Minnie mouse was rockin' the house

from the minute we walked into Disney world Gracie knew exactly what she wanted as a souvenir.  a stuffed Minnie mouse doll.  Mauricio and i have a Minnie and mickey from our last trip about 5 years ago and she is FOREVER playing with them, so i kinda knew it was coming.  she and Minnie became fast pals.

minnie went everywhere with her.  when we got on a ride sometimes she was tucked into the backpack for safe keeping.  mostly, though, she was tucked right under gracie's arm.

the next day she moved in for the kill with her daddy; minnie mouse ears! how does a grown man say no to a little 7 year old who has been looking forward to disney for her entire life? he doesn't.  he just says, "which ones do you want sweetie?"  she had to have the ones that looked "just like minnie's".

and as you can see, those went everywhere too!

seriously, we got super lucky with this one.  apparently minnie does not hang out with mickey all day in his tent! what????? she spends most of her time in epcot or mgm. (at least that's what the "cast members" told us anyway.) thank goodness when we went to see mickey she happened to step in for a bit and boy did that make gracie's day.  i was glad we did not have to walk away with a crying and disappointed little girl.  she had even spent her own money to buy a minnie mouse autograph book and pen! she was determined to see minnie mouse if it killed her!

and, as always, meeting your favorite character at disney world is never a disappointment.  thanks minnie.  you rock!

and can guess what grace said on our last day? "mom, i think next time we come i need to get a mickey stuffed doll so minnie won't be lonely." i knew it was coming! she already got her foot in the door and prepared me for the next time.  she's a clever one she is.

cinderelly, cinderelly, i love what you've done with the place

How can you not love to just gaze at cinderella's castle when you are hanging around disney world.  it is just gor-geous! i guess i am just a little girl at heart.  

the best time to castle gawk is definitely at dusk.

i guess you could say another great time is during the holidays at night! as always, disney makes it super magical.

this is one of my favorite pictures.  its reflection in the moat.

i'm thinkin' i need to get the number of cinderella's decorator and have them do my lights this christmas. or do you think it was the mice and birds who hung all those bad boys?

knock, knock! cinderella are you home?????

yay! now it's pink!

it's a small world, dumbo!

  it's a small world was gracie's favorite ride.  that was always one of my faves as a kid too. 

and all of us who have ridden this ride love the creepy little animatronic dolls that sing and dance.

here's grace at the end with all the signs that say good-bye in many different languages.  in our house we say it "sionara suckas!"

no matter how many times you've been to disney or how old you become, you gotta go on the dumbo ride.

 

 

who knew frontierland could be so scary and fun at the same time?

 from this picture you would never know that the little ones are scared to get on splash mountain.  sarah, she's just scared about getting her hair wet. 

now the fear comes out!

(if you think that's scary, wait til you see the next picture!)

don't say i didn't warn ya pardner!

 be on the look out for them thare injuns!

don't let their pretty faces fool you.
these natives are pretty vicious too.

riverboat ride

 this one's for you brady, since you are the sheriff in dog town.

the happiest place on earth-the arrival

 okay, so now the massive disney/universal vacation pictures download begins! aren't you all just jumping for joy??

the anticipation of waiting for the monorail.

 

 

grace finally made it to cinderella's castle!  she has been literally having dreams about going to this castle since she was like four! how could we not take her??

that's all for now!  did you actually think i was going to make you look at all 5,678 pictures at once??