“I want to hug Olaf! I want to hug Olaf!”….”No. No. I not hug him. I scared o him.”

We’ve been back from vacation for a few days now. Daniel keeps asking when we’re “ever going back to America.” By America, he is referring to our home in California. It was amusing to listen to Caleb trying to explain to Daniel that we are still in America.

In the short time that we’ve been back from Disney World, 7 of us caught a cold. 6 of us developed a hacking cough. (I have escaped it so far.) 2 of us have projectile vomited. Maybe that’s why Dan is ready to head back to “America”!

I think this was the first time in our 10 years of being parents that we were awakened to the sound and FEEL of projectile vomit at 5:50 am. I’ve never jumped out of bed with so much quickness!! We got him changed, us changed, stripped the bed, cleaned up, and all gathered in the living room to watch Planes, JD’s current favorite movie.

I sat there with my coffee, so thankful for our automatic coffee maker, trying to force myself to wake up.

I was so happy to see Caleb walk into the living room at 6:10. I snuck off to his bedroom and went back to sleep in his bed. (Mine was still wet.)

Daniel does have some happier summer vacation news. He has an exciting new accomplishment to add to his name: underwater swimmer! He can now go under and swim without even pinching his little nose. He mostly taught himself. That’s how Daniel rolls.

We’ve sent summer out with a bang. Here are the photos from Day Three of vacation, which we spent at Hollywood Studios.

It’s taken me so long to blog about our Disney trip, you may think we spent three weeks there. But no, I’m just slow. We were there for four days.

The almost disaster

This ABC cafe was a huge hit with our boys because they have tv’s everywhere. We couldn’t get a word out of the boys or a question answered the whole time. They were total tv zombies, watching ….a cooking show. Lol!

Ordering food for six people at Disney is confusing. No, ordering food for six people anywhere is hard to keep straight. You know that feeling when you go to the drive-thru window with 6 people in the car? And they all order something different? That is our life, ya’ll!!  Every meal of vacation!!

I thought nothing of picking up these adorable chocolate cupcakes for the boys. I kind of wanted one myself.

So a miracle happened. No, I’m telling you, our almost disaster was a miracle.

Now, normally Joshua eats all of his food and then starts eating everyone else’s. But this time he did NOT. Weird. Feeding Joshua is like feeding a teenager. He’s only 10, but it is. My mom, who fed three teenagers at once, has already confirmed this.

I figured he would surely tear into that cupcake, but he looked at it, a CHOCOLATE cupcake, with CHOCOLATE icing, that looks like Darth Vader even, and said, “No, I don’t want it.”

That was a stop the music moment right there. I was all, “What? But it’s so..look at it. You don’t want it?”

Alan said, “He must be full. Can I have it, Joshua?”

Joshua agreed to let Alan have the cupcake, and Alan took one bite and discovered……peanut butter filling. Pure peanut butter!

Aughhhhhhh!!!!!

Oh my goodness. If that had happened to Joshua, we would have had to use the EpiPen, which we did have, and then Day 3 would have abruptly ended with a ride to the local ER in a nice Disney World ambulance.

Nut allergies are an easy thing to drop your guard about because for the most part, it’s pretty easy to just not eat nuts. We were way more vigilant after this cupcake incident.

It was about 95 degrees in the Indiana Jones show.

JD made it halfway through the show, but when cars started blowing up and catching fire, JD insisted that we leave. So he and I exited early.

We left the park around 3pm, sweaty and tired.

Even bus rides are fun and exciting to children. I wish I could get that level of enthusiasm back for myself.

The T-Rex

That evening, we ate supper at Disney Springs, at the most themed out restaurant I’ve ever seen. Hard Rock Cafe has nothing on this place.

T-Rex entry and gift shop

Magma, Sea Creatures, an Ice Age in the back, roaring dinosaurs, a giant octopus. This place delivered the atmosphere, and the food was delicious too.

JD had only managed a 10 minute nap that day, so by our 6:30 dinner, he was ready to collapse.

So he nodded right off to sleep, right on Joshua’s shoulder.

He slept until we were all the way back AT our hotel. And then he woke up hungry and with more energy than the rest of us.

Enjoy the rest of summer while you can. It’s almost over! Don’t forget to keep in touch. I’d love to hear about what you’re doing with the rest of your summer.

The post Hollywood Studios, the Almost Disaster, and the T-Rex appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

This was at that big Epcot ball that is the symbol of the resort. It’s a ride that takes you through the ages of technology.

JD was a little disappointed when he met Bay Max. He had it in his head that he was going to get to “put Baymax’s stuff on him.” Translation: JD wanted to dress Bay Max in his red armor, but they told him to please not touch anything. Ha!

For most people, Epcot is all about touring the different countries, but for us it was all about 2 things. #1. Hanging out with our friends and #2. Disney characters!!!!

The best way to meet Disney characters is to schedule a meal with them.

You can splurge while you’re there, or you can buy a meal plan in advance, and then it feels like these expensive meals are free because you’ve already paid for them. (It’s called the Disney Dining plan, and I am all about it.)

In case you’ve never been to Disney World, let me caution you here that if you want to do a “character meal” at one of the restaurants that have characters walking from table to table, you should make reservations. This is very easy to do. Simply download the *My Disney Experience* app. You can make reservations about 6 months prior all the way up until the day before. I made ours 1 or 2 weeks out, and many time slots were already booked up.

At Epcot, we met Pluto, Mickey Mouse, and Chip and Dale at the Garden Grill. This was the most fun!! Each of these four classic characters were talented entertainers, and they posed with us, played with us, and cracked us up. Characters are not always this awesome.

He gave me a kiss on the head. I felt special.

JD wasn’t so sure about Pluto, so he settled for a high-five.

I can’t remember if this was Chip or Dale. They were both a hoot. Daniel must’ve really thought this place was magic. They danced with him and goofed around. Dan just laughed and laughed. We all did.

Now you know we love us some shenanigans!

Pluto, getting a sip of Caleb’s drink. (Don’t worry. Not really.)

Daniel hammed it up.

Mickey!

These next pictures tell a heart-warming story.

See, JD was a touch scared of the characters. But when he saw Mickey Mouse, and this seemed to be the REAL Mickey, he started to feel brave. JD said, “I want to see him!!”

So Mickey gestured to JD for a hug.

And JD happily accepted.

So Mickey suggested that I take a photo of him with JD.

And so we did.

It rained everyday, but that was a BLESSING. This kept the temperatures down to a manageable level.

2 tough dudes, ready to get wet

I think I’d like to be Daniel. What a fun life he has.

JD’s favorite exhibit

Our other favorite thing about Epcot was all the Nemo stuff. Or at least, it was certainly JD’s favorite. While we were waiting our turn for “Turtle Talk with Crush,” he wanted his picture made in this shark mouth so badly that we waited in a slow line behind it, and then we had to drag him out of the thing after the photo was made.

After all the shows, Lightning McQueen, character meetings, swimming, and all that were finished, and we were driving back home, I asked JD, “JD, what was your favorite thing we did at Disney World?”

“Fish. Seeing fish tanks.”

Ha! Well, we could’ve done that at Pet Smart!

Amy said that I should get that poor boy a fish tank.

We hate to give up good fun to go back to the room for naps, so we just let JD take all of his naps in the stroller. Selfish? Maybe, but he seemed perfectly happy.

I wanted to meet Joy and Sadness from Inside Out. I thoroughly enjoyed that movie, but their line was always 40 minutes long, and very few things in life are worth that. This was as close as I got.

We loved it when our bus rides back to our room were practically empty.

And that’s all, folks! After Epcot, we had dinner with our friends at the Grand Floridian, which was beautiful. The boys LOVED the water slide at their pool, but my camera was dead, so I have no photos of that evening. It sure was fun, though.

What are you all doing for fun this summer? How much longer before your kiddos go back? We are only a week out now. I can’t believe it!

Like reading about Disney World? Read more here:

Disney Day 1: Deep Thoughts from the Magic Kingdom 2016

Animal Kingdom with Toddlers

Disney World 2009 with 2 Toddlers

The post Day 2: Partying with Mickey Mouse and Pals at Epcot appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Animal Kingdom was the most important park of all to Joshua, who was still in his obsessed-with-animals phase.

We loved the Disney parades.

Total bliss for Joshua!

sharing his popcorn with the ducks: No, I do not know if it’s safe for ducks.

Our trip was a lot about the ducks and the water. You just can’t pick your kids’ interests. Some boys are fascinated with trains or tractors. Joshua LOVES animals and the water. We think he may be a Navy captain one day.

sweetly sharing popcorn bros

Day 2: The Animal Kingdom

The Animal kingdom was obviously highly anticipated by Joshua. This boy was so excited he RAN from the bus to the park entrance, and all day he said, “I want to see animals. Where’s the elephants? How about some lions?” He was so HAPPY. (and so COLD. This was the coldest day. We started out a little later to miss the 20 degree weather, but it was still literally freezing.)

Alan and 1-year-old Caleb

The first thing we did was stroll through some trails so Joshua could check out all the water and the birds. This was his first time to see flamingos. Then we went on a safari ride. It actually wasn’t quite as good as the one we went on with Nonna at Pine Mountain. But we still enjoyed it. Caleb was so cold he wasn’t even moving that day. ( I know. So sad!) He fell asleep on the safari. I think it was Joshua’s favorite thing of the day.

We had lunch at Tusker House, which has a very African flair. Then (on my insistence b/c I was tired of being cold and worried about Caleb!) we went to see the Lion King show. It was great, and the boys loved it! Joshua’s been making wart-hog noises ever since, and that’s a pretty annoying sound.

The Lion King show was a life-saver: entertaining and indoors!!

Then we took a zoo-like walk where the tigers and birds are. We tried to take in an outdoor bird show, but Caleb was having none of that. And I don’t blame him. Too cold. In the afternoon we got the boys popcorn and watched the parade. Then we went to the room for a few moments of rest and headed back to The Magic Kingdom for supper with Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and Piglet.

That was our only restaurant experience that ended with me heading out early while Alan picked up the tab b/c the boys were just too exhausted. But we did leave at exactly the right time to sit in the warmth of the bus to watch the fireworks! The boys loved that. Oh! And did I mention Joshua made it through all 5 days without using his pull-up once!!! So proud!! Of course there was a bush watering incident, but that’ll make a funny story one day!

I’m pretty sure that’s the only night that we stayed late enough to see fireworks. This was me in front of the lit-up castle.

The first night the boys were having a party in the room. The other nights they passed out the second their heads hit the pillow. Caleb actually slept in a playpen. We stayed at one of the value resorts, can’t remember which one, and were fully satisfied. However, the rooms are so small, we upgraded to TWO adjoining hotel rooms, and that was back when we were only a family of four. But that worked out splendidly. We even had two bathrooms that way!

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We are going to Disney World!!!!

I am so excited!!!

I dug back into the Xanga archives and found these photos from our first and only Disney World vacation. Well, first and only for Joshua, Caleb, and me anyway. Even though we may have appeared to be off our rockers to take two children that small to Disney, it wasn’t crazy at all. It was every bit as magical as they say.

And cold.

It was so cold the waterfall on the safari at the Animal Kingdom froze in place. So did our 1-year-old’s snot. I am not exaggerating!!  We kept buying Disney sweatshirts just to keep warm, and that’s a big deal for us!

So without further yack-yack, Disney World with a 3 year-old and a 1-year-old (who looks like a 3-year-old..ha!)

January, 2009

This is Day One of our Walt Disney World trip, and in these first photos we are on The Magic Kingdom train that goes around that park. We, of course, are headed for Toon Town. The boys cannot imagine the journey that awaits them!

Playing on the structures and staring at all the little ponds and lakes was big at this age. Caleb is on the left, wearing the teddy-bear pack, and Joshua is on the right. They’ve looked like twins almost since the beginning.

Buzz is the first character they met. But they didn’t really want to meet him. Oh well. At least they’re smart enough to know something was not right with this! 🙂

(We will never be the folks spending time in line with an autograph book, which is delightfully freeing! Thank you, boys!)

Day One, The Magic Kingdom.

Day one, we knew it was supposed to be cold,but we’re thinking Florida, Disney World! It probably will get warmer later in the day. So we dressed warmly, but not warmly enough, and we FROZE.

But other than that, it was good. We made it to about 3pm before calling it a day and heading back to the hotel room. Caleb was in awe at first. He just sat wide-eyed on the train ride, taking in his surroundings and probably also wondering why we’d brought him out to freeze….He and I were also in the depths of our cold virus, so I was pretty miserable. But nothing is worth missing Disney for, so we blew our noses on Disney napkins and kept truckin’! (Dear public, I am so sorry.) Caleb actually seemed to enjoy it more than Joshua, who seemed a bit overstimulated as he threw a fit every time we left an attraction…… We met one character that day, Buzz Lightyear, but the boys weren’t so sure about him.

They LOVED the little playground across from Mickey’s house and they also loved any opportunity to look at ducks in the many ponds, etc. They were just little sponges soaking it all in. I wasn’t even disappointed that Joshua didn’t want to ride Dumbo or the teacups that first day b/c it was so cold we were always looking for heated indoor attractions like “It’s a Small World”. I love that song! All total, it seems like all we did was walk all day and wait for buses, but really we did manage to get in quite a few attractions: It’s a Small world, Pooh’s Corner (which Joshua found a little scary since it’s dark in there), the Monsters Inc Laugh floor, and Buzz Lightyear space ranger ride. We also changed hotel rooms so we could get an extra adjoining room to spread out a little more. We ordered pizza in that night, and we were thoroughly exhausted.

I love this family photo!!

We did this a LOT.

Everywhere we go, we climb things. We can’t help it. It’s what we do.

Next time, we’ll look back at Animal Kingdom! 🙂

The post The 2009 Disney Trip with 2 Toddlers: Magic Kingdom appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.