Sunday Soccer

Earlier in the fall we signed Will up for his first organized sport-Sunday Soccer through BUSA. For the most part Will really enjoyed it and we loved watching him play! Sundays were a little crazy trying to cram in church, lunch, and soccer with no naps, but we survived :) The season was over a few weeks ago and Will's first trophy is proudly displayed on his dresser!

 Will and Kate!

 Will and Isaiah!

 This was after the first game-all tuckered out!

 Little brother may not be able to partake in the soccer action, but he has no problem getting in on the snacks!

 This was right before Will scored his first goal

 First trophy!

Disney Day 3-Animal Kingdom/Magic Kingdom

On our last day in the parks was October 8th, mine and John's 8th anniversary. If you know us well, we were perfectly happy (excited even) to be spending our anniversary with our precious little family in the Happiest Place on Earth! We didn't actually buy the hats and wear them around all day :)

We started our morning at Animal Kingdom with a character breakfast at Tusker House. This was one of our favorites from last year when we brought Will. The food is awesome. I will say that the way the characters come around is a little less organized. We were completely finished with breakfast before the first character had come by and we found ourselves waiting a rather long time and getting impatient for them to come around. We were just ready to ride some rides!

 Alex was ALL ABOUT the characters on our last day!!

We hit up the Kilimanjaro Safari first. John and I love this ride because you really feel like you are in Africa. It is also fun to hear the boys "oohh" and "ahhh" over what they are seeing. We saw some precious baby giraffes this time that were so cute. After that, Alex was asleep so John decided to take Will on Dinosaur. He was asking to ride it, but I was so hesitant to say yes. John finally talked me into it and away they went. I was afraid he would be scared out of his mind and never want to get on another ride again. He did great though! John said he really didn't show any emotion, but could tell he didn't love it. After the ride, Will told John that "he was glad they rode it, but he doesn't ever want to ride it again." :) Will is giving a thumbs up for being a brave kiddo!

This was the HOTTEST day. It was miserably hot and hard to do anything without feeling miserable. There is a huge play area in Dino Land. I have never been so ready to get out of there in my entire life. It is so big that you can't just let your kids run around, you kind of have to run around with them, and I thought I was going to die from the heat :)

We did lunch at Yak and Yeti (Counter Service). This was my first time eating lunch there and it was delicious! I highly recommend it!

The Lion King Show was a huge hit. This is done so well to me. It is like a musical and the acrobats are awesome. The boys loved it! And John and I loved that we were inside and sitting down :)

After the Lion King, we staked out our spot (in the shade) to watch the parade. Out of all the day time parades, the one at Animal Kingdom is my favorite. They do such a great job with it! Will was asleep for most of it, but Alex loved it!! He waved to all the characters.

After the Animal Kingdom parade, we headed over to spend our last evening at Magic Kingdom. We took the obligatory family pics in front of the castle and with Mickey, something we had not gotten to yet and I am so glad we did!

This was a laid back evening. Since we had been to Magic Kingdom every other day, this night was spent just going back to the rides the boys loved. It was nice not really having an agenda. We stayed for fireworks since it was our last night and I didn't really care if the boys weren't in bed until late. The fireworks at the castle were the perfect way to end our Disney trip and our anniversary! Such a special, sweet time with our little fam.

I am so glad we took Alex this time. He did great. Both boys did! It was an exhausting vacation, but one I am so glad we took. Will asks every day when we are going back! We aren't sure of dates yet, but we are know it won't be long!

Disney Day 2 - Hollywood Studios/Magic Kingdom

Everyone was excited about Day 2. Alex loves Jake and the Neverland Pirates, so we just knew he would love the character breakfast at Hollywood and Vine. This breakfast is one of our favorites because it gets you in the park early (if you can get an early reservation), the breakfast food is great, and it is very fun, but quick. You can take as much time as you want and get out of there in time to be first in line at Toy Story Mania when the park opens :)

We were super surprised when we pulled up at Hollywood Studios to find that they had recreated the entrance to Monsters University. Alex is obsessed with Mike Wazowski so he immediately started yelling "Mike!!! MIKE!!!!"

Jake was our favorite at breakfast. We don't watch Oso or Little Einsteins and Handy Manny doesn't come on TV anymore, so we loved visiting with Jake!! Alex even got in on the dancing action. Totally precious!

We rode Toy Story Mania and it did not disappoint. This is mine and John's favorite ride....we just couldn't be as competitive this time because we had little people in our lap :)

After Toy Story, there is a great little photo opp with Buzz and Woody. The line gets LONG, so I suggest doing it early! Alex was SO much more warmed up to the characters on this day. To the point that he didn't really understand when our turn was over and we had to leave so the next in line could come by.

"BYE!!!!"

The highlight of Alex's day by far was meeting Mike and Sulley. Oh my word it was worth every minute of the wait. He was a little shell shocked I think :)

From there, we went to the Playhouse Jr. Live show. Will loved this the last time we were there and I knew Alex would too. Such a cute show and I love that they keep it updated based on the popular shows on the Disney channel. This time featured Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Jake, Doc McStuffins, and Sophia.

It was not a great sign for us when the people who opened the door to let us out had on their ponchos. We walked out to a COMPLETE DOWNPOUR. We were dry which was great, however our stroller was parked in the middle of an uncovered location and water was puddled in the seats, our stuff was soaked....good times! I made a dash to a store nearby to spend $30 on ponchos for all of us. Oh that hurt to dish out that money, but we didn't really have a choice at that point. The boys could not sit in the stroller without a poncho on. Alex was NOT a fan on the poncho....or the rain....

We grabbed some lunch and at this point decided the rain, even though it was tapering off, had kind of put a damper on Hollywood Studios. We had missed the Indiana Jones Stunt Show due to the rain, and there wasn't really anything left for us to ride, so we just grabbed the bus and headed to Magic Kingdom. We hadn't been off the bus for 5 minutes, when I looked down at the boys in the stroller as we walked down Main Street trying to come up with a plan, and they were OUT.

John and I took advantage and grabbed some Mickey Ears and found a nice spot to hunker down in the event it started raining again.

We laughed so hard when the boys woke up. They were so sweaty from laying on top of those plastic ponchos and looked completely out of it and confused.

 As soon as they were up, we grabbed them to ride some ride. Pirates and Jungle Cruise were among their favorites on this day.  John and I split up a little later to take Will on the Big Boy rides. I did Thunder Mountain with Will and then John did Splash Mountain with him. Will loved both! He even held his hands up the whole time while on Thunder Mountain!

That night at Magic Kingdom was the Electrical Parade. I LOVE this parade and was so excited to watch with the boys. Of course, when staying for a night light-up parade, you need light up toys!

After the Electrical Parade, and a turkey leg, we headed for the hotel!

Disney Day 1-Magic Kingdom/Epcot

Planning a trip in the fall was much different for us than planning one in the spring. We have never been anytime but spring/summer. About 3 weeks before we were supposed to leave, I started kind of trying to finalize our plans as to where we would be each day. I had made Dining reservations months ago, so that sort of dictated how our days would be spent and where. However, with us going in October, we were up against Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. We opted out of that this year because it is pretty expensive, and we didn't foresee our boys being able to hang super late to get our monies worth out of it. I didn't think this was a big deal, until I realized that the Magic Kingdom completely closes down on the nights of the Not so Scary Party and if you don't have a ticket for the party, you have to leave the park. We had planned on spending our first morning in Animal Kingdom and heading over to Magic Kingdom around 3:00 for the night/electrical parade. Well this totally rocked our plans because not only were we no longer to go to Magic Kingdom as we'd planned, the electrical parade was only running on Monday night out of the three days we were going to be in the parks....so if we wanted to catch the electrical parade, we would have to do it Monday night....the only night we'd planned on NOT being at Magic Kingdom :) I quickly started rearranging our dining reservations and by some huge amount of luck, everything worked out and we still were able to fit it all in! I say all this just because it totally took me by surprise. In the spring, they have the electrical parade every night. There are no special parties in the spring that shut down parks. So just beware if you are planning a trip during this time of year!

We ate breakfast at our hotel. How could your day not be AWESOME when you start out with Mickey waffles?!?

We started our day at Magic Kingdom. Sounds cheesy, and I know I have said it before, but things, especially at Disney, are SO much more magical when you experience it through your child's eyes. Alex didn't really have any grand expressions as the park opened, but you could totally tell he was taking it all in.

Before our trip, anytime we were watching a Disney movie at the beginning where it shows the castle and fireworks, we would always say "Look, Alex, that is where we are going!" So before long, when that part of the movie played he would shout "GO GO!!!" When he first saw the castle he spun around to look at me and pointed to it and said "GO GO!!!" He knew we were where we had been telling him about :)

 Will was super pumped about introducing Alex to the Magic Kingdom! He made the executive decision to do Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin first!

 After Buzz, we figured John should take advantage of the short line at Space Mountain, so he took Will to ride that and I took Alex to Dumbo :) Will got a little scared but was so brave and at the end the worker that was helping get people off at the end gave Will a celebratory pin to celebrate his first time ever on Space Mountain!! He was so proud!

 Alex and mommy on Dumbo. He LOVED it. We kept getting back in line while we were waiting on John and Will!

 There is a great little tent area over in the new Fantasyland where several characters stay there all day. We saw Goofy and Donald. With this being our first day, Alex was still a little unsure of the characters...

 An unexpected favorite among our crew was Mickey's PhilharMagic. This is a 3-D show filled with the famous songs from classic Disney movies. It was a great break from the heat and the boys LOVED it!!

 For lunch, we ate in Beast's castle. This is a MUST do!! It is counter service for lunch. We waited maybe 20 minutes. The food was the best park food that we ate and the scenery is amazing. Disney left no detail out in designing the castle. You really felt like you were in France! Later that afternoon, we introduced Alex to his first Mickey Ice Cream. 

This is one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip!

 Will's favorite ride at Magic Kingdom on this day was Goofy's Barnstormer. I have a video of us riding and the giggles and screams are just precious!

About 4:00 we headed to Epcot. We had dinner reservations there later and there were a few rides we wanted to hit. If you are up in the air about Epcot, I definitely think it is something you could forego, especially for Alex's age. Other than the Nemo ride and a few little rides in the different countries, there really wasn't much for him to do. Will on the other hand had the time of his life riding Test Track and Soarin'. We had already reserved fast passes for these rides, so it worked out well to not wait very long. I rode Soarin' with Will and he was a little unsure when the ride got going...he felt like he was going to fall. But he settled down super quick and LOVED it. About halfway through the "flight," he looked at me and said, "Mama, the world is so beautiful!" Love that little boy so much!!

 There is a GREAT character spot at Epcot. It is kind of hidden and there was NO wait. We walked through and all the main characters were there. Will was precious and ran right up to each one of them.

Alex was still unsure....I love this picture. Will is holding onto him pretty tight and Alex can't look away...

 By the time we got to Goofy, Alex completely lost it. He loved them from afar on this first day, but did not care to get all up in their arms and hug :)

 We found a photo opp after the Nemo ride. For some reason crawling into a huge shark mouth wasn't half as scary as Goofy was!

 This trip we made a reservation to do dinner at The Garden Grill which is right by the Soarin' ride at Epcot. This was a GREAT character meal and one I feel doesn't get as much fame as Chef Mickey's....John and I both said the food was great! It was much more laid back than the other character meals we have done in the past. We were never "waiting" for characters....they came around in good time intervals and we saw all characters multiple times, privately, while dining.

 Alex decided he would now be brave and start blowing kisses to the characters....

 And give high fives....

 Will lit up EVERY time the characters came around. Loved every minute of it!

 Boys were exhausted after dinner and we headed back to the hotel. Rest was needed for all....Day 2 brought breakfast with Jake, Hollywood Studios, and more Magic Kingdom!