Thursday, April 1, 2010

Cast:
Me
DH
DS 5 Max
DS 4 Lucas

Today was our last full day. I couldn't believe it was almost over already. And, I secretly told myself that the *next* trip would be longer. DH actually woke up feeling good today! We were all up around 7:45am, which was a record for us. We quickly dressed and got all our stuff together and headed to the lounge for a quick breakfast. Well, it was supposed to be quick, but Lucas (the angel that he is...) had a massive tantrum in the lounge because they had the Playhouse Disney channel on and when Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was over, he wanted to watch "another one", and he couldn't (he usually watches these on our DVR at home, and didn't understand that I had NO control over the programming). So, we had to take him out of there (he was screaming and crying and carrying on) and finish breakfast in the room.

So, when we finally made it out to the bus, it was still early. We headed straight for the MK, and arrived around 9:30. The boys were, thankfully, better able to deal with MK today. No meltdowns. We took our time heading up Main Street, taking some pictures along the way. We took one of Max in front of the MK Railroad window on Main Street, where it has this quote from Walt Disney: "I just want it to look like nothing else in the world. And it should be surrounded by a train." This was such a perfect quote to describe Max. Like many kids with Autism, Max LOVES trains. He is obsessed. We thought this picture was great! We took one of Lucas in front of the Pirate Ship window, and the quote was "Rascals, scoundrels, villains, and knaves." That was perfect too. After we got some Photopass pics done, we veered off into Adventureland. I wanted to try the Aladdin Carpet ride (couldn't bring myself to ever ride this, but I knew the boys would LOVE it, so here goes). As anticipated, they did love it. Max, especially, loved trying to aim our carpet at just the right height to get squirted by the camel. After that, he had some fun positioning himself in the spray zone of the camel that spits into the street. Sufficiently wet, we decided to head over to Frontierland, which sent Max into a slight panic (he saw BTMRR and freaked!). We reassured him that we were heading to "the playground" next. We actually diverted him to the shooting arcade, which I have also NEVER done. So, we loaded up three rifles with money and DH, Max, and I took some shots. Of course, DH took his time and hit a target on EVERY shot...show off Expert Rifleman...

We then headed towards Fantasyland and straight to Pooh's Playful Spot, which Max was relieved to come across. As we were parking the stroller, Lucas spotted Pooh and Tigger, and said "Pooh bear hug!", so I asked him if he wanted to give him a hug, and he said "Yeah!", so we got in the long, long line to do so. 30 min later, Lucas gave Pooh and Tigger the biggest hugs ever! He didn't want to let go. He said "Nice Pooh bear..." "Nice Tigger..." It was very cute, and DH and Max came over just in time to get in the Photopass picture, which turned out pretty funny because Max is NOT into the characters, so he is totally separated from the rest of us.

While Lucas and I had been waiting, DH and Max had ridden the teacups and dumbo, and Max had taken a stab at pulling out the sword in the stone (got a great Photopass pic of that too!). Lucas, though, wanted to ride the carousel, so we all did that together, then we split up (I forget why). We all met at the castle hub, and took some more pictures and decided it was a good time to head out. It was almost lunchtime, and since our breakfast had been cut short, we were all getting hungry. We decided to head over to Poly and try to get into Kona as a walk in. We took the monorail over there and were able to get in with a 10 min wait. Unfortunately, at this point Max was NOT happy. We had told him on the monorail that Kona had Mac and Cheese on the kids menu for him (from menus online, I was pretty confident about this), but when we got there, the menu did NOT have it! Ugh...luckily they did have Mickey ravioli and tomato sauce, which is something he eats, so we convinced him to have that instead, and pointed out that dessert was an ice cream sundae (he was interested in THAT!). Kona ended up being a VERY good lunch choice. We had an excellent server and all our food was really good! DH had the crusted chicken (macadamia nut?) with a mango sauce and he loved it! I had the BBQ Pork Big Island tacos and they were really good as well! Lucas enjoyed his hamburger and fries, and even Max ate all his pasta! The huge hit was the ice cream sundaes for the kids dessert. These were really cool "make your own" type, and the boys LOVED them! I had a slice of the coconut cream kiki tart, and it was YUM!!! This ended up being one of my favorite meals. It was nice and relaxed, and the boys were well behaved, and the food and service was outstanding. Kona never disappoints me!

We wanted to visit the Wedding Pavilion next, and decided to walk over there via the walking path from Poly. We arrived at the Wedding Pavilion in short order and took a moment to reflect on all that had happened in our lives since we were married there almost 9 years ago! We had Max take our picture in the "picture spot" arch. He did a good job; the picture came out nice! We then put the boys up there and took their picture, and we tried our best to explain to the boys that we got married there (and what that means...still don't think they "got" it). It was nice to go back, and so we were able to check that one off the list of "to do's" for today. We headed for the GF, so we could catch the monorail to the TTC and then head to Epcot.

The trip to Epcot was a pleasant one and we headed into Future World for a brief ride on SSE and some playground time, before heading back to BC for some POOL TIME!!! It was hot today (finally!) and we wanted to make the most of the afternoon. We spent a wonderful 2 hours at the pool. We discovered the "lazy river" on this day and had a ball in there! The boys loved it and DH and I took turns swimming against the current for exercise and diving down to the bottom of the 8ft section (wish I had discovered this earlier in the trip). We had such a good time playing as a family. The boys were having a blast and there was a DJ playing great fun music which added to the enjoyment. I felt so relaxed by this time, and it was such a joy seeing everyone so happy. We reluctantly pulled ourselves out of the pool (both boys actually cried about it) and headed up to the room to get showered and changed for our evening at Epcot.