The Happiest Place on Earth

Didn't win the contest, oh well. At least we were finalists!

About two weeks ago, we took Lily to the Magic Kingdom for the first time. I was so excited for this trip. We hadn't been to MK in almost a year. Last time, I was about 10 weeks pregnant and we stayed for about 3 hours and I needed to leave...and that was after a sit-down lunch and visit to the Hall of Presidents - not the most strenuous of days! Anyway, I was just so totally ecstatic that we were actually taking our baby to Disney World. Every now and then we would talk about taking our kids there and what rides we would go on with them, and omg what if they don't like theme parks?! But eventually there were times in the last couple of years where I wasn't very hopeful that we would ever have a baby to take with us. So even though it was just a little day trip, it was a incredibly significant visit for us.


Since it's Florida and summer and about 9,000 degrees, we waited until the late afternoon before heading over to the park. We got there around 5 and then proceeded to make our way to the MK...slowly. We became those people that have to spend 15 minutes at their car in the parking lot trying to get everything situated. The trams now have ridiculous doors that make it incredibly difficult to get in and out of when you have a baby, a stroller, a diaper bag, camera bag and tripod. We don't travel light!

Even though we renewed our passes in December, we hadn't been able to go with all of my issues, so we still had our vouchers that needed to be redeemed for actual tickets. The cast member that helped us recommended we stop by guest services to see if there was anything they could do about our expiration date, since we only had 6 months left on our passes and hadn't used them at all. I never would have even tried it if she hadn't suggested it, but incredibly enough, the man at guest services changed our exp. date to June 8th, 2012! It was a great, unexpected bonus to an awesome day.

It took us quite a while to get over to the MK as the monorail was having some issues and we ended up stuck on it for a little bit, and that was after waiting at least 15 minutes to get on it! But finally we were there and ready for some fun. Of course we had to take some pictures in front of the park.

And we had to get our little Mouseketeer some souvenirs!

Then we took a few more pictures in front of the castle:

From there we went over to Tomorrowland. The Peoplemover was having some issues so we headed over to the Carousel of Progress - hooray for A/C! Eventually they got the Peoplemover running again so we made 3 trips around Tomorrowland on the Blue Line.

After that we quickly grabbed some dinner and then staked out a spot on Main Street for the fireworks. We got a decent spot despite getting out there kind of late. Had to set up my tripod in the dark though, as they turned out the lights for the castle pre-show. This was my first time shooting fireworks in exactly a year (total coincidence!) and I was really excited about it!

Lily had a good time watching the fireworks. She tends to enjoy lights so it was a neat show for her. She also watched the electrical parade and was wide-eyed pretty much the whole time.

Mickey-foot headrest

Watching the parade with a new friend

Watching the parade with daddy

After the parade, we took her on Pirates and the Haunted Mansion, and headed home around 1AM (bad parents!!). I know some people think we were ridiculous for taking her so young, but she had a ton of fun. She barely slept the whole time we were there, she was so interested in everything going on around her. At first I worried that I may have set my expectations for our little trip too high, but I didn't - it was perfect. We all had an awesome time, and though we were all pretty tired the next day, it was 100% worth it. Now we can't wait to take her when the weather is a little cooler. We are going to take her to the Halloween party on our 10th anniversary, and I'm already planning a REAL trip for December...I'm thinking Wilderness Lodge!