Good Times with The Gray's

We got to the airport about 6 am and noticed a very LARGE line to check in to our airline. We were told that the computers went down and that was the reason for the slow paced line. We finally made it to the front about an hour later (insert sleepy, restless baby whining here). The lady at the desk proceeds to tell us that we will not be boarding our 7:40 flight because we did not have boarding passes prior to check in. WHAT?!! We still had 30-40 min. until our plane left. Ridiculous! We asked when the next flight was, she then says that we will be flying stand by and hopefully we will be in Orlando by the end of the day! ARE YOU KIDDING! I open my mouth and say "We better or we are going to have issues", she then tells me that if we are going to have issues than she can call security and have us arrested, FOR REAL...do I look like I am going to throw down in the airport! She was RUDE! It was looking like we were going to be missing a full day of Disney park time and we were ticked to say the least! We decided to shut our mouths so that we didn't create any more drama than we already were experiencing and go through security to our gate. We check in at the gate so that we can fly stand by...when my mom and dad calmly explain that all 8 of us, 6 adults and 2 babies will be getting on a plane today and that we will not be missing our vacation because of their computer system. The lady conviently remembered that there was a direct flight to Orlando at 3:00 that afternoon. Problem solved, however we did not receive an apology and we had to call AirTran's HR department and request food vouchers. Way to go customer service dpt...NOT! We waited 8 hours with a one year old and a two year old!! Let's just say they ran free a lot of the time and we just ran with them. Sorry to all the travelers but the boys had a lot of cooped up energy! What were we to do??!!!
Here are Hads and Coop playing around in their matching Cars shirts... thanks Aunt Nette!

We weren't going to let the airport drama spoil our vacation. We did lose the whole first day and did not arrive at our condo until 8:00 that night. We were exhausted! Good news is Cooper slept the whole way there on the plane! Yay for his first airplane experience, I was nervous!

This is Saratoga Springs Resort, aka our condo!

We had to, wanted to, go to sleep early Saturday night because we had to leave our condo at 6 am to make it to Chef Mickey at 7 am. Crazy yes, but then we had the whole day ahead of us!

Here we are headed to Breakfast with Mickey at 6am Florida time = 5 am Texas time

Sporting our Disney love EARLY!!
"Hey Cooper, we finally get to see Mickey!"

Hadley wasn't a fan of the characters but Cooper didn't mind and even tried eating some of their facial features!

We spent the first day at Magic Kingdom and it was a magical experience. I felt like a kid again, as soon as the gates opened we were dancing and singing with Mickey and friends. You couldn't help but feel the excitement radiate through your body. We stayed at the park all day long and it was a great start to our vacation! Hadley and Cooper were fantastic! We rented a double stroller (best piece of advice) and they loved to ride in it! They got in and out of the stroller most of the time with out fussing!

Instead of narrating our entire trip I will just share some photos and tell where you we were. Enjoy!

The Castle during the day! It was even better at night, but I will show you that later!
I love these balloons! They were being sold on Main Street inside the Magic Kingdom Park!

We are about to ride It's a Small World! And Cooper LOVED it! Seeing his face was priceless!
I told you his face was priceless! I snapped a photo of him in our boat! It speaks for itself!

Waiting in line to ride a fun Jungle Safari ride. We never had to wait more than 10-15 min. for a ride or show! Thank goodness because it was HOT! The humidity was awful!

Cooper soaking it all in! Did I mention he was good? He and Hadley were ready for anything we chose to do!

Coop and daddy while we were riding the train! Hadley calls it a choo choo!
Hadley and Cooper with their Nana and Grandpa on the bus back to our condo. They were being VERY silly at the end of this day!

The next day we had breakfast at Animal Kingdom, but this time at 10:00 instead of 7:00! Much better:)


After breakfast we saw Finding Nemo The Musical and it was SOOOOOOOO AWESOME! It was the best musical I have ever seen! The colors, props, characters were all fabulous! At the end bubbles poured from the ceiling and covered the audience! This was one of my favorite parts of the trip. I did not take any pictures, no flash photography was allowed :(

We ventured into Downtown Disney, just a few miles away from our resort. DD was a marketplace loaded with shops, restaurants, a margarita bar and more! I snapped this photo while walking by the Lego shop!

This statue of Buzz and Woody was made entirely out of Legos! There were many more Lego statues, however I only captured this one!
This was a restaurant that we ate at one night in DD called T-Rex. It was such a neat place to eat, each habitat was a dining room in the restaurant...we ate in the ice cave. Every 20 minutes the whole place went dim and there was a meteor shower! So fun! We joked and said we felt like the Flinstones! In the entrance of the restaurant was a Build a Dinosaur shop...it was owned by and ran just like Build a Bear. We created a Saber Tooth Tiger for Cooper and named him Sabe.

All the days are beginning to run together, now that I am trying to recall the events. But I believe we went back to Magic Kingdom on Tuesday night to enjoy the parade of lights, light show and wishes/ fire works celebration all in front of the castle. The whole entire hour of action was just incredible! We watched a real live Tinkerbelle fly from the castle to a nearby place. She sparkled and shined as she flew through the night. Like all the Disney movies she was the beginning to the nights events. The latest thing is the holograph light show that takes place on the castle. I will just show you a few of the most awesome effects that we saw.

The castle before the light show began.
And the castle during the light show


I wish you could see it in person! It gave me chills! My brother and sis in law videoed it, maybe I can post some of the video! After the holograph show was a tribute to wishing upon a star followed by fire works. It was such a special moment to share with my family. Cooper fell asleep in my arms and at that moment I was overcome with joy to have such a healthy baby boy and a wonderful husband. My wish that I made to live happily ever after has come true!

One of our last days was spent back at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Here we rode a few rides with the kids... a Buzz lightyear ride, the carousel and a few without the kids...the Aerosmith Roller coaster (best roller coaster ever!) and The Tower of Terror. Nana and grandpa took the kiddos for a bit so us big kids could play!

We also played in the gift shops, took pictures with more characters, saw a few shows and even an afternoon parade. Take a look...

Beauty and the Beast of course! I still remembered all the words to the songs! Princess at Heart :)

The next few pictures were at the Honey I Shrunk the Kids play/water exhibit! We all had fun goofing off in here!

Of course we did so much more than I can share, but as you can see we had a great time in Disney World!

Cooper and daddy on the way to get our car at the airport! Home sweet home! Our amazing vacation came to an end on Thursday night June 23.