the happiest place on earth.

The flight there was so flawless, I was pretty sure that we had used up all of the well-behaved kid thing and decided the flight back would be a nightmare - I'd worry about it when it got closer.  It took me approximately 49 minutes to get two strange car seats into the minivan rental, and then we were off - Jimmy would be delighted by the way that you could throw the coins in the toll booths (not as amused, says the quarter donor), and we would later mistakenly travel to Disney, make a (legal) u-turn and then stumble onto our condo quite accidentally.  We met my Aunt Karen and Cecelia there - it was so fun to spend the week with them!

You'll notice a trend in all of the photos - Eisley chose this week to become allergic to shoes and the stroller, so she mostly looked like our resident hobo with black-bottomed feet each day.  And unsurprisingly, she was not a fan of the characters.  She enjoyed some of the princess, tolerated other princesses, and really was the most okay with having her picture taken with Cinderella's step sisters (I know.).

Hollywood Studios - we spent the morning standing around looking like bewildered tourists.  We made it to Disney Junior which was a trip favorite, and then we met up with one of my best friends, Sarah.  She won Ruby over immediately with her handful of stickers.  Eisley played bashful well, and eventually moved Sarah off of her list of STRANGERDANGER! and into her heart.

We figured out the fast pass language, rode most of the rides, saw Beauty and the Beast, and then caught the parade.  We were VIPs at the Lights, Motor, Action! show - Ruby fell asleep sitting up and Cecelia was the funniest person to sit next to with her squeals and reactions.  We caught The Little Mermaid show which had been broken for most of the day, and then we made our way for one last VIP moment - Fantasmic.  Which was unreal.

Fantasmic.  I actually do now how to focus a camera properly - these were images projected onto a fountain of water.

We left quite late given the length of the day, and I took my grungy-footed baby and the sleeping kiddo out to eat.  Food has never tasted so good - I would do a lot of things for a Chicago-style pizza (even in Florida).

The next day, Magic Kingdom awaited.  

and even the clouds look magical?! 

We met the infamous Mouse almost right away, and soon after met the princesses - Eisley's idol Cinderella was shocking to her - she did have her picture taken with her, but didn't waste any time for second and third photo ops.  (The mouse didn't stand a chance, even though she told us she'd give him a hug and a kiss).

 she really had good intentions.

M&Ms from Goofy's Candy Co. turned out to be the best purchase we made.  I'm usually more cautious with the sugar and the dyes and such, but we were in a magical dream land, and so--stuff like that doesn't count.  They turned out to be our currency for buying everything from Eisley - most importantly, time.

I don't know what we were on this day - we packed so much into this day - Ruby would later find herself in a pile of tears that started on the roller coaster and couldn't quite stop until I told her she had no choice but to sleep.  She didn't miss much except for dinner, so the timing worked out in everyone's favor.

Highlights from MK day #1 - Dumbo, Up-Down-Up-Down (Eisley's favorite - the carousel), Philharmagic, eating lunch in the Beast's castle, meeting Ariel, It's a Small World (LOVE.), and Wishes + fireworks.  Oh, and the ice cream sandwich with to die for cookies - nearly the size of my face.

The next day, we went back for round #2, which was a lot more laid back and one of my favorite days.  We started our day with breakfast in Cinderella's castle.

note the hobo ^

We moved on to Belle's story time where Ruby was chosen to help tell the story (as Mrs. Potts) which was extra special to her as Belle is her favorite princess, and got to spend a fair amount of time with her while she looked like her.

We moved onto the Jungle cruise, a roller coaster, a Dole float (so reminiscent of Hawaii), and found our way to the Up-Down-Up-Down again.  

We rode the monorail to the Grand Floridian and had dinner at 1900 Park Fare.

Tuesday was supposed to be our peaceful beach day - it was cold and rainy, so we spent a lazy morning in the condo, and my mom's parents came over for awhile.  We spent the afternoon and evening at Downtown Disney and it was perfect.  Minus the hour and a half wait for food at dinner, which shh, I almost liked it because we had enough "Dummas" (see above: M&Ms) for Eisley and I wasn't sitting next to either of my children, but got to catch up on life with Sarah.  Good thing Heaven was next door with their hot fudge sundaes in case dinner wasn't good enough.

Our last Disney day - Animal Kingdom.  We began at Tusker House, where for a brief moment, I thought it might have been better if I had been sitting alone and I could have eaten 700 of their doughnuts without any looks (rightful looks to be sure) from those at my table.

Eisley made her thoughts on Goofy with a maraca very clear - to the entire restaurant.  My high chair slinging skills are to be envied - I got her out of his line of sight quite quickly and shushed her with a Mickey waffle.

Moving along, we did the safari, It's Not Easy Being a Bug - inside of the AMAZING Tree of Life where I came dangerously close to joining the throngs of crying children (ew. ew. ew.).

We also did Everest--so fun, The Lion King and Finding Nemo shows, Dino Land (this is mostly only noteworthy because I got Jimmy to ride a semi-roller coaster for the first time ever).  It was here that Ruby found her favorite ride - Kali River Rapids.

We ended our day at Giordano's with cousin Molly and Sarah - I mostly just wanted pizza again.  And to sit down.

(We went to the beach the next day, but because I can't narrow down photos, I'll make a separate post with my favorites.)  BEACH POST - here

Disney - magical, tiring, and amazing.  LOVE.