It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

So at this moment in my house, cookies are baking, the kiddos are hanging ornaments on the tree (which has been sitting naked in the living room for a week, and I am editing Christmas pictures. It is definitely looking like this holiday is coming ready or not. I really love this time of year, but I feel like it sneaked up on us this year. I think it's because Thanksgiving was so late this year. We did attend a showing of The Polar Express at the refurbished old movie theater downtown with Reagan and Connor. Mason was at the deer lease (pretty sure he is thinking he is too old for all this stuff.) Here are some pictures of the cuteness of watching a movie in public in your pajamas which of course had to be followed up by a late night visit to Chick-fil-A. We hope everyone is getting geared up for a very, merry Christmas!!

Day 6: Disney and DUN!!!

Today we finished up our Disney vacation by making sure we did EVERYTHING in the new Fantasy Land. We rode Dumbo, Barnstormer, Under the Sea, Winnie the Pooh, and Peter Pan. We also met Ariel, Belle, and Tiana. During Story Time with Belle, Connor got to be the Beast, and that involved dancing (only pics are on the camera so stay tuned!!)




Then we headed to downtown Disney where Reagan got a full Cinderella costume (Halloween done for her), and the boys finished up their souvenir money at the Lego store. Tonight we are having dinner at an Italian restaurant in downtown Disney where Reagan will be dressed as Cinderella so stay tuned for the last round of pics! I need a vacation from my vacation but oh my!! We have had sooooo much fun!!!


6:50pm: check our who we are having dinner with tonight - so be-a-u-tiful!!!!




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Day 5: Magic Kingdom Round 2

Back at the Magic Kingdom for more fun. Today we started out having a Zippity-Do-Da day!! Yep that right, we rode Splash Mountain...not once, but twice! Back to back. Of course the boys absolutely loved it, but surprisingly, so did Reagan. Think we might have a little dare devil on our hands. Tonight is the big night - eating with Mr. Big Ears himself - Mickey Mouse! Look forward to many, many pictures from our Chef Mickey experience. Here are a few from this morning - no kids, just rides!




10:00pm: Chef Mickey was a HUGE success - check it out!!









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Day 4: Magic Kingdom

Well we have been at the Magic Kingdom for about four hours now, and all I can say is wow!! This place is crazy. Each land is a miniature theme park and crowds are insane!! The first thing we did was get a fast pass to meet the princess so needless to say Reagan is in high heaven!!




While the boys were riding Space Mountain, Reagan and I rode the People Mover. What a great idea! We got to ride inside all of the other rides in Tomorrow Land, including Space Mountain. They should have a sign suggesting that by the entrance of Space Mountain. Reagan thought it was cool that she was inside the ride while the boys were.
Here are a few more pics! And look, I'm in one - thought it was time to prove I was really here!!













11:30pm:

Main Street Electric Light Parade - awesome!!!
Fireworks and show at the castle - awesome!!!
Watching fireworks in the rain - wet!!!!!
Waiting to catch the monorail and tram at 11:00pm in wet clothes - torture!!!!

I do have an 18 minute long video of the parade to share when I get home!!!!

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Day 3: Hollywood Studios

Today we are at Hollywood Studios, and I have BIG news!! Reagan FINALLY picked out her ears, and they are adorable if I do say so myself. She and I are waiting on our boys to ride Aerosmith's Rocking Rollercoaster, so we thought we would share a pic of them!!




And just in case you are worried the boys aren't getting enough picture time, they are signed up to be a part of the Jedi Training Show at 2:20 and pictures will be taken.

3:50pm: We are waiting for the Indiana Jones stunt show to start so I thought I would take a minute to share the afore promised Jedi pictures, but I have something better than pictures, I have video; however, I can't figure out how to share those right now so they are to come. They did awesome!!!
Here are a few pics!!










9:41pm: Headed back to our room without seeing Fantasmic :(. They cancelled the 9:00 show an we weren't making it to the 10:30. Everything else today was amazing!!! One big shout out to my Connor man!! He was the only child brave enough to ride Tower of Terror (he gets his bravery from me!!) Richard rode it with him and said he didn't even scream!!
Tomorrow is Magic Kingdom. Please say a prayer for me not to be as overwhelmed as I think I am going to be there!!

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Day 2: Animal Kingdom

We are all moving a little slower this morning, but still excited and going strong! Today is the Animal Kingdom. A place full of adventure and wild animals...we should fit in perfectly!


MUCH LATER......



OMG! During the Lion King show we were chosen from the crowd and moved to VIP seating. Then the kids got to participate in the performance. It was amazing!! I personally loved today more than yesterday which I think makes Richard sad - I am pretty sure the history teacher in him really wanted his family to love Epcot. All the kids had a blast today. When asked their favorite parts they said:


Reagan: the water ride (River Rapids), the Lion King, and seeing the zebras on the safari


Connor: Expedition Everest, Lion King, getting autographs, and the safari


Mason: meeting Donald Duck, Lion King, and the safari


Needless to say, the Lion King made a huge impact on the kids - pretty sure we made a life-long memory today!!!








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Day 1: Epcot

4:30pm: Wow! We are having so much fun, but did I really think I would have time to blog while we were here?!? I'm an idiot. It is coming a seriously hard rain now with lightning and thunder and we are hiding out in Innovations so I had a quick minute. We have ridden Test Track (awesome!!!!), Mission Space, Soaring (also awesome!!!!), Living with the Land, the Nemo ride, and Experimenting with Figment. We have met Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto, and we did Turtle Talk with Crush. During Turtle Talk with Crush, Reagan was chosen to talk to him (I guess here it does pay to be super cute), and now my children won't stop saying the word "dude". All in all, it's been a great first day!!












Once again, these are NOT the best pics...those will follow when we get home.

8:25pm: just staked out a spot at the World's Showcase to watch Illuminations. Still having a great time by we are fading! Can you tell by this picture?




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Home Away from Home

We have arrived to our "villa" which I would call a condo. It's really nice even though it's a very good possibility we will only be sleeping here after today. I am super excited about the two bedrooms, plus that bathtub is screaming bubble bath to me, and that will probably feel great after 12+ hours of Disney each day. Pool time today and we start hitting the parks tomorrow beginning with Epcot. We decided to start there because we have been told it could be a disappointment to the kids if we went to another park first. We are so tired of being in the car that we are eating dinner here tonight. Richard is cooking baked shells (yum). Here are a few pics of our home away from home.




















5:15 pm: Pool lasted about 45 minutes until a Florida shower stopped it but look how fun it was while it lasted!




6:00pm: Since the storm isn't blowing over, the kids are swimming in the tub!!!




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Location:W Irlo Bronson Memorial Hwy,Kissimmee,United States

Travel Day 2

We just left our hotel in Tallahassee and are Kissimmee bound!! We only have 255 miles today so we should be able to make it without killing each other. We brought Richard's truck so we use these three massive tubs in the back to put our bags and other stuff in which is a good thing since we drove through about five showers yesterday. The looks we were getting this morning dragging those giants through the lobby were quite hilarious.


I forgot to share Reagan's new word from yesterday:
capacitous: When we walked into the restroom at the Florida welcome center, Reagan said, "Wow, how capacitous is this."
She really cracks me up!!!


Also, Mason knocked on the wrong hotel room door this morning. He was just a knocking and the whole time Connor was telling him that wasn't our room. He was slightly mortified, but when Richard asked if that would be the last thing he did today to embarrass us Mason said probably not.


Needless to say, we are having quite an adventure and we haven't even met the mouse yet!!!


12:40pm: Mason just taught me something I didn't know - people from Florida are "Florindians". Imagine that, I've spent my whole life thinking they were Floridians.


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Disney Bound!!!

4:15am is extremely early, but it's not so bad when the alarm clock song is "Zippity Doo Da"! Yep, that's right!! The Meisel gang is Disney World bound! We have been on the road for about an hour and a half and we just crossed the Louisiana border. One state down and four to go, and only one argument between Connor and Reagan so far. I might not need my happy pills after all. We were expecting the kids to sleep a while this morning, and Mason really did try, but Connor and Reagan had other ideas, so we watched the sunrise together. I told Reagan what my dad and mom told us when we took trips and left super early in the morning, "If you will be really quiet and not scare it away, the sun will wake up and you can watch it." Apparently, she wasn't too worried about scaring it because she just kept talking. Wonder where she gets that?!?




8:39am update: Reagan just broke the seal. Yep, she did it! She asked, "Are we there yet?" The next 10 hours should be interesting!!! Also, our friends, the Smiths, just returned from Disney and challenged us to a license plate war. Only 4 hours in and we already have 10 states...they are going down!!


3:48pm: We are now getting "are we there yet" about every ten minutes and the crazy traffic in the Mobile Bay tunnel almost made me share my happy pills with Richard, so I am pretty sure we will be looking for a hotel in the next few hours. WDW better really be "The Most Magical Place on Earth" because it's going to take it for this drive to be worth it! Oh and we have seen license plates from 22 states plus Canada and Mexico - we got this!!


4:45pm: Woohoo! We are in Florida. BTW - they have an amazing welcome center with free orange juice and a play area for the kids. I guess it does pay to visit a state who claims tourism as one of its main industries. Please don't judge the picture quality - I was in a time crunch and sadly left my big DSLR at home (Richard is extremely excited about that!) I did bring my new point and shoot but those pics will be shared when we get home.




















10:00pm - Settled in a hotel in Tallahassee. Tomorrow we finish the drive, check in to our condo, and get settled and organized to start six days of fun at Disney.