Catching Up - Disney World (last March!)

Well, I have at least 7 posts to write that did not make it into 2013.  Since I am obsessed with chronological order, I'm going to go back to the oldest one first, it is also definitely the biggest one, our March vacation to Disney!  It was another nice trip overall, though Tim and I were a little worn out on the parks and Tim ended up getting really sick and was miserable for half of the vacation (and quite a while longer once we got home).  It has been almost 11 months since this last trip to the Disney parks though, and I could definitely be talked into going back, but our current plan is to try Universal out on our next trip to Florida.

We spent a little less time at the parks this trip, checking my parents construction out one day and going to two National's Spring Training games, one which Alex joined us for.  Our first morning we had a gecko neighbor on our deck when we woke up which Timmy thought was really cool.  The boys and I headed to the hotel playground so they could get some energy out from the long drive the night before.  There were some little girls there playing with another gecko and Timmy and Tyler both wanted to check it out.  Timmy was happy to touch it's back, Tyler kept trying to hold it but it would immediately jump off of him!

We went with my parents to the Dinosaur restaurant at Downtown Disney.  Timmy had just finished talking about dinosaurs at school so he was extra excited to eat there, and wandered around pointing out different kinds of dinosaurs.  Then we did a little shopping and headed to the game.

Timmy managed to get an autograph before the game.  We got to see all the big names, Harper, Zimmerman, and Strasburg.

The next day we went to the Magic Kingdom.  Our first stop was for new hats and autograph books.  Timmy picked Goofy this time around.  I had hoped to get another trip out of Tyler's Mickey hat, but it was way too small.  We tried a few things on him that were too big, and were about to give up when Tyler found a Buzz Lightyear hat and wouldn't let go of it!  Luckily, it fit!  Timmy requested that we go straight to ride Buzz Lightyear, but there was a line so we got a fastpass and took a ride on the People Mover while we waited our turn.

After we blasted Zorg we had a chance to see Buzz himself.  Tyler did horribly waiting in line, luckily he got the hang of waiting his turn pretty quickly during the trip!  When it was his turn to meet Buzz he was so cute.  He tucked his chin to his shoulder and shyly approached, once Buzz reached out for a high five Tyler was good to go!

One of my favorite series of pictures ever

We wandered back and forth across the park all day, through Adventureland for Tim's favorite treat, and back to the new Fantasyland.  Tyler spotted a Buzz light-up toy and would not get back into the stroller without it.  He was so happy with it once it was his, and it's still pulled out of the toy box regularly to be played with, so it was money well spent!

Tim talked to Timmy about riding Splash Mountain again for weeks before our trip and had finally worn him down into agreeing.  Unfortunately, it was closed for repairs the whole week!  Timmy did ride Thunder Railroad though, he was not too sure about it afterwards!

On our way out of the park we stopped to say hi to Mickey.  While waiting in line Timmy was super excited, even peeking around the decorations trying to catch a glimpse.  Right before their turn Timmy said, "I'm going to let Tyler go first, Mickey is his favorite."  I was so proud of my sweet boy!  He continued this the entire trip, letting Tyler go first with each character they met!

Our morning at MGM was spent meeting characters.  We didn't meet anyone new this trip, but we did get to see some of the boys favorites.

I love that Timmy hugged Ralph!

It was a really interesting way to see how much Tyler had grown since our first trip, when he was 11.5 months old, to this one almost a year later.  He took his first steps in our hotel room on our first trip, and on this one he was climbing on the play equipment and rushing up to characters all on his own!  Both boys loved the Stunt Show Spectacular, their jaws dropped several times during the show!

Timmy had another battle with Darth Vader, he was much better prepared this time!

We finished up the day with dinner at the Drive In Theater and then Mom and I ran ahead to ride the Tower of Terror before we all went to see Fantasmic, one of Timmy's favorite shows in all of the parks.

The next day we spent some time at the hotel pool before going to Downtown Disney and the Arcade.

That evening we went to dinner at Mickey's Backyard Barbecue, it was definitely the highlight of the trip!  It was a character dinner, but it was so much more interactive then the breakfast we had done our first trip.  Mickey, Minnie, Chip, Dale, and Goofy hosted a buffet style barbecue while a country group sang.  The characters alternated dancing and wandering around, and a cowboy performed a lassoing routine which Timmy loved.  He was especially impressed by the cowboy lassoing with his foot!  There were a few opportunities for posed pictures with the characters during dinner too.  Finally it turned into a hoedown with the characters wandering around dancing with everyone.  Tyler had Mickey's practically undivided attention for almost 5 minutes, he was in heaven!

At Epcot we mostly stayed to the front half of the park.  After the Nemo ride we spent a good deal of time in the aquarium area.  Since posing in Bruce's jaw, Timmy has had a couple nightmares about Bruce trying to eat him!  The Sea Turtles kept our attention for quite a while, Timmy especially liked them as his class mascot was Maggie the Sea Turtle.

Timmy got into taking pictures a little bit on this trip.  He requested that his picture be taken several times, and he also asked to take pictures.  He took a whole bunch on the Epcot Boat Ride.

That evening we headed back out and went to the Magic Kingdom.  The park was almost empty, it felt like we had the place to ourselves!  We did the Buzz Lightyear ride about 5 times in a row, without even having to get off the ride in between turns!  The staff was really cool about Timmy wearing his Buzz Sweatshirt, saluting him and saying things like, "Welcome back Commander!"  Tyler loved going on it back to back too.

My Tigger was looking for Pooh Bear

We stayed through the fireworks and the electric parade.  We had a spot right by the rope and Timmy loved it.  Tyler slept through it, but that made it even more entertaining for us.  At least 6 characters saw Tyler sleeping and made some kind of motion about him, which Timmy thought was so cool.  Sleepy pointed to Tyler and nodded in agreement with his tiredness, Cinderella mouthed, "Awww," and the Fairy Godmother put her hands to her heart like he was precious, along with a few supporting cast members acknowledging our sleeping baby too.

One of Timmy's favorite parts in all of Disney is at the Animal Kingdom Carnival Game section.  He has many prizes from that part of the park, but won his biggest one this trip.  He was so excited to have won the giant dragon for himself!

We also spent a while in the Dinosaur Digging area and went to see the Nemo show.  Timmy finally got to see Goofy and they shared a moment playing with their long ears!

That evening we went to our second baseball game of the trip.  Mickey and friends even showed up there!

We stayed at another great timeshare, thanks to Elena, though we did have a slight issue with booking... somehow we ended up with one king size bed, instead of the two room suite like we had had before.  Luckily my parents took the boys back to their apartment several nights for us!

On our drive home we stopped at Elena and Al's new townhouse in Myrtle Beach for the evening.  We enjoyed checking out a bunch of their favorite spots, hit the arcade, and much to the boys' delight, had blue ice cream!  It was nice to break up the trip and we were glad we got to see their new place!