Disney Day 3

Getting ready to ride the train. One happy boy.

Waving at the characters as they pass by.

With Tinkerbell. If you go to Disney anytime soon, Tinkerbell and her friends are some of the most popular characters.

With Goofy at breakfast.

I failed to mention in my last Disney post that Blue was not in our room when we returned for the day, of course. Another phone call, more waiting.

One Day 3 of our trip, we got up bright and early and went to Chef Mickey's. Our reservation was one of the first ones for the day. We didn't have to go very far for to get to the restaurant because it was in located right next to the building were we were staying. In fact, we could hear the music and celebrating every time we ate at a cafe right near Chef Mickey's.

Last time we went to Disney, we ate dinner at Chef Mickey's. This time, breakfast was equally as good. It was buffet style and had enough choices to please everyone.

While we were there, they gave us a cupcake with a candle for our anniversary, even though it wasn't for a couple of days. The characters danced and sang a song to celebrate with all those who had a reason to celebrate.

After enjoying our meal, we headed to the Magic Kingdom and were able to make rope drop. In fact, we were there about 20-30 minutes early. What a difference rope drop makes.

As soon as the rope went down, Jonah and I had headed to ride Dumbo. I couldn't get the girls to ride, too, so Jonah and I headed that way. It is a great way to see the park.

We stayed in Fantasyland for a while and enjoyed the rides there before Toontown opened. When Toontown opened, we headed straight to the Judges' Tent to meet Tinkerbell and her friends. We waited longer than I meant for us to, but it was worth it. We had great interaction with the fairies and the children seemed to enjoy it. The only problem was Silver Mist was not there, and she is Cara's favorite.

After leaving the Judges' Tent, we spent a little time in Toon Town. We went through Mickey's house and looked at all his furnishings. Cute place. Then, Jonah and I boarded his first roller coaster. I think we have a little daredevil on our hands. He loved it.

Somewhere in there, Cara, Jonah and I rode the Tea Cups. At first, I couldn't convince Adriana to get on them. We finally convinced her, and we were all able to ride in the same tea cup. Adriana loved them, by the way, and has since said that was her favorite ride.

We made our way over to Frontierland and watched the Tiki room show. Cara, Jonah and I then rode the Magic Carpets. We also went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which Jonah loved. We all rode that one and had to get immediately back on it.

Eventually, the afternoon parade came around. Originally, I had planned for us to see the afternoon parade on the day we were leaving, but Bruce wanted to leave the park before the parade to head up the road. He suggested we see it on this day, so we did. The parade was good, as usual, but is was hot. I cannot imagine being there in July or August.

When the parade was over, we started to stand in line for the carousel, but the line was long. We decided to get out of line and Cara went into meltdown mode. She loves carousels. I promised her that we would ride it on our last day, but she was not satisfied with that answer. She finally calmed down, but we had to hear about the carousel the rest of the trip.

We took the Walt Disney World Railroad back to the front of the park where we boarded a boat to take us back to our resort. Well, took us to the Grand Floridian where we boarded a monorail train to go back to our resort.

When we returned to the room, we were excited to ... unwind. You thought I was going to say find Blue, didn't you? She wasn't there, of course. Seems like this was the day (or it might have been the next day) that we had a message from the important sounding title guy that they had looked all over for one, but couldn't find one. Uhm, seems like we bought one over the weekend not 15 minutes from their gates. This time, Bruce left him a message telling him exactly where he could find one.

Today's Your Birthday!

Happy Birthday to the best husband a girl can have. I feel so blessed to walk through this world with Bruce. I could not dream of a better man for my children. I hope we get to celebrate many, many more together.

Disney Day 2

Adriana is writing a note to the Tooth Fairy to let her know that her tooth would not be under her pillow, but on this end table.

Posing with Cinderella's evil stepmother.

Adriana with the Kimcommunicator.

Cara' first pin-trading experience.

In Bruce's mouth.

On day two of our Disney adventure, we went to Epcot. I purposely planned it for the day after our late night at Magic Kingdom. I knew that we did not have to get to Epcot early to do anything we were planning on doing, so we arrived about mid-morning.

To be honest, Epcot is probably our least favorite park, but it is good for a relaxing, meandering day. We headed there so the children could ride the Nemo ride, see Turtle Talk with Crush and the girls could work a Kim Possible mission.

When we exited the Nemo ride and Crush, a scuba diver was giving a demonstration. Jonah was mesmerized by him. I wish we had seen the whole show, but he was finishing up when we came up on him. Maybe next time.

The girls and I tried to complete the Kim Possible mission. We had a small Kimcommunicator (cell phone) that took us around China in the World Discovery showcase. We had to stop and ask a few cast members for help, but we were able to complete the mission.

Jonah loved the Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros ride. This was one that we missed last time we were at Disney. The line was long and then the ride was shut down for a while. Not this time. We walked right on and stayed on the ride for a couple of go throughs. Jonah wanted to keep going, but we got off the ride. Then he went into full meltdown mode. When we stopped to get ice cream, he started falling asleep. He took a good snooze while we enjoyed the frozen treats.

We didn't get as much done at Epcot as I had planned for us, but we were all still dragging from the night before. Next time, this may be a park that we skipped. Of course, we said that last time, too.

We left Epcot and headed to our dinner reservations at 1900 Park Fare. This dinner is held at the Grand Floridian and stars Cinderella, the prince, the evil stepmother and the evil stepsisters. The food was okay, but the character interaction was great. The prince was able to get Jonah to warm up and have his picture made with "face" characters. Even the evil stepmother got him to pose with her. She kind of didn't give him a choice. The best part of the evening was when Anastasia came around to our table. She was in the middle of signing the children's autograph books when Bruce made some reference to one of the movies. She asked him twice to repeat himself and then she accused him of being rude and stormed off. I laughed so hard because he was left speechless. The girls were able to get their picture with Anastasia later.

Adriana lost/pulled a tooth that night. She placed it on an end table instead of placing it under her pillow. She did write the Tooth Fairy a note to her let her know where the tooth was.

Probably the funniest thing that happened that day took place that night. Well, it wasn't funny at the time, but it is now looking back. Since Cara has been on the pump, we have to check her blood sugar at midnight to ensure that she is not going too low. We had a one bedroom suite and the children slept in the living room. The sleeping arrangements were a pull-out chair/bed and a sleeper sofa. Adriana and Cara decided to switch places from the night before. I had already been asleep and got up to check Cara. I was glad to see that her hand was out so I wouldn't have to try to find it. I stuck her finger and she turned to look at me. Only, it wasn't Cara. It was Adriana! She had a horrified look on her face, and if I hadn't been so tired I am sure I would have been crying. I kept apologizing to her.

The next day Adriana told me it didn't really hurt after all. Of course, when I offered to check her again, she declined.

Let's continue with Disney, shall we?

Taking a snooze safely in Daddy's arms.

The obvious-fireworks behind the castle.

Cara didn't care too much for the noise.

Watching the fireworks from the best seat in the park-Daddy's arms.

One of the floats in the SpectroMagic parade.

Outside the castle at night. It changes colors. So cool!

Our waitress at 'Ohana's.

Enjoying the food.

I know you have been sitting on the edge of your seats, waiting for the rest of our Disney trip, haven't you? You have, haven't you? Well, here you go.

So, Bruce and I made a couple of calls to mousekeeping and the front desk to explain our Blue peril. Mousekeeping told me they would check it out. Someone with an important title at the hotel told Bruce that he would try to find Blue. He also said if he couldn't find Blue, that they would do something to correct the situation because, "that wasn't right." I then stepped out into the hallway and saw some mousekeepers. I mentioned what happened and apparently neither of them had cleaned our room that day. (Also, I think we had a little bit of a communication barrier.) They told me they would try to find Blue, too. More on that later. This is an adventure you will hear about as the week goes on. I know you are sitting on the edge of your seats for that one, too.

In the meantime, our luggage arrived in our room and I unpacked our clothes while everyone rested a few minutes. (At least I think that is when I did that. May have been after dinner. Can't remember for sure right now.)

We left to go to dinner at 'Ohana's, which is not a character meal, but is a meal with character. 'Ohana's means family, don't you know. It is held at the Polynesian Resort. Our reservation was early and we only had to wait a few minutes before we were seated. In my planning, I found out that I could tell the hostess/wait staff about Cara's diabetes and they would be willing to help out. I told the hostess, and she said, "We will makes sure you get seated right away because we know she doesn't need to wait to eat." (Yes! They get it! Loved that!)

Our waitress took us to our table and explained 'Ohana's to us. It is Polynesian food and is served family style. The chef came over and told us what he could do for Cara to help her be able to enjoy the food without the extra carbs that the rest of us ate. So nice. I am not sure how much food he thought she could put away, though, because he fixed her a lot of food.

We enjoyed our feast of shrimp, chicken, beef, pork and turkey on skewers. We had a type of pot stickers, noodles, wings, and so much food that I can't remember it all. The dessert was some type of bread pudding with ice cream. Cara had no sugar added ice cream. Let's just say we were quite satisfied. The whole family enjoyed it and we have decided we will go back when we return.

The entertainment was a singer with a ukulele. He had the children to join him for a limbo contest and dancing around the restaurant. Lots of fun.

We went back to our hotel to change Cara's shirt. (Imagine that?) We also took a few minutes to catch our breath and hopefully find Blue. Of course, she wasn't there.

We returned to the Magic Kingdom for the evening parade, SpectroMagic, and the fireworks. SpectroMagic was beautiful. While we were waiting for it to begin, Bruce stood in line for some popcorn for Adriana. While he was line, he turned around and yelled at me, "Are you related to so and so?" I yelled back, "distantly." Come to find out, while he was in line he started talking to this guy in line who had on a Clemson shirt. He was from my hometown and he was even in high school a couple of grades before me. His mother was standing behind me and we started talking. She remembered me from church softball. She was kind and said she remembered me from when I played softball. I corrected her and said I stood there while wearing a team shirt. We found out that this is a small world after all.

After the parade, we tried to find a good position for the fireworks. We were on a bridge when we realized the fireworks were being blocked a little by the trees. We moved and found a better spot. Cara didn't care for the fireworks too much because they were loud. When the fireworks were over, we got ready to leave.

I took the girls to a shop so they could get their first pins and lanyards for pin trading. Jonah fell asleep on Bruce's shoulder so he waited for us while we were in the shop.

We were quite tired, but the girls kept up with us as we tried to get on the monorail. We ended up getting on the wrong monorail, so we had to switch. We finally got in bed around 11:30 p.m. Way past the kids' bedtime. Needless to say, the girls went to sleep about as quickly as their heads hit the pillows.

Baptism pictures

The pictures I was trying to post the other day.

Adriana's baptism

Before I continue with the Disney reports, I am going to take a few minutes to blog about Adriana's baptism. I just realized the other day I had not blogged about it. I apologize. I was so wrapped up before our trip with getting school work done, that I didn't have time to blog before.

Adriana accepted Jesus into her heart a couple of weeks or so before Easter. Bruce was trying to decide when to have the baptism and I suggested Easter because it seemed so appropriate. The good news of the cross would be given as a visual during our Easter sunrise service. At our church, we only have a sunrise service on Easter and then a breakfast. I have to commend our family who got up at various early hours to come see the baptism. Seeing them meant a lot to Adriana and to us.

After Bruce delivered his sermon (kudos to Cara and Jonah who sat through the whole service and behaved), I went with Adriana to help her get ready while Bruce got ready. While I was with her, she was shaking a little and she told me she was scared. I was ready to get back to my seat and cameras, but I resisted the urge to comfort her. I told her that everything was going to be fine and that Daddy would take care of her. The moment came and I helped her go up the stairs to the baptistery.

Bruce gave a beautiful speech about the significance of baptism and how the act of baptism does not save us, but the acknowledgement of Jesus as our savior. (He did a much better job than I just did in explaining it all.)

Can I say Bruce choked up a little as he was getting ready to baptize her? He did, and I might have, too.

After it was over, Adriana said it wasn't too bad and the water was warm. The water was warm, but she was cold afterwards. She quickly changed and we dried her hair.

For her baptism, we gave her a new Bible that has larger print and the same translation from which Bruce preaches. She had a little bit of trouble following him while he was preaching because her other Bible's print is very small and a different translation. I also made her a cross cake. All in all, it was a good day.

(For some reason, Blogger is not allowing me to post pictures this morning. I will try again to post some later.)