This morning L was in such a rush to wake up and have some serious Disney fun, she totally neglected the fact that the parks wouldn't open for about six hours. Yeah. Someone decided it would be just swell if she woke up at 3:30. Why I was the only person who was waken up by her pleas for fun is beyond me. Actually...that's probably not true. It's probably biology....moms tuned into the sounds of their babies. ...Stupid biology. Why did no one think to program the dads to wake up to their babies?
Either way. In a room that is about the size of most standard hotel rooms, both B and my husband were out cold, leaving me to fend for myself with a baby too excited to sleep. Luckily, along with that pesky wake up thing God programmed me with, He also blessed me with, what I like to believe is, some pretty awesome resourcefulness, too. Yeah. That's right. I'm sagacious.
You better believe I shoved (in a completely motherly and tender way, of course!) my daughter to the far side of the bed, and crawled into bed with L. Maybe she was too excited to sleep. But I wasn't. Not since I'm the one responsible for pushing the stroller and/or carrying any one of two children at any given time throughout the day...in Florida. In June. (Oh....B and I decided to share a bed since the two beds in our room were doubles and my husband would be all cramped if we shared, what with being 6'8" and all...and plus he'd just squeeze me out anyway. He swears he doesn't. But we've been married almost 7 years. He loves me. But he does. Just sayin'. :) )
With my 4 year old shoved to the far side of the bed, and unwittingly sleep rolling her way back to the middle (Grrrrrrr!!!) and L cradled in between us, I decided to try to get some sleep. ...If there are 10 levels of sleep.....just pretend with me.....trying to sleep while cradling an 8 month old, in an awkward position, I was probably in level 2 of sleep. Keep in mind that Level 1 is the suckiest.
So when morning rolled around, finally, I was not ready to get up. By that point, I had given up around 6:30 (after repeated attempts to put her back in her crib) and forced our youngest on my husband to be in his charge while I desperately tried to catch up on sleep before it was officially time to start the day.
Whatever time it was my husband finally forced me from the comfort of my pillow was too early, but I was up. We rushed around getting ready. My parents had agreed to take the girls to Magic Kingdom for the day, allowing Matt and I a rare day to ourselves. We would be heading to Universal Studios, our first time there. I was in such a rush to get myself ready and make sure the girls' bag was packed for my parents, I forgot to eat. My husband forced me to share a Cinnabon with him at the park. Seriously. Forced me. I told him it wasn't good for me; too much sugar and fat; not good for all the progress I've been making health/workout-wise, but he insisted saying he didn't want me to get sick. Well...okay....if it's my HEALTH you're concerned about. ...Okay, so I caved. But we shared, and we had water. And I'm pretty sure I walked enough at Universal to burn off two WHOLE Cinnabons.
So. Some highlights of our day (with pictures to follow at a time TBD)....
-The Hulk--CRAZY INTENSE! How intense was it? Well, in the line, some girl passed out. In the line! At like 10:30 in the morning. It wasn't even hot yet. Okay...so I'm 99.9% sure there was more at play with her dilemma than pure Hulk Intensity could account for, but still. ...(She was okay.) We waited in line for like 8 millenia. No, really. It was a long line. But once we were on, the ride did not disappoint. ..Aside from the fact that the ratio of wait time to ride time seemed disproportionate, but who said life in a theme park was fair and proportionate? Right. So it is what it is. After we got off the ride, I felt a liiitttttle bit disoriented. I've never been drunk, but I imagine that the woozy walking that I see in movies would be something like what I experienced disembarking from the Green Machine. Also I had a headache from having my brain shaken (not stirred) by what had to have been at least 5 upside-downy twists and corkscrews. It was fun.
-Hogwarts--We rode the ride in Hogwarts. The line was 60 minutes, but since my husband and I know how to take one for the team, we opted for the Single Riders line, which boasted an impressive wait time of only 10 minutes or so. And, for our sacrifices, the ride person-getter-onner lady ended up needing two singles. Bingo! We get to ride TOGETHER! This ride was fun. It was like part simulation ride part...yo-yo? I don't know how else to describe the pully/droppy motion of the ride. It was a pretty great ride.
-The Harry Potter dragon ride. This one was fun. This one we waited forever for. Again, the wait time, in my mind, didn't totally justify the wait time, but some theme park employee "strategically" placed at some point in the queue, did offer to take our picture in front of the flying car from "The Chamber of Secrets"...so that was cool.
Those were our favorites of the day. We did have to leave a little earlier than we had planned, though. Matt started not feeling well. And by the time we rode Krusty's (The Simpsons) Funhouse Ride (Hey, it's crazy what a 10 minute wait time can convince you to do!), Matt was feeling sick, hot, and sweaty. ...And the ride wasn't any of those things. So we decided to head out and get him some rest. I'm pretty sure he was dehydrated, because once we got him some water, food, and rest, he bounced back pretty quickly, but he sure wasn't looking so hot there for a bit.
While off on our adventure, the girls were off on their own adventure with my parents in the Magic Kingdom. I was not privy to their day, of course, since I, as a mother, have not yet perfected the skill of being in two places at once (although that is on my list of things to do by the end of 2013). However, after picking the girls up in Downtown Disney (my parents headed back out to Epcot), this is what I was able to discern:
-L rode "It's a Small World After All". She did not care.
-B made my dad (Pops) take her on the teacups twice. She likes to spin the wheel and go super fast. My dad did not throw up. Props to dad on that one! :)
-B rode Space Mountain. (Whaattt?!?!) She had assured us when we arrived on Sunday that she was not riding that ride. Look at my little 4 year old all grown up and being brave! When I asked her what her favorite thing of the day was, she boldly, and without hesitation, announced, "Space Mountain."
-Bella met the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. My mom took some video. She looks very unsure of the rabbit, and rightly so. She's never seen the movie before.
So not many pictures taken today, but I'll try to upload what I have later. As for now...time to get to bed. Early day tomorrow back in the magical world of Disney. :)
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Monday, June 4, 2012
The Magic of Disney: Days Travel, 1, and 2
Travel Days
So we drove from Texas to Florida. In a car. With two children. Under 5.
It was, by and large, a huge success. I have no photographic evidence of this, but we did arrive at our Saturday night travel stop (Tallahassee) around 4:30ish when we hadn't planned to get in until between 6 and 8. Soo...success. The girls did great in the car. We left from Houston around 3:30am on Saturday, which seems insane, but that meant that we got a solid 5 hours of drive time before the girls woke up.
B had a mosquito bite that was apparently insanely painful, as she kept insisting that she needed itch cream every 10 miles or so. ...So glad I stopped at Target before we left town and picked some up!
In New Orleans, we drove over several bridges that crossed marshy/watery areas. We had discussions, at length, about the wildlife that existed below...mainly the presence of alligators. B looked, but never did spot any. She insisted they were down there (and may very well have been), because they like brown and green mud, both of which she was able to identify as we blazed over bridges at speeds of 70mph.
Later B announced that she didn't want the alligators to bite her, as that would hurt her "skeeto" bite. Yes. Because her "skeeto" bite would be all that would hurt. :)
Day One
Sunday we left Tallahassee for Orlando and made it in (finally) around 1ish? With a check in time a good three hours off still, we headed to Downtown Disney to get our feet wet. ...And so I could change from travel clothes (jeans) to park clothes (shorts).
While in Downtown Disney, we stopped in a Disney store to let Bella have a look around. Not a ride had been ridden, and she was already in Disney heaven! I forced myself not to tear up, because I am that much of a mush. It's true. I'm just so excited to get to share this with her. She spent several minutes perusing a bead stand.
With her first Disney experience under her belt, we headed to the buses to make our way to the Magic Kingdom.
Fact: Getting a stroller on a Disney bus....doable, but extremely awkward and time-consuming.
Fact: Paying 14 bucks to park seems well worth it after having to drag a stroller through a crowded bus, trying not to whack every knee in your path.
Upon arriving to the Magic Kingdom, we sunscreened up and headed down to the entry path, where I was attacked by a bee. I hate bees. I have had one too many run-ins with them, and I do not trust them to leave me alone if I leave them alone. Unless my children are in mortal and immediate danger, all bets are off, and I will (and have) run from bees, even at the expense of my dignity. ....And I did. Hey! It was just like 5-10 feet, and I went back for her. :)
We only stayed at the Magic Kingdom for an hour or so before it was time to head back and check into our hotel. Some highlights from our afternoon....
Day Two
Monday morning we woke up bright and early. We had reservations at the Cape May restaurant in one of the hotels for a character breakfast. We hadn't told B what we were doing. She was SO excited! Just to see the look on her face when she got to meet the characters was priceless! And a HUGE relief. You never can tell with B how she will react. I wouldn't have put it past her to tense up and shut herself off.
After breakfast we headed to Disney's Hollywood Studios. We were there all day, and we had a blast! The girls did great with very few meltdowns for either of them. Some highlights of our day...
Ughh. Pictures won't post right now. I'll have to edit later. :)
So we drove from Texas to Florida. In a car. With two children. Under 5.
It was, by and large, a huge success. I have no photographic evidence of this, but we did arrive at our Saturday night travel stop (Tallahassee) around 4:30ish when we hadn't planned to get in until between 6 and 8. Soo...success. The girls did great in the car. We left from Houston around 3:30am on Saturday, which seems insane, but that meant that we got a solid 5 hours of drive time before the girls woke up.
B had a mosquito bite that was apparently insanely painful, as she kept insisting that she needed itch cream every 10 miles or so. ...So glad I stopped at Target before we left town and picked some up!
In New Orleans, we drove over several bridges that crossed marshy/watery areas. We had discussions, at length, about the wildlife that existed below...mainly the presence of alligators. B looked, but never did spot any. She insisted they were down there (and may very well have been), because they like brown and green mud, both of which she was able to identify as we blazed over bridges at speeds of 70mph.
Later B announced that she didn't want the alligators to bite her, as that would hurt her "skeeto" bite. Yes. Because her "skeeto" bite would be all that would hurt. :)
Day One
Sunday we left Tallahassee for Orlando and made it in (finally) around 1ish? With a check in time a good three hours off still, we headed to Downtown Disney to get our feet wet. ...And so I could change from travel clothes (jeans) to park clothes (shorts).
While in Downtown Disney, we stopped in a Disney store to let Bella have a look around. Not a ride had been ridden, and she was already in Disney heaven! I forced myself not to tear up, because I am that much of a mush. It's true. I'm just so excited to get to share this with her. She spent several minutes perusing a bead stand.
 |
| B showcasing one of the gillions of beads in a Downtown Disney store. |
With her first Disney experience under her belt, we headed to the buses to make our way to the Magic Kingdom.
Fact: Getting a stroller on a Disney bus....doable, but extremely awkward and time-consuming.
Fact: Paying 14 bucks to park seems well worth it after having to drag a stroller through a crowded bus, trying not to whack every knee in your path.
Upon arriving to the Magic Kingdom, we sunscreened up and headed down to the entry path, where I was attacked by a bee. I hate bees. I have had one too many run-ins with them, and I do not trust them to leave me alone if I leave them alone. Unless my children are in mortal and immediate danger, all bets are off, and I will (and have) run from bees, even at the expense of my dignity. ....And I did. Hey! It was just like 5-10 feet, and I went back for her. :)
We only stayed at the Magic Kingdom for an hour or so before it was time to head back and check into our hotel. Some highlights from our afternoon....
 |
| Daddy and B on the "People Moves" ride. ...Very kid friendly and easy on the feet. |
 |
| Daddy and B on the Speedway ride. Matt insisted that B didn't want to drive |
 |
| Daddy and the girls in front of Cinderella's castle. B was insistent that we go in and find Cinderella. Do you know how hard it is to convince a four year old that one of her favorite princess can't come out right now?? |
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| Last ride of the afternoon...the carousel. B loves carousels and was thrilled when her horse ended up high when the ride stopped...like....above Mommy's head high. Getting her down was fun! |
 |
| Cutest little mouse on the block! Back at the hotel after a long drive and fun afternoon at the Magic Kingdom. |
Day Two
Monday morning we woke up bright and early. We had reservations at the Cape May restaurant in one of the hotels for a character breakfast. We hadn't told B what we were doing. She was SO excited! Just to see the look on her face when she got to meet the characters was priceless! And a HUGE relief. You never can tell with B how she will react. I wouldn't have put it past her to tense up and shut herself off.
After breakfast we headed to Disney's Hollywood Studios. We were there all day, and we had a blast! The girls did great with very few meltdowns for either of them. Some highlights of our day...
Ughh. Pictures won't post right now. I'll have to edit later. :)
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