We drove 2500 miles with two children under age 4 in a one week period ...
AND we are still happily married!
Rob and I are quite impressed with how smooth our vacation went. Other than having very little quality time alone we were all rather happy and enjoyed the magic of Orlando -- well namely "Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom".
The road trip was long, but we had plenty of yummy and nutritious -- ok and some not so healthy but nevertheless, very yummy Christmas Cookies from Auntie April, to help us get through the 21 hour ride. We stopped over night halfway down the Eastern seaboard. The girls did great transitioning from car to bed and then we hit the road again early in the morning. Thankfully the girls had lots of new car toys from RaRa, PopPop, Auntie April and Uncle Timmy, and Nana and Grandpa! Our family is quite amazing at helping us out!! :)
On the way down, we made a "late in the game" decision to change our hotel reservation to a Resort reservation and believe me ... it was WELL worth the extra money!!! We did not stay at Disney, but were very close by and since we had our KerraVan we had no problems getting to and from the park each day -- actually we preferred this since we were travelling with little ones who still need a late day nap.
We found the best plan for enjoying the parks was ... get there EARLY, as soon as the gates open. When we were able to do that we had a good 2.5 hours inside the park just roaming with out crowds but as soon as 10:30 a.m. hit, the parks were MOBBED!!! And Rob and I both agree, we are definitely NOT crowd kind of people. The girls seemed to tolerate the crowding much better than us ... but something they did not tolerate well ... RIDES ... that was a bit of a let down. Neither of them liked the rides. Even the ones meant for little tots. Emma immediately went into panic mode -- hands over ears, screaming "pick me up Mommy", and then tears streaming down her face. Julia also emerged with a new timid side of her ... she learned "No" and how to appropriately use it on this vacation. Such as "NO! Done now. DONE!! NO!" That is what you would here as soon as we sat on the Pooh ride. Then in Mickey's Philharmagic (the 3D movie ride which is supposed to be for ALL ages), it was in concert by Emma and Julia -- "Done. NO!!! Done now!!!" then crying for 7 minutes straight in the back of the theatre, where we were not allowed to exit. So our poor little ladies did not enjoy that part of Disney BUT, and this is what makes the 1250 mile (one way) ride ALL worth it ...
The twinkle in their eyes when they met the Princesses! Oh boy, we definitely knew Emma was enthralled with the Princess stuff but we didn't realize that Julia too was going to become mesmerized. It was absolutely priceless. When we walked through the gates and Cinderella's Castle was magically with in reach both girls just looked starry eyed around and smiled and giggled and ran with such utter childhood pleasure. It was magical. Those are the moments that make it worth it. We sat on "It's a Small World" as a family and just enjoyed the simple message and song and each of us parents with one child on our laps, snuggling in, it just was sweet and peaceful. This was their favorite "ride" and that is just fine with me.
We also indulged in 2 Character Meals -- they were very special for the girls. As adults I think we would have chosen to do a different kind of dining out but for them to meet Mickey and his friends and have dinner with Cinderella and Prince Charming ... and Emma got to slow dance with the Prince ... so yes the Character thing is worth it ... for them.
We did have another Julia scare ... this little lady is the one who keeps us on our toes. She is the child who pushes the limits, always with a cute little dimpled grin ... but still pushes the limits. We were sitting in the wading pool -- yup you read that correctly, we had pool weather 2 times while in Florida!! Woohoo! So we were sitting in the wading pool and Julia wants to be able to swim on her belly, she's pushing in and out with her arms, keeping her head above water and then starts trying to blow bubbles. She was doing great and started giggling and gave me that mischievous eye ... and then BIG GULP ... water up her nose, down her throat and then ... VOMIT. She took in too much water, continued to profusely vomit for 10 minutes and then the EMT's were called. Yea, it was scary. There was more vomit than I could have imagined possible from this little one's body. Fortunately it was her body's natural response to get rid of the chlorine and water and she was fine, but come on Julia ... enough with these antics :) So for now, Julia is not going swimming because Mommy can't handle it.
We know we will go back to Walt Disney World ... and we know the next time the experience will be different because they will be older and hopefully more "brave" but for our first time down it was, for us, just perfect.
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