We just got back from a MAGICAL vacation in Orlando visiting all things DISNEY! We were there for a full week, staying in a large condo with the whole Doehne side of the family, even Jeff's sister, Stephanie, and her husband, Rob, made the trek from Chicago. My mom and sister came too...making it a full on family fun time at Disney!
We arrived on Saturday and the busyness of our trip began. The first thing we did was pick up our race bibs for the Disney Princess Half Marathon I was running bright and early Sunday morning with my sister!!! I was really excited, and had been training for it for a few months. I knew it was going to be an unforgettable experience....From getting up at 3am to crossing that finish line...it was all so awesome!!! There were 20,000 racers!!! You saw everything under the rainbow....people head to toe in costume to inspirational 70 year old runners out there pushing along the 13.1 mile course. All along the way there was entertainment....characters, djs, mile marker clocks, not to mention you run through the magic kingdom (and cinderella's castle) and epcot. Katie and I separated early on, but met up again right before running through the castle...which was somewhere around mile 5-ish. We stopped for a bunch of photo ops and stayed together until about mile 8. When I finished, I was overcome with joy...it was an emotional feeling to have accomplished going 13.1 miles. I never thought that in less than a year after giving birth (and with a bum knee), that I would ever have done that. I felt great afterwards and was so happy to see my family cheering for me at the finish line!!! I was very proud of my sister who finished and did well despite her lack of training! I hope to do another race soon. I am not sure about a full marathon....but I certainly will do another half again!!
Enough about that....now on to the real vacation! Sunday night we had a celebratory dinner at Ohana in the Polynesian Resort. We were kind of celebrating Greyson's 1st birthday since we weren't going to have our family in Charlotte on his birthday. It was a real feast, luau family style! There was some fun kids activities too....rolling coconuts through the dining room...however, Connor clearly was hungry and was having a tantrum at this point (as you will see in the pictures)! The food was delicious and Greyson attempted to eat his first cupcake.....it promptly ended up on the floor, like most of Greyson's food....so that was it! Maybe we will get some good cake pictures next time!
Monday morning we had a character breakfast at the Tusker House restaurant in Animal Kingdom. This was Connor's first Mickey sighting! It was a fun breakfast and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to do a character meal, as it was my favorite. We got to see Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Daisy. They each came to our table while eating which seemed like a non threatening way of meeting the characters. Connor and Greyson were not intimidated or scared in the least and loved them all! We then spent the day in Animal Kingdom, getting through as much as we could before nap times. Later that night we went to the Magic Kingdom to see the electrical parade. This was another must see!!! They only do it a few nights during the week...but it is for sure not to be missed!!! It is held just after dusk and all the parade floats and costumes are lit up with tons of lights! I hate that I didn't take any pictures of it...because it was amazing!!
Tuesday we headed to the Magic Kingdom for a full day there. Connor had so much fun meeting more characters and riding rides. He did not like Pirates of the Caribbean, and we are lucky we didn't scar him for life by taking him on it. But we also did all the good ones for kids....its a small world, peter pan, pooh bear, carrousel, etc.
Tuesday night we went to our good friends, the McCully's house, for dinner. We always have a good time with them and little Emma is Connor's age and they just love to play together.
Wednesday we took a day off...spent time at the hotel pool, mommy and daddy got birthday massages (thanks to mimi and papa). Wednesday night we headed to downtown disney to visit with my good friend from college, Keith Holecek, and his mom. From there we had dinner at the cool T-Rex Cafe...which is just like Rainforest Cafe, only with dinosaurs! Since Connor is so into dinosaurs, we thought he would love it...it was a little overwhelming, as every 20 minutes the place rumbled and dinos roared, but once he got used to all the noise, I think he loved it!
Thursday was daddy's birthday!!!! We park hopped and went to both Hollywood Studios and Epcot. Connor's favorite was the Toy Story ride and meeting Woody and Buzz and Lightening McQueen and Tomater....both is fav!!!! We ended the birthday boy's day at Chef Mickeys in the contemporary resort, for a celebratory dinner...with characters!! This was the best for seeing the characters, because they all came around twice, we were there so long. We saw Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Donald...I think that was it. Thursday night we went to meet yet another college friend, my sorority sister, Jenni Williams, for a drink at a nearby bar. It was nice to catch up with her since it had been years since we had seen each other....and we ran into my friend Keith again too!
Friday we hit up Magic Kingdom again and our good friends Jenny and Josh Highlander, and their boys Colton and Teague met us there. It was fun chaos with our party of 8...but it was so fun!!! The boys got to meet more characters and ride rides. Colton and Connor are like long distance best buddies and always had so much fun when they are together! Baby Teague was just as good as he could be at 2 months old! Friday night was our last night, and we spent it with mimi and papa at dinner in mexico...in epcot, that is :)
A random side note....we had a celebrity sighting in our hotel...Tony Romo, Dallas Cowboys QB, was staying on our floor and we rode the elevator with him! Nope we did not get a photo or an autograph....we are idiots for not asking...but it is a little surreal in the moment when you are trying to decide if it is really him or not ;) Jeff made a comment to him and he smiled and winked at us....so yep, it definitely was him!
All in all, it was a lot of action packed into 7 days....although, I would not have changed a thing (other than maybe staying a few more days). We were so happy to have spent the time with our family and friends. I know Connor had a blast when everyday he still talks about it!! A big THANK YOU to Mimi and Papa for all they did to make our trip possible.
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| Disney 2012 |
Here is a video montage too:
