On the 2nd day of our trip to Disney World we started our free dining package.  The free dining didn’t start until the 2nd day we were there so in order to qualify for it we had to check out that morning and then check back in under our package.  I had done online check in for this but I still had to wait a very long time.  The regular check in line was even longer than the online check in, so it still saved us time.  I think a lot of people had done the same thing we had and all needed to re-check in first thing in the morning.  There weren’t very many cast members checking people in so apparently they didn’t realize how many people would be doing this.  After waiting for probably 45 minutes we finally got re-checked in.

My little princess waiting for the bus to pick us up to take us to Epcot.

We had an 8:20 breakfast reservation at Akershus, so we arrived in the park before it was open.

Hailey and me (24 weeks pregnant).

My beautiful little miss

We arrived at Akershus and there was no wait.  Even though we always have a reservation we have always had to wait in the past.  This time we got right in.

Hailey and Belle

Hailey and Sleeping Beauty

Hailey during a parade around the restaurant

After the parade, Sleeping Beauty helped Hailey find her way back to our table.

Hailey and Cinderella

Hailey and Snow White

Hailey and Ariel.  Hailey asked Ariel if she is able to turn back into a mermaid so that she can visit her dad and her sisters in the water.  Ariel told her that she can change back and forth any time she wants to to visit.  Hailey also sent a hug to Flounder.

Ariel during another parade around the restaurant.

Hailey parading

Having fun seeing all the princesses!

Our breakfast at Akershus was really good.  I always love eating breakfast there and they have food that Hailey will eat, so that’s a definite plus!  It’s not Rich’s favorite place to eat, but he puts up with it so Hailey can see the princesses.

After breakfast we were off to find some rides.  Hailey decided that she wanted to go on Test Track.  She tried it last year and was scared because it was too fast.  But she decided she was ready to try it again this year.

Us, on our way to Test Track

So pretty

Rich grabbed some fast passes for Test Track to use later and since it was early and the line was short they decided to ride it right away (I couldn’t ride since I’m pregnant).

The princess in line for Test Track.

I think she looks a little bit nervous.

All ready to go!  Definitely looking nervous now.

I think she’s having fun now!

Looking very happy!  And she loved Test Track!

Next up we rode Soarin’.  The wait was short and we got right on.

In line for Soarin’.  We all loved Soarin’, although all of us feel dizzy during the part where you fly over the city.  We just close our eyes during that part and we enjoy the rest of the ride.  When we got off it was time for us to get another fast pass, so we got fast passes to ride Soarin’ again later.

Next we rode the Living With the Land boat ride.  I always find this to be really interesting.  But Hailey was complaining it was making her feel sick.  When we went through the part where the greenhouses are it’s pretty warm and that was the part that made Hailey feel sick.

We found a Hidden Mickey on Living With the Land!

Next we went to one of Hailey’s favorite rides from last year.  She stopped to pose with Dori and Nemo before we rode.

Ready to ride the Nemo ride.

After we rode Nemo, we had to stop and see Bruce.  Hailey is doing her mad/scary face.

Hailey

Some of the fish in the aquarium

We went to see Turtle Talk with Crush.  I am always amazed by this show.  I can’t figure out how they do it!  Hailey sat on the floor during the show and raised her hand to ask Crush a question, but she didn’t get picked.  She was disappointed that she didn’t get picked and had planned to ask Crush where all of his friends were.

Rich grabbed more fast passes for Test Track and then Rich and Hailey rode it again using their fast passes from that morning.  She really loved it!

Since we have never ridden on Mission Space (we aren’t big on the whole spinning thing!) we never realized that this fun Space Base comes after the ride.  So we decided to check it out for the first time.

Hailey loved it!  Here’s a few pictures of what it looks like:

She didn’t want to come down.

We got to meet Mickey and Minnie at the Character Spot.  Hailey asked Mickey if was ever going to marry Minnie.  It was so funny!  Minnie gave her a high five for asking and Mickey kept putting his hand up to his ear like he couldn’t hear what Hailey was saying.

Us with Mickey and Minnie

We were a little bit hungry at this point so we stopped for a snack at the Promenade.  Hailey had a cinnamon sugar pretzel.  But I’m not sure who had more- Hailey or her new friend:

He would not leave us alone after Hailey decided to share some of her pretzel with him.

Hailey with Duffy

Next we rode the Gran Fiesta Tour Boat ride.

Then it was time for a little nap.  We went into one of the innoventions buildings and Hailey (and Rich) slept for a little while.  Sometimes Hailey will take a little nap, but it doesn’t happen very often.  We don’t like to go back to our hotel for naps because it takes so much time out of the day by walking to buses, waiting for the bus, riding the bus, walking to our room, trying to settle Hailey down for a nap, etc.  So we let her take a nap in her stroller in the park rather than waste all that time.

After nap time we went to Club Cool to sample some free soda from around the world.  My favorites are from Costa Rica, Mexico and China.

Next we went to see Ellen’s Energy Adventure.  I thought it might be a bit boring to Hailey because it’s long, but she absolutely loved it!

We ate dinner at Sunshine Seasons… it seemed like there was less of a selection than the last time we were there.  Our food was delicious, but Hailey’s brownie had a hair in it.  Yuck!  We were given a new one, but still- yuck!

After dinner we used our fast passes for Soarin’.

Rich and Hailey went on Test Track again using their fast passes from earlier.  While they rode I went and got our free pictures from the Character Spot photo opportunity earlier in the day.  It rained pretty hard while I was getting our pictures but only for a few minutes.

Magic Kingdom had extra magic hours that night so it was time to head over there.  We took the monorail over and it took a long time.  Since I’m pregnant I assumed that someone would let me sit… but that was not the case.  There was one guy who was sitting down and he looked right at me, then laid his head down on his wife’s shoulder and acted like he was sleeping.  So rude!  And then the monorail in front of us was having mechanical problems so we had to wait a long time on the track.

Finally at Magic Kingdom!

First up Hailey wanted to ride Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin

Yay!  We captured Zurg!!

Next we went on Stitch’s Great Escape.

Then we went to see Mickey’s Philharmagic.  Hailey had been asking to go to this allllll day long, she remembered how much she liked it last year.

Next we went on the Haunted Mansion.

Hailey had to try to pull the sword from the stone before we left.

A couple of castle pictures on our way out:

By the time we got back to our hotel, filled our mugs up and got to our room and in bed it was midnight.  A long, but very fun first day!

Hailey’s favorites for the day- ride: Test Track at Epcot and Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin at Magic Kingdom.  Favorite character: Minnie Mouse

Back at the end of August we went on a trip to Disney World.  We took lots of pictures while we were there (over 3200!) so it’s taking me some time to go through them and figure out what I want to share.  Here is the first day of our vacation:

We woke Hailey up around 6am and told her there was a surprise for her in the living room (she had no idea we were going to Disney World).  So she got right up to go see.

Opening her surprise box.

Reading the sign on her balloon that says, “We are going to Disney World.”  She seemed pretty shocked at first and didn’t know what to say.  When she realized we were leaving in a couple of hours she got very excited and ran to give me and Rich and big hug and said “Thank you so much!”

Other things inside the box included a new DVD (The Fox and the Hound) a new game for her MobiGo (Tangled), 2 autograph books that I made for the trip and a new shirt to wear.

The first autograph book I made for Hailey to take on our trip.

The other autograph book.

Hailey all ready to head to the airport, wearing her new shirt that says, “I’m going to the Walt Disney World Resort.”

Hailey and Rich on the airplane.  The flight went better than last years did.  Hailey complained she felt sick but she didn’t actually get sick this time.

Yay!  At the airport in Orlando!

We went to catch our bus to our resort and didn’t have to wait at all.  There weren’t very many people in line, which we were told was because of Hurricane Irene and a lot of people not able to come.  We were very fortunate to make it when we did as we were one of the last flights to leave from our connecting airport to go to Orlando.

Hailey happy to be on the Magical Express… but that smile didn’t last the whole trip.  When we got  to our first stop (Caribbean Beach) to let people off Hailey begged to get off the bus because she was feeling sick.  We couldn’t get off there and as soon as pulled out of the resort Hailey got sick  Fortunately she felt better after that and we were pretty close to our resort anyways.

Pulling in to our resort- Pop Century.  We stayed there last year and really liked it.  We spend such a small amount of time in our room that we have liked staying at the value resorts in the past to save money.  But I think after this year we are going to be staying away from the value resorts.  We had an amazing time but there were a lot of things that bothered us this year.

Hailey loved playing with the big legos while Rich waited to get our suitcases off of Magical Express.

She had a little time to hula hoop too.

Hailey enjoyed playing in the kids room while I checked us in.  I had done online check in before we got there, so it only took a few minutes for me to check in.

Off to find our room

After we got settled into our room we went to the food court to have some dinner.  Hailey enjoyed a yummy pizza.

Then we checked out the Everything Pop gift shop.

Hailey decided she wanted a Lotso teddy bear from the gift shop.  She’s posing in front of Lady, one of the huge icons that was near our room.

Hailey and Lotso in front of Tramp.

After a long day of traveling it was nice to just relax at the pool.

Hailey loved swimming in the pool!

A view of the main pool at Pop Century.

We were tired from our long day so we headed off to bed knowing that day 2 would be an early morning.

Day 2 of the 4th of July Extravaganza:

We started out with delicious omelets made by my Uncle Dave.

Hailey and Anika had fun splashing in the little pool.

Some of the decorations for the party.

Aunt Ruth made these- so cute!

Hailey and Caleb

Danielle cooling off in the pool

Caleb

Anika

Hailey loved the water slide.

Nothing funnier than a balloon making a tooting noise when you’re 4.

Matt and Hailey enjoying the pool

Ellie

Danielle and her big soggy diaper

Lucas ready to jump in the pool

4th of July cookie cake with sparkling candles

Day 3 of the 4th of July extravaganza:

More water slide fun.  (This time the water slide had been moved to a little bigger hill.)

Anika on the water slide.

Danielle didn’t want to try it at first, but once she did she loved it.

Caleb

Hailey jumping right in

Later on we had a nice fire while we sat around and talked and sang.

Anika and Hailey singing.

The last day of the extravaganza as everyone was getting ready to leave- I had to get a picture of the 4 cousins who spent the whole weekend playing together.  They had so much fun!

The 4th of July Extravaganza was such a fun weekend!

The 2nd annual 4th of July Extravaganza took place this year, once again at my parents’ house.

Friday started out with Anika coming over to our house to play with Hailey.

They had fun dressing up as princesses.

They had a serious discussion out by the swingset.

Hailey had some laughs in the pool.

Anika loved the pool too!

Later on as people arrived from out of town they all came over to our house for some dinner.

Hailey, Caleb and Anika playing

Aunt Ruth, Aunt Gladys and Uncle Dave

Matt, my Dad, Uncle Ralph and Ellie

I guess I was having too much fun talking to take any other pictures the first night, so this is all I have.  More pictures to come of the rest of the weekend.