Disney World - Days 6 & 7

Our last day in the parks - we had to hit the Magic Kingdom again and have a "do over" of our first day here. Cole is SO much better than the day we tried to enjoy this park before, so, we were going to make the most of it. We went on Snow White, Peter Pan, Pirates, and the carousel. We saw an awesome 3D movie with Mickey, Donald and many other Disney characters and we saw the princesses, the witches and Mickey and Minnie in a show by Cinderella's castle. Oh and we watched the parade. Steve wanted to hit Thunder Mountain Railroad, but it was having "technical difficulties", so, we went to Splash Mountain instead. We had 1 cast member tell us that Cole wasn't tall enough. Right away, she went on break and another cast member (after a serious hair fluffing) allowed Cole to squeak by. After waiting 40 minutes in the line, we were almost to the loading area when we saw another cast member checking height (seriously... after 40 minutes of waiting???), so we decided to take matters into our own hands...er... feet. I had a new package of tissues in my backpack, so, we divided them in two and put them in the bottom of Cole's shoes. Hope nobody noticed when he walked by the height checker guy that Cole was walking weird and saying "Mama, I doe like deez fings in my sooz". Oh well, we got on and have a blurry pic of us going down the plunge. Victory!! Best of all, we saw lots of character friends. Oh - and I actually saw a guy I went to law school with... random, huh? We didn't stay late as we had an early morning ahead of us. We had to catch our shuttle at 6 am to head to the airport and return home.

So, maybe it didn't start out well, but all in all, we had a great trip. Reagan and Cole are awesome travelers (the I-Pad didn't hurt) and we had lots of compliments from the flight attendants. Yeah!!! Thanks Mickey and Minnie (and Jesse, Woody, Ariel, Tiana, Cinderella, Pluto, Goofy, Snow White, Belle, Timone, and all our other friends). We'll see you next year!!!

Disney World - Day 5

Today, we hit Disney's Hollywood Studios. Cole is pretty close to back to normal by now. Thank goodness!!! We hit the American Idol Experience and laughed at the judges they had (that looked and acted like the real judges). We rode on the Toy Story ride (much better than the one in the Magic Kingdom). We played at the Bug's Life playground and saw a theater production of the Little Mermaid - it was great with effects on the stage, all 4 walls, and the ceiling. We also went on the backlot tour and Reagan's favorite thing was the costume that the witch wore in the Enchanted movie (one of her favorites to watch with Matt and Shannon). Today, we also saw lots of character friends. After leaving the park, we had dinner at the restaurant at our hotel and Goofy and Pluto made several appearances - YEAH!!! With only one more day in the parks, we hit the sack relatively early to make the most of tomorrow.

Disney World - Day 4

Great night last night (and by that I mean no throwing up). Cole was still restless and wanted to be in our bed, rather than his own, but I can handle that! So, we got up early and headed to Disney's Animal Kingdom. Cole loved, loved, loved Dino Town and we were honorary bugs at the It's Tough to be a Bug show (they have that in California as well). We also went on safari and saw lots of animals. There was one ride that was a go back in time to find a dinosaur jeep-type tour that Cole was super excited about until after it was over. I'll admit it was even scary for me, but it was like a delayed reaction for him. He was fine until we got out of the jeep and then he started clinging to me and crying. Minutes later, he was saying how it was not THAT scary and later that night, he said that ride was his favorite part of the day... go figure. (We did get a pretty good pic to see on the screens after the ride - they take your pic when the big dino jumps out at you - gotta love it.) We ate at the Rainforest Cafe - always a favorite of ours and we saw a safari parade. Since the Animal Kingdom closes at 5, we decided to head back to Epcot to grab some dinner and catch the fireworks show.

Cole had a much, much better day today. His appetite still isn't back to normal, but he is drinking lots and hasn't thrown up again. YEAH!!!!!

Disney World - Day 3

After another night of throwing up, although less than last night, we opted today to sleep in. We talked to our pediatrician's office and they assured us that we were doing all that we could for Cole, to keep up with the medicine, and to make sure that he drinks enough. Again, after 6 hours of him not throwing up, we thought we could try Epcot (especially since we could walk there from our hotel). We put Cole in the stroller and headed out. He was better, but still not himself. At least we could see a marked improvement when he took his medicine. He wanted to go to the parks, so we made a deal that he could only go if he drank enough. He was in and we were on our way.

We walked to Epcot and leisurely walked around looking at some of the countries. We ate and then decided to try some of the rides and attractions. Many of them were just shows so, that was definitely our speed. We saw a Lion King movie about the environment, rode a Finding Nemo ride, talked with Crush the turtle, went up in the Epcot "ball" for the ride there and saw Captain EO (apparently Disney brought back the movie after Michael Jackson's death). It was a perfect day to let Cole recuperate a bit while allowing us to keep seeing more sites. Let's hope for a good night tonight and an even better day tomorrow.

Disney World - Days 1 & 2

We have taken Reagan and Cole to Disneyland every year (in fact, the first time we took Reagan, I was 6 months pregnant with Cole and it was super, super hot). This year, we decided we wanted to take them to Disney World in Orlando. We have been there by ourselves, we have taken Steve's girls, and Steve has taken his girls several times when they were younger. In the past, we have enjoyed going in December as the weather is cooler, the Christmas decorations are up and most schools are still in session. So, we booked our trip for the first week in December.

The NEXT day, Steve received an e-mail from a travel site that said the least busy time for Disney World is in September as children have just returned to school and many parents don't want to pull them out within a few weeks of starting school. The e-mail also said that there are many specials to be had in September. For example, if we booked the hotel we had already booked (a Starwood hotel on property) in September, rather than December, we could save over $100 a night! Other savings were available and since Cole doesn't turn 3 until October, if we went in September, we could save the cost of his park ticket. Geez! It's like they were paying us to go there! We can go anytime, so,why not now? We booked the trip and got on the plane.

Maybe I should have seen the troubles coming when the morning we left, Reagan and Cole woke up at 4 am!!!!! I couldn't get a straight story about who woke up whom so, I just chalked it up to their excitement. The rest of the day, Cole was just not himself. When we arrived at the hotel, even though it was dark, we went to check out the pool and the grounds - Cole just walked and sat around - he didn't get excited or anything. We had dinner, but Cole didn't eat much and later, we found out why. He had a scary fever and was throwing up every couple of hours. He was one sick little boy.

After struggling through two nights without sleep, we were all kind of a mess. We gave Cole tylenol and he went 4 hours without throwing up, so, we thought it was maybe a 24 hour thing. We decided to try to hit the Magic Kingdom. After 2 rides, 1 parade, a visit to the first aid building and Cole not even caring that he could meet Buzz Lightyear, we headed back to the hotel to re-group. Cole and I stayed in the hotel and he slept while Steve and Reagan hit the pool. After a couple of hours, Cole was up and still having not thrown up, he wanted to swim with Reagan and Daddy. I figured the cool water may do him good and we joined Reagan and Steve. Cole was in the pool for maybe 20 minutes, played in the sand for maybe 15 minutes and then was too tired to do anything. We were referred to a pharmacy who delivered and we ordered more tylenol and motrin.

We stayed in that evening. Poor Cole. I was scared because he wasn't really perking up when he had his medicine. He was lethargic, not eating, and I had to force him to drink. Plus, his entire body was hot to the touch. I wasn't sure that we were even making any headway with his temperature. He kept saying "I want to go home" and I think, in some part, we all did. When you are used to the comfort and familiarity of your home, it is no fun to be stuck in a hotel room, without a car, unable to get all the meds, food, drinks or comforts that you desire. We prayed that he would feel better (and that none of the rest of us would get whatever he had). We decided to sleep in the next morning and see if some extra rest would make any difference. Not starting out well for our Disney World vacation :(

Lion King!!!!

I've said in previous posts that Lion King is my favorite broadway show. Steve and I were able to see it, quite unexpectedly, on a trip to San Francisco and I've loved it ever since. So, when we heard that it was coming to Salt Lake, we knew we had to get tickets (on the first day they were available). The theater notes said that they recommend this show for people 4 years and older, but I couldn't imagine leaving Cole home while we went to the show. So, we went ahead and bought him a ticket as well. I rationalized to myself that our seats were on the 3rd row, so, hopefully it would keep Reagan and Cole engaged in the show. I also told myself that since I had seen it, if Cole couldn't handle it, I'd take him out and let Reagan and Steve enjoy whatever time remained. Well..... they both did GREAT!

Cole was actually better than Reagan. He sat on my or Steve's lap and whispered when he had questions, etc. Reagan was so into it that you would think that she was the only one in the theater. She would ask "where's Scar?", "where's Simba's mommy?", "why are they sad?" We had to keep "shusshhhh - ing" her and she was trying soooo hard to whisper. When the Hakuna Matata song came on, she stood up, laughed out loud and started clapping! Thank goodness we had kind people in front of us who had children themselves. (One note - I was previously unaware that the Capitol Theatre has cushions for children. They don't have many, so, you need to get in line quickly, but they gave Reagan and Cole a few more inches to be able to see a bit better.)

We had a wonderful time and Reagan's favorite part? The curtain call when "Scar was nice" and "Simba's daddy was ALIVE". Gotta love it. Note - Some of the pics we took inside the theater were pretty dark, so please forgive the quality of the pics, but hopefully they show that we are having a fabulous time!

Labor Day Weekend

For us, Labor Day weekend was a fun-filled weekend of friends and family. On Friday afternoon, we headed up to the Uintas to meet some of Steve's siblings and their families for some camping and fishing. I say those two words lightly, though, as we actually did neither.

Steve tried everything in his tackle box, SO wanting to have Reagan and Cole catch some fish, but to no avail. He said it was the only time in his life that he fished in that area without catching something. However, it didn't matter to Reagan and Cole - they had a blast running around, casting and reeling in the line and just being in nature. So, no fishing.... we also bailed on the camping part and opted to drive home after 10 pm. But, while we were there, we had so much fun! Mark brought his guitar and took endless song requests. Reagan and Cole loved playing with their cousins. We sang, roasted marshmallows and talked by the fire while we continued to be amazed at the number of stars in the beautiful sky. Some of Steve's sibs stayed 1 night, others 2 (with an RV) and Dave and his family stayed for 4 days - now THAT's camping.

Saturday, we seemed to get going pretty late (the kids were tired after our late night of semi-camping). Between hitting the gym, grocery shopping, some football games and getting ready for Sunday (I was in charge of Sharing Time - Steve had to conduct in Priesthood & Sacrament), the day flew by.

Sunday we had planned to head back up to the mountains and see who had joined the camping bunch, but between church, naps and visitors that day, we ended up staying home and had a nice day together.

On Monday, we decided to hit Oktoberfest at Snowbird. We try to go every year and the kids always enjoy it. They have music, booths, food, our favorite - bouncy bounce, and the activities that Snowbird always has (alpine slide, zip line, rock climbing, tram rides, lift rides, hiking and beautiful scenery). Steve's brother Doug and his family were up there, so, we were able to see them for a bit. We rode on the lift and took a walk through the tunnel that connects one side of the mountain to the other. We hiked a bit and took the tram as well. The weather was great and the views were gorgeous. Snowbird is a favorite of ours all year round.

We also celebrated our anniversary this weekend and we were able to spend some time reflecting on how blessed we are, the amazing gifts that Reagan and Cole are in our lives, and things that we want to do better. We thoroughly enjoyed our long weekend and were so glad to be able to spend time with family and friends.

Thanksgiving Point

After dance class last week, a bunch of our dance class buddies were heading to Thanksgiving Point. We elected to join them and had a great time at the Museum of Ancient Life. We enjoyed looking at the exhibits, playing with the interactive centers and "excavating" in the water and sand.

Since we had already made the trip to Utah County, we figured, we might as well make a day of it. So, we headed over to Farm Country. As always, this is a great time for Reagan and Cole. We fed the animals, petted them, rode ponies and played with the interactive exhibits.

What a neat place Thanksgiving Point is. I'm so glad that we have the opportunity to go there and to play, experience and learn.