Disney Trip Day 2: Magic Kingdom

Sorry, this is taking me longer than I thought it would-- I should have taken better notes when we were there! Lesson learned for next time!

In the middle of the night, Brandon and I woke up star-ving! We polished off a cup of fruit that we had in the fridge in mere seconds and washed it down with the drinks in our mugs. Oink, Oink...

The next morning, we got up and got everyone dressed. Then we went down to the Intermission cafeteria. I sat at the table with the children as they ate their fruit cups and nursed Solomon while Brandon got our breakfast. We had the All Star Breakfast.

Then we quickly boarded a bus to the Magic Kingdom-- our system was working! Brandon and the girls were in awe when we went through the Main Gates. I don't think he believed me when I tried to explain how Disney does everything up. It was chilly but we made the best of it we could. I'd rather be cold in Disney than cold in Virginia! We got some pictures taken on Main Street by the Photopass folks and made our way to the Hall of Presidents.

On the way, we saw Cinderella's Castle and my girls were just IN LOVE with it. Julianne (4) is in love with all things Tinkerbell and thought Tink should have her own castle. So she kept asking us where Tinkerbell lived. When we arrived at the Hall of Presidents we were in between showings but I was just happy to be in from the wind. We were going to watch a show, but Solomon got fussy.. so I nursed him and then he settled in so we decided to head back out. My husband didn't seem super thrilled about seeing the Hall of Presidents so we moved on.

We went to Country Bear Jamboree and everyone enjoyed it. Then we tried to go see Aladdin and Jasmine. DeLainey thought it was funny that Jasmine's tummy was all covered up (like I said, it was cold.) We weren't there in time to get in line, so I told the girls we would come back another time.

They saw the Magic Carpet Ride and really wanted to ride, so we did. All of us rode since another castmember told my husband that babies ride all the time. (I knew there was no height restriction but wanted to make sure.) The castmember kept telling me to hold on tight to Solomon... But I, of course, all ready knew that. She kept acting kind of shocked that we were going to take him on, but it was fine. I held onto him tightly and he seemed to like the motion. Now my daughter on the other hand kept pushing the buttons to go uppppppppppppppppp and dooooooooooooooooooown and upppppppppppppppp and downnnnnnnnnnnn... I started to feel a little sick, but the ride finished just in the nick of time. Teaching this one to drive, is her Daddy's job.. I can't imagine doing it!

By this time, the tribe was starting to get antsy for some food, so we headed to Pecos Bills. We say Davy Donald Duck and since Donald is my husband's favorite character we got in line for pictures. Xander wasn't too sure about the big Duck but he seemed to go along with it. When we got to Pecos Bill's it was packed. I found a kiosk but it was broken, so we found another one and I entered the food order in. Brandon and I both ordered the Deluxe 1/3 lb Angus Cheeseburger and we ordered hamburgers for the girls. I handed the ticket to Brandon and went with the children to get a seat. We had to sit wayyyy in the back in a diningroom to the side. By the time my husband got though the line to pick up food they had set our food trays in the cooler and everything was cold. Brandon told the castmember that our food was cold to the touch and it was unacceptable so they remade our food. In all honesty, our food wasn't exactly piping hot when we ate it so I see how it got cold so quickly. This wasn't anywhere near the best food we had on our trip. The bun on my burger was hard and dry, the meat was dry and my onion rings that came on my burger were very brown. We added a good bit of condiments to our sandwiches and it was barely tolerable. I picked at my burger but ate my fries. Brandon said that his food was "alright." He liked the nacho cheese being on the bar and he dipped his fries in it. We were sitting by a very stinky trashcan and that was a bummer. Overall, I don't think we'd be eager to return to that restaurant.

When we left Pecos Bill's we rode the Walt Disney World Railroad. Xander fell asleep in Brandon's arms and Solomon fell asleep in my arms. So we rode the complete trip and then got off on the ToonTown Fair stop.

(The best I could do on a moving train with a sleeping child on my chest. Forgive my horrible photography!)

We went into the Judge's Tent then the Toontown Hall of Fame Tent. I have such special memories of these two places. As we walked through the Judge's Tent I explained the Hidden Mickeys to Lainey. She thought that was just so neat! Then, Minnie and Mickey were great with our kiddos. Lainey asked Mickey "Do you remember me from yesterday?" And Mickey shook his head up and down signaling yes. That made her day! We got a family picture.

Next up was the ToonTown Hall of Fame Tent. We chose to do the Princess side instead of the Fairies because the sign said that Fairies had a wait twice as long as Princesses. We assured Julianne we would try to get back to see the Fairies.

The princesses... oh my.. where do I start? They were WONDERFUL with the girls. At first Julianne was very shy... it was almost as if she couldn't believe her eyes.Daddy had to help talk to the princesses for Julianne. Lainey took right to them and had something to tell each one. She talked about the airplane ride with Cinderella. Cindy said she'd never been on an airplane. Lainey was almost racing to get through all the stations to get to Belle. She wanted to tell Belle that she reads books too! (Reading was a real struggle for Lainey last year but she has taken off.) *sniff, sniff* She even told Belle that she reads the Beauty and the Beast Storybook sometimes. Belle said she couldn't really imagine books about herself but said that she thought it was really neat that Lainey was reading so well. The girls continued to talk about meeting the princesses for days and days after their meet and greet.. in fact they still do!

(Most of my pictures are blurry so I'll wait and put up our Photopass pictures of this part.)

We saw Mickey's Country House. And then we walked over to Donald's Boat. There was no water but Brandon asked me to take a picture by the door.

The girls thought that the Alice topiary (?) was so neat and asked for us to take a picture.

We headed to Sleepy Hollow so we could sit down for a bit and get a snack. We used two snack credits and got two funnel cakes. We found a nice little place to the side with tables and benches and enjoyed the quiet. Then we went to the Main Street Bakery and picked up cinnamon buns to take back to our room. They were HUGE.
We took the bus back to the resort and lightened our load considerably. We put Solomon in a warm sleeper and headed back out. We got back on the bus and rode back to Magic Kingdom. Then we got on the bus to Coronado Springs so we could eat at Peppermarket.

Peppermarket was a wonderful meal. I went and picked meals for the girls. They both had asked for pizza. While I was up getting their food, I looked around and decided I wanted fajitas. When I got back to the table, I told Brandon and he went to pick up our meals while I got the children settled. Here are my fajitas.

He ended up getting a burrito and a side of black beans.

Then when I got done I went to pick my dessert and he went to pick his. I'm not a big sweets eater so my dessert was split between the girls. I had Chocolate Layered Cake. But Brandon enjoyed every bite of his Oreo Cake.

We almost felt like we were "cheating" on the quick service dining plan since a server refilled our drinks and we had real silverware instead of plasticware.

Then we took the bus back to the Magic Kingdom and rode the monorail to the Grand Floridian so we could see the Gingerbread House.Then we headed back to the resort for the night

~Steph

The Story Behind the Picture

I snapped this picture (with my phone) when we were in the Magic Kingdom. Our kiddos were waiting fairly patiently to meet a character. I snapped the picture in the moment. I wasn't worried about messy hair, Xander having no shoes, Solomon always having his hands in his mouth, or even Julianne looking like she wasn't sure what was going on.

I wanted to remember that moment forever.

Unfortunately this hasn't always been the case. I have an eye for detail... and well that can be either a blessing or a curse. Unfortunately, I've let it be a curse in my life. I can't tell you how many times I've put my children through endless amounts of pictures to get things "just so." Every hair in place, outfits looking perfect and pristine. I had sucked the joy out of memory taking. I've deleted wayyyy more pictures than I've kept.

Thankfully, God knew this about me and has given me four children, 7 and under and made me realize that in my human-ness I can't make every single detail perfect anymore. Sometimes I have to just relax and roll with it. My life isn't a movie that I can reshoot things over and over and over and make them appear perfect every moment of the day.

So my Christmas cards had an imperfect picture tucked inside. And I continued the theme when we got to Disney. I took imperfect pictures. I let my girls wear their princess gowns two days in a row (after washing of course.. all my standards aren't gone! LOL) I put Xander's shoes (and socks!) in our bag since he obviously didn't want to wear them and thought it was more fun to randomly throw them down. I let my hair down and I loved every single moment of it.

THIS is who I want to be. I want to be the fun mom that goes with the flow. Not everything can be that way, but ALOT of the details of life don't matter in the grand scheme of things. And each day that I've purposefully chosen to not be that nitpicky woman I was has been more filled with joy, more fun and more memorable to me.

When I look at the picture of my Fab Four, I see a little boy that is so in love with his little brother, that we had to separate him so that Solomon wouldn't have his eyeballs poked out. I see a little girl that is thrilled for her big sister that we are standing in a two hour line to meet Repunzel. I see a big sister that was happy to entertain her siblings while we waited instead of whining. I see a baby that is so very loved by his older sibings and was just happy to be one of them as he contentedly chewed his fingers.

Sure Xander has the sunshade to the stroller under his bare feet. Sure Julianne has more hair that has fallen out of her pigtails than in her pigtails and isn't smiling. Sure Xander is oblivious that I'm trying to get his attention to take a picture.

This is my now. This is the family that God has planned for me. He knew I needed them. I needed to learn this lesson.

And I'm so glad I learned it now.. the future is going to be so much fun!

His,

~Steph

Epcot-- Day 1 continued

After we ate our lunch, Brandon ran three of the refillable mugs to the room. I like to have something to sip on with me at all times, and the double stroller has a cupholder so I took my drink with us.

We walked to the bus station area and hopped on the bus to epcot. It was a little rough getting two strollers collapsed and carrying two children but we managed. (Xander can walk but his new "game" is to take off his shoes and socks randomly so we put his shoes in our bag so we wouldn't lose them.) We quickly strategized how to make that transition smoother since it felt really rushed and frazzled me a bit.

There was a little drizzle so we put on our dollar store ponchos when we stepped off of the bus. The first stop in Epcot was the Character spot. The line was long but was moving rather quickly so it wasn't bad at all. I looked down after a few minutes and found the two boys sleeping.

(Xander did have a coat but he got warm while we were standing in line so I took it off of him while we were inside and Solomon always pulls the blanket in his face to sleep.)

I had to giggle... here we are in Disney and half of my children are sleeping! We kept walking in the line and right before we got to the front, I looked down again and 3 were sleeping!

I didn't want to wake them up so we decided that we'd see if Mickey and friends would play along. We also thought this would give Lainey some one on one time with the characters. Mickey and the photopass photographer were very nice and after they laughed a bit we got our first character picture. Lainey got some one on one time with Mickey. After she took some pictures with him and we had a picture taken of just Momma, Daddy and Lainey she looked up at me and said "Momma.. you made my wish come true!" *sniff, sniff*


Boy oh boy was she shocked when we went to the next station and Minnie was there!


Lightbulb Moment: As we walked to the next station, Lainey said "She was tiny!" I laughed a little and said "Honey.. her name isn't Giant Mouse. Her name is MINNIE mouse."

We also saw Donald, Goofy and Pluto!

Since 3/4 of the kids were still sleeping we decided to try to do Soarin' and do child swap. Lainey and I went to the line and the wait was about 70 minutes. As we stood there, we decided we didn't want to spend so much time separated from our family. So we got out of line.

When we met back up, the children were all awake again. We went to The Seas with Nemo and Friends. We split up into two clam-mobiles. Lainey and Solomon were with me. Lainey was frightened by the jellyfish. I explained that nothing at Disney was going to hurt her...I think she may have just been a little overwhelmed and tired.

Then we went to Turtle Talk with Crush. Lainey was picked to ask Crush a question. Rick, the castmember had trouble finding the "dudette in the spotted shell" and Crush got a little sassy with him. But it was hilarious! Lainey asked if turtles have tails and was so excited that Crush not only answered but he spun around too!

We loved looking around at the holiday decor.









We got hungry and headed to Mexico in the World Showcase to eat at La Catina de San Angel. Brandon and I ordered Tacos de Carne with churros, a lemonade and a diet coke. We ordered one Chicken Tender kids meal and one Empanada de Queso. Both came with chips and grapes. We split the kids meals so they could both have a taste of each others and gave Xander a chicken tender.

It was very, very cold and our food got cold quickly. I thought that my chips were a bit hard (stale?) so I really only ate the tacos. The sauce was wonderful! My lemonade went into the our backpack since I still had powerade in my refillable mug. I thought the meal was on the small side. It would have been more filling if I had eaten the chips too. But it was SO cold, I couldn't bring myself to sit there any longer. Solomon was going through a growth spurt and nursing alot, which increased my appetite. The tenders, empanada and chips were quickly inhaled by the children. We saved the grapes and put them in our backpack.

We split the two orders of churros between the five of us. At first I wasn't much of a fan, but they quickly grew on me. The children would have eaten more if we had them.

I thought the birds were really aggressive, but maybe they were in rare form since another guest was purposefully throwing food down for them.

At this point we decided we were just too cold and tired. It had been a long day since we had an early flight. We headed back to the bus stop around 5:30. There was a bus going to our resort waiting. We hopped right on and had a much smoother loading experience with our changes.

Once we got back to the resort, we picked up 2 more containers of soymilk and 4 fruit cups and used 6 snack credits to pay. We also showed our receipt from lunch and got our desserts. I had a sundae and Brandon had a milkshake.

We stored the fruitcups and milk in the fridge in our room. We let the kids wind down with some television. Brandon and I each took a soak in the bathtub and we went to bed on the early side.

Next up: Day Two- Magic Kingdom

Disney Day 1: Arrival

On Saturday evening, I finally broke my husband down and convinced him that we should tell the girls what the surprise was.

We videotaped it but I can't figure out how to share it here. Needless to say, they appeared more excited about the flight and concerned about where the van would be then going to Disney. It took me a few minutes to figure it out.

One of the girls had "guessed" Disney earlier after eavesdropping on a phone call and Brandon fibbed and told them that you had to be 10 to go. So Lainey thought that she wouldn't be able to ride anything. Thus, the anti-climatic videotaping session. Once we cleared that up, she was very excited to go. Since they don't watch much TV they don't see a whole lot of commercials so they weren't sure what to expect. I'm sure if and when we go back they will be much more excited. Tee hee!

We ordered pizza and ate on paperplates the night before we departed. We had zero issues getting the children to go to sleep. (Hmm I wonder why?)

Brandon and I finished packing and we headed to bed around midnight. At 3am, Solomon woke for a feeding right before our alarm clock was scheduled to go off.

I nursed him and dressed him and then put him in his carseat. I thought for sure he'd doze off, but he sure seemed to know that something special was about to happen. He was wide awake.

The girls got up without much issue. I put them to bed in their dresses and leggings the night before so all they had to do was eat breakfast, brush their teeth, have their hair done and put shoes on.

While I did their hair, Brandon loaded the van. And we were off. It was 4:20 am and we were right on schedule.

Funny story of the day: Julianne saw Brandon putting on his shoes. She opens her mouth wide and says "Daddy, you are going to Disney too!?!?!?" Uhhh.. yup. Priceless.. not sure if she thought just the kids were going or what. So funny.

We arrived at the airport right around 5am. At the last minute we decided not to use the economy parking that was poorly lit and quite a distance from the airport. We quickly found a close parking space and took a few minutes to gather our thoughts. I was stressed and needed a few minutes to pull myself together.

We started to unload our things. An advantage that we quickly noticed as our children have gotten older is that there are more hands to help.

I unfolded the double and single umbrella stroller and started putting children in. We had three suitcases, a diaper bag and a backpack. Brandon carried the backpack and pushed a stroller. I pushed a stroller, hung the diaper bag on the stroller handles and drug a rolling suitcase. Lainey pulled two suitcases.

We didn't have far to go but it was SO helpful! We got on the elevator and barely fit. Then we went to the airline counter, turned in our luggage and got our boarding passes.

Next up was security. For a few weeks I had worried about going through security. I prayed about it alot. And I have to say, every prayer was answered!

First, we went to a podium. The worker checked our IDs, asked the girls their names and passed us through. While we were waiting, I took everyone's coats off. Then I took off the children's shoes and put them in a bucket. Coats in another bucket. Bags on the conveyor belt. I picked up Solomon from the stroller and asked Julianne to stand. Brandon folded the stroller and put it on the belt. He picked up Xander and folded the stroller and together we put it on the belt.

I walked through with Solomon, Brandon walked through with Xander and both of the girls walked through on their own. We grabbed the buckets and went to the bench to put everyone back together. Xander's almond milk was tested and we were on our merry little way. No nekkid scanner, no patdowns.

Easy, breezy, beautiful.. covergirl. Oops.. Just easy, breezy, beautiful I mean!

We easily found our gate and noticed that we were near a bathroom and a small stand with some breakfast items. We asked the girls if they wanted a banana or a yogurt. One had a yogurt, one had a banana and I got a banana for Xander. Brandon and I got breakfast sandwiches and a drink. I ate the sausage off and gave the biscuit to the girls to split. It wasn't a very good biscuit at all and I was still nervous about the flight.

We camped out at the gate and looked around. We made some smalltalk with another group sitting next to us. I popped my anti-histamine dose and all was well. (Yes, I'm still on an anti-histamine cocktail...) Oh and I snapped some pictures of us in our early morning groggy state. (None of us are morning folks- but Xander was having a pretty good time!)


We gate checked the strollers and walked on with just the diaper bags and the backpack. We had four seats all on the same row. Three on one side and one seat on the other. The flight went really well. Solomon finally fell asleep after nursing again and slept for most of the flight. Xander took a short nap. Before long we landed!

Once we got to the Orlando Airport we quickly found our way to the tram and followed the signs to Mickey's Magical Express. We showed them our tickets and quickly loaded.

Apparently, our bus driver was very new. I mean.. like maybe her first day out of training? It was a rather scary drive with lots of heavy breaking, a heavy foot on the gas followed by heavy breaking and back to heavy accelerating. And tediously slow turning. Brandon and I just looked at each other.

But we got there in one piece. Somehow seeing this on the way made things all better.


We walked into the All Star Music Hotel and holy smokes it was busy. We stood in line for about an hour. During that time, we had our first sprinkling of pixie dust. A man walked up to us and asked if we could use some apple juice boxes. They were all sealed and still in the big outside package. He explained he over bought at the grocery delivery and that his bag was too heavy to take them home. I thanked him and then he offered some bottled Lipton Green Tea. We don't drink that so I passed and wished him a safe trip home.

Luis checked us in and the only thing that was not 100% correct was the pack and play situation. We requested two and only one was already in our room. Not a huge deal really and I knew it was going to happen because I saw it when I tried to do online check in the night before (unsuccessfully.) We did get the building we requested and he said that they would send a pack and play up.

Our room was ready so we headed to our building to lighten our load a bit. As we were sorting through things to leave at the hotel there was a knock and our pack and play arrived. Then there was another knock. Our luggage arrived.

We headed down to the Intermission Cafeteria and ordered lunch.

We used 4 counter service credits:
2 bacon cheeseburgers, fries and icecream sundaes
2 grilled cheese sandwiches and fries and grapes
A soymilk, 1 chocolate milk, bottled water, lemonade.

And we picked up all four of our reusable mugs that came with our dining plan.

Then we got another soymilk and used a snack credit for that.

Next up: Day 1 Continued Epcot

~Steph

We are different and I love it!

I had a lot of time to think and observe this past week. I love to people watch and Disney is people watching extreme.

I started to notice a trend. Children at Disney that had no idea how to occupy their every waking moment without electronics. Seriously. We stood in line for hours and hours by the time you added it all up. And as I looked around I saw children watching movies on phones, portable DVD players and playing all kinds of electronic games. Literally, children were rushing through the rides and attractions to get back to their electronics!

I noticed families on vacation that weren't even speaking to each other. I noticed families with a pained look on their face as they were "forced" to spend time together. I overheard a mother tell her child "I can't wait until we are home and I can drop you off at daycare!"

And I started thinking about what makes our family different...

1. Brandon and I see children as blessings. I can't say this enough. Children aren't burdens. They are glorious gifts from above. They come complete with their own little quirks and personalities. Children are FUN. It was amazing to watch my children as their eyes lit up in amazement at the sights and sounds. Complete amazement.

2. We spend a lot of time together. My children don't see their siblings as annoyances or rivals. They rarely argue and if they do, they quickly make up because they don't like to be on the outs. We eat three meals together with everyone in attendance-- including Daddy! And we crave MORE time together than what we already get. The girls share a bedroom and recently begged me to never make them sleep in separate rooms.

3. We don't rely on electronics to keep our children entertained. Our children watch less than 2 hours a week of television. And we only hit the two hour mark if we watch a movie.. together! Lainey received a gameboy (refurbished!) with a few games (used!) for her 7th birthday that she plays every so often. But she really would rather play with her siblings. We play board games and read. We are creative. It was amazing how our children really started playing when we limited TV!

4. We control the messages that our children hear and challenge the ones that slip by. One message we are constantly told is "You can't give your children everything if you have a large family." We challenge that. Why would I want to give a child everything? How do you define everything? Does giving your child everything help or hurt them in the long run? What happened to delayed gratification? Hard work? Counting the blessings you do have? Earning something yourself? If I give my children everything, what is their motivation? Sorry, I don't want to raise my children expecting to be entitled to everything, at least not everything as the world defines it.

Long story short, I fell in love with my family all over again this last week. I love each and every member of our family for who they are and I'm excited to see who each child becomes. Each addition to our family has added another layer to our family make up. We are by no means perfect but I couldn't be more pleased with the direction our family is heading.

~Steph

A Divine Appointment... Disney Style

We are home! We had a fabulous week and I can't wait to share all of our adventures but first I'm so excited to share this story.

I believe in divine appointments. Years ago, I was the subject of a Divine Appointment myself. I get giddy when I realize that God has used me in encouraging others. So I want to share this little gem with you!

Thursday night we went to Downtown Disney and ate at Wolfgang Puck Express. It was delicious but soon after Solomon and Xander had the biggest meltdown of the trip. I suddenly felt like we should go "home" back to the hotel. I was a little bummed that we didn't get to look in some of the stores but I mentioned to Brandon that maybe we could come back the next night and he quickly agreed. We rode the Disney bus to the hotel, tucked everyone in and had some quiet time together. I couldn't get Downtown Disney off of my mind for the rest of the night.

Fast forward, the next day we went back to Downtown Disney. This time earlier in the night. They had a Santa there and since we hadn't gotten a chance to visit Santa yet this year, Brandon put us in line. Solomon started fussing and I knew he was ready to nurse. So I grabbed my nursing cover and headed to the nearest bench. There was a lady sitting there with a little boy.. maybe 3 or 4 years old. I typically try to sit by myself to nurse but for some reason (wink, wink) joined her on the bench.

Her son asked her why Solomon was under my nursing cover and she explained that I was feeding him and that was how she had fed him. We struck up conversation and before long we were chatting family and husbands. The conversation flowed SO easily, like when you call and catch up with an old friend.

The spacing of the boys came up and she was so kind! I mentioned we adopted and then we found out I was expecting and she asked The Question. "Were you trying?" I quickly said "Oh we weren't trying or preventing.. God builds our family." She smiled BIG and was very positive.

I found out that she was from RICHMOND! And she asked some questions about adoption. She shared which denomination she belonged to (happens to be the same as one of the agencies we used.)

Then she got a little quieter and said that she had had two miscarriages. One at 9 weeks and one at 16 weeks and that she wondered if statistically she was doomed because both of the baby girls had Turner's Syndrome. She went on to say that a genetic specialist encouraged her to try again and that statistically odds were in her favor. But that she had a little doubt in her heart and she just didn't know.... after all she had lost two baby girls in a row with the same genetic syndrome. She thought that those odds were significant.

I could tell she was hurting and needed encouragement. My heart was just skipping beats during this portion of our conversation. I looked her in the eyes and softly said "Our God isn't a God of statistics." And shared our amazing story (matched 2 weeks after we were approved to adopt, pregnant a few months later when earlier in our lives several "perfect, textbook" cycles with medical help didn't end in pregnancy, my VBAC, etc, etc.) Her eyes lit up and her facial expressions were TOTALLY different after I reminded her that God doesn't follow stats. He follows His planning! Her husband walked over during that part and you could just see the weight lifted off of his shoulders!

Right then, Lainey came over and when I acknowledged her she asked "Daddy wants to know if you are coming back?" Oh. Yes. I quickly said goodbye and started to walk away. I turned around, thinking "Oh maybe I should exchange some information.. and we could talk again." And just like that, she was gone.

I still have goosebumps. STILL! God can use you ANYWHERE. Even in Downtown Disney waiting in a Santa line. *grin*