the land of dreams and magic - day 2

day two was st. patrick's day!

so of course we had to dress accordingly!!!
instead of walking - today we rode our bikes to the boat launch to catch the ferry - we figured our "little walkers" would be all walked out by the time we came home!

we are SO excited about disney!

when we arrive - there's the walt disney world railroad train just sitting there waiting on us - mickey must have known we were coming!!!

so the conductor yells "all aboard"
and the steam whistle blows and as we chug out of the depot
music begins to play.......

are you kidding me!?? we're really here!!!!!!

j.man's so excited he's doing a little dance

we don't travel far - frontierland is our first stop -
and our first disney ride is

big thunder montain

here are the boys waiting in line for the ride

we all thought it was the best ever except g.money - who has now decided that he will not under any circumstances get on another ride for the rest of the vacation - wow - sucks to be him - huh?

because our next stop is pirates of the caribbean in adventureland!

daddy and j.man about to embark...

hey! - who's that hiding in the barrel!?

as soon as we get out we decide to eat but who do we see..

pete and the gang...

peter was too fast for us and the boys kept missing him - i would say "look it's peter!!!" and they would undoubtedly look the wrong direction - we did however get our pictures with hook and smee!!

sometimes - one must amuse themselves while waiting in line -

here we are waiting to take pictures

after pirate pics and some lunch we went on a cruise -

a jungle cruise

this ended up being funnier then expected because the tour guide singled out j.man for object lessons:-) such as "bad things can happen if you play with rhinos" and "if you don't take a bath at night when your mom tells you to - she may get the elephants to do it"

once off the jungle cruise we made our way through adventureland, frontierland, over to liberty square were we tried to leave the boys in the stocks....

but they caught up to us on our way to the haunted mansion

again - waiting in line -

we're pretty cute all decked out in our st. pat's gear!!

the next ride of the day was

peter pan's flight

this was my super most favoritest ride ever when i was little!!!

pan is my favorite movie and if i had to pick which disney character i most resemble -

i would have to say tink!
spit-fire and attitude!!!

this ride is still one of my favorites!!

don't you wish every once-in-a-while that you could live in neverland

when we come out of peter pan's flight we came to the back of

cinderella's castle -

now tink is my favorite disney character

but if i have to choose a favorite princess it would be ol' cindy!

nothing like a cinderella story

and who wouldn't want a fairy god mother!?

naturally - we had to do the tourist thing and get thousands of pictures

about that time the park made an announcement that there would be "extra hours" for those people who are staying at a disney resort (that would be us)

so we high-tailed it back to the camper for a little R and R and still managed to make it back to the MK to ride some rides during the parade -

because everyone was watching the parade there were no lines and we were allowed to ride a number of rides twice before getting off

here's dumbo.....

and the magic carpets of aladdin - which we took pictures at but didn't ride until that evening

watch out - the camels spit!!!

snow white's scary adventure was the last ride of the evening

of all the rides in the park - this is the ride that scared j.man

i tried to convince him that having an old scary lady jumping out at him was just like being at home - but he wasn't buying it!

we had an awesome second day - and we couldn't wait for day three!!!

the land of dreams and magic - day 1

the day we arrived at disney it was late afternoon - around 5pm

i believe that daddy and i were way more excited than the boys at this point -

after all that time on the road -

these signs made us positively giddy:-)

then we found our resort -

we knew we only had a few hours before the gates closed at the magic kingdom so we rushed through check-in (twice because they accidentally sent us to the wrong camp site the first time!)
then we set-up the camper at the most wonderful camping site ever!!!
(oh - if all rv pads were that level!!)


then we walked through fort wilderness to the boat launch - this was our ferry to the magic kingdom every day - and it was a great way to travel - no lines like the monorail and open air unlike the buses

we made it to the magic kingdom just-in-time for the "spectromagic" light parade
there was a spot on the curb that was perfect for two little crim butts -
it was a perfect way to introduce us to our disney vacation!

because we had gotten there so late - we only managed to see the parade and check out main street usa - but by now the boys were also giddy with anticipation for the next day of magic!!

now for the "Hobbit" verison...there and back again

we started our adventure on the first saturday of spring break -

it was cold and raining and we didn't get off until after 5pm -

we drove through 3 states in pouring down rain and didn't reach the paul b. johnson state park outside hattiesburg mississippi to drop anchor until around 2am -

but the morning brought sun and happy faces

"going to florida - rock on!!!"

then it was off to FLORIDA!!!

through alabama and trucking - we reached

florida on sunday afternoon

i love the south!! the flowers were all in bloom and beautiful -

we saw every southern flowering plant known to mankind

wisteria, crepe myrtle, azalea, dog wood, magnolia...

we stopped in tallahasse - aka: the black hole - for some reason that town had a habit of sucking us in and taking hours away going in both directions! - maybe it's the time change - someone should do the research and get back to me on that! :-)

but after stopping there was no way we could reach our intended camping spot at the blue springs state park outside orlando without MAJOR sleep deprivation so we pulled into the

east tallahasee koa

the great thing about this is the boys got a much needed break from driving and i was able to get the laundry done

but - enough was enough - and we had mickey to go see - so off we went

and then - out of the blue

it was none other then.....

DISNEY!!!!!!!!!!

we stayed at the fort wilderness camp grounds in disney

and since it is a disney resort - you know it was done up right!!!!

here's our site - perfectly level - and oh-so clean!!

we even had a grapefruit tree next to our pad!!

the play ground was less maybe 50 yards away -

here's captain j.man on the s.s.playground

walk the plank you scallywag!!!!

now - as you know - we have been to florida the last two summers and have stayed in destin - so naturally the boys didn't understand that going to florida didn't necessarily mean going to the beach - so on the way home - daddy took us through destin to spend the night -

here is our entrance into destin

yep - i know.....

we reached the camp site that evening

(thanks aunt c for making the arrangements - you rock!!!)

but you know us crim's - coming in late won't stop the fun - we got the camper set up and headed to the beach -

unfortunately we only had one day to spend in destin so we got up early to fit it all in

first the beach - the boys couldn't wait to get in the water - and once their hearts stopped and they could no longer feel their fingers and toes - they said that the water wasn't really that bad!!!:-)

we also played on the playground...

and swam in the covered pool...

destin was an awesome stop - thanks daddy for the detour

on the way out of town daddy took me to eat seafood - which if you know daddy that was very generous because he hates seafood:-)

but - the restaurant was right next door to bass pro shops so he got a little boy time in too:-)

so then it was time to head home -

back through alabama...

and mississippi...

then into louisiana -

were we stopped outside baton rouge to stay at the lakeside rv park for the night

it was on - what the park owners called - a "12 acre lake" - but what we texans call a "stocked tank" :-) - the site was nice if not crowded and it's where we met midnight and snowflake the swans...

oh - isn't she sweet....

apparently i wasn't tearing the tortillas fast enough because

THE DAMN BIRD BIT ME!!!!!

i don't know about you - but i think she has a very self-satisfied grin on her wicked little beak!!

well - you get bit by a swan there is just one thing to do...

and that is to go home

YEAH TEXAS!!!!!

and i'm sure some of you have no problem what-so-ever believing that my super sweet friend lili and her family just happened to be in the area - so we even got to stop and eat dinner with them in tyler!!!:-)

we finally made it home 7 days and 4 hours later

we had a great time - and as daddy likes to say - we were...