Spring Break 2015

Ah I had made such good progress catching up my blog last fall, but it's been a few months again and now I'm in danger of the time lapping my posts by a year!  So, I'll be making another push to catch up!  LAST spring break we went to Baba and Grandpa's house again.  It was a very fun, busy trip.  Our annual pass to Universal was still valid, and Grandpa had started working at Disney World, so we got to help him take advantage of some of his new employee perks!  Also, Joe went a few days before us and our trips overlapped for the first time ever.  We also took in a Spring Training game and had dinner with the Gorondy Family!  

A well timed perk for us was the Disney Employee Spring Fling that we got to attend with Dad.  It was held at Mickey's Retreat, which is an awesome park facility just for employees.  For the event they offered face painting for free for the kids, carnival games which only cost fifty cents per ticket, inflatables, food trucks, and they had an easter egg hunt!

Tyler's turned out so cute and went with his sweatshirt, he actually had employees asking to take photos with him!

check out the bottom right photo closely, made skills by Timmy for making the shot, and by me for getting this picture!

Also special for the event, some favorite characters showed up!

The canoes and paddle boats are always at Mickey's Retreat, and only cost a few bucks to rent.  Neither Timmy or Tyler had ever done anything like this before, and both really enjoyed it!

One last character sighting!

The next day we took in a Nat's Spring Training Game.  Baba and the Gorondy's came to the game too, but I guess we were pictured out from the day before!

I'm finding this a little hard to believe myself, but according to the dates our phones put on our pictures, we made our way over to Universal after the game!  We caught the tail end of a parade, and rode the Woody Woodpecker Rollercoaster over and over again, mostly all by ourselves!  Both boys absolutely loved it, and Timmy even asked to ride in the seat alone!

The next day we were right back at Universal and Tim got Timmy to ride Do-Right Falls, and Timmy loved it!  Thanks to rider swap he got to do it a few times.  Tyler was waiting so patiently in the rider swap room, that a universal employee noticed and asked how tall he was.  When I told them, they said, "That's tall enough for Spider Man.  When you go there, tell them that Ashley at the Falls says Tyler doesn't have to wait in line because he was so patient here."!  Unfortunately Spider Man was closed during this trip, but we told them the next day and we didn't have to wait in line, all thanks to Tyler!

The next day we were back at Universal again.  Tyler was tall enough for both Spider Man and Transformers this trip, which he had been dying to ride for a full year.  I rode both of them with Tyler, with my arm wrapped behind him and back across his chest.  I thought his little heart was going to beat right out of his chest, but after the rides he said he liked them.  I think he especially liked Transformers, as he talked about helping Optimus Prime, and about Bumble Bee saving us, for a while after the ride was over.

Tyler was also tall enough for the Simpsons ride, and I was shocked that we talked Timmy back onto it too since he was pretty traumatized the first time he rode it.  Timmy still dislikes it, I think Tyler liked the ride okay, but they are both afraid of their Krusty the Clown stuffed animals that they had won on a previous trip now!  This trip was also our first for riding the Minions in the moving cars instead of on the stationary bench.  It's so fun!

The next day we took it a little bit easier, with pool time and coloring Easter Eggs.  That evening we met up with The Gorondy's for dinner.  I didn't get good pictures, but you can see they are fond of Parker!

Before heading to dinner, the boys posed with Grandpa as he was getting ready to head to work!  At the time, he was a deckhand on the Ferry at Magic Kingdom!

The next day Dad took us all to Epcot on free employee passes!  Dad had met another Deck Hand who is retired from Chevrolet, who offered to meet us at Test Track, let us check out the Chevrolet Lounge, and get us fast passes for the ride!  It was neat to get this behind the scenes peek!  We also completed the Easter Egg hunt around the Country portion of Epcot, and met Princess Aurora for the first time.  It was a full day!

Test Track Chevrolet Lounge and Meeting Spaces, great view!

On our last full day, Mom and Dad treated us to an awesome meal at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  While we waited for our table, we got to go out on the "plains" and watch Zebras, Giraffes, and other African animals roaming around!  We could see a lot of them through the window once we were at our table too, especially the bird, who hung out by the window almost the whole time!  The food was SO good too!

After lunch we went over to the Wilderness Lodge to complete a scavenger hunt for Hidden Mickey's!  The boys got pretty good at following the clues and we found them all!

When we woke up on Easter morning we checked out our baskets to see what the Easter Bunny had brought.  Then it was time to head home!

Summer Vacation - Ocoee and Orlando

The boys and I had another 48 hours or so at my parents before Tim arrived.  We spent a lot of time in the pool.  Around lunch time we went with Mom, Dad, and M&M to have lunch (the pizza was bigger then the boys' heads!) and see Planes Fire and Rescue.  That evening Mom and the boys and I went to Downtown Disney to wander around and have dinner at Rainforest Cafe.  (Dad was only about a month removed from knee replacement surgery, so he skipped our time in the parks this trip, but was doing really well and joined us for a lot of activities.)

The next morning Mom and I got up and took the boys to Universal, specifically for them to run around in the Curious George water park.  We walked through just in time to meet Optimus Prime and see the tail end of a Minion street party.  We let them get as wet as they wanted and they had hours to play before we went to pick up Tim from the airport.  They both had a blast!  We got them dry and changed in time to rescue ET and take a picture with him before heading out of the park.

The next day was Baba's birthday!  Tim, the boys, and I went with Mom to the Children's Museum, where they had a Curious George exhibit.  The kids really enjoyed the whole thing, but the orange grove and the water table was everyone's favorite part!  We also got to touch a baby alligator and learned that gator's grow about a foot a year, so we can always estimate how old Chompy is.  We went home to change and pick up Grandpa and M&M and we all headed out to the Disney Coronado Hotel for dinner at the Maya Grill, then went to the Grand Floridian Resort to watch the electric water parade and have dessert at Citrico's.  The dessert was especially amazing!

Tyler begged for this Stitch car; his face was even happier when Tim first said yes, and he was so excited to buy it all by himself! 

The next day we had a slow start and relaxed around the house before heading to Universal with Mom in the evening.  We did everything on the Dr Seuss side, then Tim convinced Timmy to go on the White Water Rapids ride, Bilge-Rat Barges.  Tyler and I waited, and waited, and waited; Timmy loved it and it was empty, so they rode it multiple times without even getting off!

The next morning we spent some time in the pool.  Then Tim looked around for something new to do, and found a Monster Bus ride through an Orange Orchard.  It advertises as being the biggest monster truck in the States and the tour was a nice long trip around the orchard.  We didn't have much luck with seeing wildlife, but the boys and mom each had a turn driving the bus!  Timmy was offered the chance first and was very reluctant, we had to really push him to go drive.  When the tour guide offered Tyler a turn, he was barely able to finish his sentence before Tyler was half way up the aisle towards the seat!

The next day the boys were back in the pool, I did a little shopping with Mom and Grandma, and we made another evening run to Universal!  This time, right when we were parking at Universal, a huge storm popped up!  As we were walking through City Walk, it started to down pour and there was a huge bolt of lightening!  We ended up stopping in Bubba Gump's for dinner and then having a short time at the park.  We did the minion ride in the stationary seats, because Tyler's still too short, Timmy was still too scared, and the line was too long anyways! Then we rode the brand new Hogwart's Express and checked out Diagon Alley.  It was just the four of us this trip, so we took advantage of the Single Rider lines and Child Swapping to avoid long waits on any of the rides.  

Timmy took most of the pictures this morning, and was particularly proud of the top right one here, where he made Tyler look like Superman!

On our last day in Ocoee we went to Universal for most of the day.  We walked straight to Spider Man, not giving Timmy much chance to argue or be worried about it, we really wanted him to get over his fear and go on the rides.  We used the Single Rider and Child Swap again.  While I was riding Spider Man, Tim finally convinced Timmy.  When I got on the ride Timmy was in tears and a nervous wreck, when I got off the ride he stood up and walked into the ride on his own free will.  I still don't know what Tim said to him.  I do know we spent a while in the arcade immediately after!  After that Timmy willing tried the little Harry Potter coaster Gryfendor, which Tyler had already ridden and loves, we actually rode it twice in a row since they now both love it.  We rode Men in Black again as well, there, with Child Swap Timmy gets to ride twice, once with each of us!  The whole trip was a lot more fun for everyone once Timmy got brave!  Except of course for poor Tyler, who really needs a growth spurt so he can join in the fun too!