Disney World

I know, I know, it's taken me way to long to tell of our Disney Trip! But I had soooo many pictures to weed through first. But I finally got it done. And let me just say, the boys had SO much fun on this trip. BOTH boys. I was a little worried how much fun it would be for Riley, but I needn't have worried at all. He loved it! The rides he could ride, he LOVED. He did so good the entire trip, until the day we came home.

Some highlights from our trip:
Sunday: Flew to Orlando
*our flight was delayed. Then, when it was time to leave the gate, the tractor thing would push us out and then pull us forward. Over and over. Not quite sure what that was about! Finally, we began to move away from the gate.
*Travis was nervously excited about the plane ride once we actually got on the plane. He asked so many questions! But when the nose went up on the air, he turned to us with the biggest grin on his face! He LOVED it!
*When we landed in Orlando, Riley said "WHOA!"
*both boys did excellent on the flight. Once the view out the window got boring for Travis (we were over the ocean), I broke out the coloring books and activities that I (wisely) packed for the flight. He and Riley colored until they said we had to put the tray tables up. It wasn't long, as it is only an hour and 3 minute flight from our airport.
*we SO needed a bigger rental car!! To say we were stuffed like sardines in a can is an understatement. But it all fit (eventually).
*more than once, I had to open my door, get out of the car and fetch the lost quarter at a toll booth. And we spilled out my change purse in my lap once. We laughed till our stomachs hurt at the toll booths because of all this.
*we stopped and visited with our friend Allison and her kids on the way to Disney. At a grocery store. While shopping for snacks for our hotel room. good times.
*we went to Chef Mickey's for dinner. Riley would wave at the characters when they were across the room. Then just stared when they got close. And didn't care to be touched by them at all!
*he yelled out "Hey Dog!" to Pluto across the room and "Mouse!" to Mickey and Minnie Mouse
*Travis loved all the characters and got their autographs (Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald Duck and Pluto). He was very shy with Minnie though ;)
*Both boys LOVED seeing the Monorail go by as we ate. Riley would yell out "BIG TRAIN!" every time.
*when we left, the fireworks were going off in the Magic Kingdom, and we stood in the parking lot and watched them. We had a great view!
*Travis was in awe of the boats in the lake and wanted to ride them. That boy is all about a boat! This sentiment was repeated a LOT during our trip!
*both boys were snoring when they went to sleep this night.

Monday: Magic Kingdom
*we had a character breakfast at the Cape May cafe (YUMMY!) so we were up and out early. There were ducks happily swimming in our hotel pool and they had it closed because of this. I guess some cleaning happened later!
*BOTH boys were so excited to ride the Disney transportation bus.
*We rode Splash Mountain first thing, it was SO hot! Travis and I rode first, then Travis and Jay.It broke down on their turn, and they were stuck right by the boat, that blasts ZIP-A-DEE-DO-DA for about 30 minutes. But they were rewarded with any ride/any time fast passes.
*we went to Big Thunder Mountain next, got right up to where you board, and the ride shut down. More fast passes given out. Next up, Space Mountain, and it broke down too! Then Barnstormer. Travis was getting upset. After lunch, it all worked out though, AND we had tons of "free" fast passes!
*During our lunch, a thunderstorm came up REALLY quickly, soaked our stroller and we had to turn it upside down to get the inches of standing water out of it. Oops.
* On Big Thunder Mountain: Travis yelled out "THIS IS AWESOME!!!"
*He rode Space Mountain 3x! The very first time, he was in the very front car. He thought it was great.
*Character Dinner at the Crystal Palace. YUMM.
*Rode the teacups very last. Travis really wanted to ride, but I wasn't sure if I could handle it, so told him we would ride it right before leaving. It was about 10:30pm when we rode them! We spun them so fast ( I did fine),and he laughed the entire time.
*we had a slight transportation mixup, and it was almost 1am when we finally got to our room. We were glad we didn't have a scheduled breakfast on Tuesday!

Tuesday: Hollywood Studios
*Once again, it was HOT!
*Travis rode the Rockin Roller Coaster 2x! It goes upside down, and has corkscrews. It also begins by launching you 0-60 in 2.8seconds! He enjoyed it!
*He thought Star Tours was awesome, and the Stunt show and I think he and Riley both would have happily played on the Honey I shrunk the kids playground all day.
*we had a character lunch at Hollywood & Vine, and Riley decided that he LOVES JoJo and Handy Manny and couldn't get enough of them. He gave high-5's and chased them around the restaurant.
*we went back to the hotel to swim and eat, and Travis enjoyed the arcade

Wednesday: Animal Kingdom
*Riley called all birds either "duck, big duck or baby duck" depending on 1) if they were a duck (duck!) and 2) if they were a small or large bird of other species (baby duck or big duck). So an ostrich, was a big duck. Not a big bird, but a big duck.
*Riley called elephants by their name, but all other animals, that were an elephant, or a bird (see above), were Big Dogs. Giraffes? Big Dogs. Wildebeasts? Big Dogs. Gorillas? Big Dogs. It was hilarious.
*Travis claimed Expedition Everest as his favorite ride, and sat with his head between his knees on Dinosaur.
*we ate dinner at Downtown Disney, and went shopping at the Lego store, where we bought stuff for the boys, that I would later have to figure out how in the world to get them home in our luggage!

Thursday: Epcot
*We rode the bus to Magic Kingdom, then took the monorail to the transportation, switched to the Epcot monorail, and arrived that way, so that the boys could have a long monorail ride.
*On Spaceship Earth, Riley pressed the button, that had our ride narrated entirely in SPANISH!!!
*Travis and I rode Mission:Space on the intense level. During the ride, I was ok, but afterwards, I thought I would faint and throw up. I felt terrible for a couple hours. Jay and Travis chose the easy intensity the 2nd time around. It was a really cool ride though!
*We ate dinner at Tokyo, and Travis used chopsticks (Riley nearly cleared the table with his once), and tried eel (said it tasted like bait) and ate edamame (which he and Riley both loved).

Friday: Blizzard Beach
*two words : Teamboat Springs!!! We loved, loved LOVED this water slide. It was a family raft ride, and Riley could do it also. It wasn't super tame though, so it was enjoyable for us all. Riley LOVED it. I can't even express how much he loved it! He would yell out "Whee! and Whoa!" and would want to go again when it was over.
*after our day at Blizzard Beach, we headed to our friend Allison's to spend the rest of the evening and the next day and night. We wish we could have spent a week there also! It was a great end to our week.

The day we came home (Sunday), Riley began the day by puking on me, after I had already showered. He and I both had to shower to clean up (not to mention I now had puke soaked clothes to travel home with). On the way to the airport, he pukes again, all over himself, and his carseat. Nothing like handing over a puke covered car seat to the airline check-in person. :( We worried that he would get sick on the plane, and I had spare clothes for us both in my carryon, just in case! But he was fine after the carseat puke. Just one of his episodes, at a very bad time. Oh well.

So that is the highlights from our trip. We did much, much more than mentioned, but this post is already long enough!


Here are some of my favorite pictures from our trip:

Our visit to Disney World- August 2010 from Lindsey Souza on Vimeo.