Disney

I'm not sure where to begin on this one. Somehow I managed to convince Den (I think via my patented Chinese Water Torture) that we needed a vacation. Further, I convinced Aunt Lore' and Uncle David that they needed to take a vacation with us. Actually I don't think the Disney part was a hard sell, it was leaving Disney to go to the beach that was the harder sell...but they went for it :)
It all started with g'parents Ohio teaching Eddie the Mickey Mouse song...M-I-C (see ya real soon)-K-E-Y (why? because we like you), M-O-U-S-E, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, etc. Well, we had been given several Mickey Mouse stuffed animals, puppets, etc. that helped start the conversation.

Then somehow it came up about going to see them and so I asked Eddie if he wanted to go see Mickey and Donald and he said he did. Without prompting, that night he told Den he wanted to get on a plane and go see them (I'd told him about needing to fly on a plane). Next thing you know, we're on a plane (per previous post) to as Eddie would say, "go see Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck". I had sepnt a couple weeks explaining that Mickey would be as tall as Mommy, that Donald would be as tall as Daddy and that Pluto and Goofy would just be super tall, probably taller than either mommy or daddy. I told him they might want to give him a hug, but that he didn't have to if he didn't want to.

I also knew that at age 2 1/2, he was borderline too young to go. So I carefully planned to spend just 24 hours at Disney. If he hated it, we were only there a short time and if he loved it, I had someone to aide and abet me for future trips. We booked a character dinner the first night and because he really wanted to meet Donald, a breakfast in Animal Kingdom the next morning. Game plan was to then tour Animal Kingdom a bit before heading to the beach.

In short, Eddie LOVED it! He now asks a minimum of once a week when we can get in a taxi, get on a plane, and go see "Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto"--said really fast, but not so fast as to be slurred into one word. When we first got home, he asked every day. But I digress.

Our flight got in early and yet I managed to waste an hour because I noticed not only the check engine light, but also some other exclamation point on in our rental and worried about a 2 hour drive to the beach. After driving the rental company folks crazy with checking out every mini-van they had available, I decided to stick with the Toyota Sienna we had. I think Den was too embarrased to do anything and made me (rightfully) handle it all. Come to find out it could have been the tires low on air or something, but the exclamation point disappeared about 15 minutes away from the airport (the check engine light never went away).

We ate dinner at the Swan and Dolphin complex. It's a pretty empty place for character dinners, as it's just not in demand the way the ones are that Mickey attends. I figured this would be a good chance to gauge Eddie's reaction. He was so excited when he saw them and I asked if he wanted to hug Goofy and he did. He kept playing with all the exergerated features and looking into their mouths (did he know that's how they could see?). I know he's not exactly smiling in these shots, but that is more because it was so difficult with all the dishes and such to have a good picture...he was having a great time--we are so thankful that A. Lore' and U. David were around to snap so many photos, otherwise, with wrangling 2 kids, we might not have had any.

Good kid that he is, he wanted a second cupcake and I told him he had to wait. By the time we went back, they were all gone, so he settled for another desert without protest...boy we are lucky to have such a laid back kid. Course what kid is going to protest when they are allowed not just one, but two deserts.

In case you're wondering, my delicious watermelon martini set us back 10 dollars! I would have had a second, but good grief!