These next 2 posts have an obnoxious amount of pictures. Most of which my children and husband scowled about taking. But, being that they love me (and that I may have threatened them a little) they obliged. I adore pictures. I adore my blog. I adore these memories. When they are grown and gone, these pictures will keep me company. And my babies can hopefully look back on these sometimes "forced" smiles and remember a wonderful vacation with a mom and dad who adore them.
We have been counting down the days till our Disney return. However, only one parent was truly excited for the sequel. I'll give you one guess? We picked the kids up from school on Thursday and started the trek down I-75 South. About halfway down, Jimmy really started giving me a hard time about how long we were staying. He thought I had WAY overdone it and wanted to scale back the torture fun a little.
My plan...
Friday: Animal Kingdom
Saturday: Magic Kingdom
Sunday: Hollywood Studios
Monday: off day/ maybe Downtown Disney
Tuesday: Magic Kingdom
Wednesday: Epoct
Thursday: drive home
His plan...
Turn right on the Florida turnpike and find a beach.
Now, let me just say, we talked about this plan. Quite a bit actually. However, he claims to have no recollection of these conversations. I reminded him that I am WAY to cheap to EVER purchase a 5 day Disney pass if there was any inkling we weren't going to use them.
His response... I will pay them to let me leave early.
He has no idea how many hours I spent planning, looking at crowd charts, talking to Lu (the Disney guru) and choosing fast passes to insure the most smooth, relaxing Disney trip imaginable. Alas, I realized I wanted harmony more than I wanted my 5 days at Disney so I started "revamping" our vaca right there along I 75. We decided to "drop" Animal Kingdom and the "day of rest" and go 4 straight days and come home early. So I switched our fast passes and although we lost Toy Story Mania, I was actually pleased with our new plan.
And then life happened... Doesn't it always? Lol!
Thursday night, we spent in a hotel in Ocala about 1.5 hours outside of Orlando. We knew we couldn't check into the condo until Friday afternoon so the plan was to get up and head straight for Hollywood Studios (which in the old plan, was Animal Kingdom) All night, Keatyn kept snuggling up to me, and I knew she was on fire. I laid there all night thinking... OK, we've gone from Plan A to Plan B and now Plan C. Sick kid plan. Ugh... The next morning, she woke up with a little fever, claiming she was FINE and was ready to go. So we ran through Walgreens, Motrined her up and away we went. We got through the 2nd toll into Disney and realized we had 4 miles until we were out of gas. We had traded the van days before on a 4 Runner and apparently neither of us thought to look at the gas level until it was too late. Ha! Oh, you have to put gas in these things too? As we drove through the toll booth, the car went to 1 mile until empty! The toll lady told us we were 8 miles from the next gas station. EIGHT MILES! Literally, the good Lord gave us those 8 miles of gas. I'm no mathematician, but there is no way that should have been possible!
I was SO very happy to finally see this sign...
HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS
We came to Hollywood Studios in 2012 with my mom and dad. Of course, Keatyn was only a year old and has no recollection of this trip at all. Sadly, Toy Story Mania, the "must do" ride, has still not been ridden by the Cofers. A 90+ minute wait just wasn't in the cards. Maybe next time. Other than that, I think we did it all!
Keatyn was such a trooper. Jimmy or I's hand was on her forehead nearly all day, feeling for a fever. If she felt bad, she didn't once let it show. They were so excited to finally be there!
We loved the Little Mermaid show...
We bought Keatyn an autograph/picture book to carry around and meet all the characters. That is
after you stand in all the character's lines. ;) Jimmy and I did the divide and conquer on this one. There was no way I was going to force Trace to stand in countless lines to meet Princesses when there was a park full of rides out there.
Tower of Terror- Keatyn was talking tough but I really wondered how she would do on her first "thrill" ride. Let's just say, she wasn't a fan.
It started about here. With the Twilight Zone commercial. She asked me about that 30 second commercial for 5 days straight. Bless her. We may have scarred her for life.
These were all the "before" smiles. There were no smiles "during" or "after".
Indiana Jones stunt show was very cool and very loud. So glad we got to see it.
That sweet boy spent the entire trip in 2012 exactly like this...
Rock 'n Roller Coaster was hands down Trace's favorite. He talked about it all week. We had a Fast Pass and Jimmy took him first while I took Keatyn to see the Beauty and the Beast show (amazing!) Then we swapped because he said he wanted to ride it with me (love that boy) and well... I screamed my head off. As usual.
Jimmy actually rode it with Jim Furyk, the pro golfer. He was just another dad that day at Disney, but it was pretty cool to see him. His wife saw Jimmy looking at him and realized he recognized him. She gave him that look of, Oh PLEASE don't out us! Of course he didn't. He just snapped a quick picture. I can't imagine how hard it would be to be a celebrity in a place like this.
Beauty and the Beast
After the swap, I knew I couldn't leave without telling Trace about the Star Wars ride, Star Tours. This ride made me want to hurl the first time and I would have been perfectly happy to never have laid eyes on it again. But my boy. He lurves him some Star Wars. So while Jimmy was at the Frozen sing along with Keatyn, I stood in line for 30 minutes, got his 3D glasses, walked him to his seat... and then happily waited outside for him to get off. Am I a terrible mother?
Frozen sing along
So after a long 7 hour day in Hollywood Studios, we came out, ready to check into our condo instead, found a flat tire. And look at the beautiful spare. Ha! Ha! An hour later, we head for home. Little did we know, that was just the prelude to Day 2...
Saturday :( Well, I got my "day of rest" just not exactly as I'd planned. Trace woke up with an even higher fever than Keatyns the day before and after I spent 4 hours and 100 miles driving the entire city of Orlando trying to get a new tire for my "unpatchable" one, we decided to call it a day. When the lady was giving me directions to the 3rd tire place, she told me 1201 Orange Blossom Trail (or OBT, as the natives like to call it.)
Sidenote: Never use acronyms when giving directions to people from out of town. Not helpful.
Anyhoo, the Tire Kingdom's
actual address was 120
51 Orange Blossom Trail. That's about a 35 mile difference if your wondering. On the plus side, there is no better way to learn how to use the navigation system in your new car than to be lost in the ghettos of Orlando. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Trace piled up with his iPad on the pull out sofa and watched movies, all the while claiming he was FINE and totally up for the Magic Kingdom. By this point, mama was not. Boo.
So that afternoon, little bit and I found the outlet mall while the boys stayed home. Jimmy was very content to just lay back and watch the Tennessee/Alabama football game. That was his perfect day in Disney. Lol!
EPCOT
The next morning, everyone was well, the tire was new and we were headed to Epcot. Yay! This is the one park none of us had been to. We skipped it last time because everyone told us the kids were too little. Honestly, it was our least favorite. Maybe in 5 more years, they will enjoy it more, but it was much more "educational" than thrill rides. (Does that make us heatherns?)
The biggest deal of that day was the Akershus Norway Princess Breakfast. This was our only "sit down" planned meal. (We had originally had Chef Mickey's for Tuesday night, but that got nixed when we cut back to 4 days). This breakfast costs a fortune, and my kids didn't eat a 1/4 of a plate of food combined, but to see this princesses little face was all worth it.
This kiss was sweet and totally unprompted after a little nudge by me to actually "act like you know each other" in the first picture.
Needless to say, big brother was not looking forward to this part of the trip, but he muscled through and actually agreed to pose with some of the princesses. Don't tell anyone.
We met Belle first...
then Cinderella...
Snow White... (who sounded like a munchin from the Wizard of Oz, but I tried to drown that out)
Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty...
And finally Ariel, the Little Mermaid. She was the Little Mermaid for Halloween last year and I would say she is her favorite. Her shirt tells all. She took Keatyn's hand and asked if she would help lead the Princess Processional around the restaurant and I swear she beamed. It was so precious and made that grossly over priced breakfast worth every penny.
After that, we hit some of the rides.
Nemo and Friends Under the Sea
Test Track: We had heard SO much about this ride and watched the wait times all day. We had fast passes for Soarin', which was AMAZING, and you can't get both. Test Track had a wait time of an hour+ all day. As we were walking out of Spaceship Earth (the big golf ball ride) I saw that it was down to 30 minutes. We practically ran across the park to get there, but it was worth the run.
About halfway through the day, my foot started bothering me. I had bought those Sketcher GoWalk tennis shoes before the trip and they were so comfortable, but something was wrong. Very wrong. We headed in a little early (and never even got to the countres of Epcot :( and I spent the rest of the night like this. Ice, elevation, and rest. Jimmy took the kids to the pool and I was really, really questioning how Day 3 was going to happen. It's hard getting old.
The "F" words were running rampant... Fevers, Flat tires, and Fallen arches. Ugh!
To be continued...
