Bath time

The trick is to keep her in shallow water because the bumbo is hollow. The more of the seat that is submerged, the harder it is for her to weigh it down. If she leans too far to get 7's toys, the back side starts to float and she tips over.

Monday, January 14-Thursday, January 17 - Family Days at the Magic Kingdom

This may be my longest blog post to date, so grab a coffee and settle in if you're planning on reading this all at once!

On Monday, the plan was to do laundry, pack and confirm that our bags would be transferred to the Wilderness Lodge, our home away from home for the next 3 nights. I had read on various websites and blogs that Disney resort transfers were easy, but didn't realize just how carefree it would really be. All we had to do was to call luggage services, tell them how many bags needed to be moved to the new hotel, our name, and it was done! We walked out of our rooms, leaving all of our gear behind, and headed for the Magic Kingdom. Joseph stopped for a few quick pictures with the Cars characters before leaving the Art of Animation resort for the last time.

Once inside the Magic Kingdom, Joseph insisted on taking a train ride - no surprise there! We hopped on and rode around to Fantasyland. After a short wait for Goofy's Barnstormer roller coaster (which broke down), we headed to get Fast Passes for Winnie the Pooh, and got lucky, getting surprise Fast Passes for Dumbo as well! We grabbed some lunch, and then took a few spins on the carousel.

A high five for mom!

After the carousel, we headed over to ride Winnie the Pooh. Joseph loved this ride - he kept asking to ride the "honey pot" ride over and over. The line wasn't terribly long; about 30 minutes, but we had the fast passes to Dumbo that we needed to use, so we headed over there. We opted to split the fast passes, getting smart to the fact that Joseph would probably come off the ride asking to go again and again. Joe took him first, and he had a blast!

It didn't take long for Joseph to figure out how to control Dumbo, and decided that "up!" was the best way to fly.

We were running short on time, so Mom, Dad, Madeline, Joseph and I went next. Madeline seemed to enjoy the ride, and Joseph loved it!

As evidenced by these pictures, Mimi and Papa just had fun taking pictures of the kiddos!

We decided to head over to the Wilderness Lodge so that we could check in and let the kids nap at a normal time. The Main Street Electrical Parade only ran Thursday-Monday nights, so this was our only shot at catching the parade, which we knew we wanted to do. (Plus, Mom and Dad saw it on their date night Saturday and had scoped out the best viewing spots!) There were a few issues at check in with the reservations and whatnot, but ultimately we were in our room around 3pm and the kids both quickly fell asleep.

A panorama of the lobby. Definitely an impressive place!

We hung out in the hotel room with the kids while mom and dad headed down to the pool. Apparently beside having a few drinks at the poolside bar, they had a nightly marshmallow roast, which they decided to partake in. Although mom commented that it would have been a bit better if they would have had the makings for s'mores too! Another fun feature of this resort is the geyser that "erupts" on the hour, down by the pool. They did such a neat job with the design of this resort.

We had hoped that our bags would have arrived by the time we checked in, but we had to wait about an hour before luggage services called to tell us they had shown up. The timing actually worked out fine, as we had time to reload on diapers, snacks and get everything sorted and unpacked, knowing that we were going to have a late night and wouldn't want to be messing with luggage when we got back to the hotel.

It was getting close to 6pm when Joseph finally woke up and we were trying to catch the 7pm parade, so we rushed to hop on the boat back to the Magic Kingdom. There were two boat services running every 20 minutes - one running to the Magic Kingdom, the other to the Contemporary resort, and when we got to the dock, the Contemporary boat was pulling up. My dad suggested taking that boat instead, then transferring to the monorail and taking it over to the Magic Kingdom. In his words, it would be so much faster than waiting the extra few minutes for the direct boat. So we hopped on... and headed to Fort Wilderness, as it was the next stop. Then we headed to the Contemporary. We went upstairs to catch the monorail, and learned that the only platform stop was for the monorail running away from the park, not toward it! So we got on, and headed backwards around the loop, stopping at the Ticket & Transportation Center, the Polynesian, the Grand Floridian, and finally the Magic Kingdom. By this time, it was about 10 minutes to 7pm, and Main Street was closed down, waiting for the parade to start. Of course, that meant we walked right up, crossed the street, and they promptly closed the crosswalk so my dad, Joseph and Joe got a front row seat! We didn't hear the end of how perfectly it all worked out all night :)

Joseph LOVED the parade - he waved to the passing characters, clapped along to the music, and generally stood in awe, mouth agape, for the whole thing:

The parade was really cute, and although I don't remember the detail of the floats from when I was a kid, it conjured up the same feelings I remembered. And who doesn't love the music??

The best part, was that since it was about 7:30 after the parade was over and the park closed at 9, most people opted to leave for the night after the parade was over. We headed over to the rides, discovering that pretty much all of the rides had no wait! We walked right on the Jungle Cruise, then Joseph flew the Magic Carpets a few times in a row. After grabbing some ice cream as dinner, we walked over to catch the nightly fireworks show.

This past summer, Joseph was excited about the idea of fireworks, but was scared by them in reality. I wasn't sure how he'd take seeing a big fireworks display up close, but he did great! Somehow, Maddie even managed to sleep through the majority of the display.

After the fireworks, Joe and I took Joseph on the Haunted Mansion, which he promptly told us he didn't want to ride again. I guess it was his least favorite ride at the Magic Kingdom, as everything but it got requests for additional rides. We then headed back into Fantasyland and rode Small World with Mimi, while Papa waited outside with Madeline. Joseph thought it was fascinating! When we got outside, Madeline had woken up, so we headed over to Tomorrowland where Joseph got to drive in the Tomorrowland Speedway cars with Joe and Papa while I fed Madeline. By this time, it was 9pm, so we gathered our things and headed for the hotel. We anticipated a regular boat ride back, but they were pulling the floats out for the nightly Electrical Water Parade, and by the time our boat pulled out, we were lined up right behind the floats, which were headed for the Wilderness Lodge first. It was really neat to see all of the floats, hear the music start and be able to watch the whole parade from the boat dock as we pulled in. 

The kids were beat, so we immediately put them to bed, and Joseph finally got his sleepover with Mimi and Papa (we had connecting rooms, which made things super easy). Mom, Dad, Joe and I took turns grabbing a late dinner from Roarin' Forks, the quick service restaurant in the hotel before turning in for the night.

Tuesday morning, my parents volunteered to watch Madeline so we could take Joseph by ourselves back to the Magic Kingdom for a couple hours before our scheduled character breakfast at Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary. We were happy to have the one on one time with him, so we got moving early and got to the park about 10 minutes after it opened at 9am.

You can tell from these pictures how empty the park was first thing in the morning! Notice the Disney photographers lined up in the middle of the street, waiting to take pictures?

We put them to the test, after learning that they would be happy to take a picture with our camera after snapping one for the Disney Photo Pass system. This worked out really well, as generally the pictures they took on our camera turned out as good as theirs, and that meant we didn't need to buy any!

We headed for Fantasyland, and after taking a spin on Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan, learned that the meet and greets with Goofy, Donald, Daisy and Minnie were open with no lines. Joe had opted to leave his medals in the room, and was slightly disappointed to see that he could take a picture with Goofy, since the characters weren't readily available at the end of the races. Luckily, there happened to be a lady in front of us who had also done the Goofy Challenge and was wearing her medal, so she let Joe borrow it for a quick picture:

We then headed over to the Barnstormer, where there was no wait at all. Joseph's favorite ride had been "the honey pot" until this first ride on the kids' roller coaster - he quickly had a new favorite!

He screamed in joy through almost the entire first ride, and as we were pulling into the station, he kept yelling, "again, again!" All in all, we went on the Barnstormer at least 4 times in a row before a line started to form and we opted to move on. It was hard to convince him that there were going to be other rides that he'd like just as much! Joe managed to video the entire ride, and I could watch this over and over - it's too cute! And yes, that is Joseph you hear screaming :)

We then went over to Tomorrowland and hopped right on the Buzz Lightyear Space Rangers ride. The first time we rode, Joseph was just in awe of the whole thing, and Joe got warmed up aiming at targets. We rode a couple more times, while Joe started researching how to win a high score, which came in handy later.

We had time for one more ride before needing to leave for our 11:20 reservations, so we opted to take a spin on the Astro Orbiters. Joseph loved this ride when we were in Disneyland after his first birthday, and we decided to try and recreate the pictures we had taken two years earlier.

Notice the similarities? Hard to believe it's been two years already!

Then, as we were headed back down Main Street, we discovered that one of the stage shows was going on at the Castle, so we had to stop and watch. I snapped this picture:

which evoked memories of Joseph on Joe's shoulders watching the show in Toontown at Disneyland...

 Man, how time flies! I was really happy at how many rides we managed to do in just 2 hours, and I think while Joseph would have been happy to stay longer, it made for a good break.

We met up with my parents and Madeline just in time at the Contemporary, and waited to be seated for brunch. Jill had organized a late morning character breakfast during the Disneyland trip that worked out really well, so I was hoping to copy the idea. After a couple hours of doing rides and watching the crowds grow, it was the perfect time to head out for an early lunch.

This character meal was totally different than the dinner we had at Epcot - it was noisy and crazy, and the buffet was a large spread that wrapped around the restaurant. The food was really quite good, and there were tons of options. Joseph enjoyed eating waffles shaped like Mickey, and ever since, when he asks for waffles, he's always requested Mickey waffles. But don't think for a minute that he had gotten over his reluctance to be near the characters - nope. This meal was all about snapping pictures of Madeline and the rest of us with Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy.

Every time a character came close, kids at neighboring tables would get all excited, jump up and practically tackle the characters. This was Joseph's response:

Oh well. At least we had a good meal, and there's lots of proof that he wasn't too sure of what to make of them!

 After breakfast we headed back to the hotel to let the kids nap. Dad got some work done, and we hung out on the balcony just taking in the sights and enjoying the great weather. It felt nice to finally relax on vacation, as we hadn't really done much of that with all of the race activities during the weekend.

When Joseph got up from his nap, Madeline was still napping, so we opted to send Joe and Joseph back over to the Magic Kingdom for some fun time together. My parents decided not to visit the parks at all that day, as they had used up a park day on Saturday and were down to one day left on their tickets. We decided that we would all go back to the Magic Kingdom as a group on Wednesday for a final fun day together.

Having reviewed various websites for the hidden high point targets, Joe took Joseph back over to the Buzz Lightyear ride to try it out again.

Not to say he didn't want his son to succeed, but notice the point differences? Oh right, Joseph got nothing and Joe got a lot Yes, Joe actually maxed out the highest score possible!

This is how Madeline typically let us know she was awake under her car seat canopy... one little foot would start wiggling and kicking its way out from under the cover! I can't tell you how many times we wouldn't hear anything, then a rustle and look over to see this. :)

Early Tuesday evening Madeline woke up from her nap, so we headed down to the boat dock just before sunset to meet up with Joe and Joseph.

We finally took the opportunity to take a Jeppson family picture; in retrospect I'm glad we did because our opportunities were quickly becoming limited. I love that the photographer was able to get one while we all were looking at the camera, and Joseph even managed a smile!

My parents had advised us to watch the Monster's Inc. comedy show, so we headed that way. We had just missed a seating, so we had a while to wait. Joseph opted to play with the laugh canister and had lots of fun jumping up and down the steps.

The show was really cute - it was an animated, interactive comedy show where the various monsters on the screen talked to people in the audience. A two headed monster opted to talk to a human version, and selected Joe and Joseph, as Joseph was sitting on Joe's lap. The show actually turned funny when they asked their names, and got the typical, "Joe" and "JoJo" response, which got a few laughs. It definitely went right over Joseph's head, but Joe and I thought the show was fun.

Once again, the park crowds were really thinning out, so we caught the end of the afternoon parade, and then went over to Pirates of the Caribbean. There was absolutely no wait, so we walked right on and Madeline promptly fell asleep in the Baby Bjorn. Joseph wanted to go again, so I waited outside with Maddie while Joe took Joseph again. On our way back over to Fantasyland, we stopped and bought a Christmas ornament as our family souvenir of the trip. We took another few family pictures in front of the castle, but weren't as successful at getting everyone looking at the camera. Oh well.

Joseph wanted to take Madeline on Small World, and we were happy to oblige. Madeline's eyes were as wide as saucers checking everything out!

The park closed at 8pm, and we knew we were running out of time. Instead of watching the fireworks again, Joe and Joseph ran over to ride Winnie the Pooh again, and because there wasn't a wait at all, the cast member apparently let them just stay on the ride and keep riding around and around. I sat outside Mickey's Philharmagic and fed Madeline, while waiting on the boys to return. I'm glad we opted to watch the show instead of seeing the fireworks again - it was really great! Of course, at the end Joseph wanted to see it again, but we had caught the very last showing, and the park was almost empty already as the fireworks had ended a few minutes before we got out of the auditorium. The night was a bit chilly, so Joseph decided to put on Joe's sweater instead of his jacket. When we got back to the hotel room, he had fun showing off!

We also decided to let him sleep with us, as my parents had headed to the Polynesian for dinner reservations and we didn't know when they would return. There were a ton of pillows on each bed, and Joseph decided to pile them all up to sleep on...after a bit of convincing, he finally agreed to just a couple and quickly fell asleep. Madeline had reverted to her "normal" bad sleeping schedule, and woke up every few hours, but luckily Joseph managed to sleep through most of the noise.

Wednesday morning my parents got up and took Joseph downstairs to get some Mickey waffles for breakfast. I think he ended up deciding once at the restaurant that he wanted eggs instead, so we kept hearing about wanting Mickey waffles the rest of the trip.

Joe decided to bring all of his medals with him so that he could take some fun pictures with the statues at the end of Main Street. While he was busy getting the shots he wanted, my parents and I took the kids over to Tomorrowland, when Joseph rode the Buzz Lightyear ride with Mimi and Papa.

Madeline was ready to eat, so I fed her while Joe took Joseph for another spin on Buzz Lightyear, and my parents opted to ride Space Mountain, as there wasn't any wait. Once they were finished, Joe and I took a turn on the Mountain, only to discover that the recent remodel of the ride left it much less fun than it was previously. Typically we ride Space Mountain over and over, and half way through the ride we both independently decided that bumping along in the pitch black left a lot to be desired and we didn't have any interest in riding again. Serious bummer!

Joseph got to fly on the Astro Orbiters with Papa one more time while we were busy on Space Mountain, and then we all headed back into Fantasyland. Joseph got to take Mimi and Papa on Goofy's Barnstormer, and then get another ride with us. It was then that I noticed he didn't seem to be in as good of a mood as he had been, and his head was feeling a bit warm. We opted to take a spin (or two) on the teacups, which put him in a better mood as he had a blast trying to spin the cup around and around. Once we finished, though, we could tell he wasn't feeling well and that he was definitely starting to run a fever. We knew that our time spent in the park was probably going to be limited, so we figured we'd take in the last few shows we hadn't seen, and headed off for the Country Bear Jamboree.

While waiting for the next show to begin, we picked up a couple Mickey pretzels and churros. Joseph only managed a few bites and generally just wanted to be cuddled. He seemed to like the show (which I hadn't seen in probably 20 years and had forgotten how hokey it really was) and instead of heading over to the Tiki Room, we went to the First Aid station to see if we could get him some Tylenol. I was really glad we thought to check there first, as they were happy to take his temperature and give us a dose, free of charge. We also learned that his fever had spiked to 103.6, and the nurse warned us that it was pretty serious. We figured that he had probably caught the flu from me, so we made the decision to head back toward the Main Street station, do one last spin on the train, and head back to the hotel.

Once we got back to the hotel, we put the kids down for a nap, and then Joe and I decided to take a few hours to go explore Epcot. My parents stayed behind to watch the kids for us, which was awesome. Epcot was fairly empty, so we were able to get right on Test Track and Mission Earth. We then wandered around the World Showcase and ate lunch in France, which was really tasty. We continued around, took a spin on Maelstrom, went on the Journey Through Imagination with Figment ride. I thought I remembered it as a kid, the only thing that I remembered was the song and Figment himself. 

We knew it was time to be getting back to the hotel, so we left Epcot and got on our bus back to the Wilderness Lodge. Joseph still wasn't feeling too well, so we just hung out and wandered around the hotel, exploring. I knew that the neighboring Disney Vacation Club Villas had a room or space dedicated to Walt's personal trains at his home, so I told Joseph that if he ate his dinner, we'd head over to look for the train room. That was enough incentive, so Papa, Joseph and I went to go check it out. They had some neat pictures and a few of the actual train cars available to see. We passed the arcade room on the way back up to the hotel, and Papa opted to stop and play some games with Joseph. By the end of the night, it seemed like Joseph was definitely sick, but feeling fairly normal.

We put the kids to bed and then headed out to Downtown Disney for a date night. Of course, our date night turned into me almost falling asleep on the bus, and then spending a decent amount of time shopping for gifts for the kids. I had read that the toy store had a lot of Mr. Potato Head parts that were specific to Disney, and that you could fill a box for $20. We figured that would make for a good souvenir, and Joe set to cramming as much as possible into the box.

It barely closed, but the cast member who rang us up didn't blink an eye, so Joe felt like he probably could have gotten away with a few more pieces and was somewhat disappointed. We also picked up some bath toys for Madeline and Mason (from Mimi and Papa) and a personalized sing a long CD for Joseph, which he loves and we have listened to non stop since being back home.

We then wandered around the rest of Downtown Disney, but it was getting quite late. We stopped for some sandwiches at the Earl of Sandwich and were surprised at how tasty they were (and how cheap, all things considered!)

Thursday morning we woke up and started packing. We were happy to discover that the beautiful weather had taken a turn for the worse, so even though we didn't get to spend much time in the parks on our last day,  it all worked out. Joseph got up feeling ok, but quickly turned into a fussy mess after breakfast. He ended up laying down for a nap around 10am, and ended up sleeping until it was time to check out of the room at 1pm! 

We basically had a lazy morning hanging out at the hotel, waiting for our shuttle bus to the airport. Joseph enjoyed watching the Disney movies in the lobby and snacking a bit on some lunch, and then we had a relatively quiet and quick ride to the airport. 

Mimi, Papa, Joe and Madeline grabbed a late lunch/early dinner, before it was time to board our planes and head for home. I wish we wouldn't have had to deal with two people catching the flu, but it was a wonderful week long vacation!