On Friday December 17th at 4:45am, we loaded two toddlers, half of our house and a ton of snacks into the Vdub van and set our GPS for Lake Buena Vista, Florida- the home of the most magical place on earth, Disney World. After making only ONE stop for gas at the Florida Welcome Center we pulled into our condo 10 hours, 15 minutes and 6 Disney movies later. The trip, all things considered, really wasn't too bad. Ah, the luxuries of two DVD players, a minivan and my own private row in the back where no one can see me. The Volkswagon Routan makes certain that parents and kids get to travel in complete comfort, even for 10 hours and 15 minutes.
We made the decision after much research to stay off site at Disney. We could afford a whole week at a private condo or 4 days at a Disney Resort. The condo being only 1 mile from the Magic Kingdom seemed to be the obvious choice and all in all it worked out rather well. But let me just say this, the place was STRANGE. It looked really nice, hence the photos on the internet, fairly new and had a garage, a fun kids room, new furniture, etc... But it was totally deserted, making it feel really weird. As for the people who were there, just picture miniature JLo's and Marc Anthony's yelling in New York/Puerto Rican accents. Total divas. The kitchen was another major reason we opted for off site, aside from the cost. As I have stated before, Jaime doesn't eat meat, seafood, salad or any type of sauce or marinade and the only restaurants we can agree on are usually pizza or Mexican... and since I wasn't planning on eating pizza every day then I wanted a kitchen so I could continue making healthy meals for us and the kids. Well, after spending a ton on groceries at the local, overpriced Disney market, we realized there were no pots or pans. Dun Dun Dun Dunnnnn. But we were in luck, Giorodono's was right across the street and we could get pizzas whenever we wanted! Fantastic.
Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining, as I said before, it was the best week of my life. But since this blog is mainly for memories we can't forget the hilarity of some situations. Here is a picture of what Jaime and I affectionately referred to as, "The Unit".
Thankfully, with the happiest place on earth less than a mile away we didn't spend much time at the unit. On Saturday morning after awaking to torrential downpours and headed for the Magic Kingdom. We were NOT going to let a little weather rain on our parade and boy did we have fun. After purchasing Mickey Mouse ponchos we fit right in and were ever so grateful that it was warm. I was so excited about the 75 degree weather it could have been a hurricane and that would have been ok. 
Not to mention that the Magic Kingdom is, well, totally flippin magical. Even as a 27 year old mom of two, when I saw Cinderella's castle my heart literally jumped. And when I looked at Josiah looking at the castle, I almost cried. We spent the rest of the day riding all of the classic's; It's a Small World After All, Pirates of the Carribean, Snow Whites Scary Adventures, Cinderella's carousal and Josiah just barely hit the height requirement to get on his first real roller coaster. He is lucky that he is so tall, because I think he may have been the only two year old to ever go on this thing...it had the cluga cluga assent where all you can think about it the plunge you are about to take. When we got to the very top I looked over at Josiah and said, "Are you scared?" and he said, "No, I'm not scared." Then we dropped, so fast and whipped through a tunnel of darkness at the speed of light. It only lasted about 45 seconds but the whole time I was thinking, WHY did I bring my poor baby on this? When we pulled into the station and stopped he was as white as a ghost. Our bars lifted and when the worker came to help Josiah out of his car my little boy looked at him and said, "NO! I ride again." I guess it is only a matter of time until he joins his Daddy surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding and jumping off mountains. What a little dare devil.That afternoon the sun came out and we went to a block party where there is a DJ and you literally party in the street with all of Disney's beloved characters. We danced with Woody, Jesse, and Mickey. My face hurt from smiling so much.
After the block party Cinderella and her Fairy Godmother came out to light her castle for Christmas. With a "A Dream is a Wish your Heart Makes" playing and some Bippity Boppity Boo action the castle went from looking like this
to like this,
with a simple wave of her wand. It was so much cooler live than I could ever explain. It was hypnotizing. I can't remember a day being so much fun. Ever. Even the unit looked good when we got home for the night. I LOVE Disney World.
The next day we hit up Hollywood Studios which is where all of the Toy Story Characters "live". We danced with Woody the night before but we had yet to be formally introduced and after waiting only an hour and a half we got to hang with the REAL Woody and Buzz. They were so great. The nice thing about waiting an hour and a half is that each kid gets to spend ample amount of time with the characters. We got autographs, pictures and hugs and all of this took place in Andy's room. Josiah and Oliver were in heaven.
In addition to meeting their idols we also took in a prefomance of Beauty and the Beast live on Broadway, met Mater and Lightening McQueen and had dinner at the official Pizza Planet. Another great day.All of our adventures in Disney were simply too much for one blog, so please stay tuned for the remaining days of our trip. The best is yet to come!
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