Disney World- October 23-30, 2016

Evan went to Disney when he was 8 years old. I hadn't been since I was 3. I have some memories of Disney when I was there, but not many. I remember Aaron and I riding on the Dumbo ride. I remember my dad taking me to Cinderella's castle and getting so mad because Cinderella wasn't there. I felt so bad for him because he was so disappointed (though he was really disappointed for me). I also remember touring "Mickey's house". I remember his clothes laying on his bed, and my 3-year-old mind panicking. I thought "oh my gosh, he must be in the shower, and we're standing here in his house! What if he comes out naked?" Haha! Sadly, this part of Disney is no longer there. Evan and I were super excited to be going again and making new memories!

We decided to stay at Port Orleans Riverside (there are two different Port Orleans hotels). We chose this one because it was more 'swampy'. Our room was decorated in Princess and the Frog. The walk through the resort was so beautiful with the Spanish moss and waterways. We spent the evenings watching Disney movies on the lawn, playing Disney trivia, and sitting at the poolside. I decided to add a Disney quote with each post to Facebook relating to what we were doing and add the tag "name that Disney movie!" It was so much fun to come up with quotes and see everyone's guesses! I remember one person asking if I had to look up the quotes. Not this Disney girl! That was all from memory!

Day one was spent at Hollywood Studios. Some of the Star Wars additions were there, but we could tell there was so much more to come! We absolutely loved the Toy Story area as well (which is now bigger as well). We watched the Fantasmic show, which was absolutely one of my favorite parts of the whole trip! It was so well done, nostalgic, and beautiful! As the day progressed, I started having more and more pain. We think that I had a ruptured ovarian cyst. It was all I could do to sit through the Fantasmic show at the end of the day. We slowly made our way back to the buses to go to the hotel. As we're standing on the bus (it was so full!), I was sick from the pain. It went everywhere. I curled up on the hotel bed and cried it out. The next morning I worked on cleaning up everything I vomited on, including our shoes and souvenirs. I ended up having to throw my shoes away and buying new ones!

Day two was Animal Kingdom! This is probably my favorite park. Thankfully there was a kiosk with shoes for sale, because mine were smelling awful! We rode the safari tour so many times! The 'yeti ride' as we call it is still one of our favorites! Sadly one of the big dinosaur rides was closed. We did find a surprising favorite with one of the spinning dinosaur rides in the kid area. We got to see the amazing Lion King show.

Day three was Magic Kingdom! This definitely brought out my inner child! Seeing Cinderella's castle is always amazing, but oh my gosh- Belle's castle! The library! The ballroom! Of course we also had to try 'the grey stuff' in the Be Our Guest Restaurant! Surprisingly we could get in without reservations too far in advance, but I don't recommend doing this because we got lucky! We got to watch the famous '3 o'clock' parade with all of the wonderful floats. I even got to ride the Dumbo ride again (although it has moved locations since 1993). The fireworks display at Cinderella's castle was so breathtaking, but by the end of the day, our feet were killing us!

Day four was Epcot! This park was probably our least favorite, but luckily for us, we were there during the Food and Wine Festival! We loved trying different foods from around the world! Good thing we could walk it all off! We ate so many different things! The Spaceship Earth ride almost made me sick. I wasn't able to move for quite a while after that one! I think we got to see more of the Princesses in this park. I finally got to see Cinderella 23 years later! We finished the park early, so we decided to head back to Hollywood Studios to see Fantasmic again. Unfortunately, the show was malfunctioning, but we got to do some of the things we skipped when I was hurting!

Day five was spent going back to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. We just love these parks! Evan was done with the 'cheesiness' of It's A Small World though. Haha!

Day six was spent at Disney Springs and lounging about the resort. We enjoyed taking the water taxi to Disney Springs, shopping in the stores, eating at the restaurants, and just soaking in all of the views. We always get our souvenirs of magnets and smashed pennies (starting from when I was in junior high) on every vacation, and this one definitely got us the most pennies! I couldn't help but buy the sets that were available. We had a fun-filled week and such an amazing trip!