Family Time at Disney for the Holidays

Like I mentioned in my previous post, we had planned a family trip to Disney World at the beginning of December, but sadly Dallas had a last minute business trip that made him meet us in Orlando a couple days late.  Daxton and I spent the first couple days with our good friend Tiffy and her two youngest children.  On the second day Daxton started to develop a pretty nasty cold so we stayed at our hotel resting and medicating on day three.  We were so glad to pick up daddy from the Orlando airport that night.  The following day (Day 4) Daxton woke feeling really good so we still decided to do Magic Kingdom.  Both Daxton and I LOVED having daddy with us.  There is no place like Disney world, especially at Christmas!

Family picture at the entrance

It was actually pretty freezing in Orlando the week we were there, which is why Daxton was getting so sick.  We ended up having to buy Dax a new hat and gloves and dress him in layers.  Dallas still decided to wear shorts though...

I love all the beautiful details that Disney displays during the holidays.

We arrived a little after 10am since we wanted to make sure Daxton was feeling better before spending a day at the park.  Right as we entered and started making our way down main street the "Move It, Shake It" parade was starting.  We loved the chance to wave at all the different characters as they passed by on giant, brightly colored floats.  I loved watching Daxton's face light up as he saw each one.

Family picture in front of Cinderella's castle

Our first destination when we go to Magic Kingdom is usually Tomorrowland where you can find the Buzz Lightyear ride.  Daxton LOVES toy story and has become quite obsessed with Buzz Lightyear specifically so he loved this ride.  There were no crowds and wait lines, so we were able to ride it a few times over and over.  I loved watching these two spin in their spaceship!

As we were walking out of the Buzz Lightyear ride, we looked to our right and saw Buzz Lightyear himself, once again with NO LINE!  This little guy about lost his mind!  He ran right into Buzz's arms and held on so tight.  I couldn't tell what he was saying, but Daxton had a full on conversation with Buzz squealing with delight.  Buzz even let Daxton push some of his buttons, which made Daxton lose his mind...again.

This boy LOVES Buzz!

Love Daxton's look of pure joy as he hugged Buzz.

Next we rode the People mover (bottom left pic) where he was talking about hugging Buzz the entire ride.  Then we played with the giant globe on water (bottom right pic) where Daxton continued to talk about Buzz...

Then we walked over to the cars and realized he was finally tall enough to not only ride, but to drive the car!  He stopped talking about Buzz at this point, at least for a little while.

Of course he wanted to ride with daddy, which was so cute because he couldn't even see over the steering wheel.

He loved every minute of it and would even make sound effects as he drove the car.  Dallas, of course, was in charge of the pedals, while Daxton steered.  He thought it was super funny to let go of the wheel at times and have the car bounce back and forth.  I looked back a few times and got a kick out of watching their heads swing different directions with each hit.

There were literally no lines for almost all the rides.  It was the best time of year to go to Disney for sure.  We hit a lot of rides multiple times.  Daxton loved playing with all the different toys before we went on the Winnie the Pooh ride.  It was so funny to see him dressed in winter clothes!

We also had a blast over at Circus Circus, where Dallas took Daxton on his first roller coaster!  We were so excited that Daxton was finally tall enough to go on it, that we may have forgotten to ask him if he even wanted to ride it...

Turns out he did not...

He didn't cry, but he was very verbal about letting us know he did NOT want to go on it again.

My favorite Disney movie is "Beauty and the Beast" so I love the new Fantasyland.  Last year we had eaten at the Be Our Guest Restaurant in the Beast's castle, which I LOVED.  But this year we decided to try something new and eat dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern.  The food was wonderful; a great Thanksgiving feast.  While we were walking through Fantasyland, I wanted to get a few pics in front of the Beast's castle and Daxton jumped up to join me, but he said he couldn't smile.  Such a funny little boy.

One of Daxton's favorite spots in Magic Kingdom is oddly the Sword in the Stone.  Maybe he thinks that one of these times it will finally come out for him?  Not sure, but this kid will stay and play on this stone, pulling at that sword for hours if I'd let him.  Thank heavens there is usually a line of people waiting to take pictures so our time is always limited.

During Daxton's afternoon nap, we found great seats along the parade route for the Festival of Fantasy parade.  It was so much fun to watch it with daddy.  Even more fun to watch Daxton's reactions to all the gorgeous floats and characters.

Belle, Beast, Tianna, Naveen, Cinderella, Charming, Elsa, and Anna

My favorite was seeing Daxton's eyes light up when he saw Peter Pan's float come by.  He waved and squealed when he saw Captain Hook and tick tock crock.  Such a happy little pirate boy we have.

After the parade, we walked around Frontierland and found Woody and Jesse!  We had no clue that they'd be out and Daxton's joy could not be measured.  He ran into their arms and held on so tight.  Woody and Jesse were so cute with him and let Daxton hug them for almost a minute.  Woody even let Daxton twirl his sheriff's badge.  I wish I could put into words how incredible it was to see the magic in Daxton's face.  He was truly meeting his friends.  

Such an adorable cheesy grin!

Daxton wouldn't let go of their hands when we joined the picture.

We spent the rest of the afternoon, exploring Adventureland and circling back around to go on multiple rides.  Since there were no crowds it was a pretty magical and perfect day together as a family. As we were heading to our dinner reservation at Liberty Square Tavern for dinner, we were able to see the Frozen castle lighting and Wishes spectacular.  It is so amazing all that Disney does to make each persons' stay magical.  The castle was absolutely stunning and my favorite is when it's decked out in icicles at Christmastime.

After dinner we headed back to the condo, because Daxton started to get tired and his cold started to come back.  Sadly, he spent more of the evening and morning coughing which made for a VERY long night for mommy.  The next morning when we woke and he still wasn't feeling better, we decided to head home instead of going to another Disney park.  We didn't want to push him and have him be miserable all day.  Plus we were pass holders...we could come back any time :)

Top left picture was a very tired toddler refusing to wear pants in the condo.  

On our drive home that day, we saw the most interesting cloud structures across the sky.  I had never seen anything like it.  Daxton spent the entire drive either sleeping or looking our the window, which is another reason why we could tell how sick he was.

We really did have a great trip.
There were some complications with Daddy's schedule and Daxton ended up getting sick, but to be honest, or time at Disney couldn't have been better.  I love making memories as a family, especially knowing these incredible magic years do not last long.