October ( Week 2 )Road Trip!

Greg was invited to preach a Homecoming service at Crossroads Baptist in Florida this week and even though October is crazy busy around here, we decided that we should all go because we really wanted to see family (and the people at Crossroads). Essie had her birthday the end of September and instead of a birthday party and present, she wanted a night at Disney and tickets to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. I was totally for that ( in fact I may have been the one to give her the idea ;) ) 

So off we went to Florida for the quickest family trip to date! ( Thur - Tues!) 

As long as Sarah Faith has Teddy Grahams she is good to go on road trips! 

We arrived in Florida with a sick birthday girl. Our first stop was urgent care and an hour later had a diagnosis of strep throat and a RX for antibiotics. 

Essie spending the day with Ma. 

Sarah Faith and Nate playing with a kitty. 

 We had church on Sunday with the good peeps at Crossroads ( and I took zero pictures!) :( and then Monday morning Greg drove me and Miss E to the land of Mouse! ( WDW!!) I am not sure who was more excited, me or Essie!  We stayed at the Pop Century Resort and was able to get early check-in around 11am. We were also selected to test the new magic bands ! They are these super cool bracelets that allow you to unlock your room, pay for food and merchandise and are even your tickets into the park and fast passes.

Once we checked in, we went up to our room and unpacked, then to the arcade for a little while and then on to the Everything Pop food court and store. We looked at all the fun Disney merchandise for a while and then decided to grab some lunch. We split pizza bread and each got a dessert. Tie Dye Cheesecake for Essie and an Oreo cupcake for me. It was very good. Thumbs up, Pop!

Everything Pop! Food court. Pizza bread, tie dye cheesecake and cupcakes for lunch!  

We went swimming for about an hour after lunch and then we decide an hour of rest in the room might be a good idea since we were going to be having such a late night. Around 3:00 though we were ready to go! We went to the bus stop and rode the Magical Express into the Magic Kingdom! 

Even though the party doesn't officially start until 7:00, they let you in the park around 4:00. We had three fast passes on our magic bands that we were able to reserve from home. Our first was Space mountain so once we made it into the MK, space mountain was our first stop. After that we rode pretty much everything we wanted to before the party began! 

Side note....One thing I did not plan for was that this was my first time at WDW without Greg aka my GPS! We wasted a little bit of time frustrated because I kept getting turned around! If I ever do this again without G, I will study the MK map better. 

We are here!! 

On the teacups!

Twins!

With Snow

Pirate girl 

Haunted Mansion. We Skeeered!

 Then it was time to get dresses for the party! Essie went as a witch. She was super cute.The weather was breezy enough to not get hot in her costume. There were some crazy over the top full out costumes there that night! We did a lot of people watching as well as shows, rides and trick or treating.

She was soooooo excited

Happy Birthday Sweet Essie! 

We rode rides and trick or treated until after the first parade ( 8:15pm) and then grabbed a seat in front of the castle for the Villian Mix and Mingle, light show, fireworks and second parade. The Headless horseman leads the parade off each night. It was super cool! Essie does not like to do characters ( her reasoning is, " Why should I waste my time standing in line to have my picture taken with an employee of WDW in a costume? " :) ) 

After the second parade, she was super tired and even though we had plans of shutting the park down, I could tell by 11 she was ready to go. I think the strep throat and antibiotics were adding to her fatigue. So I did talk her into one more trick or treat trail as more people left the park and then we went to Gaston's Tavern and got us some cinnamon rolls for breakfast the next morning. 

enjoying her breakfast in bed. 

 Once we were up, fed and dressed, we left the Pop and went to Downtown Disney where we shopped and waited for the rest of the crew to pick us up to head back to NC. It really was a great little mommy/essie get away that I think I enjoyed as much as she did!

Happy 12th Birthday Essie Hope Mullis! Thanks for letting me be part of your fun Disney trip!