for Anna

Bed Hog

Someone snuck into their big sister's bed last night...

Day 3-- Magic Kingdom, here we come...

We set the alarm clocks early in hopes of getting to the Magic Kingdom early enough to enjoy the "Good Morning Show". This happens prior to opening, and is really cute, and a fun way to start the day. We did make it, when our bus rolled into MK at about 8:30 am. We had a few goals for today, hit a few of the kids favorites (or hopeful favorites) and do enough before Capi needed to leave for his plane at about 4:30pm.





Again, we loosely followed a "trip plan" and ended up with little to no waits again. After walking on to most Fantasy Land rides, we passed through later in the day and were shocked at how many people were now there. With the help of planning fast passes, and locations most of the day was less than 10 minute waits, with exception of one 30 minute wait for the Haunted Mansion-- a ride that Matt HAD to do with Capi (well, we all went).



Quick Story: During the Monster's Inc Laugh Floor they picked Julie as "boo". She was put up on the big screen a few times, and it was super cute!

Capi headed to the boats after the Dream Along with Mickey Show and we went on to ride another few rides, and headed back to the hotel at about 6:30. We ate cereal in our room for dinner, bathed the kids and headed to bed early again. In our previous trip we had gone from open till close most nights and were WAY too exhausted at the end of the week... we actual feel like by making it there by opening time almost every day we saved time enough to get to bed early-- still accomplishing as much as we had in long days last year.

We were bummed Capi had left, but excited that Grandma Sue and Aunt Jillian would be arriving in the early morning hours.

Attractions for today were: Walt Disney Railroad, Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan's Flight, Philhar Magic, Dream Along with Mickey Show, Snow White's Scary Adventures, Cinderella's Golden Carousel, Dumbo, Many Adventures of Pooh, Tomorrowland Transit Authority, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, Monster's Inc Laugh Floor, Disney Dream's Come True Parade.

Day 2: Destination- Hollywood Studios

8:15 and ready to go...

We woke up early to make the most of the day. I was determined to do as much as possible (you're all shocked right)- especially since my dad only had 2 days to hit the parks so call time that day was 8:15 (to the bus). We pretty much made that target (even got my dad checked in and breakfast consumed in time). We had great weather (85 and sunny!).


We hit Hollywood Studios at opening and immediately headed over to Toy Story Mania and grabbed fast passes. My dad and Peter hit the Rock 'n Rollercoaster while the kids and I played around. We pretty much did every major and many non-major attractions at the studios with little to no wait (even though it was president's weekend)... Although I was mocked in the planning phases it REALLY paid off as we walked on to many rides that later had 60+ minute waits.

Matt and Kayla both rode the Tower of Terror. Kayla was not thrilled by the ride, and Matt also declared he would never ride again because he only liked the "up parts", but as it turns out he did indeed claim it as one of his favorite rides and rode again later in the week. Kayla's favorite was the Little Mermaid, and Julie LOVED Playhouse Disney LIVE!

Funny Story-- When we were getting ready for Playhouse Disney they announced the instructions in Spanish (and it was a man)... Matt looked at me and said "mom, I think that was Hanny Manny because he was talkin' Spanished"-- for those not 'up' on the latest in kids programming, Hanny Manny is a cartoon guy who does indeed speak Spanish sometimes on his show.

The attractions we hit in no particular order were : American Idol, Indiana Jones Stunt Show, Star Tours (except me and peanut), Muppet Vision 3D, Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground, Lights, Motors, Action!, Toy Story Mania, Voyage of the the Little Mermaid, Playhouse Disney LIVE!, High School Musical III concert, Rock 'n roller Coaster, and Tower of Terror (N, P, M and K) lunch at Pizza Planet, and we met two of the Power Rangers.

We did all this by 6:15 PM, and headed to the Pepper Market for dinner and headed to bed early. It was an awesome day. The kids had a blast (and were in generally great moods), and it was such an awesome thing to be able to spend a whole day with Capi. We're so thankful that he made the trip down, even if only for 2 days!!!

I interrupt this series...

to tell you that I just registered my 'babies' for Kindergarten.


Sometimes I blink, and I see this...

instead of this...

Disney Trip Report

Background:

We went to Disney last year, and had a wonderful time. However, on the last night we were there we all had food poisoning. To call the experience horrible is probably an understatement. Matt and Kayla would casually refer to our trip, and then finish with "and we puked". When we started planning for this trip we had one rule-- NO puking!


Let the trip report start...

Cast Members.

Me: Nicole-- acting in the part of mom, and organizer, and travel agent

Peter: dad-- acting as the calm in the storm, baby wrangler, and hero when things are scary


The kiddo's-- all at disney, need I say more?
Matt- newly 5
Kayla- newly 5
Julie (maybe referred to as peanut, somethings never change)-- A very 2-year-old


Capi -- My dad-- the kids call him Capi, and I'm pretty sure I understand how the name evolved, but that story's too long for our intro... just know outside the family, people would refer to him as Grandpa :) There Friday night through Sunday night

Grandma Sue- My mom-- came Sunday late - Saturday

Aunt Jillian-- My favorite sister ;)-- came w/ Grandma Sue

Extra: 'Aunt' Janet-- my best friend, who happened to be on a business trip to Universal 2 of the days we were there, so she'll make a quick appearance to give some sanity to me. The kids don't even know she was there-- which is a little sad, but it's better that they weren't disappointed by not seeing her.




Day One : February 13th, Travel Day... Oh yeah, and we're rule breakers in this family...

We left for the airport at about 3:30PM on Friday, February 13th. We were pretty well packed (I'm a bit obsessive and had been packing for over 2 weeks... yeah, I know...), and ready to go. The kids were super excited to take another airplane ride, and we were really looking forward to arriving in enough time to get a good nights sleep and set up for a week of fun.

The plane ride was not all it was cut out to be. First, it was delayed almost an hour. Julie cried/whined quite a bit because her ears hurt-- Matt and Peter seemed alright, I had been on antibiotics less than 24 hours for a very severe sinus infection that the pressure was killing, and Kayla was fussing on and off about her ears (to which I kept answering drink your water). Oh yeah, and I made more than 6 trips to the bathroom with the kids... ever try to fit 3 people into an airplane bathroom stall... it's interesting, to say the least.

We were all happy to have the flight behind us (and I was not looking forward to the one at the end of our trip)... so we made another pit stop and headed to the magic express to ride our bus to Disney's Coronado Springs. We get to the front of the line-- Kayla plops down onto the ground and gives me just enough warning that she's going to puke that I 'mom reacted' and tried to catch it. Needless to say, I should have just taken 3 giant steps back and cleaned up after. Both covered in puke, the nice magic express people were not overly anxious to put us on a bus. After waiting nearly another hour to prove she wasn't going to be sick again, they finally put us on a bus (one without the fun movie, bummer-- right, Matt?).

We arrived at Coronado approximately 5 minutes before my dad (whose flight was about 2 hours after ours). He was all refreshed from his upgraded first class trip, and we were feeling pretty run down-- but we were all excited to be at Disney! We all bunked together the first night, as his original plans changed and he got there on Friday instead of Saturday when his reservation was. Worried about the possibility of another pukey vacation we headed to bed with prayers for a better tomorrow.