Another Disney Day

Last week the girls and I met up with Arin and her kids for our last Disney day for a couple months. We have the weekday season passes which have blackout dates during the summer. We're not too sad about missing the summer months because it's not even the middle of the summer and it's already ridiculously hot!

We started our day at Hollywood Studios and ran straight for Toy Story Midway Mania, a ride that we missed the last time we went because the line was ridiculously long. We got there around 9:45 and the fast passes were already for 6:10 that evening. The wait time said 70 minutes and we figured that would be the shortest the line would be all day so we hopped in line and heard the "cast member" standing there tell someone else the wait was only 30 minutes. Yay!
Here is the best shot I could get of 4 kids under the age of 5.

Asa is such a sweet little guy!

Charlotte and Anson with Annie and Leo from Little Einsteins. Naomi and Ella were not having anything to do with them. Naomi likes the characters from a distance. She gets so excited to see them, especially Mickey & Minnie, but getting close to them freaks her out!

At one point, the kids decided they wanted to play ring around the rosie. Here's how that went down...
Naomi wanted to play too!

But Naomi wanted to go straight to her favorite part of the game. Instead of "we all fall down" it was just Naomi falling down.

So the older three continued on...

They fell down...

And Naomi came over to join in on the fun part once again!

Then we went to meet Winnie the Pooh. All except Naomi were big fans!

After lunch, Arin and I did something crazy and park hopped with the five kids. Did I mention that it was just us with the kids? As in, no Dusty or Jared. From Hollywood Studios there are two ways to get to Magic Kingdom. Drive your car to the MK parking lot, take a tram (because we would have gotten there later in the day and would have been in a parking lot too far away to walk), then jump on the monorail that will take you to the park. Or take a bus to the monorail. Both the tram and the bus require folding up the stroller, which with Jared's help isn't as big of a deal, but I had the double jogging stroller (it maneuvers really easily through the parks) and it doesn't fold up very compactly and you have to lean it just right or hold it so it doesn't fly open. We survived, but it wasn't the easiest process.

After we did a few rides at Magic Kingdom we went on a hunt for ice cream and caught the end of the parade. This was Charlotte seeing the princesses. Homegirl likes her princesses.

As we were leaving the park, we saw that the wait to meet Mickey was only 5 minutes so we decided to hop in line. Five minutes was actually 10-15 minutes, and of course, like any Disney attraction, you leave through a gift shop. The process of picking out a souvenir took another 10-15 minutes so our 5 minute stop to meet Mickey turned into quite an ordeal. But not as much of an ordeal as it was getting back to the cars... When we went to MK, the bus wasn't too crowded. But the reverse route had a bus full of people. And I had that big ol' honkin' stroller to try to finagle with. I had a couple people offer me their seats because I was holding Naomi but I told them I better stand by the stroller to make sure it didn't unfold. It wasn't the most pleasant ride, but I survived and only fell on the people behind me... twice. I bet they didn't think they'd be getting a lap dance as they left the Magic Kingdom!

3-Year-Olds Are Gross

I mentioned this little story on Facebook and Twitter, but just in case there's anyone who doesn't follow me on either of those, I have to share this little gem that Charlotte said a month or so ago...

She was sitting on the potty and told me, "Mommy, it's like my poopie has its own swimming pool... Oh, here come more friends!"

Potty humor from a three-year-old. Gross, but coming from her, incredibly funny.

New York City {Part 3}

Roughly a month has passed so it's about time for another blog post, huh?! How about I tell you about our fabulous final day in NYC? It was incredible. Lots more walking. So incredible.

We walked out of the hotel and couldn't see the tops of the buildings. The fog was crazy.We had planned on going up in the Empire State Building but knew we wouldn't be able to see anything so figured paying the money to see fog would be a waste. :(

But that definitely didn't put a damper on what was to come...
Breakfast at Tiffany's! I've talked about doing this for years. If I had a bucket list, it would have been on it. We made a stop by Starbuck's so I could grab a muffin to eat in front of the store. I'm pretty sure Jared was horribly embarrassed to take this picture. People might have been staring. Whatever, I was happy!

We went up to the sixth floor (six floors?!!) so I could get my ring cleaned in the lounge. Yup, a lounge. They used the same term for their bathrooms. When I saw a sign for the "Men's Lounge" I thought it was a waiting room with big screen TV's and Sports Illustrated's laying around. Nope, it's just where they keep their toilets. But if the Women's Lounge was any indication, the men's lounge might have been the nicest bathroom those men ever use!

From Tiffany we headed to Times Square. Not a short walk, mind you. But it was fun to see all of the beautiful churches. Seriously, these are just amazing!




We made it to Times Square. Huge, I tell ya. Lots of lights. I'm sure you know that, but for real, it's big.



We had lunch at John's Pizzeria and had the Hawaiian (with sauce). It was delicious. We were seated in the front area of the restaurant so we didn't see how beautiful that place is.

After lunch we headed to this place!
The Gershwin Theater to see Wicked!

I was able to snap a couple pictures of the set before the camera police came and told me to put my camera away.

Can you tell from the pictures how close our seats were?! I don't think we could have gotten much better than that. The show was incredible! Even Jared, who doesn't care much for musicals, enjoyed it. I think I smiled through the whole thing. I read the book in college and have the soundtrack so I knew the story and the songs, but seeing it on stage was just amazing. The actors, the costumes, the music, the set... it just brought everything to life. We got a flyer in the mail advertising Wicked coming to Jacksonville next year and I'll definitely be going to see it when it comes to town! I would love to have the voice and talent to perform on stage like this. It just looks like they have so much fun and what a rush it would be!

After the show we went to the hotel and fought over who was going to pick where we ate dinner. Neither of us were craving anything in particular so we called the front desk of the hotel to get some recommendations. The woman asked what we were in the mood for... She kind of laughed when I told her nothing in particular, just wanted to know what was good that was close. There's a hundred of every type of good restaurant near you where ever you are in the city. We ended up eating... I don't remember where. I got some pasta something or other and Jared had something with lobster in it. Both were good. No pictures of the food, but here we are!

On Monday we spent hours in the air port because of weather delays. The Delta terminal at La Guardia airport is not meant to hold the amount of people who were there when we were. There weren't nearly enough seats for everyone, so there were people sitting all along the walls, from the food court area to the gates. There was even a large group of high schoolers laying on the floor in the middle.

We finally made it home and were excited to see our girls!
Charlotte was excited about the souvenir we brought her. She enjoyed being the "Statue of Delivery". Yesterday she was playing with the globe and told me that she wanted to find a new place to live. I asked her where she would rather live and she told me at the "Statue of Delivery" :)

Naomi didn't care so much about it, so I used her hat and became Lady Liberty myself.

Cheesin'.The end!