The Back Story

In honor of Frozen Release Day (Seriously, it's a day marked on our calendar - my kids knew I had pre-ordered the DVD to be delivered today and they sat watching out the front door until the mailman delivered it), I'll share a little bit about our trip to Disney World.  You may have seen some of the pictures on Facebook, but I have a few exclusives for you blog-readers.  Cause your special. 

For starters, here's a picture of the beaut we drove with 8 passengers from Greenville, NC down to Orlando:

 

 

Just kidding.  But how awesome is Adam's pose?  In the first picture he's raising hell because he wanted a picture by himself.  Then, we got the second gem.  Here's what we really took on the 11-hour trek:

 

 

Speaking of 11-hour treks - have you ever gone on an 11-hour road trip overnight?  We had done it once before with the kids when the twins were about 9 months old.  I never wanted to do it again and I really didn't want to do it this time.  It's just so much work to drive when you have kids still in car seats.  But I was out-voted.  It wouldn't have been as much of a problem if we would have been able to adequately prepare for it.  Take a nap during the day.  But nope.  See, we had to first drive the 5 hours down to Greenville, then there was no napping with four crazy-happy cousins running around.  So by the time we left, I was already tired and we hadn't even left the neighborhood.  Anyway, it started out fine, until we had to stop for gas.  Believe me, you do not want to stop for gas anywhere off I-95 in South Carolina or Georgia in the middle of the night.  You just don't know what you'll see, and you definitely don't want your children seeing it, and sometimes you aren't even sure you'll get out of there alive.  Seriously.  We saw boobs.  I was miserable the entire time and by the time we made it to just outside of Orlando and decided to stop for breakfast, I was so tired I was nauseous.  Thankfully, we had the foresight not to plan to go to a park that day (it was also Daytona 500 day, so that was a convenient reason to hang out at the hotel and watch the race).   Too bad the race was rain-delayed for like 6 hours and by the time it restarted we had passed out from exhaustion and Alan missed Dale Jr winning.  I almost felt sorry for him, but then I remembered that I said I didn't want to drive and he didn't listen.  So we woke up the next morning to lots of celebratory texts.

 

Here are some highlights from the trip.  Here is Anaya riding Thunder Mountain with Robert, Catherine and Pierce.  Brave girl.  Alan had already taken Audie to do something else because, bless his heart, he wasn't quite 40" tall (this really did break my heart the entire week - that his twin sister got to ride Soarin', but he didn't - and yes, we tried boosting his feet).  So the rest of us hopped in line, but at the last minute, Adam chickened out and I had to stay behind with him.  Not Anaya, though, she went!  'Atta girl! 

 

Here is Anaya telling Snow White that Rapunzel is her favorite princess, which Snow White took in stride, telling her that she liked Rapunzel too and that sometimes she helps her brush her hair and it takes three hours.

 

 

 

This was hilarious.  It's kind of long, but there are so many awesome moments I couldn't clip it.  It's the Incredibles Dance Party.  Alan and I took all the kids while Catherine and Robert rode Space Mountain.  Then they took the kids to the Space Ranger ride while Alan and I rode.  Here are the kids busting some moves:

 

Another awesome moment:  Here is Audie touching the Green Army Man to prove to the others that he's not real, he's plastic...

 

 

Here, Adam is pushing Buzz's red button:

 

 

What I didn't get a picture of was what happened next.  Buzz acted as though Adam had just turned him off.  He slumped over and dropped everything he was holding and just froze until Adam figured out what he had done and pushed the button to turn him back on.  It was fantastic.  Kuddos to that Buzz for being creative and for taking his role seriously!

 

 One day we went to Universal Studios Orlando and Alan and Catherine got excited about meeting Doc from Back to the Future:

 

While at Universal, we saw the character that we unanimously agreed we would want to be:

 

Awesome. 

 One day, while we were at Hollywood Studios, a pilot was doing a little sky-writing:

 

While at Epcot, I decided to take a selfie with my glass of wine:

 

But Robert thought I was holding my phone out taking a picture of him, so he was doing this while I was taking my selfie:

 

Meanwhile, Anaya had wandered off to talk to this nice man. 

 

She was telling him that her Daddy's name was "Alan!  Alan!  Alan!"  If you haven't seen this video, do it now or you won't get why this was hilarious.  She was in a mood.  Here, I have no idea what she was telling Princess Aurora, but it must have been good.

 

 

Later, we caught her dancing:  

Finally, this is a great one of all the kids, but Audie in particular.  I don't think he knows what Stitch is and whether or not he bites.

 

 

Of course, we have the standard Disney and Universal shots, too, but where's the fun in that?  I like a photo with a back story.  Here are some good ones, though:

 

Then, we loaded up in the white stallion and headed home.  Anaya puked on the way home, which was awesome.  Did I mention how I didn't want to drive?  Then, she did it again the next day, as we drove back to DC from NC.  If you read my previous post, then you know what happens next...

 

All in all, I think we can chalk one up in the "W" column.  The kids had an awesome time hanging out with their cousin at Disney World and we made lots of memories.  Isn't that what it's all about?

 

God bless y'all!