STS--Disney: Day 2 Magic Kingdom

I don't even know where to begin. I think it's fair to say that Magic Kingdom far exceeded Cory's expectations. They had a blast, and out of all the places we visited, this was the one place where none of the kids complained about how tired their legs were.

Cory, Mary Beth and Riley all rode Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, claiming those as their favorites, but they also enjoyed Goofy's Barnstormer. Lucy was just about a centimeter too short to ride Barnstormer, which is notable because our friends took their son when he was two years old, and he was tall enough for the ride, but short little Lucy (in the 1 percentile for height) at 3 1/2 was too little.

She wasn't too little for Dumbo, however, or, as she calls it, Gumball.

And the tea cups were a favorite for all the kids--Daddy did a good job of making this a "thrill" ride. I'm afraid if I had ridden it it would have been a "throw up" ride, so I stayed on the sidelines and snapped pictures.

Early on, we let the girls pick out a lanyard and a trading pin set... Riley is counting her pins.

Before the end of the trip, Cory used his souvenir money for a lanyard and pin, and we bought Lucy one, too. The girls traded pins a couple of times with various Disney employees.

Dinner with Pooh and his friends was a highlight for the kids. Can you believe Riley, at 10, is an adult for this meal? It was at this meal that Cory really seemed to enjoy himself. He never wanted to stand in line to meet and greet characters while we were roaming the parks--there was always a roller coaster line he'd rather stand in. But at dinner he really seemed to enjoy the characters and wanted to give each of them a great big hug.

Riley and Mary did NOT mind standing in lines for character autographs, though.

Lucy LOVED, LOVED, LOVED going to Minnie's and Mickey's houses. We went through Minnie's house at least 3 different times.

We ended up visiting Magic Kingdom twice. The first time we stayed until the fireworks...which Lucy and I missed because she was so scared. We ended up hanging out in a gift shop the whole time. We returned on our last day for a few hours to enjoy some of our favorite rides a few more times. At one point I saw a family with 4 children who looked to match up with ours, but about 5 years older than each of our kids, and I wondered if we would be back as a family in a few years. I can tell you one thing--if any more of our kids become "adults," it will take that long to save the $$ needed. ;)