Animal Kingdom and Fantasmic!

We were on our way to Animal Kingdom today due to a planned breakfast with characters. When we arrived, we had time with no wait to do the animal safari! Tons of animals...Rowan loved it. I think she liked the giraffes the most! Eddie groaned and pointed a lot!

They got to play in the dinosaur land area for a bit as well before heading in for breakfast.

We got to see Daisy again, Donald (but no autograph), Mickey and Goofy today. Again, Rowan was out in the conga line with Daisy and the kids. Eddie was cool just eating a full sausage patty. Priorities!

Again, we were going to head out but realized that we had time to make the Lion King show. Eddie fell asleep on my lap, and Rowan liked all the singing, especially the monkeys that did the acrobatics.

Again, back to the hotel for swimming and a nap. Was a much needed staple. And this was the day it was actually warm in and out of the water. Rowan would have gone down the slide the whole time we were at the pool! She loved it.

After nap and dinner, we tried to head to Magic Kingdom again for the night...but turns out it was the night of the Very Merry Christmas party (which we opted not to buy tickets for because I didn't know if the kids would stay up late enough to make it worth the extra 55$ a person, well they would have so I was bummed that it was sold out) needless to say, we arrived at 6pm and had to leave at 7pm, so we opted to walk to the Disney resort next door to take the bus to Hollywood Studios instead. It was by far the worst bus ride of the week. We had to walk to the resort, wait for like 20 min, get on the bus for it to make 2 other stops before even getting us to Hollywood Studios. And the bus was packed.

Anyway, we made it and were able to see Fantasmic! It was a water and lights show. It was neat, but the wait was a little long, and then there were a ton of people in the ampitheater, so took awhile to get out. But we were glad we got to see it.

more magic...

This morning we headed back to Magic Kingdom because the kids had a blast there last night and wanted to hit up more rides. We took the train around the park as well. Then when we were heading out of the park after lunch, we managed to hit the castle at the perfect time for a little show. Kids were quite into it despite the fact we were pushing nap time.

Rowan was just asking to go back and swim, so we left Magic Kingdom after lunchtime and the character show and hit the pool and a late nap before having dinner at a restaurant in our hotel. This lead to a normal bedtime to make up for our late night last night.

1st full day at Disney

We started out the morning at Hollywood Studios. They opened an hour early for resort members, although we didn't really benefit from that. Kids slept later than usual, then by the time we got something to eat and showered and got the bus, it was almost regular park opening anyway. But we also had lunch reservations at Hollywood and Vine, so we thought it'd be smart to just start the morning there.

 

We walked in and saw Daisy almost immediately, so we had to get to a souvenir place immediately to get autograph books and pens. We also decided to start their pin collecting right away too. We are rookies at this, but apparently you can trade pins with people that work within the parks. This will be something they will get into when they are older maybe, but they have the lanyard now and 5 pins each.

 

Rowan was into the first couple characters, but her interested dwindled after that. And Eddie had no interest from the start.

After we got the first few signatures we wandered around looking for things to do (honestly, not a good park for preschoolers/toddlers) But we had to entertain ourselves until lunch time.

Then it was time for a character lunch at Hollywood and Vine. Took a little bit for Rowan to get into it, but by the end she was hugging all the characters and smiling pretty as well as dancing around the restaurant with the other kids. It was perfect. Eddie was still skiddish with the characters, but did better.

We got to see, June from Little Einsteins, Handy Manny, Special Agent Oso and Jake (from Jake and the Neverland Pirates). Jake played a little peek a boo with Eddie and got him to laugh for a minute.

After lunch we headed back to the hotel for a quick swim and nap. Then we headed to Magic Kingdom for the night. We did several rides, the TeaCups, Dumbo, etc...and managed to be in the right spot as they were starting to rope off the street for the Electrical Parade so decided to sit and wait with great seats in the end. Kids got some lazers for the parade and did great waiting patiently (probably an hour at least) there were plenty of people to watch!

Here is our front row view of Mickey's Main street Electrical Parade.

And shortly after the parade were the fireworks.

Ended up being a late night, but the kids really did very well, and loved every minute of it.

Disney bound...

We were up and out the door by 445am this morning, on our way to Disney World!

 

Flights went well. We flew out of Appleton at 6am, with a connection in Atlanta. Kids did well on the first flight, got a little antsy near the end, but overall were well behaved. Our layover was about 1.5 hours, but didn't seem that long by the time we ate something and got to our next gate. And the next flight was short and sweet. We had to wait a little bit to get out of the jetway, so the kids ran back and forth down the jetway waiting for the door to open. They had fun with the pilots and flight attendants. And they both got their first set of wings.

We arrived at our hotel, the Animal Kingdom Lodge, just before 2pm. Enough time to unpack, snoop around and then head to Downtown Disney where we had a 5pm dinner reservation at Planet Hollywood. It was a quick meal, as the kids were definitely lacking sleep from waking up early and not really napping much (Eddie fell asleep on the bus from airport to hotel, and that was it). So we ate quick and then went back to the hotel to bed. There wasn't much toddler oriented Downtown Disney at night anyway. Would have liked to go into the Lego store, but they kids were past their prime at that point.

Glen Elyn, IL

We were on the road Friday evening to head to Illinois to visit Uncle Dusty and Aunt Julie (Monty too) in their new house. We got there around 7pm, settled in and had some dinner. We visited, had a few drinks, tested our capitol knowledge (pretty sad, our knowledge I mean), and then were off to bed.

 

Rowan and Eddie had to be reaquainted with Monty. Yes, our kids were tired and hungry and sick of being in the car upon arrival, but he knocked both of them over several times, causing quite a few tears. He is a tank, and it didn't take much for him to knock both of them down. He was really just trying to kiss them and play, but they weren't ready for it, for at least an hour or so, then everyone was fine.

 

Saturday morning, Rowan helped Uncle Dusty make pancakes. Then we showered and all headed to Ikea. After Ikea we went out for lunch at a burger joint. Then home for nap and a little house work for the men. After that, Jill, Jamie and Matt joined us and we headed out bowling.

Excuse the lower pictures, they are all from my iphone. We met Bob, Kelly and Kaitlin at a bowling alley and threw a few balls. This was Rowan and Eddie's first time bowling. Rowan had fun, Kaitlin was her little coach and helper. Uncle Dusty helped Eddie throw a few balls too. We had a few appetizers and drinks, and then headed home for some grilled pizza courtesy of Dusty. Dusty and Julie got a new fire pit from Bob and Kelly, so Ed assembled that and they tried it out. I stayed inside, it was a bit too cold for that for me.

Sunday morning we got up and had breakfast and then headed home. We had to stop at Nana and Papa's to get Gizmo and Ed's car, and we caravaned the rest of the way home.

It was a fun and busy weekend. Love Dusty and Julie's new home. Definitely more room for all of us.

Meet Clay Matthews

We got to meet mini Clay Matthews today! Nana and Papa's neighbor's grandson was named after his daddy's favorite Packer. And we never seem to be visiting when he is visiting, so almost a year later, we finally met him. The kids played outside briefly. He liked having a few playmates I think!

Oconomowoc Lot

Here is a great photo of the lot we have written an offer to build upon in Oconomowoc. Okay, maybe not a great picture, would've been better if there were still leaves on the trees, but some of these trees will be removed in order to fit the house on the lot anyway. But you get the idea.