E,E, and Little E Stringfellow: Disney

It's been more than a month ago now....we experienced our first trip to Disney World. We had a super duper, amazing, wonderful, magical, and exhausting time. Erik and I looked at each other multiple times everyday and said "This is so amazing....we're not doing this again." Ha ha! Not exactly true but sort of. We realized, we are "lay on the beach" kind of people. So, the whole week wore us out. Did we have fun? Absolutely! Are we glad we went? Definitely! Will we go back? Yes, but not for a while. I really thought we may be those people that would want to go back more often but, I can report, that we are not. We are good for a while

Not that Disney did not deliver on what they say they will because they did. That place is so efficient and absolutely does it right. All our plans ran smooth and we were able to do all the things we set out to do and then some.

Our dear friends Sabrina and Carl, and Dave and Tonja came down to spend the week with us. They are the greatest friends and love Elaina so much. It was awesome that they chose to take a week of their vacation time to spend with us (Elaina really). Carl and Sabrina joke that they have been planning this trip for almost 8 years since the day Elaina was born. They are experienced Disney "goers" so they helped map out our trip. I would have been very overwhelmed without them but they made the planning super easy - complete with color coded spreadsheets and all! It was awesome!

Now, on to pictures...that's what you really want to see anyways, right? There are A LOT.

Not only was this Elaina's first Disney trip, but it was her first plane ride (in her memory). She flew to Vermont when she was 1 but she doesn't remember, obviously. She was SO excited to be getting on a plane for the first time.

All smiles and excitement....Then, our plane got delayed about 45 minutes once we got on the plane due to fog in Charlotte. So, we had to run through the Charlotte airport and caught out next flight by the skin of our teeth

All the excitement from the morning and the running through the airport made Elaina do this on our second leg of the trip

But we made it...to the most magical place on earth. And, one of the hottest, I might add.

Day 1, picture 1 at the Magic Kingdom

Taking it all in on Main Street

The first thing we did was meet Merida. We were walking by and the line to see her was short. She might have been my favorite princess which was a surprise.

She got to shoot an bow and arrow at Merida's garden

We caught the parade on day 1...that was fun

Our first Anna and Elsa sighting....very exciting

Parade watching

Dumbo ride

A "standing in line" selfie

Selfie from the front seat of the Barnstormer - a fun ride but in the words of Elaina "that was SO short!"

Catching a sit down break to watch the show in front of the castle. Again, SO stinkin hot!

We ate that night at the Crystal Palace. This is where we learned that Elaina's fear of characters is more than we thought it was. We had several moments of her freaking out and during the character dinners she didn't eat much during the these dinners because she was constantly scanning the room to make sure they were not close to her. This was how it was for her all week. She did well at the princess dinners...only those in a mask freaked her out. So, we kept her close to the wall and told the characters to just sign the book and keep going, ha!

Erik and I jumped in for some pics with the characters - what the heck.

We found Rapunzel's tower...very cool. She's probably my favorite princess

Mickey ears..

We met Ariel on Day 1 as well...hence the Ariel shirt Elaina is wearing

And we rode the Mine train which was Elaina's all time favorite ride. It was fun

And a picture of one of the restaurants at the Magic Kingdom. This is "my place"....my maiden name being Friar and all.

Day 2 - Animal Kingdom

This is in my top 3 of my favorite things we did. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed Animal Kingdom.

Pictures in front of the Tree of Life

A selfie on the Primeval Whirl Ride..this was one of my favorite rides. We rode it 3 times.

Saw Nemo - the musical. It was very good.

We saw this as well but I don't remember any of it as I had a freaked out 7 year old in my lap asking me to leave for the entire 8 minutes of the show. Oh well...needless to say, she didn't like it.

After this show, we met up with the Hall's and Breaux's who made it in.

We all went on the Safari together for our first activity

Me and Elaina on the Safari Ride

We ate dinner at the Tusker House with the whole gang

This was another experience for us with Elaina and the characters. She was terrified to the point of tears. I felt bad...But, there is a funny story - and I shouldn't laugh at this but it was funny. Since it was a buffet, Elaina had to go get her plate. She didn't want to go but I encouraged her to go and I would stay with her. On the way back she spotted Goofy, who was no where close to her, but she decided to rapidly walk/job with a plate of food keeping her eyes on Goofy the whole time. Because she wasn't watching where she was going, she ran right into the wall rounding the corner and her plate/food went everywhere. She was embarrassed...I was sort of laughing...I am a terrible mom. But, it was funny! I did got get her a new plate of food while she stayed at the table though. So, that does that redeem me at all for laughing at her?

All our character pictures are without Elaina in them....she did get all their autographs, though