“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.

This was the best surprise I’ve ever pulled off.

We are not typically adept at keeping exciting news to ourselves. We are the kind of people who announced we were pregnant the second we found out.

But this time we played it cool. We DID tell the boys we were headed to Disney World. However, we did NOT tell them that I copied my friend Amy’s Disney itinerary as closely as I could, so our Disney vacation would be shared with Xavier and Zoe. (Don’t worry. Xavier and Zoe’s parents were in on it. I wasn’t completely stalking them.)

So Alan and I rode down to Florida, enjoying our secret.

Believe it or not, JD was the MOST visibly excited one. “I’m just so excited to go to Disney World. Can I ride Dusty? I wanna ride Planes.”

Road trip discovery!!! Best coffee ever, y’all!! Raceway gas station Community Coffee. I gotta find a Raceway close to my house now. I am hooked.

scenes of happiness

Art of Animation Resort

Our resort was the bee’s knees, y’all. We stayed at the Art of Animation Resort at Disney World, which is actually a VALUE level resort. The family suites sleep 6 and have 2 full bathrooms. There is a cafeteria open until midnight, several swimming pools, and all the free drink refills you want, if you have the Disney Dining Plan.

Art of Animation Cars Family Suite. This room was all themed out for Sally’s Cozy Cone Motel. That couch turns into a bed.

There was a life-size Lightning McQueen, Mater, Sheriff, Ramone, and many others. It really upped the excitement level of staying at Disney World.

He was a little disappointed that he couldn’t get in and drive Lightning McQueen. Bless.

Magic Kingdom

Day 1 was off to a rocky start. First, we were later than we had hoped to be because….well because we are us and we have four children.

That’s 6 people to apply sunscreen to. Six people to feed. Six people to dress. Six people to brush teeth. 6 people to use the bathroom. Six people to get on each other’s nerves. 6 people to make jokes. 6 people to keep up with. 6 people to wake up. You get the idea.

So we finally made it to the pearly Magic Kingdom gates, through the bag check line, and to the bracelet scan ….and…..

whomp whomp whomp

“We need you to go to guest services.”

Denied entry. Now that is sad.

There was a line at guest services. I guess we weren’t the only ones.

Turns out that we had to prove that we were military b/c we’d gotten a sweet military discount on those tickets.

Now, if our resort peeps had known, they could have validated that for us, but we didn’t think to tell them, and they didn’t ask, so this had to be done at the gate. It was a good thing Alan had his ID with him.

Phew! Finally got through that. We made our way over to the train. Poor little John David tripped as he was climbing onto the train. He cried. It was loud. After a few minutes of that, a sweet lady from behind us passed him an entire package of Starbursts to cheer him up.

We needed that. I wish I knew her name. I’d shout it from the rooftops.

We are not familiar with the parks, and pretty much everything has changed since we went 8 years ago, so it took us a while to find It’s A Small World, where we were scheduled to meet our friends at 9:30.

JD, with his consolation candy

Miraculously enough, we were only a couple minutes late when we spotted our friends!

Xavier ran over to us, and Joshua…..looked confused. It was hilarious. Joshua was silent, but his face seemed to be saying, “Um, yes, hello, who are you?” to Xavier. Of course, after a few minutes, Joshua and Caleb figured out what was going on, and they were so happy. Joshua actually turned to Caleb and said, “Caleb, pinch me. I don’t think I’m awake. I must be dreaming.”

Yes, it is indeed a small world after all.

We all rode 2 rides together, and then split up for the 3rd because not all of our Fastpasses were together.

We were nervous about JD’s ability to keep his Magic Band on his arm. See, the Magic Band is of great value at Disney. All your reservations are programmed in there. It can also identify a lost child. And as an adult, you can wire your credit card info on there so you don’t even have to carry around money. Magic bands open your hotel room, know your fast pass times, and contain your park admission ticket. They are a big deal.

So you can imagine my dismay when after ride #2 of day #1, I look down and realize that I have lost MY Magic Band. Well, of course I did, really. I’ve always had trouble with bracelets. Grooooaaaaan.

The boys headed off to use their Fast Pass with Alan. I headed back to the Haunted Mansion. If a cast member (Disney employee) finds a Magic Band, it’s kept at that ride for an hour. So I figured I had one hour to get that band back. I had it when I got on the Haunted Mansion ride, and it was gone afterwards, so that had to be it.

ugh. We had walked a long way. It was sunny. I was sweating. I missed turns, I turned back, but I eventually found my way back to Haunted Mansion, using my handy-dandy Disney app.

I asked each cast member I passed, “Have you seen a pink Magic Band?”

No.

I went all the way through the suddenly very long Haunted Mansion line. No band.

I was annoyed to have to ride the ride again, by myself, but I did it.

It wasn’t scary, but creepy skulls and ghosts aren’t my thing. “Why this ride, Lord?” I thought.

Call me crazy, but he answered me. I thought about my tendency to gloss over everything bad and pretend like the gross, evil, and unfortunate things in life don’t exist. That’s apathy, really. But these things do exist, and they must be faced.

I prayed for God to just please give me my band back and get me out of there.

At the very end of the ride, as I went through the exit corridor, I asked a young lady, and she said, “Hold on.”

Then she was gone all of two minutes and came back holding my magic band.

Thank you, Lord!

I’m happy to tell you that bad things come in threes, so that’s the last one. The rest of it went well:

So excited to find this!

Oh, the tea cups. What adult likes this ride? This was the only ride that made JD cry.

Happy People

By lunch, JD reached full melt-down level.

But Caleb and Dan were dying to ride these cars, so we split up here and met back at the restaurant. Lunch made all the difference too. When in doubt, feed the children!

I thought Zoe’s ears were adorable.

riding the People Mover

Country Bear Jamboree

One of the best things that happened: It rained almost every day, just enough to cool things off. The heat was not nearly as bad as I feared it would be.

Dinner at Tony’s Town Square. JD slept through almost every single evening meal in his stroller.

Alan bought these ponchos for $1 a piece at Target from the camping section. We were thankful to have these!!

Amy is the real deal New England Patriots fan. She’s even from New England.

Granted, we got off to a rough start, but by lunch I feel like we had things turned around in our favor.

It struck me during our vacation what a positive difference it made, sharing this trip with good friends. Our kids were braver about trying new things, and I think it helped Alan and me to be more relaxed and fun. People often say that Alan and I are laid back, which is a real head scratcher for me because the truth is we are tired, uptight people. We do like to have fun. It’s just that we’ve been so busy changing diapers, enforcing vegetable consumption, teaching reading skills, coaching memory work, cleaning up, and taming boys over the past 10 years that sometimes it feels like fun is a relative concept. 

Our friends, Amy and Sean, are in the parenting trenches just as we are, so they’re understanding. Plus, we have shared history. They’ve already accepted us for who we are. I’d like to put my finger on what it is that makes me like these friends so much. Because I do. I love their whole family, and Amy is one of my few closest friends. They are upbeat, and they are real at the same time. Amy is the kind of friend I can be myself with, and they are good about keeping in touch.

There is a certain quality you find in just a few friends in life, a quality that cannot be aptly described with words.

All I know is to call them “kindred spirits” as Anne of Green Gables did, but it’s more than that. There are some people who can’t help but be the main characters in your life. It is a matter of both mutual respect, shared interests, and plain old convenience and timing.

But I think God’s hand is in it too. Sometimes, once I realize a friend is definitely more than a passing acquaintance, I stop and wonder, “What is it, God? What should I learn from them? What do they need that I might offer?” It’s usually both. It’s that whole iron-sharpening iron thing.

It was a refreshing visit, especially as we enter another phase of meeting new people and being “the new kids” yet again.  My heart starts to get tired of putting my best foot forward, and that is why I drag my family out on all these vacations. I have this need to remind myself where we’ve been, where we’re going, and who we are before we plunge in to building a new community for ourselves.

And I have to take a little time. I wish that it were everyday, but sometimes it isn’t. But never forget to take a little time to read God’s Word, the Holy Bible, and get down on your face, and pray for the courage and strength to tackle the next thing. It would  be beautiful for life to be like the ENDINGS of your favorite movies, full of pot-luck dinners, and breezy sun-lit paths. But instead, it’s more like an obstacle course, where your relay team keeps changing. God is the only constant.

Today I found this verse:

In your distress you called and I rescued you, I answered you out of a thundercloud; I tested you at the waters of Meribah.  Psalm 81:7

In your distress, you called and I rescued you.

Yes!!  That was exactly it. This year and many times before!

It rang so strong and true with me that I wrote it down in 4 different places, one of which was where I copied the verse on my wrist in red ink pen. Alan said it looked disturbing. Sigh. I just wanted a place I could see it that wouldn’t wash off when I washed my hands. Being disturbing was not my intention.

But y’all!!! Sometimes life IS disturbing!!!

That is why we NEED friends! And vacations! And PRAYER!! And a little silence and rest. And upbeat people.

The post Deep Thoughts from Magic Kingdom 2016 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!

The post Disney World’s Animal Kingdom with Toddlers appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

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.