little harder to get around with everything spread out. We picked a few things to do and did enjoy the half of the day that we spent there. It's Disney World what can't you enjoy.

Magic Kingdom...

Ready for our day at Magic Kingdom, ears and all.

Tuesday was our day at the Magic Kingdom. We had only planned to go to Tomorrowland and Fantasyland and then go back Wednesday afternoon to finish with Frontierland and Adventureland, but by 3:00 p.m. we were done with the two lands we had wanted to do and decided to keep going for the last two.

(Side note - When we planned out our time at the parks we used a website called www.touringplans.com. They also have a book called "The Unofficial Guide: Walt Disney World 2012." In addition, you can get their app on your phone and it will give you the wait times for each ride, both projected and estimated, which was a huge help in helping us to do all the rides that we wanted to as well as use the Fast Passes. We would highly recommend it if you plan to go.)

Our first ride was Dumbo, which Brayden loved, and when went back on Wednesday night to ride a few more rides that was his choice.

This is the one time I got to ride with Brayden (aka Superhero) on a ride. I had to get a picture.

Next, off with Buzz Lightyear to see if we could fight off his sworn enemy Zurg (or his father??)

Because Brayden was doing so great with all the rides and he was tall enough we decided to take him on Space Mountain. I am not a roller coaster fan, doesn't set well with my stomach, but in family fun I went. Plus my baby boy was going and I wanted to experience it with him. I was nervous for Brayden when we got on because I thought the 3 people in the same car sat right next to each other, but there are seats separately you. I wasn't sure how Brayden would do sitting by himself, but Jason was right behind him and he was securely strapped in, I think. : ) I wish I could play a transcript of what went through my brain for the next 3 minutes of the ride. It went something like this - "I can't wait till this ride is over. I can't wait till this ride is over. Why did I come on it? Why did we take our 4 year old on it? Brayden is probably crying his eyes out! It's okay Brayden, Mommy loves you. When is this ride going to be over? Please not another drop. Please not another drop. Why is it so dark in here? My poor baby. He isn't going to want to ride on another ride today. PLEASSSSSSSE LET THIS RIDE BE OVER!!!!" LOL!!! Yes, it is funny, but it is the complete truth. Every one of those thoughts went through my head for 3 minutes straight. I like the idea of Space Mountain, but not riding it. When our car slowed down to a stop I thought I would hear Brayden crying, but not a sound. He got out and was completely fine. When Jason asked him if he wanted to ride it again he said "No". Nothing more to say about it and didn't have any problems riding any other rides. What was I so worried about?

This isn't an amazing photo especially with the writing in the middle, but had to add it since it shows what Brayden was doing during the ride. Covering his ears! Why didn't I think of that? It might have helped me.

Then off to drive race cars...

We had fun, a little back and forth on the wheel with our inexperienced drivers, but no whiplash for anyone. I love how all you can see is Brayden's ears from the steering wheel.

Lastly in Tomorrowland was the Laugh Floor with Monsters, Inc. We loved this show, really funny. We then headed to Fantasyland where we did Goofy's Barnstormer, Peter Pan's Flight, Mickey's Philharmagic (one of my favorite shows), It's a Small World, the Teacups and Winnie the Pooh.

We sat and waited for 20 minutes for the Main Street parade in brutal heat, but the smiles are worth it.

We didn't get many pictures the rest of the day, not sure why maybe we were getting tired. After the parade we headed to Adventureland and Frontierland and did Country Bear Jamboree, Splash Mountain, the Tikki Room, Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Our little pirate ready for action.

We came back the following night to get another family picture in front of the castle while down Main Street, shop on Main Street and get some treats from Aloha Isle, yummy!

Happy Family!!

Next Animal Kingdom and family time...

Arrival and Epcot...

Here we go...
We got to Orlando on Saturday late afternoon after a great flight on Jet Blue. I think it might become our preferred airline, very nice and comfortable.

We headed to our timeshare property and got settled in. It was a nice place, but we didn't spend much time there except sleeping. We went to get a bite to eat at Joe's Crab Shack our first time there, was good if you like seafood. Lastly off to Publix (I love this grocery store!) for food for the week. We didn't climb into bed until after 10 p.m.

Our little Mowgli and his balloon friend Kaa

Nice to meet you Captain Joe!

Our Sunday morning started off early heading to Hollywood Studios for the Star Wars weekend, one of the main reasons we booked our Disney vacation in May. We are huge Star Wars fans and they only have Star Wars weekends for 4 weekends during May/June. I will include all our pictures from that morning on another post.

At 1 p.m. we headed back to our timeshare, which was just 15 minutes from the parks, to have lunch and at 4 p.m. we went to Epcot for the rest of the day. We knew there were only a few things we wanted to see at Epcot so we didn't need to make a full day out of it.

We did:
-Mission Space - One of Brayden's favorites! "Mom, we went to space!"
-Character Spot - Met Mickey and his clan (another post)
-The Seas - Visited Nemo and his friends and did Turtle Talk with Crush
-Spaceship Earth - Needs to be updated, but a ride none the less.

Brayden rode with Jason on almost ride during the week. He loves being with his Daddy.

Bruce has got some big teeth!!

Our last ride was Soarin', our absolute favorite at Epcot. It is a simulated ride that makes you feel like you are hang gliding through the state of California. From the moment we got to the park the wait line was 45 minutes or longer, we weren't ready to stand in line for that long with Brayden so we decided to leave it until last. We headed to eat dinner and then see Illuminations the firework show. Half-way through the show we decided to head over to Soarin' to check out the wait time, we couldn't see the Illuminations show very well and Brayden isn't a big fan of fireworks as they bother his ears. By the time we got to Soarin' it was only a 5 minute wait. We were so excited and walked right up. Happy, Happy!

Last but not least was a little shopping and fun with hats.

Pretty mousekeeters

A little goofy

Our own Captain Jack - Argh!

Magic Kingdom up next...

Back home...

We are back home after a WONDERFUL vacation. We actually got home from Florida on Saturday afternoon and then hit the road on Sunday afternoon to Maryland to go meet our new nephew and came home Tuesday. 

I hope to start posting some pictures from our trip by tomorrow. Stepping back into routine here has us a little busy, plus as most of you know you need a few days to recuperate after a Disney vacation. It is exhausting fun.

Yahoo!!...

Today is the day!! We told Brayden this morning. No tears or jumping up and down, just simple excitement.

Thanks to going to Aunt Christy's house the day after we get back we had a little bit of a buffer with the suitcases being out. Brayden thought the suitcases were packed for going to visit her.

We are all looking forward to the week away together. I know it will be a memorable time for the four of us.

It's a surprise, Shhhh....

Can you keep a secret? We are taking a trip to Disney World this Saturday for a week.

Since the beginning of the year we have been planning a trip to Disney and have been keeping it a secret from Brayden. We wanted to keep it a secret from Sarah too, but because of missing a couple of things at school we felt she needed to be aware of the work she would need to makeup. When we told her she was ecstatic and could careless about school work.

Our plan is to tell Brayden Saturday morning. We are waiting to the last minute because I can't deal with all the questions of when are we going.

Brayden has no concept yet of time. Here was a conversation we just had today -
Brayden: Mommy, when are we going to Aunt Christy's?
Me: Two weeks.
Brayden: Two sleeps?
Me: No, Two weeks. Fourteen Days.
Brayden: I thought you said two weeks?
Me: I did. Two weeks is fourteen days. Seven days make up a week. Fourteen days make up two weeks.
Brayden: Oh. Two weeks. Does that mean now?
Me: No. Two weeks means two weeks.
Five minutes pass...
Brayden: Mommy, when are we going to Aunt Christy's?
Me: (long sigh)

Now we will just have to deal with our little guy's curious questions from our house until we arrive in Orlando. We are staying at a timeshare there in Orlando and will be going to the Disney parks for 4 days with 2 days off to relax and enjoy the pool.

We can't wait!!! We will be sure to video Brayden's response to the surprise and post it on the blog once we get back.

Hong Kong...

We arrived in Hong Kong on Tuesday evening after a 2 hour flight from Ho Chi Minh City. We took a bus to our hotel, The Salisbury YMCA. This hotel is not what you would typically think of a YMCA. It was right on the harbour and we had a beautiful harbour view.

The lobby, I didn't think to take one of our room, it was small but very nice.

This was the view from our breakfast table. We had the same view from our room just higher up.

The great ladies on our team - Angela, me, Joanne, Casey and Tricia

Every night at 8:00 p.m. Hong Kong has a show called the "Symphony of Lights" which is the largest permanent light and sound show according to Guinness Book of World Records. It utilizes lights on 33 key buildings on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It is beautiful right there on the harbour with all the night lights. We were all amazed by the size of Hong Kong, it blows New York City right out of the water. 

Both nights we were there we went shopping at some of the street markets. I still had gifts to pick up for the kids. Shopping is everywhere you go in Hong Kong. You walk down the street and there are stores. You go down in the subway and there are stores. Everywhere you turn there is a store you could shop at. We took the subway to get to the different markets, which took a while to figure out the first night but Jason and Dennis had it all figured out by the second night.

Wednesday on our full day we took a ride on the Peak tram up to Victoria Peak which has a gorgeous view over Central, Victoria Harbour, and the surrounding islands. The peak has a lot of history dating back to the 19th century because of its panoramic view, we could see why once we got to the top.

A little cloudy this day, but started clearing up later.

Our team - Jonathan and Casey Weber, Joanne Melhaldo, Tricia Wright, me and Jason, Angela Colindres and Dennis Bloom

We enjoyed our last meal on the trip at Ruth's Chris Steak House. The guys were so excited!

Dennis' birthday was the next day so we celebrated a little early.

This was an amazing trip. Again, I feel so blessed to have been able to go and take part in all that we had opportunity to do. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I loved being with Jason on this trip, so many times he has been able to go on these kinds of trip and I have stayed at home to take care of our babies but as they are getting older I know I will now have more opportunities to go with him. We would love to take Sarah and Brayden on some of these trips with us. We will see what the future holds. :)

Thanks for stopping by to hear all about it.