1st Disney Trip

We had a great time at Disney. We stayed at the military resort called Shades of Green. It is right on the Magic Kingdom property and is a really nice hotel. The standard room that we stayed in was 400 sq ft! It was huge. We had a balcony that overlooked the golf course, two queen beds, a pullout couch and a dining room table! The shower had enough water pressure and for some reason, that always makes or breaks my hotel stays! There is nothing worse than not being able to quickly rinse out your shampoo!

We arrived on Friday afternoon, unpacked our stuff, and headed for the Magic Kingdom. The whole parking thing at Disney is quite the task with a child; you have to park, unload, then pack everything up again to get on a tram, unload again, head to a monorail, reload yet again, then finally unload once you get off the monorail and finally arrive at the actual park. This process took us a good hour and we were staying IN the Magic Kingdom!!!! For newbie parents such as ourselves, it was a bit overwhelming. Pres loved everything about it though. He thought the tram was the greatest thing since sliced bread until we got on the monorail, and then that was his favorite. He clapped and squealed his way through all of our fumbling and bumbling! During all of this riding in small enclosed places, Pete and I noticed something funny/annoying about Pres. For some reason, he has to be the loudest kid in the room. We have found ourselves to be those people with the child who taps you and screams at you to pay attention to them. Luckily for us, most people are obliging and happily give him a "hello" and a wave.

We accidentally scheduled our trip during Gay Days at Disney. There were lots and lots of offensive red shirts with dirty sayings on them. They were not too friendly to us heteros and gave us the feeling as if we were intruding on their territory. There were quite a few times where I was appalled at watching a GROWN MAN push a child out of the way to get to a cartoon character. Shame on them all. We managed to avoid a lot of the madness by going to the opposite park as the "red shirts" were going to and managed to have a very fun trip.

At the Magic Kingdom, we enjoyed the It's a Small World ride. It was the favorite of them all for Pres. He danced and screamed at the top of his lungs in delight at the funny little animatronic children dancing and singing in different languages. Thankfully we were on a boat with all families who were delighted at Pres' exuberance! We rode the carousel and did Mickey's Toon Town. All of this took about three hours and we headed back to the hotel exhausted! Pres had a bath and bottle and passed right out! He woke up at 3 am confused and a little scared as to where he was. He was up for about an hour until he finally went back down. I think the excitement and new surroundings were finally catching up to him.

We woke up bright and early on Saturday with the plan of going back to the Magic Kingdom, but soon saw that it was read shirt day there and decided to head to Epcot. Epcot is a BIG favorite of Pete and I and we love to go there during the Food and Wine Festival in autumn. Epcot was a BIG hit! There are tons of slow rides and fun things to do. We started off by going in the big ball ride (I'm a Floridian who's been to Disney more times than I can count and I still can't tell you the name of the silly ride!). Pres loved it and thought the in ride personal tv was the perfect addition to our journey. He pushed all of the buttons and ended up turning off our narration for a bit (not that I mind too much, it's the same narration I've heard since I was in grade school!) After that, we headed to the Nemo exhibit and looked at all of the fish. Aquariums are always a big hit with Pres and it was nice to be in the AC for a while-it was SOOOOOO humid this weekend. This took us to nap time and we headed back to the hotel for a rest and a shower!

In the afternoon we went back to Epcot and hit all of the different countries. France was a big hit with Pres as he loved the friendly French man who did our wine tasting. The young man even got Pres to say "jour". He couldn't say the whole word, but that part alone made me one proud momma!

The countries were a lot of fun and we saw so many things. A quick synopsis of them would be: In Japan- we saw the traditional drums being played; France-we did a great wine tasting and enjoyed the smell of lavender; in China-we had egg rolls; In Italy-I had this great Limoncello Margarita (who knew the Italians made a good margarita!); in Mexico-we enjoyed another slow boat ride and had one happy boy who loved the salsa dancing; last but certainly not least, we stopped by Canada to take a picture in front of the sign. We do this every time we go and think of our friends Ryan and Chrissy (we love you two).

We headed back to the hotel for dinner and a swim in the Mickey shaped pool. The pool was great and Pres loved swimming around with all of the other kids! Pres went down easily and Pete and I enjoyed a nice dinner together in the room.

We woke up Sunday morning exhausted and ready to come home! Home is always so nice when you've been away. There was no cat puke on the floor, so the cats did well while we were gone too!

Here are some pics of our trip!