Monday, October 9, 2017

Let's Go See Baby B!

I could hardly make a trip down to central Florida without stopping by to see my favorite baby in the world.  Surprise Baby Breck...the Cibulas have popped in!

This guy will seriously make your heart melt.  I haven't seem him in months and it was nearly about to do me in.  And although my baby fix was only a quick 24 hour sleep over in Ponte Vedre, it will have to hold me over until Thanksgiving.

We bombarded baby boy with gifts from Disney and lots of cousin kisses.  Yum, yum...squishy baby!






From there we went to check out Uncle Jon and Aunt Bailee's club in their new neighborhood.  The swimming pool was a much needed break from park hopping and was absolutely stunning {as was their new house!}.



Brecken got lots of wet smooches from the poolside.  I'm telling you, everything makes this doll baby smile!  I just adore him.


We topped off our short visit off with dinner in for B and delish seafood for the rest of us.  We can't make a Florida visit without a taste of fresh seafood.  A family fave!


And from there, we are back to reality.  Bye Bye Mickey and the gang, bye bye Florida sunshine, and see you soon cutest baby in the world!


Sunday, October 8, 2017

Disney Just Got Wilder

Hello day 2 at Disney! 

Shew...what a night at Mickey's Halloween. My family was in desperate need of a little extra snoozing. So I let them sleep in a bit on this second day.  I mean as much as any kid will "sleep in" at Disney World. 

We grabbed breakfast in our hotel at Sanaa.  They had a great grab, pay, and sit buffet style line.  I'm all about a quick and efficient breakfast on park days.  From there we hopped on the bus and made our way to Epcot.

We had a couple great new experiences while we were there and visited a few old favorites.

So, get ready for this, believe it or not, we have never been in the ball!  We made this our first stop at Epcot this go around.  A Fast Pass is a must!




After the actual ride, the kids thoroughly enjoyed checking out all that Spaceship Earth had to offer.  So many cool interactive games filled the space.


From there it was on to a family favorite and must do...Nemo and Friends.



It's hard to believe after the productive morning before, but we only got two rides and a little sight seeing in before it was lunch time.

Our reservations were at Chip n' Dales's Garden Grill.  This was another new one for us. {beware the fare is very heavy}  The restaurant is on a revolving floor that takes you through several sceneries.  But, the best part was meeting a few of our favorite characters.





It was time to divide and conquer yet again.  The boys were off to do what boys do, like The Test Track etc.  While us girls went to Sweden to visit one of our favorite Princesses and a very special Ice Queen.



The Frozen ride was another newbie for us.  It was very short and once again, a fast Pass is a must, but it was darling!  We absolutely loved it!




We just couldn't leave the village without visiting the famous sisters and their home.  The little house was precious and Lucy had so much fun checking out Elsa and Anna's treasures.


And just look who awaited us in one of the back rooms...


I somehow even bribed Maggie to jump in one photo.  I think it had something to do with the sister thing.


Elsa promised to send us snow if we didn't get any this year.  Lucy is holding her to it.



Guess what? After a little of this and a little of that, my littles were worn out again!  We went back to the hotel to rest, but not before stopping to get a must have bubble wand. A wild evening awaited us.



Day two's evening took us to Animal Kingdom.  It was the shortest bus ride of all considering we were coming from a hotel right there on property.  We had been dodging rain all weekend and had managed to do a superior job thus far.

Tonight, the bottom was about to fall out of the sky.


We managed to get into the Lion King Show nice and dry.  The girls were absolutely enamored with the acrobatic performance.  We haven't seen the show since Maggie was two so it was an entirely brand new experience for her.  As for Jack, I'm sure he liked it, but would never admit it.

When we stepped out of the theatre, the sky was an ominous gray.  We made a sprint to Bugs Life staying partly dry.  We were dying to get in one more experience before our dinner reservations.

Luckily we made it to dinner just as the monsoon came rolling in.  We dined at The Rainforest Cafe {which is one of Jack's all time favorite}.  We made quite an event of it hoping the rain would soon dissipate.

The girls bought new dry shirts at the gift shop, Jack browsed his animal loving heart out, and we dined on all kinds of tropical goodies.




We parted ways with the cafe when the rain had finally moved out.  With only an hour until park closing we squeezed in as much as we could.  We basically had the park to ourselves, everyone had cleared out with the storm.

We got our very own Safari tour in the dark.  It was pretty incredible how many animals we were able to see and the girls loved having the entire jeep to themselves.  The boys were off riding crazy cliff hangers and what not.



We did get to see the Tree of Life lit up at night, another new experience for us.


When we finally got kicked out of the kingdom we went back to our wild village hotel for our last night of seep at Disney.

We spent the next morning taking it slow. We checked out the pool and made a walk over to the Jamba House which is the second half of the Wild Kingdom Resort. We got a little crafting in there.

Our brunch reservations were right there at Boma.  It was an authentic African breakfast with more food than you can imagine.





Needless to say we weren't hungry until dinner time in Jacksonville.  What?!? Did I just say Jax?  Sure did.  We may have said goodbye to Disney this Sunday afternoon, but our vacation wasn't over yet...


Friday, October 6, 2017

Wild About Disney

We just returned home from a long weekend at Disney World.  And let me tell you, it was a jungle out there in more ways than one.

I have been itching to give the Wild Animal Kingdom Resort a try.  And now, that I am officially out of nap jail and the monorail is not a must, that is exactly what we did.  The Resort is split into two sections with the safari {with real live African animals} connecting the two.  Our room was in Kidani Village, complete with a full kitchen and living room.  And although, we never actually used the kitchenette, the extra space was a plus.

We arrived on Thursday late afternoon.  It gave us all a chance to get acclimated to our Safari home before we hit the parks on Friday.  We roamed around the hotel, checked out our room and balcony, and made a visit to see all the wild life.




Seriously, Disney never ceases to amaze me...live African animals roaming all over the  hotel grounds!


We ended our travel day with dinner at Sanaa right in the hotel.  The African lemonade concoction and the paint your own dessert went over swimmingly with my littles.




On Friday morning, we were off to the Magic Kingdom.  We've never been too good at getting out the hotel door super early, but as my lkiddos are getting more independent, things are really starting to look up for us.  We made it to the park by 8:00 {which is a record}.

We were in immediate awe of the Halloween decor everywhere we turned.  Another first for us, Disney in October!




We were set to join the VIP tour at 9:00.  {which can I just say was the most amazing experience and money well spent} But, more on that later.  With a few minutes to spare, we were able to get a few character visits in right on Main Street.

As you will notice, Lucy was the star of this trip.  It was pretty much planned around her and all for her.  I regret to say, her bigs have outgrown the magic.  So we all went into the vacation knowing "it was for Lucy".




Before long, we met up for our tour.  We had two guides and about 4 other families with us.  In a two and half hour window, we rode 10 family favorite rides, had a snack at Gaston's Tavern, and managed two bathroom breaks.  The most efficient use of time I have ever experienced at Disney.  I highly recommend this tour to everyone.










We grabbed lunch at Pinnochio's Village and made sure to get a window seat overlooking It's A Small World.  Apparently this is the thing to do!  The kids got the biggest kick out of holding these signs up for the people in the ride line.  You wouldn't believe how many Chicken Dances they had going on.


From there, we did a boy and girl split.  Daddy and Jack went to tackle a few coasters and us girls went Princess visiting.  Maggie was not at all interested, but tagged along.  Lucy, who I mentioned the trip was all about, ate up every single bit!



My favorite experience was the Belle show.  I seriously have a girl crush on sweet Belle.  Lucy played the plate in the show and I was the suit of armor.  Maggie was on camera duty and this is about the extent of what she captured....


From there we Princess hopped.  I promise Maggie was there.  She just had no interest in hugging on strange ladies in costumes.  And this is what I mean about the "magic being gone".  Folks don't wait too long to take your littles to Disney!  Trust me!




Lucy was completely star struck by Elena.  Elena was by far her favorite princess and just about made Lucy's vacation.




We all met back at the our Animal Kingdom room for a short bit of rest before Mickey's Not So Spooky Halloween.  I had high expectations for the evening.  I have been wanting to give this event a try for years.

Lucy donned her Elena costume and we were off to trick or treat at Magic Kingdom.



Upon arrival, we made a much requested stop to see Mickey.  Mickey apparently thought Lucy was the real Elena of Avalor and proposed to her!  Lucy was beyond smitten.


And this is where my high expectations go sour.  Hence the fact, that there are no pictures of the evening.  The kids were exhausted {as was their Daddy}.  We did a little trick or treating, each of us picked a favorite ride, and we tried to watch the "must see" parade {which crashed before it got to us}.

Not the best ending to the best morning.  However, there was always tomorrow...