Weekend at Disney

Now that I have been home for a few days and seem to have recovered from my exhaustion, it seems like a good time to blog about my trip to Disney. This is a little absurdly detailed and more for my own memory than anything else. Feel free to not read or to skim or just look at the pictures. :D


This past Monday was my nephew's birthday, so my sister, brother-in-law, nieces, nephew, and I all went up to Disney for the weekend. Friday afternoon we hitched up the camper, piled in the car, and headed off to that most magical of places...Fort Wilderness Campground. ;) I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but Fort Wilderness is part of the Disney resort system. It's a campground so a bit rustic, but still with the feel of being a part of the Disney magic. I love staying there. We got up there Friday night, and I decided to hop on a FREEZING Disney bus and go over to Epcot on my own to enjoy the extra magic hours. I stayed there for a couple hours and rode on the Test Track and Mission Space.

Saturday morning I put my one year old niece in her stroller and headed back to Epcot to enjoy it by day. The Flower and Garden Festival is going on right now, so the landscaping was especially fun. Disney goes all out with their Character topiaries! A lady stopped and offered to take a picture of us in front of these giraffes (my favorite animal!) We went on a couple rides (Journey into Imagination with Figment and the boat ride in Mexico), walked around a bit, and then headed over to the Boardwalk resort to have some lunch. By mid-afternoon when I finally got her back to the campground for a nap, she was totally worn out. She was so sweet the whole time though. She's such a happy girl!

Saturday afternoon I took my
nephew over to Downtown Disney so that the camper would be quiet while the girls took a nap. He really liked Downtown Disney and eve was good enough to let me take pictures of him...a rare thing indeed! He built a race car at the Lego store and then got to race it against the other kids' cars. He was so proud of himself for winning! After a couple hours, we headed back to the Boardwalk to meet the rest of our group for dinner at Spoodles. If you ever get a chance to go you should. I tried butternut squash ravioli for the first time...sooooo good. Saturday night I was wiped out and feel asleep at 10:00...very out of character for me.

Sunday morning I went by myself to Animal Kingdom and rode Kali River Rapids and Dinosaur. Somehow I never seem to get very wet on those river rapid rides. Everyone else on the ride with me can get soaked, and I'll be practically bone dry. I don't really understand this. I met up with my sister and her family for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, then went over to explore the Animal Kingdom lodge for a little while. I met back up with them for dinner at T-Rex (very cool place) in Downtown Disney.

Monday was my nephew's actual birthday, so he got to go into the Magic Kingdom for free. My sister and brother-in-law didn't have or want to get tickets, so it was just the two of us. We had a total blast. He loved everything...even the Pirates of the Caribbean which he said he was too scared to go on because of the "waterfall" (a small drop). He decided that now that he's bigger, he isn't really scared anymore. At the Pirates gift shop, I bought him these rubber pirate handcuff things, and he made me wear one end and him the other while we stood in the lines. He said it was so I wouldn't get lost. It would have been a perfect day had it not been for the deluge we got stuck in. At one point I was carrying him with the umbrella stuck between us while trying to push his stroller. Finally I gave up, had him sit in the soaking wet stroller, gave him the umbrella to hold over his head, and just walked through the rain. My shoes and socks were soaked. It didn't matter though. We both had a great time and the rain didn't stop us from doing any of the things we wanted to do. By 2:30 we were headed back to Downtown Disney to meet up with everyone else and head for home. We were tired and wet, but we had a great trip, and I can't wait to go again in (hopefully) the fall!