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Jedi Training was the one thing I was looking forward to most when planning the trip to Disney. I couldn’t wait to see my boys fight Darth Vader. It did not disappoint. I loved it, Mike loved it, and so did the boys. It was a great experience.
These are the pics I took. I still need to get the ones from Disney. The ones they took were great.
Jillian loves the Star Wars stuffed animals her brothers got for Xmas. Today she went into their bedroom and pointed and mumbled at them. I got them down and took them to her room to play with. She called them “Babies” and would hug them and kiss them. It was super cute.
On our first full day at Disney went to Hollywood Studios. This was the park where there were 3 things we really wanted to do.
1) Jedi Training
2) Toy Story Mania
3) Star Tours
Jedi Training is very popular and Toy Story Mania is probably the most popular ride in all 4 parks. You have to FastPass it if you want to ride it (or be willing to wait in line for 80+ minutes). Our plan of action after entering the park was for Mike and PeePaw to take the boys to sign up for Jedi Training and for Aunt Sue to RUN RUN RUN to get us FastPasses for Toy Story Mania. Mission accomplished. We got the FastPass for 10:55 to 11:55 and the boys were signed up for the 1:20 session of Jedi Training. This is one of my favorite parks. Lots of neat things to do, especially for boys. In addition to the pics I’m going to share we saw the Indiana Jones Stunt Show, went on the Studio Backlot Tour, and saw the Lights, Motors, Action Stunt Show.
Grammy & Aunt Sue “getting off the Subway”.
Jillian was getting antsy in her stroller. Since it wasn’t busy, we let her out to walk and the first thing she did was grab Aunt Sue’s hand.
So precious.
These are so neat. It’s just the front of the building. It’s just framing behind it.
It’s the city. Nope… stacked flat representations of what looks like a city.
Aunt Sue, Jilly & Grammy.
It’s Donald & Daisy!
Jilly cried when she saw them so they waved from afar.
YES! Time to ride Star Tours.
It is such a cool ride!
C3PO
R2D2
C3PO again.
Getting ready for the 3D experience.
My Star Wars lovin’ boy is so excited.
Being silly in the Star Wars shop.
They got R2D2 Ears!
Mike and I! =)
Honey, I Shrunk The Kids!
Benny asked me to take his pic by this big Coke bottle.
Owen’s first signature in his autograph book.
The Green Army Man!
TOY STORY MANIA TIME!
O & Aunt Sue in their ride car.
Jillian enjoying one of her favs…French Fries.
I’m free! I can run for a little bit.
While waiting in line for the Backlot Tour, Jillian was being so silly and blowing kisses and reaching for hugs.
These next pics show our goofy little girl. Pardon her droll.
Our sweet Benjamin. This smile melts my heart.
O really wanted to meet Woody & Buzz so we waited for 30 mins. They had neat photo ops along the wait line.
AHHHHH! He’s on the flying rocket!
He was insistent on getting a pic with Zurg.
The Prospector.
Fist Bump with Buzz.
Buzz, Owen, and Woody
The last thing we did that night was see this neat lazer type show called Fantasmic. It was so good. All the characters come out at the end on this boat. I tried to get pics of the show itself, but it was too dark and fast paced.
The host of the show – Mickey!
Mickey’s Hat!
R2D2 loving boys.
Jilly wanted in on the action.
I think she likes him too!
Part II coming up next… JEDI TRAINING!!
This is the start of the recap of our Disney vacation. I will say two things…
1) I have over 1200 pics. It was hard to pair them down. I won’t be posting all 1200, but I will be posting a lot over the coming days.
2) Benny was sick for most of the trip and not up to having his pic taken so I respected that at times. He was also afraid of the characters. This is why you will see more pics of the others and not him.
We had to get up very early to leave on the 3rd for the trip to Disney World. 3:30am to be exact. We had a shuttle service arriving to the house at 5:15-5:30 to take all 8 of us to the airport. The kids were great about it. I think the excitement gave them the adrenaline they needed to be up and running that early, especially Owen. He’s like a teenager and loves his sleep. He hates getting up early.
We made it to the airport and through security without any problems. We grabbed a bite to eat, then got ready to board the plane. Jillian had her own seat, but wanted nothing to do with sitting anywhere but in our laps. We even rented a CARES harness for her but she wanted no part of it. She ended up sleeping in Mike’s arms for most of the ride. The boys did great. They ate their snacks I packed and played DS.
The boys’s first plane ride.
Jillian’s too. She liked to look at the window.
I thought the boys would sleep on the plane, but they didn’t. They were still good to go when we landed in Orlando and eager to get on the Magical Express to get to the resort.
Ben with this “trip buddy” – Daddy.
O is ready to board the Magical Express.
Little Bit looking out the window, taking it all in.
When we got to the resort, we checked in, but our room wasn’t ready. So we headed on over to Magic Kingdom. We were so close, we could walk. It look us less than 10 minutes.
Owen proudly showing off his birthday button.
Benny too!
Welcome to Magic Kingdom!
I had to wait 34 years to see this castle in person. It was beautiful!
First stop – the Laugh Floor!
Next up – the BUZZ ride.
This was one of Ben’s favorites.
Jillian isn’t too sure of the dark.
Pic of the pic the ride took!
After being in Magic Kingdom for about an hour, we got the message our suite was ready so we headed back to the Bay Lake Towers. This gave us a chance to unpack and for the kids to take a rest. Our suite was amazing. 2 bedrooms, 3 full baths, a kitchen, laundry room, etc. And our room was right off the bridge that connects the Bay Lake Towers to the Contemporary so it was super easy to get on the monorail and the bridge was the perfect place to watch the fireworks at night.
Someone is all tuckered out.
The living room in our suite.
The dining area.
Our family’s room.
Grammy & PeePaw’s bathroom.
The boys thought the secret door by the tub was the neatest.
Master bedroom.
Kitchen.
View of the lake and pool from our room.
Jillian checking out her sleeping quarters for the next week.
After unpacking and resting for a bit, we got cleaned up and headed back to Magic Kingdom for the evening. We had dinner reservations for an Italian place called Tony’s which is the “Lady & the Tramp” restaurant. Then we rode some rides and headed back to the suite to catch the second half of the super bowl.
O wanted to take our picture – this is his fine work!
Picking out what to eat for dinner.
Hmmmm…what should Ben have?
Benny wanted to do “CHEERS”!
Lady & the Tramp on the windows – so cute!
Me and my little lady.
The boys got lots of birthday treats on this trip! This is the first of many!
Mommy & Benny Boo!
Swiss Family Robinson.
PeePaw and I took O into the Tiki Bird Room. It’s just animatronic birds singing, but he got a total kick out of it!
It’s one of the oldest rides at Disney, but Jillian, Benny and I loved it. I liked the classic simplicity of “It’s a Small World”.
Benny wanted me to take lots of pictures.
He would even sing along to “It’s a Small World.”
The castle is just as beautiful at night.
The boys loved this big bath tub.
Baths in here were the highlight of the end of the day.
By day 2, Jillian started to join them.
It made bath time easy.
Watching the Super Bowl. At this point, O is happy b/c the 49ers are making a come back. Too bad it didn’t last.
The big surprise the boys got for their birthday was…. DISNEY WORLD! Grammy and PeePaw Thomas took our whole gang and Aunt Susan to Disney for a week. February 3rd to the 9th. It was a great trip.
The only bad part was 1/2 the clan spent part of the trip sick. Owen and Aunt Sue got sick at the end and Benny and Mike weren’t 100% the whole time, but rallied to enjoy themselves. I tried so hard to keep everyone healthy. I kept Ben from going to a birthday party the week before we left where I knew a lot of germ spreading would occur. I even took him to the Dr. the Friday before we left. Uggghhhh… It is what it is. We all really enjoyed ourselves though and made a lot of great memories.
So, that is why there was no post on O’s birthday and why I didn’t get a chance to do birthday letters this year. I will still get around to it, but may do something a little different this year to change it up.
Stay tuned for a full recap on our Disney trip and special posts for the boys to mark them turning 5 & 7!
Our Benjamin is 5!! =) =) =) =) =)
It’s been 5 spunky, goofy, silly, crazy fun loving years with our Benny Boo. We love you oh so much little man!
Mommy is apologizing for not having your birthday letter ready for today because I’ve been working hard to get ready for your surprise. When you find out what it is, I think you’ll forgive me! (Shhh… and if it makes you feel better, your brother won’t get his on his birthday either.)
We hope you had a wonderful birthday.
Lots of hugs and kisses – five to be exact!
XXXXXOOOOO,
Mom
