Day 4: Breakfast with a bear

We awoke on Monday feeling really refreshed. We had a full kitchen in our room so we had some easy breakfast items on hand. Since we had reservations at 9:00am to eat we had a quick bite to keep us from starving, and then it was off to the Magic Kingdom to eat at the Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore.
I have read about people getting breakfast times before the park opens therefore, being able to enter the park before everyone else can because of these reservations. I decided that we should do this. I booked us at the Crystal Palace for breakfast. The Magic Kingdom opening time was 9:00am, and boy was there a crowd. Since we had breakfast reservations we were able to go into a seperate line and bypass these crowds. Once we entered man, it was great. Not a soul around. We were one of just a few families walking down Main Street. It was cool. I had really been looking forward to getting some pictures taken in front of the castle with no one else around. I hate it when I get random people in my pictures. Anyway, this would be the day except for one little tiny problem.

It was just a tad bit foggy. We still got our picture though. Next the kids wanted to take pictures by the little statues in front of the castle. Here are a few
It was time for our breakfast so off we went. Crystal Palace is a buffet. Normally, I am not one to eat at many buffets. Disney's buffets are extremely good and clean so it makes me more comfortable. At the character breakfast you wait for the characters, in this case, Winnie and friends to make their rounds to you while you are eating. Here are some pictures of us with the characters from The Hundred Acre Wood

After breakfast we headed to Frontierland to ride none other than Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain. Ty was tall enough for both of these, and he was so excited. On the way we saw "Davy Crockett Donald"

I rode Splash with Tristan and Ty while Andy sat with Evan. He was doing a little more of this
When we were getting off of Splash, there was Goofy in his Frontierland get up. Ty and I wanted a picture, while Tristan went with Andy and Evan to get the ever popular pressed penny.

As naptime was inching closer, we decided to head on out. I took Evan and went to get Fast Passes for Space Mountain that evening, while Andy headed toward the exit with the kids. When I called Andy to see where they were he informed me that they were at the Barber Shop on Main Street getting haircuts for the kids. I know it sounds funny, but the Magic Kingdom Barber shop does their haircuts up right complete with style and "pixie dust". It is really reasonably priced too, believe it or not. So Tristan decided to get 3" cut off of her hair. I was happy because her hair is thick, and it takes forever to dry. Ty got his normal haircut. This was the end result. Talk about some wild and crazy hair. Notice the orange and blue Mickey in the back of Ty's hair. It was lots of fun.
We had a great day, but it was time to head back and rest. We did come back that evening for little bit. It had gotten rather crowded though so we just really rode Space Mountain, and ate our supper. Then it was back to the room for bedtime. Join us tomorrow at Animal Kingdom.

Pray for this family

Please be in prayer for this family and their precious baby boy. You can check their blog out at www.mycharmingkids.net. My heart is aching for this mama as she has to endure the endless waiting.
Some of the girls at church and myself are doing a Bible study by Beth Moore on the book of Esther. Last night's time was about waiting on the Lord. We must wait on Him and not the "thing". It spoke to me in volumes. It is so hard to wait on God's timing, especially when it happens to involve one of your sick children. I pray for peace for this family. I pray the verse from last nights study for Mckmama- Isaiah 40:31 "But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."
It is hard to understand why God allows things like this to happen, but His ways are higher than our ways. He causes ALL things to work for our good if we love Him. I am deeply burdended to pray for this family. Although I don't know Mckmama officially, I do read her blog alot. I do know her as a sister in Christ, and that makes what she is going through real to me too. We are all ONE in the body of Christ, whether we officially know each other or not. I pray for healing for sweet little Stellan.

Day 3: Welcome to Hollywood

So Andy has already called me a nerd for doing a trip report on the blog. The way I look at it with three kiddos I am bound to forget something about this trip soon. I had better put it in writing so that later on when I am scrapbooking these memories, I can just come to the blog and all my journaling will be complete. See folks, I have a plan. So on with the show!

Day 3: started a little later than Day 2, but still early in my book at 7:00am. We got up and headed to Olivia's for breakfast again. I had the oatmeal this morning with fresh blueberries, Andy had another omelet with a yummy hashbrown casserole that I kept sneaking "just a bite" of. Tristan and Ty once again had Mickey Waffles. I tried to be really good about what I ate at breakfast. Throughout the course of the day though, my willpower was shot. Too many yummy treats all calling out my name. We did the Disney Dining Plan, which allows you a sit down meal, a counter service meal, and a snack per day. This is tons of food, and I recommend it to save yourself some money if you plan on doing any type of character meals or sit down meals. Those babies are quite expensive, and the dining plan takes most of that expense away. You do still have to pay for tip, which is different than in the past. They used to include the tip in the plan. I kind of like having to pay the tip now though, b/c in my opinion we got much better service. If you know you have to work for it, you do a better job, right? So after breakfast we hopped on the bus to Disney's Hollywood Studios. Let me say this, our bus service at Old Key West was less than desirable. We had to wait a lot for some of the buses, and then once we got back to the resort from the parks we were the last bus stop out of 5. So we would generally ride for around 15-2o minutes inside of the resort before we got to our stop. Not so bad if you don't have kiddos, but with Evan squirming to get down constantly, this was rather non-enjoyable.

We have only usually stayed at the Wilderness Lodge, which is by far my favorite of the two. The bus service here is great, and it is also so close to the Magic Kingdom. Let's just say that next time we go it will probably be Wilderness Lodge again.

Once we finally arrived at the Studios we had a mission to go get Fast Passes for Toy Story Midway Mania. We did this but our return riding time was kind of late in the day so we decided to meet some characters. We met tons of characters, but the Studios was so crowded that we left and didn't return back that evening like we had originally planned to do. So we did not do hardly any attractions here. The place was bombarded by cheerleaders. They were there for a competition that was held in the Indiana Jones Stunt Show building. They were really, really loud. They cheered incessantly, but then again most of them were middle school aged so what should I expect. Here are some character highlights of the day.

Buzz and Woody were great! Woody kept tickling Tristan and she was squirming trying to get away. He would just hold on tighter and tighter. When she finally got away, he held his arms up in a muscle man pose to prove that he was "the man". It was too funny! Ty and I were cracking up. Although once again Ty looks as though he was in misery. Another "I will not smile for this picture" moment. We did wind up taking his artificial eye out for the whole week. It is not fitting correctly so it would slide over to the side and we couldn't get it straightened. It also was really goopy, so we made the decision to take it out for the week. He couldn't care less. In fact, my child cracks me up. We were at dinner one night later on during the week and he saw a little boy staring at him. He then proceeded to cover his eye and he started to fake cry, "Oh! Oh! my eye. My eye is hurt." I thought I would die! I am so thankful that the Lord has given him this type of spirit of humor to handle all of the stares and comments. As his mama, I don't always deal with it so great. He teaches me many, many times.

Here we are with one of the green army men from Toy Story. How cool!

Here we are with Mike and Sully from Monster's Inc. Yes, before you think your eyes are playing tricks on you, that is Evan in the picture. Sully was his first character encounter. You see Andy and I both agreed that if Evan was sleeping, we wouldn't wake him up for some pictures with these characters just for our enjoyment. He really was great the whole time. He slept alot during the day so that is why he isn't in many of my pictures. He couldn't really figure out Sully though. He wasn't too sure about him.

After our visit with Mike and Sully we rounded the corner to find the Power Rangers. Ty was excited about this one. The lines were really long for all of the Rangers so I had Ty pick which one he would like a picture with. He chose the green Ranger. I love how Ty is just holding on for dear life to his hand.

Next up was a picture with two of my favorites, Lightning McQueen and Mater from the movie "CARS". I have seen this movie so many times that I really feel a close bond with these two ;)

Next, it was on to the most important part of the day. Mickey Ice Cream bars. Yum! Yum! Check it out, even Evan got his first taste of these delicious treats.

Since the Studios was packed and we were all getting kind of tired, we decided to head back to the resort for our afternoon nap. We had dinner reservations back at the Studios that evening. After our nap, the kids really wanted to go swimming. So instead of heading back to the studios for more crowds and dinner we opted to stay there and swim and eat at Olivias. It was fun and Evan had his first swim in the pool since he was a little thing. He loved it this time around. The pool was probably in the 80's and was so warm. It had a cool slide that looked like a sand castle. Andy and the kids had a blast going down this. I wish I had pictures, but I didn't have my camera with me for this. I need a waterproof one for the summer :)

After our swim it was back to the room for bedtime. Tomorrow we were headed back to the Magic Kingdom and breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and friends.

Day 2: Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to the Magic Kingdom we go

Day 2 started mighty early- 5:45am to be exact. Although our room was nice, the setup was kind of hard for Evan. The kids slept in the living room on a pull out couch and Evan slept in our bedroom in the pack-n-play. The problem we had was that to get to the bathroom you had to come through our bedroom. This meant Evan was disturbed everytime someone had to get ready in the bathroom or use the bathroom. So needless to say, he awoke the next morning at 5:45am raring to go.

We decided it was pointless to try and sleep in so it was up and at it. We first had our breakfast at the resort's restaurant, Olivia's. This place was yummy, and I started the day out with fresh fruit, granola, honey and yogurt and an english muffin. Andy had an omelet and the kids had none other than Mickey Mouse waffles. Yummy!

Here are Andy and the kids clowing around before our food arrived. Looks like Andy is ready for some fun, fun fun!We then hoped on resort transportation to the Magic Kingdom. Once we got there the fun started. It was kind of crowded, but the weather made up for all of that. It was 70 something with a light breeze and no humidity- AAHH!

One of the first things we did was go to Space Mountain to grab our Fast Passes for a later ride. The Fast Pass allows you to skip waiting in long, long lines, and it is very advantageous to use it. Next, it was one to one of our first rides, The Tea Cups. As you can see, I sat this one out. I don't do circles- they make me sicker than a dog. The kids and Andy loved it. Andy makes them fly!!

I sat out with Evan while he did a little of this.

After the ride on the Tea Cups, Alice was waiting for pictures.

I think it is rather funny that in all of our pictures Ty looks like he is in misery. I promise he had fun, he is just in that stage of not really smiling for pictures. It drives me insane!

Next, on to one of my classic favorites- Dumbo! I rode this one with the kids. Then after our flight on Dumbo, we rode the carosel and proceeded to go see Ariel in her Grotto for some pictures. At this point in time, Tristan was really sleepy and cranky from not resting on the ride down yesterday. We decided to use our Fast Passes to ride Space Mountain. Once we got there we had to measure Ty to see if he was tall enough for the ride. Turns out you have to be 44" tall and Ty is 431/2" so they would not let him ride. He had a major melt down after that. Andy consoled him while Tris and I rode Space. It was lots of fun! She loved it this time. I can tell that she is getting bigger, and not as afraid of riding things.

We opted to go back to the room for a nap before heading back that night for dinner. Good decision. I don't think we could have lasted one minute longer. Check out the look on their faces in Ariel's line. Can we say NAP TIME??

So off we headed back to our resort for a much needed nap. All of us, that is.

We slept around two hours, and then got ready to head back for our dinner at The Liberty Tree Tavern. It was really yummy! All sorts of carved meats, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, green beans, and apple cobbler with ice cream for dessert. I recommend it!

After dinner we watched the SpectroMagic Parade and part of the night time fireworks- Wishes.

It was a good day, but getting late so we headed back to the resort to call it a night. Tomorrow was Hollywood Studios day!

Making Memories at WDW: A trip report Day 1

We're BACK.... from Disney that is. Ahh! one of my favorite vacation destinations this place is, and it is so great to share it with my kiddos. I have been a long time fan of the Disney cartoons. Even when I was in high school I had a collection of movies (still have all the VHS). My first trip was when I was 16 years old. Even though it was in the heat of the summer, I had a BLAST!! I finally talked Andy into going with me about a year after we were married. He reluctantly agreed, and he ended up loving it as much as I do. If you have seen us, you can guess that we are not "beach" people too much. We both love the ocean don't get me wrong, but I am fair and Andy is even fairer, which equals frying on the beach. I do love to relax and read a good book by the ocean, but with little kiddos that is in the past for now. Andy on the other hand could care less, and would rather go, go, go. So Disney is the perfect choice for our vacations. I was so excited because Disney was running a special: buy 4 days and get 3 days room and tickets for free. We saved a ton of money this way, and in January Andy asked me if I might want to go on Spring Break this year. I was reluctant at first b/c I have heard many horror stories of the crowds at Disney during Spring Break. I decided that even with those crowds we could still have a good time, and we booked our trip. Thus our first Spring Break Disney vacation. So as usual me being the "nerd" that I am, I delved into the planning. There is so much to learn about before you go so that you don't end up waiting in line for endless hours or missing things because you had no idea about them. So if you decide to go, I urge you to do your homework. You won't be sorry. I was hopeful that we might miss most of the Spring Break crowds since Easter is in April this year. I was kind of wrong about that one, but we had fun just the same. So without further delay come and join us for our trip down Disney lane!

Day One: In the past we have flown to WDW, but this year we needed so much stuff with Evan. Also plane tickets were very high, and there were no direct flights so we made the decision to road trip it. I packed for three weeks- literally. I had a pile in our bedroom and kept adding to it day by day. I packed myself, Tristan, Tyler, and Evan. Andy had to fend for himself. We decided to pull the kids out of school on Friday 3/13 and head down to Florida early. We left the house around 4:30am. We had to stop at Walgreens before we left Knoxville. Ty ended up getting the flu the Monday before we left. We had a tote bag full of medicines we were taking with us, as well as us all being on Tamiflu. God was gracious and allowed us to enjoy our trip without any illnesses. Praise the Lord for that one. This is what we had to pack into the car

Gramps let us borrow his GMC Denali for the ride down, and amazingly all of this stuff fit. It was pretty packed in there though. That red Vera Bradley bag has our "drug store" in it. I am laughing now at all of the Vera Bradley bags. Looks like I could open up a shop. So as I was saying, we left around 4:30am. I thought the kiddos would fall asleep right away. Yeah right! Tristan, being just like me when I was that age, was so excited she couldn't stand it. She wound up sleeping maybe one hour the whole ride down. Ty and Evan did eventually fall asleep for a little bit. So here we are at the beginning of our journey

Andy loves it when I take pictures- can't you tell?







Finally, Evan and Ty are snoozing. Notice Tristan in the back- WIDE AWAKE!

If you will notice the danger zone in the middle of the car. I am thankful for no sudden stops or we could have all seriously been hurt by flying debris. The trip started well but once again Tristan, being alot like me, got car sick right before we stopped for breakfast. We pulled into Cracker Barrel parking lot and she climbed into my lap in the front seat just sweating away and pale as a ghost. She never did throw up, but boy do I know that feeling. We opened up the Cracker Barrel at 6:00am and had a yummy breakfast. Tristan was feeling much better at this point. So we all made our "pit stops" and it was back in the car. Andy drove past Atlanta, where he tells me the traffic was horrendous. I wouldn't know on this one because I had the head bob/open mouth thing going on. We were all snoozing away. I drove for a little bit from past Atlanta until right about Valdosta, Ga. while Andy caught his snoozes. The kids by this time were into watching their movies. Evan was still doing good too, and was playing with some of his toys. We made pretty decent time to Orlando. We stopped some along the way at rest areas to stretch our legs a bit. I found out the hard way that Evan has a touch of car sickness too. I fed him a bottle while we were driving, and the next thing I knew it came right back up. So now his car seat was soaked with milk and our car kind of stunk. We were about 1 1/2 hours away. We cleaned Evan up and off we went. We made it to Orlando in about 12-13 hours. We checked into our resort- Disney's Old Key West. Then we unloaded the car and unpacked. Once that was finished it was off to explore the area. As we were walking it was kind of breezy that evening. I looked down and saw something hanging out of Evan's mouth. It was a leaf that had blown into his stroller, and he had put it inside of his mouth. Next thing I knew he tried to swallow it and ended up throwing up his peaches from supper all over his stroller. There is not much that child won't put into his mouth. So back to the room we headed for clean up and bed. It had been an eventful day for sure. We headed to bed so that we could get up early and go to the Magic Kingdom for day 2.

Not me! Monday

Oh boy! It's that time again. Not me! Monday time. This little blog fun was started by Mckmama at http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ Check out the other Not me! Monday blogs and come on join in the fun.

So here it goes...

I did NOT cave in and buy NOT one, but 6 boxes of Girl Scout cookies.

They did NOT most certainly stay in my house for less than a week. I would NOT ever eat almost a whole box by myself. Nope, NOT ME!

I did NOT then kind of have a feeling of nausea from so many cookies. It does NOT serve me right for NOT being such a glutton!

My baby, Evan did NOT turn 1 this past week. This year has NOT gone by way too fast, and I am NOT really emotional about my baby reaching this milestone!

He was NOT a little bit sick/irritable at his birthday party with his family.

Oh yes, and I did NOT make him wear this

He did NOT look so darn cute in it though, and I have NOT been putting my "SEXY curls" hair product into his hair to make it look like this. Nope, NOT me!
So, what have you NOT done this week?