Our third day was spent at Disney's Animal Kingdom. The boys loved it. We thought it was pretty amazing, too. Both boys were excited to see this scarlet mccaw because they've seen one on their favorite show: Diego.
This is the tree of life, it's in the middle of Animal Kingdom.
This is a dinosaur puzzle where they had to match up the lower jaw with the rest of the head.
T-Rex bones
Jude didn't quite believe us that this dinosaur wasn't real. He was very nervous to get close to it for a picture.
This was all part of Dinoland in Animal Kingdom. Carter is climbing on a dinosaur with lots of other kids. They all tried to slide down his neck and it didn't quite work. Yet, they all kept trying it.
Some Apes. They were putting on quite a show for us. We stopped and watched them for quite a while. The boys were cracking up at them.
After DinoLand, we went over to "Asia". There were lots of tigers. We were so close to them, too.
There were three tigers in this area and there was a path that went right through their home with glass windows on both sides. While we were in there one of the tigers came right up to the window and put his paws up on the glass and just stared at all of us. It was AWESOME! My camera was not ready, unfortunately.
Carter got bored with the tigers and after looking at his map decided that he wanted to see the peacocks. Lucky for him, we walked away from the tigers and there was a peacock right in front of us. He was so excited.
Here they are trying to "spot" all the different fish from their fish guides.
After leaving the "Asia" section, we headed over to "Africa" and got on a safari jeep. Jude wanted to catch some lions and put them in this pocket. Uh.... ok....
Look at those beauties!
This was such an awesome ride! We just drove by all these amazing animals. We were so close to them and there was nothing separating them from us. It was really spectacular.
These are called "upside-down trees" because they look like they're growing upside-down.
There's a lion! We just drove right by him and his lady friends.
We wore them out!
Once we got back from Animal Kingdom we headed over to the pool. It was close to getting dark so it was cooling off pretty quickly. We didn't last long in the pool but it was fun while it lasted.
They had a cook-out by the pool that night and then we, of course, went to get ice cream.
Our first full day in Orlando was spent at Disney's Magic Kingdom. It was so much fun. There were tons of rides that we could all go on together as a family. We didn't have to wait more than 5 minutes for any ride because of our super special badge. It was awesome. I can't really imagine going any other way now...
Once you park, you get on a tram that takes you to a ferry boat or monorail which will then take you to the park. It was a lot of travel time but it was totally worth it. This was on the boat as we could see the castle getting closer and closer! Oh the anticipation :)
She is so dang cute.
Our first ride: It's a small world
They were all enthralled.
This is awesome!
Carter really liked the Peter Pan ride. We went on that one a few times.
Mr. Jude really loved dumbo. He cried every time we had to get off.
Around nap time we took a break in this Wish Lounge. It's right off main street in the park and it's for wish families to go relax. They had juice for the kids and a nice soft place to sit for us oldies.
She got some good laughs as she cruised around like this.
Emperor Zurg!
Carter saw someone with this hat on and told us, "I wish I had a hat like that." So we bought him one. This whole trip is because of him, afterall.
That night we got to see them light up the castle with Christmas lights. It was really beautiful.
This baby really loved the rides!
That looks like a lot of kids. Anyhow, this was the buzz lightyear ride. We got to shoot robots and stuff. It was really fun.
The teacups. Jude loved spinning us.
The Jungle Cruise was Jude's favorite. He thought all the animals we saw were real and they definitely were not. We went on it a few times and the last time the guide let both boys steer the boat. They loved that, of course.
We saw the fireworks and then they did The Magic, The Memories, and You (or something like that) where they project lights and pictures onto the castle. It was really cool but we didn't get to stay for the whole thing since they boys were exhausted and whiny and grumpy. So we headed back to the ferry boat with about a million other people.
It was a really long day but so so fun! I'm pretty sure we got ice cream when we got back that night, too.
And just fyi, I took over 350 pictures so I'm just gonna keep 'em coming :)
Our trip started very early in the morning last Sunday. This limo came to pick us up at 4:15am. Thank goodness daylight savings gave us an extra hour! The boys were very excited to ride in the "really big car".
Our first flight. Here to Atlanta took just under 5 hours. Everyone did really well, I was impressed. Baby V is the only one who fell asleep, though...
...until our layover that is. Then both boys crashed while we ate some lunch in the Atlanta airport.
But this little cutie was well rested and ready to play.
When we finally made it to Orlando, we had a welcoming party waiting for us. How cool is that?! We got our rental minivan and headed to the Village.
We stayed at a place called Give Kids the World Village. It's where all the make-a-wish families stay. This is our villa that we stayed in. We could've easily been entertained there for an entire week. There was swimming pools, playgrounds, basketball hoops, huge train sets, ice cream parlor that's open all day everyday, two restaurants (everything is complimentary), and they had parties every night. It was an awesome place.
part of the swimming pool
This tree snored. The first time we walked past it the boys were very careful not to wake it up.
Carousel that goes all day every day.
Carter the cowboy riding a seahorse.
Ice cream parlor.
This is the avenue. To the left is the theater, straight ahead is Amberville station with lots of train stuff (we never had to time to actually go in), to the right is the main office and chapel, behind is the gingerbread house (where we eat) and pool and the other restaurant, Katie's Kitchen.
Mickey and Minnie come to the village twice a week so we don't have to wait in ridiculously long lines at Disney to meet them. The boys were satisfied with just seeing them from a distance and then they wanted to move on to something else. Works for me.
There's a movie out called Letter's to God. I've yet to be brave enough to watch it - it's about a little boys with cancer. Part of the movie was filmed here at the village and this mail box was in the movie. Once they were done filming, they gave the mailbox to the Village. So here it is.
The gingerbread house
The entrance to the pool.
There were gifts on the table when we first got to our villa and they brought gifts to us every day we were there. We ended the first day with ice cream and then off to bed.
Bad News: Carter caught a stomach bug from his sister. Since it came with a fever I had to take him to the Emergency Room last night.
Good News: We didn't drive all the way down to our usual children's hospital but went to one closer instead.
Bad News: The nurses there were not as informed on how to take care of a young oncology patient and I ended up helping her with what needle to use, how to dress his port once it was accessed, and then I walked her through how to de-access it. They should start paying me.
Good News: HIS PORT WORKED!!!! I don't know how and I don't know why but I'm so SO happy about it.
The nice people from the Make-A-Wish Foundation came over last week and threw a little party for Carter. They brought chicken stars from Carl's Jr (those are his favorite), a cake with fish on it, a fishing game, and other fish toys for the kids. The whole party had a fish theme since that's what Carter really loves and that was part of his wish. His first wish was to swim with fishies.... we couldn't come up with much since he's so young but we thought SeaWorld would be perfect. He loves anything to do with with fish, whales, dolphins, or any other ocean animals. And we knew he'd be excited about it since we watched tons of SeaWorld youtube videos while he was in the hospital. SO we're going to SeaWorld and DisneyWorld!
They brought a goodie-bag for Carter with this shirt (which will get us to the front of any line at the parks) a Make-A-Wish car, Mickey Mouse water bottle, a few little games for the plane ride, a luggage tag, and a few more little things. They also gave us our plane tickets and a bunch of information about our trip. Then they gave us a check for checking our bags, meals, souvenirs, gas, etc. Wow!! We feel so thankful for the generosity of so many who have made this trip for Carter possible. We are so excited and so looking forward to making this a fantastic trip for him.
He gave our sweet Wish Granter a big hug as she was leaving.
The two sweet ladies who threw this awesome party for him.
