Vacation 2010...Day 4

Here at the condo Raleigh is sleeping in her own room in a big girl bed with no rail. No problem with her sleeping in the bed, but this morning we thought we would sleep in. No, not with a big girl! She proudly opened our door at 8:00! We're closing the door to the bathroom that has a window so no sunlight comes in for tomorrow.

Beach day!!! We spent the morning at the beach and the afternoon by the pool. Raleigh loved both and had no fear of the water! Our friends, Eddy and Lori came over with their two kids, Molly and Grayson. They live in St. Mary's, GA so it was close by for them. It was great to see them!

May be my favorite picture!

There were turtles in the dunes. This was a baby one. It was fun to watch them each day!

Going with Grandma to get water

We told Raleigh she had to stand on the inside ledge to jump in. She kept pointing to it and saying, "not here, you jump there."

Raleigh with Molly and Grayson

Vacation 2010...Day 3

What better way to end our stay at Disney than with breakfast at Chef Mickey's! Thank goodness this was in our hotel (one reason we chose to stay there) because we had to be there for breakfast at 7:10! The first character we saw was Goofy. Raleigh was very hesitant to talk to him, but did wave a little (and of course all the characters are SUPERB at greeting the little ones who may be scared). Mommy thought she would try to make her more comfortable and had my picture made with him. After Goofy, Raleigh did warm up to the characters. We saw Pluto, Donald, Mickey, and Minnie (thank goodness Minnie was last because Raleigh actually got out of her seat for the cutest picture with her!!) Another priceless experience and we got to eat while enjoying the characters. (Yes, they try to rush you through, but I would not leave my seat to go fix my plate for fear of missing Raleigh with a character so I held up our table...oh well!)

Heading to breakfast at Chef Mickey's

Loved all the waves and blowing kisses!

Posing with all the characters!

Our family with Minnie!

Mickey knows how to serve breakfast...I love desserts!

This was our hotel...Loved it!!

Some of the Mickey structures around the hotel

Cute towels in our room!

We then headed over to SeaWorld for the day. Raleigh loved and was entertained by the dolphin show...it was great! After the show we headed over to feed the dolphins...another great experience (even though someone picked up the tray and fed the whole tray & fish to the dolphin after we were instructed not to pick it up...no names will be mentioned). :) The Sea Lion and Otter show and Shamu were good, but didn't hold Raleigh's attention as well. Shamu's show is not as great as it use to be since they stopped getting in the water with them. We did see some polar bears, beluga whales, and a walrus as well. Raleigh got to ride a few of the kiddie rides and Jason and I rode the roller coaster Manta (it holds you up like you're laying on your stomach...great ride, but scary). SeaWorld was great, but Raleigh was exhausted to say the least. She slept in the car for 3 hours while we drove to Amelia Island...that's where our next adventure begins (and our 3rd room in 3 days!).

Waiting on the dolphin show to begin!

This was definitely my favorite part of the day...except for the fact that this is right after I realized I had left my wedding ring on the bed of our hotel that we had just checked out from. Thankfully daddy got in touch with them before they cleaned our room or I may not be here to tell about it. I guess I'll have to learn to put on sunscreen or lotion with my ring on from now on!

I'm a big rule follower, unlike someone else in our family who will occasionally ignore some of the rules. Well, this is proof!! Notice the tray of fish in his hands and the dolphin jumping out of the water to get the whole thing! Well, I still love him!

The walrus was huge!!

Vacation 2010...Day 2

The big day...Magic Kingdom!!!! I guess for Raleigh it's finally August since she has been saying for the past 3 months that she's going to see Cinderella in August. We got up early to be at the gates when they opened. I'm so glad we sacrificed some sleep to do this. The opening of the park was so "magical" and I of course was overtaken with emotion as the train pulled up with Mickey and knowing that my baby girl was taking it all in for the very 1st time!! I know she may not remember it in 5 years even, but I will and it was worth it all! We headed over to Fantasyland and started knocking out rides. We were in the park for almost 14 hours and we were able to ride almost everything and see some shows. Thanks to Grandma and Papa, Jason and I were able to ride a few of our favorites while Raleigh took a short nap.

Admiring her new ears!

On our way!!! Sporting her 1st Visit pin!

Taking in the castle for the first time!

First ride of the day...Dumbo!

Riding Cinderella's Carrousel and who shows up...Mary Poppins! After talking with Mary Poppins we figured out where Raleigh's sudden accent had come from...watching too much Mary Poppins before we left!

This would be before the tears started. Peter Pan's Flight = fail

Playing in Mickey's Toontown Fair...she loved Minnie's house with lots of things to interact with (oven made a cake, microwave popped popcorn)

Tea Cups = Raleigh's favorite ride!

The absolute best part of the day was dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table. Going in we had a picture made with Cinderella and Raleigh went right up to her...priceless!!! During dinner we were joined by Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, and Belle. After dinner we had a special "wishing star" ceremony and after all the wishes were made the lights began to twinkle in the castle. Of course the princesses had to leave and when Raleigh realized they were gone she started crying...I think she loved them! (of course this was before her nap)

Making her wish, enjoying dessert (ice cream with a chocolate crown), and standing on the stairs in the castle

Our little Cinderella turned into Sleeping Beauty after dinner.

Last ride of the day...The Magic Carpets of Aladdin (or Jasmine's Carpet Adventure according to Raleigh)

To end the evening we watched the Main Street Electrical Parade and Wishes Nighttime Spectacular. We had one pooped out little girl, but I think she LOVED it to say the least...she cried again when we were leaving and had to tell the castle bye!

Cinderella in front of her castle

Mommy and her princess

Cinderella kissing her Prince

Had to get a picture of the crowd as we were leaving. This was after the fireworks at 10. Everything I read said that the parade at 11 was less crowded and it wasn't as bad trying to leave. I'm sure that's the case, but I don't know if anyone else would have made it except for me. I wanted to stay for the extra magical hours from 12-3 am. :)

One last look

A little better picture since it wasn't crowded at 10:30pm!