carowinds with the gaubs

We took Auntie Janne and Hannah to Carowinds for the first time and now even Hannah is a season passholder just like us (ok, fine, it's the free Pre-K Pass, but still, she's a passholder nonetheless!).  The little girls had to sit out for the first ride of the day and stood around pouting since they were too short.

We had our usual Panda Express for lunch... and recreated scenes from "Lady and the Tramp"

So excited to see Snoopy!

The little girls finally got to go on a ride-- the swings!

Like our kids, Hannah loved Pig Pen's Mud Buggies!

And her first time on a roller coaster was a success!!

To celebrate Ben's birthday weekend, we ordered the World's Largest Funnel Cake-- and even with two extra people, we STILL couldn't finish it!

The little girls fell asleep for awhile and I pushed them around while everyone else went on the big rides.  Hannah wanted a picture with Uncle Jacob since their shirts coordinated!

The little girls convinced Dad/Uncle Jacob to buy them cotton candy since they couldn't go on many rides-- he's such a pushover!

And we wrapped up a fun day at Carowinds with a spin on the horsies!  Can't wait until we can take them again!

girls' weekend: bon voyage breakfast

After we checked out of Shades of Green, we headed to Disney's BoardWalk for the Bon Voyage Adventure Breakfast at Trattoria al Forno.

- Pastries, Abigail with the King Triton's Shipwreck (with Triton that was taken back to the kitchen immediately after we took a picture!), and the Golden Frittata -

The highlight of breakfast is meeting Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder as well as Ariel and Prince Eric.  While they did not come to the table in pairs, they did all make it around and were great fun to talk to while we enjoyed our breakfast!  It was the perfect end to a wonderful, whirlwind, girls weekend!

girls' weekend: magic kingdom

We spent our last day at Magic Kingdom and we arrived bright and early!  Even though the park officially opened at 9am, they opened up Main Street at 8am so people could shop or grab a cup of coffee.  After using the Passholder line (the little perks make us happy!!) we made our way towards Cinderella Castle to get a spot to watch the Welcome Show.

- Magic Kingdom Welcome Show -

- Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, the new Buffalo Chicken tots from Friar's Nook, and Under the Sea -

While the weather started out fairly nice, big thunderstorms filled the afternoon forecast.  We snagged a great spot on the curb for the 3pm Festival of Fantasy parade and then secretly hoped for the storm to move in and the Rainy Day Cavalcade (also known as the Rainy Day Parade) to take its place.  We chatted with the Cast Members as we waited-- they were also hoping for the Rainy Day Parade as none had seen it yet.

It sprinkled for about thirty seconds and then started POURING!!  We quickly opened up our ponchos, got covered up (some of us had them on backwards at first!), and held our curb.  The Cast Members said that we looked like the three fairies (Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather) from Sleeping Beauty and after awhile, we had our own little crowd of CM's to hang out with.  Every 15 minutes there was an announcement that due to the storms, Festival of Fantasy would be delayed, and we kept waiting for the announcement switching to the Rainy Day parade.

-Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather -

Our fun little group of CM's all chipped in and bought us a Mickey balloon and then offered to take pictures of us (while still holding our curb!) in front of the Castle.  After several delayed parade announcements, and a whole lot of fun and laughing on our part, one of the CM's asked us if we'd like to give up our curb spot and move to the VIP Parade seating on the Liberty Square Bridge and of course, we jumped at the chance!

They went and got towels to dry the benches off for us and then we had the most amazing view of the Festival of Fantasy Parade!

- Festival of Fantasy Parade -

Because we were in VIP seating, the character interaction was amazing!!  Everybody wanted to talk to us and waved and smiled!

Under the Sea!!  We got high fives from the performers as they passed by.

The Lost Boys were particularly enamored with our group!

Off to Neverland!  Peter Pan and Wendy were so excited that we were wearing matching colors!

Prince Charming and Maleficent coming over the bridge.

The Maleficent Dragon is one of my absolute favorite parts of the parade!

- Brave and Snow White.. and six of the seven Dwarfs -

- the Mad Hatter and Jiminy Cricket -

- Mickey and Minnie -

Handshakes and high fives at the end of the parade!

I snapped a few pictures of Abigail with our Mickey balloon before we passed it on to a little kid.

We enjoyed a delicious dinner at Skipper Canteen-- another first for all of us and one that we'll all repeat on future trips!

The rain did a great job clearing out the park so we were able to easily get a spot on the hub grass to watch Happily Ever After.

- Happily Ever After -

The projections are one of the best parts of this new show!

- Happily Ever After -

- Happily Ever After -

After the fireworks, we headed to Fantasyland and rode Peter Pan, It's a Small World, the Little Mermaid and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (THREE times!!) in a little less than an hour!  Once the park closed, we slowly made our way to the front after stopping to take pictures of the Castle one last time.

- The Kiss Goodnight -

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girls' weekend: animal kingdom

Day Two of our Girls' Weekend started bright and early at Animal Kingdom!  We arrived almost an hour before Extra Magic Hours started and joined hordes of people (presumably to run to Flight of Passage) in line.  We were let in half an hour early in order to check in for our Pre-Park Opening breakfast (well, it was PPO before EMH was added!).  We stopped to admire the Tree of Life and Harambe Market on our way into the park.

We were the first table of the day seated at Tusker House!  The buffet area is set up like an open-air African market and the attention to detail is exquisite.  The hostess explained the different areas of the buffet (cereals, pastries, frittatas, Mickey waffles, carving station, etc) before taking us to our table.

Tusker House is a character meal and we got to hang out with Mickey, Goofy, Donald and Daisy over the course of our breakfast, and the food was fabulous, too!!  We'll definitely be adding Tusker House to our regular rotation of Disney dining.

After breakfast, we were within our FP+ window for Kilimanjaro Safari, so we headed that way.  Both of us have done this ride many times but agreed that our safari driver, Roberto, was one of the best and it was an awesome experience!!  We saw Augustus, the baby hippo AND Stella, the baby elephant!!

The giraffes were hanging out right by the road today!

We spent the afternoon exploring Animal Kingdom (and seeing Abigail at Dinosaur!) before ending up in Pandora for a late lunch at Satu'li Canteen and a ride on Flight of Passage-- so thankful we could book 60 days out because the line was LONG!  Such a fun day at Animal Kingdom!

girls' weekend: epcot

The daughter of one of our great friends from church is working at Walt Disney World as part of the College Program this spring so her mom and went down for the weekend to see her and enjoy the parks sans kids!  We stayed at Shades of Green in order to get the on-property perks-- like booking FP+ 60 days out!  After checking in at the hotel, we headed to EPCOT, took advantage of the Passholder line, and were reunited with Abigail!

We made our way around the Flower and Garden food booths for a late lunch: Fried Cauliflower from Taste of Marrakesh, Cold Brew coffee from Joffrey's, and the Sugar Cane Shrimp Skewer and the Tropical Freeze from La Isla Fresca

Flower and Garden Festival is such a great time to be at EPCOT with all of the beautiful topiaries!

- Test Track fun -

We booked a last-minute 8pm reservation for Tokyo Dining and when we got there, we requested a window table so that we could watch Illuminations at 9pm.  We were seated one row back from the window (there are very few actual window tables) and had a phenomenal view of the show!

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spring at carowinds

We love having season passes to Carowinds since it means that we can go often-- especially in the spring and fall when the weather is nice!

Everyone's favorite ride in Camp Snoopy: Pig Pen's Mud Buggies!

FINALLY a coaster that Ellie is tall enough to ride!

- the horsies -

Lexie wanted to go on this headache inducing ride over and over and over, and went until she ran out of people to ride with.

- the Albaeck sweethearts -

On our way home from Carowinds, we stopped at Ninety's to try their over-the-top milkshakes-- and they were delicious!!