Hunter loved our balcony and every morning he ate his breakfast out there with Rich.

After breakfast we headed to the boat to take the short ride to Magic Kingdom.

The fairies had a short wait, so we stopped there first.

 Hunter and Hailey with Vidia.

Hailey and Hunter with Tinkerbell.

Hailey doing her pirate look while we waited in line for Pirates of the Caribbean.

Rich and Hailey on Splash Mountain.

While they rode Splash, Hunter and I waited in line to meet Woody and Jessie.  Rich and Hailey met up with us when it was almost our turn.

Woody and Hunter

When it was time for a group picture, Hunter decided he was a bit scared of Woody, so Rich had to join them.

We love Mickey’s Philharmagic and Hunter was so into it!  He loved trying to catch all the flying objects.

Hunter and Hailey taking a ride on the Prince Charming Regal Carousel.

We always have to stop and try to pull the sword from the stone.

Then we were off to the castle to go the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.

Hailey had her hair, make up, and nails done.

All done being turned into a princess

Beautiful princess

Then it was time for the parade- Hunter had a great view.

Hailey waiting for the parade to start.

A few pictures from the new parade, Festival of Fantasy:

Afterwards we had a little surprise for Hailey.  Anna and Elsa had been having a 4+ hour wait and we told Hailey there was no way we were waiting that long.  She didn’t know that I had gotten a fast pass before our trip to be able to go see them.  So, we waited in line to meet them, but she didn’t know who we were waiting to see.  After about a 2 minute wait they let us in the room to meet Anna and Elsa- Hailey was so excited!

Hailey and Hunter with Anna and Elsa

Then they met Aurora.  Hunter asked her where Prince Philip was.  No one told him to ask that, so it was cute that he thought of it on his own.  She told him that Prince Philip was off fighting dragons, which left quite the impression on Hunter.

Princess Aurora and Hailey

We stopped to watch Dreams Come True- one of Hailey’s favorite shows.

One of my favorite views of the castle.

Rich took Hunter and Hailey on the Tea Cups.

They all loved the race cars on Tomorrow Land Speedway

Hunter loved shooting Zurg!

Hailey always loves to go on the Stitch ride.

Hunter and Rich on the People Mover.

Of course, we had to stop for a picture in front of the castle.

It was a great second day!

The night before we were set to leave we drove to the airport we were leaving from.  It was several hours away and we were not familiar with the area, so we decided to stay at a hotel the night before.  The great part was our hotel stay included parking for our whole trip to Disney World, so we could leave our car there while we were gone and not have to worry about parking at the airport.

The next morning we got all ready to leave for the airport to go to Disney World!  Hailey and Hunter were both so excited!

On the airplane… headed to our favorite place.

Finally at the Orlando airport!  We always stop here for a picture.

We arrived at the Wilderness Lodge- I love the lobby!!

Amazing fireplace in the lobby

We checked out our room

I loved the shower- so cute!

The view from our balcony

Another view from our balcony

It was dinner time at this point, so we went down and ate dinner at the food court- The Roaring Fork.  We were so close to the food court- it was perfect!!  We had to walk a few steps down the hall to the elevator and then a few steps from the elevator to the food court.  Our room could not have been in a better location (well, unless it was right in Cinderella’s castle ).

Then we went down to the boat to head over to Magic Kingdom for a little while.

This was definitely one of my favorite parts of staying at the Wilderness Lodge- we loved the quick boat ride to Magic Kingdom.

When we got there we rode the train first- one of Hunter’s favorite rides!

Hailey on Splash Mountain- her favorite ride.

We all love the Haunted Mansion.

Rich and Hunter on Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin- Hunter really loved this ride- I’m pretty sure this was his favorite ride.

Hunter had been asking where Mickey was ever since we had arrived, so we had to stop to visit him.

We finished up the evening by watching the fireworks before we headed back to our hotel to get rested up for our the next day.

Hailey all ready for the hoedown we had at our homeschool co-op.

Hunter not quite so ready- he was mad that he could not wear his pajamas.

Family picture at the hoedown

Hailey dancing

Hunter dancing

Hunter ready to go to Trunk or Treat at church

Hailey ready to go

Ariel and Spiderman

Fun at Trunk or Treat

Fun at Trunk or Treat

Hailey in the driver’s seat of the firetruck at trunk or treat.

Hunter driving the firetruck.

I sure do love these two

Hailey and Hunter were excited when Brooke brought Maya and Layla over for a visit:

(The date on this picture is wrong.)

All ready to go trick or treating.

“We do not take off our clothes on the deck.” (to Hunter)

“Stop squeezing his head.” (to Hailey)

Grandma and Pa with Hunter and Hailey

All of us

All of us again

Me, Rich, Hunter and Hailey… this represents Hunter perfectly

Ellie and Matt

My parents, with Rich photobombing

The girls

The guys

Uncle Mike and Hunter

Us

We arrived at the house in the evening and got all settled in and had some dinner.  Then we headed out to the beach.

Hailey at the ocean for the first time.

Hailey and Rich

Hunter with Aunt Ellie

Hailey loved it!

I love this expression as a wave was coming in.

Hunter loved it too!

The next morning we got up and got ready and headed back to the beach.

I love these little footprints in the sand:

Hunter and Pa

Hailey and Uncle Matt

Hunter enjoying the beach:

Hailey enjoying the beach:

Hailey, Rich and Hunter

Hailey burying Uncle Matt

Hunter “resting”

Rich and Ellie worked pretty hard on this sand castle

The next day I didn’t take very many pictures at the beach, but here are some that I did take:

Mike- “I am smiling.”

Hunter enjoying the ocean

Mike tried to take a nap, but woke up and found he had been buried.

Hailey loved being at the ocean!!

Super fun living room fort

 Having lunch in the fort

Hailey’s 1st grade concert- they were fantastic!

Hunter and Pa taking a little walk after the concert

Me and my babies on Mother’s Day

One day after lunch I put a Veggie Tales movie on in my laptop and let Hunter watch it while I did dishes and cleaned up the kitchen.  He fell asleep   He’s never done that before and probably never will again, hahaha

Memorial Day

I wonder what they are talking about

My pretty little lady

My handsome little man

Everyone getting some yummy food to eat.

Group picture… I think Hunter was trying to figure out what was going on.

Silly group picture… Hunter is still trying to figure out what’s going on and Brady is sticking his tongue out at us

Hunter got this beautiful quilt from Aunt Ellie and Uncle Matt for Christmas.  Aunt Ellie made it for him and it matches his room perfectly.  And obviously, he loves it!

We played some fun games together.  Here are Hailey and Pa working together playing Scattergories,  It was lots of fun!  Hunter woke up while we were playing this and decided not to go back to sleep.  I guess he knows a good party when he sees/hears one hahaha.  Someone (fairies, possibly) cleaned up the whole kitchen and all the food while I tried unsuccessfully to get Hunter to go back to sleep.  What a nice surprise.  We all watched the ball drop and rang in the new year together.  It was a fun party.  Happy New Year!!

I can’t believe how tall Hailey is!!  She looks so grown up…

Hunter was not interested in standing to see how tall he was hahaha

Hay ride

Hay ride

After the pumpkin farm we went to the Olive Garden to celebrate my birthday with a yummy lunch.  Afterwards we came back to our house for cake and presents.

I couldn’t ask for a happier birthday

I was getting nervous that we weren’t going to get everything packed up in time to go, so I went back to our room to finish packing while Hailey and Rich did some more swimming.

One last picture of the building we stayed in.

Once everything was all packed up I called and booked our bounce back offer (free dining).  We decided to stay at the French Quarter for our next visit.  It’s much smaller and we didn’t really like how huge Riverside is.  We stayed at French Quarter a few years ago and really liked it there.

Then we had some yummy lunch and I had a Magic Cookie with my lunch.  It was sooooo super delicious!!

There was a little time to play in the arcade before we had to go.

While we waited for the bus to come to take us back to the airport we looked for Hidden Mickey’s in our lobby and found several of them.  Can you find all of them?

My princess

Sad to be on Magical Express back to the airport.

When we got to the airport, Rich said we could just pick any security line to go through.  I told him I didn’t think so and we should ask someone first since we had never flown Southwest out of Orlando before.  He insisted he was right so we picked a line and waited in it.  Once we got all the way through the line we asked where to go for Southwest… and guess what- we were at the wrong end of the airport.  We had to go all the way to other end and wait in line to go through security again.  Do you know how much fun that is with a 5 year old and a very overtired baby?  Lots… We were able to go through the employee line and skip the longest part of the wait, so that was very helpful.  When we go to North Carolina we were just supposed to do a quick stop and then continue on our way without getting off the plane.  But, there were severe thunderstorms at our destination so we were delayed.  Ugh!  We finally arrived at our destination much later than we had planned.  Then all the buses that came to pick people up to take them to the parking lot were so full there was no room for any people on them, let alone us with all our luggage.  Finally Rich went and got on the bus and went and got our car while I waited with Hailey and Hunter.  It took well over an hour… not fun at midnight.  Then of course there was the 3 hour drive home, while Hunter screamed because he had not been in his car seat for 10 days and was not happy about being in it again, he did eventually fall asleep about an hour into the trip home.  So, the trip home was not a whole lot of fun…

We did have a wonderful trip to Disney this year!  It is certainly much harder to do with a baby but we still had a great time.  I really liked how we took it slower this year and didn’t stay until park closing every night.  It felt much more relaxing than usual.  We can’t wait to go back!!