I will preface this, sure to be LONGGGG post, with this: if you aren't into reading, please feel free to go over to my facebook page and click through the pictures...over there it's more like the cliff notes version of our trips, but with more "visual aids".
Now...let us begin:
We decided to drive down to Florida this time around...because we love to
We stocked up on a gazillion books on CD and I.S., being the sweet techie that he is sometimes, got us a little ipod nano so that we could put all those books in one place.
The girls really only watched the movies or played electronics about 3-4 hours of the 17 hour drive.
Let's just fast forward through the laments of "how much longer" and "oh, please let there be a Panera at this exit"...
And Wa-la, we arrived in Orlando!
Thanks to I.S.'s parents, we had a nice time-share facility awaiting our arrival and we had some free accomodations for the week. He headed to the grocery while I helped finish up the rest of the homework that we could manage...the first day was to be our "pack it all in" day...
Everyone was so excited, and after a hearty breakfast of pancakes & waffles at nearly 6:30 in the morning, we packed up our lunches and headed to Epcot for round one of our Disney experience!
I'm not a morning person...normally...but, if you are going to get me up, make me get dressed, fix breakfast, pack up with no option of returning for the day...you better believe that I'm just going to talk your ear off then...(it's my way of letting you know how much I care:)
Therefore, the poor people at Epcot were in for an earful...
Being the MASTER of OBSERVATION, I like to point out the obvious in most situations (at least this is what my hubby tells me) I'm not sure if it was my loud exclamations of excitement or the fact that I needed to ask everyone that we passed where they were from...but we must have caught the attention of someone...That someone being one of the "cast members" who opens the park...
She got us through the gate early, hauled us all over the Future World area taking our picture left and right...all this before the clock struck 9am...We then had to help her say "hello" in all the different languages (of which I have no recollection except for maybe "halo"? I have no idea...I like to talk, but I"m not the best at listening:) Anyhoo...next thing I know she's handing us a free pass to any ride so that we can jump to the front of the line and she tells us to RUN before she opens the gates...
We headed off to Soarin'...one of our favorites and got to ride it twice before anyone else really got there....Italian Stallion and I couldn't believe the sweet surprise God gave us by being chosen to be the family of the day...it just set the mood for the next 24 hours to say the least:)
Epcot is probably my favorite park...the girls like it too, but what kid is going to choose Epcot over Magic Kingdom? Ummm...not mine...so, I soaked it all in, because this was it...Italian Stallion and little Peanut helped by being chosen in nearly every country to be apart of the skits or presentations...I can't tell you how many buttons we obtained from their little "drama" jaunts.
We headed back to the hotel that evening exhausted but happy...
The next day was spent at SeaWorld and we were all about the dolphins...we got to that park early, too (because apparantly the adrenaline still hadn't worn off) We headed straight for the dolphin feeding area and got that blessed event taken care of...it caused my daughters to determine right then and there, that on top of wanting to be teachers, veterinarians, ballet instructors, photographers (they totally put that one in there to make me smile) and President of the United States...they also want to become dolphin trainers.
Therefore, we spent a considerable amount of time seeking out said trainers and
Having never been to Seaworld before, I relied heavily on what my SIL had advised and we hit as many shows as possible...it was a nice breather from hikin' all over World Showcase the day before...so we sat in the bleachers, ate gummy bears and watched sealions bark and Shamu splash all those people that sat in the soak areas.
As we approached day 3 we told the children, "Now, don't expect to be chosen as family of the day at Magic Kingdom...this is how entitlement starts girls...it was a very unique experience on Monday, but IT WON'T HAPPEN AGAIN!"...(yes we are THOSE kind of parents) With that, we entered the Magic Kingdom waiting area and started getting out the photography gear and getting Little Munchkin situated in the stroller...
Then...lord love a duck (those that had Calculus & Physics with me in High school will understand that expression) another cast member came up and asked if we'd be his Family of the Day...It just got us in the park early before anyone else and we could go wherever we wanted...
Italian Stallion and I just looked at each other and asked, "should we go buy a lottery ticket? seriously what are the odds?" I think we all were dumbfounded, but far be it from us to let that stop us...we trekked our way to the farthest part of the park (up to New Fantasyland) We had heard horror stories of 75-120 minute waits for the Belle storytime and Ariel's grotto...So, being first in the park, we were the first in line for those and were able to get more accomplished in the first hour of our stepping foot into the Magic Kingdom than I think we did for the next 5 hours combined. Not to mention we had a "chance" encounter with the big Mouse himself...raining blessings, I kid you not!
There were tons of favorite things in the Magic Kingdom, which is why we came back for a second day later that week. Little Munchkin can ride on most roller coasters now and seeing that we have all girls, it wasn't an issue staying in one place or another because they all like the same things in that regard. We even all have our favorite princess...including Daddy (he will hate me for writing that, so you'll just have to ask him yourself)
Oh, don't feel too badly for him...we were all over Pirates of the Caribbean & Big Thunder Mountain...and heaven help us, we discovered hidden Mickeys on this trip and that meant multiple trips to the same rides to find more of them!
We were debating whether to go to Hollywood Studios or not for our 4th day of adventure...Little Munchkin likes Doc McStuffins & Sophia the First...but other than that, this particular park doesn't really hold all that much excitement for them...However, having the 5 day pass, we figured that we might as well...and we thought to just let the girls experience things out of the norm.
This led to us having to sum up the entire 6 Star Wars movies during our 10 minute line wait for the Star Tours ride...Sweetpea kept asking, "Now, who is Luke again? and who's the princess?" Italian Stallion just rolled his eyes as I tried to go from Annikin Skywalker meets Padme'...to, they have twins, but then he becomes Darth Vadar and then Luke tries to save him but they were fighting to the death...because he finds out he's his father...
Needless to say, I doubt my stellar rendition of StarWars will motivate them to want to see the movies, but at least we enjoyed the ride without getting too "sick" with all the motion goin' on.
We then thought we'd try out a few stunt shows...which again, led to "Who's Indiana Jones?"
My poor girls...what a sad thing to not have brothers...
well...that and a mother who really isn't into all that either because my answer to their question was, "Oh, he's just some guy who looks for lost things and gets in trouble...let's just watch the show!"
Italian Stallion, in the hopes to salvage any possibility of a future with girls that might be interested in trains, planes & automobiles, felt the need to wave wildly at the announcer of the show so that he could be included in the "taped production" of Indy...This turned out to be a great turn of events, except for the fact that Little Munchkin began to sob (LOUDLY) "Mommy, I think Daddy is going to DIE!!!" But, when it was all said and done, the girls were giddy that their Daddy was in a "movie" and they learned that Indiana Jones likes his hat and can crack a whip!
Day 5 of our week we headed back to Magic Kingdom for some more of the same (and some funnel cakes for Mommy)...Our last day in Orlando saw us visiting Animal Kingdom...By this time we were basically sleepwalking because we had just pushed so hard all those other days. But, it was a nice park to end on again because of the fantastic shows and safaris. This park happened to open at 8am on Saturday so we got there and headed to Kilamanjaro first off...we saw nearly every animal listed and only had a total of 7 people in our Safari vehicle usually seating about 30...
By 3pm we were ready for our trip back home...I take that back, we might have been physically ready by about 10am, but we were determined to see it all:)
Yep...we're crazy like that...Italian Stallion decided that we were going to drive through the night, too...starting after our visit to Animal Kingdom...after our long & pleasurably exhausting week at Disney...after having not slept for more than about 5-6 hours per night the prior 5 days...
Brilliance I tell you...BRILLIANCE!
I don't think either of us has ever before inhaled that many gummies, sweettarts, soda, skittles, trailmix, and 5 hour energy drinks!
Thank God's mercies, we arrived home at 8:30am on Sunday morning...we had the day to recoop before we sent the girls back to school the following morning...and before Italian Stallion had to jump on a plane to Chicago for work the next day!
Momma bear here just had her fill of walking around in her pjs all day and begging Little Munchkin to take naps with her.
So there you have it...that's our trip in a nutshell...like I said, if you'd like to see pictures, you can venture over to my facebook page...it's much easier to load them over there...but at least you get the gist of the trip:) OR you can watch the little video I put together, you'll just have to fill in your own captions.
I learned alot from this vacation...and I don't say that saracastically either (just yet)...I really did...not just in "How to do Disney with 3 girls"...but, it was a really neat experience watching my girls interact and fight over who got to ride with Daddy and making decisions about how to spend their saved up moneys for souvenirs.
The other things were learned were things like:
1. All people coming to Disney parks should be required to take a stroller pushing course. You don't stop in the middle of the road while driving a car when your child throws his sippy cup to the ground, so please don't just stop and decide to pull out snacks in the middle of the walkway.
2. Don't give your camera to your husband when your baby is riding her very first roller coaster with you WITHOUT setting it up first...otherwise you get photos that look like this:
Yep, that's me and Little Munch...you can barely see us because I literally passed my camera back through the line of people inside so that I.S. could hold it better as I knew my hands would be full...he got off the ride first and unbeknownst to him, I had my settings ready for INside shots, not the blazing outdoor sunny ones:)
3. Another photo lesson learned: be sure you are checking your settings on your camera as your light changes and/or as others have used the camera...otherwise you might capture Cinderella's castle exploding rather than looking lit up by a celebration, this is very saddening for young daughters to experience...for example:
4. Be aware that just because you are first in line doesn't necessarily mean that you'll get the best seat...infact, once you get in and get yourself all set up in what you will regard as the 'best seat in the house'...the cast members will tell everyone to LEAVE your spot and scoot in towards the "other" seats to make room for the people that decided that they didn't want to sit in a 40 minute line, but knew they'd get the better seats if they just came in late...(if you haven't caught on yet, THIS is one of my biggest pet peeves)
I'm very thankful that Italian Stallion values vacationing with our family. We don't always do it this big by any means...sometimes "vacation" is more like a "staycation"...but regardless, it means spending time together...being in different situations and soaking up the experiences. It's another way of making memories...and I don't take it for granted one bit!
