Disney Top 10

Brian & I went to Disney World with my family & had a great time (thank you mom & dad)!! There are so many things to say & so many pictures to post... so I thought I'd narrow it down (a little) with a Top 10 List (in no particular order).

Top 10 things I/we loved about Disney:

1. FAMILY -- Disney World is a huge "love" for the Fredrickson family. We were able to finally get the full "history" of the Disney infatuation on the last night of this trip. I'm not sure why mom hasn't told us before (or why we didn't ask) but Kelly & I were very curious as to what began the love of Disney for mom & dad. I won't give the entire rundown, but for those of you that don't know, mom & dad met while working at Six Flags (thus their love for theme parks?). They went to 6 different theme parks on their honeymoon, including Disney World (which was only mom's 2nd time to go). Anyway, they took me when I was 1ish, Kelly while still in the womb and again before she turned a year old... and then every year following, up until about high school. SO, Disney for us is a family memory... and we LOVE it!

the boys with their backpacks

kel & me, reminiscing about how big this playground USED to look!

my favorite sis & nephew (my only sis & nephew:) )

me & B

caleb with nanny & poppy (mom & dad)

2. ANIMAL KINGDOM LODGE -- Mom always has fun figuring out where to stay. We like staying on property, and trying out places we haven't stayed in the past. This time mom was able to find a good deal for us at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. The draw for this hotel is that the rooms overlook the savannah so animals can be seen from the balconies. We loved it here!

the lobby

our "mickey" towels on the bed

view from the balcony

another view, so cool

these 2 guys hung out outside our room each afternoon

3. FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL -- We were lucky enough to be in Disney during the Epcot Food & Wine Festival. Each "country" at Epcot offered different food & wine/other beverages specific to that region. Brian & I went twice! We only made it to 1/2 the countries before getting REALLY full the first night, so we went back another afternoon to finish sampling! This is definitely worth going back to!

epcot at night

B at the food & wine festival - i believe this was france

me - france again & my yummy bellini

B - mexico!

4. MAGIC KINGDOM -- (or as Caleb says, the "magical kingdom") No matter what your age, this is a magical place. It's just fun; walking down Main Street in the shops and bakeries, riding rides, checking out the decorations, everything about this place is "overdone" which makes it such a neat place. Of course Kelly & I reminisced a lot about all of our memories from growing up, which made it even better!

about to begin our day

the train station - love the mickey made out of pumpkins

cinderella's castle

5. THE MONERAIL -- One thing that we always loved was riding on the monerail. Kelly & I always asked to ride in the front, and this was no exception. Brian & Caleb had never done it, so it was quite a treat!

the monerail

B and me

caleb (aka "flash") in the front

kel, mom & caleb

me & B riding 1st class

6. RIDES -- Oh the rides! Brian had 3 things he wanted to ride: Jaws (at Universal), the Haunted Mansion, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Check. Check. Check. We also loved the roller coasters, tea cups (of course), Peter Pan, etc. Mom was such a good sport & rode with Caleb on all of the "dumbo" type rides... what a sweet grandma!

B w/ jaws

B at the haunted mansion (which we rode 2x)

roller coaster at the animal kingdom

riding a water slide w/ caleb

peter pan's adventure

all the "kids" on "it's a small world"

caleb loving the roller coasters

we all (+mom, who's taking the pic) fit into one tea cup!!

7. HOOP DE DOO REVUE -- A hidden treasure of Disney. At Fort Wilderness there's a musical dinner that was a frequent for the Fredrickson's. It's kind of cheesy, and Brian definitely had reservations, but even he loved it. Caleb couldn't stop laughing at all of the characters. Basically its a folksy musical comedy that takes place while you eat an all -you-can-eat Southern meal. At the end everyone makes noise with washboards & spoons, which is something that sticks out in my memory. Nothing has changed over the years. Same characters (different actors). Same jokes. Same songs. Same waiters/waitresses. Same meal. But so fun!

caleb participating

waiting

actors of the hoop de doo

washboard time!

8. DECORATIONS -- Disney definitely goes all out, so it was fun to be at the parks with a holiday coming up & everything decorated. Halloween is Brian's favorite so he especially loved all of the pumpkins!

lamp posts

big mickey pumpkins

scarecrow

scarecrow again

9. CHARACTERS -- Can't forget about the characters! Here we are during a character breakfast at the Animal Kingdom. I think we enjoyed it just as much as Caleb did!

character breakfast at the animal kingdom

10. BIRTHDAYS -- All of the boys birthdays are in October: Caleb turned 5, then dad turns 50 (this week!), and Brian turns 32. As you can imagine this was the PERFECT birthday for the 5 year old! We celebrated his birthday 2x, the first night & last night. What a wonderful memory that he'll always have! We're so glad we were there to share it!

caleb's bday singers - on his bday

"pretending" to blow out the candles - i wasn't fast enough the first time

celebrating one more time - last night

We had such a wonderful time... Mom, Dad, thanks again for such a fun trip! We can't wait to take our kids!