Disney World 2019!

The much anticipated Disney trip has come!!  But this year, there's much more in store than just Disney.  Jeff and Julie are so amazing to open up their Orlando house for us all for the week.  We couldn't have asked for a better time and better people to spend it with!  It was an amazing week full of all kinds of fun, which you will see in the many, many following pictures.

But first, I must note that our growth chart at home has now been marked with the heights at which you are tall enough to ride on certain Disney rides.  The kids have been willing themselves to grow these past few months to make it on to some of the most notorious rides.  We will be cutting it close on quite a few!  Brad even searched for shoes for Karly with 2 inch soles.  :)

The airport waiting to go can sometimes be the worst.  The kids kept rolling around on the floor and I kept asking them to get up because it's so dirty.  Then shortly into our wait, we all witnessed a small dog across the aisle from us poop on the floor and then sit and drag/wipe it's butt along the tiles.  This helped them stay off the floor a little better. :)

Grandma was so thoughtful and sent each of the kids with a grab bag of toys/activities she collected for them before we left.  It was so nice!!!  They loved their surprises.  Thank you grandma!

Upon arrival in Orlando, the family couldn't wait to get out into the pool.  They were so happy to be welcomed into the water by a few toads who had been in there swimming around.  These poor toads became the play toys for the rest of the evening.

Toad races with Eden!

I spy the toads on dad and Eden's heads!

And another toad on Karly's head!

Throughout the week, we spent many hours in this pool.  Before leaving to a Disney park, and after arriving home, if they weren't already asleep.  This pool provided a lot of fun for these cousins!

No Justice family gathering can exist without all the treats!

Bentley was in heaven having all these boys to play Foosball and pool. 

Karly and Olive were so excited to sleep in the Minnie Mouse room.

Another day, another creature!  This time Brad and Eden set their sights on this Floridian lizard.

This house provided the perfect place to play "Hotel".  Guests had several character rooms to choose from, and a movie room for entertainment.  Eden was a great concierge.

At one point we even broke away from the backyard pool to visit the neighborhood water park.  Eden and Bentley were very brave this year to go on some of the big water slides.  Karly unfortunately took a stumble on the stairs and cut her chin.  She handled that like a champ though.

On Sunday afternoon (Mother's day) we spent a few hours wondering around Disney Springs.  The kids each got to pick out one souvenir to take home.  They were all very careful to choose just the right thing.

Brad also took us over to the Memory Maker Picture place where we got tons of great photos, including a solo photo of each of the kids with their new special thing.

Eden spent the most time browsing for her item and finally settled on this new backpack.  It is very functional, useful, and adorable which makes it the perfect fit for her. She also used her own money to buy the cute hat.

Olive was so excited about this special key.  She has the most creative imagination and this key was the perfect thing for many future games.

Karly fell in love with this beautiful rose wand.  The flower lights up, spins, and also plays music from Beauty and the Beast.

And then there's this tough guy Bentley who needed the perfect weapon to protect all the ladies.  He looks pretty fierce.

Yup, he has no mercy for anyone getting in his way.

Our first official park day was in Hollywood Studios.  We had Jedi Training on the books, and looked forward to the new Toy Story ride we haven't yet been on.

We came prepared with lots of pennies and quarters so we could stop at all the penny smasher machines.

The kids got to play with some legit heavy duty light sabers in the Star Wars area, that was neat.

We all went on Tower of Terror, but only Bentley and daddy went twice!  Hardcore those boys.  Olive shrieked in fear and held onto me so tight.  When the ride was ending she said, "Is it over? Oh good because that was TERRIBLE!"

About mid way through the day we went in and watched a Frozen show.  By the time we came out though, the skies had let loose and it was POURING rain.  We tried to wait it out in one of the shops, but this wasn't like NM rain that only lasts a few minutes.  This was pouring and was not going away any time soon.  So we put on our ponchos and tried to make the best of the rest of our very wet and rainy day.

It would periodically stop for little bits of time, which was nice, but just when we would start to dry a little, down it would come again. Unfortunately, the kids Jedi Training had to be cancelled.

We made the best of it, but it did push us to end the day a little sooner than we had planned.  We were soaked which made jumping in the huge puddles on the way out even more fun I guess.

Because our feet had been wet for a few hours, we all had pretty wrinkly feet.  Bentley took the prize for the best "raisins".

Our next park day led us to Animal Kingdom.  Fortunately there was not any rain, but it sure was hot and humid that day!  Julie's family and grandma and grandpa also joined us in the park today which made it even more fun.

The Lion King show at Animal Kingdom is really good.  It was also nice that it was a good time to have a break, sit down, and enjoy some air conditioning.  Despite the excitement of the show, Karly took advantage of this time being still and went right to sleep.

She was so sleepy she didn't even wake up when we went out, or after she got a kiss on the lips from a prince.

But the dole whipped worked!  We whispered "ice cream" and out she came from that deep sleep.

Remember I mentioned earlier that Brad searched for huge soled shoes for Karly to be taller?  Well, he didn't find any so instead he filled her shoes with tissue to give her just a bit of a boost.  It was totally a sloppy job and the worker obviously didn't look at her feet at all or else he would have noticed the obvious fraud job.   But fortunately for us, she passed the checkpoint and on we all went to the rapids ride where we ended up getting completely soaked.

The day ended with an impromptu dance party with several characters.  I loved that my kids just jumped right in!

For our final park day, we saved the best for last - Magic Kingdom.  We had great weather and went from sun up until sun down that day.  The kids loved the ferry ride, and we enjoyed the fireworks from the ferry on our way out.

Eden and Maddie were so cute in their matching skirts.  I also love that they still like to hold hands.

Grace and Olive were also a cute little hand-holding duo.

We were spoiled with a very special lunch that day in the Beast's castle.  We were excited and had heard great things about this.

Our table was in the ballroom, but we walked through the room next door and saw the special rose belonging to the beast.

We had a very fancy lunch served, but the best part was definitely the dessert.  The kids each got a white chocolate tea cup, with edible paints and they got to paint their dessert before eating it.  So cute!

Then on our way out we were able to meet the Beast.  That was a first for us!

After lunch, Jeff and Julie's crew met back up with us for many more rides and treats.

Karly and Olive got to hold a Magic Kingdom lizard.  These are definitely more magical than most.  Brad can still catch them though.

Karly was pouting about not wanting to take any more pictures and so we did it anyway and this turned out to be our favorite one from the trip.  Look at those lips!!  Most precious pouter ever, and she was doing it quietly which is my favorite kind of protest.  :)

Spending an entire day in the park can sure be exhausting.  The day was coming to and end and Karly was ready with her glow sticks, but unfortunately she just couldn't hold on any longer.  If the kids leave asleep or exhausted, then we know it was a successful day in Disney.

Throughout all our park days, we got some pretty classic ride shots.

Bentley's close up from the Tower of Terror is precious.  I love that boy.

Also precious is Olive's face on the Mount Everest ride.  She was handling it ok until the ride started going backwards and then it was no longer ok.  She still gets mad about this ride and being "tricked" into riding it.

The Seven Dwarfs mine ride was a new one for us this year and it was so much fun!  I think everyone except Karly and Olive were able to go on this ride and everyone loved it.  Hopefully next time Olive will try and love it too.

And no trip to anything Disney is ever complete without lots of character meets!

Karly is currently very much in love with this show Vampirina.

Meeting Kevin from Up was so much fun. She was actually on her way being escorted out and our big group of kids stumbled upon her and started screaming "Kevin" and made her so excited that she started jumping around and playing along with our group.  It was very fun for the kids.

Pluto is always a favorite.

Meeko from Pocahontas was a new one for us.

As was Turk from Tarzan.

The girls were also really excited to meet Fancy Nancy.

Brad is very good at his research and finding random and fun new experiences.  One of them this year was taking the whole family to the Hoop-Dee-Doo-Revue.  The name sounds a little questionable, but it turned out to be a very fun and entertaining dinner show.  The whole family was very entertained and absolutely loved it.

While waiting to get in to our show, we were able to explore a little bit around this KOA type park.

Then it was showtime and we all gathered inside to eat and watch the live show. The kids loved that they just threw down buckets of food onto the tables while the actors sang onstage.

The show was very lively and fun.

And finally, on our last evening in town, the adults were able to go our for a quick date night in Disney Springs.  We ate at the Boathouse, looked through some shops and enjoyed a very relaxed and slow paced evening.

But since we were in Disney Springs, Brad insisted on bringing us all back to the Memory Maker Picture Studio.  Everyone played along but finally at the end we needed to have a picture with us all pouting (inspired by Karly) to show our feelings towards Brad about how many pictures he was pushing us to take.

We tease, but we are all grateful for Brad's energy that helps us to enjoy these experiences to the fullest.  This was an amazing week, packed full with so many fun adventures with family.  We had a blast and are so grateful to have made these amazing memories with the family we love!

See you later Orlando!  Until next time!!