DOG!!

I claim to hate our dog, but today he earned his keep. Nadi woke up in the wee small hours of the morning and has been throwing up ever since. So after five hours of this in bed, I made her a bed on the couch at about 7:30 this morning.  Wouldn't you know it, today is the first Saturday that Keith has had to work since he started his new job! All day Nadi has continued to throw up on a very regular basis. Keith worked a few hours, came home, fixed a friends computer, and then I went back to bed for a couple of hours.  When I got up, Nadi was still firmly planted on the couch and white as a ghost. Keith headed out to the grocery store and left me to hold down the fort. Right after he leaves, Moo informs me that she is hungry, at that same moment, while I am standing in the kitchen, I hear that fateful noise coming from Nadia and look over to see her lean over the edge of the couch and miss half the bowl. As I run to help Nadi, I hear a crash in the kitchen. When I get back to the kitchen, the dog is cleaning up for me.  Nice dog!  Moo had opened the fridge and dumped something on the floor.  Not even sure what it was, I am thinking something Keith tried to feed Nadi that did not go over well. So as much as I claim to dislike the mutt, I must admit, I appreciate his willingness to clean up once in a while.

Kids!

Moo!
Moo has this big ol high chair.  We love it.  It fits her perfectly. She can sit in it and eat and I don't have to chase her around the house between each bite of food I feed her.  So... last night I am trying to get Nadi fed a little early because she has a soccer game. Moo of course is hungry at the same time (well, actually she is ALWAYS hungry these days!) and the dog is very interested in knowing what is going on in the kitchen.  I put Moo in her chair, cut up a banana for her and throw on a handful of cheerios as boot., trip over the dog and move on to getting Nadi her pasta. I get her all sat down to eat and then back to Moo's meal.  I heat up her food and go to feed her. Hmmm. No Moo.  Gone! I ask Nadi where Moo is and her very helpful response is "Gone." Thanks kid!  The banana and cheerios are gone and I see Moo out on her swing, happy as can be. The high chair has a seat belt, time to start using it. I am guessing by the red marks on Moo's back that she slithered her way under the tray and over the foot rest and right out the door.

Nadi!
Nadi makes me laugh! She makes me crazy sometimes too! Last night as I was shutting down the computer she informed me that she wants to sleep with me forever? (I wonder to myself what her future husband will think of this arrangement...) Then she proceeds to tell me we need to get a bigger house with six bedrooms so there will be room for her three kids. We continue to discuss this arrangement for a while.  Soon she decides we need a house that is two houses stuck together so we can all live together. There will be noise rooms for the kids and a quiet room for me.  How thoughtful of her to give me a quiet room. I wonder if the walls will be padded? We will all live happily together and there will be door in the wall between the two houses stuck together.  I can't wait to tell her boyfriends about the living arrangements she has planned for her future husband!

Hollywood Studios 12/8

We woke up bright and early, dressed the girls in jeans, t-shirts, and light jackets.  Grabbed our backpacks with snacks and caught the bus to Hollywood Studios.  We got there early and as we stood in line we chatted with the family that was next to us.  They were from Sitka, Alaska and mormon.  I had on my BYUH hoodie so it was a give away.  It was so cold!  As we stood there waiting, Nadia started crying and saying she wanted to go home.  Both girls were freezing.  I ended up getting out Nadia's rain poncho and putting it on her. I figured it would stop the wind and hold more body heat in.  To say the least she was miserable!  Rope drop finally happened and we ran to Toy Story Mania and got fast passes and then we ran to The Little Mermaid show and got in line.  We were first and they asked Nadia if she wanted to open the show.  She wanted nothing to do with that! The show was inside so she got to warm up!  Thank goodness.  By time it was over we went back to Toy Story.  As we get Maile on we noticed her diaper had leaked.  Yippee!  So we ride the ride and then Keith goes to change her and we realize the extra clothes we brought for her were shorts.  It is still cold out but not as cold as it had been.  Lots of lessons were learned this morning.  We ended up buying some sweats for her.  During that whole ordeal we started spotting characters.

The first character she spotted was Greek or Geek of something like that, from Toy Story. I don't think she had any idea who he was but, he was dressed up and she wanted his autograph so we stopped.  This began her autograph addiction.

Then we headed off to meet up with Keith and who should we run into!?! 

A little later we ran into this guy as well.  I love their matching teeth!

Next we found the balloons.  $10!  I thought that was a bit much until the end of the week when the balloon was still floating high.  I have read on blogs and talked to people that say these balloons will stay up for about a month.  Nadia loved it.  She played with it every night in our hotel.  Lesson learned though, buy the balloon on the way out of the park on your first day.  We had to fight the balloon all day!

After we got our balloon we hooked back up with Keith and Moo.  

We ate lunch at a pizza place and Nadia was starting to get fiesty!  We went and watched a Beauty and the Beast stage show and after that Keith went on a couple of rides.

Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates. 

We watched the parade while Keith was riding rides.  Nadia had only seen Canyon Texas parades before this.  To say the least it was a little different.  Maile enjoyed watching the parades as well.

This is Keith riding Rock N Roller Coaster.  He wanted to take Maile on it, but I vetoed him.  Thank goodness.  He texted me afterwards and said something about Maile not liking it when it went upside down.

 

At the end of the day we went into some building that had lots of characters hanging out. These are just a few of the ones we got autographs from.

 

I so wish I had taken a video of this!  Maile generally just ignores "strangers". I am sure she thought these characters were just nuts! This Mickey Mouse was the best!  Nadia got pictures with him and was done and then he started playing with Maile.  At one point Keith went up to get her and Mickey waved Keith back and just kept playing with her.  He took her toys and put it on his nose, rubbed his nose on her and on and on trying to get her to interact.  It really did put a little tear in my eye!  I have spent so much time reading and researching about this trip and I have read over and over how good Disney World is with people with special needs.  They really were amazing!  The characters all went out of there way to interact with Maile.  Every time we watched a parade during the day a character, or 10, would come up and pat Maile, or wave to her or something.  That meant that Nadia got in on the extra action as well.  It is one of the few places we have ever been that "gets it" when it comes to kids like Maile.  I can't wait to take her again!

After surviving the cold of the morning and the excitement of the first day, we were all wiped out!  We still had our rental car so we went and ate at Sweet Tomato's!  Ahhhh YUM!  I used to eat there all of the time when we lived in Vegas.  They got one in Fort Worth a year or so before we left.  I love that place!  We then stopped at Wal-Mart and picked up some more sweat pants for Maile and hoodies for Keith and the girls as well as a few more things.  We were bound and determined not to have a repeat of freezing in the morning!  As you will see, it was never that cold again! Headed back to the hotel, gave the girls a bath, and I kid you not, Nadia was asleep in less than two minutes!  Maile took a little longer, but not much!

Travel Day and Arrival

Early on the morning of Wednesday 12/7/11 we got up and had a continental breakfast at our hotel.  It was freezing out and the idea of heading out to warm, sunny Florida made me giddy!  We loaded into the car and headed to the airport.  We had 8 carry-on bags and 1 bag to check.  You ask why so many. I say I don't know!  Really it was 4 carry on suitcases, and 1 small bag for each of us. It was a lot though. The checked bag held a weeks worth of diapers for Maile.  You can't just buy her diapers at Wal-Mart so it is best to bring them along.  We get to the airport, get checked in, and I sit down with the girls and all 8 carry-on bags and Keith heads out to put the car in long term parking.  After he has been gone about 5 minutes Nadia decides she needs to go to the bathroom.  Remember, I have 8 carry-on bags, a 6 year old and a child in a wheel chair. We managed to make it but man oh man! 

We get to our boarding area and about this time Maile's diaper leaks and soaks all of her clothes.  Thankfully we have 8 carry-on bags because there are clothes in at least one of them. I find an out of the way area and ask an employee if I can use it to change her (those little pull down changing tables don't cut it for a 9 year old!) and get her changed.  Head back over to our boarding area and get ready to board.  As we are in line, the employee I spoke to earlier came up and asked if I would like to check a bunch of our bags.  You betcha! So we got rid of half of our bags-Ahhh! 

Finally on the airplane and all settled but not going anywhere! Turns out there is something wrong with the bathroom and we can't leave until it is fixed. We finally took off about the time we were to be landing in Florida.  The flight was fine until that last three minutes when Nadia's motion sickness kicked in.  She has been trained well to use bags! (DISCLAIMER: I know some of you don't like to hear the stories about all my kids puking, pooping, and peeing, but it you want to imagine riding along with us on a family vacation you have to get the WHOLE picture!)

We finally arrive in Orlando, pick up our rental car and head out.  I was so excited I could not help myself!  I just wanted to get there!  We stopped at Wal-Mart and picked up snacks and all of Maile's food for the week as well as many other odds and ends. (If you go to WDW there is a Wal-Mart about 5 miles away with a huge Disney section.  It would probably be worth paying a taxi to get there to buy all of your t-shirts etc.)  We stopped at McDonalds and finally headed to WDW. As we drove into the World, I had a little tear in my eye!

(New camera and I had not figured out how to take pictures in the dark. Oops!)

(This is not my picture but this is what I was trying to take a picture of.)

After getting lost and driving around The World (that place is huge!) we finally found the hotel, thanks to my "boyfriend" Mr Garmin!  We chose to stay at Pop Century for several reasons.  Price and the fact that it does not share its buses with any other hotels were two big factors in our decision. We actually had two reservations.  One for our first night and one for the rest of our trip.  We got checked in and we were assured that we would be in the same room the whole time but that we needed to come and check in again in the morning and they would give us our park passes at that time.  We get to our room and spend the next hour or so unpacking.  I figured if we are going to be there for a week we may as well get all settled in and I am glad we did.  I had read blogs about how small the rooms were and ideas on how to organize all of our stuff to maximize the space.  It worked!  We got everything in and settled. Then Nadia and I took a little walk. Again it is dark out so no great pictures.  (Don't worry though.  When it was all said and done, there are more than 700 pictures for me to share so you will probably see more than you want to!)

After our walk, it was finally bed time.  After a long day of travel we were ready for it! It did take a bit to get Maile to go to sleep but not too bad considering.

The Big Reveal!

December 6th finally arrived!  The girls went to school and Keith went to work.  I stayed home, cleaned house, took out the trash, cleaned the fridge, packed the bags, loaded the car, and gathered up some snacks.  I was so excited I could hardly contain myself!  We told Nadia that because it had snowed Daddy might get off work early and if he did he would pick her up on his way home.  Not 2 minutes after she got home she was asking "What should we do?" That is her favorite question!  I can't get the second video to load so you can't see the big reveal but here is part one.  I will work on a solution for that.  Any ideas?  I have no idea what I am doing!

So the jist was we did a little scavenger hunt for her, taking her to 4 locations and then telling her we were going. Once she knew, she was so hyper we could not get her to focus and get out to the car so we could get going.  We finally made it on the road and had an uneventful ride to Dallas.  (Uneventful is just the way we like it!) When we got to Dallas we stayed at a hotel near the airport.  Nadia got several new pairs of jammies for the trip including her new Jessie jammies that she wore that night. She was very excited about them. (I couldn't find any disney jammies in the style Maile wears. She got a couple of pairs that she can lounge in though.)

I have not forgotten!

I have not forgotten my promise to share pictures and fun.  I have company here right now and have not had a chance to get this done.  I did manage to get all of my pictures off of one of my cameras-we took two plus two phones.  I will start working on it right after Christmas.  Keith will be off so I may be able to lock myself into my computer chair for the day and get it done all at once.

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TOMORROW!!!

Oh my goodness!  I could not sleep at all last night!  I am so excited and still have a million things to do.  To top it off we are having some weather with threats of a weather day from school.  That would be good because we might get out of earlier. But...I have stuff I need to do today that I don't need helpers for-like set up the reveal.  I will try to post about it either right after we do it, or tonight.  We should have wi-fi tonight.  It looks like it will not be a weather day day but man oh man is it cold! It is in the single digits!  Brrr.  It sure will be nice to get to Florida where it is in the 70's!