Nathan's Magical Wish Trip- Pre-trip report

[jillalvarez2003]

Oh, oh, oh... I wanna play life-sized Candy Land!

Staying tuned, can't wait to read more about your trip!

 

[oklamomof4boys]

We ate more ice cream than I even want to admit to. It was the scoop kind, not the soft serve that you find in so many restaurants. They had vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, cookies and cream, choc. chip cookie dough, orange sherbet, a raspberry swirl- I think, butter pecan. Oh and on the last day I saw that they had sugar free vanilla. Funny, I never tried that. In fact I kept to the vanilla- well, as a banana split, of course. For toppings they would add hot fudge, caramel, chocolate or strawberries, real whipped cream and cherries. Then you could add on your own sprinkles, walnuts, cookie pieces, m&ms, heath pieces, maybe recees pieces. I might be leaving out a few things. you could also get a shake or a float. On the last day, I really wasn't hungry but I loved the whipped cream and cherries. So I got a bowl of just whipped cream and cherries. No ice cream. Oh, I did add some heath pieces. Funny thing is, they didn't even look at me like I was strange!

 

[mom2lilnick]

YUMMMM!!! I am such a banana split girl! I and the fact that it is all scoop ice cream is even better! ohhhh.. mouth watering over here. Kayla is going to love the cookie dough. That is her fav, with chocolate syrup on it. The boys are pretty easy to please.. they like chocolate and van mixed with chocolate syrup.

 

[oklamomof4boys]

We decided to spend our first day at Disney Hollywood Studios. We chose this for a couple of reasons- I read that MK was the most crowded on Mondays and Toy Story Mania is Nathan's favorite ride. This was a mistake. Like I have said before, Nathan has some problems with his memory. He is very smart- in the gifted class but he has real problems with the every day things- especially when his routine is changed. We have been to DL a dozen times. We tried to explain to Nathan ahead of time that WDW was different-it was 4 separate parks and they were not walking distance. Nathan has a real fear of new things since it takes so long for him to get things into his memory. In fact, at first he was afraid to go to WDW- he just wanted to go to his familiar place. We are trying to convince him that it is okay to just go with the flow. He knew his wish was to go to Disney World- but when we pulled up to " Hollywood Studios" it was hard explaining to him that we were at WDW. The morning was already off to a rough start. We had forgotten our handicap parking pass in our car at the airport. We actually had the pass from when Sam nearly lost his foot but we thought it would be helpful for the trip. It was our first time at a theme park without a stroller or wheelchair and we were trying to conserve Nathan's energy. We had free parking with GKTW, but they had told us at orientation that would not get us handicap parking.

So here we were, in line early ( we are big into being there at rope drop and the drive didn't take us as long as we thought it would), Nathan was cranky ( he often is cranky in the morning. His meds make his heart rate get VERY slow at night-in the 30s- and it takes a while for him to "get going") and very confused as to where we were and what all we were going to get to do. I was irritated with David for forgetting the pass- it was his fault wasn't it? Oh, we were off to a rough start. But that all soon would pass as soon as we were on........

Nathan was in Heaven. We all love this ride. We rode it several times. I thought all was going to be good. But then we decided to check out the rest of the park. We rode Star Tours- Nathan used to hate this ride but the brothers convinced him that he loved it last time he rode it( yeah, sometimes that memory problem comes in handy). Then it was time for lunch. We had ADRs at 50's Prime Time Cafe. The theming is really fun

The waiters are supposed to fun around with you. Ours was very nice, but didn't really mess with us-much to the disappointment of the boys. They did enjoy listening to the waitress for the table next to us who was really funny.

Nathan wanted to ride more rides but the only real rides were the 2 we had been on and Rock-n-Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror. Nathan can't ride either of those. Again, he became very cranky. But his mood was instantly changed with a churro. Churros are his favorite snack at DL so this felt familiar to him. Here is a picture of them all drinking slushies in front of the giant coke bottle. you can kind of see the Wish shirts that I made.

HS has a lot of shows to see. It is hard to coordinate all of the times. But this is where the GKTW pass really came in handy. We walked up right before show time, showed them the pass and were escorted to great seating. We were all impressed...except for Nathan. At the Indy Stunt Show they offered to let us stay around and meet Indiana Jones, but Nathan refused. He enjoyed all the shows when he watched them, but in between he was just so confused. He thought he was going to Disney World and this was nothing like Disneyland. It didn't feel familiar at all to him. We had dinner ADRs at Hollywood and Vine. It was a buffet and the food was good but we mainly did it to get reserved seating for Fantasmic. As it turns out, this really wasn't necessary. Nathan was still pretty cranky off and on. My heart broke when he cried out, " I'm just so confused!!" I told the others to go ride whatever and I took Nathan on Toy Story over and over again. This was familiar to him and comforted him. He ended the day happy. The parks close at 8:00pm but we were still on Oklahoma time ( 7:00pm) so we weren't tired. So once back to GKTW, guess where we went? Yep, more ice cream!!!

So the first day was rocky at times but all Nathan remembers about it was riding Toy Story over and over again.

 

[teresajoy]

Great start Carol!!!

It breaks my heart too to hear that Nathan was confused! It sounds like Mom knew just what to do though!


Whenever I read Wish TRs, I have this sudden urge for ice cream!

 

[jessica52877]

Aww, I am sorry it was a rough start and hard for Nathan. What a good mom to ride Toy Story over and over!

I really like the MAW shirts.

 

[llurgy]

Love reading your trip report so far. its a shame that Nathan was so confused but good that you knew what to do to resolved the situation.

I am betting that you go to one of the DW parks next

 

[mom2lilnick]

Awwwww.. my heart breaks for him. I am glad that he got to do something that was familar to him tho. Hugs!

 

[oklamomof4boys]

Once again, we were all up and around fairly early. David had bought a few breakfast things at the store so we could get around easier. Since you have to take the monorail or the ferry from the parking lot to the Magic Kingdom and we didn't have our handicap parking pass, we allotted extra time. We went through the gate at the parking lot and showed Nathan's pass and button for our free parking. The attendant said, " Follow the blue line to medical parking." We explained that we didn't have our handicap parking sign and she said, " It doesn't matter. Wish families get to park there!" Hmmm, this was the exact opposite of what they told David at GKTW orientation. They told him some places might give you handicap parking with just your GKTW pass, but not Disney. " They will just laugh at you". We were pleasantly surprised. The day was crisp and cool. Some told us that Florida was having record cool temps- more than 20 degrees below normal. We were a bit chilly, but would rather be cold than hot. We were all wearing our tie dye Mickey shirts so I didn't want the boys to wear their jackets- what is the good of matching if you can't see it! I had thought to pack long sleeve Under Armour shirts for everyone to wear under their shirts. We decided to take the monorail in- we thought the ferry would be too cold. Besides, Nathan considers the monorail to be a ride, so he was happy. The boys loved that you could stand up in the monorail- you can't do that at DL and William and Sam decided to do pull ups on the overhead bar. I'm sure that broke some Disney rule.

We were there early but soon they were letting people in the gates to get ready for rope drop. It was amazingly uncrowded. Once we were inside the gates, even though we couldn't go past the railroad station yet, I could see Nathan relax. It looked enough like DL to be familiar to him. He was brimming with excitement. We took a few pictures then lined up to be towards the front of rope drop. Yes, I know we had our special pass and didn't have to wait in lines- but my boys LOVE being one of the first ones in the park.

They had the little ceremony for rope drop and then we were in! we were heading for Peter Pan ( our traditional first ride at DL) but passed by Tea Cups-where there wasn't any line. We took our traditional " all the boys in one cup" picture

and then split up into the "fast cup" and the " slow cup". I used to have a couple of boys with me in the slow cup- at least Nathan- but not this year! They left me alone in the slow cup- well David joined me ( I think just because they couldn't all fit in the fast cup together!).

The shirts were a huge hit! We got lots of comments and people asking where we got them or how to make them.

Oops, I have to go to basketball games now. I will try to finish the rest of this glorious day when I get back. It really was a wonderful day. It makes me smile just thinking about it!

Carol

 

[oklamomof4boys]

So , back to the Magic Kingdom. It was a glorious day. I won't go into detail about every ride. We enjoyed comparing rides to their counterpart in DL. I have to say, most of the rides we liked better at DL- especially Peter Pan, Small world and Buzz Lightyear. We did like Snow White better at WDW and we loved Mickey's Philharmonic. When we rode Winnie the Pooh the guy saw Nathan's button and asked if we wanted to ride 2x in a row. On the second time through Pooh, as we were nearing the end, I started crying. Not just moist eyes, tears streaming down my face. Everything just seemed so perfect. When we rode the barnstormer roller coaster, the CM at the end asked us if we wanted to ride it again. Nathan loved that special treatment!

In toon town we took our traditional picture on Minnie's couch.

And then the boys got a little silly

I wasn't quite sure if we could use the pass for character greetings. I was pretty sure I had read that we could but when we were at Disney's Hollywood Studios, we were in line to see a character and one of the CMs saw our pass and didn't say anything. We aren't really the type to go and ask for something. But I really wanted pictures of the boys with characters and they really didn't want to "waste" any time waiting. I nearly called Alison ( twinmum) to ask her but I just had David's phone with me and I had programmed her number into my phone. But there was Donald in front of Christmas trees and I really wanted a picture so I took Nathan with me to ask the CM with the photopass guy how long Donald would be there. He said, " Oh, you are with MAW! Don't you realize you don't have to wait in line to see the characters! You just go right up and show the CM his pass anytime you see a character greeting!" That saved us SO much time. Nathan loved the feeling of being special and showing people his pass to bypass lines. The other boys hated it and felt guilty. Most of the time they got over it. Somehow I didn't get many pictures of them with characters on my camera. I have a ton on Photopass and I preordered the CD. Once I get those pictures, I can post more.

We had Cosmic Ray's for lunch. It was very tasty. The boys were thrilled that I let them each get their own burger. We are very big into sharing food at Disney. But this was a special trip for us so we splurged quite a bit. With our expense check and our rewards dollars from our Disney Visa, we ate very well. We rarely went back to GKTW for dinner because we didn't want to take the time. We weren't sure if we would ever be back to WDW so we had all sorts of places we wanted to try. Anyway, Cosmic Ray's had a great burger fixin bar with sauteed mushrooms and onions. I got a container and just ate a bunch of those! For dinner we went to Crystal Palace. The food was pretty good- and the desserts were incredible! Key Lime Pie-yummmm!!

We were able to find a pretty good place to watch fireworks from Main Street. I have to admit, the castle at WDW is much more impressive than at DL-in fact that whole grassy area around the castle and Main Street was prettier at WDW.

It really was a great day. Nathan kept saying, " Aren't you glad I chose this as my wish trip?"

 

[disneymommieof2]

Awww what a great day!! I'll have to show my dh the pictures of the boys in the shirts since he assisted me in making them! I'm so glad they liked them and wore them. Good thinking on bringing under shirts!

 

[maroo]

Oh my goodness!! I miss out on like a day and you have already done DAYS worth of Trip Reporting! WOW!!!

I hate that your first day was so confusing for Nathan! How frustrating for all of you.

I LOVE, LOVE that you guys got to ride Toy Story over and over! Lots of people don't get to do that...in their whole life...much less on one trip!! Woo Hoo!

Don't you just LOVE GKTW...it really is a magical place. I loved the ice cream! But you did a MUCH better job explaining all of the stuff they have there! The arcade is small...but FREE!

I did notice that the volunteers are very "undertrained"...In fact...three of the volunteers we ran into that first day...it was THEIR first day, too! And one of the volunteers was only going to be there one day...for a school project. So, I do think that the teenagers...a lot of them are not trained at all before they get there...and I am sure they are nervous around these sick kids, etc. But, I do wish they would get a short orientation and get the basics! We had a ton of them at dinner one night and they all ate before Lauren got anything...they almost should have a separate dinner time, unless the teenagers are helping serve.

Did you guys like the train station? The little train...not the big one you ride in...although, hopefully you guys liked that too!

I loved that the boys participated in Candyland! How fun...and funny!



Aww...Magic Kingdom! You definitely do feel like you are THERE when you see that castle...!! I am so glad Nathan started to feel at home. And I love it, love it that he was glad he picked Disney for his Wish trip!

The button and character lines! I know how you feel there...not wanting to draw attention to it...but I am SO, SO thankful that you saw a CM that told you that you don't have to wait in line! They really, really don't want you to have to wait. And I love it that Nathan showed them the button and was so excited about that! FUN!!!!

I am also so glad that you felt free to let the kids eat what they wanted, etc. We felt the same way..."You guys can order a DRINK if you want...Yep, that's right...you don't have to get water!" (Coke, people!...not an alcoholic drink!)... It is so, so nice for MAW to make this a trip where you really don't have to worry about anything!!!! Even money! Very nice in this economy.

I would say MORE, MORE, MORE...but you are already ON IT, SISTER! Keep it up! Loving it!!

 

[oklamomof4boys]

My plan was to write a day a day- but you know how that goes! William, Sam and Nathan had very little work to make up from being gone a week. Tucker's really wasn't too terribly bad from being gone, but then he also has a big project on the Scarlet Letter due this Wednesday and he hasn't even finished the book ( he read constantly on the plane) plus he has All-State tryouts next Saturday ( yes, he did get to practice at GKTW- his teacher loaned him a "silent brass mute" where he could practice and nobody could hear him but he could heat himself) and he has to go to the HS State football semifinals tomorrow- he has to go with the band and will pretty much be gone all day. Oh, plus he is doing this big community service project sending care packages to the troops. Anyway, Tucker is a bit stressed so I am helping him with his project ( anybody know any good music to use on a power point about the descent of Roger Chillingworth?). I also have been working on our Photopass CD ( finally got that ordered) and our photopass book! I haven't been on disboards for a couple of days and am starting to have withdrawals! I really need to go read everybody else's so I can catch up on everybody else! But I digress-ON WITH THE TRIP!!!!

We didn't figure US/IOA would be too crowded to get in and the boys really wanted to try the breakfast at GKTW. We decided to go about 7:45am- the hot breakfast wouldn't start for 15 minutes, but we figured we could eat the cold stuff and then the hot stuff would be ready. This worked out really well. The restaurant was fairly empty. I loved the volunteers at breakfast. They were "regulars" and very friendly and helpful-well most of them were! The donuts were good but the waffles-oh, the waffles! Tom would get our order and bring them to our table with the toppings we wanted. A freshly made waffle with strawberries and whipped cream- how could you not have a good day when you are starting with that! I only ran into one not so friendly person. The greeter had told me they were ready with the fresh fruit up at the "hot breakfast" line if I wanted some. But when I went up to get some, Claire snapped at me " this part isn't open yet!" I only tell you about this to tell you how wonderful the other volunteers were. Gayle stepped in and said, " Oh, we're ready with fruit- you're fine sweetie!" and when I went up later for hot food, she signalled me over to her side and apologized for Claire. Hey, anybody can have a bad day! Also, one morning at breakfast I heard Tucker saying, " No, really I can carry it myself" ( he felt bad having somebody carry his tray) and the volunteer joked around with him " Oh no, I will get in trouble from our leader if I don't carry it!" These volunteers were all incredible. We then decided it was worth going to the breakfast every morning. I loved those people- so friendly! We talked about how much my parents would love volunteering there- too bad they live in New Mexico. We even picked out what jobs they would do. Maybe that is what we liked so much about breakfast. The volunteers reminded us of Nana and Papa!

Anyway, off to Islands of Adventure ( we started with this park because US had several shows that we were going to go to if we had time, so we would do all of IOA first- we went to US/IOA summer of 2007, so we knew what we wanted to do pretty much). They did give us handicap parking, no problem, but it was still quite a walk from the parking lot to the entrance. And it was cold-VERY COLD!!!!! We were able to walk right in the park and it was empty! Completely empty! I have proof!

This is the queue at Spiderman-one of the most popular rides!

We rode Spiderman first and then Nathan and I went to find a bathroom while the others rode Hulk-twice! We told them we would meet them back at Spiderman. When Nathan and I were waiting there, a worker noticed Nathan's pass and asked us if we wanted to ride. I told him we were waiting for the rest of the family before we rode and he said he would call us an escort. This is what I noticed about US/IOA. At Disney, if we showed the pass, we would get attention. Here it was like they were scanning the crowds for the pass. And they wouldn't just direct you to the front- they called for an escort. Several times, since it wasn't busy at all, we told them, " It's okay , we can just go through the line" but they would insist! We loved the comic book area with all the thought bubbles.

Everyday during the time for AP Biology, Tucker's entire class would text him ( including the teacher) telling him how much fun they were having and how much they missed him- so we told him to text them this picture.

We were even able to ride pteryanadon flyers ( pretty sure I didn't spell that right). This is the one ride that you can't use your pass on. It is VERY slow loading and a short ride. We only had to wait 10 minutes ( and there were only a dozen or so people in line ahead of us). It was okay-but now we can say we rode it. We were unsure if Nathan should ride Dinosaur. We had read it was very intense and scary-the doctor said not to ride anything that would raise his blood pressure. I suggested that I ride it first and see if it would be okay. But he begged me, "Mom, I will be fine! It won't be scary! I can just close my eyes if it is!" Another thing the doctor has drilled into us is not to restrict him too much or else he will start to rebel against everything ( including his meds which are keeping him alive). So I said a prayer and decided to let him ride. He was fine- he wasn't scared at all. But I don't even want to think about what my blood pressure was- not from the ride but from worrying about him on the ride!


We all decided to ride Jurrassic Park- it is one of those big boat water rides. When we rode it last summer, I don't remember getting very wet. But then it was hot and summer. We asked the worker if we would get wet and he just laughed at us! So us wimps pulled out the ponchos- William kept saying we were demeaning ourselves wearing a poncho. We bought the picture from this ride because it is hysterical- if our scanner was working I would show you. I have pretty much every inch of skin covered. The wind blew off David's hood as we were going down the big hill and he was hit with a huge wave of water. His expression is priceless. And William, who was chiding us for wearing ponchos, was plugging his ears! William doesn't like loud noises.

William, Sam and Nathan really wanted to ride the other water rides ( one is a raft ride and one is like Splash mountain). The problem was, they didn't want to take Nathan without an adult ( makes them nervous). Did I mention that it was freezing cold this day? I reluctantly agreed. It was a wish trip after all. I made Nathan wear a poncho- there is no way he would be able to regulate his body temp if he was soaking wet. I, of course, wore one also. I made it through the ride fairly dry and let my hood down. And then at the end, somebody shot a water cannon at me! I was drenched and not happy! David knew better than to laugh!

But our favorite part of IOA was the character interaction. We were waiting to see the super heroes when their handler came up to us. He showed us a place to wait and he said when they were done with their greeting, they would give us our own private greeting. This was so much fun and they were so friendly and attentive.

Nathan loved going through the door that said, " Do not enter".

Nathan was the envy of all his friends when he took this picture to school.

And they were so impressed with William's green lantern shirt and Sam's Captain America shirt-even though Green Lantern isn't a Marvel super hero. They teased William a bit about that- which I loved. They loved how GL's quote went around his logo. They asked where I got the shirts. I said a friend made them for us- I hope it was okay to call you a friend HeatherSue!- they said the Captain America shirt was the best one they had EVER SEEN!!!!

Sam loved that he got to hold Captain America's shield!

After lunch we were ready to head over to US. We rode Jimmy Neutron first. That was one too many shaking, rocking 3D ride for me. I was feeling nauseous so I sat out on Shrek. As I was walking around the store waiting for them I heard the workers talk about how slow it was-even for off season.

The boys were starting to get irritated about all the pictures ( there are many more character pictures that I didn't post) and since I cared much more about the Disney characters than Universal, I didn't push it.

But they did agree to Shaggy and Scooby and the Simpson family.

The boys really enjoyed the magic show and they bought a few of the kits with their souvenir money.

US closed at 6:00pm so after we left we headed to Downtown Disney to do some shopping. It was very cold so we didn't stay too long-just went to World of Disney- and we made it back to GKTW for dinner. I think this was Italian night there. Some of the food was just okay but the chicken parmagiana was pretty good. And you can always count on the grilled cheese and fries at the kid's buffet!

David and I did have one little conflict this day. As we were leaving US at 6:00pm, he asked, " Why didn't we go to AK/Epcot today ( my master plan was to go there on Thursday) and go to US/IOA on Thursday since we will have to leave Epcot early tomorrow to go to GKTW Christmas party and US closes early anyway?" I had thought out our schedule very carefully. I remember thinking that I should change things around and go to US/IOA on Thursday instead of Wed. But when I looked into it I had a very good reason why this wouldn't work. Of course, for the life of me, I couldn't remember what this reason was- in fact I still can't and it still bugs me! So when David asked his question, what I heard was, " Why are you such a terrible planner and did this all wrong!" and I was a bit snippy with him and teared up ( I had spent MONTHS planning everything on this trip). He later explained to me ( once my head had stopped spinning around with smoke coming out of my ears) that he knew I had checked into switching the days and had a very good reason not to, what he was asking was if I remembered what the reason was. Luckily, once you are back at GKTW it is impossible to stay upset so we fell into bed that night happy and tired.

 

[jessica52877]

What a wonderful update! It looked like a great day! The super hero shirts were awesome! I am so glad that I can call HeatherSue my friend too! She is such a sweetheart! I know how much love went into those shirts!

Okay, back to the day, you sound like me when my DH says something. I sometimes take it the wrong way when no harm was really meant!

That park was empty! 10 minutes for the flyers is unbelievable! I love them but it is such a long wait always. I love the pictures of the kids with all the characters.

 

[oklamomof4boys]

What a wonderful update! It looked like a great day! The super hero shirts were awesome! I am so glad that I can call HeatherSue my friend too! She is such a sweetheart! I know how much love went into those shirts!

Those shirts are incredible! Best Captain America shirt that Captain America has ever seen! And I bet he has seen a ton! That is really saying something!

And William has asked for a Green Lantern ring for Christmas to go along with his shirt!

 

[oklamomof4boys]

We only had 2 more full days of our trip and we were sad about that. But that didn't stop us from being up and at breakfast by 7:45. We were going to try and cram 2 parks into one day so we had to get an early start. Plus we wanted to be back for some of the Christmas festivities at GKTW. It was a chilly morning, so once again I had layered the boys with Under Armour shirts ( gotta love having a washer and dryer!). Nathan was acting a bit off as we entered the park. It is hard to describe how he was acting-not really cranky, but you could tell something was bothering him. I used to be able to wrap my arms around him and nonchalantly check his heart beat to see if it was terribly slow or irregular. But the boys are onto me now and as soon as I had my arms around Nathan, Tucker was questioning me, " What's wrong? Do you think he's okay? What do we need to do?" Nobody can tell me these diseases don't affect the entire family. A little side note- I belong to a list serve for parents with children with cardiomyopathy. When we sign an email we are supposed to end it with our name, the names of our children, their ages and which ones have cardiomyopathy ( some cases are genetic and multiple children are involved). So I would end mine Carol- mother of Nathan 10 ( Dilated cardiomyopathy), Tucker 16, William 13 and Samuel 12. After the 3 oldest boys names I am to indicate in some way if they have cardiomyopathy. Many people use " unaffected". I just can't bring myself to put that. Even though they don't have the disease, these siblings are so terribly affected by it. I choose to say " healthy heart". Sorry, back to the trip report!

So, I am trying to reassure Tucker ( and myself) and figure out what is wrong. Finally, I notice he is pulling at the collar of his Under Armour. He says, " I feel like I'm choking!" I quickly pull it off and he is fine- he was just getting overheated! He has such trouble regulating that! The boys are not happy because I insist we see the Lion King show. I have heard wonderful things about it. We did see Chip and Dale before the show and got some pictures. The ones on Photopass are really cute!

I manage to get a few more pictures of the boys before they start complaining.

The Lion King show was good and the boys enjoyed picking out parts that their cousin, Daniel, would be good at. He is a dancer-he just graduated from HS and is trying to get his start at Disney. Right now he is Pluto in the Christmas parade at DL! After the show, it made sense to go on the safari. I had previously told the boys we didn't have to go on it- my boys are not really animal people and don't even enjoy the zoo. But it just seemed like a shame not to go on it. I should have billed it as " Jungle Cruise on land with real animals!" That really was more what it was like because we had a really good driver. We got to see all sorts of animals- I have pictures, but you all have seen elephants, giraffes, etc so I won't bother posting them. By this time, Nathan was a bit upset because we had " not been on a single ride!" Nathan insisted he would be fine on Dinosaur ( I think I mistakingly said we rode this at Universal-oops, that was Jurassic Park!) and he was. The rest of us wanted to do Expedition Everest so we did baby swap on it. The 3 youngest really wanted to do the River Rapids but I really wasn't in the mood to get wet and Nathan was having such a hard time regulating his temp, I didn't think it would be good for him to get wet on such a cold morning. We did get some good character interaction with goofy and Pluto!

We wished we had more time there, but we had ADRs for Biergarten at Epcot, so we need to head over.

I snapped this picture as we were leaving- I thought it was so cute how Nathan was holding hands with one brother and had his arm around another.

The boys were not thrilled with the food at Biergarten- I liked it! They did like the German chocolate I bought at the store next door. There was so much to cover at Epcot. There were 2 things in our 2008 Birnbaum Guide that we couldn't find that we wanted to see- Cranium Command and Body Wars. They weren't even on the map, so I guess they no longer had them. We did get to ride Soarin'- our all time favorite ride at Disneyland! But our favorite ride had to be Test Track! I wasn't sure if this would be okay for Nathan so I asked the CM if David could wait with Nathan while the rest of us rode it to see if it was okay for him. Nathan was VERY excited when I got off giving him the thumbs up!

We were very pleased that the CM let the entire family ride it with Nathan! We rode it a couple more times and then we went to look for the wish lounge that was supposed to be by Test Track- I had forgotten my bunny book so I wasn't exactly sure where it was and it took a while to find a CM who knew what I was talking about! It is actually the lounge for GM employees. It was really cool to watch the ride from the viewing window. After you go to the lounge, you get a pass to go directly on the ride. It was very cool because we got escorted through a door that said, " Authorized Personnel Only" Nathan loved things like that! So if you only plan on riding Test Track one time, go to the lounge first. Evidently it is the same way with Spaceship Earth-we didn't get to this lounge in time, but we saw the last people leaving it ( we barely missed getting in!) and they said after you visit the lounge, you go on the ride. We did go on the ride though. Everybody except for me and Nathan rode Mission Space- I knew that was too intense for Nathan. David thinks he would have been fine on the less intense version, but he wasn't asking to ride it so I didn't even check it out. There was so much more we wanted to explore at Epcot- for dinner we just "snacked around the world". It was frustrating that it was the one park that part of it didn't close until 9:00pm, and I had planned it on a day that we wanted to get back to GKTW for the Christmas Party. I still can't figure out my reason that I did that! I really wanted to see the Universe of Energy show- my friend had told me it was really funny. We had time to see the last showing ( that part of the park closed at 8:00pm) and make it back to GKTW by 8:15 for the Christmas Party. But Nathan was very anxious that he was going to miss the party-he was worried Santa would be "out of the good stuff". Finally I decided it wasn't worth it and said, " Let's just go!"

The Christmas Party at GKTW wasn't exactly what I expected. It wasn't really a party- there were just Christmas activities-we saw cookie decorating and there was supposed to be sleigh rides somewhere. Then Santa was in the theater and you waited in line,got your picture taken and picked out a toy. There were tons of each kind of toy so I'm guessing there really wasn't any danger of Santa running out of one. I'm sure the variety of toys really depends on who donated what at the time but all of my kids found something they liked. Really we were at the Christmas festivities about 10 minutes- we would have had plenty of time to see the Energy show-maybe now we will just have to go back! We were there in time to see the Christmas Parade, but I could not convince Nathan to stay. We also went to the Castle of Miracles so that Nathan could leave his star for the Star Fairy. It was about 8:00pm, I think and there was a tv show he wanted to watch. It comes on at 8:00pm at home but was on at 9:00pm there. We kept telling him he wasn't missing it, but he had trouble getting that into his memory enough for him to relax. Plus it was INCREDIBLY irritating to the rest of us that he was so fixated on a show. But I think there are so many things he can't do and he rarely gets invited to a friend's house- that tv becomes a familiar friend to him at times. Plus I think he gets a great amount of comfort when he remembers things about the shows. Does that make sense? It still really irritated us that he wanted to go back to the villa for tv. But I knew he would be agitated until I got him back to show him that he wasn't missing his show. David was really unhappy about it but I convinced him it would be better to get Nathan bathed and ready for bed so he could just fall right to sleep after the show. I figured it was okay if he stayed up until 10:00 pm because he could sleep in the next morning. Our plans were to hang around GKTW the next day until it was time for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!

 

[mom2lilnick]

I am loving all the pics! I agree with you that the siblings are not "unaffected" by any disease or disorder that our kiddos have. Just this last week, Nick and Noah were out of school and went shopping with me at a big and tall mens store for my uncle. The cashier had asked if we wanted to donate to St. Judes, which we did because we have a friend whose little girl has been treated there in the past and goes back for check ups. Anyways.. I had to take Nick to the restroom and Noah stayed out in a chair. Apparently he ended up telling the cashier about Nick's MAW and when I came out the cashier was telling me just how emotional Noah was in telling him about how much Nick goes thru with his IV's every month. I didn't realize how much Noah at almost 10 could recall in such detail.

Anyways..

I love how empty the park was that day! I bet it felt like they were all they just for you!

 

[iu97alum]

Siblings are amazing, aren't they? I remember when we shaved Emily's hair last year and Samantha, having just turned two a couple months before, climbed up on the couch and gave her a kiss on her bald head. It was all I could to keep from crying!!! I think that is what makes MAW (and other organizations like it) so wonderful because even though it grants the wish child, it beneifts the ENTIRE family!!

 

[oklamomof4boys]

It was our last full day-boo hoo! We decided to sleep in a bit so that we could stay up late for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party that night. Plus we wanted to spend more time at GKTW. We went to breakfast and I snapped some pictures around the Gingerbread House.

When we were eating breakfast, I had my back towards the door and David said, " I think your friend, Becca( bex271), and Jonah just went out the door!" I love the he called Becca my friend- he so gets me! He had seen Jonah's picture on disboards. I went out the door and called out her name to see if it truly was her. It was! David followed me out and went and got Nathan so she could meet him too. Jonah is such a cutie. It was so funny because it was our last day and I kept saying, " When we go home....." and everytime I said that, Jonah would shake his head vigorously. He wanted to make sure everyone knew he was NOT going home yet!

We then decided to just enjoy GKTW some more. Of course, Nathan wanted to play some mini golf!

Nathan even got a hole in one!

Nathan rode the carousel again

and of course we ate more ice cream

We went and visited the chapel and had our own little prayer service to thank God for the blessings in our lives.

This is a picture of the boys in front of the fountain.

We ate lunch and the ice cream palace. They had a nice selection of sandwiches- turkey, ham, tuna, chicken salad, pb&j- on a variety of breads- white, wheat, rye, potato ( my favorite). They also had hot dogs, potato salad, cole slaw and chips. Very tasty.

The boys decided it was finally warm enough to swim- I decided it was warm enough for me to sit by the pool and watch them! We checked out both pools- Audrey's pool and the one in Claytonburg park and they decided on Audrey's pool because it was very close to our villa. It is a round pool but it has a button to push making fountains spray up towards the middle. I never saw the wacky water works- the boys say that they saw it by the other pool, but it was closed. I can't confirm if that is correct. We did find a vending machine by the pool at Claytonburg park that had everything for 25 cents. It had full size candy bars, cheezits, etc. The boys had planned to go there to load up on snacks for the plane ride home, but they forgot.

Finally we decided it was time to get ready to go to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

 

[jessica52877]

Your trip seems to have flied by, maybe just because you typed out your TR so fast. I am glad you got to enjoy GKTW this day and cannot wait to hear about tonight.

I met a lady today whose daughter is getting a wish. She happen to see a skirt I made and asked what I sewed and we started talking. It was so nice to meet someone in person.