S for Sophie: Disney World

We just returned from a week's vacation at DisneyWorld in Florida. Sophie and Owen were both really good travellers, so we may actually go on vacation again someday! We spent days at the Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom and Disney Studios taking in shows, sights and rides. Sophie became quite a pro after the first few days and would skip from one ride to the next yelling, "Let's go on another ride!" She also became quite adept at spotting characters and would demand that we get out her book (autograph book) and pen so she could go see them. We were amazed at how bravely she approached, hugged and talked to the characters--she wouldn't even get close to Santa, if you remember! We visited Magic Kingdom the most, and Sophie's most requested activities were visiting the princesses (pictures of characters will be in a following entry) and riding the Snow White ride (3 times!! It was shut down our last day, or it would have been more).

Owen mostly rode around on Greg or I in the Bjorn, and he slept through most of the loud, exciting productions we experienced...the Lion King show, Nemo show, parades (horns blaring right in front of us), etc. I believe his favorite ride (oh yes, he rode the rides with us!) was It's a Small World. He had wide eyes and looked all around...and then fell asleep. Of course, sleeping at night was a whole different story. Mostly he ended up in bed with me and Greg ended up in bed with Sophie. It was a bummer for Greg and I, but at least it ensured that everyone got SOME sleep.

We enjoyed having Greg's sister's family join us for two days at the parks. They hadn't met Owen yet, so that made the time even more special. It was great for Greg and I too because Sophie had 3 extra people to entertain her all day and Owen had several other pairs of arms to lug him around. Sophie especially enjoyed hanging out with cousin Jared and even held his hand on the Snow White ride "so he wouldn't be scared."