Our Christmas trip to Disney World was a huge success which you can read about here, here, here, here, here, and here. With Dallas' crazy schedule during busy season, I knew we wouldn't be able to take another family trip up to Orlando for awhile. At the end of February, the youth took their last temple trip up to the Orlando temple and since both Dallas and I are in the Young Men/Young Women presidencies we wanted to make sure at least one of us could attend. Orlando is about a 3 hour drive, so we knew we wouldn't be able to find a babysitter from 5am to 8pm (which is how long the youth were gone from home) we decided to make a family trip out of it. We ended up leaving on a Thursday evening; I drove so Dallas could work in the car on the way. We checked into our hotel and immediately put our little man to sleep for the night. The next day, Friday, Dallas put in a full day's work from our hotel room while I ventured to Disney's Animal Kingdom with Daxton. I was a little nervous about how things would go with a temperamental toddler on my own, but figured we could always leave early...the beauty of having annual passes.
You can tell from the pictures below, Daxton was already in a "mood" before we even entered the park!
As we were walking along one of the paths, the neighboring trees began to move. All of a sudden the tree started walking towards us. Daxton immediately fell silent simply watching the character come to life. The magic of Disney!
Since I knew it was already going to be difficult wrestling a toddler all day, I didn't bring my nice camera on our trip to Orlando. I brought Dallas's old "point and shoot" from his college years. Sadly, within the first hour of us exploring the Animal Kingdom it totally died, leaving us with only my blurry camera phone. We were still able to catch enough of our adventures, but I sorely missed my camera!
Meeting Winnie the Pooh and Tigger
He is so funny with the Disney characters. Daxton will literally run up to them, hug them tightly, and start giggling. My heart melts every time!
It's always fun meeting Mickey and Minnie again!
We ended up spending a lot of time throughout Africa and Asia so Daxton could watch all the different animals. He also loved that I let him get out and run on his own. He is so independent now and loves to get out and wonder free of the stroller.
He was so not happy about me taking pictures at the Tree of Life Garden...
There were a lot of people over in Dinoland, so we only went on a few rides before going to the next area. Daxton enjoyed the triceratops that went in a circle, but after a couple times around I started to feel sick...the joys of riding kid rides!
To be honest, I didn't think we would stay all day, especially since the day had started out so rough, but miraculously Daxton woke from his nap in the stroller in a much better mood. We were able to get great seats for afternoon parade. I loved watching Daxton's face light up as new characters came dancing by. It was all I could do to stop him from joining the parade!
We met up with Dallas back at the hotel that night for dinner. The next morning, Saturday, Dallas met up with the youth from our ward at the Orlando temple. They had an appointment that started at 9am, so Daxton and I decided to relax at the hotel and wait for daddy to get back. We slept in, played in the hotel room, and then spent a couple hours down at the pool. It had a fun water slide that Daxton went down a few times while sitting on my lap. He was a bit nervous, but kept wanting to go down again. Dallas had a wonderful morning with the youth and got back right as Daxton was waking from his afternoon nap. Dallas quickly changed and then we all left for Magic Kingdom for the evening.
Daxton played on the hotel phone for over an hour. We don't have a landline, so he's only been introduced to cell phones. He couldn't believe how big this phone was!
It was a gorgeous day at Magic Kingdom. Both Daxton and I were in better spirits with daddy around. It was weird not to have my camera in tow and I have to admit it was nice to get totally lost in the moment. The only problem is my memory is so stinking bad that if I don't document it, I forget it happened within the next day or so. I could tell Dallas liked the freedom of not having to smile for the camera every few minutes.
The main highlights from our adventure at Magic Kingdom this time...
Rubbing noses with Mickey
Going on all sorts of fun rides and hating "Small World" like his daddy. I love how the camera caught me kissing on Daxton's yummy cheeks. It's pretty much what I do all day long!
We also had a fun time at the Incredibles dance party. Daxton is quite the dancer and loves a good party...don't know who he gets that from!?
We ended up staying at Magic Kingdom way later than we usually do. We even saw the amazing castle lights show and fireworks display. Daxton fell asleep in his stroller which made for an enjoyable date night for Dallas and I. By the time we made it back to our hotel it was almost midnight, which made for a late wake up the following morning. It was such a great little break for our family, even if daddy had to work for most of it. It was nice just to get away together. I'm so looking forward to more adventures with daddy once busy season is over!
On our way home we came across this beauty... you never know what you're going to get in South Florida! There are lots of crazies down here!
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