The Griswold Family Vacation Part 2!

If you haven't caught onto my reference in the title- then shame on you! Several times during our drive to Florida we compared ourselves to the great Griswold family in National Lampoon's Vacation. They traveled across county to visit what was essentially Disney Land, and we drove South to DISNEY WORLD!

Yep, we decided to take a couple of days and make the quick trip to Orlando to see Mickey Mouse. A couple of weeks before we left we started mentioning to the girls that we were going to see Mickey Mouse, but I don't think they really understood what it was. Morgan knew the princesses lived there, and knew about the castle, but that was about it. She also knew that she was going to celebrate her 5th birthday while we were there. So on Tuesday night we drove to Orlando and got ready for our big trip. Greg's mom, and two aunts came along with us and were able to surprise Morgan with a birthday party in their room. She was pretty excited when we walked in and saw a cake on the table!

So after indulging in some birthday cake Morgan wanted to open her presents! There were quite a few so she started tearing into them as soon as she could.

She got a lot of Disney stuff which was very appropriate given our surroundings and she loved all of it. Her sister on the other hand did not like the fact that she was not the center of attention and she really didn't like the fact that she didn't get any presents to open. After awhile I found her sitting in the living room looking like this.

That straight back and sad face quickly turned into a mini dramatic scene. There wasn't really any crying, but she did throw herself on the floor to add to the drama!

But lucky for Elizabeth she has some wonderful family members that figured she needed to open some presents too. So she got to tear into her very open stash of presents.

I think one of Morgan's favorite gifts from the trip was a new Jessie doll from Toy Story. At home we have Woody and Buzz and now there was a new one to add to the mix. Every night when we went to bed Morgan tucked Jessie into "bed" which was the couch with a pillow and blanket.

Since the girls were in a good mood I was able to catch them with smiles. Here is Morgan and daddy after cake and presents.

And here is Elizabeth and Grandma 'C'.

And here is the birthday girl. You can see the stash of presents and cake behind her.

So after the birthday party we went back to our room to get some rest. Morgan was pretty sad that we couldn't go swimming but by the time we made it back to our room it was dark and late! We told them we had to go to bed because we had a big day tomorrow. So within a few minutes of getting them tucked in they were out.

The next morning I got them dressed and told them that today was the day! We were going to Disney World! This was the basic reaction I got.

So we had breakfast and were ready to go. We were lucky enough to stay within the Disney property so there was a shuttle that took us from the park to our hotel. So while we waited for the shuttle I made the girls pose for more photos.

Not really sure why Morgan is making that face, but imagine the face below accompanied by "When is the shuttle coming mom?"

And when I told her it was here this was the face I got.

After a brief shuttle ride we had to choose between the monorail or the ferry. We thought the girls would like the ferry so we loaded the boat and set sail for Disney.

Finally we made it into the park. Both of the girls got buttons that said it was their first visit which they proudly wore for about 20 minutes.

After renting a stroller and getting our stuff situated we were ready to go. The minute we walked onto Main Street the girls were pretty impressed with the castle. Morgan knew that's where the princesses lived and immediately wanted to see them.

After getting through the castle Morgan saw that there were rides at Disney world and immediately wanted to ride one. The first one she saw was Dumbo. So we stood in line for about 30 minutes (which I must say they tolerated well) and took our first ride. Morgan rode with Grandma and Elizabeth rode with me. Elizabeth and I stayed up high so Greg couldn't get a picture of us, but he was able to get one of Grandma and Morgan.

Then it was Elizabeth's turn to choose a ride, and she chose the carousel. The line for that was minimal so we got on quickly.

After wandering around for a little bit we decided to take the girls on It's a Small World. Greg and I both have great memories of this ride (as do our parents). The girls weren't overly impressed and we mainly enjoyed it for the air conditioning!

After awhile we stopped and ate some lunch.

And then went back to riding rides! The teacups were right outside where we ate lunch so we all piled in and spun ourselves around.

After the teacups Morgan wanted to drive the race cars, so we stood in line for a little while and waited our turn. While we were waiting I caught a glimpse of Space Mountain. Unfortunately on this trip Space Mountain wasn't in our future because both girls were too short and Greg and I didn't think it would be fair for us to go without them. Maybe next time!

Finally it was our turn to drive the race cars!

Morgan rode with me and while we were waiting for our car Greg and Elizabeth took off. If you look closely you can see Elizabeth's little head poking out of the car. This was the case in a lot of rides, she barley could see over the car!

After the cars we were all overheated. By this point is was 1 pm, and the sun was blazing hot, then add in that you are surrounded by asphalt pavement and you basically feel like you are on fire. So we ducked into Minnie Mouse's house for a minute to cool off.


Even the air conditioning in Minnie's house didn't help so we decided to retire for the afternoon and we headed back to the hotel. And the minute we got back what did Morgan want to do? SWIM!

After a dip in the pool and a nice long nap the girls were ready to head back to the park. They were kind of cranky earlier when we were there so we were worried that they weren't enjoying the park but we were determined to give it another chance. By the time we left it had been raining and was still sprinkling. We had our fingers crossed that it would stop by the time we got there.

By the time we made it back to the park it had cooled off quite a bit and people were already lining up for the fireworks and parade. So the lines were minimal and we were able to move around a lot quicker which made the girls happy. They were also excited to see the castle change colors as the sun went down.

Even though we got rained on a bit the girls were much happier this time around. Morgan was able to find her favorite ride when we went back. It was Aladdin's flying carpet. She even rode it twice!

Even Elizabeth didn't mind standing in line for the flying carpet.

After riding several more rides it was finally time to go. Our plan was to escape the park before the end of the fireworks so hopefully we could beat some of the crowd. We had said all along that at the end of the day we would stop in the candy shop on the way out. It was Morgan's dream- an entire store full of candy! So while Greg was in the shop I stayed out on the street with the girls. While we were waiting the fireworks started.

The girls have never really seen fireworks before so I was interested in what they would think. So I quickly grabbed the camera and snapped some pictures.

I think it's safe to say that between the music, fireworks and utter exhaustion they were pretty impressed. Finally it was time to go. we decided to take the ferry back to the parking lot and once we got situated the girls got to enjoy their candy treat. A giant lollipop.They also got a big Mickey Mouse balloon that made it back with us.

After Disney World we headed back to Clearwater for another day and just relaxed. Then after a week of being in Florida it was time to go home. We loaded up the car (which was much fuller then on the way down) and headed back to Indiana.

We decided to do the drive all in one day rather the stop and it actually worked out okay. The girls didn't get too restless and we didn't get too tired. We were all happy to be home!