What a magical experience

When my sister said that she and her family would be in Florida for a few days we jumped at the chance to drive down for a weekend to see them.  The last minute reunion was made all the better when we decided to 'meet in the middle' at Disney World.  Within ~3 weeks we were checking in at our cabin, right next to my sister and her family's cabin, at the Fort Wilderness Cabins.   We ended up having a great time over the next 3.5 days exploring the Resort!  

We left SUPER early on our drive so that we could get to florida by lunch time.  The timing worked out great with my sister's family as we were able to meet up for lunch before we went in to the Resort.  Lunch was complete with a random balloon artist.  From there we entered the magical world of Disney and settled in to our cabins.  

The first night we embraced the locale and made Mickey Mouse cupcakes.

 The next day we headed out bright at early to take the boat over to Magic Kingdom

and rode tons of rides.  Henry's favorite ride was "flying!" We probably rode the Dumbo ride at Magic Kingdom 5 or 6 times  and the triceratops flying ride at Animal Kingdom twice.

That first day we went back to the cabin around 1:30 for kids' naps. They were ready to pass out after having had so much fun since 8am.  In the late afternoon we went swimming at the pool across street and then grilled our dinner on the grill at the cabin.  This was pretty much our schedule every day.  That night we took advantage of activities at the camp grounds and went to the big campfire where the kids could meet the chipmunks, Chip and Dale.  The boys didn't quite seize the opportunity to meet Chip and Dale but they surely enjoyed making a s'more.

The next day we went to Animal Kingdom - which was a huge hit.  I went with Henry on the 'Dinosaur' ride which was a bit scary, but Henry did great.  He looked pretty freaked out at the end but shook it off and said he was glad he tried the ride.  Then when I asked if he would want to ride it again with Scott he clearly conveyed that he did not want to try that out again.  Off we went to ride fly with the triceratops again.

After that we were paleontologists for awhile

until it was our scheduled time to meet Mickey and Minnie.  While Elliot was completely mesmerized by the fact that he was with a real life Mickey and Minnie who signed his little book, Henry was a bit weirded out by the fact that Mickey and Minnie were trying to interact with him.  Henry later told me that he didn't think it was the real Mickey and Minnie because he didn't recognize their safari outfits.

After we walked around an area with a lot of animals, somewhat like a zoo, we met back up with my sister and her family to go on a super fun jeep safari.  Still today if I say giraffe around Elliot, like when we're reading a book, he'll say 'baby giraffe!' because we saw one on this safari.

That next day we went back to Magic Kingdom. Now that we were all experts we had even more fun every step of the way, including the bus ride to the boat

 Piloting Dumbo like a pro

and spinning the tea cups like madmen.

During lunch that last day, Scott and I traded off riding Space Mountain.  I had such a vivid memory of riding that ride way back when I last went to Disney when I was ~8.  I was in the second seat and my brother was in the front seat warning me before all the twists and turns.  This time around I definitely missed my tour guide! After Space Mountain we all rode the People Mover to get a birds eye view of some of the park.

 And you can tell Elliot was having a great time

At this point it was clear that the boys were just about filled to the brim with magical experiences and it was probably time to say our adieus...but not before we stumbled up a stage show, while Elliot was sleeping in the Ergo

and then watched a parade FULL of classic characters - including Donald Duck who ended up becoming one of Elliots favs.  Luckily Elliot woke up as the parade music started blaring and was able to enjoy the celebration

Since we left the park a tad bit early this last day, at ~1:30, we had some time before the kids konked out to fit in a...pony ride!

Henry deserved the nap he promptly fell into

That night the girls put on a princess show for all of us :)

But then it was time to say good night before our last night bedtime at the Resort

Before we headed out the next day the boys wanted to go to the bus stop and at least pretend that we were going to get on the bus to the boat to go to the park

The next day we went to Downtown Disney to look around and have lunch.  We found a fountain that ended up a favored attraction. We spent a lot of time watching the kids crack up whenever the water shot up.

The final thing we did in the magical world of Disney was Build a Dinosaur. This was lots of fun!  Henry picked out a t rex, no surprise there, and named him Steggy, and Elliot picked out an ankylosaurus, perhaps because I nudged him to do so.  With our new dinosaurs in hand, it was finally time to get back on the road, with all of our great memories and mementos in hand.

 And the blissful attitude lasted well in to the next morning

First family camping trip!

Ever since I was pregnant I've looked forward to camping with my growing family.  We moved to Bangladesh when Henry was 3 months and didn't pull off a camping trip the summer before we moved.  While we've been able to spend time in the great outdoors over the past years, we've never actually organized enough to set up a tent.  Finally, after months of looking forward to the plan, we went camping!  We pulled off the feat with our friends whose son is Henry's best friend.  We had such a great time!  We're already looking forward to the next tenting adventure.









We all set up our tents first.  They had a spacious 4 person tall tent while we had my favorite 3 person tent to cram in. Luckily the boys are still young and don't take up much space.  Everyone actually slept really went except for Elliot who found himself lost in the sleeping bag at 3am.  I didn't mind the fact that he was startled because after that he chose to climb over Henry to sleep right next to me.  The caveat is that he never actually got far enough to get back off of Henry and slept the remainder of the night on top of him. How those two boys were comfortable like that is beyond me.

 We hung out while all the gear was spread out

Then enjoyed a great dinner after exploring the camp grounds.  After dinner, we, of course, made s'mores.  The other family had whittled some marshmallow roasting sticks in preparation for the big event.

 Elliot was super excited

 Proud s'more maker and consumer

 Then more time by the fire, including a few stories about monsters

The next day we hiked from the campground to the water falls.  We were actually at the same park where we had hiked when we spent a weekend at a cabin in the Fall.  It's such a pretty area of the State.  A portion of the hike includes descending to a suspension bridge over a very deep gorge.  Elliot and I were the last ones on the bridge getting caught up looking down to the water through the planks on the bridge. Elliot got inspired watching everyone else hike up the stairs and decided that he had to climb up all by himself...all 375 steps!  I tried to pick him up a once but he was quite communicative that he was not happy with that option.

 Scott eventually came back down to see if we had gotten lost and found us with ~40 steps remaining.

I could do that every weekend!