Disney Days

Wow...where to even begin. We had a great week in Florida!
Chris, the boys and I took off at 5am Saturday morning and drove to Valdosta, GA to spend the night. That leg of the trip didn't start off so well though! Our van's battery wasn't cooperating with us. We had to jump the van before we left our house in the morning, and another time at a gas station somewhere in Georgia! We finally made it to Valdosta and bought a new car battery. Whew.

For some reason I thought we could check in early to our Seven Dwarfs Villa, but I was wrong. As organized as I was, I missed this one. We got to Orlando by late morning but soon realized we couldn't check in until 4pm. Problem was that our van was full of our stuff and we still needed to pick up Mom and Derek at the airport in the afternoon! We crammed suitcases in our van, Derek and I sat on the floor of the van in front of the boys' carseats...and we were off. Luckily we didn't get pulled over (although I wonder what the toll workers thought of us!) and it was a short drive.
After that, things started working out for us!

Monday was our day at Hollywood Studios. While Derek, Chris and I were riding the Tower of Terror first thing in the morning, Mom, Chase and Max were awarded Dream Fastpasses! Ok, let me just say that Fastpasses in general are one of the best recent additions to Disney. Who wants to wait an hour to ride every ride? But the Dream Fastpasses were amazing! What a gift!

We spent Tuesday at Magic Kingdom....all day! We were there by rope drop at 9am and left after the fireworks at 11pm! The boys had some catnaps...Max missed out on the Dole Pineapple Whips (yum-o!), the lighted parade, and woke up just in time to see the fireworks. The boys were in awe. Dumbo and Buzz Lightyear were Chase's favorites of the day. Max enjoyed it all, and was quite upset when he couldn't go on the "big kid" rides. Chase rode on Splash Mountain and afterwards told me it was too scary for little boys! How could I forgot...we also were awarded Dream Fastpasses here for the day! We received those as we got done with Splash Mountain! I don't know how many they gave out every day but we sure had good luck! I really never saw many other people wearing them, so we felt very lucky. We never would have been able to see and ride everything we wanted that day without those passes.

Wednesday Mom and I had facials at a Disney spa! What a nice treat! The boys spent the morning at Downtown Disney and then we picked dad up at the airport. The rest of Wednesday and Thursday we spent exploring the resorts, shopping, and of course, eating! The boys LOVED the monorail ride around Disney.

Friday we spent at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Chris and I rode Mt. Everest, then took Chase on the Kali River Rapids. Again, Chase decided the "splish-splash scary rides" are not for him. At least for now. Maybe when he gets bigger, he said. Animal Kingdom has a safari ride and I think that was the boys' favorite of the day. We also saw some great shows, Finding Nemo and the Lion King! What productions!

It's safe to say that Max didn't appreciate animals and other objects coming at him in all the 3-D shows. He usually started with the 3-D glasses on but would crawl up in someone's lap and fall asleep in most of these show. Neither boy really enjoyed meeting the characters up close either. Maybe next time!

Chase had a great time and told me he can't wait until we go again. But next time he would like to ride in an airplane like Derek, Grandma and Grandpa.

Max was apparently away from home too long. He went running around the house when we got home saying, "Mommy, look, new carpet! New fan! New couch! New bed!" HAHAHAHA! Chase just looked at him like he was crazy :)

I know I'm forgetting lots but I'll post more as I remember and I'll post a few more pics as the days go on. I only had about 700 pics to get through! But here is the link to our photos in case you want to see more! http://picasaweb.google.com/thelaumans