Whatever moves us...... Disney, Part 3!!!

Magic Kingdom!!!!  I LOVE THE MAGIC KINGDOM!!!  

 
We appreciated that they had the yellow and blue umbrellas set out just for us.....they are the colors that represent Down syndrome advocacy in case you weren't with me on that one.  If you knew what I was talking about then go get yourself a cookie cause you just won.  :)

So our last full day in Disney was the much anticipated Magic Kindom in case you couldn't figure that out on your own.  We got there around noon since you know, we had to have our leisurely breakfast. Seriously, who knew eating without the rush of little people could be so satisfying? hahaha  We rode the bus from the hotel and climbed off to the site of the monorail.  I still remember thinking that was so cool when I was there at 10 years old.  Weird how when they built it they thought it was going to be the "future of transportation to the parks" and now it looks kind of outdated.  Even so, it is one of those iconic things that I LOVE about this place!

Next up was the infamous photo in front of the entrance.  Don't ask me how I managed to chop off the top of the building...I mean, I only take photos for a living...geesh.  Excited 5 year old dying to get into the park much?

I just couldn't get enough of the fact that I was back.  I had missed it....

...all of it.







I rode a couple of rides then we found a place to have lunch.  I am not usually someone who takes pictures of my food mostly because let's be real....do you really care what I ate and what it looked like?  Didn't think so. BUT, we randomly decided that we were 7 and that we had to have chocolate milk with our big girl lunches.  It showed up at the table and looked way more scrumptious than it needed to.  Disney...you never disappoint. 


**insert lip smacking here**

Remember my obsession with controlling the map?  Well, I am not exaggerating.  I HATE being on a forced march but this trip taught me that I don't truly just like to fly by the seat of my pants either.  I like to know where we are going that day, don't really care when we get there but I have to know we will get it all in.  OYE! The perfect(?) combination of both of my parents.  hahaha Mom was good and just followed along where I said we HAD to go next....it's like she already knew I had this quality or something  

......waaaaiiit.....




FINALLY we made it around to the haunted mansion, which of course is the best ride in the park. (besides space mountain) I love everything about it but I hadn't been on it since I went 14 years ago.  They had updated some of the things like the crystal ball and other areas. I couldn't resist seeing if I could get a couple of shots even though it was dark.  SUCCESS!



This is the dining table with all of the ghosts at the end of the ride.  LOVE this part!


AAAH!  We took a ghost home!  He looks like he is getting a bit fresh with mom.  HA!


More rides, more fun, more gossiping and giggling and resting those darned blisters.  Yes she was still pushing on....No one puts mom in a corner!  

We were having a great time when we noticed that the sky had turned a scary shade of DARK.  Of course, since I had actually brought my camera....Murphy and his law hate me.  hahaha  


Amazingly we had JUST finished everything we wanted to do and see.  (Good thing someone had planned out the route around the park first....just sayin)

Notice the guests looking at the sky in this one...I took this as we were leaving trying to beat the rain. 

One more quick look back at my favorite place on earth...


 It's like he was waving to just us.....


We made it to the bus JUST as the rain hit, cause we are rockstars like that, and popped back to the hotel so I could drop off my camera.  

In between all of our bouncing around while we were there we managed to hit Downtown Disney twice.  I had to introduce my mom to the Ghirardelli ice cream parlor there.  I had all good intentions to get an ice cream when we noticed this horrifically addicting drink called "sipping chocolate".  It was like everything I knew chocolate could be if it really applied itself.  A small mug (way bigger than an espresso mug) of silky warm chocolate you can drink.  It was so chocoasmic that I got mom and her blisters to go out in the rain on the last evening we were there just by saying "sipping chocolate?"


For real, it was that good and had it not been pouring rain you would have a photo of that to look at and drool over.  Do you just love how I have now officially talked more about our chocolate drinks than anything else in the parks?  Welcome to being me and my mom. hahaha 


Off to bed that night then it was time to wake up early (WHAT?!... ON OUR VACATION!  I OBJECT!) and head home.  


It was a once in a lifetime vacation considering I have small children at home.  Cliff was amazing and kissed me goodbye at the beginning of the trip and sent me off with "Stop feeling guilty and go enjoy yourself!  I can take care of the girls." .... Love that man!!!


All in all I think we had a great time.  It was fun and relaxing and full of mother daughter stuff.  It was needed...








....and it moved me.

Whatever moves us...... Disney, Part 2

Ok, so where did I leave off..... Oh right!  Blisters!  So after a walking filled day at Epcot ending in mom hobbling back to the room off the bus, we got our sleep on for many, many hours.  For real, this was almost better than Disney itself.....almost! Seriously though, at what age does sleep rival the fun of Disney?  Evidently 33.

Day 2 was Hollywood studios!!!  We woke up, lounged, showered, had a leisurely breakfast (cause that's what moved us) then onto the park. 

We went to every show we wanted to, walked in whichever direction we wanted to and ate an insanely expensive adult meal....IN DISNEY!  Right?  I didn't even know big kid food was offered there.  It was like being on another planet!

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures that day.  They had been calling for rain and I didn't want to risk my good camera getting wet.  I know, I know, I lived in Florida and they call for rain EVERY DAY....I just couldn't bring myself to risk it. 

It was so odd to be able to just run off and ride any ride I wanted to without worrying about my kids, or if it was close to their lunch time.  "Will I have time to do what I want in between what they need/want"  is the mantra of my life and it was SOOO odd to let go of it.  I think this was the day that I finally started to realize that I wasn't living on a schedule.  I kept trying to since I am so insanely used to it.  

Mom did let me go all power hungry with the park map.  Evidently when I am sans kids I feel the need to still control things that don't need controlling.....wait for it...

...'cause it was what moved me.  HA!  Did you see that mom?  Did you see how I used your term to get me out of looking like a control freak?  WOOT WOOT! The reality was that we did what we wanted, when we wanted....

...and it was amazing.

Stay tooned ha ha tuned for day three, the infamous Magic Kingdom!! (yes, this was the day I took pics so there will plenty in the next post.)

Whatever moves us...... Disney, Part 1

So this amazing thing happened this year.  After YEARS of missing Disney I managed to make it there twice....

YES, TWICE this year!  WHAT!?  The first time back after almost 15 years was this past July for the Down syndrome convention.  It was awesome beyond awesome BUT we never made it to the parks due to the heat and small kiddlings.

Around 2ish months ago (seriously, who has any sense of time with these things?) my mom randomly calls and is all "We should go to Disney, I'll pay." To this I said "OKLETSGETONTHEPLANERIGHTNOW!"....then I remembered I am a mom and have responsibilities and no sitters.  Insert sound of a bomb dropping slowly here..........

Mom: "We can do a long weekend sort of thing and you can get someone to watch the girls for one day."

Me: "Yeah right, mom's aren't allowed out of the house to go to Disney World.  We are only allowed out for things like hospital visits, doctor appointments and funerals."

Mom: "We can make this work!"

....and by golly she pulled it off.  Mom of the year that I am up and left my children who would love Disney and went without them.  WOOT!

Thank you to our now live in roomy and the second mommy in the house I have always wanted Sabrina, I left on a Friday night and didn't come back until Tuesday afternoon!!!!  WHUCK! That was an insane thing to wrap my brain around!

So we get to the airport Friday night around 6ish and my mom whips out this folder..... It had anything Disney we could ever need.  HILARIOUS!  The secretary in her just can't stop and it completely cracks me up.  It is organized and all but dear lord, she whipped out a stuffed folder FULL of things for 4 days in Disney.  HAHAHA!  LOVE IT!

"Mom, do you know what time the buses come to our hotel b/c I am sure there isn't any other way to find that out at the hotel."  Mom: "SURE!  Let me just check the folder." ....seriously.....for everything. tee hee


We got to our hotel, Riverside at Port Orleans Resort, and just knew we were not in Kansas anymore.  Nothing quite compares to staying on Disney property.  The Riverside section is designed to look like plantations in New Orleans and they totally did!

 The fountain in our courtyard.  aaaaaahhhhh.....the sweet bliss of not having little children to keep out of the water.

This is where we stayed...follow the arrow.


The view back toward the lobby once you stepped out from the building we were in.  Hence "riverside". 


View of the lobby from the water park pool.


....and another view....ok, I'm done.  I should get paid as a Disney advertisement.  

Moving on, the next morning we woke up all ready to take on Disney like women on a mission of fun and relaxation.  We were PUMPED to hit Epcot, to walk where we wanted, go on what we wanted, shop where we wanted and eat where we wanted.....we head to the hotel restaurant for a quick breakfast and...2 HOURS later finally got on our way.  



We both have this teeeeeeeny tiny ehem, issue that we enjoy talking.  Conversations go on for hours and hours and we literally have to make ourselves shut up or else we won't go do anything.  We stayed that whole time enjoying the fact that we could.  This trip was all about doing "whatever moved us" and dang it we did just that.  hahaha

We hit Epcot all day Saturday and enjoyed every bit of doing whatever moved us for our entire first day.  I am not going to go into detail of what we did at every park because, well, I am thinking that anyone besides us doesn't really care which rides we rode when, just that we rode them and had a GREAT time. We got back to the hotel after dinner only to find that mom had worn her shoes a bit too loose and got blisters....wait for it

on the balls of her feet!  AAAAH!  Day one of Disney and we had our first casualty.  She amazingly managed to hobble her way around for the rest of the trip. Disney, being Disney, was extremely accommodating and supplied us with gauzy pads, cleaning wipes and neosporin.  "We are doing this dangit!"