Disneyworld recap

It has been a week since you heard from me – did you miss me? We had a nice weekend at Disney (despite the unusual rain) so I will recap!

Thursday we left around 8am. We intended to leave earlier, but the kids were tired, so we let them sleep. It takes 2 ½ hours to get there, so we got to Disney around 10:30. But the line to get into the parking lot was HUGE! We have never seen it like that before. Mat and I are always good about scouting out the “slow” weekends at Disney, but I forgot to look at Thursday when we changed our plans. We got quite a surprise! By the time we got parked and into the park it was almost 12pm! Time for lunch! This was our first Magic Kingdom day. (the main of the 4 Disney parks) So we quickly grabbed some lunch then headed to the rides. The wait times were nothing like we have ever seen before. Now, for those of you who are NOT from Florida, going when the wait times are more than 30 minutes for the most popular rides is not what Floridians do! This day, we were shocked. The wait times STARTED at 30 minutes and went up to 2 hours. What????? We didn't dare tell anyone we were from Florida – they would have thought we were crazy being there on this day! But Arlington got to ride a few favorites, and of course we had good food. We got chased out of the park in the early evening by rain, so all in all, a very short day.

Friday – we woke, our spirits higher, and our kids up earlier. We decided to go to Hollywood Studios (which used to be called MGM Studios) on this day. We had a great, warm, sunny day. We got to ride a lot of things, and watch a lot of shows. The babies LOVED the car show. It was funny! It is loud and crazy, and Finley just kept saying “more cars”, and watching very intensely! And Cainan just kept clapping and clapping. And Arlington rode Tower of Terror 3 times, which she loves. I just hate even watching that ride, but she loves it. We did get chased out again by rain, but we were about ready to go by that time anyway.

Saturday – back to the Magic Kingdom this day. This is Arlington's favorite park, so we did this one twice. We decided to skip Animal Kingdom this time since we didn't have park hopper passes (we didn't renew our annual passes). Anyway, we got started bright and early again this day and hit the two biggest rides for Arlington in the park this time. We didn't get to Splash Mountain on Thursday due to the 2 hour wait, but today, 30 minutes. So she rode it several times as well as all of her other favorites. Thursday was the only busy day. When we looked at this weekend, we chose it specifically because it was NOT a busy weekend. So Friday-Sunday, perfect amount of people. BUT – there was a downside. It started raining off and on around 1pm this day. That was much earlier than the two previous days. We kept getting chased out of line due to thunder and lightening. That was crazy! We did a lot of inside rides, and then finally had to call it a day around 6:30pm. It got to the point where it just got really bad. See, in Florida there seems to be two types of rain. The kind that last a couple of minutes and then clears up and it is sunny OR the kind that is followed by tornadoes. There is no inbetween. And guess which one we had starting around 5pm? Yep – the second one. The non-natives were hilarious during this rain. Florida rain does give you a small warning. It will lightening and thunder VERY loud, and then – DOWNPOUR. So, the lightening would flash, the thunder would clap, and we would put up our umbrella. We watched the others scream at the sound, and then stand around and stare and then scream again when the got unexpectedly poured on. And they would scatter which was even more hilarious! On our way out, we are walking down Main street with about 100,000 other people who were tired of the rain. It had momentarily stopped raining and we were heading out. Then it happened – the lightening, thunder warning. I put up the umbrella, Mat covered the babies and started to run. Everyone else just kept going. Then it poured and everyone screamed and scattered to the sides and Mat and I and Arlington were about the only ones left in the street! That made it easy to leave! People are so funny. Arlington got scared by everyone screaming and running, so I had to pick her up and carry her the rest of the way.

Sunday – our last day and the weather report wasn't good. We watched the weather channel, and it looked like we were only going to have good weather in the morning. But we were going to Epcot this day. Epcot has a lot for grownups, but not so much for little ones, so we weren't thinking this was going to be a long day anyway. We made it until 11am before the rain hit. We were able to get in Arlington's favorite rides before this, and then we had to do inside things. We had lunch and the babies took a great nap. Epcot has a lot of wonderful inside play places for all ages, so that really helped. Then we would run out under the umbrella to a ride, while either Mat and I stayed with the babies. We stayed until 5pm, and the rain just kept getting worse and worse and never stopped. Arlington cried that we were leaving, but we really did need to go. We had done as much as we could do at this point, and so it was time to hit the road. We stopped for gas and some food on the way home and were home by 8pm. Not bad! It rained almost the entire way home – hard, crazy rain.

Again – I say – why is Florida called the sunshine state? They missed the ball on this one.

Anyway, we still had a ton of fun. The babies had a blast and Arlington, as always, enjoyed every minute. Everyone slept pretty well at night. Finley was the only stinker. At night she really wasn't interested in settling, so Mat and I would have to put her into the bed with us and cuddle her tight for about ½ hour until she got bored and fell asleep. She is such an independent sleeper, this was weird. But she was just wired! After she fell asleep, we put her in her bed and that was that. And the babies took great naps at the park. It never ceases to amaze me how much noise they can sleep through. We stuck to their schedule (naps and bed) like always, because sleep is so important and so is their schedule. And that always makes our days go better when we have well rested kids!

There are two things I wanted to share that I thought were humerous! One was – on our last day at Magic Kingdom, I got the babies stroller stuck in the trolley track. I was busy trying to get the wheel out of the track when an old lady on one of those motorized scooters (the ones for people who have trouble walking) shoved me so that she could get past. She shoved me hard, too – right into the stroller! I couldn't even be mad, though because I am SURE she was a native Floridian.

This other was Mat. He had been in the bathroom getting ready for bed. We had all the lights out while the kids were falling asleep in the room. He came over to get into bed, and he kind of misjudged the space he had and fell right out onto the floor! I almost woke the kids up laughing so hard! He just kind of gracefully fell onto the floor. That was great – made my day.

So that was our weekend. Monday Arlington had a dentist appointment and her teeth are perfect. I am glad she got blessed with my teeth – well it seems like it so far. I don't have a single cavity. (knock on wood). She LOVES going to the dentist. She couldn't wait to get there this morning. She is too much. The children's dentist is fun, though. I got a chance to ask her about Cainan's teeth and she thinks he should see a dentist started at age 2.

Here is the sad news – I only have a few pictures. Our camera broke the first day. It lost a button! We have had that camera long time – so weird. So sadly – not very many pictures. We are going to get it repaired, so there may not be many pictures for awhile.

So I probably won't be blogging on Saturday because Mat and I will be away for the weekend. So I will see you again next Tuesday!