Another brief interlude

One more break from the WDW photo tour...

My cute cousin Missy came out to see us last night, and she took us to the Chinese Gourmet for dinner. It was great! When we got home, we all opened our fortune cookies, and this was Stacie's:







Best. Fortune. Ever.

Day 6 - WDW Vacation

As any moviegoer knows, the middle act of a movie is generally where the protagonist faces his or her biggest challenge. The first act is a happy introduction, the final act is when things are resolved into a (typically) happy ending. But the middle part is often full of conflict, problems, and sadness. Day 6 of an 11 day trip fell right in the middle (cue ominous music). I posed a hypothetical situation to my family via email several weeks before the trip, postulating that I would rather receive a firm kick to the genitalia while standing on Main Street over sitting in my home. The idea being that even in extreme discomfort, my love for all things Disney would supersede the pain. This theory was put directly to the test on Day 6:




Looks pretty innocent, huh? We started the day lazily, sleeping in a little bit and having a late breakfast. Our idea was to get to Disney's Hollywood Studios (DHS from here on out) before lunch, and spend the entire day there until closing, eschewing the midday break and staying until it closed in the early evening. As we packed up for the day, we found our video camera dead as the proverbial doornail; we had used it the night before, and plugged it in to charge for the next day. We hope that it is just a dead battery, but we still haven't fixed this, and this was a definite loss for our attempts to document our trip. Maybe if the camera was resting under a ladder with a black cat on top of it, we could have recognized it for the harbinger of things to come (cue more ominous music).

As we walked to the bus stop, we saw one bound for our destination leaving, but didn't feel like sprinting for it, so we strolled to the bus stop to wait for the next one. 15 long minutes later we were off; this would be the only time during our entire trip that the bus looped to the Grand Floridian Hotel to get even more people, and with the car seat, stroller, and all of us, a full bus was not optimal. In fact, as more people were shoehorned onto the bus, Lexie ended up climbing into the back row, planting herself next to an older couple and proceeded to talk their ears off during the trip. She is such an amazing little girl, and has such an ease talking to anyone and everyone. Our challenge with her will certainly be to implant some form of "Stranger Danger" because she is so comfortable with anyone. We filed off the bus, and the couple came over to thank us for an entertaining trip, offering to take her off our hands. Several hours later, I might have taken her up :)

DHS was extremely busy; there are truly only a handful of rides in the park, and it doesn't take much to produce very long lines. Toy Story Mania, the newest ride and one of our must-sees, was a 90 minute wait, and the FastPass line was no longer open. We hoped to catch it later; and focused on seeing some of the shows that were offered. Because Lexie was fighting a cold, we were giving her liquid Tylenol, which seemed to upset her stomach and left us scrambling for bathrooms several times. We watched the High School Musical street show and then stood in line for the Little Mermaid show. Just as we sat down and the show started, Lexie mentioned the need for some bathroom time. Reading the urgency of these requests became a bit of an art form (one that I sadly failed a couple of times), and I knew that this wouldn't wait. Lexie and I sprinted out, and made it to the bathroom in time, but we weren't allowed back into the theater, so Stacie and Jaden enjoyed the show without us.

After the show, we did a little shopping; Lexie got to buy the Tinkerbell doll that she wanted to buy several days ago. Grandpa had saved his change for her to buy something on the trip, and she pulled the trigger on this. Sweet...more tiny dolls with minuscule parts that I would have to dress for her! It became obvious that the rides were only getting busier, so Stacie and Lexie went to the Beauty And The Beast stage show, while the fellas took a trip to the Baby Care Center so that Jaden could unwind and have some food. After that, we decided to camp out a spot to watch the Block Party Bash, a parade/street party/performance. Stacie took the kids and sat down on the sidewalk while I went looking for some lunch. The crowds made food-getting a waiting game as well, although the monster turkey leg was worth it. I made it back just in time for the show, and we enjoyed primo seats.

After the show, the crowd dispersed and we finished our lunch, sitting on the ground. Lexie was already finished, and her naughty streak, which was slowly escalating all day, suddenly peaked. She stood up, looked over her shoulder at us, and took off running. I scrambled to my feet (sadly, not NEARLY as fast as Lexie had) and took off after her. She had ducked between a series of an ice cream stand, the wait time board, and some shrubbery. As busy as it was, her head start made it impossible to see which path she took. I ran forward, pushing my way through the crowded walkway, and for about 10 terrible seconds I had no idea where she was. It seemed like ten years, but she had doubled back, hoping that I was chasing her, and I spied her. As relieved as I was to get her, it took everything that I had to not beat her little backside right there. We had a long talk about staying with us, and after several earnest promises from Lexie, we decided to give it another shot.

Playhouse Disney was our next stop; we wanted to see the show again, and it was a fun show. As you can see in the slide show, Lexie was practicing her mad face and her happy face while we waited for the show to start. Unfortunately, the mad face won out, and once the show was over, she took off in another dead sprint. I was a little bit more prepared this time, and chased her down before she got out of sight. I was really frustrated, and tried to walk her over out of the way in order to talk to her. Lexie went to her classic "go limp as a rag doll" defense, which is effective considering her stature. I can physically pull her when she does this, but I don't really want to dislocate her shoulder, so I try to reason with her. In retrospect, I should have taken a picture of her in the middle of the animation courtyard, laying face down, in full tantrum. But I just wasn't thinking clearly enough. It's funny, all of the emotions that go through you at that point. Everyone walking past looks at you, and the looks on their faces range from "Can't you control your child?" to "I'm sure sorry...I've been there too". I pulled her over to a park bench and put her on my lap in a bear hug, hoping to calm her down, but it was like trying to hold on to a 60 pound salmon. She went postal on me, writhing around, screaming as loud as possible and hitting me in the face several times. It took about 20 minutes and every ounce of my patience to get her to calm down, and after she did, she promised to behave herself.

Something that may have crossed your mind (it crossed me many times, believe me) is why we didn't just go back to the hotel when we hit critical mass. There really wasn't much to do back at the hotel besides sit in the room, and the way that she was acting, that didn't sound too pleasing. Plus, it took long enough to get to the bus stop, get back to the room, etc. that we knew if we left we wouldn't be back that day. I got to the verge of going a couple of times, and then things would calm down, so we gutted it out.

We planned to see Fantasmic! that evening, which is a live show with songs, characters, and fireworks. It's one of my very favorite things, and in Orlando they have a giant amphitheater to see it in. It became apparent that we weren't going to get to ride anything without a killer wait, plus there were tons of people streaming towards Fantasmic!, so we headed that way. It was a good thing; even though we were an hour early, we were lucky to get a seat. By show time, it was standing room only. Of course, right before the show started Lexie needed to use the restroom again, so she and I fought through the masses to get to the potty. We went in the "Family" restroom, and there was one more horrible surprise in store. I am not really squeamish, nor do I have a delicate stomach per se. I have been in many bathrooms that were not that pleasant, and I have contributed to this on occasion. But the wall of stench that we were confronted with was reprehensible. I have NEVER experienced anything like that, and it was all that I could do to not forfeit my stomach contents. Morbid curiosity made me wonder for a split second about the origin of the funkiness, but we left as quickly as possible. I cautioned the next dad waiting outside the door about the situation (I was also trying to make him understand that we were not responsible for whatever happened), but he braved the bathroom anyway, letting out an audible gasp as the door shut. I think of him often, and hope that they were able to find their way to safety.

The show was great and we had excellent seats, so it was worth the wait. As we pushed through the crowds to where we had to park the stroller, and make our way back to the park, Lexie began listening to the little devil on her shoulder again. We made an ill-advised attempt to stay in the park, but we only got as far as the giant hat (in the slide show) before we bailed. The ride back to the hotel was a real treat...Lexie screamed most of the way home, and Jaden, sensing our frustration, became very fussy and hollered most of the trip as well. Ah, the lucky fellow passengers on that bus!

We got back to the room without causing permanent harm to anyone and the kids zonked out. The coda to the evening involved a comedy of errors (which were self-inflicted) that turned my trip to wash some clothes into a two-hour ordeal and didn't get me to bed until nearly 2:00 a.m. It was very fitting, to say the least. I would expound, but this is long enough, and Stacie is hounding me to get this posted. Another time, perhaps.

The middle act of conflict was over...we survived. Barely. As far as my hypothetical question, I would probably still take the discomfort, especially now that I can look back on the day and laugh about it. It certainly helped that we still had several days to enjoy ourselves, which we will document in the coming days.

Day 5 - WDW Vacation

Day 5 began with a 'Bon Voyage' to the Nelson Clan as they set sail on the Disney Wonder for a 4 night bahama cruise. We gave our farewell wishes on our way to the Magic Kingdom. We had slept in that morning as it was late extra magic hours and wanted to try and get caught up on our sleep so we could stay a little later in the park that evening.

Our day at the Magic Kingdom started off with Lexie and Dad meeting Mary Poppins while Mom and Jaden made a mad dash for the Baby Care Center, someone was hungry. We spent most of our morning in Tomorrowland enjoying Autopia and Buzz Lightyear. Lexie even got to meet him in person, he was waiting for us as we walked off the ride. We wanted to catch the new parade so we camped out a spot while Dad went to get us dinner. We ate hot dogs, laughed, and got increasingly excited as the parade began its journey down main street. The parade was spectacular, as all Disney parades are . . . a must see. I'm a fan of parades already but no one does a parade like the folks at Disney. We saw Mickey, Minne, Donald, Goofy, Chip 'n Dale, Ariel, Cinderella, and so much more. One float carried Alice, from Alice in Wonderland, and Lexie was so excited because she hadn't seen her before. Lexie waved and waved then Alice looked directly at Lexie and blew her a kiss. Lexie was so excited she blew her one right back. It was such a special moment for me I started crying . . . I know, I'm silly. All the special feelings rose to the surface at that moment. I love seeing her so happy and excited.

We returned to the room for a late nap then back to the park for an evening of fun. Let me take this opportunity to share how much I loved being able to take the Monorail to the Magic Kingdom. The transportation system is amazing in Disney World but the Monorail is by far and away my favorite way to travel. For those of us that have strollers the Monorail is a HUGE blessing because you don't have to remove kids, collapse the stroller and hold all the "stuff" that we usually carry in and under the stroller. I was so excited anytime we were able to use the Monorail to travel to and from the parks. Definately one of my favorite things about staying at the Polynesian.



The night time at the Magic Kingdom is a family favorite. We are able to do and see so much with the extra magic hours. Our first stop was Splash Mountain. Lexie had been watching the ride video with her Dad prior to the trip and was determined to ride. As she put it, she wanted to go "up up up and then down down down . . . Sploosh". She had a great ride but got drench (not to my liking since it was dark, cool, and no way for her to get dry). We did a few Fantasyland rides before we had another unfortunate bathroom accident. Lexie had to go to the bathroom but waited too long to tell us and then it was too late, we were yelling in the bathroom as we tried to wash out her panties. She ended up with some pants on that Dad had forgotten he brought and no panties for the evening. We didn't let it ruin our fun, we continued our adventures and finally ended up in Cosmic Ray's for some dinner shortly before the park closed.

When we walked into Cosmic Ray's we were greeted by a man named John and he asked us if we were ordering dinner. He had 5 meals left on his meal plan and they expired at Midnight (it was 11:45pm). He offered to buy us dinner so the money didn't go to waist. We were both hesitant about his offer but it turned out to be genuine kindness. He ordered us dinner and used his meal plan credit to pay. He really was just a nice man from Chicago, Illinois. He and Josh had a nice conversation while waiting for the meal then he wished us a fond farewell as he was heading home in the morning. It's so nice to see that good people are out there willing to help others. Thanks John, we really appreciated your kindness. We enjoyed eating our meal with a private showing by Sonny Eclipse. Lexie wasn't too hip on Sonny, it was late, dark, and he was singing songs she'd never heard. She was most concerned about his performance but in the end really liked him once she got to know him.

We made it back to our room for a few hours sleep to prepare us for our next adventure in Hollywood Studios.

Day 4 - WDW Vacation

Day 4 brought lots of different adventures. We had planned to start the day off by meeting Nate and Amy at 7:30am for Early Magic Hours in Hollywood Studios. I got up when the alarm went off at 6:30am and then woke Josh up to get in the shower. While he was in the shower I decided it would be best to let the kids sleep in, they were so peaceful and I couldn't bring myself to wake them. Josh agreed to go ahead with Nate and Amy and I'd come over later in the morning when Grandma and Grandpa were heading over. Josh headed on his way and I layed back down to catch some sleep. Unfortunately just about 20 minutes later the hotel phone rang and both the kids woke up. It was Uncle Jake, his intentions were good as he offered to help me get things ready since Josh was gone. Since the kids were up now we relaxed a little, watched disney playhouse and slowly got ready for the day. Jake and Valerie ordered breakfast for us at Capt. Cook's and we met them there to start our day.

The entire family finally met up in Hollywood Studios and we headed for the Tower of Terror. Lexie had been talking with her Dad about the ride and decided that she wanted to go with the group. She made it through the ride and when it was all over said that she wanted to go again (but she never did ride on the tower of terror again). She's a pretty brave girl to ride that ride at such a young age, I hope it didn't terrorize her for life.

We had lunch reservations at the SciFi Diner, a neat restaurant where you sit in cars and order from the car hops while watching old movies at the drive in. It's such an amazing place with yummy shakes, fries, and burgers. After lunch we headed over to catch the Playhouse Disney show and fortunately for Lexie she was able to see Handy Manny and all the Little Einsteins in addition to the show (the show was a favortie of Lexie's since she watches Playhouse Disney every day). We then headed back to the hotel for a nap.

We had a last minute change in plans and we were able to go see La Nouba with the family while Grandma and Grandpa watched the kids. We'd seen La Nouba many years ago and enjoyed the show equally as much this time around. We had driven the van to Downtown Disney for the show so the rest of the clan stayed looking for dinner and shopping while we drove Great Grandma back to the hotel then returned to join the group. It was a Saturday night and we couldn't find a place to eat that didn't have a major wait so we ended up going separate ways. Josh had told us about a place called Krystal Burgers that he really wanted to find so Nate did some investigative work, got the number to Krystal's and called them for directions. The rest is history, we headed on our way and fortunately for us we found the location and had a grand Krystal dinner.

Day 3 - WDW Vacation

The second full day of our vacation found all of us meeting in the morning to go to Animal Kingdom for a character breakfast at the Tusker House restaurant. It was still unseasonably cold, and the morning air was quite chilly. The Disney bus system is quite amazing, but we were left waiting for nearly 30 minutes before our bus came by.

We enjoyed the breakfast buffet, and after a short while Daisy, Goofy, Mickey and Minnie all took turns stopping by to take a picture with us. Lexie put her autograph book to good use, and she even got to dance with Daisy in a conga line.

After breakfast we set out to explore Animal Kingdom. We all boarded the Kilimanjaro Safari and saw as much wildlife as I can recall seeing; the highlight being a rhino that was literally running from field to field as we drove by. We spent the morning in the park, finding Baloo and King Louie taking pictures in one area, and Pocahontas signing autographs in Camp Mickey-Minnie. Luckily for Grandma they found Pocahontas, she had told Lexie she would most likely see her but didn't know if or where to locate her. Good job Grandma! Lexie had a great time with Grandpa and Grandma, they spoiled her with some Mickey ears and got a fun princess tatoo on her hand that she made sure to show all the characters throughout the day. She even remembered that it would last "4 days".



Later, we took one of our many trips to the Baby Care Center. These facilities were located in every park (although the Animal Kingdom version was Stacie's favorite), and are a wonderful place to change diapers, make bottles, or just catch your breath in a quiet place. Jaden particularly enjoyed the reprieve from his car seat and would stretch out on the padded changing tables. After lunch at the Pizzafari, we left the park only to find Pluto, Meeko from Pocahontas, and Br'er Bear nearly begging for someone to take pictures with, and Lexie was only too happy to oblige.

After some down time in the hotel, we hopped on the Monorail for a short trip to the Grand Floridian for the opening event of the NECA Convention. Dad has been president of the local NECA chapter for four years now, and this was when the torch began to be passed to the next president. Dad was recognized and thanked for all of his leadership and service, and we were excited that we could be there with him. As a surprise, Donald Duck made an appearance, and then later Mickey and Minnie did as well. Everyone had a great time meeting them, and this was the first time that we were able to take pictures with Jaden and the characters. It was a great night of food, friends, and family! Lexie particularly enjoyed the chocolate cake, cookies, and ice cream for dinner, but so did her Mom.

We closed the night with a quick trip to Downtown Disney to window shop. Grandma and Grandpa helped the kids get to sleep and we wandered around the massive World Of Disney store. We took pictures in front of Daisy and Donald, and Stacie managed to find a mad face to match Donald's. Sandwiches from the Earl Of Sandwich finished off our night, and we headed home to get some sleep!

A brief interlude

A slight intermission in our Disney World recap; I just wanted to post proof of the resemblance that I've seen since Jaden was born:
















That's Jaden on the right, by the way. Day 3 will be coming later today!

Day 2 - WDW Vacation

Day 2 began as we headed for the Magic Kingdom. It was a very cold day, in fact the headline news story was the record breaking cold weather and the frost being experienced in and around Orlando. It was a high of 58 and the wind was blowing giving a bitter chill. I had packed for cold weather but not THIS cold weather. Lexie had her jacket and we bundled Jaden up under the three blankets I had packed. I think he was the warmest individual in our group. The entire Nelson Clan went to the Magic Kingdom except for Jake and Valerie, as they had some plans with family in Epcot that day. When we entered the park Lexie saw Daisy and had to run right over and have her picture taken; she was really going to love the character greetings. After meeting Daisy I was so afraid of Lexie and Jaden getting cold that we went into the Emporium to purchase some gloves for Lexie and found a Lightning McQueen Blanket for Jaden. It was on sale for $7.99 . . . you don't find much in Disney World for under $10 let alone a cute blanket. We covered the car seat to keep out the chilly wind.



We headed straight for Fantasyland so Lexie could ride Snow White's Scary Adventure, the Carousel, Winnie the Pooh, and more. Grandpa and Grandma offered to watch Jaden so that we could run and get a few things done with Lexie and move a little faster. Lexie visited Ariel in her grotto first before the lines became unbearable and then we found ourselves in Toon Town waiting in line to see the Princesses. It was quite a wait but Lexie was very excited. First she met Aurora, then Cinderella, and finally Belle. She wasn't afraid of meeting the princesses, she was quite the little story teller in her conversations with them. Disney is famous for ending your many adventures into a glorious shopping experience. Lexie walked out right into a large display of Fairies merchandise, while Grandpa purchased Jaden his first authentic Disney World sweatshirt. In her 3 year old nature Lexie wanted one of everything. She couldn't show Grandma fast enough all the little Tinker Bells and then moved on to the small princess dolls (even though she had them at home). The situation escalated and ended in me dragging her out of the store to calm down on the sidewalk outside. Needless to say, we limited our store visits when possible from that moment on.

With all the walking and excitement we knew we'd need a trip back to the hotel for a break/nap. It was a chore to get the kids to take a nap but when they finally did their mom and dad were able to take a nap as well. We headed back into the park just in time for a few hours before it closed. I am famous for my love of parades and shows but this night we skipped the Spectomagic parade in order to get in a few rides while the crowds were entertained by the parade. I think its the only time I've ever purposely missed a parade for rides! Lexie enjoyed the Magic Carpet, Jungle Cruise, and the whole gang survived Pirates of the Caribbean (including Jaden). As we made our way out of the park we were able to catch the Wishes fireworks spectacular. Lexie loves the fireworks and Jaden continued his nap. Towards the end of the fireworks Lexie took off her coat and said she didn't want to wear it anymore. I proceeded to put it back on her and realized that she was soaking wet from the waist down. She had waited too long and had an accident (of the #1 variety) in her pants. We had to rush back to the room and give both her and Jaden a bath to clean them up and get them warm. The family had been waiting for our reservation at the Kona Cafe in the hotel and we joined them just as they had been seated. Lexie enjoyed Macaroni and Cheese, Josh had Prime Rib and my New York Strip was delicious. We didn't stay long, Jaden started to fuss and you could tell Lexie was also ready for bed so we went to the room and called it a night. Jaden did so good sleeping through the night only getting up once to eat around 4am each night. Lexie was a great sleeper, once she finally fell asleep and didn't ever wake until the morning. Many mornings we had to wake her to begin our day. As we did for our next day of adventures...

Walt Disney World Vacation - Day 1

We made it! We were able to go on a fun filled vacation this month with the Nelson Family to Walt Disney World. We weren't able to post all of our fun adventures during the vacation so we thought it would be fun to post a day by day travel log. So, here goes . . . . let's start with Day 1.



Day 1 was our travel day. It started out at 7:30am as we loaded up the Tahoe and headed for the airport. We had to stop off at Fedex Kinko's to get a print job to finish off a fun WDW Questionairre that Josh had been sharing with the family. We were able to get our bags checked with Sky Cap and walked down to go through Security at the International Gate. It was so nice to be able to take our time going through security and have all the help we needed since we had a stroller, car seat, carry on's and two kids. Lexie was entertained by Grandma most of the flight and Jaden was such a good boy sleeping and playing. He never even cryed during the flight. Whew! We arrived in Orlando, Florida, at 4:30pm and made our way to the Magical Express Bus. Lexie loved the fun video with Mickey as we traveled to our hotel. We stayed at the Polynesian Hotel which was right across the lake from Magic Kingdom. Our room was located in the Aeotoroa longhouse, Room #1205.

Nate and Amy had a room just down the hall from ours and their patio overlooked the lake with a view of Cinderella's Castle. We gathered at 8pm in their room to watch the "Wishes" firework display. It was so cool to be able to watch the fireworks from inside their room and still be able to hear the big boom. It made us that much more excited to watch them from the castle the next night.

We had dinner reservations at Ohana's for 8:20pm but they were behing and the wait was long and the kids were tired so we grabbed a sandwich at Capt. Cook's (the hotel's 24 hr Cafe) and went back to the room and put the kids to bed to prepare for another big day. Our luggage had finally arrived when we got back to our room so I started to unpack for our 10 day disney adventure.

One postscript here from Josh...

Once Stacie and the kids were tucked safely into the room, Nate and I went out in the rental van in search of that great and spacious building, Wal-Mart. After a little meandering, and with the assist of Nate's cool Google phone, we found our destination and stocked up with bottled water, formula for JJ, and diapers/sleep pants for the kids, along with some assorted treats for the room. Needless to say, this trip proved valuable in plotting a course for future evenings (foreshadowing alert!).

Jaden is 2 Months Old

Yesterday our little boy was 2 months old. We can hardly believe that it has been 2 months already. At his 2 month check up today he weighed in at 12 lbs. 8 oz. and is 23 1/2 inches long. He's grown so much in just a few months and is ranked in the 76th percentile for boys. Jaden has been such a blessing and fun addition to our family. We just love him!!