My bad. Leave it to me to post a "three-part series" and then totally drop the ball and take forever to post the third one.
Soooo...we went to Disney World!! It was amazing!!! Basically Kirsten was here Sunday through Wednesday (like a month ago), and then all five of us headed to the airport to fly to Florida!! Granted, Kirsten had to fly to Panama City while we were flying to Orlando, but it was crazy that our flights were within an hour of each other that day.
So on the way to the airport, on our way to Disney World, Eli threw up everywhere. All over himself. All over the carseat. And absolute panic ensued. I mean, seriously... you can't take a throwing up baby on an airplane! You can't take a throwing up baby to Disney World!!!! You can't leave a carseat full of throw up in an airport parking garage for five days!!! Ahhhh! In the meantime, we are trying to get Kirsten to her flight and in not knowing when we were going to see her again, this was hard enough in itself!! Sooo... Donald made the decision to just see what happened with Eli. He gags and throws up all the time, surely it was just a fluke. So we get Kirsten to her flight (finally). Sadness. Donald then calls Jeremy, who drops what he's doing, to come get our van so it's not sitting in the parking garage all week (with the nasty car seat). We wait in the forever long security check line (when does GSP EVER have a long line at security??), and finally make it to our flight as they are boarding. PHEW!!! And...Eli was totally normal. No more throwing up. double PHEW. So let me pause a second to give a public shout out to Jeremy and Kelly Keever for not only picking up our van, but also cleaning the wretched, stank nasty car seat. Oh, and then returning on Sunday with our (clean) van to pick us up. This is self-sacrificial love at its finest. They totally lived out the Gospel. We are crazy grateful.
So back to the airplane. We made it. The kids did great on their first flight! Once we were in the air, Charley looked out to the clouds and said, "BYE KIRSTEN!!" oh and I just started crying. We had had SUCH a great week with her, and I was already missing her. I felt like our goodbye was rushed or something due to the chaos of airports, which is even more chaotic when you throw puke into the mix. But...we were heading to Disney World. So that was nice. :) I did cry again at dinner that night, but that was it. haha
Our time at Disney was way more relaxed than all the craziness of above (minus the fact that Eli threw up on Donald on the way to Magic Kingdom. Oh yes he did). We had SUCH a great time! The kids did great!! Eli was such a trooper! He is not walking, so the boy spent SO much time in the stroller. I think every picture we have of him, he is in the stroller!! But he didn't complain! And he rode several rides with us...no complaints. And Charley did great as well! She was a little hesitant to get on some rides, but really loved them once she was on them. I must make mention of the fact that
It's a Small World was CLOSED for renovations. You do know this is tragic, right? It has always been one of my faves. UGH!! I guess we will have to go back!
So anyway, we did Magic Kingdom Thursday, Animal Kingdom Friday, and back to Magic Kingdom Saturday. The weather was perfect and we really did have a great time! At Animal Kingdom, the guys watched all the kids (we traveled with friends) and Ashley and I went and rode two rides...which were awesome! One was one of the river raft things, where you get wet, which we really didn't, the lady across from us did...and THEN we rode Mount Everest!!!! Like the crazy roller coaster!! It was soooo fun. Mainly because I haven't done anything like that in wayyyy too long, so it was just fun to do something that someone with a one-year-old and two-year-old hanging on them can't normally do!! Another fun thing was Thursday night, the guys took the baby boys to dinner while Ashley and I took the girls to a princess dinner!! Charley was "star struck" or just plain bothered and just stared at the different characters like, "ummm...Can't you see I'm eating? What's with the photo op?" So, we have no pictures of her smiling with Cinderalla and company, but it was still so much fun and totally worth it. We finished up around 8pm and decided at the last minute to take the girls back into Magic Kingdom. This was CRAZY fun! Everyone was all congregated in one area to see the parade and fireworks, which meant no one was in the back of the park where Dumbo was and this Goofy/Donald roller coaster thing!! Charley totally got on the roller coaster because her hair made her tall enough, and she loved it!! It was way faster and crazy than I thought it would be, so while we were on it, I was like, "uttt-ohhh... not sure if Charley is liking this!!!" But when it stopped, she said "Yay!!" so... it was a success!! After riding Dumbo again, the fireworks started, and they were literally RIGHT above us!! It was crazy close!! But you can imagine us trying to get OUT of the park with everybody else and their grandmother. It was insane. I don't think we got home til after ten. And keep in mind the girls had been in their princess dresses that whole time! But...it was SO fun and they had a blast.
Well...that's our Disney experience in a nutshell. I'm totally leaving out a bazillion things, I know, but here are some pics to give you a more complete picture. :) Oh, and as far as Eli throwing up... he did it one more time like a week later. We totally thought that maybe he had a milk thing going on, like lactose intolerance or something, but the doctor didn't think so... now we are just attributing it to his gag problem, as we originally thought.
Pictures...in completely random order...
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| Meeting Mickey and Minnie! |
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| First airplane ride! |
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| Oh look...all the cars look like ants! |
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| We spent lots of time in buses...to and from the resort to the parks |
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| Where we stayed...a 2bdrm at Saratoga Springs...we highly recommend! |
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| Our resort was a quick boat ride over to Downtown Disney... we spent a good amount of time over there |
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| The kids in front of Magic Kingdom |
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| In front of the castle. Please notice that we are about to get run over. |
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| The family (-1) on the carousel! |
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| Smile Charley!!!!! :) |
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| At Animal Kingdom... |
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| Meeting Donald Duck at his Safari Breakfast! |
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| A bird!! (Eli had just started pointing) |
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| Fish!!!! Fun!!! |
