Part two of our trip was jam packed with fun! Not a dull moment! When we got home from Michigan on Tuesday, I managed to unpack us all, do all of our laundry, repack us all and we were on the road by 1:00 on Wednesday en route to Disney. Talk about a whirlwind! I was actually feeling like I didn't want to go. I was so tired and just wanted to relax and unwind. But John convinced me we should go and I'm SO GLAD WE DID. John, you were right. We stayed at the Hilton on Buena Vista Avenue directly across the street from Downtown Disney. It was THE perfect location (buses to all parks came directly to hotel), it was super nice and John managed to get it for $71 a night!!! Whoop whoop! Once we arrived and got settled we walked to Downtown Disney to see what it was all about. Lots of people and lots to see! And of course "gucky" was in attendance (Aunt Sue... you gave Adrey that Ducky when he was born... that's a gift that keeps on giving)!
Speaking of "gucky" which Adrey so adorably refers to ducky... Adrey says "Donald Guck"... he pronounces the "D" in Donald perfectly and then says Duck with a "G". Stop.The.Cuteness.
Speaking of Gucky... When we got back to the hotel that night, we realized gucky was nowhere to be found. Adrey had left him somewhere at the park. I packed a spare one so fortunately it wasn't a a problem at 10:00 at night! But the next morning John said we should go back to Downtown Disney and stop at the Lego store to see if it was found. Sure enough, I walked in and told them we thought we left our "beloved ducky" and they opened the cabinet and WALA! Ducky in all its glory!! Can't believe we found it. Way to go Daddy!!
Charlie snacked on Cinnamon Cheerios and watched the crowd! By the way, the backpack below on the left is our new diaper bag. BEST MONEY I'VE EVER SPENT on a diaper bag and it's not even intended to be a diaper bag... it's a backpack, so it can be used for other things! It took me 3 years to find a DB that I actually like. AND, I got these cool colored compartment bags that slip inside. All three of them are different colors and one side is mesh so you can see what's in them. In one I kept all diaper/clothes changing related items so I could just grab that compartment (they have handles) and run to the bathroom as opposed to bringing the whole bag, in another I kept snacks, and in the third I kept activities! The sides had compartments for bottles and there are tons of zippered compartments for phones, sunblock, keys, etc. I know I don't need to explain how lame I am for LOVING and SELLING a diaper bag to all you moms out there because I KNOW you all know what it feels like to SCORE a great find like this! I got it at TUMI Luggage at Waterside Shops.
(The bag is not actually as big as it looks in the picture... Char-she is just really small!)
Adrey always has time to stop and smell the roses...
We ate dinner at T-Rex. It's a restaurant that has a bunch of enormous, life-size dinosaurs that move! Very realistic and really cool! Adrey was scared at first but warmed up to them pretty quickly!! Charlie was... "just happy to be there!"
After we ate dinner Adrey rode the train. Again. And again. And again. We must have dropped $20 on that darn thing but watching him in it was the cutest thing ever! I actually had a "moment" watching him and started crying. He was so happy to be on that silly little train and every time he'd turn a corner he'd turn around to see if we were watching. All he wants is OUR love, OUR encouragement, OUR support, OUR hugs and kisses, OUR presence and he feels totally and 100% safe and complete with US. He looks up to, respects and loves US more than anyone, and in that single moment watching his smile just brought me to tears. I had an "I love this child so much it hurts" moment. It's a "weird sad" to feel, because I was actually happy, but I literally felt like my heart hurt, but in a good way, there for a second. Total oxymoron but makes total sense, right?
I have to say this next picture is one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken of Adrey. Seeing the action/movement of the carousel and the absolutely picture-perfect smile on the most adorable 3 year old I've ever laid eyes on is just the cutest thing ever.
Mommy got to take a turn too!
Friday night we headed back to the hotel about 9:30... figured we'd rest up for the big day at Magic Kingdom the next day. In Michigan and at Disney, Charlie slept in a crib across from our king bed that the three of us slept in. We would all go to bed at the same time (and everyone would fall asleep within minutes of the lights going out because every day was jam packed). In the morning we'd hear Charlie start to rustle around in the crib. The first morning I made the mistake of lifting my head to see what he was doing and he saw me and was up for the day. As soon as he saw my head pop he was not wanting anything to do with the crib. From day 2 on, I would half open one eye without moving a single muscle in my body and I could see the black outline of his body standing up holding on to the side of the crib. He was standing there like a soldier trying to detect any form of movement from across the room. But when he saw nothing, he'd lay back down and sleep for another 30 minutes! LOL! Have I told you lately that he's the BEST BABY EVER!! And he was the best little trooper on this trip. There were lots of long days with modified naps (see below) but he was never grumpy or fussed. He's just so yummy!! We bought a couple fans and I had one blowing on him at all times... we discovered while at Disney that he's a sweat monster!!
We rode the People Mover! It's fun to see Disney from more of a bird's eye view! Adrey liked it! Charlie doesn't know he even went on it (reference photo above).
But he got a little nervous when it went through Space Mountain and it was pitch dark so he put his hand on John's lap so he was sure Daddy was close by!
Another Adrey favorite was Dumbo which I video recorded with my cell phone (too cute because he was wearing MY sunglasses) but have no idea how to get it off my phone and onto the blog.
More cuteness on the carousel!
Our plan all day was to stay at Magic Kingdom until the 9:00 parade and then head back to the hotel. Well, at about 6:15 a storm started brewing and the sky looked very ominous... Magic Kingdom doesn't serve alcohol so we decided if we were going to be stuck indoors somewhere it would be better to be stuck indoors at a place that serves beer! Such smart thinkers. I know. So we hopped on the monorail and headed to Epcot.
When we got to Epcot the sky looked like a huge, thick gray blanket. A thick, gray blanket ready to dump some serious buckets on us. We started to make our way towards Mexico when we saw a huge bolt of lightening and thunder soon following. So we picked up the pace and RAN the rest of the way there! We got there and it wasn't 5 minutes later that it started to rain. And when I say rain, I mean like some serious, can't-see-10-feet-ahead-of-you rain. And lots of lightening. We weren't the only ones with the idea to seek shelter and get food. Unfortunately, Mexico was only honoring parties with reservations. So we ponied up to a decorative barrel and plopped some chips and salsa/cheese/guac dip and a couple Sol beers (with limes) on it and let the kids play with all the maracas, sombreros, hacky sacks and painted pottery (ok, not the painted pottery, but everything else) that were at arms length from any given location in the joint. There was a whole lotta dejavu going on.
By now we've been there 2 hours. It's 9:15 and there's absolutely NO SIGN of the rain letting up. Charlie was absolutely exhausted and was starting to actually not look well. His eyes were red and his nose was red and running. I felt awful for him. I made an executive decision to buy some ponchos (because of course I forgot to pack the $30.00 worth of ponchos that we bought in December. So we now have $60.00 invested in Disney ponchos! John and I each put one on and I completely covered the front of the double stroller with the third one (securing every single opening) and we decided to brave the weather. Seriously it was raining SHEETS of water. Unbelievable. John took off with the stroller and I had the back pack on and we hauled butt towards the buses. The drainage system at Epcot was awful. I kid you not there were some areas of the walkways with standing water that was 5 inches deep. We were SOAKED. We stopped under a overhang about half way there to catch our breath and regroup and to temporarily unwrap the boys from the plastic to give them a chance to BREATH (LOL!) also. Can you tell how thrilled Charlie was to be there?!?!?
After regrouping we made our second and final mad dash towards the buses. The run in total was probably a mile long. Anyone who's been to Disney knows the relation of the bus stops to the countries. Thankfully we only wanted beer at Mexico... we could have chosen to have sake in Japan which would have been twice as far! When we got to the buses there wasn't a single sign that said "Hilton" which was our destination. I ran up to an attendant and asked where we needed to go. He squinted his eyes and pointed to THE FARTHEST bus stop. And the ONLY bus stop that didn't have shelter. Lovely. So we put our big girl panties back on and ran some more. We got to where the man told us to go and I tapped on the door of the van and asked if he was going to the Hilton. He said, "No, the bus in front of me is." SWEET! So we ran to the bus ahead and the bus drive couldn't have been nicer. He said, "Let me have the big boy" so I scooped Adrey out of the stroller and handed him to the man. Then I whipped off my poncho and scooped Charlie up and jumped on the bus. John folded up the stroller and joined us. We felt like we'd been run over by a truck. The bus driver handed us paper towels and we dried off a little. For WHATEVER reason, I guess just for confirmation, I said, "This bus is going to the Hilton, right?" The bus driver replied, "No, the bus in front of this one is." John and I looked ahead of our bus only to see the tail lights of the bus in front of us pulling away. Oh. Em. Gee. At that point I really thought we'd never make it back to the hotel and that we'd be soggy forever and that I'd never be able to change Charlie's poopy diaper that would every now and again make me have a gag reflex when I got a whiff of it.
Thirty seconds later another bus (wearing angel wings and a halo) pulled in front of us. John ran to it to CONFIRM that it was going to the Hilton and IT WAS! So, we deboarded one bus only to get on another, all the while braving the elements. Thankfully our hotel was the first stop on the list of four stops the bus was to make. So we ended up getting to the hotel about 10:15. Adrey and Charlie were both exceptionally good. I was so proud of them for cooperating so nicely. Adrey played with the camera and flirted with the cute teenage girl across the aisle from us the whole way to the hotel.
When we got back to the hotel, as long as it took me to shower and give both boys a bath, John was ringing out all of our wet belongings and hanging them anywhere he could find to hang them! I couldn't resist posting this next picture of Adrey on the potty.
We ordered room service (yes, dinner at 10:30) and ate dinner under the sheets. Adrey thought that was the best thing next to sliced bread!! He ate every last bite! Showering, getting in our jammy-jam-jams, and hopping into the bed never felt so good.
(For the record, I set the timer on the camera, there was not a mystery person in the room!)
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!
1 comment:
Loved this post! The way you described everything cracked me up! Looks like you had a great time, even with the rain!:)
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