Happy Birthday to SJ and More Disney Stories

First off, everyone go say Happy Birthday to my friend SJ. We were actually best buds in high school and now live miles and miles apart, but can keep up with each other with these beloved blogs.

Administrative note - I have updated my blogroll, still in progress. Also, I have been trying to upload pictures all morning, so as soon as Blogger cooperates, I will give you guys some pictures.

So onto the trip. Let's me just start by saying how weird it was to just be on vacation with Ashley. I must admit, it was definitely easier. I could make all the decisions and Ashley would just go along. Ashley and I both missed Audrey and Ray though. Many times we would see a baby and Ashley would say that the baby looked just like Audrey. And she kept asking why Daddy wasn't there.

The weather was perfect. I love hot weather, so 90 and humid is perfect for me. It was that way Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Friday we went to Blizzard Beach and Ashley amazed me at the slides she went on by herself. She had an absolute blast. Saturday was the Princess breakfast at Cinderella's castle and Magic Kingdom all day. For anyone who is going and has girls (or boys) who loves the Princesses, this was worth all the money I paid. It did kill me to pay $13 for the buffet for Ashley for the dinner at Chef Mickey's the night before, but the Princess one was worth it.

Sunday we did MGM in the morning. There we did the Play and Dine Breakfast Buffet. That was another one that was definitely worth the money paid. It had JoJo and Goliath from JoJo's Circus as well as Leo and June from the Little Einstiens (which Ashley LOVES). They would get the kids up and dancing about every 10 minutes. And the character interaction was great. After all the kid stuff at MGM, we headed to Epcot. Ashley rode Test Track and Soarin, both rides she could not ride last year. She did end up napping a little in her stroller that day. I guess getting up at 6:00am and not going to bed until 9:30pm was catching up with her.

Monday we did Animal Kingdom in the morning. I made the mistake of going on the Kali River Rapids ride and getting completely soaked, so we headed back to the hotel, changed, and went back to Magic Kingdom. Magic Kingdom was pretty much dead that day, we walked onto many of the rides. I even made Ashley go on the Haunted Mansion ride (I told her they were friendly ghosts). Ashley also really liked getting autographs from characters and didn't mind standing in line for that. We left there and went back to the hotel and went swimming. That's where I dropped my hated cell phone in the pool (not on purpose, I swear). The next morning we got up to 60 degree weather. We went to Downtown Disney for some shopping before we had to head to the airport.

Highlights:

• Everyone that helped me at some point getting the stroller on and off the buses.
• Ashley's face at the Cinderella Breakfast
• Ashley's face on some of the rides
• Spending good quality time with my three year old
• The Disney Magic (yes, I like Disney. Ray and I went there on our honeymoon.)
• Seeing Ashley reach for things in the 3-D Philharmagic Film we saw in Magic Kingdom

Lowlights:

• The chilly weather the last day
• Seeing kids left at exits to rides so the parents could ride
• Going into public bathrooms and having Ashley reject toilet after toilet because it just didn't look right
• Dealing with potty accidents and being the only one to take her to the bathroom every single time