First days of vacation

Saturday
We had packed the van (Tallulah) Friday night, including an outfit for the kids. Saturday morning, the grown-ups were up by 4:50 AM, showered, and the kids were up at 5:05 AM. The kids just loaded into the van in their jammies, and after getting the last things loaded, we were on the road at 5:30 AM.
For a day of driving that started at 5:30 AM in PA, and then went through MD, VA, NC, SC, before ending in Savanna, GA, the kids did very well. We checked into the hotel at 7:45 PM, and Matt, Jacob, and Ally went for a quick swim. Everyone then went to bed to prepare for Sunday.
Pictures from Saturday:

Sunday:

Nothing too eventful. Swimming in AM. Drive 4.5 hours from Savanna to Orlando. Get Disneyworld and Seaworld tickets (we pre-purchased through a discount broker). Eat during a massive thunderstorm. Etc.

Monday (Day 1 of fun - Disneyworld).

We decided to break this day into two parts - an AM trip to Animal Kingdom, followed by rest, then a PM trip to Disney Hollywood studios.

Animal Kingdom:

We arrived at 9:00, and got in easily. Wow, the employees here know their stuff. They are all well trained, and we never had a "what do we do now" moment. When arriving at a place as big as this, that is surprising.

We started with getting pictures with Lilo and Stitch with the kids. This was followed by a safari trip where we saw Giraffes, Flamingos, Elephants, Lions, etc. Ally's favorite animals were the "pretty birds" (flamingos), Jacob's favorite animals were "all of them", and Zeke's (based on his pointing and babbling) were the giraffes.

After this, we noticed the lines to meet the characters were empty, so we met Donald Duck, Goofy, and Minnie Mouse in a 10-minute stretch. We were then close to the lion king musical show, so we got in line. The wait was about 20 minutes, but we got 2nd row seats and the show was great. Both Jacob and Ally loved it. Zeke, however, cried a lot. Thankfully, it was so loud that when one of us would hold Zeke, the other (separated by Jacob in between) couldn't even hear him crying, so we don't think he disturbed anyone.

After the show, it was time to head back to the hotel to cool off.

Disney Hollywood Studios:

We began our afternoon by seeing Beauty and the Beast, which is a condensed version of the movie. Ally was transfixed immediately and Jacob said it was MUCH better than he expected.

Next, we saw The Magic of Disney Animation. Matt and Jacob headed out right after the movie to hit their first roller coaster of our trip- the Rock n' Roller Coaster featuring Aerosmith. It goes from 0 to 60 mph in 2.8 seconds. They both loved it.

Ally, Zeke and I wandered around a little in the Animation area and then the princess store outside the Little Mermaid show. Needless to say, that may be Ally's favorite store in the whole wide world! I convinced her there may be another princess store in Magic Kingdom, so she decided to wait to buy anything. She did ask me to take a picture of her favorite toys so she would remember.

The highlight for Ally was the "Voyage of the Little Mermaid" show, though the wait was a little long. Again, the show is a condensed version of the movie told with lots of puppetry in black light for the fish etc. Zeke was a little more interested in this show, but still was near tears the whole time. Maybe a more manly show will be less upsetting...

We walked around the park a bit and ended up with pizza and pictures in front of the Muppets fountain. We are going to decide tonight whether to go back to Animal Kingdom, Disney Studios or do a little at Epcot.