Hey Goose!: A Magical Halloween Part 1

Hey Goosey!

Time just keeps zooming past and I can't keep up with everything. You are growing like a weed, I swear you look bigger every day. It makes me so happy and so very sad to see you growing up. You are one very special little girl, thats for sure. You keep me and your Daddy on our toes. You've been asking questions like crazy lately, I love it. (well, in theory I love it, in actuality it gets really difficult to answer some of the things you ask. I think Grandma will say it's just payback for the million questions I asked her when I was your age.) I do absolutely love that you are so curious about the world around you. It's amazing to me how amazing everything is to you. I've been trying extra lately, to see things the way you do. Everything is magic, even when we can explain in wonderful logical terms, it's still so awesome it's magical. So, when we get to the really magical stuff, well it's almost indescribable. This year for Halloween we went to Walt Disney World! It was wonderful, as always. It's Mommy's favorite place to go and now that I get to share it with you, it's even better! I didn't even know that was possible before you came along.

Waiting at the airport

Thursday, October 27
Departure day! We got everything all packed up and took Apollo over to Grandma & Grandpa's for the week. Grandma and Grandpa were nice enough to take us to the airport, too. We got a quick lunch at McDonalds and then it was time to get on the plane! It was a nice non-stop flight to Orlando and you even made a friend. There was a sweet little girl sitting in the row behind us, the two of you gibber jabbered almost the whole flight. You told me later that her name is Easter Bunny, but I wonder if there was an important part of that conversation missing... When we landed, you both said your goodbyes and the Disney Magic started! You, Daddy, and I rode the Magical Express from the airport to our first hotel, the Pop Century Resort.

Riding The Magical Express

Our hotel was pretty awesome, Daddy took lots of video but somehow I didn't get any pictures to share with you here. There were old pop culture references everywhere, and outside our room was a HUGE Mickey Mouse phone like the ones that were popular when I was your age. That first night we had reservations to have dinner at the Garden Grove Restaurant at Disney's Swan & Dolphin Resort. A couple of your favorite pooches stopped by while we were eating.

Goofy came by first, but you were a little afraid of him. He was just as silly in person as he is in the carttons because as soon as he realized you were scared, he acted scared of you! I'm so glad he was able to break the ice, you weren't really afraid of any of the other characters after that. (Stitch and the Beast were the only exceptions) After dinner we turned in for the night and got ready for our first day at the Parks!

Friday, October 28

The alarm went off bright and very early so we could be up and ready for Animal Kingdom. It was pouring when we woke up and Daddy & I were a little worried that the animals wouldn't be out because of the weather. Turns out, there was no need for concern, the animals loved the rain so we got to see plenty of them. Plus, we all looked super cute in our lovely Mickey Mouse rain ponchos, especially you!

See what I mean?

***Warning! My beautiful, trusty, pink Polaroid got wet in the rain and the screen went out! All the pictures from today on were taken blind. Point and shoot, literally. I'm sorry some aren't the best, but I kept snapping away. I figured funny, fuzzy, un-centered pictures were better than none***

We went on the safari twice and we walked the trails. We saw lions, tigers, and cheetahs this time! We got so many great pictures, too many for me to post here. While I'm typing this, I'm also uploading our personal pictures onto Disney's Photopass site so we can order a disc with all our vacation pictures, I'm sure Daddy will also order a movie and I'm going to try to get a photo book done this time too. You'll have lots of wonderful keepsakes from our vacations. Daddy and I want you to have these memories for the rest of your life. It rained on and off all day, but it was mostly over by early afternoon. When we got hungry, we stopped for lunch at the Yak & Yeti. I got a little worried when I asked our server about the coconut in the dishes, but I should have known that Disney would take care of things. I spoke with a chef (!) and she made me a special meal in special dishes brought out by a special server, just so my Maple Tamarind Chicken wouldn't come in contact with anything that had coconut. It was delish! You were pretty impressed with the Mickey Mouse applesauce that came with your meal, too.

Mickey Applesauce!

After lunch, it was back to the rainy fun! We watched Mickey's Jungle Parade and played in Dinoland for a few minutes before they closed. We rode the Dinosaur ride, but you weren't too impressed. I think it was just a little too scary for you still, there was a huge dinosaur chasing us, after all. You did like the Discover Kids program that they had going on. We were only able to find a couple of the spots before they closed for the day, but you learned a lot and you are still talking about it two weeks later!

Learning the differences between monkeys and apes

We also got to meet a bunch of your favorite characters!! While were were waiting in line to see Mickey and Minnie, you make your first pin trade with one of the cast members. She had a very pretty Cinderella pin that you swapped. I got a picture of you and her, mostly because Mommy is addicted to taking pictures of you...

1st Pin Trade!

We did so much and I want to write about all of it, so this is going to be in parts. I'm going to wrap up this post with some more fun pictures from Animal Kingdom.