Walt Disney World!!!

Hey Everyone!

We just got home from a trip to Walt Disney World. My parents took Me, Shan, the boys and my Grandmother for the weekend. My Grandma is 89 years old and loves Disney World, so we thought another trip was just what she needed. (We did a trip 2 1/2 years ago when Ian was just over 2 years old and Christian wasn't here yet! LOL)

We spent most of our time in the Magic Kingdom, but we did a few things in Epcot as well. We stayed at the Beach Club, which is one of Disney's resorts and it was very nice.

The boys really liked the Magic Kingdom. Ian is at a great age for Disney. He was just so excited to ride all of the rides. Christian, on the other hand, cried on almost every ride that we took him on. He did enjoy looking around at everything though!

Saturday: It rained on an off all day, but we were still able to ride quite a few rides.

Starting the day with a little game of Peek-a-boo!


Here is Christian...ready for a day at the Magic Kingdom.


A little more Peek-a-boo from the stroller.


Christian and my Mom on the Monorail


Ian climbing the pole like a monkey on the Monorail


One of the thousand faces of Ian

Welcome to the Magic Kingdom!

Shan and Christian playing while we waited in line for the Rockets.


Ian...waiting in line for the rockets with his cool new shades!


I liked this image because you can see Christian in Shan's sunglasses.


Christian and I on the rockets...his first ride of the day...cried the whole time! LOL


My Mom and Ian on the rockets. Ian was soooo excited to be the pilot!


My Dad and Ian waiting in line for the Indy cars.


My Dad and Ian on the Indy cars. Ian was thrilled to be "driving"!



And then the clouds opened up over Fantasyland....not very fantasy-like! LOL


We ducked into the It's a Small World Ride to get out of the rain and I got this image of my Grandma. Doesn't she look great for 89 years old!?!?


The funniest thing from the day was that Christian fell asleep sitting up in the stroller and holding on to the front bar. We tried to pry his fingers off the bar to lay him back, but he just fought us...so being the good photojournalist...I took pictures...and a video of him sleeping sitting up! This is an image I got of Christian sleeping sitting up. (Notice the binky which has just fallen out of his mouth! LOL)





Dark clouds hovering over Tomorrowland...Fantasyland...and Cinderella's Castle! Ugh!



Sunday: Shan and I took the boys into the park early so that my Grandma could sleep in for a bit. It was a good thing we did that too because once my parents and Grandma got to the park, it rained for most of the afternoon and we ended up giving up around 4:30pm and going back to the hotel. It was just too miserable and we were all soaked...even with ponchos. I didn't even bother taking the big camera in to the park on Sunday because with all the rain in the forecast, I knew I didn't want it exposed to that much water. So here are a few from my little point and shoot.

Yes...that is Christian sleeping semi-sitting up again!


Monday: Thank goodness the weather changed! We didn't have any rain on Monday and ended up being in the parks from 11am until about 10pm. It was a very long day and both boys fell fast asleep in the stroller long before we got out of the park. Monday night they had extra magic hours for Disney resort guests and were open until 2am, so Shan and I were able to go back in the park after getting the boys back to the hotel and have a date night. That was a lot of fun!

The boys started the day with a swim in the little pool with my parents.



I really liked this image of Ian.


Especially because he is at the age where he hides from me when I try to take his picture.

While we were on our way through Epcot, the USAF Thunderbirds did a fly over. I used my new super fast camera and long lens (for you photo geeks: Canon 1D MkIII and 70-200 L IS) and this is my favorite image of the Thunderbirds.


Ian and Christian....larger than life in front of Spaceship Earth at Epcot.


Shan and Ian just playing outside of Epcot. I love their smiles!


As we were going into the Magic Kingdom on the last day, one of the Disney staff photographers saw my camera and big lens and got very excited. When he found out that it was the 1DMkIII, he was giddy! I saw this as a golden opportunity to get a great image in front of Cinderella's castle of our whole group...without paying Disney for it! So I told him that it he would take our picture, I would let him hold it. Here is the resulting image. (BTW...Christian is turned around in his seat because there was a show with music going on in front of the castle and he wanted to see it! LOL)



Ian was tall enough to ride his very first roller coaster, the Big Thunder Mountain Express and he had a blast on it.


Shan used our little point and shoot camera on the coaster to get some video of him while we were on it. (I am going to try and clip it since it is a couple minutes long and there are long sections that we were in tunnels and you can't see anything. I will post it when I get it done.)

When we got off, he immediately wanted to ride it again, so my Mom and Dad got on with him. I got a shot of them coming around one of the bends on the coaster. (This was a hard shot too because I had to focus manually since it was so dark at that point, I couldn't get a focus point. There was no way to avoid red eye in this shot due to it being very dark and using a flash straight on to them, but at least I have a great picture for Ian to remember his first roller coaster!)


Hope you enjoyed the pictures and videos from our trip. We had a really great time and I look forward to going back when Christian is a little older so that he can enjoy it more too! We had a great time and I really appreciate my parents taking us on this trip! Lots of great memories and fun!

Steph