Yay! We're goin' to Disney!

On the morning after Eva's 8-month birthday, we got up very early and caught a plane to Disney World. And what does an 8-month old do in Disney World? Well, read on, and I'll tell you!

9/27: After an early morning drive to the airport in Bloomington, there was momentary family-wide panic as my mom realized our flight was leaving an hour earlier than we thought. Fortunately, (and despite Tim's pleading) we had arrived at the airport nearly 2 hours early, so we still had plenty of time to get 6 adults, 2 infants, 2 strollers, 6 checked bags, and 9 carry-ons onto the airplane. Like the amazing children we have always known them to be, Eva and Eli handled flying with absolutely no problem. They both slept for a lot of the flight, did a little playing on the tray tables, and were passed from person to person until we landed in Orlando. No one complained about them (loud enough for us to hear, anyway). We then wrestled our strollers onto the Magical Express, and then on a 20-minute walk to our building, and then up 2 flights of stairs to our suite (no elevators? Hello, this is America, the fattest country on Earth!). We even had enough energy to go back out to dinner, and the kids did great. Eva loved tilapia and jasmine rice, and was also a fan of the mango puree that graced my key lime torte. Delicious!

9/28: Our first stop was the park formerly known as MGM Studios. It was pretty hot out, and I was a little worried about napping in the strollers. Eva is basically a furnace, and we turned our air on at home in May to accommodate her internal thermostat. However, she and Eli slept great in the strollers, especially if they were moving. There were only a few long waits, and we all got to ride everything we wanted to. The highlights of the day are captured in pictures:
Grandpa & Eli wait in line for the Backlot Tour Eva gets more sunscreen - hilarious

Me and Eric in Toy Story Midway Mania Eva takes another nap - what a sweetie

9/29: To go the Magic Kingdom today we wore our matching family shirts. Dorky? No...well, maybe, but when someone stays up all night making matching shirts, ya'll better wear 'em. We had a family picture "professionally" taken by one of the Disney people and it actually turned out fairly well. It was pretty darn hot AGAIN today, so we looked for air-conditioned rides for relief. Top picks were Pirates of the Caribbean, the Transit Authority, and It's A Small World. The Monster's Inc. laugh floor was also a cool and funny place to hang out, and Tim made it to the big screen with the caption "feels the urge to dance." We took Eva on her first carousel ride (Eli was sleeping) and she loved it. Eva's yellow bee blanket, which is basically her travel-sized blanket she sleeps with, got lost somewhere in park, but at the end of the day that magic of Disney prevailed once again, and it was waiting for us at the lost and found. Eva and Eli looked the best in the family wardrobe, as illustrated below:

9/30: After 2 days in the heat, we needed a day off. So, today we hung out at the pool all morning and went shopping at Downtown Disney all afternoon. It was just what everyone needed to recharge the batteries. Unfortunately, it was not too kind to the wallets (thank goodness we had all that moolah from the garage sale to buy souvenirs with!). At the end of the day, the mommies got into our swimsuits again to give the babies a bath in the big jacuzzi bathtub. It was hilarious, slippery, and for the first and only time this week, poop-free (thanks, Eli!).

10/1: On the hottest day so far we decided to go to Typhoon Lagoon. That might sound like a good idea, but they won't let 8-month-olds ride any of the slides, and the wave pool was really too crowded to try holding a baby and not drowning at the same time. So, there was a lot of playing in the sand, which equaled a lot of sand ... everywhere. Annie and I took a little break from baby watching (thanks to Grandma) to try and catch one of the monster waves, but somehow managed to time it during one of the 2 breaks the wave pool takes each day. The kids did like the lazy river, and they went on it twice. By the end of the 7 hour day, we were SO ready to go home and lay around in the air conditioning. In a cruel twist of fate, we waited an hour for the bus back to the hotel. It was one of Disney's biggest breakdowns in transportation EVER and the least magical moment of the vacation. We only had energy for pizza for dinner, but it was the most delicious pizza I have ever tasted.

Eva after a long day of "swimming" Eli and Annie (pre-sand exposure)

10/2: Epcot - my favorite park! Grandma and Eric had visited the night before to see Illuminations and had ridden the newly renovated Spaceship Earth, so the rest of us piled in while they walked around with the babies. It was hilarious! I won't ruin it for you, but if possible, ride girl+boy - it is so funny! We tried to ride Ellen's Energy Adventure, but there was a breakdown and everyone had to get off mid-ride (we got to see the behind-the-scenes repair guys at Disney - not exactly inspiring, for sure). The aquarium was a big hit with the babies - they both tried to "catch" the fish through the glass. Grandma headed over to the World Showcase early to watch "America, spread your golden wings..." and the rest of us took a more leisurely walk through the annual Food and Wine Festival. The babies really expanded their palettes during this vacation, while Uncle Tim chose McDonalds from the dozens of international cuisines represented. Eli enjoyed a snow cone (Annie is a brave one!) and Eva had her lunch in Japan. We wanted to stay for Illuminations so the rest of us could see it, but the kids had different ideas, and we took a long ride home with tired babies.

10/3: For our last day in the magical world of Disney we went to the Animal Kingdom. We wanted to make the most of our last day, so we somehow managed to get 6 adults and 2 babies to the park gates by 9:30. If you knew Tim, you would think this was even more amazing. It seemed like the crowds were even smaller here, and I got to ride Expedition Everest twice - yes! Once I went with my mom, which was hilarious, since she closed her eyes for the scary parts. The nature walks were just awesome, and all the animals were really close. You could take a stroller on them, so the babies spent most of the walks asleep. We had done almost everything we wanted to do except the Bug's Life show, but Eli was feeling a little under the weather from a cold, so he and Annie headed home. The rest of us thought we'd be following them after the quick show, but we didn't realize the parade we had to follow to get to the show was going to take 40 minutes, or approximately 11 repetitions of the song the parade was set to. Eva didn't like the show much at all, so it was a long wait for a lot of crying - dang it!

The whole fam-damily

10/4: Home again, home again, jiggity-jog! On the way to the airport we discovered Eli had his 1st tooth! And that our flight was an hour early AGAIN! It's like a conspiracy or something. The ensuing panic caused us to leave one of our carry-ons (the 10th one, which had all the souvenirs that wouldn't fit into our other 15 bags) at the security check-point. For the last magical moment, it was still sitting there when my dad and I backtracked to get it. Eva's bee blanket made one more attempt to stay in Florida and exited my bag on the jet way, but a nice lady following us picked it up and brought it into the plane, so we brought it back to IL with everything else! Eva was pretty wiped out and spent much of the trip home sleeping on Grandpa. What a great trip!

In summary, if you have the best and most helpful grandparents (or parents to me), the most tolerant and helpful uncles, the sweetest and most adaptable babies, and two silly moms, you too can have a fabulous, 7-day trip to Disney World.