We recently took a trip to see Mickey Mouse. As the weeks pass, I've had to admit to myself (again) that blogging about our family's important events is just not something I can accomplish in a timely fashion. So, here's the plan:
I'm writing up this intro. Then I'll be publishing the homemade worksheets from the binder Ally and I put together to show her teacher. (Ally was supposed to be in school the week after Thanksgiving; we pulled her out for this fabulous "educational field trip with her family". The binder and her composition book journal are "proof" that she learned something in case the school district questions it.) I hope to also find a way to post the pictures from her binder without crashing my blog site.
Shall we begin?
We loaded the car with all the essentials: clothes, snacks, stroller, camera, books, a few toys, our two children, and their extended family of dolls and stuffed animals.
Then we locked the house and started driving.
Our first stop was Aunt Colleen and Uncle Kenny's house for Thanksgiving dinner. We had quite the spread. After the meal the cousins played together while the grown-ups did grown-up stuff. Then we spent the night at Grammy and Grampy's house, and in the morning we started our drive south on I-95.
We exited at South of the Border to say "Hola" to Pedro and to use the bathrooms. My parents did not listen to our pleas and stop there on our family drive to Disney years ago, so I
needed to take my girls. I didn't want to deprive them of such an opportunity. My mom is still right-- it's still a very tacky tourist trap, but at least everything was clean and looked to have a fresh coat of paint.
(Side note: I remember when Bybee, Peter/Petros, and I stopped at SOTB on our way to the beach 10 years ago. Everything was completely run down at that point. I also remember buying an old, dusty, sun-bleached, newspaper-filled pinata. I wonder if they still have the same orphaned pinatas hanging from the rafters of the gift shop. I should've checked that out. Ahhh, Pedro and I, we have such a long history together.)
We stopped at the Florida welcome center for some orange juice. They say it's the best around. The girls did an impromptu song-and-dance routine in front of the sign for all the weary drivers, and then we were on our way again.
We made it to Orlando in one day, which meant we had a stress-free Saturday to relax before starting our 6-day marathon of Disney Park fun. We checked into our All-Star Movies resort hotel that morning, and then set out to give the girls a park preview via car, monorail, and boat. We were also curious what kind of accommodations other Disney guests were enjoying at the more up-scale hotels.
 |
| Checking in. |
 |
| Our Hotel-- 101 Dalmations |
 |
| That tall dog is next to our 3-story hotel. |
Although we took some great pictures at the other resorts, I'm not going to put all of them up here. (If this choice makes you feel slighted, just use
google to find a plethora of photos online.) Needless to say, Disney does a fabulous job with their marketing and themes, but the details and shear scale of some of their creations just blew us away. Here are some pics of our family enjoying the
other resorts for the day.
 |
| Cora on the boat to The Lodge |
 |
| The Wilderness Lodge with an active geyser |
 |
| The gigantic tree in the lobby |
 |
| Gingerbread inside the Contemporary Resort | |
 |
| a Lion King/Nemo/Mermaid wonderland |
 |
| Feeling Fishy |
|
 |
| "Please smile like a normal child." |
This was my favorite picture of the day. I didn't catch Cora in an awkward moment, this is how she wanted to pose. She's going through a phase where she makes a cheesy, teeth-gritting grin when you tell her to smile. And when I say "look at me" or "look at the camera", it takes her forever to point her head in the right direction-- and rarely do her eyeballs follow suit. Her odd facial expressions are generally accompanied by a tilt of the head and some strange finger-signaling or arm-folding behavior. The extra-puffy cheeks and startled eyebrows in this pic are just a bonus. As you enjoy these Disney posts, pay attention to Cora's face and keep in mind that I try hard to share only the best pictures. I guess she's not quite ready to be America's Next Top Model.
We recently took a trip to see Mickey Mouse. As the weeks pass, I've had to admit to myself (again) that blogging about our family's important events is just not something I can accomplish in a timely fashion. So, here's the plan:
We exited at South of the Border to say "Hola" to Pedro and to use the bathrooms. My parents did not listen to our pleas and stop there on our family drive to Disney years ago, so I needed to take my girls. I didn't want to deprive them of such an opportunity. My mom is still right-- it's still a very tacky tourist trap, but at least everything was clean and looked to have a fresh coat of paint.
