Our Day at Hollywood Studios

We had so much fun at Magic Kingdom and I wasn't sure how Hollywood Studios would top it.

But it DID!!

We went there the day after Magic Kingdom and I LOOOOOVED Hollywood Studios. That's saying a lot for someone who isn't really that into theme parks or Disney.

But it was a lot smaller than Magic Kingdom, so it was much easier to find your way around. The decorations were SO fun (not that Magic Kingdom wasn't, but Hollywood Studios was so colorful and full of neat things to look at).
 

 Tessa is obsessed with fake glasses and she found this pair for sale at Hollywood before we even made it through the gate! They were super cute on her!

The weather was a LOT warmer the day we went to Hollywood, but it still wasn't too bad. We walked through the front gate and were greeted by a parade of Storm Troopers. Tommy was so happy to see them!

We went straight towards Toy Story World and got in line for the Alien Swirling Saucers. The line was kind of long, but it was in the shade and there was so much to look at while we were waiting! Toy Story World was so neat and they nailed all of the little details.

After the Swirling Saucers (which was okay but kind of lame), we went to Toy Story Mania. We had a fast pass for that (so glad, because one of machines was down so the line was SUUUUUPER long). EVERYBODY loved this ride! You go through the ride with a little laser gun and get to shoot different targets the whole time. It was a lot of fun for all ages!

Next up was the Slinky Dog Dash roller coaster. The kids were SUPER STOKED to go on this one. This was the longest line we waited in--around an hour. It was starting to get really hot, so that was kind of a bummer, but better the sunshine than the rain! We got up to the front of the line and they were READY TO GO!

Brylie rode with me on this one. She was HILARIOUS. She was so excited until it was time to go. I screamed the whole time (it was kind of scary!) and held on to her hand! She just kept closing her eyes. The picture below is when we finished the coaster. She looked at me and said, "That was NOT a good idea." But hey, at least she didn't throw up!

Then we headed over to the Rock N Roller Coaster. This one was CRAZY! It was SO stinking fast! The kids LOVED it and wanted to ride it again.

It's an indoor roller coaster as well, which is nice that you can ride it no matter what the weather is like.  And it's nice and cool while you're waiting!

After the Rock 'N' roller coaster, we got in line for the Hollywood Tower of Terror. I think out of all of them, this one was my favorite and the scariest (to me)! You go inside a hotel lobby area and they show a video about the history of the "hotel." Then you get in line and it's a boiler room type setting. They line you up in front of 3 different elevators. We rode this twice and I think each elevator does something slightly different because it wasn't exactly the same each time. 

Once you're seated in the elevator (in theater type seating), it takes you up several floors and then you drive out of the elevator and through a creepy hallway. Once you reach the outerwall of the hotel, you PLUMMET several floors, then go up a few, then plummet more, then up a few, and so on. The dropping motion scared me to death! But I also liked the unexpectedness of it and not knowing exactly what would happen and when. Nick may or may not have videoed me screaming my head off. I literally lost my voice the next day because of how much I screamed on Tower of Terror!

After we rode that, we went to an Indiana Jones show that was really neat! They did a bunch of movie stunts and showed how they do it. It was neat to see a "behind the scenes" of how it all works. Tommy thought it was awesome and talked about it a lot!

Then we went to the Star Wars Adventure Continues simulation ride. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would! I wasn't sure how fun a simulator would be, but it really felt like we were flying through Star Wars landscapes and shooting targets and all that. The kids all loved it!

Our final quest for the night was meeting some of our favorites! Tommy and Nick went to meet Darth Vader and Chewbacca. The girls and I went to meet Vampirina and Princess Sophia. The lines weren't bad at all (maybe 10-15 minute) and Tessa was SO stoked! She LOVES Vampirina!

We headed out around 7pm to finish the final leg of our journey to Panama City Beach! We were all exhausted and could have stayed at Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios for DAYS and still not done it all, but we had SUCH a good time!

We're goin to Disney!!

We got to Disney on Sunday afternoon, right when it was time to check in. One thing that surprised me after driving under the infamous Walt Disney World sign was that you still go a looooooooong way to get to the parks! The entrance is to like a whole other system of roads and hotels and parks and restaurants that are a part of Disney World. Silly me thought as soon as we drove under the sign, we'd be at our hotel. WRONG! It's HUUUUUGE.

We stayed at the Disney All Stars resort. We met Aunt Brookie (she'd flown out to meet us) there. Once we found it and got checked in, we made the kiddos take a picture on the red carpet. They were so excited (and so were we)!

We didn't have tickets to get into the park until the next day, so Sunday night we let them explore the resort a bit and swim in the pool.

Tommy was SO excited that we were in the Mighty Ducks wing of the resort. He LOVES watching hockey and EVERYTHING was hockey themed, so it was right up his alley!

After we swam, we got on the bus that takes you to other Disney resorts. Even if you aren't staying there, you're able to go into them and look around and have access to the shops and restaurants. We had decided to go to the Polynesian to eat and get a Dole Whip. It took awhile to get loaded on the bus, drive to where we'd get on the train and then get unloaded. They had a security check point as soon as  you get off the bus. Nick pulled me aside and was all, "Uhhh, I gotta go back." And I'm all, "Uhhhhh.....no. That took forever. Why would we go back?" Long story short, Nick has a conceal and carry license. And he had for some reason decided to use his conceal and carry. In all fairness, he thought we were just going to Disney Springs, which does NOT have a security check point.

So he had to go all the way back to the hotel. We went ahead and got on the train to the Polynesian (the kids LOVED getting to ride that). We had dinner at a cafe there. The food was okay, but not great. It was fast food for a fine dining price--ha! We were going to get Dole Whips, but my kids were being naughty and mouthy, so that didn't happen.

After we were done with dinner, we rode the bus to Disney Springs and met up with Nick again. We walked around for a bit before deciding to take our kids back to the hotel. They were both really grumpy and still not feeling 100% and we knew they needed the rest.

We got to the resort and got to sleep. Everyone else had decided to meet early in the morning to get to the park before it opened. We decided to let the kids sleep in a bit before going so they would be happy and well rested. And we were SO glad we did that! I was bummed at first to get there a little later, but it worked out great! By the time the others got on the bus and through security, we weren't really that far behind them.

We rode one ride before meeting up with everyone else. It was the Space Ranger alien shooting game and the kids loved it! The line took awhile, but wasn't TOO bad--about 45 minutes.

After we met up with them, we rode the Astro Orbiter. Brylie was my riding partner and she was a little nervous!

After the rockets, we went back to the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger game. We hadn't realized we had a FastPass for it when we rode it the first time. But the kids liked it so much that we were happy to ride again. And it went SO much faster with the FastPass.

My brother, sister and I took a picture to send to my mom and it made her SO happy. Even as old kids, she's happy to see "her babies together."

We rode Space Mountain at some point. My mind has intentionally blocked that out because it was TERRIFYING!!! It's an indoor roller coaster and you go through it in the pitch black. NEVER. AGAIN. It was a fun coaster, but the whole "not being able to see anything" aspect of it had me sick. I screamed like a little girl the whole time! My kids and Nick loved it, though!

We all went on Splash Mountain but had to take turns watching Ty guy because he was too little. Tommy got to play with him on a little playground and I think he thought that was just as much fun as riding rides!

We also road the Pirates of the Caribbean--it was so cool! There were some animated robotic characters in there that looked so real we had to really pay close attention to see if they were or not. It was a good ride to relax on and for the little kids to be able to go on.

We rode the Little Mermaid Under the Sea. It was neat--it was animated robotic scenes of the movie. Very nostalgic and sweet for the kids to watch. As you can tell from the picture below, Tommy was THRILLED.

At that point, we split up a bit because the little girls all wanted to meet a few characters and Tommy, Nick and Brooke wanted to ride more rides. They went and rode the Haunted Mansion and Big Thunder.

And we got to meet................Elena of Avanor and CINDERELLA!!

It was so funny--when we were talking to Elena, she was so sweet and friendly. She was talking to Brylie and Brylie looked at her and said, "I want to see Belle." HA! We were dying! Elena managed to not act too offended, but you could tell she was a little put off!

 After we met them, we rode the carousel. It was a LEGIT carousel. It went WAAAAAY too fast for my liking. I can do roller coasters okayish but the spinning of the carousel really got to me.


And then it was time for the Tea Cups! I was so glad we rode them! It's an iconic ride and although I could have done without the spinning again, we were glad to be able to say we'd done it!

After the Tea Cups, we met back up with the other group. Nick, Tommy and I rode Barnstormer because there was hardly any line. And then we ended the night with the infamous fireworks in front of the castle! They really were beautiful and it was a neat moment being there for something that you dream about doing as a kid. I was glad we were able to give our kiddos that experience!

We FINALLY made it back to the bus stop and managed to snap a group picture of all of us. It was such a fun (but exhausting) day!

Road Trippin 2019

This February, we decided to road trip to Florida and we had the BEST time! My cousin was getting married in Panama City Beach and we decided since we'd be so close to Disney, we might as well go! 

The two weeks before we were supposed to leave, both of the kids were sick. Tessa got swabbed form influenza A and it was positive. She missed several days of school and was SO sick. It was awful. We were so afraid she wouldn't be healthy enough to go, but the day before we left, she started feeling a little better and was able to go to school. Thank God! We weren't sure what we were going to do if she wasn't able to handle being in the car.

We left on a Friday after school and drove as far as we could. We ended up about an hour and a half outside of Nashville. Saturday morning, we woke up and finished our drive into Nashville and spent most of the day there exploring! We LOVED it!

 Nick knew Frank from the American Pickers show had a shop in Nashville, so he wanted to stop in and see it. Turned out to be a total bust (didn't have much for sale and what was for sale was hundreds of dollars), but we had fun looking anyways!

After looking around that shop for a bit, we went down to a main street and just walked around for awhile. The atmosphere was so fun and we got to see a lot of cool shops and restaurants.

We hit up a candy shop that was DELICIOUS. We bought chocolate peanut butter cups as big as our hands and rice krispy treats as big as our heads! So good.

After shopping a bit, we found a barbecue restaurant to eat lunch at. The food was great and there was live music, so that was fun to listen to!

The bathroom walls had places to sign your name, so of course all the girls had to find a sharpie and leave their mark! I think it made Tessa feel really grown up and cool.

That night, we drove as far as we could again and ended up about 3-4 hours outside of Orlando! The hotel we stayed at had a pool and these crazy kids INSISTED on swimming, even though the water was FREEZING.  They loved it!

 We slept in a bit Sunday morning and ate breakfast at the hotel. Then we pushed through the final leg of the journey and made it to the happiest place on Earth!

DISNEY WORLD!!