Disney World is not for wimps!

After months of planning, it was finally time for Aubrey and I to take our girl trip to Walt Disney World. We had a blast, but let me just tell you, I have not been that tired in a lonnnggg time! We kept moving and saw just about everything! Thankfully, my friend Emily loaned me her small camera so I didn't have to lug my big one around! It also had video, which was super handy. So,let this be a warning... if you have a fear of large plush animals or clowns, you might want to skip this post. Gratuitous Disney Characters ahead!!!

Here's the recap.

After a 3:30am wake up for me, we flew to Orlando and met Jeny and Avery at the airport where we boarded the Magical Express and headed for the Wildreness Lodge. The girls could not contain their excitement. Here they are getting a glimpse of the gate to the Magic Kingdom.

After a quick lunch, we headed straight for the Magic Kingdom. Even the ferry ride to the park was exciting.

We arrived just as the afternoon parade was taking place and Aubrey was mesmerized!!!

After a few hours, we headed to the Contemporary Hotel for dinner with Chef Mickey and his pals. I would never have guessed that Aubrey would be so in to meeting the characters and getting their autographs. I guess they don't call it Disney Magic for nothing!

After dinner we headed back to the park for the electric parade, light show and fireworks. It was awesome!!!

The castle was transformed from this...
to this... all with lights!
The highlight of the night for Aubrey was seeing Tinkerbell fly from the castle.

We finally got checked into our room and put the kids to bed at 10pm! We were living on the edge I tell you.

The next morning we were up and at it again and spent the whole day at the Magic Kingdom.

For those of you who may remember... back when Aubrey was about 3, she was obsessed with the Cinderella story, and not because of the princess, but because of the "stepersisters." She had me read the part about how they tore Cinderella's dress to pieces over and over again. So in one conversation, she asked where they live. I said I didn't think they lived at the castle. Well, I was wrong. Look who we ran into first thing! It took some work to get her to talk to them and take a photo. Although I remembered how much she wanted to meet them, she did not. But of course, Disney castmembers are amazing and sweet and funny, and they got her to twirl with them. Jeny has the photo to prove it. I just love their faces...

We had a late brunch at the Grand Floridian with some other Aubrey favorites...



And then back to the Magic Kingdom for more meet and greets...

and some rides...

and more friends...

If you know Aubrey, than you know she is slightly obsessed with fairies. She has been insistent that she doesn't like princesses, only fairies. So she and I were soooo excited she was going to get to meet some of the fairies. Tinkerbell and Rosetta.

So imagine my shock as my daughter, who can be quite stubborn and almost never changes her mind when she says she doesn't like something, has now declared "I like princesses more than anything in the whole world." Disney magic, at it again. I asked her why she likes them more than Tinkerbell and she replied "well, I think I just have to meet someone before I know that I like them." Oh, and "Tinkerbell kind of talked a lot!" HAHAHA.

It was such a treat to get to spend time with just Aubrey. Henry and I have plenty of mother/son time, but I hardly get any time with just Aubrey. I think it was good for both of us.

We finished out the second day with more fireworks and another late bedtime.

On the 3rd day, we had a little slower start and then headed over to Hollywood Studios. By the time we got there, most of the ride lines were far too long and all of the fast passes were gone. We did see the Beauty and the Beast show, which the girls loved, and then saw a Disney Junior show. Henry would have loved meeting Jake!
After lunch we headed over to Epcot for the rest of the day. The Finding Nemo show was great. Aubrey used her gift card she received for Christmas to buy electric fairy wings. She was tempted by the princess dresses, but at a ridiculous $64, I steered her towards the wings and she wore them the rest of the trip. I do think she's still a fairy fan at heart :)



Aubrey and Henry love the old school Disney movies like Robin Hood and Aristocats. She was so excited to see Marie!

Aubrey thought it was pretty neat to visit Japan, where she was born.
And a trip to Disney wouldn't be complete without dinner with the princesses.


At this point, we had met most all the princesses except Snow White and Arial. Jeny and I were hysterical watching the girls get so excited when they both showed up at dinner.

We finished out the day with the ride Test Track. I think Jeny and I enjoyed it more than the girls, but no one cried or got sick, so it was a success.

On our last day, we headed to The Animal Kingdom for a safari breakfast with Donald and the gang. FYI, Goofy is VERY tall.

We all really enjoyed the safari. I was a little surprised by how close we were to the animals.


More character sightings...




The Tree of Life was impressive.



She was one very happy girl. There was almost no whining and only one "fit" at bath time one night.


That afternoon we headed back to the Magic Kingdom for one last hoorah. Our friends, the Reppens, who live in Florida were there that day and we were so excited to get to see them. Aubrey and their son Jenson really hit it off over New Years when we were together in SantaFe (still working on that post). Thanks Judd and Deena for spending some time with us. The kids were pretty wiped out by this point, as you can tell from Avery's expression.
We saw the parade, lightshow and fireworks again, and then took one last boat ride back to the hotel.
I feel like we packed in so much in 3 1/2 days. I think the only thing Aubrey wanted to do that we didn't get to was swimming at the hotel. It was rather chilly while we were there, and it's hard to skip out on time at the parks when you are only there a few days. All in all, it was amazing. Thank you Jeny and Avery for sharing this with us, and for hooking us up with the military discounts!!! It was a long week and as I suspected, Aubrey saved all her fits for us once we were back home. I put her to bed at 6:20pm one night and still had to wake her for school. Oh, and thank you to my hubby who encouraged us to go!