Happiest Place on Earth

We spent this week in Orlando, Florida--home of Mickey, Princesses, and all things magical. What a whirlwind trip filled with fun memories. The parks were more crowded than usual given the time of year, but we managed to cram in almost all we wanted to see and do in 4 short days.

Cinderella's castle is still so breathtakingly beautiful to me in the daytime...

...and decked out for the holidays at night. Gorgeous.

Have you ever watched "Toy Story 2?" Where the two Buzz Lightyears try to beat each other up? This is what I thought of when I took this shot--watching my own Buzz showdown.

I was sad that Priya no longer wants to wear princess costumes to Disney as in years past, but this photo made up for it. The best clearance costumes I've ever purchased at $4 bucks a piece. And, you shoulda seen how STOKED Buzz was when the boys ran up to him looking like this!

Animesh and I enjoyed drinking our way through Epcot. Here we are toasting in Paris (with the Eiffel Tower in the background).

Naturally, this was a highlight for our own little Wildcat, Priya. What a great street show this was at MGM Studios.

Sometime during the trip Deven began exclaiming (whenever he saw something cool which was about every 5 minutes) that it was "totally awesome!" This was one of those moments. Trevor had his costume on, too, but was scared away by Mr. Incredible.

The absolute highlight of the trip for Deven was meeting Remy and Emille from Ratatouille. He's still talking about them.

Trevor and Priya opted for some face painting one day...how cute are they as a little puppy and Cinderella princess?!


The 3 Little Indians wearing their pirate Mickey ears (well, Goofy ears for Trevor, which is oh-so-appropriate!).

You'll notice a little Indian missing from this pic. All week long Trevor had been shouting "Hey, you!" when he would spot a character. Well, lucky Jimminy Cricket got a special greeting on this day. Trevor ran up to Mr. Cricket and said, "You poo-poo." Animesh was mortified and whisked Trevor away from Mr. C. We cannot even imagine the look on that person's face underneath the mask. I imagine that he's probably been told a lot worse. I hope.

Trevor shaped up in time to visit the petting zoo at Animal Kingdom...where the animals actually DID smell like poo-poo.

Our last day was spent at Animal Kingdom...home of 2 of the most amazing Broadway-caliber shows--"Finding Nemo: The Musical" and "The Festival of the Lion King". Two must-sees if you're headed to Animal Kingdom.

Holiday Mickey was there, too, and I made us take a family picture at the end of the night. I was worn out and it shows in the picture, but we weren't gettin' outta there without taking that darn picture with M.M. in his festive duds.

That's it for now. I'll try and get some gallery compiled in case you're dying to view all 216 photos from the trip. So, as the sign says in the "It's a Small World" ride...my favorite ride of all time: