DISNEY! Here We Come!!!!

I can't even believe I'm posting about a Disney vacation! AHHHH! I thought the possibility of us going this soon seemed IMpossible.  I always imagined us waiting until Charli was a little older to go, but I KNEW Ansley was at the perfect age to really enjoy it.  So when my mom mentioned that they wanted to spend their credit card rewards on a Disney trip for the whole family, I was excited about this possibility ACTUALLY becoming a reality.  Turns out....it paid for more than 1/3 of our trip!  Yay!  Because we were going around Christmas, we overwhelmingly agreed that it was an AMAZING Christmas present for all of us from my parents, so absolutely NO presents allowed under the tree (they totally broke that promise, but at least they peared it down!).  We didn't decide on all this until the end of September.  Now, if you look at all the Pinterest boards for Disney you will see that you should always book your Disney vacation 120 days before you plan to go for optimal reservations.  Well, we didn't quite make that cutoff, but it turned out great regardless!  After talking with my friend, Ashley she suggested using a Disney travel agent to get the best deal.  I tried to book my dining plan first because apparently that's the hardest thing to get on short notice.  They were right!  I basically called and said..."I need some character meals stat!" and after several LONG phone calls with some really sweet Disney representatives...we had our dates.  Whew! That same week, Southwest had some great deals on flights so I booked everyone's flight for super cheap ($300 RT and nonstop).  It just seemed like things were falling into place. 

WOO HOO!!  Disney here we come!

Our flight there was so great.  The plane was barely occupied, so we had rows and rows of seats in the back to ourselves.  This was good for a slightly anxious mom of 2 that had never flown with the littles before.:/

This is my crazy brother acting like there are people sitting next to him so the oncoming passengers stay away.  He apparently didn't get the memo that it was an empty plane. Ha!  We laughed about this until we cried! His face!!! Hilarious...

The kids got to see the cockpit before takeoff.

Mom and Dad ready for takeoff!

Charli was set with her little board books.  She was so good!

And this little girl couldn't have been more excited to fly.

She called the window seat next to Daddy. 

After our flight we were escorted by Magical Express to our hotel that evening.  When we got to our resort (Art of Animation) it was AMAZING!!!  Let me just say...Disney thinks of every little detail.  Just our walk IN the resort was magical! They had everything decorated for Christmas in every fun color you can imagine to match their current décor.  It was beautiful. 

This was the pool area. 

And the girls DIED when they saw their Mermaid room.  Ansley kept screaming from one surprise to another....look mom!  Look dad!  It's Ariel and Flounder, and Prince Eric!!!  Charli was amazed too.  She kept going from one Ariel detail to the other and she LOVED our mermaid shower curtain!  We still were all hungry so we went to the restaurant for some dinner and then hit the sack before our first exciting day at Disney.  Who in the world could sleep with so much excitement ahead!