In Our Daughter's Eyes - Emily's Wish Trip Dec.10-Jan.11 ALL DONE PICS ADDED p.16!

[kaileighbug]

Great update. There is just so much to do at GKTW.

 

[blessedmom4]

Aimee, I hope you and your sweet family are well. I still check in to see how you are doing.

 

[Emilyswish]

Oh my goodness!!! My last visit was 7-3-11!!! Bad Dis-er!

Well, things have been good but BUSY around here!!

Emily had summer session at school, and Carter and Brenna got to go to Summer Day Camp with Drew for the first time this summer with DH who is a counselor there.

I decided to start my own photography business and spent a lot of my free time doing photo sessions here in town where we live and on the beach too (we are just 45 minutes or so from the shore)! I have a business page on FB, but I'm not sure I can post a link here or if that's against the rules!

My sister had a new baby boy in July so I went up to Maine for a few days by myself to see her and got to be there for his birth!

Then in August we used our World Passport from GKTW and took the kids to PA for 4 days and went to Dorney Park, Hershey Park, and Dutch Wonderland. We had a lot of fun, but Emily could hardly go on anything. Definitely not like Disney!

Now everyone is in school again, Carter and Brenna in half day Pre-K, Drew and Em go all day. Everyone is doing really well at school.

We also decided to try to renovate our house for Emily since all of our bedrooms and baths are upstairs. But after having someone out to the house, it wasn't really doable. So we're moving! We found a house that will be totally accessible for Emily and every kid will get their own room too! We should settle on the new house after Thanksgiving and our house goes up on the market tomorrow!! Hoping for a quick sale!!!

Anyhooo . . . .

I really want to get my trip report finished! We had a GREAT day in Magic Kingdom on New Year's Day so I want to get that up and our last day was spent at Downtown Disney.

Soon, I swear!

 

[luckylady]

Congrats on the new house. It's wonderfull that all the kids will have thier own rooms. Makes for peace for you. Pixie dust that your house sells fast. Can't wait to read more about your trip.

 

[Emilyswish]

We had BIG plans for this day!

I had read here on the boards that sometimes New Year's Day can be less crowded first thing in the morning sionce people who stayed out late would be sleeping in, so we wanted to get to MK by 9am. We had reservations for lunch with Pooh and Friends at 11am. We still needed to meet the princesses and the fairies. We had several more rides to get to, and we absolutely hoped to stay late to see Wishes. We also had plans to meet up with an old friend of DH's who is a CM. Busy, busy!

BUT, everyone was finally feeling well!

AND, the weather was going to be in the 70s!!!! (not the 50s like all the previous days)

Our plan started off well, and we did get to MK right around 9:15, which is pretty amazing for us!!

We knew DH's friend was going to be in the Castle show, so we made our way down made street and found a spot right up front.

I actually need to upload the last two days worth of pics to photobucket before I can go on!

Be back later!!

 

[Emilyswish]

On our way to the castle, the Main Street singers made their way by and Drew took some time to map out our next move!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, the castle in the morning!

Then, it was time for the castle show. (Insert name of show which I have now forgotten here! )

I really, really, really just LOVED this show! It was the perfect way to start off our morning!

Lots of pics here . . .

DH's friend was playing Smee and he waved and gave us a thumbs up from the stage (we had texted him to let him know we were there in the friont row)!!

Em "watching" the show

Brenna striking her best princess pose

Continued . . . .

 

[Emilyswish]

Next up, meeting Tiana and Naveen and taking a little Jungle Cruise!

Princess Tiana was oohing and aaahhing over Em's manicure from GKTW - so sweet! She was really gorgeous too!

Carter was being a little shy at first

Warming up . . .

Somebody was smitten!

Oh, I guess she's not so bad after all!!!

Naveen liked Carter's shirt

Just the first of many today . . .

Then we were off for a boat ride!

We did have to wait a short bit for the accessible boat to make its way around, but they put Em on like experts.

**For those with children in wheelchairs, there were a few rides where the CMs have to put your child on the ride themselves and you just have to stand back and watch. A little disconcerting at first, but they were always very careful, of course!

Our very funny skipper (I want to say, Mike??)

Drew liked his jokes anyway!

My little monkeys!

After our cruise, it was almost time to head to CP for our lunch with Pooh. But we had about 20 minutes to spare. Luckily, as we walked toward CP, Ariel was out for greetings!!!

The CM and guests in line at this station were particularly nice and understanding of our line cutting. I expressed to the CM how I felt a little guilty for butting in line when people had been waiting and he was like, That's what we're here for, don't even think twice about it!

Ariel was so gracious and patient with my crew. They were really loving her and she just let them keep hugging her and sitting on her lap and it was really wonderful. She was really sweet with Em too.

(Not sure why Brenna was pretending to be asleep, DRAMA!!!)

Continued . . .

 

[Woth2982]

Oh my goodness those pictures with Emily and Ariel make my heart melt! Looks like a great day so far!

 

[KatMark]

I am so sorry I missed your update; we were at Disney World when you updated.

Congratulations on the new house, and I hope you sell your current one quickly.

I love the updates, and the pictures brought tears to my eyes. Simply beautiful.

 

[Emilyswish]

Oh my goodness those pictures with Emily and Ariel make my heart melt! Looks like a great day so far!

I know! She was so so sweet. I'm pretty sure I was tearing up watching them.

I am so sorry I missed your update; we were at Disney World when you updated.

Congratulations on the new house, and I hope you sell your current one quickly.

I love the updates, and the pictures brought tears to my eyes. Simply beautiful.

Well, Kathy, that's a pretty good excuse for not having time to read trip reports!

 

[Emilyswish]

After visiting Ariel, we were finally on our way to the Crystal Palace!

But as we got closer, we saw this guy up ahead!!

We just had to stay to catch the end of the Celebrate parade!

Drew jumped right in to the dance party part, trying really hard to get Woody's attention but there were so many kids!!

Em, Carter, and Brenna stayed on the sidelines . . .

And that fast, they headed out! But we got to see everybody ride by!

Looking RIGHT at us!!!

I didn't catch the pic, but Mr. Incredible gave Drew a big thumbs up for his "Incredible" t shirt!!

THEN, we were really ready to eat!

 

[Emilyswish]

We waited just a short while for our name to be called for our ADR at CP.

Tigger was just so happy to see us, and especially Emily in her Tigger shirt and patchwork BG skirt!!

Pooh was happy to see us too!

With Brenna in her Pooh dress (I picked this one up on eBay)

Tigger came back for more . . .

Then Eeyore wandered over

I had to get in this one!

Last, but not least, of course . . . PIGLET!!

Kisses from Piglet!!

Then, MORE magic happened . . .

 

[Emilyswish]

Something came over Emily and she began to smile the biggest, brightest smiles we had seen the whole trip!!

Can't forget Nurse Ann's bow!!!

Peanut free brownie for Carter - YUMMO!!!

Bye Bye Crystal Palace, it was splendiferous!!

 

[tehanig1974]

It looks like you all had so much fun! Thanks for posting the great pics. Our daughter has CVI which I believe is what Emily has. It looks like she really enjoyed herself, which was a concern of mine for Peyton. We leave December 3rd, do you have any advice or insight? Thanks!

 

[KatMark]

Wow! What a great time you all had at CP (my favorite breakfast and characters by the way!). Look at that smile on Emily's face -- what a beautiful smile!

 

[Glennie5]

Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us. Your children are so adorable and Emily has stolen a piece of my heart.

 

[WDWRids]

Have to agree - Emily and your entire family has stolen my heart. What a great trip and wonderful pictures of Emily smiling so big. All of your kids had their "special" moments. Have to give it to all of the Princesses and Princes - they were so attentive to Emily and each of your kids. How heartwarming!!!

 

[Emilyswish]

It looks like you all had so much fun! Thanks for posting the great pics. Our daughter has CVI which I believe is what Emily has. It looks like she really enjoyed herself, which was a concern of mine for Peyton. We leave December 3rd, do you have any advice or insight? Thanks!

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner!! Yes, Emily does have CVI. The things she loved the most were the rides/attractions with music and lights. It's a Small World was a huge hit, as was the Winnie the Pooh ride, she loved the black light effects on that one! We were hoping the fireworks would be great for her, but unfortunately we couldn't get close enough for her to really enjoy it. We had to speed through the Osborne Light show in DHS because my son was sick or I think she would've really enjoyed that too. And I think the bright whiteness of the Crystal Palace is what she really liked (plus they were all finally feeling better by day 6!) Have a great trip!!!

Wow! What a great time you all had at CP (my favorite breakfast and characters by the way!). Look at that smile on Emily's face -- what a beautiful smile!

Thank you, her smile is awesome!

Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us. Your children are so adorable and Emily has stolen a piece of my heart.

Thank you so much Glennie.

Have to agree - Emily and your entire family has stolen my heart. What a great trip and wonderful pictures of Emily smiling so big. All of your kids had their "special" moments. Have to give it to all of the Princesses and Princes - they were so attentive to Emily and each of your kids. How heartwarming!!!

Thank you too! The characters were really wonderful to us! Just wait until you see our meeting with Belle, Aurora, and Cinderella in MK!!!

That's coming up next!!

 

[marvali]

Some great updates and pictures Aimee! I was looking at the pictures at Crystal Palace and thinking how alert Emily was in a few of them, and then I get to the update with the smiles!!! Those are fantastic and I'm sure a treasure for you guys to experience during your trip.

I still regret we weren't able to meet up that first day at Epcot! It would have made our trip loads more special!

 

[Emilyswish]

Some great updates and pictures Aimee! I was looking at the pictures at Crystal Palace and thinking how alert Emily was in a few of them, and then I get to the update with the smiles!!! Those are fantastic and I'm sure a treasure for you guys to experience during your trip.

I still regret we weren't able to meet up that first day at Epcot! It would have made our trip loads more special!

Seeing her really smiling, finally on day 6, was the best feeling!!!

I know, I am still bummed we missed each other too. Next time . . .