~ A 21 month old, a celebrity sighting, & a whole lotta food~2 week trip~ 2/28 update

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

That was such a nice peaceful way to end your day! WL is such a pretty resort!

 

[Disneygal4life]

I hadn't heard that before about taking your child's picture at the totum but we'll have to do that this coming trip. We're staying at WL. I can't wait it looks amazing.

 

[MaryAz]

The WL pcs were really good. Dusk is my favorite time of day as well. Looks so peaceful there.

 

[DreaGirl]

Great WL pictures! We were lucky enough to stay there in May '08 and we fell in love with it. Just a great resort all the way around. We loved taking the boat.

I think that is a good plan to have another free day! That heat would feel like 120 degrees in AK.

Can't wait to hear about your "revised" day.

 

[Raecheal]

It's good to hear that Todd's birthday was fun!! Day 8, I love seeing Dylan just chillaxin' on the patio.. that is absolutely adorable again....I"m so sorry about your bus experience...wow FW sounds sooo confusing and stressfull...hmmmm.. I must agree the heat really drained us too.. but your photos of WL are stunning...especially the ones of the lanterns.. the dock kinda reminds me of some of our photos from roots.

I can't wait to find out what you did for your free day.....

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

I'll take that as a compliment!

You should take it as a compliment! I meant it as one. Also, because I'm jealous that you get to go there enough to memorize all of them!

You got some gorgeous pictures of wilderness lodge im so jealous!!! We ate at whispering canyon cafe.... if ur following my TR you will eventually find out that I didn't get one single picture at WL due to me getting sick

I didn't realize that you started a TR. I will be heading over to read it! So sorry that you got sick at WL. Do you think it was from the food at WCC?

That was such a nice peaceful way to end your day! WL is such a pretty resort!

It was a great ending to the day. Just what we needed.

I hadn't heard that before about taking your child's picture at the totum but we'll have to do that this coming trip. We're staying at WL. I can't wait it looks amazing.

I think I had read a couple of different TRs where people mentioned the totem pole photos. I think it's a really cute tradition!

The WL pcs were really good. Dusk is my favorite time of day as well. Looks so peaceful there.

There is something about dusk... especially at WDW.

Great WL pictures! We were lucky enough to stay there in May '08 and we fell in love with it. Just a great resort all the way around. We loved taking the boat.

I think that is a good plan to have another free day! That heat would feel like 120 degrees in AK.

Can't wait to hear about your "revised" day.

I hope that we will get to stay there some day. The boat is such a nice change from all of the other transportation options.

It's good to hear that Todd's birthday was fun!! Day 8, I love seeing Dylan just chillaxin' on the patio.. that is absolutely adorable again....I"m so sorry about your bus experience...wow FW sounds sooo confusing and stressfull...hmmmm.. I must agree the heat really drained us too.. but your photos of WL are stunning...especially the ones of the lanterns.. the dock kinda reminds me of some of our photos from roots.

I can't wait to find out what you did for your free day.....

I love that pic of Dylan too. It's fun to see all of the different sides of his personality. FW was definitely stressful and it was nice that WL was the exact opposite. I can not wait to see your Roots photos. Are you going to be getting them soon?

 

[ladybugmom]

Hi Alison!! I'm all caught up and have been enjoying the updates!! I'm sorry that Fort Wilderness was such a bust! Yes, the Disney bus rides can be anything but magical. Glad you were able to make the best of it, though. Can't wait to read more!!

 

[Porphyro]

Enjoying your stories! We just went with a 21 month old also (and a 4 year old) and so much of what you are saying is familiar!
I'm working on our thread too - how do you update the thread title with "UPDATED" and stuff like that when you add to it?

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Hi Alison!! I'm all caught up and have been enjoying the updates!! I'm sorry that Fort Wilderness was such a bust! Yes, the Disney bus rides can be anything but magical. Glad you were able to make the best of it, though. Can't wait to read more!!

Hi Becky! I'm so glad to see you back. I was worried that something was wrong. I checked out all of the pictures on your TR and it looks like you have been busy! Yes, the bus ride was memorable...just not magical!

Enjoying your stories! We just went with a 21 month old also (and a 4 year old) and so much of what you are saying is familiar!
I'm working on our thread too - how do you update the thread title with "UPDATED" and stuff like that when you add to it?

Thanks for reading! I just figured out how to change the title a couple of days ago. You have to go into the first post of the thread and hit edit. Then you go to Advanced Edit. Then you can change your original title to whatever you want it to say. Then just hit save when you are done.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Great update. We have visited the Wilderness Lodge twice. And, while it is a beautiful resort, we weren't blown away. I guess it's because we live in a log home and it's decorated similarly to the WL. Thank goodness Disney has a resort for everybody.

As always, the pictures of your family are great!

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Great update. We have visited the Wilderness Lodge twice. And, while it is a beautiful resort, we weren't blown away. I guess it's because we live in a log home and it's decorated similarly to the WL. Thank goodness Disney has a resort for everybody.

As always, the pictures of your family are great!

Aww, thanks so much. I can see how the WL wouldn't be as impressive if it ddin't feel that much different than where you live. This has never been a place that we looked forward to going, but our opinions were changed after this trip!

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Woke up at 8:30 this morning. It was Father’s Day and it was nice to be able to celebrate with Todd and my dad. We got ready and had breakfast and talked about our options for the day. We decided to go back to the Premium Outlets and do a little shopping. Neither one of us (Todd & I) are shoppers but we love this outlet mall. So when we get out to Florida, we allow ourselves some money to buy ourselves clothes for work, etc. We had been to the outlet earlier in the trip but barely had any time and we had been itching to go back. I think my dad was shopped out (since he & my mom had shopped quite a bit the day before) so he stayed at the condo & relaxed while the rest of us headed out into the heat.

As soon as we walked outside we could tell it was going to be a hot day. It was 9:45 in the morning and it was very humid. I’m so glad we chose to not go to AK this day because we would have been unhappy and probably would have left early anyway.

We got to the Premium Outlets when it opened at 10 am. The first shop we hit….the Crocs store. I have to say that if I could wear Crocs every day of my life, I would. They are so comfortable (even if they are not very attractive). I bought my first pair (flip-flops) for our trip to WDW 3 years ago and I wore them almost every day on that trip. My feet never hurt and I did not get any blisters. I was sold. I came back and told everyone at work about them. I even made them try on the pair I was wearing. They all got online and bought a pair. I always say that I should be getting commission from their company, considering how much business I have sent their way.

I had been seeing commercials lately for Crocs with some new styles…styles that looked more appropriate to wear to work. Recently, we had gone to Sacramento and found a Crocs kiosk in the mall. I won’t buy their shoes online since each style fits me differently so I was excited to try on the new styles. I found a pair that I LOVE. I got them in brown, they have a heel on them, and I can wear them to work because they look dressy enough. You can see them in this picture from earlier in my TR.

So you can imagine how ecstatic I was to walk into an entire STORE of Crocs. I found another new style that is a strappy heeled shoe so I got it in black. So now I have a pair of black & brown dressy shoes for work.

Todd has never bought a pair of Crocs. He has never found a pair that he thought looked “manly” enough, but this time….he found some. He has worn them almost every day since we have been back from our trip. So it was a good day already. Todd bought his first pair of Crocs!

After that we went to Ann Taylor Loft. I liked their stuff but I was really waiting until I went to Banana Republic to decide what I wanted. I went to their Clearance area and found a green knit tank top that was 80% off. I also found some Capri pants on the same rack that said $9.99. I tried them on and they fit perfectly. I went up to the register to pay and the pants came up as $40. I told the girl that they were supposed to be on sale and she said no they weren’t. I told her there was a rack in the Clearance area with 30 pairs of the same pants that said $9.99 and she said, “oh, that is wrong.” Well, by now I was annoyed and said I didn’t want them. She tried to talk me into it but after I thought I was getting them for $10, I didn’t want to pay $40. It wasn’t like 1 pair of pants was on the wrong rack. There were a ton of them marked at the same price. So I didn’t buy them.

We headed to Banana Republic next. I love this brand but it is too expensive for me to shop there regularly. That’s why I love this outlet mall because they always have good bargains. Todd & I spent most of our time in here and I left with 4 shirts for work, and Todd got 2 shirts and a pair of shorts for about $130 total. Not bad at all considering what the normal retail was.

By now it was lunchtime and we were hungry. We had already discussed where Todd & my dad wanted to have a Father’s Day lunch. So we called my dad and told him we were ready to meet him….at Miller’s Ale House. Yes, I know that we just ate there the day before. But while we were there, we saw some really great specials for lunch for Father’s Day. After we realized their food was good, we told my dad about it and that is where he wanted to eat.

We met him there and it was not busy at all. We were seated right away and service was quick. We had run out of juice for Dylan by this point so we ordered him a kid’s drink at the restaurant. It was this big plastic cup with a plastic straw. He thought he was such a big boy to have his own cup with a straw. We took the cup home with us and he kept wanting to use it the rest of the trip at the condo. So now when we are at home we will let him use it every once in a while, and he thinks it is such a big deal. LOL. So funny how something so simple gives so much pleasure to a child.

The infamous cup

We decided to split the Combo Appetizer plate. It came with Crab Mozzarella Conch Fritters, Fried Mozzarella, & Spinach Dip with Tortilla Chips. All of them were very good and it was big enough for all 4 of us to split.

One of the Father’s Day specials that they were running was a Ribs & Chicken meal for $12.99. This is what Todd and my dad both ordered. The portions were a really good size and this was a great bargain for what they got!

Todd had already started eating before I remembered to take a picture!

My mom ordered Steak & Shrimp but I forgot to get a picture of it. I ordered a Zinger’s Sandwich. The Zingers are boneless chicken wings and the serve them all different ways. The sandwich had the Zingers with ham & bacon, cheese, lettuce and tomato. SO good. I could only eat half of it, but you bet that I took the other half home and ate it later!

We were all stuffed and very happy. I didn’t write down the total for the bill this time, but we felt like it was still a lot of food for the price that we paid. After 2 meals here and eating different items each time, I will still stand by my recommendation of this restaurant.

Very happy customers!

By this point it was time for Dylan to take a nap. We went back to the condo and let him run off a little energy and then put him down for his nap. While he was sleeping we all were talking about what we could do while he napped…and we all got sleepy. LOL. We all decided to take a nap and that is what we did. I couldn’t believe that all 5 people in the house took a nap at the same time. It was great! We woke up at 5:00 and got ready to go out for the evening.

Up next….how did we spend the evening of our bonus free day?

 

[jordanyosh]

That food looks great!

I am not a shopper either...but there is something about shopping on vacation. It just feels different,doesn't it? I'm glad you were able to find great bargains

 

[LilAnn]

Fun update! My DD has quite a few of those "big girl" cups from various restaurants. We ended up bringing a couple with us to WDW so we wouldn't feel bad if we had to toss a few. She loves drinking with the fun fat straws! Can't wait to hear what you guys did in the evening.

 

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

What a nice Father's Day! That was not a bad total at all for all that stuff in BR!!!!!

 

[xoktenox]

Ok, going back to the WL update, Dylan is so freakin adorable I wanna reach through the computer and just hug him! Pointing at the birds, he is so cute!

I love the WL so much. Disney did an OUTSTANDING job when designing that resort, words can't even describe.

Sounds like you guys made the right decision not to head to AK the next day. I love the crocs that you got for work, they're really nice and I'm sure super comfortable!

Miller's Ale House looks yummy once again!

 

[ibedancin824]

Glad you decided not to go to AK in that heat you wouldn't make it long...we didn't lol Glad your having a good fathers day so far!

 

[ladybugmom]

I am also a HUGE fan of Crocs!! I wore them our entire trip and they were great with all of the rain we had. I wear them so much that my black and brown pairs of minnie janes have the soles almost worn off of them! Sooo comfy!!

 

[tinkgurl]

Ahh Father's Day..this means that we were in Gainesville, FL this night! Looks like a nice and relaxing day. Love the shoes!

It's nice to take a nap every once in awhile!

 

[AlohaPolynesian]

Wow!! I love Banana Republic, too. Those deals you got @ the outlet mall are really good! This Miller's Ale House looks pretty yummy...I'll have to remember it if I ever have a car at WDW. I'm sure you hear this all the time, but you look exactly like your dad!