the Happiest Place on Earth

We took our first family trip to Disney World a few days ago. I will admit that I was a bit hesitant to take Braedyn this early, and we probably wouldn't have if we didn't have family in town. That being said, Ben and I were pleasantly surprised by how well Braedyn did. There were no major fits or meltdowns, and he loved the rides and Disney characters. When we first walked into the gate, you could just see on his face how overwhelmed he was. He didn't know what to look at first, it was quite comical.

I wasn't sure how he would do on the rides, but he just sat on each ride, looked around, and just took everything in. Of course, we were also fortunate that we were able to practically walk on every ride with almost no wait at all. This is what I was most grateful for, Braedyn has no patience for waiting in lines (surely that's a trait he inherited from me). His favorite rides were It's a Small World and the Dumbo ride. It's such a great moment for parents to see their child excited and in awe of everything around them. I guess this is why Disney is so *magical*. So here are some pics from our day at the Magic Kingdom.

This was the first character we saw, and Braedyn really liked him alot and kept saying "dog, dog". I, however, was a bit confused and kept calling this guy Goofy instead of Pluto. Heck, what do you expect, I never paid attention to the characters before I had children!

We ate breakfast in a restaurant where the characters come around to the table. I didn't think Braedyn would be that interested in this since he doesn't yet know who the characters are, and still has no interest in the Disney Channel cartoons yet. But boy was I wrong, he loved the characters and became quite hyper and animated himself! Below are pictures of Braedyn with Pooh and Piglet (how friggin cute, huh?), and the middle picture is Piglet with my neice, Penny.

This is Braedyn and Pop-Pop (Ben's dad) with Cinderella's Castle in the background. Braedyn actually walked around on his own two feet most of the day, but Pop-Pop spoiled him a bit and carried him around so that he could see things from a view other than 3 feet off the ground. haha.

And talk about getting the royal treatment... late in the day, the sun was extremely bright and unbearable on the eyes in the direction we were walking. Braedyn wasn't happy about it at all, so Ben and his dad pulled him in the stroller backward so that he was sheltered from the sun. I mean, does life get any better than this for an exhausted toddler at Disney?

This was at the end of our day as we were walking out. Braedyn had to hit his hand on every. single. post. on the fence. Did I mention every. single. fence. post. Where do they learn this stuff from? Heaven help us if he missed one, he'd have to stop and make sure he hit it with his hand. This probably would've been amusing if it was at the beginning of our day, and not 12 hours later.

Braedyn got to feed the ducks on our way out of the park. It's pretty funny, because you would think he would just throw the food to the ducks through the fence post. But no, my child would hold the food in his hand, hoist himself up on the fence, and throw the food over the fence to the ducks. The mind of a child is a funny thing. Although I actually think he was just trying to drag out the feeding process to prolong his stay at Disney for as long as possible, haha.

So there you have it, our first trip to Disney was a huge success. That being said, I'm ready to go back again with the Little Boy, except next time we'll wait until it's at least 10 degrees cooler!! The Florida heat just wipes you out, it's insane! We were all exhausted and Braedyn was passed out in the car before we left the parking lot. The next morning, Braedyn woke up and was really happy and wired. All I could think was "awww, the poor kid, he probably thinks we're going back to Disney again today, boy is he going to be disappointed!"