Magic Kingdom, We Love You!

We spent our first full day of vacation at the most magical place on earth - The Magic Kingdom. This has always been my favorite park of all of the Disney group, but it has become even more magical now that I have children. The fact that I can take a 4-year-old and a 17-month-old, and they can ride practically everything with all of the adults is just awesome. My boys are both riders, and they had a BLAST!

Monorail Fun

The park was truly breathtaking for Christmas. Main Street had beautiful garland stretching across the street, and the castle? Seriously one of the most amazing sights I've ever seen. (On a short list behind the births of my two children.)

We got there right as the park opened and headed left - genius idea! We were - and I'm not exaggerating - able to ride 75% of the rides in the entire park by lunch time. It was crazy - we walked right onto every ride! Ethan loved it all, but especially loved Thunder Mountain. His goal all year was to grow to 40 inches so he would be tall enough, and luckily, he hit a growth spurt and just made it! I sat in front of him and AJ as we rode - I spent the entire ride turned around so I could take in the sheer joy on Ethan's face. Incredible. I'll never forget the smiles I saw and the giggles I heard.

Pirates of the Caribbean

Aladdin's Carpet

It's a Small World

Someone needed a lift...

Both boys also really loved It's a (annoying) Small World. Ethan pointed out EVERY.SINGLE.THING in the entire ride. Jackson clapped along with the song. The rest of us were ready to scream.

Grandmas and Dumbo...

Mickey's Philharmagic - one of Ethan's favorites!

Such a ham

How did we not buy and devour one of these???

AJ and I took the boys back to our lovely townhouse for an afternoon siesta - the park was open late (11 p.m.) that day, and we wanted them to be able to at least stay for the Electric Light Parade. It was a good move - Ethan got a great rest; Jack chose to run around and cause havoc in the townhouse, but he was still pleasant. We got back to the park in time for some more riding, and some nighttime marveling at the castle all decked out. We ended the night with the parade, which the boys were lulled into a trance by, and went right to bed.

 My goofballs

 Our favorite ride - Buzz Lightyear

 Future convicts?

 First attempt at a family photo...

 Cute!

 Isn't it beautiful???

 Toasting Gaston in the new area. 

This was a frozen apple juice with melted marshmallow...

 Main Street

 Electric Light Parade

Disney is exhausting.