Disney World--Day 2

OK, now for some real pictures!! We spent our first day in Disney at Hollywood Studios, with the idea that we would do Magic Kingdom last since the kids would probably find everything else disappointing after seeing it!. The kids were so excited to finally be in Disney, although I wasn't sure they really knew what to expect.

Our first family picture at Disney--in front of Mickey's sorcerer's hat from Fantasia

Disney World is truly an amazing place...there is always some type of parade or show going on. The first one we came upon was right inside the entrance of Hollywood Studios and although all the kids loved watching it, Sadie was absolutely captivated.

And after we walked around for a bit, several characters came out and we quickly lined up. The great thing about getting to the parks early in the day is that the lines aren't very long.

Goofy!!!! (Sadie was in a bit of shock!)

And Pluto!!

I wasn't sure how Blake would respond to the characters, but he was the most enthusiastic..constantly hugging all of them, repeatedly.

Blake loved trying everything on from various carts/stores (no, we did not buy this hat!)

Chip and Dale....I wasn't even sure my kids knew who they were, but they did! I did ask the chipmunks how to tell them apart and now I know...Chip has a single tooth in the front with a small black nose and Dale has two teeth with a larger brown nose.

After they explained to us how to tell them apart, I said to Dale, "So you are the one with the big nose" to which he put his head down and looked sad. I quickly turned to him and said, "Don't worry Dale, I have a big nose too. It's okay"

Not only did he perk right up but my kids thought it was so cool and kept talking about that conversation during our entire trip!

And the character Wyatt longed to meet the most......

And of course, Mater

(The majority of CARS and CARS2 characters are being setup in Disneyland at the CARSland exhibit, which is set to open up in the Fall of 2012....we actually thought about postponing our trip to go there but decided it would just have to be a separate trip. Disney World is so much bigger than Disneyland, so we figured we could easily spend a week in Orlando but only a day or two at Disneyland...so possibly in a year or two we will make a Southern California trip!)

We then headed to one of the few things we really wanted to get to see in Hollywood Studios, which was the Live Action Stunt Show. And it did not disappoint! This remains one of Wyatt's highlights of the trip...and during the show, Lightning made a surprise appearance!!!

Getting to see Lightning McQueen talk and drive--LIVE--was so exciting for Wyatt! (And of course Sadie and Blake loved it as well)

The show was truly amazing and everyone in our family enjoyed it.....

...the motorcycles..

..the jumps..

..the jetskis...

...the fire...

(in these pictures you can see how the motorcycle rider laid down his bike and slid through the fire...it was truly amazing!)

Blake sat like this the entire time....he kept pointing things out and talked about the show for hours, "Motorcycles go fast....boom, boom, boom..."

...cars jumping through windows...

..car chases through fire...

That show was a huge hit with all of us!! Afterwards, we headed to lunch at an old-school Hollywood Diner and got to meet several of the characters from some of the Disney Channel shows that my kids have watched over the years.

Sadie and Blake loved the dancing and singing with the characters

Wyatt's favorite TV character--Jake from 'Jake and the Neverland Pirates'

(for those of you unfamiliar with current Disney shows/characters, Jake is a good pirate who battles against Captain Hook and Mr. Smee to save some sort of treasure)

Handy Manny

(speaks Spanish and is a handyman whose tools are all cleverly named according to what they do--screwdriver's name is Turner--and they help people around town with odd jobs)

June from 'The Little Einsteins'

(she has another little boy with her on the show and they explore classical different areas of the world via classical music)

Honestly, Blake could not get his fill of dancing with the characters...they would call the kids out of their seats to come line up and sing and dance along with them. (Wyatt always stayed at the table with us and was quite amazed that Blake would just rush over even without Sadie!)

They started doing a 'congo line' of sorts around the restaurant and I LOVE this picture of Sadie's face....she could not believe what she was getting to do.

And Blake just wanted to be by June

Special Agent Oso

(bear character who flies into kid's lives and helps them do a specific task/chore that their parents have asked them to do that seems overwhelming to them, breaking it down into steps)

After lunch the kids were getting pretty tired. In fact, at the end of lunch, we looked in the corner of the restaurant right behind our table and Blake was laying on the ground. When we told him to get up, he 'obeyed' by doing pushups.....continuously for at last 2 minutes!! But he is my play hard-sleep hard kid. And he WAS NOT going to give-in to fatigue at any point.

We told the kids we would do one more thing and then head back to our room. So we watched a short show called "The Art of Animation" and then got to meet Winnie the Pooh afterwards.

The kids really enjoyed getting autographs...almost too much!

You are going to see this many more times throughout our trip--Blake's undying love for every character and interest in every part of them.

giving kisses**

Not the greatest picture of all the kids with Winnie, but I couldn't help but post it--no picture more clearly demonstrates Blake's deepest feelings towards the Disney characters.

And of course on Day 1, we stayed about 15 minutes too long....

the meltdowns were beginning.

The sun was too bright for Sadie and Blake couldn't keep his hands off Matt's face

but hey, we did get a picture in front of the Hollywood Studio's sign!!!

We were so thankful that we stayed at a Walt Disney World resort because we were able to go back and forth from our hotel quite easily. And our hotel was wonderful....

this is what we came home to that afternoon in our room...

...and in the kids' room...

Sadie couldn't have been more excited and it made coming back to our room each day even more exciting! (for those of you who don't know, these are the Disney fairies)

Everyone took a wonderful nap that afternoon and we headed over to Downtown Disney

(Downtown Disney was so wonderful--neither Matt nor I had ever been since it was constructed since Matt and I had gone as kids--but it wasn't a Disney park yet it was filled with DIsney shops and stuff to see as well as GREAT restaurants!)

Lego store

(Dragon from Chitti-Chitti-Bang-Bang constructed completely out of Legos)

The carousel in Downtown Disney

These pictures were all taken on my phone, but I had to try and capture Blake's desire to live dangerously, regardless of the situation!

sign made entirely of jelly bellys

The candy inside was amazing and of course, it's always amusing to see how they turn everything into a Disney-specific product

Check out this giant Rice Krispie cake!!

Each of the kids got to pick out one candy item they wanted....

(Mickey Mouse-shaped sucker!!)

..every type of bulk candy you can imagine..

Swedish Fish

Cotton Candy

And that was the end of our first day. It had started cooling off that evening and we were bracing for the coldest day of our trip the following day--a high of 55 degrees. The kids loved our first day but they kept asking, "When do we get to meet Mickey and Minnie and see the castle?"