Surprised the kids, wife, and my readers w/ a 2 week trip to AoA!(*NEW* 11-7)

i really liked there boxes here, they had room for the heads and tails to pop out of the box so they were not squished in to the little house.
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This IS really cool. Much better than a build a bear. Makes me want one. There's just something about a cool dino! :thumbsup2 And Parker certainly has the smile to prove it!
 
Chapter 32. Time to Redeem Ourselves.

Seeing bronty come to life caused him to jump up and down with excitment.
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I love this!! :goodvibes I love it when kids are so excited the only way they know how to express it is by jumping up and down!! :yay: :laughing:


i really liked there boxes here, they had room for the heads and tails to pop out of the box so they were not squished in to the little house.
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Oooh I can't tell you how many times we've come home with these build-a-bear type boxes. I love seeing their faces with pure joy when they are bringing home a new friend to love. My dad use to get Mackie gift cards to Build-a-Bear every year for Christmas or birthdays, she has just a few of these. :laughing:
When we re-did her room to more of a tween room we put up shelves that line one whole wall of her room, the bears homes (along with her other prized animals) are on top of this shelf that span the wall. :scared:


and what better way to end the day with a ride back to the resort than to sit on your brothers head on that ride back to the resort.

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:rotfl2: :rotfl:

Way to teach them young, mom! :rotfl:

Just a little update on my Head Shaving Event, I had some more good donations come in today and I am 30% toward my goal amount. If anyone wants to donate or view my participate webpage, please let me know and I will send you a PM for it.

Oooh, I hope I can catch you on this before it's over. :scared:
 
Love that pic of Parker holding Bronty in the box! And I'm so glad he named it Bronty, because I was devastated as an adult to learn that a brontosaurus is not a real dinosaur! It was my favorite one as a kid. So it will always be a dinosaur to me, just like Pluto will always be a planet!! :lmao: But seriously, glad he calmed down and was excited about building his dino. :goodvibes
 
I had no idea they printed out a birth certificate at those build your own places. How cute! I love his "house" ;)
 


Well, I'm certainly glad things calmed down and order was restored to the universe. If only order in the universe didn't hit the wallet so hard...:rotfl:

My daughter really loved the Build-a-Dino shop too. Much more unique than building a boring ol' teddy bear. :thumbsup2
 
Well, you know they say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. :rotfl2:

Parker is too cute...love his reaction to building Bronty! Noelle is a sweetie with her Tramp baby too!

Jill in CO
very true, guess he learned that lesson young already. he had a blast building it, and i was glad it could turn his evening around.

Someone has been skimming my TR's in the past!!!! I have a picture of this window with Mark sitting in front of it!
no i havent, i thought that window of dumbo you had was in magic kingdom:rolleyes1 just kidding totally forgot about that...you have to cut me some slack there is alot to remember about disney. ;)

Glad parker was okay with going back to make his own dino.

he picked a very cute one :thumbsup2

Yay on Mickey Pillow pet. I got my friend's daughter a Pluto one and that thing was so soft, I wanted to keep it
i was glad he was good with it also, turned the evening around and now i think he has a good happy memory of that place so it might help for the future there.

they are very soft and cuddly i love them. noelle sleeps on hers all the time and parker has his in bed with him every night.

Nice updates!!!! At first glance the kiddie area at TL looks a little underwhelming, but it looks like it was just perfect for your crew! I tried to snorkel there, and the water was so cold I jumped back out - the CMs were not happy with me. :worried:

Parker's water skills are pretty good - he looks totally at home on the water slides! I love Noelle's little shoulder flirts - just keep her locked up for a long time! princess: Like Rapunzel.

PARENTS OF THE YEAR!!! :rotfl2: DGS reacted the same way at Rainforest Cafe - We took him out to the gift shop in shifts and then got his food to go. :goodvibes

Parker was really brave to go back in and make a dino of his own!
thats funny you jumped back out, it is a shock to the system when you get in, but you just have to go for it

i think sometimes we try and grow them up to fast when we need to realize they are little and just enjoy it. sorry that happened to you as well, but at least you guys were able to take turns and make it work out.
:thumbsup2

Plenty of alcohol flowing but everyone being pool people we "know" not to get in the pool after we are drinking....;)

No really somehow I am surprised there is not one wet person after we have these parties. Kind of baffling really...

I think we are told "no pictures" while in teh pump rooms and such. I never seem to have any pictures of them so that must be it.

Disney is pretty secretive. We are not even told what the water temp is kept at and how they chill it down because you know during the summer it must get pretty yucky but it always feels cool and refreshing.

I think BB is kept a bit cooler to fit in with the melting snow theme.
thats good you guys are so wise on that front, i dont condone the drinking and swimming either. well there was that one time, but that was in college. :rotfl:
i can see them being secretive, but not sure what special technology they would have that other water parks would not have in them.

Way to redeem yourselves.


Parker sure is loving that Dino and I LOVE the box with the head and tail sticking out. :rotfl2:

A much better end to the evening....

there boxes are really cool there and a neat way to carry them home and show them off.

I didnt even know about the build a dino,thats so cool n I think the pillow pals are so awesome my 10 yr old has a lotso one n I love it so much I wanna pick one out the next time,of course I'll also be picking up a PLuto for my 7 yr old :)

it is affiliated with the build a bear, same company owns it. they have some really neat small ones already made up that are not as pricey you can take home with you.

i know those pillow pets are the coolest thing ever, pillow and animal whats not to love.


Even though the restaurant experience didn't turn out quite like you hoped, I'm glad everything was forgiven in the end. There's nothing more comforting than a brand new build-a-bear (dino) to cheer him up!

Noelle seems like she's pretty darn hard to impress! :rotfl2:

Glad both the kids found something nice to snuggle with. There's something pretty irresistible about those bright, soft Disney plushes!
yep very true, and when he looks at the dino he will remember the fun of building that and not hte restaurant

thats good means she has high standards when it comes to things so average suitors coming her way best not apply.:thumbsup2




This IS really cool. Much better than a build a bear. Makes me want one. There's just something about a cool dino! :thumbsup2 And Parker certainly has the smile to prove it!
you should make one they had a bunch of neat ones to make there...and they had small little pre stuffed ones that you could just take home with you



Oooh, I hope I can catch you on this before it's over.
those boxes they bring home are alot of fun, they usually give us stickers to put on the box when they are colored.

and dont worry i will send out a reminder email or PM when it gets closer some people forget and appreciate the reminder.

Love that pic of Parker holding Bronty in the box! And I'm so glad he named it Bronty, because I was devastated as an adult to learn that a brontosaurus is not a real dinosaur! It was my favorite one as a kid. So it will always be a dinosaur to me, just like Pluto will always be a planet!! :lmao: But seriously, glad he calmed down and was excited about building his dino. :goodvibes
WHAT NOT A REAL DINO....

im going to pretend i did not read that...i never heard of that before.

big space round thing, way out there, i still go with planet, thats what i learned in school.




I had no idea they printed out a birth certificate at those build your own places. How cute! I love his "house" ;)
they do add a nice little touch for the kids makes it official right.
:)

at the build a bear ones he gets emails on there birthdays for a birthday present coupon, usually a dollar amount off to get something for his animal, he loves those.



Well, I'm certainly glad things calmed down and order was restored to the universe. If only order in the universe didn't hit the wallet so hard...:rotfl:

My daughter really loved the Build-a-Dino shop too. Much more unique than building a boring ol' teddy bear. :thumbsup2

actually i wasnt really upset about the bill, as i had a gift card from a rewards program, so it only cost me a little out of pocket for the tip, so wasnt that bad at all...and it saved a meal on the DDP so it let us have another breakfast at the resort.:thumbsup2

having done both, it was nice to have a different type of animal, and im going to say build a dino is 100 times better because that means you are in disney at the time which is great.:cool1:
 
Great update!

Loved the dinosaur, but just wait til Parker is a little older and starts telling you that "it's not a brontasaurus dad, there's no such thing, it's really a ... whatever the heck she told me it was". Honestly, I can't remember. Brachiasaurus maybe.

Poor Parker. It's just so hard to be little and freaked out and then have your parents get on you too. We had a couple of similar experiences recently with Paul and it takes mad parent skills to remember to step back and regroup. Go you!
 


sorry i have been so absent this week, i have had a ton of work to do and still not close to finishing it.

if i normally comment on your thread, i did take the time to read today but didnt take the time to comment...sorry just ran out of time.

also busy tonight have an event im going to to raise more money for my st baldricks head shaving tonight. so hope to get my totals up there even more.

will try for an update tomorrow but will see how things go.

so please bare with me for a little bit.




Great update!

Loved the dinosaur, but just wait til Parker is a little older and starts telling you that "it's not a brontasaurus dad, there's no such thing, it's really a ... whatever the heck she told me it was". Honestly, I can't remember. Brachiasaurus maybe.

Poor Parker. It's just so hard to be little and freaked out and then have your parents get on you too. We had a couple of similar experiences recently with Paul and it takes mad parent skills to remember to step back and regroup. Go you!

he already tells me i say the dino names wrong...there are way to many to remember for me.:rotfl:

it does make it hard when you think why are they getting upset. its just pretend, but then yo uhave to remember that they are little and everything is still "real" to them. we tried to do much better in the rest of the trip.
 
Chapter 33. Where do we go from here.

Well with the night before of subjecting our son to extreme fright in T-Rex we all were ready to go for new day.

Noelle more so than others at 6:00 alarm was set for 6:30 for the EMH morning at AK, i told candi to cancel it and hold noelle in bed and let her fall back to sleep on here. We were nearing a full week in the kingdom with one full week left and i didnt want to burn the kids out to much yet.

So we all ended up sleeping in till about 7:30 and started to get ready.

We were at the bus at 8:30 and pulling intot he park at 8:45 for the day to begin. it was not looking that crowded yet and for a saturday we were hoping it would be that busy.
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Now what to do as the first attraction....Well with how much parker loves dinos, i figured we might as well ride Dinosaur first thing right.:confused3 Makes sense to me...i mean might as well continue to scare the carp (intentional sp mistake) out of him. So i drug him kicking and screaming onto the ride.

just kidding im not that stupid to pull that move.

we headed straight at the tree of life and towards the safari, a ride we knew the kids would love.
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while the family waited at the ride entrance i grabbed a set of fast passes to use later...and noticing hte time stamp i grabbed it a full minute before the park officially opened. way to go team us, slept in and still beat the regular folks to the park.:banana:

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i noticed a sign that basically says i nice disney terms if you drop your child over the side they will be eaten by the animals.
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one feature i was happy with on my new camera was the multi shot mood that is suppose to be used for sports shots for those high action ones, well it worked really nice for bumpy fast moving safari cars as well to get those animals
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we noticed the new tour bridges and rope areas which sounds like a neat experience
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they had there own docking station as well.
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we saw a ton of giraffs this morning they were everywhere at least 15 of them.
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a quick mode elephant shot i was proud of
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the elusive lion head.
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and the first time we have ever seen the warhog out of his hole somewhat
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after that first ride the kids well parker said they really wanted to go again so good thing i had that fast pass picked out.

we still had about 10 minutes to spare since we flew through the line so fast that we got breakfast a nice little pastry stand back there was what hit the spot that morning.
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then it was time for round two of the safari.

but i will save the next adventure for next time.

sorry so short was slammed today but wanted to get something in befor ehte weekend, hope everyone has a good one and stay safe on the east coast with that storm.
 
Dan, a short update is better than no update! Just ask Marv. :lmao::lmao:

Good call on not going to ride Dinosaur first thing.;)

Great picture of the elephant and my favorite giraffes.

Breakfast looks yummy
 
while the family waited at the ride entrance i grabbed a set of fast passes to use later...and noticing hte time stamp i grabbed it a full minute before the park officially opened. way to go team us, slept in and still beat the regular folks to the park.:banana:

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Nice job!:thumbsup2 You know with the new FP+ coming, Disney is trying to curtail the "unfairness" of people like us that get out of bed and get to the park early - "SUPERUSERS!!!" How shameful :rotfl2:

i noticed a sign that basically says i nice disney terms if you drop your child over the side they will be eaten by the animals.
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:rotfl2:

one feature i was happy with on my new camera was the multi shot mood that is suppose to be used for sports shots for those high action ones, well it worked really nice for bumpy fast moving safari cars as well to get those animals
DSC04652_zpsf8acbc70.jpg


Nice Shot!
we noticed the new tour bridges and rope areas which sounds like a neat experience
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That does look great - hoping to do this one some day,


we saw a ton of giraffs this morning they were everywhere at least 15 of them.
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a quick mode elephant shot i was proud of
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More great shots!
the elusive lion head.

after that first ride the kids well parker said they really wanted to go again so good thing i had that fast pass picked out.

Again! Uberuser!:lmao:

we still had about 10 minutes to spare since we flew through the line so fast that we got breakfast a nice little pastry stand back there was what hit the spot that morning.
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Looks like Candi is getting her "mom look" on! :goodvibes
 
A short update better than none for sure :goodvibes

Good move not taking parker on the dinosaur ride :rotfl:


Nice photos on the safari :thumbsup2
 
Love the Safari pics! You can never have too many. Personally, I think the Safari is the best themed, most interactive attraction in all of Disney World.

I just have to say that your results on the lion picture look similar to mine. :rotfl2: As many times as I have been on Safari, I still don't have a picture of the entire lion. :faint:
 
Love all your safari pics! I agree with a PP- you can never have too many! It seems like those are the pictures the family and friends always enjoy seeing too. Looks like you had a great first round on the ride with lots of animals out. I love how scenic AK is, so I can't wait to see more of your pictures!
 
Dan, a short update is better than no update! Just ask Marv. :lmao::lmao:

Good call on not going to ride Dinosaur first thing.;)

Great picture of the elephant and my favorite giraffes.

Breakfast looks yummy

I so agree Marv 's updates are soooo short I haven't seen them:rotfl2::rotfl2:
Great Safari pix Dan !!! I usually either have someone's head or totally miss the animal I am trying to take:rotfl2:
 
i really like that rhino pic,it's a different sight for me ...it seems all my shots of rginos are of them following or blocking the safari truck LOl
 
thats good you guys are so wise on that front, i dont condone the drinking and swimming either. well there was that one time, but that was in college. :rotfl:
i can see them being secretive, but not sure what special technology they would have that other water parks would not have in them.

I am really surprised, that we don't end up with some people wet by the end of the night. :rotfl2:

I guess all in all we are pretty well behaved. :rolleyes1




Great update- good for making rope drop and getting the safari done and having a snack too. :thumbsup2
 
My kids would tell you that the Safari is my favorite ride at that park. The tour you saw is a new thing they are doing, but all of the members of your party have to be at least 9 or 10 years old. I've got four years to go before all the members of my crew are ready...then we are totally walking the bridge over crocodiles! :cool1: It includes an african themed lunch overlooking the savanna and a zip line (I think).

I'm not all that outdoorsy or athletic - but it sounds like so much fun! (Did I mention that I like crocodiles?)

Dan, I'm amazed at how calm you and your wife are with your kids. They look so happy and relaxed in the photos you send and that says much to what kind of parents you are. Go you!
 
It seems the lion was posing for pictures this October! I've been to AK 6 times and that was the first I ever saw him!
 
Now what to do as the first attraction....Well with how much parker loves dinos, i figured we might as well ride Dinosaur first thing right.:confused3 Makes sense to me...i mean might as well continue to scare the carp (intentional sp mistake) out of him. So i drug him kicking and screaming onto the ride.

just kidding im not that stupid to pull that move.

Whew, I don't think that would've gone over very well.

while the family waited at the ride entrance i grabbed a set of fast passes to use later...and noticing hte time stamp i grabbed it a full minute before the park officially opened. way to go team us, slept in and still beat the regular folks to the park.:banana:


Sweet!

we noticed the new tour bridges and rope areas which sounds like a neat experience
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I'm sure it's a great advertisement for the tour, when people see them from the safari, "Hey, how'd those people get over there?"

then it was time for round two of the safari.

but i will save the next adventure for next time.

Looking forward to it.
 

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