The Happiest Place on Earth Part 2

Getting to Disney World was half the fun, but let's be honest, everyone wants to hear about how Disney was!  So, here's a breakdown of what we did when in the Happiest Place on Earth.

Monday we arrived at our resort in Orlando.  We decided to stay off property because we knew we'd want a full kitchen and laundry services as well as at least one bedroom to give the boys their own space away from us.  We ended up with a two bedroom condo and could not be happier.  One of the best decisions we made the whole trip!  We were able to put the boys down for nap or bedtime and Brad and I could do what we wanted.  We also saved a lot of money on meals by cooking some of our own.  And we continued to cloth diaper even on vacation so it was great that we were able to wash our diapers at no extra cost to us.

Tuesday I was so excited that I woke up super early and was not able to fall back asleep.  We decided that even though we wanted to be there when the gates opened we would not wake the boys.  We didn't want to do anything to hinder the best attitudes possible!  Once the boys were up we quickly moved into action, eating breakfast and getting dressed.  We spent Tuesday at Magic Kingdom (another great decision since that was where we knew they'd have the most fun and they were the freshest on Tuesday).  Of course, our first stop was to get our ears.  We let Micah pick out his own, but I don't think he ever actually put them on.

Trying to get Micah to dance during the dance party.

When it was time for the street party we thought Micah would have a blast.  We were seriously wrong.  The loud music was too scary for him and he kept asking to leave.  Part of it might have been that he finally got to ride a train right before the parade started and all he wanted to do was go back and ride the train.  Either way, I was a little worried about the evening parade, but he did very well for that one.

Brad and I had low expectations for what we would actually get to see/do while there.  We knew Micah would be afraid of the characters, but we still wanted to give him opportunities to meet them.  We also knew that several of the kid-friendly rides would scare him, too, but if we pushed him a little he would really enjoy others.  Micah especially loved Small World.  We even did it twice.  We had to push him a little, but he really liked Dumbo, too.  Of course, his favorite was any train ride so we rode the people move and the train through the whole Magic Kingdom.

Around 2:00 we decided to head back to the resort so that boys could take naps and we could re-group.  Great decision!  The boys were ready to go and able to make it through the nigh time parade (though they both fell asleep in the car on the way home).  We brought our own glow sticks for the parade and both boys loved playing with them while watching the floats go by.  As I mentioned before, Micah really enjoyed the night parade.  And Judah kept clapping for everyone.  The highlight of the parade for me, was when Mickey saw us from his float and waved, then he made motions to show that he liked our matching shirts.  So fun!  It was a late night for the boys, but so worth it.

 The late night turned out to really bit us in the butt on Wednesday.  I made the mistake of scheduling a character breakfast for 8:30 Wednesday morning.  Sounded like a good idea at the time.  Both boys were very tired.  We knew Micah would be apprehensive with the characters, but his tiredness just made it worse.  He wouldn't even sit in my lap because he knew that the characters were walking on my side of the table.  I could feel him shaking as he sat in his chair, just looking at his plate of food, refusing to even look at anyone that came to greet us.  As each character was getting ready to leave our table, he just looked up at them and very happily said, "Bye bye!" as if he couldn't wait for them to leave.  It was adorable and cute all at the same time.

Judah, however, was great with the characters.  Unfortunately, he was exhausted, and battling an infection at the time, though we didn't know it yet.  He looked so pathetic, so tired.  But all of the characters were so nice and gentle with him.  Mickey especially just melted my heart with the way he was comforting Judah.  It was just priceless.

After the breakfast (at which Judah fell asleep) we headed right for the safari because Micah was very excited to see the animals.  Judah slept through the entire ride, but woke up shortly after.  He seemed to be overheated so we went inside for a little while.  We tried to do something else, but Judah was just miserable and we decided that it would be better for us to head back to the resort so everyone could cool down and get naps.  Once at the resort we found that Judah had a fever and Brad ended up bringing him to the urgent care center.  We were given some antibiotics for him, but when all was said and done it was now 5:00 and not worth returning to Animal Kingdom (which closes at 7:00).  So, Micah and I spent most of the day at our condo just playing, which really ended up being a good thing!

 Unfortunately, our time at Disney was cut a bit short, but we did still have a fun day planned the next day.  I'll write about that later!