Day 6- Hollywood Studios- Thursday

Hollywood Studios was on the schedule today. I wanted to take Addie to see Live on Stage, which had the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! It was a 22 minute live show and interactive for the kids to dance and sing. It was on the floor seating so not the best for the adults, but the kids love it. This was a timed performance so we had to wait a little for the next showtime once we arrived. In the meantime, she finally met Minnie Mouse.... I couldn't believe we have gone the whole trip and didn't meet Minnie yet. Whoops! She was with Minnie for about 2 minutes (which is a huge amount of time). Addie couldn't wait to give Minnie her autograph book to sign. They then showed each other their shoes and the stars on Minnie's dress. Too cute!

We also met Winnie the Pooh, which Addie wasn't a fan of for some reason. After doing a few of the shows, we had ice cream at about 1o in the morning! just hilarious to me the rules that are bent on vacation. gotta love it and go with the flow. So after walking around Hollywood Studios, we were able to meet Mike and Sully from Monster's Inc. and also the truck from Cars.

After Hollywood Studios we went to Downtown Disney and shopped. Addie was allowed to pick out 3 things.... at least this was my rule going into the store. Well let's just say that quickly changed when she wanted to carry the basket herself and just started to put stuff in the basket. $400 later.... we left the store. she was a princess at that moment! We did manage to get a few shirts for us too, but mostly toys/clothes for Addie. It was time to head back to the villa and then pack because we would be heading home early in the morning.

Day 4 - Magic Kingdom

We again woke up early for our breakfast reservations. We were up at 6:00 and reservations were at 7:30 at Ohana's at the Polynesian resort. We arrived and zero wait! my kinda thing. We had our picture taken and then we were seated. We were able to meet all 4 characters. Stitch, Lilo, Pluto and Mickey. First we met Stitch. She gave him her autograph book right away. She was so excited for it. Then Lilo came and Addie went right to her. I swear Lilo was at our table for like 10 minutes. Lilo was just holding Addie on her lap. it kinda freaked me out a little, but I knew that Addie was fine and that Lilo was probably doing it for kids to be comfortable with characters. Then Mickey stopped by (glitch with the camera...boo). Again, she was all about the autograph book and handing it to the characters! The her fav, Pluto stopped by! She loves Pluto too!!! Then it was time for the parade and we made our way around. We managed to take the musical instrument as a souvenir home with us. Oh well, we paid for it in my mind!

After breakfast, it was time to get on the monorail to head to Magic Kingdom!!! This was just truly magical as we were entering the park. Having just a little meltdown from going to bed later and waking up early, we finally made it to the castle and to the carousal ride. She loved the carousal ride and didn't want to get off her horse. the ride wait time was no longer then 15-20 minutes. We hit a great week for Disney!

Next was the Dumbo ride. Jeremy and Grandma took her on the ride. Addie loved to get her elephant up in the air! Next was It's a Small World... no wait! Addie loved this ride too! She is just the adventurer! She sat there and just listened to the music and watched everything.

After this, we were able to get her in the stroller and mommy and daddy went on Big thunder mountain. While on the ride, Grandma was able to push Addie around and she fell asleep. I enjoyed Big Thunder...however everyone was evacuated as soon as we got off the ride. Didn't know when they would be restarting....

It was lunch time and Addie was still sleeping and we got something to eat while she napped still. After all of us ate and she got up, next on the list was the jungle cruise. It's a nice little boat ride. Next was the Swiss family Robinson tree house. She climbed all of this herself and loved every minute of it. She is such a climber.

Next Grandma and Jeremy took Addie on the Aladdin Carpet rides. Again her smile explained it all! We then decided to do the Haunted Mansion which I was a little Leary of, but to my surprise, Addie did just fine. The ride even stopped in the middle of it (freaked me out with a ghost starting at me). We just kept laughing and saying "say hi to the ghost".

After the ride, daddy stopped to get a raspberry smoothie. guess who eyed it and wouldn't give it back... that is right, little miss Addison!

As we were making our way out, we picked up some Mickey Mouse ears. I just let her go to town on them. I didn't care where the chocolate/ice cream landed. As she ate, we watched the Mickey show at the castle. After her Mickey ears were gone, she had a meltdown and it was time to leave.

After nap time at the villa, we made our way to Happy hour at the cabana. Addie had her first PINA coloda "poolside at the bar". We let her play outside on the playground at the villa. She managed to climb up a 15 foot twisty slide in a matter of 2 seconds giving me a mini heart attack. My climber. Thank goodness her "birthday present" was going to be a good purchase!

Day 3- Peabody Hotel & Margaritaville

Today was a sleep in day.... 7:50am! After cooking some turkey bacon, eggs, and fresh fruit, we got ready and headed out to the Peabody hotel. This is a very swanky, huge and beautiful hotel. I would love just to spend 1 night in this hotel, but it's alittle out of the way to get to the parks. We arrived early to the hotel to get our seats to see the ducks. (It was only $7 to park at their hotel. ) So something really cheap for the kids to do in Florida that will bring tons of smiles to their faces! So sine we were early, we were able to see the duck master pull out the red carpet and also the signs for the ducks in order to get them ready for their march! Promptly at 11:00 on their speaker system is a nice introduction to the 5 ducks that march to the gorgeous fountain as they get fed by the duck master. This was Grandma's thing with Addie so Grandma held Addie and told her what was going on. As soon as Addie saw the ducks, she smiled and started clapping. She was so excited! She LOVED it!!! Thank you Grandma for recommending this. We stayed for a little bit after the ducks were eating, the duck master made his way over to Addie (first I might add) and gave her a sticker! It was so special for her.

We then walked around a bit and made our way back to the car. We decided to go to the City Walk next on the list of places to go. by the time we made our way over there, Addie took a mini nap. (At this point she hadn't gone #2 yet at all on our trip since the morning of our flight and she normally isn't like this at all... I was getting a bit worried as it had been about 54 hours.) We walked around and it was HOT. We decided to cool off at Margarita ville once Addie saw the parrots and after her having a meltdown. We also got our picture taken with the parrots...Jeremy got bit by one on the shoulder and it left a nice bruise on him. During our lunch, Addie finally went #2... I was so relieved. It didn't help the fruit snacks I gave her on the plane ride stopped her up. She wasn't cranky anymore after this point! Mental memory note.... avoid 4 packages of fruit snacks on the way home! So during lunch, Addie and Papa had a huge laugh with the ketchup bottle. Who knew it could be that entertaining by opening and closing a ketchup bottle, but it was! Addie also decided that once she saw daddy's dessert (strawberry shortcake) she made a bee line to his lap and enjoyed it too!

So after margarita ville, we did some shopping and went back to the villa. It was late afternoon and Addie and Grandma took a snooze on Grandma's bed. Another priceless moment.

After nap time, we were in the mood for Chinese, but didn't know of a good Chinese restaurant around the area that we could "trust". So Jeremy said we would go to Epcot for Chinese for dinner one night! So we needed to know what we were doing for dinner though tonight and decided on Giordano's. Yummy!

After dinner we went back to the villa and walked around their mini- golf course that they have. Addie learned how to say the word dinosaur because they were all over the course! She got to see a snake, a frog and lizard on the adventure. On our walk, we had to sit on every rock possible on the course... it was Addie's little thing to do!

When we got back, she was up for a little bit but went to bed at 9:30. It was another breakfast with the characters!!!!

Day 2- Animal Kingdom- Sunday

I have to give a big shout out to my cousin Kathy because she gave me the idea to go to Tusker's House at Animal Kingdom. Like myself, I scheduled this breakfast before we booked our airplane tickets. I had this one done back in October...yes OCTOBER! I am nuts when it comes to travel plans... just ask Jeremy to verify. I am very particular and there are certain things on my list that I want done and if they get messed up then all hell breaks loose. I am one of those!

SO after making everyone get up at 6:00 in the morning, I thought our reservations were at 8:05, but they were at 9:00...whoops.... and this is why....Since this is a little tricky and I didn't know what the weather was going to be like, I actually booked 2 breakfasts with the characters at Animal Kingdom. I actually got the times mixed up for the days... whoops! Since Tuskers House is actually inside ANimal Kingdom, you have to get a ticket to the park and then plan on some time to walk back to the restaurant. It was so nice because we got into the park early...noone is around. You make your way back to the restaurant and take some pictures along the way. It was so nice not to have to worry about the crowds this early in the morning. Oh- I must also saw, that if you have the chance take a handicapped parking pass with you! This was AWESOME! unfortunately we got to take advantage of this since Jeremy's dad is currently going through chemo.... at least that was one of the positives to the nasty cancer disease!

SO we arrive at Tusker's House!!! we get our photo taken with Donald Duck and Addie is just so happy! She wasn't scared at all and gave him a hug and had the biggest smile on her face! I had to hold her, but no screams, no nothing! We were then escorted inside to the restaurant and we were towards the back for our seating time. This is a buffet style restaurant so I had time to get our food before the characters come to the table. I will say, the money for the character breakfasts are worth it because they come to you and you are guaranteed to MEET them and get your photo with them! It's a price worth paying for, especially the smile on Addie's face! So as we were eating, it was time for the Mickey parade in the restaurant and Addie and I were able to participate. It was so much fun marching around the restaurant to the music. I held Addie the whole time since the pace was kinda fast and wanted her to feel comfortable!

AFTER the parade, we were greeted by Daisy, Goofy and Mickey! Addie loves Daisy!! I was the proud mama and took all the photos with her and the characters! I loved it!! Addie was having a blast. Addie's favorite at the breakfast was the jungle juice! She could have just drank this all day long....until she came across one of daddy's smoothies (later stories about that).
SO after the characters, since we were there to celebrate Addie's birthday, they brought out a birthday cupcake and we sang to her and then she received a signed card from all the characters! Made my day as a parent that we got to do this for her!! Her smiles on her face were worth everything!

ANOTHER good thing about Tusker's is that you are super close to the safari ride. So it's about a 3 minute walk from the restaurant to the ride... we only had about a 15 minute wait, which didn't seem like it at all. This would be Addie's first ride at Animal Kingdom!! She loved sitting on Grandma's lap during the ride and looking at all the animals. I had forgotten that this ride does last about 20 minutes. Addie called the safari truck a choo choo! I loved it!

NEXT on the list was the Forrest exploration trail. We saw lots of fish and a gorilla (which threw up it's food and then ate it, disgusting). When seeing the fish, she had to go back to the fish tank and say bye bye to the fish and she even kissed the fish tank. too adorable. We quickly learned that we had to say bye bye to each exhibit in order for her to be ok with moving to the next one. We had to blow kisses alot and wave too! No meltdown this way. We learned with the gorilla because we didn't say by to the gorilla and she freaked out, but once we did, she was fine!

SO after breakfast, the safari ride, Addie was tired and as we made our way to the train station to go to Rafaki's area and waiting in line, Grandma was holding Addie and she passed out on Grandma. Too cute! grandma loved it of course. So we boarded the train which Addie loves trains so she missed this train ride there. When we got there, we sat down and still let Addie sleep for a bit. After a little bit, she woke up and she was off! We went inside Rafaki's place and got to meet Jimney Cricket (which she was fine with) and then Rafarki... not so much of a fan of him. She didn't want to go near him at all. She loved hearing all the animal noises and looking at all the pictures of the animals. We finally made our way outside to the petting zoo. She is so not afraid of anything. She went right up to the goats and started petting them. Only my kid!

IT was now time for lunch and for us to grab the train back to the main land. We went to a pizzeria there. It was good. Since we didn't stay at a resort, we didn't do the meal plan and actually meals were too out rigorously priced. They were on average about $8 a meal and then a few bucks for a drink. After lunch, we made our way to Camp Mickey and met Chip and Dale! She loved them and had the biggest of smiles on her face. Chip and Dale are some of daddy's favorites so he got to hold her for these photos! She also met Thumper and another bunny and the Bear from Brother Bear. She went right up to Thumper all by herself!!! So proud of my girl!

up on the list was it's a bugs life. We didn't know if she would be scared or not. We made it fun for her and laughed alot at the bugs popping out. She didn't even get scared at all. She was fine! Again, so proud of my girl!!!

WE tried to walk around Asia, but it was 3:00 and it was getting HOT. About 98 outside and it had been along day at this point so we decided to head back to the car. We got to see what we wanted to see and didn't force staying any longer.

ted alittle bit and then did dinner. After dinner, we went to the pool. Addie got to wear her first bikini!!! She had the kiddie pool all to herself and then a little girl who was scared of the water came over with her mom and Addie was so good not to splash the little girl. She played in the little pool and then she kept wanting to go in the big pool. Daddy and Grandma got in the big pool and swam around with Addie for awhile. She had a blast. Who would have thought swimming at 8:30-9:00 at night in Florida would be warm!!!

9:00 was bedtime and we were all wiped out! Jeremy included! OH- side note- we heard "Papa" about 1000 times. Addie had to keep track of her Papa! she also learned to call Daddy "Jeremy"! that went over well!

April 9th- Leaving for Disney- Saturday

The day finally arrived!!! We are leaving for Florida today!!! Addie's first airplane ride. Our flight left South Bend around 1:00 and we arrived in Florida around 3:00. Because of some storms, the plane had a different flight route so we still got there about the same time. Addie was a trooper on the plane. As we waited about 45 minutes after boarding for others to get on teh plane and then get the plane set, Addie didn't like just being in our row and being crawaled. I gave her 4 sets of fruit snacks and made her drink her juice while the plane was taking off. I was so worried about her ears. She was fine! About 10 minutes in the air and she watched finding nemo and fell asleep. She was out on me the whole way. We had an empty seat next to us which was nice because I could strethc out a bit with holding Addie.


After we landed at Sanford International Airport, we got our luggage (4 huge bags, 4 carry ons, car seat and stroller, plus 2 purses! We made our way to the car rental. I am very happy that I rented with Enterprise because we were the second person in line and the lines for Budget and Hertz were forever out the door! We would have been waiting hours in those lines. Score for me booking that and watching priced very early on. I wanted a 7 to 8 passenger vehcile because of the luggage of 5 of us in the car. I wanted some room! So they let us pick either a Yukon or a Nissan Armada. Jeremy wanted to try out the Armada since this would be an option for our next vehicle. HE LOVED IT!! So for being in florida for 6 days, we were able to rent the car for less than $400! I thought that was awesome considering I looked the week we were leaving and they were going for $1,500.






After we got the car and loaded up, car seat in, we all piled in and the Aramda was HUGE! tons of leg room and very comfy too! I think we have decided this is going to be our next car when the time comes up.




So it is now about an hour drive to the villa from the airport. Addie has been such a trooper and is doing really good. Hardly any melt downs... just about 2 minutes worth on the plane because of us having to keep her in the seat for the count.



We get to the villa and mom and dad check in which takes a little time and Jeremy, Addie and I drive around the complex. Jeremy's parents have had a timeshare/villa at Westgate Vacation Villas. They have the biggest one avialable which is a 2 bedroom with a loft. If you are looking for a reasonable place to stay with stuff to do on the property and being a close distance to the parks, this is easy. You will have to have your own vehicle though. A little bit abotu the Villa.... THe master bedroom has a king size bed, a jacuzzi tub, seperate shower. It's probably easily 350 square feet. It's a huge master bedroom. The guest room has 2 beds. They seem to be full size. Addie and I were fine in 1 bed together, but Jeremy and I would have a challenge being in the same bed considering I sleep diagnogally! So he got his own bed and I got mine with Addie! I think the idea is that this bedroom woudl sleep 4 people. It has a connecting bathroom with a HUGE oval bathtub. It's like a mini swimming pool. Addie loved it. The loft has 2 "sofa beds" up there. So 2 more people can sleep up there. I envision the kiddos in the future years making this their place to sleep. Then there is a pull out couch in the living room that sleeps 2. So all in all it will sleep 10 people, but not privcey for 4 out of the 10 people. When all of us go down (Jeremy's parents, my parents, Adam and fam, and us) we will get 2 seperate villas. It will be so much easier. The villa is about 1100 square feet. It's huge! It comes with a kitchen with dishes and everything and has it's own washer and dryer, which came in handy to do your own laundry before we came home.









So now that we arrived to the villa, we actually had to stay in a different villa on Saturday night because our timeshare is from Sunday to Sunday and we arrived on Saturday and someone was in ours. no biggie. we just stayed in another villa right around the corner.









So after we unloaded the car, it was time to eat. We went to Golden Corral for dinner. We were hungry and wanted something quick, but not fast food.









After dinner, we went to Downtown Disney to purchase our park tickets for our trip. We decided to do the 4 day passes because I wanted to take her to Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom for sure so that was 2 days. I also wanted to take her to Hollywood Studios because they have a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show and it's her favorite and I wanted to take her to see that, so that was 3 days. For $7 more, we got our 4th day... why not! So for $988 we got 4 adult passes to the park for 4 days. After getting the tickets, I made sure to take a picture with my phone since you only get 1 ticket for each person. just in case we lost them, I had our ticket number and scan code. After getting our tickets, we headed home, went to bed and were going to hit Animal Kingdom in the morning! We had a date with Mickey, Donald, Daisy and Goofy at 8:05!

Addie turns 2!

Today was the big day!!! Addie's birthday and her present was being installed today. Grammie and Gramps bought her a Rainbow swingset!!! It is so awesome and so perfect for her. She loves to climb and thoguth this was a great activity for her to enjoy! Once it was installed, we picked her up from school and brought her home. Of course we coudln't wait, and let her in teh back yard and she knew exactly what to do. She had the biggest smiles and I was so happy Ihad the camera to capture the moment!



So we had 2 parties for Addie. The first was in-prompt-to one at our house on her actual birthday. We were joined by Aunt Elizabeth, Harrison, Lucy, Uncle Adam, and the grandparents. We ordered pizza and had a little party at the house. Addie loved it of course and she shared her swingset with everyone!!!

Party #2 was on Saturday at our house. We had the grandparents, great-grandparents, adam, elizabeth, Harrison, Lucy, her god-mother Andrea, my bff Meg and Great-great aunt Joan and Uncle Joe along with Mitch, Lorissa and Matty. All the kids had a blast playing outside. Addie had a great time for her party, especially the Mickey Mouse cake that I made the night before that took about 3 hours. It was all worth it though!!!