A Weekend with Mickey

Here are some pictures from our weekend with Mickey!

Friday:

The Wilderness Lodge had gorgeous, very rustic holiday decorations. Another family was kind enough to take our picture while we were in the lobby. Notice Ethan's "backpack". It was his leash. We got some interesting looks that night at the park. But it worked! Here we were on our way to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. That afternoon we had some time to kill so we went in the heated pool. There was a neat waterslide that Mackenzie loved, and she met a little girl her age named Rachel. They played alot, and Ethan tried to catch the mallard ducks that swam in the pool with us.

What an unbelievable fireworks display! This was a special one that they do only for the Very Merry Christmas party. I have never been very fond of fireworks because of the noise, but these were beautiful. Disney knows how to throw a Christmas party! Not only was there a cool fireworks display, but they made it snow on Main Street, they gave away REALLY good cookies and hot cocoa, and there was a great Christmas parade (which we missed because we were so excited about not waiting AT ALL to get on rides!) We rode the haunted mansion, small world, space mt., the race cars, pirates of the caribbean, mickey's philharmonic, peter pan and the teacups. The kids loved all of them (except space mt. which was a mommy and daddy ride.)

Surprisingly, Ethan was the one who was scared of the noisy fireworks. (Like Mother like son.)So I gave him my Santa hat to put over his ears and it worked for him! He watched them and even was brave enough to lift it off his ears.

Saturday:

The Wilderness Lodge was gorgeous! It is modeled after a lodge from the Pacific Northwest. Lots of big logs (it's really like a big Lincoln Log model!), totem poles, and Indian motifs. There was even a geyser that went off every hour on the hour. Absolutely beautiful! I wanted to live there, but all good things must come to an end. :( We ended the evening with a sleigh ride through the woods. Our Clydesdale horse, Fritz, took us for a moonlit ride, and it was a nice time.
We didn't spend a whole lot of time at the Magic Kingdom because they were filming part of the Christmas Parade with Regis and Kelly. It was kind of madhouse. But we did get a picture in front of the castle before we left. Not bad! We went back that evening for a couple of hours before the park closed and got to ride on some more rides. Bye bye Mickey!

Sunday:

We got to see lots of characters at our breakfast at the Grand Floridian Resort. Alice in Wonderland, Pooh Bear, Tigger, and the Mad Hatter.
I chose the Grand Floridian to have breakfast at because I knew the Christmas decorations would be unbelievable. This is the tree in the middle of the lobby-huge as you can see! I took a picture of Mackenzie next to an ornament that was as big as her!
Another big attraction at the Grand Floridian at Christmas time is the gi-normous gingerbread house that is really made of gingerbread and all the decorations are edible. They sell sweets out of the house as well. It was really pretty.

We were a pretty quiet bunch on the way home. I love the Christmas season with all the fun holiday happenings, but it doesn't seem like anything will be able to top the weekend we had. It was a great time!