We're back! Did you miss us? Sorry, I decided that when we went on vacation I was going on a blogging vacation also (it takes a lot of time!). Actually, vacation would have decided that for me anyway because we were busy busy busy and getting kids to sleep in hotels is a lot of work and I was tired tired tired. But now we're back.
I think it says something good about the kids that a 15-hour drive with them was not even blog-worthy. We drove 15-ish hours in two days, and they did fine. And at the end, we drove 15-ish hours home, and they did fine. There was an excessive amount of potty stops, and they watched more cartoons in those four days than they watched in the whole last year, and by the end Michael Jr kept up a near-constant sing-song chorus of "Let me out of this vaaaaaaan.... I need to go home and play on my crar ruuuuuuuug... I want to get out of this hiiiiiiiiiigh waaaaaaaay!", but it was more entertaining than anything. Even though they were travelling champs, they were very excited when we got to our hotel in Orlando (they loved the porch).
Our first five days were spent in Orlando and at various Disney World Parks: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. I'm not going to give a day-by-day replay because I didn't even bring my camera with me on several of the days, but here are the standout facts:
Catherine's favorite thing was the water slide at the hotel, closely followed by the roller coaster Thunder Mountain at Magic Kingdom and the Test Track super fast car ride at Epcot, and getting autographs from all the princesses and characters.
She seems to have a bit of trepidation about the slide in this picture, but it was her first time down. The thousand and one times after that, she loved it.
She talked Aunt Sunny and Uncle Chris into trying it.
Waiting for Sunny...
She loved it!
Eventually even Mary tried it! She had to have a catcher at the bottom because she could just barely touch and the water coming off the slide would keep pushing her under. With all that, I was shocked that she wanted to do it more than once!
Ok, now that I think about it, that wasn't really Catherine's favorite. All of the kids' favorite part was the first time I told them we were taking a break from the heat and finding an ice cream cone. When we rolled the stroller up to the door of an ice cream shop in the French section of Epcot Center, Catherine looked at me in shock and asked, "Are we *REALLY* getting ice cream cones?! With *REAL* ice cream and *REAL* cones?!" They were equally as delighted a few days later when Grandma took us to Ghiradelli in downtown Disney, where all three of them got the exact same thing they got the first time around: mint chocolate chip in waffle cones (phone pic!):
Mary's favorite part was Thunder Mountain and the Test Track car ride (after the ice cream, of course), and a live stunt car show at Hollywood Studios, and the safari at Animal Kingdom.
She also liked meeting the princesses at a lunch we went to and watching the princesses dance in a show in front of the castle at Magic Kingdom.
Princess lunch:
And here we are watching the princess show. She was completely taken, until Captain Hook showed up. Then I had to turn around and carefully walk away so there was no risk of her catching a glimpse of him.
She has been singularly focused on creating fancy hair-dos worthy of a princess since we started home.
Mary's least favorite part was any ride or show that involved witches, pirates, dinosaurs, beasts, sea witches (aka Ursula), giants, darkness, smoke, fog, or scary music. In Hollywood Studios we sat down for the Indiana Jones show thinking they would find it fun to watch some of the stunts, and exactly 4 seconds into it all three kids insisted on exiting, immediately. That night Mary refused to go to sleep until I promised never to ever take her to see anything Indiana Jones ever again. Ever.
Michael Jr's favorite part was riding the monorail train from the parking lot to Magic Kingdom. He also liked all the rides that involved slowly-moving trains or trucks, like the People-Mover at Epcot, the Safari at Animal Kingdom, and driving the cars on the track at Magic Kingdom.
Michael at the wheel... does Grandma look nervous?
These are two of the drivers of the stunt car show. I think that show was a highlight for all the kids, even Gussie.
Michael Jr was also very good at charming princesses. He had no fear at all.
He did not like anything fast, bumpy, high, or any of the slow kid rides that involved boats, because "they do not have wheels."
I think Gussie's favorite part was the aquarium. He toddled from window to window, pointing and squealing, and this could have gone on for hours. He also liked petting the goats at Animal Kingdom, and he loved the hotel pool. He did not like meeting any of the characters.
I know all of the kids look a little skeptical, but they did all really like this except for Gussie - at first I was holding him in the other arm near Mickey and he immediately started screaming.
Some miscellaneous pictures:
Mary loved the castle, but was disappointed that we didn't get to explore inside, and specifically stand on the balconies.
Catherine watching the princess dance show. She wasn't so fussed about Captain Hook.
I don't know why Uncle Chris didn't let Olivia drive...
And here's Catherine at the wheel. Grandpa commented dryly afterwards that she inherited my talent for driving.
The Epcot golf ball!
Is this the Nemo shark? We really didn't know.
Catherine's best Florida vacation look.
I think this picture is hilarious - Pluto is not playing peek-a-boo, he's looking through his little costume eyeballs to sign the kids' autograph books.
Catherine counted her autographs - 14! I'm glad Grandma knew about the whole gather-character-autographs thing - I had no idea.
I don't remember which park this was in, but Gussie thought looking through the holes was really funny.
But this is what he looked like most of the time.
Hopefully Grandma has more pictures to share as well. Many many thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for sponsoring and planning the trip!! Up next... the beach!
