Hobson Camp

After the amazing week of Cub Scout camp, the second week of summer camp was Hobson Camp - an outdoor adventure camp associated with a Montessori school in town.  Two of our neighbors attended the prior summer and loved it, so we joined them this year.  The goal seemed to be to be outdoors getting dirty and wet.  It was perfect!   The only bad part was that it only ran from 9-12, but John was able to work out a carpool with the other families.  And that week Grandma Joni was able to be in town to spend time with William in the afternoons.  

 

Florida

After we were home from our vacation to Disney World, some very tragic events unfolded in Orlando with the Pulse nightclub attack resulting in the death or injury of nearly 100 people and the little boy being killed by the alligator in front of the Grand Floridian.    I was already scheduled to return for a conference, but wondered how the city would "feel" after all this.   I built some time into my schedule to explore Disney on my own, and it was a little surreal talking to people who were there during both of these.  Except for the fence building around Crescent Lake (below) and some of the conversations that I had with fellow DVC members, Disney World felt normal.

I started my day with lunch at EPCOT.   I was focused on experiencing new-to-me attractions.   First up:  the Friendship Boat to go between Future World and the World Showcase.   It was a welcome respite, since I wanted lunch in France and there is 10 minute of unshaded walking in between.  I made it to France for my Grand Marnier slush, baguette and cheese plate.   I sat in the shade watching various cast members rope off an area where masonry was loose on the façade, and listening to a family try to decide what type of perfume to get as a souvenir.   

After lunch I enjoyed the Impressions de France movie and the American Experience show before grabbing a grapefruit beer in Germany for my walk to The Land to ride the new Soarin' Around the World that had debuted over the weekend.   Without spoiling anything, I'll just say the new movie and the sounds and smells are amazing!  And, for the places that I've been (i.e. Taj Mahal), incredibly accurate. 

After Soarin', I rode Figment (totally random) and then went to the new DVC member's lounge to get a free snack and charge my phone.   That's where I chatted up some Long Islanders who live in South Carolina and got their take on all the events that had recently happened.  Then it was on to O Canada and then over to the Boardwalk for some Ample Hills Creamery ice cream.  They had 10 flavors; I taste tested 7 before ordering my bowl! 

Next stop was Animal Kingdom to pick up Chester, William's new cheetah.  (He's the third one here. . .)   Since I was already at the park, I watched the Finding Nemo musical and the Tough to Be a Bug show before heading to Hollywood Studios for dinner and the new Star Wars fireworks.    Oh, I also rode Toy Story Midway Mania.  By myself.  As in, no one else in the entire car that could seat 8.  That's unheard of!   It was a really nice day to explore parts of the park that I haven't been on prior visits!   When I recapped it to John a few days later he called me Dora!  Haha.  We'll see if I have a chance to get back and use my annual pass any more before it expires in September!

Cub Scout Camp

After such a great year in Scouts, we decided to try a day camp for summer.   William had a blast!  He was exhausted each day from all the activities like archery, BB guns, science, and games.  He was great at BB guns (guess those Nerf guns and video games are good practice!), and science was his other favorite.   On the last day parents were invited for a potluck (our troop just ordered pizza) and short skit.  

Putting together a kid's summer camp schedule in lieu of sending him to an all-day day care is a huge challenge.  Honestly, it was torture in February when I had to start the process of figuring out how to keep him occupied for 10 weeks.  And back then I didn't know what our travel schedules would look like.   Now that it's underway it's going well.  Helped tremendously by the fact that he's an easy going kid who can just hang out at home after these short camp days end at 3 p.m. (or noon, this week!).   And, of course, our village:  neighbors who offer up carpool and Grandma Joni who flew in to help!  

Date Night

With Grandma Joni in town to baby sit,  we were able to get away with our friends for a date night:  sushi and an Escape Room.   The room was called The Einstein Room, and we made it out with 8 minutes to spare!  Our friends had tried once previously and not made it out, so John and I must have been the difference!  I do think you need the full allotment of people (our room allowed 6) to be most efficient working through the clues you find.  Not to mention, everyone has different ideas to solve it.  We had a lot of fun, and I'd love to try it again!

http://theroomlisle.com/about-game/

Farm Day

We had an amazing day at the Third Annual Deloitte Day at Tiskilwa Farm!  The alpacas continue to be the big draw, but this year there were so many baby animals for these city kids to experience:  chicks, ducklings, bunny, sheep, and of course, alpacas.  Though we didn't catch any alpacas this year. . . .William and John did catch a lot of fish though!  Not sure what was the best part:  the baby animals, the fishing, or the hammock!  "All of it!" he says.

 

Disney World - Day 8

Finally all the fun had to come to an end.  But not before one last trip to Animal Kingdom.   We dropped off our checked luggage with the airline check in desk, and left our carryon bags with the bell stand. (Super awesome part of Disney World - they take your luggage right off the plane in Orlando, so once you check them in at your home airport, you're free of them until they arrive in your resort room.  And they send them right back to MCO from the resort.  You don't have to do anything with your bags until you pick them up at your home airport baggage claim!)

 

If you're looking closely, you'll notice we repeated outfits.  You can't wear the same thing twice in hot and humid Orlando.   But we did have laundry access in our villa (community room with the studio villa and in-room for our one bedroom), so we only brought 3 or 4 days worth of clothes and wore them all at least twice.   It was so much better than having to pack park and dinner clothes for 7 nights and 8 days.  We had a wonderful week at our favorite place.  It was really different to be there for such a long trip.  Not sure if we'll plan to do it that way again, or stick to the shorter trips.   I can see it being more relaxing if we had not gone to the parks every day and made more use of the amenities around the resort.   But we were glad with all the rain that we did get to go for a few hours each day in order to do and see all of the things we wanted to.  Feels like the sweet spot is probably about four nights.   We'll see!  William was excited to get home after this trip and get right to work on his birthday Legos!

 

Disney World - Day 7

Finally EPCOT made it up on the rotation.   We went over early for our Fast Passes for Test Track (and for some reason, I made William mad just as we were starting to ride each time, hence some awesome photos below).  Since Soarin' was closed for another week for its six month makeover to Soarin' Around the World, we didn't have too many reasons to go to EPCOT.   For some reason, I decided since we were going to be "right there" that we could walk over to Beach Club to have brunch at one of the character meals we had not done.   Turns out even at 10 a.m., walking through Future World, the World Showcase and around Crescent Lake is HOT and takes 20 minutes.   We were rewarded with another tasty brunch and seeing Donald, Minnie and Goofy in their finest beach attire.   But, I feel like once we were stuffed full of food, the idea of walking around in the heat lost some luster.   We tried a few more rides/exhibits - the highlight exclusively being William's best pal, Pluto, but eventually abandoned the park for a rest at our hotel

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Once we were refreshed, we had much more fun for the evening at Hollywood Studios to watch Fantasmic and the Star Wars fireworks.  Our timing was perfect, and we had great views for both!    We ended the night with a ride on Star Tours where William was chosen as the Rebel Spy.  He was so excited!  Excited enough that on our way out, he was still happy enough to cooperate for Photo Pass photos as every single photo stop!   We got a lot of funny shots and were just generally enjoying ourselves as we wrapped up our fun vacation.