Wilderness Lodge Pool Day

 This trip we stayed at Disney's Wilderness Lodge which is in the Magic Kingdom area.  Transport to Magic Kingdom is either by ferry boat or by bus.  We chose boat each time!  After two days in the parks, we slept in on Tuesday morning and then hit the hotel pool for dozens of rides down the water slide!

 We could see the geyser and Bay Lake from our hotel room balcony!

This waterfall originates in a "hot springs" in the lobby.  Will found a dime and decided to toss in into the lobby fountain before we left. 

Of course no room is complete without Mickey theming.  Like the other "deluxe" hotels, the Disney theming in the rooms is present, but very reserved.  We had the Mickey towels and the red pillow had Thumper from Bambi. 

Ironically, the coolest day of our trip was our planned pool day!  Will warmed up after swimming before getting lunch from Roaring Forks.  I ate first while the guys were swimming and learned my lesson that the birds like sandwiches, too!

 For dinner we went to Animal Kingdom Lodge to dine at Sanaa.  We spent some time before and after dinner watching the animals on the savannah.  The animals that live on the hotel grounds are different than the ones at Animal Kingdom Park.   Sanaa was mostly Indian cuisine: chicken and bison curries for me; lamb for Jason; and cheese pizza on Naan for Will.  We all enjoyed it!  The dessert was awesome!  I got the sampler that included a chai pudding and a chocolate cake.  Will's dessert was the coolest though:  "Milk and Cookies."  The milk was strawberry lassi (after we already had mango lassi for dinner!) and the cookie was a design your own sugar cookie with orange frosting, M&Ms, and jelly beans! 

Back to Magic Kingdom

Since the rain and travel exhaustion slowed us down on Sunday, our original Monday plan of lunch at Magic Kingdom followed by a day at EPCOT was exchanged for another mostly full day at Magic Kingdom so we could hit the rest of the rides.   First stop was Astro Orbiter which is Will's #1.  The line was long but we had to get it done!  We did our own version of child swap and stood apart in line so Will could ride with me, and then join Jason when it was his turn 5 minutes later.

 

Monday was also very hot, so we bought our first "souvenir":  a mister bottle.  While Jason and I traded off on Space Mountain, Will detailed his stroller.

It was so hot, in fact, that Will didn't want to ride any of the New Fantasyland rides:  he wanted to run around in the Splash Pad.  Luckily I had packed his swim trunks (although I'm not sure why because I wasn't planning on this stop), so he changed clothes and ran around for quite awhile before lunch.

Lunch was my choice:  the new Be Our Guest Restaurant themed after Beauty and the Beast.  The wait wasn't too long (25 minutes) but it was so hot that we were all cranky once we got inside.  The food was some of the best I had all week, but the kid's selections weren't kid-friendly.  I knew that in advance but hoped Will would at least try his meatloaf and peach applesauce.  Nope.  He drank chocolate milk and pouted for most of lunch. 

After lunch, we rode Barnstormer, It's A Small World, and the Carousel before finally heading to the monorail and EPCOT.   Sadly, it started storming again just as we got to EPCOT around 5 p.m.  We pulled FastPasses for Soarin' for after dinner and waited out the rain and grumpy boy for awhile before hitting up Nemo's Reef, Turtle Talk with Crush and the fish tank.   We had dinner reservations at Coral Reef Restaurant where the server brough Will a new birthday button (those are Mickey dotted "i") since his other one was out on his wet stroller. 

I laughed when I requested Splenda with my coffee and got this sweetener selection.  There is pink, blue and yellow like you would expect, but they are all NutraSweet! I used the white one, since I think that was sugar.   After dinner, I ran to use my Soarin' FastPass, but the line was still long and I barely made it before closing.  Unfortunately that meant Jason did not get to ride with his, since we had to ride separately due to Will being too short.  I caught the last few minutes of Illuminations fireworks from across the park, but Jason missed those, too, trying to get onto Soarin'.   So, we'll have to make those a priority on our next trip!

Magic Kingdom

We loved our quick trip to Walt Disney World so much last fall that we made it our family vacation destination this year.  It was also an early 4th birthday celebration for Will. Day one started VERY early.  We arrived in Orlando at 9:30 a.m. and took the Magic Express to Disney's Wilderness Lodge.  I was very impressed with all of the little touches of "magic" that Will got because we registered our visit as a birthday trip.  Mickey and Minnie left him a voicemail that was waiting for us when we got to our room.  And the second day, "Mousekeeping" left a card from Mickey.  And throughout the week, he got lots of birthday greetings when cast members saw his button.

After lunch at Whispering Canyon Cafe and a quick wait out of a rain storm, we took the ferry to the Magic Kingdom to start the fun!

Due to the earlier rain, the parade route was flipped, and we walked right in to a great spot in front of Cinderella's Castle only 10 minutes prior to the start.  Will LOVES the parades and waving at all of the characters.  This is his version of meet-and-greets.   He doesn't want to meet/hug/talk to/get a picture with the various characters, but he waves and yells hello to everyone in the parade. 

I had a good view of Tomorrowland from the parade stop, as well.   That's Will's favorite land since it has the Buzz Lightyear ride, Astro Orbiter that you can see here, and the Tomorrowland Speedway.  

Since we didn't get to the park until 3 pm, we were able to make it through to the Main Street Electrical Parade.   We also had a good spot near the castle for this parade.  Afterwards, we made a quick dash back to New Fantasyland to walk on the Under the Sea with Ariel ride before dashing back to see Wishes fireworks show.   

I had never viewed either or the evening shows at Magic Kingdom.  Wishes was amazing!  I'm glad we stuck it through to 10 p.m. to see it!

McPherson All School's Day Celebrations

Ryan, Will and I flew to Kansas for the 100th anniversary of McPherson County All School's Day.  Festivities included Thursday's May Fete (moved indoors due to threat of bad weather), Friday's parade, and Saturday's preschool play date with friends.  We enjoyed a lovely mother's day  brunch at home before heading back to KCI to fly home.  It was an exhausting and wonderful weekend!

May Fete starts with the winding of the May Poles by 5th grade girls.

(Photo credit to Tom Curteman)

If you zoom in, you can see the state championship banners that Ryan and I were part of.  Debate and Speech - not Basketball!

 Virginia-born boys: 

Hayden and Will spent most of May Fete coloring or playing, but the cheerleaders got their attention.

 The state champ girls volleyball team rode on this fire engine

 MHS Royalty

 The horses signal the end!

By this point in the parade we had moved down to the other end of Main Street to visit with more friends.

 

 Saturday's play date in my parents' back yard. Grandpa Roger's planters provided great amounts of dirt-digging fun.  There were also water guns and sidewalk chalk; donuts and muffins; and race cars and trains.  A fun time was had by all!

 Will and Hayden spent most of their time looking for "bad guys" to shoot with their "water laser guns."

 After all that fun, this guy put himself to bed for a nap!  It wasn't pretty when I woke him up for dinner and bath time!

 Clean and calmed down, Will was ready to challenge Grandma and Mommy in Scrabble.

 

Field Museum

I recently found out that my company has corporate memberships at several Chicago museums which entitles employees and their families to free admission. Today we took advantage of free admission to the Field Museum!  This was the first visit for all of us. 

 

We got there right at lunch time, so we had lunch at the Corner Bakery (my father-in-law's favorite!) with a view of Sue the T-Rex before heading upstairs to tour the dinosaur exhibits.  

Will loved pushing buttons on any interactive display. I don't think he cared much about what the screen was showing; it was just about pushing the buttons as fast as he could.

 

He posed for this picture in front of Triceratops.  It was obvious we have watched Dinosaur Train on PBS and also have a few dinosaur books.  He was regularly referring back to dinosaurs he knew.   

The dinosaur fossils were very impressive, but Jason and I were blown away by this Giant Tree Sloth - an animal we never knew existed.

After dinosaurs, we went through Mammals of Asia and Africa (mostly stuffed specimens, including the Man Eaters of Tsavo lions) then saw an Egyptian burial tomb and mummies.  Unfortunately I mismanaged the clock and we missed the last entry to the kid's play lab area.  After that, only a trip to the gift shop for a trinket would compensate for the rapidly tiring little boy in our tour group.

I got this reluctant pose in front of Sue on our way out.  He's holding his new set of plastic dinosaurs and cargo truck.  Another $9.95 well spent. 

On our way back to the parking garage, I snapped this picture of Soldier Field where the Bears play.  The Museum Campus is one of the most beautiful areas of downtown.  It's tough not to love the city on days like this!

Saturday at Home

This weekend was fantastic!  All three of us were finally home at the same time, and the weather was beautiful!  On Saturday morning, Will woke up about 6:30.  After snuggling in our bed for a few minutes, I took him back to his room where he slept for another two hours before he returned.   At that point, Jason got up for the day, but Will and I dozed for a couple more hours.  I have no idea how long he really slept.  He's getting smart about watching the iPad in bed next to me so I can keep napping.  We finally got up and had breakfast for lunch at the picnic table.  Rachel grabbed for Will's pancake when he was busy telling a story, but catastrophe was averted and Daddy salvaged the pancake.  We finally got dressed and put on sunscreen and played outside all afternoon in the sandbox and doing yard work.

Cubs Win?

My office hosted an afternoon Cubs game on Friday at Wrigley Field.  Unfortunately it was blustery and cold, and we only lasted about 5 innings before heading across the street to a bar to warm up.  It was a great idea though:  who wouldn't want to get out of the office at noon on a Friday and meet up with friends and spouses for drinks, food, and fun on the firm?!  I don't even know who won the game, but I enjoyed the afternoon anyway.   If nothing else, it was fun to spend a few hours with Jason and with my co-workers and their spouses.

Fifths Disease

Will was treated to YUMZ frozen yogurt on Sunday after great behavior at the nail salon while I got a manicure.  He got his second trip back on Thursday after great behavior at the doctor's office.   We got the call from school on Thursday morning that several kids were suspected as having Fifth's Disease because they had similar rashes.  Good or bad, the rash means the contagion period has passed, so the kids can go back to school as soon as a doctor has ruled out something else.  So, Jason took Will to the doctor, got Fifth's confirmed, and treated him to frozen yogurt.   He went back to school on Friday without incident.  

Bottle & Bottega

We had a fun post-busy season team event at a BYOB art gallery.   It was a fun way to unwind with the team and do something a little different than the steak house dinners we usually do!  We picked out five pictures in advance, and each one was selected by someone in the group

 Farm scene

 Flowers

 Rose (check out all three interpretations!)

 One of three farm scenes painted

 The two faces

 My flowers and a Buckingham Fountain

I took creative liberties with my flowers since I wanted a purple instead of blue background.

Another flowers and fountain