Disney Blog Days 1 and 2

So last May, Mike and I were talking and we decided to give Leah a trip to Disney World for Christmas. My initial plan was to go in early December, because I wanted to see the Christmas decorations, but it just always gets to the point that December stresses me out and there's so much going, so I decided to postpone the trip till January. Initially it was going to be me, my mom, and Leah going, but my mom had to cancel, so I decided to upgrade our hotel to one on a Disney property: the All Star Movie Resort. The main benefit of this is that there are shuttles to the parks, so I won't have to drive as much, plus there is a heated outdoor pool so we can swim. So we left bright and early on Sunday morning. We decided to ingratiate ourselves onto the Savannah Wellses and let them host us overnight. Leah was a trooper on the way down. I learned from driving to my dad's the previous weekend that it is better to stick her in a pull up for a long car ride, even though on a day-to-day basis, she is fully potty trained now (THANK GOD!). We did just fine getting down, only hitting one snag in North Carolina where we saw a tractor trailer that had gone airborne and was stuck up in the trees alongside I95. The cops were standing around fairly unconcerned, so I can only assume the driver was a goner, which made me sad. And also made me wonder how the heck they were going to get the truck out of the trees.

Leah watched her new Jake and the Pirates DVD a couple of times through and then fell asleep. She slept for about 4 hours of the trip, which I thought was pretty incredible. We stopped off in SC for gas and to make a lunch break at Wendy's, and she got some hilarious Where's Waldo glasses with her meal that of course, she just Had. To. Wear. Buy they're darn cute on her.

We roared into Savannah around 5:30 and hung out till about 8:00, when Amy fed Russell and Leah her famous "chicken n rice". Then she and I set about preparing our sandwiches for a fine English tea party to go with, what else, Downton Abbey! I put Leah to bed, and Russell disappeared, and Downton came on, and for the next hour, we had tea sandwiches, Savannah grey tea, cookies and little delicacies. It was really, really lovely and I hope we can do it again sometime! Amy makes a mean chicken salad.

So I tucked into bed around 11, and Leah was coughing like crazy. I couldn't quiet her cough, and she wasn't able to sleep and was starting to get upset, so I ran to a local Walmart to get some cough syrup. Now, you might have noticed Leah has a new car seat. It is a Dora car seat, and I like in that I had gotten her a booster that I didn't feel she was very safe in. However, every time I look in the back of my car when Leah isn't in it, I get scared that there's a person sitting in the backseat. A person with a huge orange head. So I get in the car, it's dark, I'm tired, and as soon as I start the car, I hear from the backseat, "Hola! Soy Dora!" I swear to you, I thought I would have a heart attack and die on the spot. I was thinking "Oh my God! It's alive! The car seat is alive! She's coming to get me!" In fact, it was Leah's DVD player roaring to life, but I am convinced that some day, like Chuckie in Child's Play, that seat is going to attack. So I got some medicine and gave it to her, which helped her sleep till about 2am when the coughing started again. I didn't feel good about giving her more medicine so soon, so I put on the hot shower and steamed up the bathroom and took her in there. That seemed to help a lot. Then I propped her up on the couch and she fell asleep, as did I, till about 7 when she came back in the bedroom with me and put on a movie on the iPad till about 8:30 while I continued to doze. Then she announced it was time to go see Mickey Mouse. So I got up and got dressed and got her dressed. She voiced some concern that "that little lady and little man" were going to miss us, so I told her we'd stop by and see Auntie Amy on the way home again, which seemed to ease her sense of guilt that we were jumping in the car. We made another quick stop at Walmart to pick up day time medicine, a vaporizer, and a few odds and ends, and hit the road. We got to FL in no time, and got down to a Chick Fil A outside Orlando and stopped. I look for CFA while traveling since they ALWAYS have a play area and WiFi. Good thing I did, since Leah wanted to run around for nearly 2 hours, which was fine with me since we were way early to get into the hotel, and I have some drama going on with my service learning placement for school this semester and was able to email and cell phone that to some resolution, at least to the point that it can wait till I get back from vacation. Around 2, we left CFA and got to Disney around 3:00. I was a little worried because we weren't supposed to be able to check in till 4, but there was a bit of a line at check in, so I decided to chance it. Happily, we made it just fine and got a room in the Toy Story section, which means nothing to Leah whatsoever, since I don't think she has seen much of it. But we have parking right outside our building, and we were able to bring everything up in just 1 trip, which was great. Once that was settled, I did shed a few tears for Mike, wishing he was here to see this and be here and experience it with us, but a quick text to my friend Amber set me to rights! We changed into SHORTS (It is so nice and warm down here!) and then we set about exploring.

Right outside our door is a huge courtyard with a giant Buzz and Woody and various other Toy Story toys. Leah enjoyed climbing on those and seeing what was what. We took lots of pictures and started walking. right nearby is a playground, so she wanted to climb on that for a while too and enjoyed the slides and such. But really she was too excited to keep moving. We walked a little bit further and she laid eyes on the Fantasia pool and saw people swimming and yelled "IWANNAGOSWIMMINGRIGHTNOW!" So we headed back to our room, got changed, and went swimming until it got cold. After changing yet again, we headed over to the cafeteria to have dinner. we bought our "unlimited refill' cups and enjoyed a nice dinner before coming back to the room around 7ish. Leah watched TV for an hour and then I announced lights out. So far, so good! We have enjoyed ourselves very, very much and have only been here for what? 16 hours? Today we will check out the Animal Kingdom. I was going to take the bus, but I have borrowed a massive stroller and I think it would be a pain in the butt to take the bus, and we get free parking with our resort permit, so I think we might drive. My plan is to go until Leah gets crabby, come back to the hotel for a nap and a swim, and then go back later. Tomorrow we will do EPCOT and then Thursday and Friday we will be at the Magic Kingdom. I'll try to update the blog as much as I can. :) More pictures will be on Facebook.