Oh my goodness!! I am seriously so behind on this post!
So the second week in October of each year has been dubbed "Ward Disney Vacation" week... This year was no exception and omgosh, so much funnier with two kiddo's to enjoy it with, but especially one that knows what everything is this time around!!!
We had a monthly countdown going for Jax, and by the time we were headed to the airport, he had figured just how many more sleeps and naps he needed before he got to see Mickey!!! It was so cute. We also had Liam pretty excited, but I don't think he really knew what to be excited about. This was Liam's first time to Disney World (after birth), so it was really fun to introduce him to the madness.
For the most part, we planned a pretty relaxing week with the family. The parks are really expensive and this year Jax was an actual ticket holder... so we planned ahead of time what day we would do what park, how many and that was it. We got a little surprise from Nana and Pops, but more on that later. The resort we stay at is super duper fancy, and has any and everything you could think of on the property, and even more so perfect for the little ones. They have putt-putt golf, water parks, a splash zone, playgrounds, daily children's activities, there's even a few bars in between each area lol... Anyways, we figured we would get the most bang for our buck staying at the condo and enjoying the amenities there... the boys both LOVED our "stay here days"... Swimming pools, lazy rivers, a boardwalk... it was perfect.
On our first full day, Harrell told Dean about the new theme at the Disney's Art of Animation Resort. So Dean kind of held out wanting to surprise me on this too, but told me a bit about it so I could prepare Jax after nap. I had NO IDEA IT WAS GONNA BE SO AWESOME! Once again, who had more fun, I'm not sure. This was easily the highlight of my trip. Jax and even Liam were in Disney Cars Heaven! I'm so glad we got to visit this resort, as I had planned on another Disney trip to CA for Jaxon's birthday, and that's just not gonna happen this year... by far the coolest experience (well on the heels of Sesame St. Live when Jax was 2). Please be sure to check out the photos on the right for this part!
Jax ran to each car exclaiming... "It's Lightning... It's Mater!!!! Mommmmeeee it's Guido and Luigi..." Lol. He was SO happy!!!
After a day of rest and getting adjusted to the heat again, we planned our park schedule. One of the parks we planned on going to was Epcot and specifically, for the "Food and Wine Festival". This is really why the Wards go to Disney in October now, and now I know why... The past trip we made in 2010, everyone but me went to this festival, as I couldn't really justify spending a fortune to try a whole bunch of foreign foods especially being pregnant. Anyways, Dean talked me into it this year by pointing out how many child friendly things they had that he had forgot about, so I decided while he and the rest of the family pigged out, that Jax, Liam and I would go off and have our own fun.
So here we are in Epcot, and the smell of all these different country's foods were driving my senses nuts. I didn't want to participate in this... I don't try foods... I am BORING. You know what my favorite thing was? Some fish dish from Singapore... yeah go figure that one out... Well we decided to all take part of this, and bring the boys along doing all the fun things with them along the way. They actually did great and had a lot of fun. There were several rides that Jax really enjoyed as did Liam. During this whole day, I think I tried foods from at least 15 countries, and liked most of what I tried. Everyone else was a little more daring than I was, but I thought I did pretty good for someone who would most certainly die outside of the USA.
So that was our first park day.
Our second day was allotted for Universal Studio's so that Dean and I could do all the roller coasters I didn't ride the year before... well that all changed because not only was I Mrs. Gimpy Gimp (only you would gash your foot the day before walking everywhere)... so I wanted a day to rest... but also we were the four sick Wards who got to spend seven days with the rest of the family, sharing our festering germs. You guessed it... sick, sick and sick. Nana wasn't feeling good, Dean was still up all night coughing, and the boys and I weren't sleeping well because of all the congestion/drainage we had... so we took another day to hang out at the condo.
Two days later and a night shopping at Downtown Disney, we kinda passed on the idea and pushed it off one more day meaning that we would be taking ourselves and two boys to Universal on the busiest day of the week... Well because we loved up on Nana enough, she got too sick to attend "Mickey's Not So Spooky Halloween Party". And because she had already purchased tickets, and they were going to treat Jaxon to this, I got to go in her place. So Harrell, Aunt Sara, Jax and I got dressed up to go trick-or-treating at the Magic Kingdom... COOL! First off, we will NEVER pay to go during the day if we come in Oct. again. The tickets are almost half priced, you get the same amount of time (4pm-12pm), yeah it's a little hard on the kids, but you are one of 25k that gets a portion of 9 TONS OF CANDY!!! This is what they go through each night they do this. (Not every night of course, but still!). Anyways, so we had a ball! Jax even got to dance in the pre-party parade as well as do the Congo line with Goofy! Most importantly, we got a photo that not everyone can say they have. I learned that during Halloween Nights is the ONLY time that all seven of the seven dwarfs are together and photographed together!!! Of course we cut it just a littttle too close... Since Nana was sick, that's all she asked for... one photo! We were the last people in line, and in the standby line, but we got it (as did about 3 more people behind us lol).
So because I got to do the Magic Kingdom and my ride fix with Jax, and we were out so late the night before, we decided to forgo the adult kid fun at Universal all together and enjoyed our last day as a family just hanging out...
The entire trip was a lot of fun, well minus the fact we were missing Rachel and Scott and that I was in so much pain from my foot which I also ended up favoring my left foot and was walking on the side of my foot which only caused another area to be sore... the chlorine in the pool was actually the best thing for that, only I was too afraid to have it burn, so I didn't learn this until day 4... By the time we had to fly back out, I was at least able to somewhat walk!
I look forward to this vacation with the other side of my family each year, and although we were missing some of the crew, we had a really good time and definitely got our Disney fix. Next time it will be even more fun since Liam will be old enough to enjoy more of the park rides!! I love being a part of the Disney Family and sharing so many special memories with my own Ward Family!!!
Let the countdown begin till next year...
Xoxo
Shylah
