Disney Highlights

So I started putting together day by day blog entries from the trip but decided I'd like to at least get some pictures up. It's 11 in the pm and I'm not feeling up to captioning each individual picture so here's a bit of a sum up:
Mom, the kids, and I drove down to SLC on Monday the 7th and caught a plane out to Orlando the morning of the 8th. Ethan was an absolute gem on the flights while Kiari was pretty squirmy on the first leg. During the second leg of the flight however, both of them slept and that was beautiful.
We had looked ahead and found out that the Magic Kingdom was open until 11 the night of the 8th so shortly after checking into our hotel and getting somewhat settled we hopped on a bus and made our way over there!
One of the reasons my Mom and I were so excited about taking a girls' trip to Disney is because of the way we like to "do" Disney. The boys in the family enjoy the rides. Naturally!! Who doesn't?! What they don't like however, is wandering the shops or simply wandering the parks without necessarily riding the rides. Two things that my Mom and I are quite fond of. Given the number of days we had to spend at Disney we were in no hurry to get anywhere or do anything. It was important to us that we take our time and make sure the kids were having an enjoyable time. Mission accomplished.
The kids LOVED the characters, especially Kiari, she would snuggle up in their laps and not want to leave. Super cute.
By the end of the trip I think Ethan had ridden the Buzz Lightyear ride at Magic Kingdom a total of 5 times.
They both loved the Winnie the Pooh ride.
Kiari didn't so much like the enormously booming fireworks at Magic Kingdom.
A few of the days there it was REALLY hot, Kiari wasn't able to fully enjoy herself those days.
One of the awesome awesome perks of staying at one of the Disney resorts is something called Extra Magic Hours. This is when certain parks will either open an hour early of stay open an hour or more later solely for those guests staying at Disney resorts. There were two of the nights that we were there that the Magic Kingdom was open until 2 am.
Trent had been in DC with the university for a career expedition the same week that we were in Orlando. Instead of flying back to Idaho on Friday the 11th, he caught an early morning flight to Orlando Saturday the 12th and TOTALLY SURPRISED us by showing up at the hotel and after making sure it was ok with my Mom that he was there (because she had no idea either), ended up spending the rest of the trip with us. There were even a couple times that Trent opted to stay in the room with the kids while they napped so that Mom and I could go off together on our own.
A few of the reasons that we love staying at Disney's Beach Club is because we're able to walk over to Epcot, take a very short boat ride of the the Studios, it's connected to the Boardwalk resort which is also a fun place to wander, and it has pretty much the best pool on Disney property. So the times that Trent stayed with the kids my Mom and I were able to simply stroll over to Epcot and wander around the World Showcase.... not one Trent's favorite things to do. :o)
We stayed through Wednesday the 16th and were home late that night.
Everyone had such a blast and loved everything about the trip. We feel like we did everything we had hoped to do with the kids and look forward to the next time we go.