[So this is an extra-long post because I didn't know how to break it up and I wanted to get this post out ASAP since the first day of school is already here! I need to start posting about our current lives, so I'm just throwing this all into one long post. Sometimes it might sound choppy, but I was just trying to include everything. Sorry about that!!]
This trip to Disney World was setup by my surrogate mom, MC. (For those of you who don't know, she's my "other mother" because she was my youth group leader in church when I was in middle school. Then she kind of just took me, my sisters and cousins under her wing. My parents worked really long hours in the restaurant business when I was younger, so MC would attend all of my orchestra performances and stuff like that. Then when I went to college in NYC, I would usually head to MC's house every few weeks for some sleep and some home-cooked meals. She's known me and taken care of me for a very long time....and I really do love her like a mother.) There were 13 of us total--5 from our family and the rest from MC's family. Another big family gathering and lots of fun!
FLIGHTS
I'm glad to say that our flights were completely uneventful. I must say that my kids are pretty awesome. Elina was helpful on the flights and Eli was a great listener. Evie's almost 18 months old now, so that can be a difficult age to travel with...she's walking, but doesn't want help...she doesn't like to be confined...she wants to be independent. Needless to say, I was worried about Evie. She didn't enjoy sitting in our laps most of the time, but I figured out how to contain her. I would lay a blanket on the floor in front of us and spread out some toys for her to play with. Once I figured this out, she was way happier and caused less trouble. I flew back home by myself with all 3 kids and everything went so smoothly. Seriously, I feel like I can fly with all 3 of these kids any day!
The only bad part of traveling to Orlando was that we totally left Elina's carry-on bag at home. This wouldn't be such a bad thing, except that
both of their loveys were in the bag!! I was hyperventilating and kicking myself for forgetting. I also had all their activities in the bag...activity books, magnets, Tag books/pens, headphones, card games, and water bottles. But, honestly, the only things I was sad about were the loveys. We were mostly worried about Eli because he's very attached to his bunny. Luckily, he was so worn out from traveling he didn't even notice until the second day. We told him what happened and he got very sad...so Elina, being the wonderful girl that she is, drew Eli a picture of his bunny. Eli actually slept with that piece of paper for the rest of our stay. How cute! What a save by Elina! I will never forget their carry-on again.
WEATHER
It was
so stinkin' hot and humid in Orlando! Now I can finally compare the different kinds of heat. Here in San Antonio the temps are over 100F, the sun is searing hot (as in you can feel your skin burning when you stand in the sun), but the heat is dry. In Orlando the temps were in the low 90s, the sun was kinder to our skin, but the humidity is 80% or higher. I used to complain about the heat here in San Antonio, but now I think I may prefer it to the humid heat in Orlando. In Orlando, we were constantly sweating. B, who almost never sweats, was dripping in sweat in the parks. Evie's hair was always wet and plastered to her face. I just didn't enjoy the constant sweating. But, on the other hand, I liked being in the sun and not feeling like I was being cooked. So I guess I'm still undecided at this point.
THE SURPRISE
This time we decided to surprise the kids with the Disney trip. We didn't tell them where we were going at all. Elina kept asking questions...are we going to the beach??...are we going to Brownsville?? It's funny because on the flight, they announced that we were going to "Orlando, home of Walt Disney World," but the kids were too oblivious to even hear the announcement. Thank goodness! Then when we got off of the flight, a lady asked Elina, "Are you going to Disney World, too?" And Elina just looked at me, "I don't know...am I, Mommy??" I just looked at her and said, "I don't know." It was funny though because when we got off of the plane in Orlando, Elina asked, "Mommy, why did we go to an airport, get on a plane, and then just fly back to the same airport?" She actually thought we got on the plane and just flew around back to San Antonio again. Ha!
The next morning, as we drove to Magic Kingdom, we slowed down and had Elina read the "Walt Disney World" sign on the big arch as you drive in. She just read it slowly and smiled. It was pretty cute when she realized we were really going! Eli, on the other hand, wasn't convinced that it was going to be a fun place.
But once we got into the Magic Kingdom, I videotaped them walking in and seeing the "castle" and then Eli was impressed.
MAGIC KINGDOM
This was our first stop and our longest day. We got there in the morning, left at 4pm so the kids could take naps, then went back again for the light parade at night. It was a loooooooong day...but lots of fun.
The kids' fave rides were the cheesy Jungle Cruise and the People Movers. Of course they also loved the Mad Tea Party tea cup ride, Philharmagic, and Buzz Lightyear.
What we loved was that Evie could pretty much go on every ride with us. My favorite was her riding Buzz Lightyear with me. She's actually trying to shoot the gun and if you look carefully, you can see that her eyes are shut and she's "trying really hard!" Love it!
The night parade was great. I actually brought both of the glowing pinwheels we bought last time we were at Disney. Of course I didn't want Evie to be left out so I brought her some glow sticks I had at home. And who doesn't like to see the castle lit up at night? That's definitely my fave part about Magic Kingdom!
We didn't stay to actually watch the fireworks after the parade because the kids are so scared of fireworks in general. We didn't stay to watch them, but we were still in the park and could hear them. The kids were such wimps and kept their ears covered the whole time! So we had to ride People Movers to keep them occupied...who knew it would end up being one of their fave rides??
ANIMAL KINGDOM
This was our 2nd day. Since we were so tired from Magic Kingdom, we let everyone sleep in this morning and only stayed for half a day in the afternoon. The heat was really unbearable here, but we still had a great time.
The kids' fave ride was the safari because of all the animals we saw. We saw a giraffe up-close and this totally made the kids' day!
We also enjoyed spending time at The Boneyard. It's this dinosaur dig area that's mostly shaded with lots of fans and misters. The kids loved "digging" for dino bones. It was great!
HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS
We had a character breakfast with some Disney Junior characters--June and Leo from "Little Einsteins," Handy Manny, and Special Agent Oso. It was so much fun! I don't know what it is, but meeting characters really gets me giddy...I just love it! (Evie didn't agree with my feelings though...she screamed her head off every time a character got too close to her. Poor girl!)
I really love this park because of all the characters you can meet. I feel like it's easy to meet them and the lines are never terrible. In Magic Kingdom, it just always seems like a miserable ordeal to meet characters. We met Mickey, Mike Wazowski and Sully from Monsters Inc., and Lightning McQueen and Mater. Unfortunately, the Monsters Inc characters and Cars characters couldn't "sign" the kids' autograph books...for obvious reasons.
Elina's fave part was meeting Mike Wazowski because she's really into Monsters Inc right now. I couldn't believe that she even wanted to hug them! Elina does not like hugging at all! Eli was not interested in meeting the monsters because they were too scary for him.
Eli's favorite thing was watching the Disney Junior show with all the characters from Little Einsteins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Evie really enjoyed this one, too. Can you tell?
This was also the park with the most penny pressing machines. Elina is all about the pennies and we've been collecting them for quite some time now. We bought a nice pressed penny holder last time we were in Disney so I brought it back this year so we could make sure not to get any repeats. I had the kids bring their own pennies and quarters from their piggy banks and Elina carried them around in her purse while we were at the parks. Each time we saw a machine, we'd let each of the kids choose a penny to press. Who knew 51 cents could be so much fun??
T-REX CAFE
We had dinner at this fun place in Downtown Disney. It's like a dinosaur exhibit on steroids...it's so loud with all the animatronic dinosaurs everywhere. There's even a loud "meteor shower" that happens every 20 minutes. Eli was completely mesmerized by this place (with mouth constantly wide-open). He couldn't take his eyes off of this one pteranodon flapping its wings. The kids had such a fun time at this place and so did we. We will definitely go back whenever we visit Orlando.
THE REST OF THE TIME
Besides the parks, we also relaxed by the pool and played board games with the kids. Elina is absolutely in love with the game Blokus now. We also played Pictionary Jr. and Eli was hilarious at guessing. The word was "pocket" so B drew a pair of pants first and then put pockets on the pants. Eli kept saying, "It's pants! Daddy, it's pants! Pants! Pants!" We were laughing so hard. So B drew a boy wearing the pants to put hands in the pockets, but once B started drawing the boy, Eli lost focus and said, "Ohhhhh, is that meeee? It's me!" He totally doesn't get it, but it was so much fun! Elina, on the other hand, was too into drawing all the details. For the word "flower" she started by drawing a flower bed...then the flower in the flower bed. Needless to say, Elina and I did not win that one! =)
The kids had a great time swimming around...even Evie enjoyed it. The hotel we stayed at had great pools for little kids and adults. We really liked the hotel that we stayed at. The accommodations were great, especially since MC was nice enough to get us a 2 bedroom villa . This way Elina and Eli could have their own room, while Evie slept in a crib in our room. We saved tons of money with our own kitchen because we could make breakfast and we also packed our own sandwiches for lunch in the parks.
But, I have to say, the best money we spent was on 2 misting fans at Walmart before we headed out to Orlando. These fans seriously saved our lives and our sanity! I know that if we hadn't have bought these fans, the kids would have been complaining and whining more during the trip. Every morning I filled the fans with ice and water. The minute we stepped out of the car in the parking lots, the kids would pull those fans out and start spraying each other and themselves. It was a toy and a cooling device all in one! They would even spray other people who asked to be sprayed...and there were lots of people who would ask! It was awesome! We got them for only $9 each at Walmart, but in the parks they sell them for $17-$20 each. So B and I agreed that it was definitely the best $18 we have ever spent in our lives! Even Evie would play with the fans by poking her finger into the plastic blades. We wouldn't have survived without these things!
Overall, this was a wonderful 5 day trip for us. First of all, Evie was wonderful at Disney and on the plane. She was just a happy kid the entire time...and such a great sleeper. We love this little girl! I mean, look at this face!
We wish it could have been longer, but with school starting it wasn't possible. This trip to Disney was a little more enjoyable for us because we
just went a year and a half ago. So my attitude was more relaxed and laidback this time. I didn't feel the need to hit every single ride and to see every single thing...like the crazy lady that I am. This time we just saw what we could see...we skipped rides/attractions with long lines...and we had a great time! Eli keeps saying he wants to ride in the "new car" (rental car) and go back to the "new house" (hotel room). He also tells us, "I want to go back to
Magic Kingdow. It was so fun!" I know, Eli...don't worry, we'll go back one day!
The kids got a lot of the same things (go figure)...some chocolate, tic tacs, cookies, a craft, and then an extra gift. Elina got a new girl mouse to add to her ever-growing collection of bedtime stuffed animals. Eli got a new big Thomas coloring book with stickers. Elina loved the gifts, but she had her doubts--
