The Vandervorts Do Disney 2009- Thursday

Well, Thursday last week brought change to our vacation. And I guess all I can say is that when you're on a trip with a 2.5 year old and a 1 year old, 1100 miles from home, you just have to roll with the punches.

Thursday morning we went to Hollywood Studios. If you can't tell already, I'll spell it out for you. I love the Magic Kingdom. I would be ok if there wasn't anything else AT Disney World, as long as there was the MK. So, going to Hollywood Studios, for me, was definitely just to see the boys' joy at meeting more characters, seeing the Playhouse Disney show, etc. Ok, Maybe I was looking forward to riding Tower of Terror, just a little bit...

We went straight to the Playhouse Disney part of Hollywood Studios. If you haven't been there recently, they have added a show specifically for the toddler age kids. It is an "episode" of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse that uses some other PHD shows to create a birthday party for Minnie. I think it is safe to say, that it blew Ian's mind. He loved it. He was an active participant in every way, except at the beginning when he didn't realize what was about to happen and was yelling "STOP!"



Aaron liked it too. Both kids were dancin' fools.




After the show, we met Handy Manny and SAW the Little Einsteins and Jojo (from Jojo's Circus... which Ian has never seen because it isn't on TV anymore...). The line was so long to meet the Little Einsteins and Ian didn't seem to mind that we just waved to them and moved on.



We met Sorcerer Mickey (and got perhaps our best pictures with Characters from the whole trip). He was really kind, spent a lot of time with our kids (in comparison, we were not rushed through our meeting with Sorcerer Mickey at all. He signed Ian's autograph book, he interacted with both kids, he was helpful in getting a good picture and just very fun! We also saw the old guy, the kid, & the dog from Up. Sorry, I don't know their names... And Met Mr. Incredible. (Shoop Daddy as Ian calls him.)









As the day wore on and the temperatures rose, Ian's patience diminished. By the time we got over to meet Lightning McQueen & Mater, Ian was in meltdown mode. He did perk up momentarily when he met them, though.







Roger decided we'd had enough of the heat so we made a quick stop to do single riders at Tower of Terror & then went back to the hotel to swim. And all H-E-double-hockey-sticks was about to break loose. While at the pool, Aaron decided to get sick. He threw up ALL OVER me & him as we were toweling off to come upstairs. We thought it was just a fluke... swallowed too much pool water or something. And Aaron is "a puker" anyway. He has a really sensitive gag reflex and vomits probably once a week on average, even when he's not sick.

We wanted to have a nice "last dinner at Disney" so I called Le Cellier, the steakhouse at Canada in Epcot. They are usually booked solid and I really didn't think we had a chance to get in, but I tried anyway. To my surprise (and the guy on the reservations line, too) they had a cancellation for a party of 4 at 6pm just before I called. So we got to go to Le Cellier! As we were waiting for our table, Roger had taken Ian somewhere to entertain him & I was holding Aaron. All of a sudden, he projectile vomited ALL DOWN MY FRONT. All down my (white) shirt, my capri pants, my feet/flip flops, etc. I sent Roger to buy me a new shirt & changes Aaron's clothes, tried to clean up the best I could... They seated us and we had just nicely received our drinks and appetizers, when Aaron vomited on me again. Roger paid the bill and we left... before we ate. So much for Le Cellier. :_(

We had to quickly stop in the big gift shop to buy our souvenirs. Have I mentioned we hadn't purchased ANY yet because we were waiting until the last night? So... sorry if you don't get one, or if you do happen to, that it is not very thoughtful... I had baby puke saturating my underwear and was trying to hurry. All I got for myself was a purple shirt that Roger picked out to replace my puked-on one... and it also got puked on. As we waved goodbye to our last night at Disney World, we were pretty disappointed that it ended the way it did. More importantly, we were sad that Aaron was apparently REALLY sick on our vacation... *sigh*

Aaron was sick again in the night and only wanted to sleep in the buff, laying face-down on the leather sofa in the living room of the condo. ?? I have no idea why, but that was the only place he was content. So I laid half on the sofa, half on a chair pulled up beside the sofa and slept maybe 2 hours total. Friday was check-out-and-head-to-the-beach day, and I bet you're just DYING to hear how THAT went. It wasn't pretty, I'll give you that little clue.

The Vandervorts Do Disney 2009- Tuesday

Last Tuesday, we leisurely headed to the Animal Kingdom. The thing about AK is... Neither Roger nor I are super crazy about it. We thought Ian would be totally into it, though, so that's why we went. Turns out, Ian wasn't totally into it.

We went to see the Lion King show first... about 1/2 way through the show, Aaron fell asleep. A few minutes later, Ian got down out of his seat and said, "mommy, I want to color." During the Lion King!!! WHAT?! There is SO much going on!

It was also extremely hot. I'm talking in the 90s with 60% humidity. Animal Kingdom always seems so much hotter than the other parks too. We were roasting. We let Ian play in the dinosaur boneyard playground for awhile and then Roger and I took turns riding Expedition Everest.



Sadly, I report that is all we did at Animal Kingdom. We headed back to the Wyndham to swim in the pools and hopefully take naps. (No naps, but the swimming was great!) In the evening, we met up with friends again and had dinner at 1900 Park Fair at the Grand Floridian Resort. I must say, someday, I'd like to stay there! It was so cute! The buffet dinner was delicious and the dessert buffet was even better. The company was delightful. We met Cinderella and Prince Charming as well as Cindy's evil stepmom and sisters.



We returned to the hotel and turned in early so we could get a fresh start bright and early Wednesday morning when we were going back to the Magic Kingdom.

2009 Family Vacation: Days 1 & 2

On Sunday, we flew out of Pittsburgh at the buttcrack of dawn. Literally, we watched the first light appear in the sky from the terminal and the sun rise above the horizon from the airplane just before takeoff. The boys both enjoyed their first airplane rides and were very good. Aaron slept for a lot of it, Ian colored and played games on Roger's phone. Both boys entertained the people within 4 row radius of our seats. Traveling through the airports (Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and Orlando) was not as daunting as we feared it may be, despite having 3 backpacks, 2 strollers, 2 toddlers, 2 carseats, and 2 suitcases. It was EXTREMELY helpful that our children were very well behaved and in *mostly* good moods.



After arriving in Orlando and getting our rental car... (From Alamo, and we will NEVER rent from them again. HORRIBLE service. Horrible. If you'd like to hear more about that, I'll write a whole separate post on the subject someday.) We drove to the Magic Kingdom and got the boys their haircuts.







Aaron got his First EVER hair cut there, and when you get your hairs cut at the Barber Shop on Mainstreet USA, you get a set of Mickey Mouse ears embroidered with "first haircut." Adorable. We also rode It's a Small World and bought Ian his mouse ears. The kids absolutely LOVED Magic Kingdom. So much so that we spent the better part of 3 days there!

We met my parents at our Condo- The Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort. It was as big (maybe bigger? no, definitely bigger than our first apartment here in Monroeville.) It was beautiful. Luxurious. My dad made us a steak dinner and we hit the hay pretty early.

Monday Morning we set off to meet friends at Ohana (at the Polynesian Resort) for the Mickey & Friends Character breakfast. We dined, met Lilo, Stitch, Pluto & Mickey, and Ian participated in a parade around the restaurant. We then headed out for the rest of the day at Magic Kingdom.







We started in Tomorrowland and rode the "train" that shows you around the area. Ian loved that part, so we knew he was in for loving the REST of the park. We played Buzz Lightyear's Astro blaster (or whatever it is called), drove cars around a track, Met Buzz, and splashed in the water fountains in Toon Town. Ian also rode his first Rollercoaster, the Barnstormer, and then we waited for the Parade down Main Street.










Of course, both the boys LOVED the parade too. Afterward, we hopped on the Monorail and went to Epcot to eat dinner at the Biergarten. It wasn't as good as it was 4 years ago... and they didn't have Sauerbraten anymore. Or Schwarzwalder Kirchtorte. Ian enjoyed dancing around to the live oompa band, though. We ran back over to MK for the fireworks.

It was a REALLY busy day, but we had so much fun! It was also really hot, but apparently I didn't know what hot was, and Mother Nature had plans to give me a little taste. The week only got hotter as it went by... yikes!

Stay tuned for the details on the rest of our days down in Florida!