Disney World Vacation - Day 2 (Magic Kingdom)

On our first day at the parks we went to Magic Kingdom.  We used Undercover Tourist, not only to get a great deal on our park tickets but also to get lots of tips on what were the best days to go to each park.    Quite simply, the best tip we received for the entire trip was to try to plan a very early morning breakfast at Be Our Guest Restaurant.  Magic Kingdom opened the day that we went at 9am, but we had made a 8:10am breakfast reservation which allowed us to enter the park at 7:50 am.  We rented a van and carseats at the airport and traveling to Magic Kingdom was the only day that was a bit difficult.  Even arriving earlier than most people it was still of a bit of a headache because you had to park at the Travel and Transportation Center, than take the bus/monorail/ferryboat to the entrance of Magic Kingdom.  Then as you enter each park you need to go thru security and bag check (which is a great thing to have, but can be a bit of a hassle).  From parking in the parking lot to getting through security/bag check took us about 25 -30 minutes, so we were glad that we had left our hotel just past 7am.  It was amazing to be in the park so early while Main Street was nearly empty!  What a magical moment for our family to see the Castle and everything all together.

We walked thru the park to get to Fantasy Land where the Be Our Guest Restaurant is.  To get this early morning breakfast reservation before the park opens you need to make your reservation 6 months prior to your visit.  We were definitely glad that we had taken the time to do this!  Not only do you make your reservation 6 months prior, but then 30 days prior to your reservation you enter your food order.  I thought this was a bit silly, but it streamlined the experience because the second that we sat down they were already wheeling our breakfast choices to the table.  The venue was unbelievably beautiful and really made you feel like you were in the Beast's Castle.  The meal was ok, nothing spectacular, but the magical experience made up for it all.  

We finished breakfast around 8:45am, and were thankful that the entrance to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Ride (the newest ride in the park) was ride outside of the restaurant.  There was already a line forming (simply from the people who had had morning breakfasts as the park had still not yet officially opened).  Once the park opened and the ride started we got onto the ride in less than 5 minutes (which was fantastic since the ride had about a 45-90 minute wait time for the rest of the day).  We also got a Rider Switch pass, which is the next best thing about our Disney Experience.

A Rider Switch pass is what you can use when you have members in your party who are not able to go on a ride that one adult needs to stay with.  So for example on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Ride our 15 month old could not go so I went with our 3, 5, and 7 year old as my husband stayed with the baby.  As soon as I finished with the older kids than my husband was immediately able to go back on the ride through the fast pass line with 2 children.  You do not have to use your Rider Switch pass immediately as they are good for 7 days, so we did save some from our first day at Magic Kingdom for our second day.

Also, since we did not go to the parks during a very busy time of year we followed the tip to get all allowed 3 fast passes early in the morning.  One you are done with your first three fast passes you can get another one (and then another, and another) throughout the day.  Because of this option we used Fast Passes or Rider Switch tickets for probably 90% of our rides during the trip.  I think the longest wait we ever had was about 10-15 minutes.

When we would use the Rider Switch Passes my husband and I would also take the other children who were not riding again to go on other rides near by.  When my husband took our oldest two back on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Ride I checked out the Carousel with our youngest two!

Our 3 year old had been so excited to ride Dumbo, and it was definitely one of his favorite rides (I think he rode it FOUR times!). We did not have a fast pass for that so we headed to Dumbo right after we were all done riding the Seven Dwarfs Mine ride and had only about a 5 minute wait.  Also, talking about little kids, we were very impressed with how many rides we could all go on together as a family.  We do have tall children, but our 5 and 7 year old could pretty much go on every ride and our 1 and 3 year old sat out only about 2-4 rides per day.

After Dumbo the oldest kiddos went on the Barnstormer Roller coaster as I explored the Casey Jr. Splash N' Soak Station with our 15 month old.  My husband and I both mentioned that we loved these little one on one moments to watch him explore things and have fun!

After Barnstormer we saw that the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin ride only had a 5 minute wait time (we used the Disney World App throughout the trip where you can manage your Fast Passes and also see Wait Times for each ride).  We headed over to Tomorrow Land since Buzz Lightyear is one of our 5 year olds favorite characters.  This was a fun ride for our entire family to go on together.

Next, we headed back to FantasyLand for our first official Fast Pass and went on Peter Pan's Flight, which was a great ride for the whole family.  Just across from Peter Pan's Flight was It's a Small World which only had a 10 minute wait time so we headed there next.  

By then it was about 10:40 am and we had already gone on EIGHT rides (more than some people get on during an entire day!). We decided to take a nice break for a snack (which by the way I packed a cooler of water bottles, snacks and lunch for EVERY day which was a big money saver for our family). 

We walked around Liberty Square and then went over to Adventure Land to walk thru the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House.  I had just finished reading the Swiss Family Robison as a family read aloud in January so our boys thought this was simply amazing!  They commented on EVERYTHING!  "Look, it's Falcon's Nest!"  "There is Fritz and Ernst's room!"  "Mom, look at their Kitchen, it's just like the book!"  It was a fun moment for me to watch a story unfold in a magical way for them all. 

Our baby, being the fourth child has always been pretty good at sleeping wherever he needs to, but he did completely fantastic during this trip.  He would take a 30-40 minute nap here or there 1-2 times during the day in the carrier or in the stroller.  Since he is our only child who still naps, him being able to sleep wherever really helped us to spend more time at the parks.

We had a little bit of time before our next Fast Passes so we caught the noon time parade by the castle.  It was a lot of fun to see so many characters all together.

We then headed back to Frontierland to go on Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain (both which we had Fast Passes for and then also got Rider Switch Passes to go on a second time).  

The big kids really wanted to try to go on Space Mountain next so they headed over there with my husband and I took the little ones back to Dumbo and to the Mad Tea Party.

We finished out our day with an early dinner at Tony's Restaurant, which is themed after Lady and the Tramp.

We got back on the monorail around 5:30pm, and headed back to our hotel!  For being at the park for 10 hours, and getting to go on 14 rides with four kids 7 years and under I was pretty impressed with how the day went!

Disney World Vacation - Day 1 (Flight)

As our family continues to grow, and as life gets busier and busier quality time together as a family becomes more and more important.   This past year as we were thinking of Christmas gifts, etc we decided to forgo traditional Christmas gifts for our family and instead to plan a BIG trip to Disney World!  It was so much fun to surprise the kids on Christmas morning and then finish planning our trip together as a family.  We were gone for 7 days and spent 5 days at the Disney World Parks.  It took a lot of planning, a ton of flexibility, a big dose of patience, but was SO MUCH FUN!  Follow along for a recap of our trip day by day!

The first day was our travel day. After lots of research and the flexibility with homeschooling we determined that February was one of the best times to go to Disney World due to the "mild" temperatures (which didn't end up being completely "mild" as it got up to 86 degrees one day) and low crowds due to no school breaks occurring.  We traveled on a Tuesday leaving our home around 6am and arriving in Orlando around 2pm after one layover and change of planes.  

We decided last minute (like the week before we left) to buy our "infant" (15 months) child his own seat on the plane and it was one of the best choices we made for our trip.  We took his carseat with us and it made flying with a wiggly toddler so much easier.  We did not bring a stroller with us, but rather rented one for our time in Florida (more on that later), but we did use a Travel Cart, with our infant's carseat.  We could literally roll our baby, or also our three year old who also fits in the same car seat throughout the airport and then put the one who was not riding in an Ergo Carrier.  Our 5 and 7 year olds did great walking.  

We stayed at the Hilton Grand Vacations - Tuscany Village, which provided as a wonderful location for our family.  We rented a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom condo which also included a full kitchen and laundry.  Having a kitchen was key to us because we saved a significant amount of money making a majority of our meals there.  I also love the opportunity to work on laundry as we go (as much fun as laundry is, it is better to keep it going than to come home to 10 loads of laundry to do!).  By the time that we arrived at our hotel for the week, we went grocery shopping, unpacked and got ready for the next day!  

Our nature hike to see bald eagles

A nearby lake has recently become the home to a large group of bald eagles.  A group of families from our local homeschooling community decided to take a trip out to the lake to see the magnificent birds, picnic and have some fun!  To add the the fun of the day it is 70 degrees here in February!  It was wonderful to get outside, visit with friends and most importantly see and learn about an amazing species. 

Presentation of the Lord

What I love about celebrating the liturgical year is that sometimes we have large elaborate celebrations and sometimes it is short and simple.  Either way we learn something about the Catholic Church and always have fun.  Our life is a BIT crazier than usual lately (more on that to come), so this year was a simple year.  To celebrate the Presentation of the Lord and Candlemas (which we celebrate on February 2nd), we went to daily Mass and then after lunch we made our special "Candlemas Cookies" and read about the Presentation.  Happy Candlemas!

 

Indian Cave State Park Adventures

On January 31, we celebrate the feast of St. John Bosco, the Patron Saint of Boys!  As it was nearing I asked my boys what they wanted to do to celebrate and our oldest replied "Something really cool for BOYS!"  I asked him what he had in mind and he mentioned that he always wanted to see the Indian Cave which is about 1 1/2 hours south of our city.  We take little field trips often, but not usually day trips where we are driving further, but I decided it would be fun to do something special so in the car we went! 

Indian Cave State Park is on the border of Nebraska and Missouri and the cave has Native American markings that are approximately 1,500 years old!  We really had a nice time hiking, learning and explore the cave and the park.  There is a unfortunately a lot of graffiti markings, but we had fun trying to find the original Native American markings throughout the cave.

 

As we were leaving we saw the park rangers working on a legal burn and I think our crew of boys thought that was even cooler than the cave!  They could have watched it for hours. 

 

Before we headed home we went to the nearby city of Brownville to learn more history about Nebraska.  It is a small town with lots of historical things to see including an old railcar, and museum, a log cabin and more.  We really had a lot of fun on our day trip and we will be planning to explore further away more in the future!