The Magic of Disney

While in Florida visiting my parents, Mike and I took Catherine on the ultimate get-away (for a 4.5 year old): DisneyWorld.

We left Ryan with my parents and were able to focus solely on what Cate wanted to do- it was great! She was very excited, but I'm not sure she really knew what to expect. We were there for 3 full days, so we hit Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, respectively.

We were a bit rusty as we learned the ropes on the first day...it took a while to figure out the FastPass system, but we did manage to see basically everything in that park. We enjoyed the Tree of Life, met Mickey and Minnie dressed in their safari gear, saw several amazing shows, and ate the most expensive ice cream bars known to man. We also managed to scare the bejeesus out of our poor daughter by taking her (unbeknownst to us) on one of the scariest roller coaster rides in the park: Dinosaur. Note: if you are a parent with small children, beware of the rides that have a giant yellow-highlighted exclamation point next to them on the map. We obviously did NOT see that. The poor child just about peed her pants with fear as giant dinosaurs roared at unprecented decibles and breathed fire and jumped out at us as we swerved, dove, jerked our way through the dark tunnels....screaming "I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS ANYMORE!!" I literally hurt my back trying to brace her through the ride all the while covering her eyes and ears to protect her from those horrible creatures. In all, it is a hilarious memory...at least for the adults involved. Thankfully, there are other happy memories from the day, like this one:


Our day at Magic Kingdom was our longest day. I think we were at the park for about 15 hours, and man, was Cate a trooper! We did not bring or rent a stroller and she walked the entire trip. We had the FastPass system down by then, and again, we did almost every single thing we wanted to do at this park. We met a TON of characters (including every Princess and even Prince Eric from Little Mermaid- who gave Cate a kiss (which of course made Mommy jealous!)). Somehow, by the amazing power of suggestion, we convinced Cate that Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain were going to be FUN roller coasters- not so scary. I explained that all that screaming she's hearing from people is from all the fun they are having...she was, um, not so convinced. She complained of an upset stomach right as we were boarding TM, but on our way up the mountain, I told her that when I was little, I used to say "C'mon roller coaster, scare me some more! I love to be scared, scare me some more!" Well, I'm either the most convincing mom on Earth, or that kid's gonna be a fear addict. After riding TM once, followed immediately by Splash Mountain (something crazy like a 90 foot drop, which by the way, as we crested the peak, I seriously questioned my ability to parent any children EVER), she insisted we hop right back onto TM. Mike and I were shocked, but hey- why not? Here we are falling down SM: Can you see the look of terror in my face? And Cate's? And Mike's? Cracks me up!

Fear addict in the making: whirling around on the teacups!


By the time our last day rolled around, we were a bit slow moving. Not sure how people do this for 7 days straight. But I digress. Because we have shamelessly allowed Catherine access to every Disney show ever made, we hit Hollywood Studios so she could meet the Cars, Little Einsteins and Toy Story characters. We saw a Beauty and the Beast play, and played in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground.

Telling Lightning McQueen that she's having a Cars party for her 5th bday:


It was a FANTASTIC trip, and we want to do it all over again- SOON!


Thanks Mom and Dad for taking such good care of Ryan while we were away. He'll get his turn alone at Disney in 2013!