The Flower Girl, and Trips of Disney Pasts
This isn't anything too terribly interesting, and not at all relevant to our upcoming trip, but I thought I'd share a picture of Ashlyn and Micheal this past weekend at Micheal's brother's wedding (best man and 1 of 2 flower girls)...
I also thought I'd share a few pictures of our very first Disney trip. It was a Make A Wish trip in August 2011 and what introduced us to this fabulous place called Walt Disney World!!!
It started with meeting our Wish Coordinators several times, which brought us to the night we revealed the Wish to Emma, along with travel itinerary. The coordinators were super nice, and had "been there" before, as it was a mother/daughter team and the daughter had a brain tumor when she was a child. They brought all kinds of goodies for Emma, including a cake and a backpack full of Disney goodies.
We stayed at Give Kids the World Village, which was amazing and had everything a kid could want--including an awesome pool, a carousel, an enormous playground, three restaurants, and even Disney and Universal character M & G's.
And my all-time favorite Disney picture ever...
We were gifted tickets to Sea World, both Universal parks, and also given 3-day park hopper passes for WDW. We very foolishly did it all!
DAY 1: Sea World
This was a pretty fun day, overall. It was mega hot (hello! August?! What were we thinking?!). But the girls cooperated and we had a nice day. I honestly can't remember much of anything about it. Obviously, we rode some kiddie rides. I remember eating at a restaurant that was huge, yet we were THE ONLY PEOPLE in there! That was a strange experience.
DAY 2: Both Universal Parks
Again, I remember very little from this day. I remember Sponge Bob was done meeting as we raced up for a picture, and he very kindly waited for us. I remember wanting to ride all of the Dr. Seuss rides but Ashlyn was too short for most of them, and Emma was in a very bad mood at the moment and refused to ride anything with me...so we skipped them (except the carousel--Emma had an obsession with carousels!). There was a giant playground that the girls played on at one point, and they loved it. I also remember eating at a restaurant where they did this indoor carnival thing while we ate, and it was interesting to watch (thinking it was at the Dr. Seuss land).
DAY 3: Magic Kingdom!
You'll never guess what time we arrived at the park
. Parade time! I don't remember the literal time, but it was obviously the afternoon parade. I have no idea why we waited so long to get there, except I guess we just had no idea what we were doing. Anyway, the parade had almost reached the Town Square area at our entry point, and we just found an empty spot and made ourselves comfy. Well, this woman pushed her way through the crowd to chew us out. She said she was saving that spot and we had to move! I kid you not, there was NOTHING there to save a spot. No towels or bags or ANYTHING (including her, as she'd come through the crowd). Micheal was very calm and kind, and said we'd gladly move if her party was there to use the spot, but if they weren't there yet...well, the parade was literally in view. Well, it turned out her party was NOT there to use the spot (and honestly, I don't know where she came from because even SHE was not using her spot when we arrived). They were in Tony's STILL EATING!!! She said some very unkind things
and marched away. About halfway through the parade I spotted her and her family pushing through the crowd across the "street". They ended up pushing people out of the way and getting a spot right on the curb.
This was my first introduction to Disney World, and I'm not going to lie...it left a pretty sour taste in my mouth and put me in a bad mood for a couple hours. Sigh. Things settled out for us though. We did most of the Fantasyland rides, ate at Pinnochio Village Haus, rode a couple things in Tomorrowland, and then we took Emma to meet the princesses. Back then they were meeting at Town Square Theatre. She met Cinderella, Belle, and Aurora.
DAY 4: Epcot
At Epcot we did the Seas with Nemo and Friends, and nothing else in Future World. Then we made our way to WS where the girls promptly fell asleep in their strollers. Hubby and I checked out the France pavilion, and a couple more--I think Japan and maybe Germany. The rest we just speed walked through. Did I mention we were unprepared for the heat?! Haha. We seriously didn't know what we were doing (and I very much wish that we had!).
DAY 5: Final park day, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom
At Hollywood Studios we did Disney Jr. Live on Stage, which Emma obviously enjoyed (she was 5 at the time, I think). We also did Toy Story Midway Mania, Beauty and the Beast, and ate at Pizza Planet. We may have done more but I couldn't tell you one way or the other.
This was Emma's favorite park on this trip...
Next we headed to Animal Kingdom where we ate at the Rainforest Café before going in (one of Emma's favorite restaurants). We did the boneyard, the safari, the Nemo show, and the Dino Land rides. I'm thinking I obviously did a little research to know what we wanted to check out at each park... I remember that while we were in the boneyard it started pouring rain. We rushed out to a kiosk to buy ponchos, and as soon as we put them on the rain stopped. Ha! But that was the only time it rained our whole trip (and we've still got the ponchos and continue to use them, so...)! And if you're thinking that I wore the same shirts over and over, well, you would be correct. It was so HOT, and the shirts I wore were the coolest I'd brought. But! Our villa at Give Kids the World had a washer and dryer, so the shirts were clean.
So, that was it. Our first trip to WDW. In spite of a few hiccups we really did like it enough to return. Hooray!
Now I can't remember the name of the stand but it's right in front of the American Pavilion. Just in case you need some funnel cake three times 
(seriously......nothing wrong with funnel cake x3!)
)
Not sure if anyone remembers, but I think I mentioned way back at the beginning of this thread that I'm a writer. I write all kinds of stuff (I have multiple children's books published, and I'm a staff writer for a local magazine. I also write young adult science fiction/fantasy novels for teens). Well, my new book is a "sweet" romance for the adult market (sweet is code for clean, meaning no...um...questionable stuff 
). I'm very excited for this. It's also a Christmas story, and my publisher hopes to have it available for THIS Christmas, though it might not get through editing in time. I actually wrote this book 2 years ago. Publishing is a very slow business. So, yay for that.
However I completely understand the tutu possibly getting annoying. Yeah, I'd bring them both and decide last minute!
MAGIC BANDS ARE HERE!!!
. That is all! 
Now, which other ADR will you drop?? I hate figuring those things out!
