Disney!

I hope you all haven't been holding your collective breath for the Disney recap.  But at long last, here it is!  We've had some other fun stuff since then, so I'll try to do another post later this weekend.  (But just in case, don't hold your breath....)

We all had an amazingly good time in Disney.  I was expecting it to be fun to see Cat and Jeff and their kids Esme (3.5), Margaux (almost 2) and Teddy (10 weeks) (and now all safely in Australia, hard to believe).  I was not sure what to expect of the rest of the trip.  My worry was that Grady would be too young to really enjoy Disney.   Well, suffice it to say, he loved it.

I was a little nervous about the flight down.  Grady and I were taking our first flight just the two of us (Matt met us in Disney the next evening).  But Grady was a complete champ.  We sang a lot of songs, read a lot of books, ate a lot of snacks, and he stayed pretty content throughout the whole flight.   We arrived too late to do anything but eat dinner, and then it was time for bed.  Although "bedtime" is not the same as "sleep time."  Grady was too jazzed from the trip, overtired, unused to the new (and uncomfortable) travel crib, and excited to have mommy in the same room with him,so he didn't fall asleep until close to 10 - about 2.5 hours past his usual sleep time.  Of course, he woke bright and early at 6 AM, but remained pretty cheery so it wasn't as bad as it could be.

On to the fun!  We met up with the Boisvert family for a breakfast at IHOP.  (The dining options within walking distance of Disney are not of the low-calorie type.)  After fueling up with waffles and eggs, we were ready to start the day.

We went to Disneyworld as a kid, but I don't think we'd ever been to Disneyland.  It's a crazy place. After you enter, you arrive in an old-fashioned looking town.  After you walk through that, you get to different themed areas, like the frontier, a jungle area, and so on.  This morning, we stayed just beyond the town, which allowed us to take a boat ride for It's a Small World (lots of dats and pointing, mom forgot to bring the camera) and then a train ride.

I did not realize before we got on, but this was actual a train ride back in time.  WAY back!

As you can see, Grady loved it.

Then it was time for nap (another battle) before another quick trip back.  Grady took his first carousel ride.  Hard to tell if he liked it or not - he was pretty intense about it.

(This is before the ride started moving, by the way.)

We also took a boat ride, which was not the most exciting thing ever, but it was still cool to be on the boat.

Then time to go back to the hotel and make some calls before Daddy arrived!

Grady in the diaper drawer making some calls with the tv remote

We were both so happy to see Matt, and then it was time for another normal bedtime/very late sleeptime, followed by a 4 AM wake up.  After 2 hours of trying to get Grady back to sleep, we were up and at 'em.


Margaux and Esme are both big Disney fans.  They know all the characters and were excited to see them around Disney.  Cat arranged for us all to have a "character" breakfast, which entailed a buffet breakfast and appearances by Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Stitch.  We posed for pictures with Mickey on the way in, and Grady was interested in his ear, but otherwise seemed sort of unconcerned.  We got Grady stocked up with waffles (shaped like Mickey of course).  Soon after, Pluto arrived.  Grady was not sure what to do with Pluto.

He ended up going with slight consternation.

Before turning back to breakfast.

Then...  the dreaded Minnie.

He had no patience for any of the other characters after that.

After being thoroughly traumatized, he took a short nap before we saw the rest of the sites.

Activities for the day included a jungle boat ride (forward, then in reverse, forward, in reverse, and finally forward while they experienced some technical difficulties)

 and Grady's favorite - the petting zoo!

I have this great video where Grady is saying "maaa" and "hi!" to the goats, but it's not uploading.  Argh.  I'll try updating later.

Then we went on the dumbo ride

and checked out Toon Town before heading back for a nap.

After nap, we saw the Disney parade, which was truly amazing.  Lots of bright colors and music.  Grady really enjoyed it - and didn't even mind when Minnie came by on a float.

And our one picture of almost the whole crew (minus Matt)

Unfortunately, that's the best we got! 

After a somewhat normal night's sleep, we were on a plane back to the kitties.  Grady had less patience this plane trip, but he must have been pretty tired with all his disrupted sleeping. 

It was a really fun trip - I'm glad we did it and I would even consider doing it again - although not for a few years!