Our 2 Year Old's Birthday Do Over Extravaganza *update 8/27*

[Leger13]

This trip is almost 2 months old now since life got in the way and I've become such a slacker but here I am. I hope to remember everything that happened. Luckily I snapped tons of pictures so that should help! I'm looking forward to telling of this trip since our trip before this was a disaster.

To recap: We took our one year old DS to WDW in February of '12. He got a stomach flu the first park day and started vomiting everywhere. It was awful. We tried to stick it out but 4 days into our vacation DH and I both got it. DH wound up in the ER and I stayed at our resort with DS. I had a fever and vomiting. We decided to leave the next morning. That was the worst drive home from WDW ever and I had never been so happy to be home in my life.

With that being said, we decided around last July that we needed a do over trip to get that bad experience out of our minds. So we decided to go for DS's 2nd birthday this past December.

Dates: December 14th - 22nd 2012

Where we stayed: Pop Century

Let me go ahead and introduce myself for those of you just joining in (there's a PTR to go along with this TR if you're interested. Link in siggie). My name is Carla. I'm a 31 year old mother, wife and General Office Manager at my Dad's furniture company (in that order of importance) I love all things Disney but my absolute favorite Character is Stitch because he has an attitude but is not afraid to show his softer, more sentimental side like me. My favorite ride is IASW (yes, really!). My favorite park is EPCOT.

Then there's DH. His name is Chris. He's a 32 old Father, Husband and gov't worker. He also loves all things Disney but his favorite character is King John in Robin Hood. His favorite ride is TT and his favorite park is DHS.

And last but not least, the birthday boy DS, Alex. He turned 2 on the 17th of this trip. He also loves all things Disney but his favorite is "Mouse"! I'd have to say his favorite ride was probably.......Figment. His favorite park I think is EPCOT.

All three of those pictures are of us in the car ready to go! That's December 14th.

We were packed to the gills

If I remember correctly we hit the road at around 8 or 9am that Friday morning and we had great traffic and a great toddler along for the ride and great weather. We couldn't have asked for a better day driving down to our favorite place on earth.

We stopped and had some CFA for lunch and I let Alex get in the front seat with me so he could stretch his legs some. He had lots of fun and was just being so good and cute!

We made it to the GA/FL Boarder around 12:00pm and a nice gentelman was out there with his son offered to take our picture in front of the sign.

And then around 3-4pm we finally saw this

Last time Alex's reaction was sleeping but this time it was this!

He was super excited!

We finally arrived at our home for the next week

View from the room

Alex and I waiting for Daddy to bring up luggage

After we got all settled into our room we decided it was time for dinner so we headed down to the food court.

As we passed by that area we heard a little girl cough and Alex was at a phase then that when he heard someone cough he had to fake cough to mimic so when he heard that cough he did his fake cough and it was so cute and funny I couldn't help but crack up. I hope that little person coughing didn't think I was laughing at them

Waiting on Daddy to bring our food.

I didn't take any pictures of the food but I think Alex had mac n cheese, I had pizza (which Alex stole) and Chris had the chicken parm.

We decided after dinner to go to DTD for a little while and have some fun

Alex LOVED this fountain! I've dreamed for years about having a toddler of my own running around enjoying this fountain and finally it's a reality. It was such a joy for me to watch him have so much fun with it.

Continued in next post

 

[Leger13]

Then we went into AoA store and I took pictures of things we wanted but can't afford

Alex got a bit cranky around that time so we headed back to Pop.

Here's a picture of the outside of our building at night. I thought the laptop was pretty cool

When we got back to the room we had a message from the front desk saying someone had sent us some flowers. We were absolutely confused and weirded out thinking who they may be from. And shocked really! So Chris went down to the front desk to get them. Turned out to be a cute gift basket from my awesome TA Heather. Thanks Heather!

Up next: Day 2

 

[betsywdw]

Yay! So happy your started your trippie! Nice pic of the 3 of you at the Florida sign! Alex looks so cute at the fountains...so happy you can enjoy seeing him there too

 

[Leger13]

Yay! So happy your started your trippie! Nice pic of the 3 of you at the Florida sign! Alex looks so cute at the fountains...so happy you can enjoy seeing him there too

Thanks Betsy It was really nice to see him enjoy the fountain after spending many years seeing other kids out there playing in it dreaming someday mine would be able to enjoy it too. He really did love it

 

[Trentmom]

So excited you started!!

Glad the trip down went well and love all the pics of course

Trent used to love playing in those fountains. I am glad you were able to experience it with Alex now.

 

[cherbear]

wow, you really were packed to the gills!!

So awesome you had such a smooth and easy drive down!

How totally sweet of Heather to send the basket! Are you going to show us everything in it? Inquiring minds want to know!


I can't wait to read more....

 

[khertz]

Oh my gosh, so excited that you finally started!!

I'm glad Alex did so well on the drive down. I'm hoping for the same luck when we try our hand at a road trip with Paxton to Tennessee in April. Fingers crossed! That picture of him as you arrived is so darn cute! As for those fountains in DTD, I think we might have a hard time keeping Paxton away from them come our next trip. Same for the Casey Jr. splash area in Storybook Circus...he mostly ignored it this last trip, but I don't know if our luck in that area will hold up as he gets older and more aware!

 

[Leger13]

So excited you started!!

Glad the trip down went well and love all the pics of course

Trent used to love playing in those fountains. I am glad you were able to experience it with Alex now.

Long time coming haha

Thanks!

Thank you a bunch. Me too! It was lots of fun!

wow, you really were packed to the gills!!

So awesome you had such a smooth and easy drive down!

How totally sweet of Heather to send the basket! Are you going to show us everything in it? Inquiring minds want to know!


I can't wait to read more....

haha yeah we were. I'm so glad we had the CRV instead of the Accord. We never would have fit everything in the Accord

We are blessed with a good traveler

Oh I didn't take any pictures of what was inside. Whoops! There was Mickey shaped pretzles that Alex loved! Some other candy and a balloon. It was really cute and nice.

Oh my gosh, so excited that you finally started!!

I'm glad Alex did so well on the drive down. I'm hoping for the same luck when we try our hand at a road trip with Paxton to Tennessee in April. Fingers crossed! That picture of him as you arrived is so darn cute! As for those fountains in DTD, I think we might have a hard time keeping Paxton away from them come our next trip. Same for the Casey Jr. splash area in Storybook Circus...he mostly ignored it this last trip, but I don't know if our luck in that area will hold up as he gets older and more aware!

Haha IKR?? Now I need to go catch up on your TR.

Thank you! I hope that Paxton does well for you. I think what helps is that we load the iPad up with Disney movies and Loony Toons and apps for him and he plays with that or sleeps most of the time. So I highly recommend the iPad distraction if you have the means. I'm surprised Paxton didn't notice the fountains at DTD or Casey Jr! Alex stayed out of the water but he walked through. I think the only part of him that got wet was his shoes. Alex was asleep when we went through the Casey Jr area.

 

[cbcrockett]

Yay! So glad for a good trip down and a happy traveller! Life is SO much better with those

Can't wait for the rest of your TR!

 

[Crystal824]

Can't wait to hear more about your trip. Sorry, the prior trip was a bust but I hope this trip was better.

 

[kaoden39]

Alex is so cute!! Smiling around his paci. Kody used to do that. Sigh.


A side note Kody used a paci until she was nearly three years old. She is the the only one that hasn't had to have braces.

 

[Leger13]

Yay! So glad for a good trip down and a happy traveller! Life is SO much better with those

Can't wait for the rest of your TR!

You've got that right! We are blessed with a good traveler.

I'm going to try to have day 2 up today

Can't wait to hear more about your trip. Sorry, the prior trip was a bust but I hope this trip was better.

Thanks for joining in! It really was much better this trip.

Alex is so cute!! Smiling around his paci. Kody used to do that. Sigh.


A side note Kody used a paci until she was nearly three years old. She is the the only one that hasn't had to have braces.

Thanks Chele. That's so strange that Kody is the one that used the paci the longest and didn't need braces. I really don't think the paci has anything to do with that but the "professionals" like to make us parents feel like crap if we don't take it away by the age of 1. It's so frustrating! Alex doesn't really have his throughout the day any more. It's more for sleeping.

 

[kaoden39]

You've got that right! We are blessed with a good traveler.

I'm going to try to have day 2 up today



Thanks for joining in! It really was much better this trip.



Thanks Chele. That's so strange that Kody is the one that used the paci the longest and didn't need braces. I really don't think the paci has anything to do with that but the "professionals" like to make us parents feel like crap if we don't take it away by the age of 1. It's so frustrating! Alex doesn't really have his throughout the day any more. It's more for sleeping.

Also I think that frankly they need them sometimes. Like they are stressing or such. Kody has social anxiety now and I can't help but think that she used hers to cope with that when she was little.

 

[DisneyElite4]

Following along! I hope this trip was much better than the first one! We are taking our DS at the same age you took Alex for the first time - we're hoping we don't run into any sickness on our trip.

 

[cherbear]

 

[Leger13]

Ok folks, I've slacked long enough, update will be up tonight. Sorry I've been MIA again. Things have been kind of crazy lately and I've had to focus on that for a while but now I think I can get my brain and life back for a while so I'll be here. I want to get this TR completed before our October trip this year

 

[Trentmom]

Ok folks, I've slacked long enough, update will be up tonight. Sorry I've been MIA again. Things have been kind of crazy lately and I've had to focus on that for a while but now I think I can get my brain and life back for a while so I'll be here. I want to get this TR completed before our October trip this year

YAY, glad you are coming back

 

[wiigirl]

Joining in!

 

[Leger13]

Ok Ok I lied and wasn't able to get my next entry up over the weekend. I'm really trying though to get back into the DIS groove since we have a Trip planned for this upcoming October.

Wiigirl ~ welcome!

 

[Leger13]

Ok folks, I've made you wait long enough for another installment. I am TAKING the time to get this done.

So Day two is our day at EPCOT. This is my absolute favorite park. Even when it's crowded it doesn't feel like it and there's something for everyone to enjoy. I always love meeting the people from the different countries and trying new food and drinks. It's just great!

So I don't remember what time the munchkin woke us up but it was probably around 8am.

Good Morning!


Some Balloon Fun


What seemed to be the norm for the trip was get up, get dressed and have some breakfast and be at the park by about 10am. No rushing around this trip with a 2 year old.



I just love SE. We usually ride this first but this time we passed by it so the boys could go and ride TT while Becca and I wondered around with the munchkin


Our first tree sighting at a park


And our very first character encounter of the trip was Snow White. I had to see her because one of my very dear DIS buddies loves her. I love how she called Alex a handsome prince. Alex wasn't too sure of her since she wasn't in full costume like the other characters. He's kinda shy so this is the only princess I made him meet. We did manage to get some cute pictures though.




Then we took him over for our first ride of the trip to ride Figment which he absolutely LOVED!!!! He was dancing the whole ride and even as we were walking out. He had so much fun riding this.


Then the boys were finally done with TT. It was a pretty long line since it had just reopened from the renovations it went through. They reported that it was still fun but not a ton of changes to the ride itself. I wouldn't know because I didn't get to ride it.

We then decided to go over to Nemo. One of my personal favorites


Alex decided it was ok to let Aunt Becca hold him for a little bit aaaawwwww




The obligitory trio ride self portrait


Once we made it out of the ride we were starting to get hungry so we decided to take the boat across the pond to Japan to see if we could get a table at Teppan Edo


And since Disney is so awesome they had a table for us. Here we are waiting to be seated


And here we are at our table. Alex could have cared less about the food being cooked right in front of him but we enjoyed it and it was a great meal as always


Our Chef


Continued in Next Post