Disney Vacation Highlights - Part 1

Well, we can say with a smile that we survived a week at Disney World (we just won't talk about chipped teeth or the plane ride home with a cranky child). It was a lot of fun--hot and exhausting, but mostly fun!--and it was all made possible by my generous mother-in-law, Gloria. She had been saving for years to take her grandkids to the most magical place on earth and this summer her dream became a reality. We stayed at a Disney resort, had Fastpass options for the rides (to eliminate long waits) and a pre-paid dining plan for meals. In short, Gloria is awesome! She made this a super easy vacation for us and gave Logan an experience that we as parents may never be able to replicate. We've said it to her a bunch already, but Gloria, thank you SO MUCH for your generosity in planning such a wonderful and memorable trip for us! 

I made the decision to pack only my camera body, one lens, an extra battery with charger and my cards for storing photos. As much as I wanted to document everything, I knew that I couldn't shed total parental responsibility and wander around with the camera glued to my face all day. Packing a minimal amount of gear curbed the urge. It enabled me to focus more on the experience in present time, rather than thinking about what it would look like later as a photograph. Compared to my usual numbers, I really didn't take many pictures. I did make sure to capture some images of each day, though, if anything just so Logan would have memories of the trip. He's almost three, but I don't know how much he'll really retain.

The following pictures are from day 1 in Animal Kingdom and day 2 in Magic Kingdom. We actually went to back to MK on the 5th day as well, but you'll see those pics in a later post. Now, onto our safari adventure. I really liked the hanging moss covering many of the trees.

We hadn't even been at Disney 24 hours and Logan was fed up with my picture taking!