We decided to take the kids to Disney World over Christmas break – it was awesome! We stayed on site at the All Star Movie Resort (and we had a dining plan, which was free with the hotel, but saved SO MUCH money), for 5 days, and bought the park hopper tickets.

We were really excited. This was the first time for the kids, so we weren’t sure what they would think of the whole trip. Jaxon was thrilled from the very first step onto the bus (our hotel had shuttles to each park); Sydney, on the other hand, took a little work. The first few hours were spent like this:

ME: Sydney this is the happiest place on earth, so you better start acting like it!
SYDNEY: Blah! I don’t want to do this. Everything is scary…

Donnie helped her work through the attitude (hers, not mine), and by dinner time on day one, she agreed that this was, indeed, the happiest place on earth.

My grandmother joined us on Sunday and stayed until we came home on Thursday. It was so great to have her there. She was Sydney’s ride partner, and helped her to get excited about the different rides – especially “It’s a Small World.”

We would all spend the day at the parks, and then after dinner, we put the kids to bed (with Grandma in charge), and Donnie and I went back out to ride the “big” rides. It worked out perfectly! We saw shows and rode most of the rides/attractions with the whole fam, and then hit the major roller coasters at night when the lines were better, and we didn’t have to entertain the kids while they were tired.

The time went by way too fast; I guess that means we had a fun time :) Sydney is already begging us to go back, “how about we go to Disney World for my next school break?”

We have A LOT of pictures, so we are going to break this up into a few posts :)

Disney World part 2

Blogger is not cooperating with me and the spacing with pictures/info is all messed up. So, rather than spend another hour trying to fix it, just read the "captions" at the top and then scroll through for the pictures.

Jaxy was adamant about riding with Daddy on every ride, which worked out well (smallest person with person with longest legs :))


Aladdin's magic carpets was one of Sudney's favorites - and Pirates of the Caribbean is the other...


When we rode the tea cups, Donnie was nice enough to spin us super fast!


Sydney loved the Cinderella statue by the castle (Cinderella is her favorite princess).


The water at Epcot was a source of fascination - so was Captain EO, which was weird, even for Michael Jackson.


The Norweigian troll scared Jaxy, but Grandma toughed it out.


At Hollywood Studios they had an amazing light display - complete with fake snow!

At Animal Kingdom, Jaxy played a few carnival games and won a medium prize all on his own! Sydney opted for having a Cinderella crown painted on her cute little face.

Each park had Christmas trees. This is at Animal Kingdom.

Our hotel had two buildings dedicated to Toy Story - complete with giant statues. Jaxy was in heaven!

While Jaxy braved the roller coaster in Toon Town ("The Barnstormer"), Sydney went to meet the princesses. Pochahontas was actually at Animal Kingdom...

Sydney hung around with Grandma a lot. Here they are in front of Cinderella's castle and at Minnie's house for tea.