Soaking 'em up...

Our final day at Magic Kingdom is set for August 3, but we found a hole in our calendar and managed to squeeze in a preliminary farewell trip Friday night (July 29). We had one of our best times at Disney ever - feeling so very blessed and soaking up each and every magical moment with my sweet babies. I'm so very aware that they'll be so much older and bigger the next time we do Disney... it's little things like your Disney passes expiring that really hit you in the face with the reality that the kids won't always be kids! I know I've already used this phrase, but there's just no better way to express the way I felt walking around the park - I was just consciously soaking 'em up. Every delighted expression, every joyous exclamation, every show of affection, every blessed minute. Soaking 'em up.

-BELOW- Standing on the platform of the Carousel of Progress. We only watched it with the kids once before, the day we activated our passes nearly 15 months ago. Since it's long and kind of boring for kids, I was surprised when Wesley kept asking to do it when we were at MK last week. Now I know why... he thought the Carousel of Progress was the People Mover. He was looking at the ride going past above the building. So he was confused when we went into the show, but then he remembered it and seemed pleased to have recovered a memory (I really don't think Anna Kate remembered it at all. 15 months is roughly a third of her lifetime!)





Wesley's all-time favorite - Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin (and he will correct you if you leave one word out of that title!). They always squabble over who gets to ride with Mom and who gets to ride with Dad, so this time I suggested that the kids ride together. They felt like bit stuff!





Priceless. -BELOW- There was a long period of time that Wesley was scared of the People Mover because it goes inside Space Mountain and gets very dark. But he made a beeline for it this time.





We got to take our race car around the track a second time without ever having to get out! As we were boarding, the ride operator overheard Wes & AK squabbling over who was going to get to drive. She looked at me and said, "Do you want to go around a second time so they can both have a turn to drive?" Ummm, yes please! You can't see her in this picture, but Anna Kate is in there hiding behind Wes. Michael was hanging out with Carigan in the grandstand. He gathered up his things and left the grandstand as he saw us approaching after our first ride, so he completely missed our encore race!





This time I took a pass on the teacups! In my absence, Michael took a little too much liberty in spinning the cup at record speeds, and he about made Carigan sick. He realized she wasn't squealing with happiness anymore and slowed down, and she looked a little dazed by the time the ride was over. -BELOW- Winnie the Pooh... much more our speed!





Snow White's Scary Adventure (I vividly remember being terrified of the witch dropping the boulder on our heads... in my memory it came crashing down and barely missed us. I had to laugh when I first rode it as an adult because the boulder barely wiggles up there and it's not very realistic at all). I love it that Carigan doesn't want to sit on my lap anymore on rides. Such a big girl!





We were riding the Dumbo ride when the fireworks began and Tinkerbell flew from the castle! We just discovered last week that behind the castle is the best place for firework viewing. We watched from Fantasyland again Friday night - absolutely amazing!! So funny that people line up an hour ahead of time and pack out sidewalks along Main Street and in front of the castle and it turns out that's far from the best place to see the show. Fantasyland is so close to the fireworks that they water down the rooftops prior to the show to prevent a fire!





I'm including this photo for historical reference one day... the fireworks lit up the construction currently taking place on the new Fantastyland, opening in 2012. That's Belle's house in the forefront, and the Beast's castle is going up just behind those trees. The new Fantasyland will also have a roller coaster based on the mines of the 7 Dwarfs and a Little Mermaid attraction, and they're moving the Dumbo flying elephants to the new area and installing a second set of flying elephants. This is all being built on the land that was once 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (which has been closed since 1994). -BELOW- We caught the Electric Parade in Liberty Square before heading for home.





We actually stayed until midnight!! The park closed at midnight, but last week when I had Wes chanting a mantra of "We're not leaving until 12-Oh-Oh!", we only made it to 11. This time we closed down the park. And the kids actually stayed awake the whole time!





... sort of. ;o) Wes & AK crashed in line for the monorail to take us back to the parking lot. Carigan was still awake and ready to go though! She fell asleep during the fireworks and slept all through Peter Pan's Flight and Mickey's Philharmagic, and by the time we were heading out of the park she was awake and had found her second wind. Just like her momma.

Trying to stay sane in Sanibel

One of the conferences Michael attends every summer lands in Sanibel every other year. We always tag along for a free hotel stay and a little time at the beach! These little trips are some of my favorite memories with my kids, but this is the first year I had to keep track of three kiddos by myself while Michael was in meetings all day (we skipped last year because the kids and I were in Kentucky). It was CUH-raaazy. But I managed to keep them all alive.

The American Association of Pediatrics (or something official sounding like that... I dunno, I just read it on Yahoo) changed their guidelines from rear-facing until 12 months & 20 pounds to rear-facing until age two. Wesley & Anna Kate both started riding front-facing around 14 or 15 months (click here for those pics - I resisted the urge to actually re-post them for comparison). I've always been a rule-follower, so I was trying to wait until Carigan was two, but it was proving impractical. Her little legs were squashed up against the back of the seat and -gasp!- she could not see the drop-down TV screen. So we gave in and turned Carigan's seat around prior to our drive to Sanibel (July 24). She was quite excited.





The conference is held at the Sanibel Harbour Resort & Spa, which is located on the bay, right by the (expensive!) toll bridge to Sanibel Island. Since it's on the bay and not the beach, the pool was our sole recreational destination while Michael was in meetings.

Unfortunately, I failed to bring my baby raft (although I doubt Carigan would even use it). She did NOT want to be held or touched or rescued in any way. She doesn't grasp the concept of water depth or drowning. The pool had a large expanse of shallow steps where she could stand in the water, but every time she ran toward a ledge and I grabbed her, she shrieked an ear-piercing high-pitched scream until I let her go again. Repeat scenario again, and again, and again andagainandagainandagain. I honestly expected the wealthy middle-aged sunbathers lounging by the pool to burst into applause every time I rounded up my lil' screamer for a grand kicking & screaming exit. Stinker.





After retreating from the pool on Monday, I took the kids to lunch and then attempted to do some Outlet shopping to kill time. I was very excited about the Gymboree Outlet but I used up all of my kid cooperation in one store and by the time I snapped this photo right outside their door, it was clear I was going to have to abort mission. All three kids had a good meltdown before we made it back to the car, all for different reasons. Fun times.

-BELOW- I promised Wesley that I would take him back down to the pool area after Carigan went to bed that night so he could get in the hot tub. Wes loved the hot tubs on the Disney cruise and was so excited when he spotted one from our balcony. But this hot tub was boiling! I managed to get my toes in after some effort and time to adjust... I have no idea how Wes got in this far. Anna Kate's face says it all! The entire time we were at the resort, we never saw anyone get in past their ankles.





This is what happens when I decide to crawl back into bed to snooze a little after getting the kids breakfast. It's rare that the kids ever allow me to rest at all, but when they do, I know I'm going to pay for it... the quieter it gets and the more content they seem, the more confident I become that I'm going to be greeted by a mess. But on this morning it was worth it. Anna Kate and Carigan had "cleaned" every surface in the entire suite.

-BELOW- Michael had a long enough lunch break on Tuesday that he was able to go out for Mexican with us. This is Carigan's favorite trick. She snorts like Peppa Pig. All the kids do, actually, but Carigan is especially good at it. You can tell just from the nose wrinkle that she's in the midst of an especially good snort.





Against my better judgment, I took the kids back to the pool Tuesday afternoon. This time I had called in reinforcements though; we met this sweet girl the night before down by the hot tub. Lauren is 13 and from Connecticut, and she completely adopted my kids. Both Monday night (after we all abandoned our toe bathing in the hot tub for the big pool) and Tuesday afternoon, Lauren held Anna Kate and took her wherever AK demanded as they determined which princesses they were going to be. She would even grab Wesley and walk the pool with one of my kids on each hip. Eventually Lauren's mom got in the pool and took over Wesley duties so Lauren could focus on Anna Kate. I had my hands full with Carigan. I appreciated the help so much and it made for a great memory for the kids! AK played so hard she crashed when we got back to the room. Carigan meanwhile uncovered my cookie stash.





Tuesday night when Michael got out of his meetings we headed across the very-expensive toll bridge to Sanibel Island. We walked the beach by the lighthouse and Wes & AK had a big time collecting shells.





-BELOW- If you're thinking to yourself that you've never seen a picture of Carigan with a binky in her mouth before, you're right... despite my best efforts, I could never get her to take one as a little baby. Wesley took a binky and Anna Kate never did, and it was sooo much easier with Wesley to have an "easy fix" to crying in the car or in the middle of the night. I decided that AK didn't take a binky b/c I hadn't tried hard enough, so when Carigan was born I had an entire array of binky shapes and sizes standing by. But she never once took one for even a second - she'd just gag on them. I tried for months and finally gave up. Then a few weeks ago Carigan came across an old binky and put it in her mouth and actually kept it there for awhile. I was conveniently getting ready to wean her that weekend, so I went to Walmart and bought a brand new binky and gave it to Michael before I disappeared for Project: Weaning. I told him it might help when she woke up in the middle of the night wanting to nurse. Well, it worked. For the past few weeks, Carigan has been a total binky babe! I think it's so hilarious that she never took one until 18 months, but I'm still ecstatic! Now when we're at Disney late at night and she's sleepy and miserable and there was previously nothing I could do to help, I just pull out the magical binky and she immediately nestles down and closes her eyes. Magic!!! I love binkies!





Sanibel Lighthouse, built in 1884. -BELOW- Whatever that black bird is up on top of that tree was squawking its head off at us!





Exactly two years ago we took a family photo in this same spot and Carigan was just a little bump on my belly! After our traditional stroll on the beach we headed to the same restaurant where we've eaten every time we come to Sanibel... although it's never the same. We've eaten there three times and three times it's changed to a different restaurant. These days it's called George & Wendy's Corner Grill. This time the entire interior was unrecognizable. But the food was still good.





Wednesday morning (July 27), standing on our balcony getting ready to go down for our last swim before heading home. Michael offered to let us spend the day at the beach or to let me go shopping at the outlets after we checked out, but I'd had about all the vacation I could stand... I was ready to head home. I'm telling ya, vacation is nuthin' but hard work when you've got kids in tow!!

Kwaheri Animal Kingdom!

Saturday (July 23) was our farewell trip to Animal Kingdom. It's a neat place but honestly it doesn't hold a candle to the other three Disney parks. This was actually only our third visit for the entire time we had passes. Animal Kingdom has the best two shows in all of Disneydom, but aside from that there's not much to do after you go on the safari. But we always have fun.





We got to sit on the front row during the Festival of the Lion King show! We were on the same level as all the performers, and they would all try to interact with Wesley and Anna Kate as they came out onto the floor. The stilt-dancers would lean down and high-five them and the monkeys would sniff. Both kids were even invited to shake African instruments and walk in the parade at the end, but neither one would go. I could have gotten really amazing pictures, but we left our good camera behind and just had my old point 'n click and everything came out blurry. Both the Lion King show and the Finding Nemo Musical are amazing shows. Lion King's performers are as good as Cirque du Soleil, and I've never seen anything like the Nemo musical. The performers have to sing (with Broadway quality voices), act, & do choreography... all while operating a very complex and intricate puppet. We got to sit front row for that too (Carigan scores us primo seating!), and we could appreciate the complexity of operating the puppets. Seriously impressive.





We caught King Louie and Brer Rabbit as they were emerging from the forest. The kids got a quick hug in passing but then we realized they had arrived to create a greeting station, so Wes and AK got to be the first ones to get their picture taken. No waiting - woo-hoo!





A hippo saying hello to the girls! After taking the Kilimanjaro Safari, we walked the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. I didn't dare try to take any pictures of the safari... I was busy trying to keep Carigan safely inside the vehicle! The girl has no fear and she didn't want to be held. She fought to be let go the entire time and could have easily been bumped right out of the truck if I hadn't struggled against her wishes the entire ride!





We perched the girls up on a trash can to view the parade. Both girls were excited about seeing Mickey! After the parade we headed to the Nemo show and then let the kids play in the Boneyard playground.





The Primeval Whirl is still closed (I think someone died on it awhile back, and it's yet to re-open. I'm guessing they're going to take it out), so that left the TriceraTop Spin as the only non-scary ride in the park. We rode it three times. I rode it an extra time with Anna Kate while Michael took Wesley on the Dinosaur ride. Michael said it was bumpy & scary and Wes did not like it.





We ended the day with ice-cream and hug from Pluto and Goofy. Carigan even tolerated a little greeting from Pluto! She screamed her head off any time a character got near the entire time we were on the Disney cruise and every other time we've been in a Disney park! But she didn't even fuss when Pluto said hello. It was a breakthrough!

Last Day of Epcot: Trial Run

So we thought Thursday (July 21) was going to be our last visit to Epcot, but we realized we just couldn't get it all done in one afternoon/evening, so we've re-arranged our calendar for the next week and plan to squeeze in one more visit. A lot of people assume that Epcot would be the least fun of the four Disney parks for kids, and I've bumped into a lot of tourists that get a 4-day pass and forfeit Epcot for a 2nd day at Magic Kingdom. They always look to me to assure them their kids aren't missing anything at Epcot, but I have to say that my kids have always loved Epcot! I think my fondest memories of Disney World when I was little were of Epcot at well. It's just a groovy place!





I had completely overlooked one entire Innoventions pavilion - we had only every been in Innoventions West (home of the the Great Piggy Bank Adventure), and had never noticed Innoventions East over there by Mission: Space. Since we can't ride that we rarely mosey over to that side of the park. I can't believe it took us over a year to discover it. The kids loved the Test Lab!





Jumping up and down on this pad caused the door above to open and slam shut... the faster you jump, the faster it slams. All my kids loved it. ;o) -BELOW- Wesley competing in a game to retrieve items necessary for an emergency storm kit.





They weren't tall enough to ride Sum of all Thrills, but they got to pose in a simulator anyway. The attendant and I both acted as if the ride was about to take off once they got in their seats... which completely freaked them out (since they could see operating simulators suspended upside down high above our heads), but they quickly figured out we were kidding.





Playing in the spitting fountains outside Captain EO. Honey, I Shrunk the Audience was one of my favorite attractions at Epcot, but when we got our passes they had just shut it down. I thought they might be refurbishing it, but turns out they were taking it out to bring back Captain EO. It finally opened and we watched it Thursday. I can't imagine why they thought it was a good idea to bring that back, except that everyone is all sentimental right now about anything Michael Jackson since he died so recently. It was so completely dated and would make no sense to anyone that doesn't remember the 80s. It was a bit interesting for me to watch because it triggered memories I didn't know I had. I didn't think I remembered anything about the show, but as I watched it, I did (the furry thing on MJ's shoulder, the little elephant-looking creature, etc.). It's funny, all I remembered about watching Captian EO as a little kid prior to watching it on Thursday was that there was a sappy pre-show we watched in the area outside the theater that was sponsored by Kodak and showed kids running through fields with psychedelic butterflies. Maybe I dreamed it, but pretty sure that's a memory.

It was all fun and cute at first when they were in their spaceship, but as soon as they landed and encountered the scary lady, I was majorly regretting taking the kids in there! Luckily Carigan fell asleep so I whispered to Wesley the entire time to ensure him the bad guys would turn good, and Michael whispered to Anna Kate the whole time. I debated whether or not to write this because I'm not all about writing down things that would ever embarrass one of my kids, but just to let you know how scary it was - Anna Kate actually wet her pants a little. And she hasn't had an accident (other than while sleeping) since potty-training! Poor thing. Since she's 4 years old, I no longer carry an extra set of clothes for her, so all we could do was take her panties off and let her air out going commando the rest of the night. Her dress dried pretty quickly (she still went potty when the movie was over so she caught herself before she was drenched). And Michael had a wet spot on his pants the rest of the night from where she had been sitting on his lap. Suffice it to say, Epcot needs to jump off the Michael Jackson hysteria bandwagon and bring back Honey, I Shrunk the Audience!! Wes actually loved Captain EO because we showed him on the marquee that it was made by George Lucas, the same guy that made all the Star Wars movies. And since Wesley's never been allowed to watch any of the Star Wars movies, he felt like big stuff. Although he seriously didn't get all the dancing and why the captain talked like a girl.





We hadn't planned on eating in a restaurant (I had packed Lunchables and PBJs and usual), but it was SO hot & crowded and we couldn't find a cool place to picnic, so we decided a change of plans was in order. It can be hard to get into a restaurant at Disney without a reservation, but I guess most people aren't very adventurous and the Moroccan restaurant was available with no waiting. I have to admit it wasn't my favorite, but Michael loves trying weird food and it made his heart happy, so that was enough for me. That and the air-conditioning. :o) They had a little stage show with Moroccan music and dancing, and the kids enjoyed the special treat (eating out is always a treat!). And now we can cross Morocco off our list; when we had passes in 2004 with Tony & Susan and Mike & Erin Rogers, we talked about wanting to eventually eat in each and every country in Epcot. We only got about half way through the countries in 2004 - Mexico, Norway, China, Italy, America, and Canada. Now with Morocco off the list, we only have Germany, Japan, and France to go!





After eating dinner, Wesley wanted to ride the Maelstrom in Norway - which he flat-out REFUSED to ride just last week when I took them to Epcot for AK's princess breakfast! He can be so unpredictable. Michael got him on Test Track a few months ago and he hated it. I had been waiting with a rider-swap pass so I could ride with him next and he absolutely would not go again. I was disappointed because without Wesley's cooperation, I'd never get to ride it. All the sudden this time Wesley wanted to ride Test Track. I rode it with him earlier in the day and he went on & on about how much he loved it! It's just all about what kind of mood he's in! Anyway, the fireworks were just starting as we exited Maelstrom and we found ourselves in a great spot. We went into the park that morning telling the kids it would be good-bye, but we left telling them we'd be back next week... we love Epcot!