Mickey Park!

(I'll go ahead and warn you now, this post is going to long and picture heavy!)

As if seeing a shuttle launch wasn't cool enough, we also took Tate to the Magic Kingdom while in Orlando.  (Are we in the running for coolest parents of the year or what?)  We kept telling Tate we were going to Mickey Park, but we were quite sure he was picturing the grassy knoll known as "Mickey Park" in the "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" cartoon on the Disney Channel.  He had no idea what the real Mickey Park was all about (or that it was less than an hour from his Granddaddy and Mana's house)! 

We got there just about 30 minutes after the park opened and went straight to ride Dumbo.  While we were in line, we kept asking Tate if he wanted to ride Dumbo and he would just say, "nooope", (his favorite word right now).  Well, too bad.  I told David, I didn't care if cried when we got on, I knew he would stop once it stopped. (Nice mommy, huh?)  But when we got up there, he was excited as could be. 

And here we are on Dumbo.  Aren't we cute?  Ha.  I was trying to get a decent pic of us at arm's length without dropping the camera onto the pavement. 

Next, we wanted to go to Mickey's Toontown because that's where Mickey lives.  Well, guess what.....yep, it's closed for renovations.  UGH!  As a matter of fact, the back part of Fantasyland is closed as well.  See, here's a pic I took of it while on Dumbo...

Apparently, they are going to build castles for ALL the princesses.  At least that's what another visitor told me.  So all you Disney nuts with little girls will have to visit it in 2012 when it's done. 

We should have taken the closed Toontown as an omen, because things went downhill fast.  We rode Winnie the Pooh's ride next.  Tate seemed to like it okay, but when we got off he started screaming.  We're not sure if was because he didn't want to get off, or because the Pooh ride was so scary he couldn't get the screams out until he was safe.  I have to admit, the people who designed that ride must have been on LSD because it was psychedelic!  Then we tried Mickey's Phillarmagic 3-D movie.  Bad idea.  It was loud and as soon as Donald Duck started "throwing" music instruments at us, it was all over.  Tate burst into tears and we had to be escorted out of the theater.  At this point, we were beginning to question our decision to bring Tate to the Magic Kingdom.  What better than to turn things around?  LUNCH! :)

Waiting on Daddy to bring us some hot dogs!

Things started looking up after lunch. We found a "train" in Tomorrowland and all was well again..

One day, buddy, one day.  (He's too short for the cars.)

Apparently, David was the only one having a good time on Buzz Lightyear's ride.

Did I get the timing perfect on this one or what? 

I couldn't have done that if I tried.

Taking it all in.

And here we have Tate's favorite "ride."  Yes, folks, it's the train that takes you around the park.

All Aboard!

Just waking from his 5 minute nap to watch the afternoon parade.

Waving at the characters in the parade.

Still a happy boy at 7:00 p.m. with no nap!

Entertaining us while we waited on the nighttime" electrical parade".

Waiting for the fireworks.

Tate made it the entire day without a major meltdown (well, just the two earlier in the day).  We couldn't believe it.  I was going to do my darnedest to see the fireworks at the end of the day (and to get our money's worth).  Don't get me wrong, he was fading fast at 8:30 p.m. when we left, but he was a TROOPER!  All in all, it was a really fun day for us.  We got to ride some classic rides like Dumbo and It's a Small World, see two parades, wave at the Disney characters (thankfully, Tate had no interest in meeting them because the lines were long), see the fireworks and spend the day with our sweet little Tate.  It was truly "magical"! ;o)

Because I know you are overwhelmed with pictures, I decided to show you some more!  :)  Here's a slide show of the awesome electrical parade.  Enjoy!