No lie – Saturday was certainly a sunny day.  Some might even say hot as HELL.  Like really hot.  But we had an awesome time!!!

We went up Friday night so that we could be up there and ready to go bright and early.  We met my mom up there and were staying in a Hyatt Suite hotel that had 2 bedrooms & a common living area.  We decided to put A in the living room so that she could have her own little space.  This part worked like a charm!  She slept until about 730am!  Other vacations, she hasn’t slept past 6.  As for our plan to get there nice and early…FAIL.  The park doesn’t open until 10am.  Silly us.

Here are some photos of the fun we had while at Sesame Place!

First – we had breakfast at the hotel…

A insists on feeding herself now.

We got to the park around 915am just to be sure we got tickets without a line, parked with no problems….and here’s A playing outside the park while waiting!

A is thanking Gramma for taking her to Sesame Place with a BIG KISS!!! These are rare and we love when they happen!

First stop...Carousel!

Since the park opens at 10am, and A’s naptime is 10am, this ride wasn’t as big of a success as it usually is.  Miss Cranky pants wanted to hold on to Mommy….but we got a smile or 2 out of her!

We tried to get her to nap in the stroller, but she wasn’t ready.  We found some things to keep her smiling!

This block pit was a big hit!

Posing a little...

We need one of these in our house!

"I lift things up & put them down"

We went on a few other rides in the “dry side” of the park.  Then we got her to fall asleep as we walked around.  We did a little window shopping in the air conditioned stores & then headed to find a shaded area to hang while she slept.  We got a good hour nap from her & then it was lunchtime!

MMMM French fries!

A found the 1 Minnie towel in the whole Sesame park! Obviously!

We got A dressed in her bathing suit & headed for the water stuff!

A wasn't too sure how she felt about the sprinklers hitting her in the face!

Taking a walk in the wave pool with Daddy

Next on the agenda was the parade!  We went over to Main Street and found ourselves a nice comfy spot in the shade!

A waiting for the parade to start!

The parade was awesome!  The characters were so close to us, and they stopped and danced in front of us & A thought it was pretty cool!

A view from up high!

A's favorite part of the parade! Elmo! She loves this guy!

After that we went back to the pool to hang out a little while we waited for the Elmo Rocks show to start!  It was a good thing we cooled off before the show, because that show was a lot of excitement for Miss A.  She got a huge surprise when…

Yup...that's her Daddy in the show!!!!! What a good sport! (He's on the right!)

Gramma has video which we’ll have to get up here somehow!

Hip Hop Cookie got a good smile too!

Here's our family on the steps!

It was a very long, very hot, and very fun day!  I loved Sesame Street as a kid & I hope A loves it just as much!

So LK got a new job.  Not me…the other one.  So far, so AWESOME.  They are responsible for our amazing Memorial Day weekend – and I couldn’t be more grateful.  I have to admit I was a little nervous to see what a “company trip” was going to be, and in my mind there was going to be a ton of business related things, and me being left to tend to little A while the husband talked work & “shmoozed”.  Luckily, to my surprise, this wasn’t what happened at all!  As you saw – we went to Disney and had a great family day there.  Sunday was for relaxing by the pool!  I was determined to hang by the pool all day and not get stuck in our room with A…so we did it!  Even better, A cooperated!!!!!

First.  I can’t speak highly enough about California Baby Sunscreen.  It has kept little A protected from sunburn many times since she was an infant.  She has very sensitive skin and is allergic to Johnson & Johnson and Aveeno products….she has had no adverse reactions to the California Baby stuff.  We had no umbrella at the pool for shade, she just wore her hat most of the day.  She swam a lot & took 2 good naps in her stroller.  (ahh that Disney Magic Air)

I got to have a great massage & the husband got to go to a golf clinic.  By the end of the day we were relaxed & ready to party!  I didn’t snap any pictures of the company BBQ that night, but it was great!  A was dancing & playing with all the kids and we even got a fantastic fireworks show!

Thanks to everyone for treating us “new guys” like family & for the opportunity to have such an incredible family vacation!

Here are some pictures from our trip!  We really are so lucky to have been treated to such an amazing trip!

I did some research into what the best things to do with a 1 year old are in the Magic Kingdom & I think the most important thing was to be flexible.  The day was a great success, due mostly to the fact that us LK’s gave up on us enjoying the normal Disney stuff and instead followed A’s lead…it also helped that we got there at 8am.  If you make it there early, especially on a holiday weekend, you get at least 2 hours with no lines!

First we came up to Main Street and A was entertained by some singing passerby’s while Daddy snapped a pic!

Then we headed over to the castle because everything we needed was through there!  We got a photo pass but only got 1 snapshot of us which I don’t really want to pay $15 for!  I think it’s a great way to get lots of awesome photos of you and your whole family and not have to carry around your camera, but I had mine, and we were tired of taking A in and out of the stroller!

The first ride we saw was the Mary Poppins Carousel.  I know A loves to ride the horses so we had to stop there!  We got to ride twice since there was no one on line.  She got to ride the little horse and she LOVED it!

Next we went to “Its a Small World”  Our daughter is really social.  We sometimes call her the Mayor.  She needs to check everyone out, say hi, make sure everyone is entertained…and she felt it was her duty to make sure to greet all of the puppets in all of the small world!  She was blowing kisses, and getting very excited!  It was pretty dark in there but I got a little video of Miss Mayor…

Right after that, we went straight across to the Peter Pan ride.  She liked it, but it wasn’t as great of a reaction as the last one, and it was too dark to get any pics!

By then, she was exhausted…she was off schedule and we knew it was naptime.  We strapped her in the stroller and took a walk while she napped.  It took all of Disney’s Magic to get her to nap in that stroller, and she did it!!!!  We were proud 🙂

After her nap, we went to lunch.  Not much opened in terms of food until 11, but we managed to get an 11:15 reservation & got to catch the Mickey & friends show at the Castle.

The hat was essential!

After lunch we headed over to the other LK’s favorite ride in Disney.  Most men would be psyched to get to ride Space Mountain, or Splash Mountain or some other thrilling roller coaster ride…not my LK.  He loves the teacups.  The pink one to be precise.  I have a photo of us in the pink teacup circa 1999 that will not be shown on this blog 😉  or it might.  I haven’t unpacked it yet!

After this, we waited on line for the Winnie the Pooh ride for 30 minutes…at which point A was cranky, we were sweaty, and we decided to go back to the hotel for naptime!  This worked like a charm.  A was able to get in some good sleep, we rested up & got ready for dinner in Japan at Epcot!

A ate everything in sight at dinner....she went especially crazy for the steamed broccolli...

It might look like LK peed in his pants...don't fret...he just spilled an entire bowl of Miso soup on his lap!

We did a little shopping after dinner & A got to pick out her favorite Micky or Minnie doll…she had many to choose from!

She chose the Minnie from Paris! (Auntie H…that’s in France, not London!)

Then we watched the fireworks show & headed to the Monorail.

(A fell asleep on our wait to the monorail & we went for some dessert back at the Magic Kingdom while she napped!  While we were there, I made LK buy an extra special light up balloon for A to wake up to!  It was $15, but what is our daughter’s smile worth really?!?!

In many ways, taking a 1 year old to Disney is silly…but it was great for us.  She wasn’t scared of anything, but she never really is…and the Disney magic made my sassy girl into an angel.  Mickey & Minnie…move over…A is movin’ in!