On our actual anniversary we decided to go to Hollywood Studios.  At first we had thought we would skip going to Hollywood Studios.  While we enjoy Hollywood Studios it is not our favorite park.  But we had done the other 3 parks and felt like we should go to Hollywood Studios.

A quick pose on our way into the park.

I always want to go see American Idol when we’re there and have never been able to until this time.  I really enjoyed it!  I don’t know if Hailey will love it when we go back next month but I’m hoping to go again.

I didn’t take any pictures but I really enjoyed going through One Man’s Dream.  Since Hailey doesn’t have any interest in reading every little thing about Walt Disney we usually go through it pretty quickly.  This time I took my time and read every little tidbit of information.  It was so interesting!

I love Beauty and the Beast and we ate delicious sundaes while we watched.

Us on the Backlot Tour.  This was right before we got soaked.  We were in the front row of the tram and it looked a little cloudy when we started the tour.  A few minutes into the tour it just started pouring.  Since we were in the front row and with the direction the wind was blowing- the rain pretty much poured right into our laps.  We had to finish the tour in the pouring rain.  We were soaked!

There was no time to change our clothes before we went to dinner at Ohana- so we ate soaking wet in the air conditioning.  Fortunately we didn’t actually look wet, but I was freezing!  Even so it was definitely the best food I have ever eaten.  All of the food was amazing and the bread pudding we had for dessert was like nothing I have ever had before.  After we had stuffed ourselves so much that I felt like vomiting at the thought of ever eating again our waiter brought us a special plate of desserts from Kona in celebration of our anniversary.

It looks delicious to me now but at the time we could barely even try the yumminess.

After dinner we went back to Hollywood Studios.  We were able to see a few more things and ride Toy Story Mania.  It had a 3 hour wait but thanks for our fast passes we only waited about 20 minutes.

We watched the Rock N’ Glow band play for a while and enjoyed that.  We weren’t able to see Fantasmic because it was full about 2 hours before showtime and we weren’t willing to wait that long, so we headed back to our hotel.

In the morning we went back to Magic Kingdom.

We rode my favorite ride- Splash Mountain a couple of times.

We enjoyed one of Rich’s favorite rides- the train.

Rich posing in front of Mickey’s house.

Me in front of Minnie’s house.  I can’t believe these houses will be gone when they redo Fantasyland.  We are going to have to take lots of pictures when we go back next month.

I just had to share this picture of us on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin.  Can you see the look of concentration on my face as I try to defeat Zurg??

One last picture on our way out.

We relaxed by the pool back at our hotel for a couple of hours.

One last picture of Coronado Springs.

Then it was time to head home.  We had an amazing time and it was the perfect way to celebrate our 10th anniversary. We missed Hailey sooooo much but know it was good for us to go away by ourselves.  Hailey had a great time with her grandparents back at home and continues to ask me when we’re going away again so she can have her grandma and pa come and stay with her.

On our 2nd day in Disney World we went to Epcot.

Since we have a Disney Visa card we were able to go to the special character meet and greet and get our picture taken with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy.  We were also able to get a free 5×7.

Us enjoying a nice hot day at Epcot.

Us on the Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros ride in Mexico.

We enjoyed lots of rides and attractions and had a great time at Epcot!  For dinner we went to the Garden Grill.

Me and Pluto

Rich and I with Chip

Me and Mickey

Me and Dale

We watched the amazing Illuminations show.

One last picture on our way out of Epcot.

The next day we got up bright and early to head to Magic Kingdom.  It’s amazing how quickly we were able to get ready in the morning when it was just the 2 of us.  But I sure did miss my little Hailey!!

We enjoyed watching Dream-Along with Mickey

Us

At some point during the day I enjoyed my first Pineapple Float with Dole Whip ice cream.  I don’t know why I didn’t get a picture of me enjoying it, but it never even crossed my mind to do that.  It was soooooo delicious!!  I can’t wait to have some more when we go back next month!

We had dinner at the Crystal Palace.  We ate there when we were on our honeymoon so it was fun to be able to eat there while celebrating our 10th anniversary too.

Me with one of my favorite characters, Tigger.

Me with my other favorite character Pooh.

Me and Piglet

Me and Eeyore

The Castle at night

We were able to see the Main Street Electrical Parade, which we hadn’t seen since we were there on our honeymoon.  We didn’t get a very good spot because people were finding places to see the parade when we went to the Crystal Palace for dinner 2 hours earlier.  But we still enjoyed watching the parade.

The Summer Nightastic fireworks were amazing!!

Rich and I decided we wanted to do something special for our 10th anniversary.  We talked about it for several months and debated about where to go.  Nothing sounded like what we wanted to do and we couldn’t decide where to go.  About a week before our anniversary we still didn’t have any final plans. Then we talked about going to Disney World.  We already have a family trip planned for September and couldn’t decide if we should go in July too.  We thought about it and decided that since we spent our honeymoon there it would be the perfect place to go for our 10th anniversary.  I really struggled with not bringing Hailey- I felt sooooo guilty but knew that it was important for Rich and I to get away together and also I knew she would be there in September.  Plus she had been really looking forward to spending the week with her grandma and pa!

Since we decided less than a week before that we wanted to go we weren’t able find any cheap plane tickets, so we decided that we would drive.  We drove all day Sunday, stopped for a few hours during the night to sleep at a rest area and then kept driving.  Rich actually did all of the driving.  Anyhoo- we arrived at our hotel- Coronado Springs Resort at 8:30am on Monday.  Check in wasn’t until 3pm, but we figured it was worth trying to check in and they had our room ready.  So we were able to get cleaned up from our trip and go get some breakfast at our food court.

This is a picture of the main building- El Centro where the food court, restaurant, lobby and gift shop are located.  The resort is really spread out and it was a really long walk to get there from our room.

Our room was in that building.

The Three Caballeros were outside of our food court.

After breakfast at our food court we went to Animal Kingdom.

Posing for a picture before we entered the park.

Posing for a picture in front of the Tree of Life.

We took advantage of the Fastpasses and were able to see everything we wanted to see.  I always love to go on Kilimanjaro Safaris and see all the animals and we were able to see lots of animals.

Giraffes

Rhino

Then it was time for a parade!

“Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle Expeditions”

Minnie

Goofy

Donald

Mickey

After the parade we went back to our hotel and had dinner at the Maya Grill and had the prime rib.  After dinner we went back to Animal Kingdom to enjoy Extra Magic Hours.

I love the Lion King show!  It’s amazing!!

We saw a few more attractions- rode Expedition Everest, which made us both sick and finished up by seeing It’s Tough to be a Bug.  We were exhausted from all the driving and the lack of sleep, so we went back to our hotel to collapse for the night.

On our last day at Disney World we got up bright and early to start celebrating Rich’s birthday!  We had an early breakfast reservation at the Tusker House in Animal Kingdom.  Rich still didn’t feel good from the day before- and on our last day he was running a fever.  I told him we should just cancel our breakfast reservation so he could sleep in.  He wouldn’t hear anything about that- took a bunch of Motrin and was ready to go.  We got to Animal Kingdom before it even opened and had to give our names for our breakfast reservation to get in.  It was the perfect way to do it!

Posing for our picture at the Tusker House.

Hailey dancing and celebrating all of the birthdays with Mickey Mouse.

Rich with his birthday card and birthday cup cake.  Happy 35th birthday Rich!

Hailey being silly with Donald Duck.

Getting Mickey’s autograph.

Hailey getting Daisey’s autograph.

Posing for a picture with Goofy.

After breakfast Hailey had to go and meet up with a friend she had met before we ate.  While we were waiting to get called to our table for breakfast Hailey made an impression on one of the Disney workers.  So she told us to come and find her after we ate our breakfast because she would have a treat for us.

Hailey and her new friend.  Hailey’s friend took us to the Kilimanjaro Safari ride (which had a 40 minute wait) and took us to the front of the fast pass line.  We were so excited to get to ride without having to wait at all!

After the Kilimanjaro Safari ride we went to see if we could find a few more characters.

Hailey was sooooo excited to meet Chip and Dale.  She thought that they were so funny!

Then she got to meet Koda.

Hailey wanted to stop for one more visit with Goofy.

And one more visit with Minnie.

After we did everything we wanted to do again at Animal Kingdom we went back to our hotel to take a nap.  We all had a great nap!  Then we were off to Downtown Disney to do some shopping.  Disney gives you a gift on your birthday- and since it was Rich’s birthday he got to pick what he wanted.  Normally you get a free day at one of the theme parks, but since we bought park tickets as park of our vacation package Rich got to pick something else.  He decided to have spending money equal to the amount of a park ticket ($80 I think??).  So, we had a bit of extra spending money

When we arrived at Downtown Disney Hailey had to play in the water for a while.

So much fun!!

After some fun in the water we did some shopping and then we spent some time at the Lego store.

Hailey posing with the Lego family.

Rich and Hailey work on building a car for a Lego car race.

Watching to see if their car would win.  (It didn’t.)

After we finished up at Downtown Disney we headed over to Epcot to spend our last evening there.  We did all of our favorite things again.

Hailey loved the Nemo Ride and I think we went on it like 3 times.  She’s waiting here for the seagulls to say “Mine! Mine! Mine!” and to get sprayed by the splashing water.

Rich, Me and Hailey on the Nemo ride.

Hailey and Rich posed for a picture inside Bruce’s mouth.

Epcot

When asked what her favorite park was- Hailey said it was Hollywood Studios.  When asked what her favorite ride was- Hailey said it was the Nemo ride (Seas With Nemo and Friends).  Her favorite character is Cinderella.  Rich’s favorite park is still Epcot and my favorite park is Magic Kingdom.

We had soooo much fun in Disney World- it’s definitely our favorite vacation destination!  We can’t wait to go back!!