to the mouse house!

We spent the last four days, three nights at Disney World, for Britton's last solo Disney trip.  Even though Barrett is down to one nap and walks well by himself, he's still too young to do Disney when Britton wants to go go go the minute we walk into the parks.  We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge, my hands-down favorite resort.  You can't beat a 7 minute boat ride to Magic Kingdom, the park where we spend most of our time.  Princesses everywhere, so why resist it?  We happened to go during the Halloween Party (though we didn't attend the Halloween Party), and the decor had me itching to go home and decorate for fall!

There's been a lot of new construction since I was last there - Britton spied this Rapunzel tower, plus they've totally revamped Fantasyland and added a castle for Belle.

Rapunzel's Tower - unfortunately, no sign of Flynn Rider.

Belle's Castle

"It's a Small World."  The lady in front of us in line asked me what this ride is about.  Ummmm.... dolls from different regions and countries singing?  That answer seemed to suffice!

One new part of Fantasyland is Ariel's Grotto, where you get to meet tail-not-legs Ariel.

And we hit up the classics - Dumbo's Circus Ride, the carousel.  We got there on Wednesday, and I've never seen the park so empty.  I don't think we waited over 15 minutes for a ride.

We even caught the new parade from the pathway behind Cinderella's castle.  

We started out Thursday morning with the princess breakfast in Cinderella's castle.  Seriously, inside the castle.  I had heard good things about the breakfast and it did not disappoint.  Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel (with legs this time, because honestly why not?), Jasmine, and Sleeping Beauty were in attendance.  I guess Belle was sleeping in!  Each princess comes around to your table to chat and sign autographs and pose for pictures.  Their mannerisms and voices were spot-on and I got swept up in the princess-ness of it all (hence, me hopping up to pose with Ariel!).  Funny story - for some reason, every time we went to a meal, our reservation was flagged as a birthday celebration (the hubs turned 36 on the 15th).  And the waitress always brought out a cupcake and sang "Happy Birthday!"  By the fourth or so time this happened, the hubs just politely asked if we could skip the festivities!

Then, as if we hadn't met enough princesses, we got in line for Elsa and Anna.  The wait was about an hour, and it was getting progressively more hot and humid in the line, but Britton really wanted to meet them.  The Frozen sisters were fantastic, and I was in awe of Elsa's dress!

Britton loves the flying carpet ride.  This was my first time riding!

We had lunch at Crystal Palace, which was also a first for me.  Crystal Palace is a buffet located right at the front of Magic Kingdom, with Winnie-the-Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, and Tigger.  Britton has apparently conquered her fears of the furries because she excitedly waited for each one to come to the table.  She even showed Winnie-the-Pooh her poor little Winnie.

Then we hit Main Street for some window shopping.  Britton spied the fancy real (and incredibly expensive) tiaras.  Britton was on the hunt for a candy apple, since she was convinced that it would get her loose tooth to come out.  Alas, it didn't!

But on the way out of the candy shop we ran into Mary Poppins!

And yes, I swear we actually went on the rides too, but this trip was chock-full of meet-and-greets.  I don't think Britton has ever met so many characters in one trip!

See that fan below?  Worth every penny.  Not only was it over 90 degrees on Thursday (we're not used to it because it's never gotten to 90 degrees at home this summer!), but the humidity was oppressive.

On Friday morning, we started off with another princess breakfast, this time in Norway at EPCOT.  It consisted of the same princesses as the day before, but added Belle and no Jasmine.  Then we went to the Nemo aquarium, and got to see the sting ray, fish, and turtles being fed by the divers.  Britton spoke to one of the aquarium guides for at least 10 minutes, asking her question after question after question!

Then we went to Animal Kingdom for the safari.  Can I admit something?  Other than the one time I rode the Yeti roller coaster with Caroline ages ago, I've only ever done the safari at Animal Kingdom.  It's a great park, and one I should explore more, but we've just not ever spent much time there.  On Friday, it was humid and rainy, and after waiting for the safari for almost an hour we were spent!

But the animals don't mind the rain, so we got to see tons on the safari.  And then we cooled off with ice cream!  After that, we went back to the hotel to rest and cool off in the pool.  

I think we must have walked ten miles a day, or at least it felt like it!  On the Monday before we left, I broke my middle left toe.  Seriously.  I was standing next to the swing set and Barrett started falling off the ladder, so I swung around to catch him and my toe somehow ended up all wonky.  There's nothing you can do for a broken toe, and I certainly had no intention of missing out of our Disney trip.  But my body was compensating for the hurt toe, and by Friday my legs and back were so out of whack that even sitting was painful.  We all had a great time, but by Saturday were we all ready to come home.  Bye Disney World!