Our Disney Adventure

We traveled to Disney World in Orlando, FL mid November.  We drove 19 hours one way.  Our directions?  Get on 75 South.  Ta Da, you're there!  On the way there, we stopped somewhere in Tennessee, but we drove straight through on the way back.  Of the almost 40 hours, I drove a whopping 4.  This picture is Eli enjoying the hotel in TN.  He was such a great traveler!  I had prizes for him that I picked up at the dollar store, and gave them to him throughout the trip.  And we had our DVD player and 5 movies Eli picked out before we left.  We only watched 2 movies per travel day, so he did pretty stinkin' good entertaining himself!

We went to Disney with my sister in law and her family, my mother in law and her boyfriend, my husband's aunt and her family.  We also met up with family in FL.  We rented two 7 bedroom houses next door to each other only about 10 minutes away from Disney.  Our first trip to Disney was the day after we all gathered in FL.  We had such a blast!

Walkin in.  We knew eventually we'd get to Magic Kingdom, but we weren't sure when...it took us almost an hour from the time we parked!!  That's just crazy!

Aw, what a great bunch of people :)

Great family photo for the albums 

Uncle Tony and cousin Sam

Eli loved riding on Papa's shoulders, but his legs fell asleep every time.

Love these gals...one of my favorite pictures of the trip.

The three amigos

Trying to get Eli to dance with me during a parade.  It was Veterans Day so they had a shout out to the vets in the audience.  Eli was mesmerized by the tall guys.  He couldn't figure out how they were walking.

CJ and Sam locked up...

And of course, Eli had to have a turn!

Sam...what a dramatic fella..I love it!

Oh, ya, just try to keep me locked up!

On It's a Small World

Eli wore his Mickey Ears and insisted we call him Eli Mickey.  Too cute!

The reason we all gathered was to celebrate my mother in law's birthday.  As you can see by the lovely decorations around her neck she turned 60!

My sister in law and her attachment, cousin Molly...the goof next to them is my husband.  And he wonders why Eli's so silly!

Happy Birthday Grandma Karl!

Her gift from her children is a nice snow blower.  She gave a "what did you do" glare in the picture just before this.  No gifts?  Paleez, Grandma Karl.  We couldn't refrain from splurging on you!

Eli LOVES his Grandma Karl 

We drove down Tuesday and Wed, went to Disney Thursday for the day, spent Friday at the house in the pool, Friday night was the Christmas parade (amazing!), Saturday was the birthday party and more pool time, and then we drove back Sat and arrived home Sunday at 4am.  Eli rode his first roller coaster, Big Thunder Mountain, complete with hysterical laughing and putting his hands up.  The highlight of the entire event was when Eli got to meet Tigger and Pooh.  I wasn't sure how he was going to react, but once we found them he told us he wanted to meet them.  So we stood in line for about 10mins.  When it was our turn Eli bolted from beside us and gave Tigger the biggest hug you could imagine from a child that small.  Then he hugged Pooh.  He proudly walked away like he was the king of the world.  We made him go back so I could capture the moment on my phone, since we forgot our camera...Oops!  From then on he has insisted that Pooh and Tigger and Mickey are all his friends.  I've been to Disney a few times and I always remember it being fun, but this was the best trip ever.