On day 4 we decided to sleep in and take it easy in the morning.  We had an 11am reservation for lunch at Hollywood and Vine in Hollywood Studios.  We decided to arrive at the park just before our lunch reservation.

We posed for a picture as we entered the park.

Then we went to our lunch reservation with Leo and June from The Little Einsteins and Jo Jo and Goliath from Jo Jo’s circus.

Leo and Hailey pose for a picture.

Hailey was so excited to meet June!

Jo Jo gives Hailey a kiss.

Hailey loved when it was time to get up and dance with the characters.

After the dancing was over Jo Jo walked with Hailey back to our seat.

We ate for a little while and then it was time for more dancing.

Then Goliath stopped by our table for a visit.

Just as we were getting ready to leave, all of the characters stopped by again.

A hug for Leo.

A big hug for June.

A hug for Jo Jo.

Instead of a hug, Hailey decided to tickle Goliath.

Then we went to watch Playhouse Disney live on stage.  This was definitely Hailey’s favorite show of everything we saw the whole week.  She LOVED it!!

Hailey enjoying the show.

Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Daisy on stage planning how to surprise Minnie for her birthday.  All of the Playhouse characters were in the show- Little Einsteins and Handy Manny too.

After the show Hailey got to meet some more characters:

Hailey with Handy Manny.

Hailey gave Quincy a big hug.

Then we went on some rides and saw some more shows.

Hailey was hot and tired during the Backstage Studio Tour.

But when she saw Sulley after we finished the Backstage Studio Tour she was all smiles again.

Hailey posing with Stinky Pete.

Hailey was very impressed with Buzz and Woody.  We were all kind of surprised about how tall Woody was- Hailey told Buzz he looked small next to Woody.

We enjoyed the Block Party Bash with lots of fun characters.

We went to some more rides and attractions.  We actually waited the longest we waited in any line for the new Toy Story ride- Toy Story Midway Mania.  For the most part we didn’t really wait in any lines for more than 5-10 minutes for our entire trip (this time of year is a great time to go!).  We had a Fastpass for this ride and waited about 15 minutes- otherwise it would have been an hour long wait.  I didn’t get any pictures of this ride but it was a lot of fun!  But other than than Toy Story Midway Mania we didn’t see many rides with wait long times.

We went back to our hotel and had dinner and then relaxed at the pool.

Hailey was ready to get in!

Hailey and Rich in the pool.

Hailey playing in the kiddy pool.

And that was the end of a fun filled day 4!

On our 3rd day at Disney we got started bright and early at Epcot.  We were there when the park opened for a breakfast reservation at Akershus- a breakfast where princesses stop by your table while you’re eating to visit you.

We posed for a quick picture on our way into the park.  Then we headed right for our breakfast reservation.

Hailey and Belle smile for a picture on our way into the restaurant.

Hailey and Sleeping Beauty.

Hailey and Snow White.

Hailey and Cinderella.

Hailey and Ariel.  Notice Hailey’s scrunched up nose in all of her pictures?  That is how she smiles these days

After breakfast we made our way around the World Showcase to check out the various countries.

We found Mulan (I think?) in China and Hailey wanted her picture with her.  None of us were actually sure who she was, but my guess was Mulan.

Me and Hailey in Germany.

Then we spotted Snow White with no line, so Hailey had to stop and give her a quick hug.

The three of us in Morocco.

We have this spray bottle that is also a fan that was supposed to keep us cool.  Hailey loved using it to water all of the flowers.

Then we saw Sleeping Beauty again and Hailey had to stop and talk to her.  Here Hailey was explaining that her name was Justin, not Hailey.  Sleeping Beauty played along and said that she also went by more than one name.

Then we were off to Future World in Epcot.  There is so much interactive stuff to do in this section and Hailey had such a blast.  We didn’t get many pictures of that though.

We found this one line that was only for people who have the Disney Visa credit card.  You could get in line and then go behind a curtain to see a surprise character, then get a free 5×7 picture.  So, we waited to see who it was.

Here is the look on Hailey’s face when she finally saw who she was going to get to meet (and me getting her autograph book ready).

Hailey was so excited that she got to see Goofy, Minnie and Mickey.

Hailey loved the Nemo ride and she loved standing here by the entrance.  Every once in a while the seagulls would all start saying, “Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!”  and Hailey would just giggle and giggle.  Then a splash of water would get her a little bit wet.  She just loved it!

After the ride Hailey insisted on getting her picture with Nemo.  I wasn’t really sure if she was supposed to be standing in the display so we had to get a quick shot!

Hailey loved this little dancing area and got a lot of energy out trying to jump on the squares as they lit up.

We spent the rest of the day and evening at Epcot going on lots of rides and seeing all sorts of attractions.  The crowds were so light that we got to do everything we wanted to do with very little waiting time.

The second day of our trip to Disney we decided to start out in Animal Kingdom.  We got up bright and early to get there before the crowds.

 We stopped to pose for a quick picture before we went into the park.

Rich, Hailey and I with the Tree of Life in the background.

Me and Hailey waiting to see It’s Tough to be a Bug, inside the Tree of Life.  It’s a really fun 3D show.

As we were heading on to check out some more rides we saw that there was only a 5 minute wait to meet Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger.  Hailey was so excited when she had her turn to meet Pooh.  I don’t think I have ever seen her so excited- the look on her face was priceless!  She ran right to give him a big hug, so you can’t really see her face.

Hailey giving Pooh a great big hug.

Posing for a picture with Pooh.

Hailey gave Eeyore a big hug and kiss. 

And a big hug for Tigger too!  After her hug Hailey started bouncing up and down and asked Tigger to bounce with her.

Hailey loved meeting the characters so much that after meeting Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger she kept asking where the other characters were and when she could get their autographs and pictures with everyone else.

We enjoyed the Affection Station (petting zoo) too.  Hailey was thrilled to be walking next to a baby goat. 

And she loved feeding another goat.

Then Hailey found out there were some more characters.

Hailey got an autograph from Jiminy Cricket.  I wasn’t even sure if she knew who Jiminy Cricket was, but she kept asking where Pinocchio was, so apparently she does know who Jiminy Cricket is.

Hailey loved meeting Rafiki!

After a train ride back to the main Animal Kingdom part we went on the Kilimanjaro Safari ride. There are African animals that roam around and you get to see these animals on the ride. We saw some pretty amazing animals! It’s a bumpy ride, so a lot of the pictures came out blurry- here are a couple that came out pretty good.

 We saw several giraffes.

 And some white rhinos.

We finished up at Animal Kingdom and then we went to Magic Kingdom for our dinner reservation.

Hailey took a little nap, one of only a couple of naps she took while we were there.

After her nap I took Hailey and got her ready to have dinner in Cinderella’s Castle.  Rather than take her to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique to have her hair done for $50 I decided to do it myself.  I put her hair up and sprayed lots of fairy dust (glitter) in her hair.  I must have done a good job because one of the Disney photographers commented on us having her hair done at the boutique.

Hailey talking to Cinderella.

Hailey and Cinderella posing for a picture.

Then we went upstairs in the castle to eat dinner (which was also free- as I mentioned yesterday- all of our food was free!).

Hailey trying to take everything in.

Hailey got to meet Cinderella’s mice and the Fairy Godmother during dinner.  I think this mouse is Suzy.

Clapping along with the songs during dinner.

Us posing for a picture in the castle after we finished dinner.

 After dinner we went on some rides- Hailey loved being able to drive on the Tomorrowland Speedway.

Then Hailey spotted Stitch- one of her all time favorite characters.  She gave him a huge hug!

Then they posed for a picture.

Hailey loved Minnie Mouse’s house- especially her kitchen.

 Rich and Hailey in the gazebo in Minnie’s backyard.

A night-time picture of Cinderella’s Castle.

We just got home last night from our vacation to Disney World.  I am going to do a post for each day that we were gone- posting pictures and telling what we did each day.  This is really for us for the most part- since I know how exciting it can be to look at other people’s vacation pictures I won’t feel bad if you don’t want to look at our vacation pictures.

Day 1- We had to get out the door by 4 am to catch our flight.  We had everything packed and in the car the night before but it was still awfully early!  On the way to the airport Hailey got car sick- I’m guessing because she didn’t eat anything and drank a little bit of milk.  It didn’t sit well with her tummy and the back roads we had to go on to get to the airport.

In order to save some money we had to take 3 different airplanes (it was a lot cheaper than having only one switch, which we always have to do anyways).  And in order to save money we also only checked one bag and brought the rest of our stuff as carry-ons.  So we had to get on and off of 3 different airplanes with an almost 3 year old, 2 suitcases, a laptop bag, a diaper bag, a backpack and a stroller.  Fun times.  Actually it went very, very smoothly and we didn’t have any problems at all.

Hailey on the airplane, waiting to take off.

When we arrived in Florida we went to where the Disney bus was waiting to take us to our hotel.

Hailey was thrilled to be on the bus!  I was not so thrilled though- because the driver didn’t seem to know how to keep his foot on the gas.  He made me soooooo sick!

We arrived at our hotel and got checked in and then looked around a little bit.  We decided to stay in one of the value resorts this time (the cheapest of the Disney resorts).  We have stayed in their moderately priced resorts before and loved it.  But considering that we spend most of our time at the parks and very little time at the hotel we decided to go cheap and stay in the value resorts.  We actually also loved the themes at the All Star Movies Resort that we stayed at- it had 101 Dalmatians and Toy Story themed areas that we knew Hailey would love.  We found that while the rooms were a little bit smaller than the other resort we stayed at, everything else was pretty much the same.

Hailey and I posed for a picture.

The huge daddy dalmatian.

After we looked around at our hotel for a little while and had a yummy dinner (all of our food was free for our entire trip- it was a deal we got when we booked our trip) we headed over to Magic Kingdom.

We posed for a quick picture before heading off to have some fun.

Cinderella’s castle as we entered the park.  Hailey was sooooo excited to see the castle!

We let Hailey decide which ride to go on first, and she picked Dumbo- she’d been talking about going on it for weeks.

A quick picture before our first ride.

Hailey loved the Dumbo ride- she was so excited that she was able to control Dumbo and make him go up and down.  (Sorry that she is a bit out of focus!)

The crowds were pretty light so we were able to go on several more rides and let Hailey play on the Pooh playground before we headed back to our hotel to go to bed.  It was a great first day!