Starbucks, Shopping, and Socks: May 2017

May 11, 2017 - Travel

We made our way to the airport after picking up the kids. It was a busy and hectic day, finishing packing and planning and such - but soon enough, we were off!

We wound up with SUPERB seats - the very front row of the airplane! Mark, especially, was thrilled to talk to the various flight attendants and to even watch the door to our plane close!

Our first official (sort of?) ride was Disney's Magical Express - just one of the buses - and it took us to our hotel - Animal Kingdom Lodge - Jambo House!

By the time we got into the hotel, we were pooped!

May 12, 2017 - Epcot

Our first official day on vacation, and our excitement really could not be contained! I would very quickly learn that Disney World with kids is really the most magical thing on earth!

We started our day with breakfast at the hotel, and sitting on our amazing safari deck. From the deck for the whole time were there, we could see Wildebeests and gazelles frequently, and occasionally giraffes and zebras!

We arrived at Epcot slightly before the park officially opened, to make sure to take advantage of the early morning hours!

We rode Test Track and Soarin' (easily the two most adventurous rides!)

We had a huge, fun-filled day! Among the highlights were autographs from Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Elsa, and Anna - and we saw Baymax, but he doesn't do autographs.

We learned about several countries - including watching the "reflections" show in China!
We also saw lots of topiaries for Epcot's "Garden festival" and got epcot around the world books for the kids! In each country, we got to stop by the "kidcot" booth to get a stamp and meet some folks from that area of the world.

Laura was led by a cast member carrying a doll to the Fiesta ride in Mexico, and she got special treatment (fast pass line, even though we didn't have fast pass)

In one of the interactive shows ('Turtle Talk' with Crush), Laura asked how many fish were in the ocean, and Crush counted and said he could see about 25. So he asked Laura how many people there are in her world - and she said about 1000.

Over 16,000 steps in Epcot, and even Laura (age 5) hung all day long with few complaints! Except when she got to dinner and fell asleep on the table at Coral Reef...

Mark talked the ear off the people sitting next to us on the ride back to the hotel - and really, on any bus ride he was very, very social!

At the end of the day, when we arrived back at the hotel, Laura got to participate in a drum circle to end the day.

A few notes on interacting with the cast:
AM: Cast member stopped by while we were waiting for the bus and told poop jokes to the kids
PM: Security guard talked super-fast as his special talent

May 13, 2017 - Animal Kingdom

This day brought lots of "Laura, take your hair out of your mouth." and "Mark, stop picking your nose."

We bought breakfast using snack credits, and took it back to the room to eat on the balcony again. We spent the early Magic hours going on safari at Kilimanjaro - where we saw LOTS of animals - including Cotapi, Ostrich, Zebras, a giraffe very close to the tour bus - some rhinos... too many to name, but a ton overall! We even got to see a nest of Ostrich Eggs, which was pretty cool!

After the safari, we stumbled upon a Troop Leader and started working on the "Wilderness Explorer" badge on the Gorilla Trek, where we saw more animals!

From there, we did Kali river rapids, and then another tour of a zoo-like area (Marimbe, perhaps?).

We went to the "Flights of Wonder" bird show, and I was picked to go on stage with my camera and get some really awesome shots of an owl, including a video. LOVED the bird show.

After birds, we ate a fairly early Lunch at Harambe market, and then took Rafiki's train ride to conservation station where we ran into Doc McStuffins and got several more badges, petted some animals, then headed back on the train.

Next was another highlight - we went to the Nemo Musical. This was fantastic! It's a larger-than-life puppet show:

I loved the puppets (they blink and talk), and the actors were superb - always smiling, and controlling their piece of the magic! We were close to the front row, so we got covered in bubbles (and Laura fell asleep on my lap part way through.)

When we got out of Nemo, it started raining- so we went to Dino dig, donned our rain ponchos (I hadn't brought one for Seth!) and enjoyed playing for a while, collected another badge, then went to It's a bugs life. By that time, it was pouring!

After a snack (pineapple icecream, chocolate waffle) the kids had Charactures made for me for Mother's day.

We were back at the hotel much earlier than the previous evening, and went to a dinner reservation at one of the restaurants in the hotel with a huge buffet! My favorite was the stewed tomatoes over cornmeal or something (an African dish) - but we also had carrot ginger soup, and the desserts were tiny so we each had several!

We even managed to mostly go to bed on time to gear up for another day!

May 14, 2017 - Mother's day at Hollywood Studios

For a change, I got up before Mark! I went to our hotel cafe for our breakfast, where they gave me a cute bookmark! When I came back, I took a shower and made Jedi hair for me and Laura for the day.

I also got to open Mother's day presents from the kids they got for me at the park: Ostrich socks and a monkey keychain!

We were out of the room early, because we did not want to miss the Jedi training sign-up!!

I got a carnation when we entered the park - and then we took advantage of the extra magic hours, so we rode Star Wars Tour (Mark's favorite) and Toy Story (Mom won out of the whole family - woo!!).
The Jedi training was a huge highlight of the trip - it was very well done!! After the kids met at the spot, they were fitted with robes, and then walked to the "temple" chanting a call/response "Here come the Jedi/Here we come." - so cute! The kids were even in the correct line so they were able to fight Darth Vader! The force was strong with these two!

We did several other attractions - including muppets, taking pictures with Olaf, and toy story a second time! We did a "divide and conquer" to see characters: Mark and Seth went to see the Star Wars crew (BB8, Kylo Ren, and Chewbacca), while Laura and I got to see Sophia the First and Jake (from Jake and the Neverland pirates)!

We also saw Star-Lord of Guardians of the Galaxy and Groot! Groot was only about the size of our hand and so stinkin' cute!

Since it was Mark's special day, he elected to get a Jedi sword for his "big" souvenir.

Laura fell asleep in my arms for a bit, and we went to see the Frozen Singalong. Before dinner, we did the Toy Story ride one more time - and then went to the Indiana Jones Stunt show (Treasures of the Temple) where Mom was selected (again!) to be on stage! This time as an "extra" - a Cairo villager in the market!

We had dinner at Hollywood and Vine - which was AWESOME! We got to see and visit with 5 of the classic Disney characters, and the food was a buffet. Daisy was at the entrance, but 4 others came around and said hello to each table (Mickey/Minnie/Goofy/Donald).

Since we still had energy (but no idea how!) we capped off the evening with some time at the pool - including Laura's first time going down a water slide.

May 15, 2017 - Laura's Princess day at Magic Kingdom

Poor Mark got sick overnight, and we decided that mom and Mark would hang at the hotel until Lunch so he could get a bit of sleep and hopefully start feeling better!

SO - Dad and Laura started the day with an 8:30 reservation for breakfast where food was delivered by magic!

Mark and I did join Seth and Laura for lunch at Cinderella's magic table, where we met Cinderella at the front of the castle, and then 4 other princesses throughout lunch (Snow White, Jasmine, Aurora, and Ariel). To make sure Mark had some more downtime- and so my little Princess Laura could get at least one day of a nap!) I took the kids back to the room and Seth stayed behind to explore on his own. (Mark kept down his lunch, which was a good sign!)

Around 5:30 or so, we wound up back in Magic Kingdom, and whole family got to ride Buzz Light Year, the people mover, barnstormer (Laura's third time) and Seven Dwarf Mine Train. (Mark was so nervous/in tears about the mine train at first - but wound up really loving it!)

While waiting in the line for Winnie the Pooh, Mark didn't feel well again. As I started taking him out of the line, I said "Excuse me please" to someone in front of us and they said, "Why?" so mark puked on them in response. Karma.

Mark and I headed straight back to room - after getting on bus that broke down! We saw a couple fireworks - but Seth and Laura stayed for the whole show. And I must say - they both came back very impressed and in awe (and even made me a bit jealous!) - Laura couldn't wait to tell me that the show was "amazing". She had a BLAST in MK - and got lots of one on one time with Dad!

May 16, 2017 - "Easy" day (yeah, right! Magic Kingdom day 2)

We did start a little slower. We ate breakfast at the hotel, and did an activity at the hotel where the kids got to earn a bead! We also went to the pool, where both kids took several more trips down the slide.

After we were all packed up (Thanks, Dad!) we changed clothes.

We bought 5 day tickets since they were only a little more expensive than the 4 days - and weren't sure that we would use the 5th ticket. However- since Mark didn't get to do much in Magic Kingdom - we decided to head back into the park, after all! (We were moving to a new Universal hotel this day, and had most of the day before we could check in to the new hotel.)

We started with a magic/express pass to see Pirates of Carribean, then went to Thunder Mountain. We ate lunch at Liberty Tavern, saw Princess Rapunzel and Princess Tiana, then rode several more rides (Under the Sea, Barnstormer). We decided we'd do two more rides- and let each kid pick one. Laura picked the Astro Orbiter, and Mark chose the Tomorrowland speedway. We headed out of the park around 5pm, and went back to the hotel to collect our bags (and stop and use the rest of our food credits!

We took a huge taxi to Loews Portofino Bay, and I was able to meet a coworker (Karen B) for a drink.

May 17, 2017 - Universal Studios

I "worked" in the AM - an Actuarial Committee meeting with NCCI - but then skipped out on lunch and social events to meet up with Seth and the kids in Universal.

They were eating pizza for lunch (and I had some of their leftovers!) - then we went to explore Harry Potter World!

As every good wizard should - we stopped at Olivander's Wand Shop where we all had a magic wand choose us!

Next, we stored our stuff, and waited in a 30-45 min line so that I could go on the Gringott's bank adventure (and the kids and Seth rode it a second time with me!) - and it was truly amazing!!!

Can I say one thing about Universal? EVERY ride they do comes with glasses. We did Shrek, Jimmy Fallon's escape from New York (better than I expected!), and Transformers. We became minions on a Despicable Me ride, too!

The only non-glasses things we did were Men in Black, and "Fear Factor" show. For Fear Factor, I didn't go in time to be on stage - but Mark and I got picked as a "two person" volunteer team to shoot balls at the contestant climbing the wall in the final scene!

Seth had gotten "Gringotts bank" money earlier in the day, and we used that for drinks before leaving the park to buy a drink with fish eggs (blueberry popping boba - my favorite!) as well as a butter beer for dad, a peach fizzy tea for Mark, and Laura opted for a lollipop the size of her face.

Before getting on our water-taxi back to the hotel, we stopped at a Mexican restaurant for dinner (with live music). Once back at the hotel, we went out to the Loews Portofino Bay pool for some more swimming - complete with a new water slide (that Laura could also do, with a life jacket!)

None of the water is very deep, and the water slide at this pool was way faster than the waterslide at the pool we had at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. They have an awesome pool setup - you really could hang out there all day! Mark thinks the pool at Portofino Bay is more fun!

May 18, 2017 - Work for me (NCCI's Annual Issues Symposium), Islands of Adventure for the Family

Thankfully, both kids are back to 100%! Of course, we are definitely wearing down...

An awesome day of work stuff for me, with a short break (4-6 or so) where I was able to join the kids for a couple hours at the pool!

Then a night of work - including a caricature and some pictures with coworkers, and late-ish night drinking with friends from other Rating Bureaus!

I haven't taken the kids on many work trips - - but this was an amazing trip for them to be able to join me on! Free hotel (work paid) - which got them express passes into EVERYTHING at Universal Studios! Plus swimming, kissing the kids goodnight - - just a truly amazing experience and the best of both worlds for me. An amazing, supportive husband, awesome kids, and a job that I enjoy that sends me to amazing places and hotels - really, who could ask for more?!

May 19, 2017 - Travel back

Packing up, heading home - - overall, a very successful trip!!!