Day 3 started bright and early.  We had to be at Magic Kingdom by 8am (preferably a littler earlier) because on the evening of day 2 Hailey received this surprise invitation:

(It says: “Your royal presence is requested on August 27th at 8:00am at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.  You will come in as a girl and leave as a princess!”

Hailey has never done Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and her reaction was priceless- she was soooo happy!

She also received this invitation for breakfast:

She was so excited it took her a little while to settle down to go to sleep.

So, we got up nice and early and I peeked outside, hoping not to see any rain since we were supposed to be getting rain that day due to Hurricane Issac.  It wasn’t raining when I got up…  we got all ready to go and when we walked out our door it was raining, and it was raining hard.  This was the only day of the trip I cared if it rained.  I had visions of Hailey in her princess dress with her princess hair-do, walking around the park all day, getting compliments from the Cast Members.  It wasn’t a passing shower either, it was one that I knew was going to stick around.  I was disappointed, but I realize there are much worse things in life, so I got over it pretty quickly.  We were in Disney World, after all   And a rainy day at Disney is better than a sunny day at home.  So we put on our ponchos and set out to have a wonderful day.

We arrived a little bit before 8am to a nice, empty park.  You can’t tell in the picture, but it was still raining.  There weren’t any photopass photographers out taking pictures, so we didn’t get our family picture in the empty park.

I still had to get a couple of castle pictures.  One can never have too many pictures of the castle.

We arrived at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and checked in for Hailey’s appointment.

She was so excited to be getting her hair done.

Rich seemed just as excited as Hailey hahahaha… Hunter was looking at a map, planning out our day.  And I think Ariel was watching Rich to see what he thought about sitting there watching Hailey get her hair done.  (As a side note, Ariel was all wet from being in the rain and one of the Fairy Godmothers In-Training said, “Oh, look she must have just come from the ocean, she’s all wet.”  I just love how they are always ready with things like that to say.)

Hailey enjoying her pampering session by her Fairy Godmothers In-Training   I actually wasn’t sure how much she was going to like it because she hates getting her hair brushed.  There are tears every day when I brush her hair, so I hoped she was enjoying herself.  Later in the day Hailey said to me, “Mom, I didn’t like getting my hair done.”  I said, “You didn’t?  Why not?”  She said, “Because I loved it!”

Just a bit of fairy dust.

My beautiful princess!  (I missed the part where Hailey picked her hairstyle.  I would have tried to encourage one of the other hair-dos.  She picked this one because she wanted her hair to look like Rapunzel’s, since she was wearing the Rapunzel wedding dress.  She was very happy with how it turned out.)

So pretty!

We still had time before our breakfast reservation, so we decided to see if we could get any rides in Fantasyland done.  The park wasn’t open yet, so we waited under the edge of the castle for the park to open.  When it did we went right to Peter Pan.  We got to be the first ones to ride it!  Yay!!  I didn’t take any pictures though.  Maybe I was so excited about being the first ones that I forgot.  Or maybe we were all soaking wet from the rain.  I don’t know which one it was.  After that we went to Pooh, but the ride was closed because there was some flooding.  It was raining very hard, so we decided to just go check in for our breakfast reservation.

While we were waiting in line for Hailey’s picture with Cinderella, Hailey noticed Gus and Jaq up near the ceiling.  I have never noticed them before, so I had to take a picture.

Cinderella and Hailey

I might be biased, but I’m pretty sure she is the most beautiful little girl ever

Hunter got a sword and Hailey got a wand at breakfast.  Hunter was asleep, so Hailey decided to play with his sword. She is so full of personality!

Making a wish… she didn’t tell me what she wished for.  Last year she told me she wished for a puppy, which she didn’t get, so I guess she thought she’d better keep her wish a secret this time.

I had the Cream-Cheese Stuffed French Toast.  It was sooooo delicious!!  Rich had the Traditional Breakfast, which looked good, but not as good as mine

Hailey loved her french toast sticks.

Then it was time to meet some princesses!

I love how Hailey is looking at Snow White in this picture.  She looks up to all the princesses like that.  Hailey asked Snow White if she is afraid to eat apples.  Snow White said, “Oh, no… now why would I be afraid to eat apples?  But I only eat the green ones.  The red ones make me sleepy.”

Hailey and Aurora.  Hailey asked her if she preferred her pink or blue dress.  She said, “I just love both colors so much that I can’t decide.  Whatever makes my fairy godmothers happy, makes me happy.”

Ariel was quite pleased to the see the doll of herself.

Hunter slept through all of breakfast and didn’t meet any princesses.  It made for a nice peaceful breakfast, but I had hoped to get to see his reaction to them.

Hailey and Belle… she asked Belle what her favorite book is.  Belle told her it’s hard to pick since she loves books so much, but that she would choose Sleeping Beauty as her favorite book.

After breakfast it was still pouring out so we decided that Hailey should change out of her Rapunzel dress so it wouldn’t get ruined.  Once she was changed we went off to get some rides done.

Hailey with her opera glasses on at Mickey’s Philharmagic

Hailey trying to pull the sword from the stone.

Next up we went on Pooh, with no wait time at all.

Rich and Hailey went on the tea-cups… I can’t do that ride!  Once again- no wait.

Look at how empty the park was!!  It was wonderful.  Although I was disappointed that it was raining, we were able to just walk on to the rides, so it was worth it.

Next we went on Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin… again- we walked right on.

Rich and Hunter working to defeat Zurg.

After the Buzz ride we got in line to meet Buzz.  While we were in line the rain stopped!  Woo Hoo!!

Buzz and Hailey

Hunter laughing at Buzz

Next up we went to the Laugh Floor… I’m always so nervous they’re going to pick on me in the show.  Rich got on camera as the guy who was going to buy churros for everyone hahaha.  After the Laugh Floor, Rich and Hailey went on Stitch.  Then we were walking by Dumbo and saw it only had a 10 minute wait.  Since it’s the new Dumbo ride we had to check it out.

This was inside the queue.  But if you wanted to play on the playground you had to get out of line to go play, then get back in line when done playing.  While that does make sense to me (can’t have people saving spots in line), I don’t see how they can call it an interactive queue since you have to get out of line to do it.  Anyways- we skipped the playground, but I had to take a picture of it.

New Dumbo ride

Me and Hunter riding Dumbo

Hailey was thrilled the the Barnstormer has re-opened.  There was only a 10 minute wait, so Hailey and Rich went on.  She loved it!  I’m pretty sure that’s the shortest ride in all of Disney World.  Maybe they should go around the track twice to make it a little longer.

This is part of the new water play area in the Storybook Circus.  There wasn’t any water on this day, probably because it had been raining.

We made a little stop at Storybook Treats so Rich and Hailey could have a sundae.  I saved my snack credit for a Dole Whip… yummy!!

Hailey and I went on the Haunted Mansion (Hunter was napping, so Rich stayed with him.)  There was no one in line at all for the Haunted Mansion.  Kinda spooky

On our way to get my Dole Whip… see how empty the park is.  It was wonderful!!

Next off we went over to do Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain.  The plan was to get fastpasses… but they only had 10 minute waits, so we were able to just ride.  We did grab fastpasses for Splash just in case the line got long while we were riding Thunder Mountain.

Hailey and Rich went on Thunder Mountain Railroad first.  She had never ridden before as she did not want to try it last year.  She loved it!!

Then Hailey and I went on it since there was still a 10 minute wait.

I think she liked it

Next Rich and Hailey rode Splash Mountain and it still only had a 10 minute wait.  When they got off, Hailey and I rode- still a short wait but we decided to just use our fastpasses anyways.  When we got almost to the end of the ride, it stopped.  We waited and waited.  Finally the Cast Members were walking around and I was kind of hoping we’d have to walk off the ride- I’ve never gotten to do that before.  They made the announcement we had to walk off and I was a little excited.  Hailey was sad though… even though we were almost at the end of the ride she wasn’t happy that we weren’t getting to finish the ride.

Standing next to our log, waiting to walk off, sad that we didn’t finish the ride.

Empty logs

Walking out of the ride.

After this they told everyone no more pictures because we were going back stage. (They actually said they would delete pictures if any were taken… not sure how true that is, but I put my camera away.)

When we left they gave us these fastpasses to use at a later time.  We decided to save them for our last day since that day (Sunday before Labor day) tends to be the busiest day of our trip.

We rode Pirates of the Caribbean next and Hailey had a sword fight with the Cast Member on our way to get in our boat.

Waiting in line to meet the fairies, Hunter got to try out his sword.

Hailey and Rosetta

Hailey and Tinkerbell… Hailey told Tink that she saw Peter Pan with Wendy.  Tinkerbell puffed up her cheeks like she does when she is mad and said, “Now why would you tell me that?  I thought we were friends… but he still likes me better than Wendy, right?”  Of course Hailey agreed that Peter likes Tink better hahaha

Next we rode the Haunted Mansion, which still had no wait.

We ate at Columbia Harbour House for dinner.  I had the Anchor’s Aweigh Sandwich, and it was yummy!

After dinner Hailey wanted to go on Thunder Mountain Railroad again, so Rich took her on it.  Splash Mountain was still closed from earlier, of we would have went on that again too.  It wasn’t all that late yet, but we had gotten a lot done due to the non-existent lines, so we decided to head back to our resort to relax.

On our way out we saw the princesses had no wait so Hailey wanted to see if Rapunzel was there, and she was.

First up a little dance with Cinderella

Posing with Belle

Rapunzel and Hailey discussed how Rapunzel keeps her hair from getting too snarly.  Rapunzel told her that she brushes it a lot, all through out the day and that Pascal helps her too.

We got back to our resort and relaxed.  We were in bed by 9pm, which has to be a record for us while in Disney World!

Hailey’s favorites of the day: Rides- Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain, Character- Rosetta.

Since day 1 started at 4:00am and ended at midnight we decided we would just sleep in a bit on day 2, rather than setting the alarm to get to the parks first thing.  We had decided ahead of time that this trip would be more relaxing that our usual non-stop trips that we have done in the past.  So, we slept in and then I got our room all nice and organized.

Hailey decorated the door to our room.  It came out really cute!

Then it was time for a healthy breakfast at the food court.

Hailey had a chocolate chip muffin.

Rich and I both had a cinnamon roll.  Yummy!

Our park plan for the day was to go to Epcot.  We arrived around 10:30am and it looked nice and empty.

Hailey posing on the way into the park.

Hunter was asleep upon our arrival. (On a side note, see the rips in the fabric on the back of Hunter’s stroller? That was another thing Southwest did to his stroller, in addition to breaking the piece necessary to lock his stroller closed.)

We headed to Soarin’ since the wait for that tends to get very long as the day goes on.  Since Hunter was asleep (and they wouldn’t let me bring the stroller inside) Rich took Hailey and they went inside to grab fastpasses to use later.

Then Hailey and I went on Nemo.

While we were riding on Nemo Hunter woke up from his nap, so we decided to go on it again so he could enjoy the ride too.

Me and Hunter in our clam.  While Rich was taking this picture the Cast Member standing there was saying, “Sir please get into your clam.”  It just struck me as funny.

Oh no!  Bruce has Hailey!  She is too funny and always has to pose in Bruce’s mouth every year.

And of course, if the sign says not to put your hand into the shark’s mouth- what should you do??

Next we did The Great Piggy Bank Adventure, which is what Hailey had actually been begging to do since we arrived.  She loves playing that game!  We picked to save money for a dream vacation.

And we were successful in saving enough.  Yay!!

Rich and I were feeling a bit thirsty and who can pass up free samples of as much soda as you want?  Not us!  So, we headed to Club Cool.  I really only like the Costa Rica flavor, although I always try the others, none are as good in my opinion.  How does Hailey feel about Club Cool?

She doesn’t like soda… so she isn’t a fan of waiting for me and Rich to finish trying all the sodas.

It was time for some lunch and I decided we were going to eat somewhere other than Sunshine Seasons- not that it’s bad there, but we always eat there.

We stopped for a family picture on our way to lunch.

Me and Hailey posing with Phineas and Ferb.

For lunch we went to La Cantina de San Angel (the quick serve in Mexico).

Rich and I both had the Empanadas de Queso.  It was sooooo good!  I could have done without the tortilla chips, but I loved the empanadas.  This was my favorite quick serve meal of our trip.  For dessert we had churros with caramel sauce- delicious!!

Hailey had the kids Cheese Empanadas- she loved her food too.  She ate all her empanadas, but didn’t like the tortilla chips either.

After lunch I took Hunter to visit the baby center while Rich and Hailey went off to see her first character of the trip.

Duffy and Hailey

Then we all rode the boat ride in the Mexico pavilion.

Do you see the hidden Mickey?

Next it was time to go to Universe of Energy.  Hailey loves this, for some reason.  I think it’s time to replace it or update it or something.  But she enjoys it, so we went.

It was time to go visit the character spot for our free pictures, so that is where we went next.

A kiss for Pluto.

Mickey, Hailey, Pluto

Then Hunter got to meet his first character…

He loved Mickey!!  He went right for Mickey’s nose.  I don’t know what it is about the nose, but Hailey always went for their noses when she was a baby too.  Hunter kept laughing at Mickey and Pluto.  It was so cute!

Family picture with Mickey and Pluto.

Hunter was still laughing on our way out.

It was time to use our fastpasses for Soarin’ so we headed there next.  It had been kind of raining, so I decided to try again to bring our stroller up closer to the Land building and was pleasantly surprised when they let me bring it right inside.

Rich and Hailey rode Soarin’ first and I got Hunter to take a little nap and put him down in his stroller to sleep.  Since we had a park ticket for Hunter, Rich had been able to get 4 fastpasses, so once Rich and Hailey were done riding, I went on with Hailey.

After Soarin’ we stopped back in the Innoventions building so Hailey could put herself into a video game.  Here she is creating the game.

And now playing the game with herself in the game.

When we were done in the innoventions building, Rich and Hailey went to pick up our free picture from earlier while I fed Hunter.  It was getting close to our dinner reservation time at ‘Ohana, so we had to get going soon.  We decided to stop and do one more ride on our way out.

Me and Hailey on Spaceship Earth.

We took the monorail to the TTC, then switched monorails over to the Polynesian.  It all went very quickly and we didn’t have to wait at all.  We actually got there quite early, so we were able to sit and relax for a little while before checking in for dinner.  Hailey watched tv and played with some other kids who were waiting, then we looked in the gift shop.  I walked around and took a few pictures.

The Polynesian is soooo pretty!!

Hailey thought this statue was so funny and said, “I can see his buns!”

Dinner was very delicious. I love, love, love the noodles there.  Hailey had grilled cheese since she wasn’t a big fan of any of the food.  And of course the meat is so good.  Hunter was very tired and whiny and Hailey kept asking when they were going to do the parade (she remembered doing it 2 years before.)  The food was good but it wasn’t very relaxing… Hailey had to go to the bathroom (even though she went right before dinner), then Hunter had to be changed, then Hailey had to go to the bathroom again (I think she was just bored since it was taking forever for the parade to start.)  So I kind of felt like I was running around instead of sitting and enjoying my favorite restaurant.  Dessert came and of course, it is the best bread pudding every made!

Finally the parade!  (I guess the guy who does it was downstairs doing something else, I don’t know exactly what he was doing, but they were late starting it.)  Hailey was sooooo happy it was finally time  to parade and limbo.

After dinner we talked about stopping at Magic Kingdom for a while, but we had an early day coming up on day 3, so we went back to our resort.

We found these towel animals when we got to our room (these were the only ones we got during our trip).

We went and filled up our mugs and visited the gift shop- Hailey got a new Ariel doll, and I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of her.  Hunter got a little playset of characters.  We went back to our room and got ready for bed.  Hailey had a special delivery of invitations arrive while she was in the shower- she got an invitation to go to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and to Cinderella’s Royal Table.  She went right to bed, excited about the next morning!

We were all in bed by 10:30pm- early for us when in Disney.

Hailey’s favorites of the day- Spaceship Earth

Leading up to our trip Hailey was so excited!  She started getting her clothes packed a couple of weeks before it was time to go.  We put each outfit into a ziploc bag and she labeled them with which day she would wear the outfit.  We went back through my posts about our previous trips and read everything we did.  She just couldn’t get enough of talking about our trip- she was soooo excited!  One evening as we were getting close to our trip Hailey said, “I am so excited I could burst!”  It was so fun to watch her be so excited about going.  I definitely liked it better with her knowing, rather than surprising her like we did last year.

The day before our trip we painted our toe nails red and then added a Mickey head.  These are Hailey’s cute little piggy toes.

Hunter and Hailey all ready to go.  They were ready to leave for the airport at 4:45am.

The (my) plan was to leave at 5am.  Of course Rich held us up (he always does) and we left at 5:28am.  I wanted to leave with plenty of time so I wouldn’t have to get stressed about making it to the airport on time.  We were flying out of an airport that was 3 1/2 hours away because we were able to get a good deal on the plane tickets.  In the end, by the time we paid for gas and parking (in addition to it being extra stressful) we didn’t save a whole lot.  I think it would be worth it to pay a bit more to fly out of an airport closer to home next time.  On the way to airport Rich kept questioning the directions to get there and made me nervous.  Then I started to think we were going to wrong way.  I looked it up on my phone’s GPS and we were heading the right way, but Rich did make me nervous for a few minutes.

On the way to the airport Hailey got car sick…  that always happens when she’s really tired and/or didn’t eat a good breakfast.  I pulled out the Sea Bands that the dr had recommended for the airplane and put those on her.  A little while later she got sick again.  I don’t think the Sea Bands work well for a child- they didn’t really stay in place for her.  We finally arrived at the airport at 9am.  Rich dropped us off with the suitcases and went and parked the car.  It seemed to take forever for him to get back.  Finally he got back and we checked our luggage.  Since we were flying Southwest we were able to check our 3 big suitcases without having to pay extra .

We found our gate and then had some McDonalds for breakfast/lunch.  Hailey said her food didn’t taste good to her and she wouldn’t eat much, I think her tummy was still off from the car ride.  I gave her some Dramamine for the airplane ride, since the dr said to do that if the Sea Bands didn’t work.  Soon after that Hailey saw some girls from her Sunday School class and we talked to their parents for a while.  It’s funny that we ran into them at an airport 3 1/2 hours away!  (They were headed to Disney World too.) It’s a Small World

Finally time to board!  Hunter (on his first airplane) with Hailey.

Thanks to the Dramamine, Hailey was able to look out the window.  She was so excited to see the ground below and loved looking.  She kept saying, “MOM, look!!”  After a while Hailey and Hunter were both ready for a nap.  We flew into Fort Myers Fl, for a quick stop and then went to Orlando from there.  We didn’t have to change planes, but the stop made Hunter very antsy.  He was all over the place for the rest of the flight.

We arrived in Orlando around 3:40pm and had to stop for our annual picture by the Disney store.

Hunter and Hailey with Mickey.

Then we were off to the Magical Express.  When we got the Magical Express I folded down Hunter’s stroller and went to lock it shut (it has a piece that hooks together to keep it shut) and the piece that was needed was gone.  Apparently Southwest broke it while putting it under the airplane.  Fantastic.  It’s a bulky stroller to begin with and Rich had already been complaining about having to get it on and off of the buses all week- and now it wasn’t going to be able to lock shut.  Grrrrr

Hailey on Magical Express on our way to Port Orleans Riverside.

We arrived at Riverside and checked in.  It took less than a minute- no waiting in line and everything was all ready to go for us.  While we were in the lobby Hailey said,
“This place looks very royal.”  Then we were off to check out our room.  We stayed in Oak Manor, in the back of the building facing the parking lot.  It was only about a 3-4 minute walk to the main building from our room, so I was happy even though the location wasn’t great.

When we checked in we got this special letter.

It was from Tiana, welcoming us to our Royal Guest Room.

Then I had to take some pictures of the room before we started unpacking and messed it all up:

Hunter hanging out on the bed.

Hailey waiting as patiently as she could for me to finish taking pictures so we could get going to a park.

A few more pictures:

Then we were off to the Riverside Mill Food Court for some dinner.

Hailey had some chocolate cake and then some chicken nuggets for her dinner.

I had the delicious 1/3 lb Bacon Double Cheeseburger.  Rich had the same thing and for some reason didn’t want me taking pictures of his food.  Can’t imagine why.

Then we were off to Magic Kingdom.

Let the Memories Begin!

Family picture in front of the castle.

We went and picked up fastpasses for Splash Mountain since it had a bit of a wait.  Rich was able to get 4 fastpasses because they gave us a ticket for Hunter as well.  So, that meant Hailey would get to ride twice- one time with each of us.

While we were waiting to use our Splash Mountain fastpasses we went on Pirates of the Caribbean.  Hailey did her best pirate face while we were waiting in line.

Hunter slept through his very first ride in Disney World.

It was time to use our Splash Mountain fastpasses, so Hailey and I rode together first.  I sure did miss going on Splash last year when I was pregnant.  I love that ride!

Then Hailey got to ride again with Rich.

We were exhausted from our long day so it was time to head back to our hotel and go to bed.  We decided to do one more ride on our way out.

We rode It’s a Small World- Hunter’s first ride being awake.  His eyes were huge the whole time.

We had hoped to get out of the park before the Electrical parade, but we got stuck watching it.  We couldn’t move forward or backwards, so we just stayed and watched it.  I was a little nervous that crowds were going to be high for our trip, because it seemed pretty busy.

We got back to Riverside around 10, much later than we had hoped.  Hailey picked out an autograph book and pen from the gift shop so she would be all ready to get some autographs on day 2.  Then we picked up our refillable mugs- it was pretty busy in the food court and they seemed to be short staffed.  They were out of a bunch of stuff- there were only black mugs left and we wanted 3 different colors.  Someone did bring out some boxes of mugs as others were looking for their mugs too.  There were only 2 registers open with very long lines.  Someone had spilled something all over the floor and it was just left there with no one to clean it up.  It seemed quite chaotic.  Soon enough we were all checked out and on our way to our room.  Our luggage had arrived while we were gone, so I did some unpacking.  Finally we were all in bed by midnight.  What a long day!

Hailey’s favorites of the day- Splash Mountain

My previous post told all about our first day and a half at the Great Wolf Lodge.  Here is the rest of our trip:

Day 2 we spent the morning and early afternoon at the lodge.  We decided to leave the lodge for lunch/dinner.  We ate a big meal in the late afternoon at the Rainforest Cafe.

Hailey and the Rainforest Cafe

Rich, Hunter and Hailey

Hailey and Rich

We stopped at Guinness World Book of Records after we ate.

Of course we had to stop and see the falls.  The rainbow was so pretty!!

We were all happy to get back to the Great Wolf Lodge!  Hailey sat in the big chair out front and posed for a picture.

Hunter was so excited he was banging on his stroller.

Posing for a picture near the entrance.

Then it was time for more water park fun:

Rich and Hailey

Hailey had originally told us she wanted to skip story time so she could stay in the water until the park closed.  Well she changed her mind, so we rushed back to our room, gave the kids their baths and got them in their pajamas.  We made it just in time for story time, which was a lot of fun again.

Howling by the fireplace after story time.

The next morning we decided to eat at the buffet again for breakfast.  We got there a little bit earlier and saved $2 per person for the adult meals because we got there early.  Once again there weren’t any characters, as there were supposed to be.  We asked and apparently Wiley was just getting ready to leave.  I guess he doesn’t stay for the whole breakfast time.

Hailey was still able to see Wiley on his way out of the restaurant.

Hunter wasn’t too sure what to think of Wiley.

Hailey loved making the tree light up using her wand.  I loved the tree house and thought it looked like it would be so fun to play in!

After breakfast (we had great, fast service this time!) Hailey went on a Wolf Walk out in the lobby.  It was a lot of fun and the guy who did it (I didn’t get his name) was funny.

Hailey with her origami wolf that she made during the Wolf Walk.

After the Wolf Walk we did another quest and then went back to our room to get ready to go swimming some more.  Check out time was 11am, so we got our suitcases all packed up and loaded into the car.  They let you use the water park until closing time on your check-out day.  We weren’t able to stay that long, but we did play for several more hours.

So much fun!

She did not want to leave when it was time to get out and kept asking to do just one more slide.

After we got all changed we did one more quest before we had to leave.

Hailey loved doing the quests!

Then we went to see the falls:

Our family

Checking out the falls

The end of the rainbow.  But no pot of gold.

It’s hard to tell in the pictures just how bright the rainbow was, but it was so beautiful!

Then it was time to make the trip back home.  Thankfully Hunter was tired and slept most of the way home.  Hailey fell asleep on the way home too.  They were both tired out from all the fun.  We had an amazing time at the Great Wolf Lodge.  We wished we had stayed one more day.  We can’t wait to go back!!