Orlando Vacation Part 4: Animal Kingdom

A few months ago I scheduled an early morning character breakfast at Animal Kingdom.  I think Mike thought I was crazy when we had to get up and ready super early to make it to our 8:25am breakfast.  It doesn't seem THAT early, but by the time you drive through the Disney property and park and everything, you need to leave kinda early.  When we pulled up to the parking area and handed over our money the attendant gave us a special "Magical Moments" parking pass valid for a prime parking spot in the lot...better than our CAA diamond pass that we have.  It was actually the closest spot in the lot! How exciting! Good too because I had underdressed everyone and we were a bit cold in the morning.  

We made our way over to the restaurant for the breakfast buffet.  We were sooo excited for Mickey Waffles...well, Paige and I really.  

First Mickey made his way over to our table dressed in his safari gear.

Then Daisy:

And finally Goofy.  I'm surprised Rose wasn't scared.  I think she was prepped after the incident with Burbear at the Christmas party. :

The Mickey waffles (i later regretted not having another one...I had room for more!)!

The first ride we went on was the Kilimanjaro Safari ride.  I was sure Rose would love this and I envisioned her pointing to all the animals and squealing with delight--not the case.  She was screaming and freaking out the whole time.  First she was mad when i put my bag in the pouch on the seat in front of us.  Then she was really upset that the ride was soooo super bumpy.  It was a long long ride holding her while she was so upset.  Also, there was a couple that squeezed in our row when they were supposed to wait for the next vehicle and we were a bit squished.  I think Paige enjoyed seeing a lot of the animals up close, but she got scared when the guide pretended we were going to fall off a rickety bridge.  In true Disney fashion, there is always a pretend "disaster averted" in a tram car style ride.  As we went over a bridge he said "we are not ok! We are not ok!" as the bridge shook back and forth, and later Paige told me that she thought it was real.

One of the sections of the theme park was called "Dinoland USA".  Paige was too short to go on a ride she was really looking forward to--Dinosaur.  She needs to grow about an inch.

We went on this triceratops ride that she was also looking forward to.  In a way it's ok that she can't go on some rides, Rose doesn't have to wait around and can go on all the same things as Paige.

There was a dino playground with slides and a digging area:

Later Paige said that the digging area was "so boring she never wants to go there again", but admitted later she was just mad that a boy had dumped sand on the dinosaur bone she had just unearthed.

I think our favourite activity there was the Festival of the Lion King show.  It was live performers doing acrobatics on a trampoline, bars, and ropes, and a few robotic animals on the side.  They sang all of Paige's favourite songs from the movie.  I'm really glad we got that movie last year because Paige loves it and it really made her excited about this show.  It was really spectacular.

The other activity that didn't go down so well was "It's Tough to be a Bug" 3D movie.  In addition to the bugs swarming around your face, there was a stinky smell from the stink bug, the sound of swarming bees in your ears, lots of mist, sudden blasts of air to the face, and a couple of scary guys.  Paige used my arm to cover her eyes the whole time.  She was really scared and kept saying afterwards that she never wanted to go on it again.

Orlando Vacation Part 3

It was a really warm and sunny day on the second full day of our vacation.  After a little breakfast on the balcony, we headed off to Downtown Disney (shopping and restaurants), briefly getting lost on the Disney property as Rosie was full on screaming.  

 Mike really wanted to get a small Buzz Lightyear Lego keychain from the Lego store, but the Toy Story set had been discontinued. Instead he got a Star Wars Lego set which he assembled with Paige later at the hotel, and 3 customized Lego bricks...one says Paige, another says Rose, and the other says Turcsanyi.  On top of them are 3 little guys that we created from bins of Lego parts. Rose was taking the Lego heads out and throwing them on the floor.

Rose was too scared to stand beside these guys:

Woody:

Buzz Lightyear:

Paige is on the left of this Lego family.

Lego dragon:

In the massive Disney merchandise store:

Mike's business partner Jules was in town with his family as well (even though he's not attending the same trade show as Mike), so we met up for lunch with Jules and his wife Carm and their 3 kids at the Earl of Sandwich.  We ended up with lots of extra sandwiches for some reason, which we ended up eating later for dinner.  Paige, Rose, and the kids spent a lot of time playing in the bushes beside our table while we were eating, and then while we were finishing up, they hit the spray area right beside our outdoor table.  They were attempting to avoid the water but Paige was victim of a few too many water jets, and had a few falls, rendering herself completely drenched.  

Paige was so soaked an would have been really miserable in the car so I took her back to the Disney store to purchase a souvenir Ariel nightgown that she wore right out of the store.

I believe this was also the day where we realized the merits of a good swim diaper at the hotel pool.  I don't know how they manage to keep everything in while in the water...

Orlando Vacation part 2: Magic Kingdom

After much debate we decided to go to the Magic Kingdom on day 2 of our trip.  We weren't sure at first as it was a weekend, and probably busier, and also the weather forecast wasn't great.  Thank goodness we went because a) it didn't rain at all and was sunny the whole time (?!), and b) it was not busy and we waited for 5 minutes or less for every ride we went on (?!).   We went as soon as we were ready in the morning.  When we arrived we rented a stroller for Paige as it is definitely too much walking for her.  Rose ended up really liking the rented stroller and spent more time in it than Paige.  Paige really liked sitting in her old umbrella stroller, so it all worked out!

It actually worked out really nicely, as the girls got to hope in and out of the strollers quite often so they were never overtired or bored.  

 The first ride we went on was Aladdin's magic carpet ride. It was the first ride we saw and the lineup was short so we rushed off to the lineup.  Really everything was a short line up so it didn't matter.
This year all 4 of us could go on every ride.  No more Rose sleeping in the stroller or needing to be fed.

 We got Rosie the "Lotsa" bear from Toy Story 3.  She was excited.  They made him look all worn and he smells like strawberries.

 Paige wanted the mouse ears and promised she'd wear them as they were soft and not scratchy like the ones from last year.

 In the lineup for "It's a Small World", which was significantly better than I remember it from my childhood.  So cute.

 We went on the Aladdin ride, haunted mansion, Pirates, small world, and the carousel.  We had lunch there near the end, some popcorn and then one final ice cream treat before leaving at about 2:30ish.

 As we were heading to the monorail, Paige saw this sign and said "ok, who's going to take my picture?"

We headed home for Rose's nap after a fun filled day! In the car Rose was saying "ya rides, ya fun".  She was too excited to sleep in the car and had a nap at home.  I made Paige lie down to rest, but she wouldn't sleep.  I'm so happy we have 7 days of passes.  Really nice to do half days without having to overdo it, or push our luck.  There's so much more we want to do.

Orlando Vacation Part 1!

Finally the day we had been waiting for came! February 4th and we were off to Disney! For whatever reason Mike and I woke up at 3:58am, 2 minutes before our alarms were set to go off.  After we quickly got our acts together and had the car packed, I went to wake up Paige who was seriously tired.  I carried her downstairs to put on her jacket and shoes...still in jammies, no hair or teeth brushed.  At this point she was pretty awake.  After waking Paige, I went into Rose's room and woke her up enough to get her sleep sack off and jacket, socks and shoes on.  She looked really confused, but opened her eyes and sat up.  When we got into the car the girls were wide awake.  We stopped briefly at a Tim Hortons to grab coffee, and Mike ordered a bagel for himself.  When they smelled the food...."hungie", says Rose, "I'm hungry", says Paige.  I busted out their snacks/breakfast and they were good to go.  Pretty quiet on the way to the airport, but excited and confused.  The airport was pretty rushed, as per usual, and I'm thinking a Nexxus pass may be in order for the family to avoid the long customs line.  It's a pretty long wait when it's that early in the morning.  We were go go go go go all the way until we got onto the plane late, as per usual, and then we were on our way.  The flight was uneventful.  Neither of the girls were even close to sleeping, and before we knew it we were in Orlando! It was a warm day, much warmer than our arrival day last year, which is always good.  It's always good to have an extreme temperature change rather than a minor one.  

When we got to the hotel we were able to check in right away.  It was about 11:30.  The thought never crossed my mind, but it was quite possible we would have had to wait till 4:00 for check in.  Not sure what we would have done. We ordered a room service lunch since we hadn't gone to the grocery store yet to stock our kitchen.  The plan was for Rose to have a nap after lunch but it soon became apparent that she was too hyperactive to sleep.  Paige and Rose were running around and singing and being crazy.  They were too excited, and for weeks Paige's idea was that we would go swimming right away when we arrived at the hotel.  We decided that would be a good idea since Rose was clearly not going to sleep, so we got ready and off we went to the pool!:

After about 45 minutes Rose got really tired and spacey looking so I took her back for a nap.  As I was carrying her back to the hotel room she was about to doze off.  She didn't even want any books and she was out like a light.  Paige, on the other hand,  was good to go until about 7:30 when we decided it was best she went to sleep!  She did really well, but at dinner she was pretty quiet as she was eating our homemade pizzas.

A great first day! We put both girls in the same room and there were minor problems.  Paige likes a night light, but Rose got confused by it and didn't sleep until it was dark.  We have realized that both girls keep sleeping if the other wakes up in the night.  For instance, Rose screamed out in the night and I ran in right away and Paige hadn't woken at all.  Last night Paige had a bad dream and was thirsty and called for me 3 times, and Rose only stirred around slightly without waking up.   We have the same type of hotel room again this year--2 bedroom unit, with kitchen and laundry room.  Tons of space to put all of our stuff.

Ready for Disney...

We leave in 4 days for Orlando (Saturday Feb. 4).  I am over-the-top excited!! It can't come fast enough! I think I am more excited this year as I know what to expect and really look forward to the hotel, and of course the activities.  Paige is ultra excited too as she remembers the vacation from last year clearly.  I keep reminding her that we won't be there right away, and in fact have to wake up really really early (4:00am ish) to go to the airport.  Also, I am reminding her that we aren't going to rides right away.  Probably not even until the Monday. 

I remember last year we kept telling her that it would be really warm there, and when we arrived it was pretty cool out.  Not the extreme sort of temperature change I was hoping for.  This year, it looks more promising with a temperature in the high 20's.  Rose will hopefully be stunned....although she'll probably be too tired to think straight. 

I have basically finished all the packing I can do. We have all these suitcases plus Paige's small princess one for the toys. 

We could drop the small black one in front (it is the smaller than the blue and red, although it looks larger in the picture), but I would prefer to bring it in case we bring anything home, and I'm sure we will.  It stresses me out squishing things in, even if there is room for them.  I prefer to have lots of extra room.
I figured it would be better to pack most things and just wear other clothes this week than have to pack at the last minute.  Besides, its going to be warmer than here and we don't really need most of the clothes anyway.

We only have passports, toiletries, diaper related items, Rose's noise machine, the toys, and Rose's snacks to pack at the last minute really. 

Every day Paige has been sticking a sticker on this countdown chart.  Notice I screwed up and had to add a square at the end.  I put numbers on the squares in the corner countind down to try to help Paige learn larger numbers.  I should have wrote them larger because I don't think Paige could read them even if she wanted to.

Since we'll be gone for Valentine's day, Paige wrote up all the Valentine's for her class and we dropped them off at the school today.  On Thursday we'll be picking up her indoor shoes to bring on the trip as she doesn't have any running shoes and I felt it didn't make sense to buy more when a perfectly good pair will just be sitting at school while she's gone. 

So I feel pretty prepared to leave, although I'm sure I'll have a bad sleep the night before we go worrying about the last minute preparations.  Luckily, as it's so early that we have to leave, we'll just put everything downstairs the night before we go, except for one suitcase, and chuck the last minute things into it.  No breakfasts, and probably not even getting the girls dressed. 

So, unless anything blogworthy happens before Saturday, I'll next be blogging on the road of our adventures in Disneyworld!

Excellent...

On the way home from school the other day, I asked Paige if she got a listening sticker at school--apparently there is a #1 listener sticker that a couple of kids get each school day.  "I don't know, I might have a surprise for you when we get home", she says.

When we get home she starts reciting her "getting dressed in the winter" routine from school.  "first the mitts, then the scarf...etc". Finally she says, "AND THEN MY SNOWPANTS....", and when she takes them off I see a "#1 listener Paige" sticker on her shirt!  I was so proud.  She says that Will got one too, even though on the way home she told me he had a time out.  I asked her why Will got one if he also had a time out.  She says, "he had a time out with another teacher and she must have forgot to tell Mrs. Lang". Scammmer.