We stayed at a three star hotel down the road from the park, and got there pretty early. Right away we took Josh and Nora on a slew of rides, but Charlie - my little peanut - was still a bit too small for some of them. The submarine ride was the first one she went on and her face was so cute (when she was paying attention). Next we went on It's a Small World and I swear my heart swelled three sizes when looking at the kids and their reactions. Nora was rapt. Charlie was dancing and singing. At one point she stood up, leaned over the seat, and planted a kiss on me with, "I love Aunt Becky." Alan was sitting with Josh and he reports that he was silent and focused.
But the best part, maybe my absolute favorite moment of the day, is when we left lunch and made a wrong right turn. This was the best mistake we made all day because it took us to an area where cowboy Mickey and Minnie were hanging out and there was hardly anyone there. Josh ran up to Mickey and even though he was with another little girl at the time he leaned over and placed a kiss on Josh's head. Talk about the magical world of Disney! Josh waited his turn and then got to dance and hug and just generally have a good solid moment with Mickey. The girls also got to spend some quality time with Minnie too.
The funniest part of the trip was Josh's reaction to the Princesses. I thought Nora was going to be the big old ham during this moment, but she got suddenly very shy. Not Josh though. He walked right up to those princesses, hugged them, and said, "Hi, I'm Josh. This is my sissie Nora." After the second Princess he screamed out MORE PRINCESSES. He's a lover, that one.
Around 4 p.m. we left the park to drop the kids off with a babysitter, and then the adults spent the rest of the night at the park going on the rides that were less kid friendly. I know Disney is geared toward the wee ones, but it's definitely easy for adults to have fun at the happiest place on earth as well. We ended the night on Splash Mountain, a ride I hadn't been on since the early 1990s. We kept seeing people in various states of wetness, from a bit, to a lot. We didn't see anyone that was soaked though. (You see where this is going, don't you?) Getting off the ride there was one quarter-sized spot on my capris that was dry, and that was it. All of us were drenched. I think I was the only one that had fun on that ride.
Since it was already 11:30 p.m. and the park closed at midnight, we made our way back to the hotel, changed into dry clothes, opened & kicked a bottle of wine, and went to sleep. We had to get up early the next morning for the next phase of the weekend. I'll post about that soon.
Warning: the rest of this post is going to be picture heavy. Proceed at your own risk.
