Disney World, Day 1

Wayne and I have been looking forward to this day for months! Our trip to Disney World was finally here! Charlotte stayed with Mama and Papa while we were gone, but don't worry sweet girl, Nathan can't wait to take you next :) We woke up early Monday morning and headed to the airport. It was so neat to see Nathan so excited to go on his first plane ride. As we were boarding the plane, the pilot was boarding too. He stopped next to Nathan and asked him where he was going. Nathan excitedly said, "To Disney World!" The pilot then asked him if he'd like to sit in the cockpit and "fly" the plane. Nathan nodded his head with a big smile on his face. So the pilot told us that when we landed in Orlando, to let all of the other passengers exit and then for us to come up front and let Nathan spend a few minutes in the cockpit. Wayne and I were so surprised and excited that Nathan would get to do that!

In the meantime, we got settled in our seats. Nathan was a perfect passenger. He loved taking off and looking out the window. After flying for a while, Nathan got out his dinosaur coloring book and a few other toys that kept him occupied. Oh and he LOVED the idea of ordering a drink on the plane...orange juice was his drink of choice.














After getting our bags and rental car, we headed to our hotel. Nathan was tired from all of the excitement that morning and immediately fell asleep in the car. He got to get in a quick power nap before going to Magic Kingdom. We were glad he fell asleep because, since we arrived in Orlando around 12:30 pm, we were planning on spending the rest of the afternoon and evening in Magic Kingdom. We couldn't wait to get our vacation started! And I know it was a little confusing for Nathan because for months before, he kept asking when we were going to Disney World, and we had to keep answering "in just a few weeks" And then when the day finally came, and we told him we were going to Disney World TODAY, we had to keep explaining that we had to drive to the airport first, then we had to fly to Florida, then we had to drive to the hotel, then we could drive to Disney World...I don't think he believed we were actually going until he saw Mickey Mouse!

Once we got to the park, Nathan was so excited and was looking around at EVERYTHING. He loved riding the Monorail and couldn't wait to see Cinderella's castle! When we first walked down main street to the castle, we had a group picture taken and then saw a show in front of the castle with all of the main Disney characters. Nathan loved the show, but when it was over, he said "Mommy, I didn't get to MEET them" So we decided to walk around and search for our first characters to meet.







The photographer who took our picture asked Nathan who he wanted to meet first, and he said Cinderella (with a grin). She told us that Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Belle were all in Adventureland. We found the house where they were and the sign said it was a 50 minute wait, but we decided to go ahead and get this out of the way. As we were slowly moving up in line, Nathan got hungry and wanted a snack. I gave him a granola bar. As he was trying to get the wrapper off, he accidentally broke it in half. Well, that just sent him over the edge and he had the biggest fit! I mean screaming and crying! I tried to smoosh the granola bar back but that just made it worse. Wayne and I were mortified. So Wayne took Nathan outside to try to calm him down. Meanwhile I stayed in line waiting for them to come back. Pretty soon, there were only a few kids in front of me, and they still weren't back! Finally, a few minutes later, they came back, and Nathan was as happy as could be. Those Daddy talks always work :)

When it was finally our turn to meet Sleeping Beauty and the other princesses, Nathan was so sweet. You could tell he was really excited to talk to them. And they were so sweet to him! Since he was one of the only boys in line, they really gave him lots of attention! With this being our first set of characters to meet, Wayne and I were fumbling with the camera, video camera, and autograph book trying to document the whole scene (you could definitely tell we didn't know what we were doing!) I couldn't even find our pen and had to borrow one from the photographer! After Nathan met and talked to Sleeping Beauty, he went to Cinderella next. After she signed his book, she asked him if she could give him a kiss. And he quickly and excitedly nodded YES! After she gave him a big kiss on the cheek, he walked to us with this big smile on his face and kept pointing to his cheek. It was so cute! But the funniest thing was when he went back into the line to wait to talk to Belle. He kept looking back at Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, and they kept waving to him and blowing him kisses...and he did it back! He was definitely in love! Then, after talking to Belle, having her sign his autograph book, and getting his picture taken, he started to walk to us to show us all of their names. He was so excited (and a bit star struck) that he slipped on Belle's dress. It was so funny because he fell flat, and all of the princesses put their hands up to their mouths and said, "Ohhhh!" with a gasp (so in character). I was worried he was going to cry. But he just got up, and kept smiling and waving to them as he walked out. I will never forget how precious he was then!









After the excitement of our Princess meeting, we roamed around Adventureland and rode several rides. We were pleasantly surprised that that, although the wait for the princesses was long, nothing else was. We rode The Magic Carpets of Aladdin, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Jungle Cruise, Swiss Family Treehouse, and ate dinner, got ice cream, and then watched the night time electric parade.









We were going to stay another hour and watch the fireworks too, but we decided to go on back to the hotel. We also still needed to make a stop at Target for some supplies for the rest of the trip, so we knew we wouldn't be in bed before 10:00 or 10:30 pm. But before we left, we let Nathan pick out a toy from one of the shops. He really wanted this Peter Pan set that had all of the characters in it that he saw while we were at Pirates of the Caribbean. When Nathan had his big fit earlier in the day, I found out that Wayne had told him if he was a good boy each day, he'd get to pick out a toy at the end of each day. Well, Nathan didn't forget that! It was a great incentive that we used the whole trip, and we never had another melt down :)