HOME TOUR

Well it is officially February and that means I’ve officially been wanting to write a New Years post for an entire month. But like crazies we decided taking our kids out of school right after Christmas school break was a fantastic idea. 5 days at Walt Disney World a week into the New Year after coming down from the business of the holidays was a bit much for me. We had a fantastic time at Disney, less so at Universal Studios but that’s a topic for a whole other blog post. We got back from Disney, plunged ourselves right into Aubrey’s birthday party planning, recovered from a minor bout of the flu and here we are…February.

WHY DISNEY

Matt and I are big travelers. We want our kiddos to see the world and all the diversity, beauty and brilliance of it all. Historically as an introvert I am not a big theme park person but we knew, given our kiddos ages and interests, that it was probably time to make some Disney memories. Aubrey is big into the world of princesses, Cade and Kai love rollercoasters and Matt was up for the adventure of planning it without my help. I promptly gave him Courtney’s information which Ashley had shared with me years ago. Walt Disney World is too expansive, expensive and overwhelming for the first time visitor and because we don’t think this will be an annual thing for our family, we wanted to see it all and do it well. Which meant for us, help from the experts at Mouse Counselors. I can’t recommend Courtney enough!

NITTY GRITTY ON STROLLERS AND PROSTHETICS

We left on a Tuesday night and spent Wednesday through Saturday making our way through the parks (Saturday was at Universal Studios for Harry Potter stuff), flying home on Sunday. We stayed at Disney’s Grand Floridian which got us early access to the parks before they open to the public and was an easy one stop to the Magic Kingdom via the monorail. And we took full advantage of that, setting our alarms for the crack of dawn and getting in to the park early on Thursday morning. That whole first day was at the Magic Kingdom and was our favorite. The highlight for me was watching Aubrey at her appointment at the Bippidi Boppidi Boutique. Courtney was watching the cancellation list and got us in last minute. We were so thankful.

Aubrey was almost 6 years old at the time of this trip. We made the last minute decision to bring our Uppababy Umbrella Stroller and it was a lifesaver. Bring a stroller! From having a place to put bags and cameras to carting that girl all over the parks, I’m not sure she would have made it as far without it. Cade has bilateral below the knee prosthetics. He was not asked a single time about them at Disney and went on every ride, from Tron to Peter Pan. Universal Studios was another story and a horrific experience. I have a lot to say about it, I’m angry, we’re still trying to decide if we should hire an attorney and I’ll write more about it in a Mommaheart Moment Blog Post soon.

I believe Thursday was split between Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. We enjoyed the Avatar area of the park, it was quite impressive, made our way to the Expedition Everest rollercoaster which reminded Matt and I of the Matterhorn ride at California’s Disneyland and then on to Hollywood Studios which was a bus ride away. Hollywood Studios was very busy, we tried three times to do the Star Wars ride but it kept breaking and closing. The kids were absolutely terrified of the Tower of Terror ride but their reactions to the ride were so hysterical that it is actually one of my favorite memories. I kept yelling (between bouts of laughter) “suck in your bellies” because my mother in law threw out her back on that ride at California’s Disneyland and told us to make sure we braced ourselves for the free fall. Friday was Epcott (WE LOVED THE FROZEN RIDE) and then back to the Magic Kingdom to reride our favorites, for me that was The Little Mermaid, for the boys that meant waiting 70 minutes in line for Tron. Aubrey is too small for Tron and I have zero interest in what I deem “scary rides” so we went back to the hotel room, took a long bath and fell asleep. Disney is exhausting. I feel like I was ON the entire time just trying to not lose my children.

MANOLITAS EMBROIDERED HEIRLOOM DISNEY DRESS

The fireworks show at the end of the night at the Magic Kingdom was amazing. So well done and inspirational. We ended up taking the boat back to the hotel which was quite convenient given the line for the monorail. We had dinner twice back at the hotel at Citricos. It was delicious. The kid’s had a wonderful time and I’m so glad we were able to make some Disney memories with them. A big big thank you to Courtney at the Mouse Counselors who made it all happen!