Savannah, GA

We left Orlando after breakfast and started to make our way to Savannah, GA on Monday.  The trip should've only taken us four hours, but ended up taking seven hours with baby M having to go potty every half an hour (or so it seemed).  In any event, by the time we got there, it was almost dinner time.  We checked in at the Marriott Fairfield Inn, which was a big disappointment (looked more like a Motel 6 than the 3-star rating it was given), then made our way to Publix supermarket to stock up on some snacks for the next few days.

First stop on Tuesday morning was to the Juliette Gordon Low birthplace, the founder of Girl Scouts.  I went in there not really expecting anything, but we had a good tour guide and I found myself actually enjoying listening to the little tidbits about Juliette Gordon Low.  Big sister K went along with it, but I think she was more interested in going back to the gift shop and picking out some patches for her Girl Scouts vest that I had promised I'd get her.

In the afternoon, we made our way to River Street, a historic part of Savannah that has many of its century-old buildings converted to tourism.  Of course with our luck, once we paid for parking and got out of the car, it started pouring.  We found shelter inside a hotel and stayed there for over an hour until the rain stopped.  A lot of time wasted, but it was better than getting soaked.  River Street was actually quite charming.  I could do without all the tourist traps, but I guess that's part of the charm.

Wednesday was spent at the Georgia State Railroad Museum, Savannah Children's Museum, and Savannah History Museum, followed by a few hours at the outlet mall.  The kids had a good time going on the trains and seeing their very first real roundhouse and turntable. It was another scorching day... you would think we'd be used to the heat by now, but it was still torture, especially with most of the activities being outdoors.

Enjoying a bit of air conditioning inside one of the train cars:

On the train going through the turntable... the roundhouse is behind the kids:

My little climber at the Savannah Children's Museum:

All smiles!

Legoland

Another hot and steamy day in sunny Orlando... off to Legoland we go!

 Big sister K on the carousel ride:

Lego Friends:

 Baby M's latest craze with Star Wars... he likes Darth Vader, but is afraid of him (took him a while before he was willing to stand next to the Lego statue):

Darth Maul:

Here's the Legoland version of a safari.  Some of the figures were pretty impressive, but still not quite the same as seeing real animals.

Kids got their first honorary drivers license after driving these mini-cars.

   Kids with their new minion dolls from a carnival game... which we didn't actually win (couldn't knock down three stacked cans with a softball after six tries), but the lady who worked there felt sorry for us.  She let the kids try and of course, they couldn't do it either, but then she gave them some "help" and knocked down the cans for them.  Big sister K ended up with a big minion doll and baby M a little one.  It totally made their day and was well worth the $10 spent!

 Me and my girl:

July 4th

Knowing the theme parks would be overly crowded on July 4th, we took it easy on Saturday and hung out at the hotel (we needed the rest from the previous two days anyhow).  The kids loved playing in the pool and also took advantage of some games and arts and crafts that were set up in honor of Independence Day.  We were there for a few hours when it got very crowded all of a sudden (I think a big tour group came in and decided to hit the pool), so we left to go shower.  After getting cleaned up, we took a trip to Downtown Disney to let big sister K trade some more pins.  Her current collection:

Some pictures taken at the hotel:

Animal Kingdom

On our way to breakfast before another HOT day at the park... if only they got along this nicely all the time.

 Can't complete our visit to Animal Kingdom without taking a picture in front of the big fake tree.

Killing time while waiting for the Finding Nemo Musical to start.

 Photo op with Russell and Dug:

 Photo op with Daisy Duck:

Baby M actually asked to take a picture with us while big sister K was off trying to collect her wilderness explorer badges.  One of the rare moments he chooses to smile and look at the camera.

Hollywood Studios

On Thursday, we headed off to Hollywood Studios.  We started the day with the Voyage of the Little Mermaid, a show we've seen every time we've been here (which is at least twice already).  In hindsight, we probably could've skipped it.  Even before we stepped foot into the theater, baby M was already freaking out and saying he didn't want to be there.  Silly me, I thought he would calm down and enjoy the show being that this would be his second time watching it (and he's seen much scarier things than this!).  Boy was I wrong!  Baby M was sitting on me, and throughout the entire show, he's crying hysterically as I have one hand covering his eyes (so he couldn't see and freak out more), and the other covering his mouth in attempts to muffle his crying.  I'm sure everyone sitting around us must've given us dirty looks.

One ride that big sister K insisted on going on was Star Tours, which had a minimum height requirement of 40 inches.  At the entrance, the cast member (I am getting my Disney lingo down pat thanks to my niece who works there) measured baby M and he just barely reached the top of the stick.  She claimed that he was tall enough, so we all went through.  Once we got to the ride itself, he was measured again, and this time, the cast member said he didn't reach the minimum height requirement (he was short by just a hair).  Baby M looked like he was about to cry, and I was a bit peeved that we waited all this time just to find out he couldn't go on it, but it was probably for the best (he would've probably freaked out on this ride too, and plus he had to go potty).  M ended up taking him to the bathroom while I went on the ride with big sister K.  When we got out, we made our way through the gift shop and found the boys chatting up with one of the cast members by the make-your-own light sabers.  I was actually thinking of getting one for baby M if he was still upset, but fortunately, he had gotten over it (phew.... saved me some dough!).

Between freaking out on the Voyage of the Little Mermaid and missing out on the Star Tours ride, it's safe to say that Hollywood Studios wasn't baby M's favorite theme park.  We had FastPasses for Toy Story Midway Mania, Frozen Sing-Along Celebration, and Disney Junior Live on Stage, so at least he enjoyed those.  He wanted to go on the Toy Story Midway Mania ride again, but the wait was over an hour long (hence, why we got the FastPass), so we never did make it back there.  The Frozen Sing-Along Celebration was new for us, and I was pleasantly surprised to find it so well-done.  The kids enjoyed the singing, but there was a good amount of silly humor added to it that kept the adults entertained as well.

Naturally, we had to take a picture with Buzz and Woody after going on the Toy Story Mania ride:

Monsters Inc!  I showed the kids the "NO WHINING" sign, unfortunately they're not very good in following directions:

 Big sister K's not really into all the Disney Junior characters anymore, but we still took a picture with Sophia the First:

 By the entrance of Hollywood Studios:

Winter Summerland Miniature Golf

I had some work to take care of the next day, so we took it easy and hung out by the pool at the hotel.  Big sister K enjoyed this just as much as going to the theme parks, if not more.  We tried to get baby M into the big pool, but he refused (even with a life jacket on) and just dipped his feet in the water.  After the pool, we went back to our room to shower, then headed out to play mini-golf at the Winter Summerland.

Mini-golf was fun, but it was HOT in case you couldn't tell from the photos where we were drenched in sweat:

 

This is by far my favorite picture from the trip:

Magic Kingdom

First stop in our week-long Disney adventure was Magic Kingdom.  It was crowded, but as in past years, we didn't go with a set of must-dos.  We had FastPasses for three rides (Journey of the Little Mermaid, Tomorrowland Speedway, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin), but other than that, we just walked around and if the line was too long on one thing, we'd simply go on to another.  This worked out well for us.  Other than meeting Elsa and Anna (they had run out of FastPasses for this one), I don't think we waited more than 15 minutes for anything.  Meeting Elsa and Anna took an hour, and the only reason why it was ONLY an hour was because this was at 9pm, when everyone else was out watching the parade and fireworks (we had stopped by earlier and the wait time was 180 minutes... umm... no thank you!).

Big sister K cooling off in the hot weather:

On the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMovers.  Love that there was no line... we did this multiple times:

Picture ops with the characters.  First time we didn't take one with Mickey:

I asked big sister K if it was worth the hour wait just to take a 30-second photo with them, and of course she said yes.