Watch out Disney World, here we come!

*Note* Click the Blue "Watch out Disney World, here we come!" heading to cut the French music (this goes with the next post and will make no sense with the Disney World Photos).

Hello again,
I am sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything significant, but March has been a crazy month! Chris's new job (though still at Lexmark), has kept him busy (I don't think the word "busy" even covers it). He spent 8 days away from us in France, and Sarah spent time in Pikeville (as did I for a couple of days). He returned on Saturday night only to prepare for our next adventure, Disney World! We knew we were going south for spring break (I am so tired of the cold weather...see late fall posts...) but we did not decide where we would head when the time was right. Disney World fell into place on Tuesday night and we had to begin the gigantic task of finding all our warm weather clothes by Thursday morning! I am tired just thinking about it. Needless to say, when Sarah found out she was going to meet Mickey, she was ecstatic. The funny part was she wasn't exactly sure what Disney World was. She kept asking questions like, "Do they have toys there?" I think she thought we were going to a gigantic Disney store like in the mall.
Wednesday was crazy. Sarah began "helping" me pack. Yikes! She brought me every pair of pajamas she could find and piled them up in a suitcase. I undid everything while she napped so I wouldn't hurt her feelings. Once we got the dog feeding lined up (thanks Jason and Papaw Coleman, we owe you one), we were ready to go!

Here is our happy little girl watching movies on the way down with Lamby and Winston. Notice the gigantic piles of stuff surrounding her. We need a bigger car for this! Once we made it there, we dropped everything off at the villa and jumped back in the car for an evening Magic Kingdom visit.

This is our first tram ride into the park. Sarah couldn't wipe the smile off her face.

Notice the Minnie Mouse shirt. Brandy brought this home for Sarah on her last visit. She was so excited to show it to Minnie and Mickey.


We're here! Isn't the castle beautiful?




I wanted one of those oh so cute photos of Sarah in front of the castle. She would have none of it. She wanted to find a ride. Oh well...


As we closed in on the big guy, Mickey Mouse himself, Sarah spied Pluto's doghouse.


Here is Mickey's bedroom! He was so kind to let us invade his private space.
Yea! We found Mickey! Sarah had to bring her smaller version of him to show big Mickey.

That night, we watched a beautiful parade. Sarah was awestruck.


It's a small world had to be Sarah's favorite ride in the park. We rode it multiple times.
Here is the happy girl on the boat floating through countries.



The castle at night was spooky but beautiful.




Our tired little girl let me hold her for one last photo before we left that night. What a successful night it was! We rode about half the rides in the park in a span of 5 hours! I am so glad we ventured out at night.





The next day was Hollywood Studios. The real thrill of the day was meeting some of the Little Einsteins. Notice the shirt. She was trying to impress them with her Einsteins clothing as well.



She was also happy to see Handy Manny.





But nothing compared to the thrill of Leo and Annie. She loves these two the best.



Next, we moved along to find Woody and Buzz Lightyear.





Unfortunately Buzz had to leave for a mission, but she was happy to meet Woody.

My highlight of the trip was getting to visit the "American Idol Experience." As you can see, the stage looked exactly like the real thing. They had clips of Ryan, Randy, Paula, and Simon and had three real contestants sing per hour with the audience voting for the winner. The finale at night featured all the days winners. The final winner received a golden ticket to take them to the front of the line at the real American Idol auditions. I could have stayed here all day (but my family wouldn't hear of it). Fantastic show!




This was the lady who won our hour. She was good!

Sarah was pumped to see Mickey two days straight! This Mickey hugged and tickled her and wouldn't let her go. It was so cute!

She was pretty excited to get a Mickey hat at the park on this day.

Our last show at Hollywood Studios was "Beauty and the Beast". It really seemed Broadway worthy. The singing was great and the costumes were beautiful.

At Animal Kingdom, Sarah met Pocahontas. She seemed less sure of going up to a real person and not a character.

Jiminy Cricket asked us all to join in a photo.

I think this was Sarah's main attraction of the day. We moved into "Africa" and she couldn't stop playing these drums. I love this photo. Sheer joy!

I must admit, the lines at Animal Kingdom left a lot to be desired. It seemed that everyone in Florida was there on this day! We got a fast pass for the Safari Ride that morning and I am so glad we did. It was the most fun ride of the day. It seemed very realistic.

Meet the crocodiles.
A termite hill (made of termite spit???)
The elephants.

The rhinos...
The tired child. This week really wore her out. This was the only stroller nap she took all week. There was just too much to see and do. I really hope she is able to remember this trip. I know I will cherish many fond memories from this spring break as well.

Our last day at Epcot was cut very short. I forgot the camera so sorry, no photos. We jumped in the car at 1:30pm with the intention of driving 8 hours to Atlanta for the night. But it was not to be... After driving through dangerous sever thunderstorms for hours (with tornado's touching down in towns all around), we called it quits south of Macon. It made for a long Wednesday journey, but it was worth it. We all slept snugly in a king size bed at the Hampton Inn.

I will admit, Sarah did have a hard time driving that many hours in the car. She kept saying "Are we there yet?" and "Get me out of here!" But I wouldn't trade the pain for the great fun we had in Florida.

Now for the unpacking and laundry... May the force be with me.