A Long Journey: Disney World! (Part 1 of 2)

We've been planning the vacation for more than a year and it finally arrived!! Once Rob got back from his deployment, we all waited (not very) patiently for the vacation to arrive. I am so glad we had the opportunity to go and see all the different things. We stayed at the Kidani Villages at the Animal Kingdom and had a view of the safari from the back deck of our room. So Fantastic! We got to wake up and see giraffes, water buffalo, zebras, emus and other African wildlife. LOVED IT!

Waiting on our room to be ready. We went out to the veranda to see what was in store for our visit. The boys LOVED seeing all the different animals walking around. I got a text on my cell phone from Mickey that said our room awaited. It was so fun to see a message from Mickey Mouse! :)

These are all pictures of the room we had - it was so very nice! I can't believe we are so lucky to have the chance to take our boys to Disney World and experience their love from a child's eyes.

Once we were checked into our room, we spent the evening just hanging out and figuring out what places we wanted to see. We had 2-day passes for Disney and 1-day pass for Universal Studios. There was also the free area, Disney Village, that we were going to visit and let's not forget the pool!! So much fun to have in a week!!

The next day, we went out our first excursion - Hollywood Studios Disney. Here was the big day for Nicholas. He was so jazzed that there was an entire area designed for Star Wars. HEAVEN!! He got to train to be a Jedi (and he took his job VERY seriously) and fight against Darth Vadar. He rode the Star Tours ride twice and LOVED it (he's not much of a rides person...) Sterling loved that he got to meet Handy Manny - wasn't really sure what to think about the giant Manny. The Star Wars Jedi training was a very limited person thing and when we got there, the spots were already filling up. They said the first opening they had was at 8pm or we could sign up for a standby slot. We did the standby and were just hoping Nicholas could get the chance. We tried back in the middle of the day and they said he would have been able to go, but we showed up too late so come back again in 1.5 hours. We poked around and killed some time to not go too far from there. We went back early and waited to see. Other standby kids showed up, but Nicholas held the lowest number out of all of them. If there were any slots available, he would be first in. YAY! LONG wait, but we prevailed and Nicholas got the chance to show his stuff. He was THRILLED!!! YAY for a great day!!

We ate dinner in the African/Indian fare restaurant at the hotel that evening - SO DELICIOUS! They boys liked playing the bongos at the entrance. :)

The next day we were set to have breakfast with Lilo and Stitch! The boys (and Rob!) were totally excited to have a Hawaiian breakfast with the characters. We played in the hotel pool that afternoon and it was a very nice day!