Day 6 - Animal Kingdom and Epcot...in the rain

Today we let the boys sleep in and got a late start to Animal Kingdom. Once we arrived we realized we didn't have our tickets for Cameron or Eric (our room keys are our tickets as well as our meal plan and it is connected to our credit card...amazing masterminds of Disney!). We got to check in with Eric's ID and got paper tickets for the day, though, so we got to go in. We immediately started with a 3-D movie called It's Tough to be a Bug, which scared the heck out of Cameron! After that we headed to Dino-Land, where the boys had a blast playing in a big playground with slides and dino stuff!

After the playground we headed to a flying dinosaur ride for the whole family, we were all so excited to get to ride!

But even after being here a week Carson just can't handle the wait!!! After the kiddie rides Eric took Cameron on the scariest ride of the whole trip, it was called Dinosaur. The top picture is how Carson, Mommy, & Cohen spent our time during the ride...the bottom is Cameron being scared to death (they are the front row on the right side of the ride...Cam is tucked under Eric).

Then we headed for some photo ops in Dino-Land.

Next we headed to Finding Nemo the Musical. It was a really cool show that Mommy enjoyed so much, although Cameron was a little afraid. But, we had great seats and Dory & Marlin had a part where they came out in the audience and were RIGHT in front of us, it was really cool!!!

After Nemo the sky opened up again and down came the rain!!! We headed to the only rides that were still running, one was Rafiki's and we had to take a train to get there. The boys wanted their picture on these elephants but we got in trouble for letting them climb on them! :o)

Animal Kingdom had this pass thing that the boys got to do where they went around and learned about animals and whatnot and the cast members would stamp their passport, it was really cute...this is one of their stamps - in the pouring rain!

Once at Rafiki's we got pictures with Poccahontis, Rafiki, and Jimminy Cricket:

One of the animal guys came out to do a talk and it was soooo funny, he kept asking if there were any QUESTIONS and Cameron would raise his hand and tell some kind of story, but never asked a question. The guy started laughing at the end when Cam would raise his hand:

Then we rode the train back - this is Eric checking out our soggy map!!!

Then we toured some kind of drive through safari, it was really cool - even in the rain.

After the safari we decided to head over to Epcot, we had dinner reservations in Japan at Teppan Edo. The food was sooo yummy, the boys did well. We stayed for Illuminations, but had about 30 minutes to spare so we walked around World Showcase and heard a concert in the distance, so we went to check it out and it was Herman's Hermits!!! It was so cool!!! Anyhow, that was about all of our day. I know I'm leaving something out but I'm trying to type fast because I have to get this posted before my internet time runs out!!! I'll probably post again in a couple of days - once we are back in Dallas...which will be tomorrow night around 11p.m.!!!

Day 5 The dads view

well the day wa going much better. Mom and Dad had decided if the kids wanted a somthing from the gift shop we going to SERIOUSLY consider a somthing from the gift shop. After Brittney busted Cohen up, it was just Dad and , Carson and Cameron stuck in Disney world. This could have been a bit terrifiying to most mortal dads, but I am off course the dad who tells every cartoon character we meet "my daddies a tennis pro" So I shook it off, bought thema buzz light year toy and we were set. We got to skip in front of about 150 people waiting to see Micky and Minnie. Because Brittney go half our family sent to the hospital we became what Disney calls a "Very Special family!" we did good though we let Cameron Drive the race cars (he drives like his mother" we rode the space orbitor and saved earth from disaster, and we rode the tran that circles the Disney park (great break for dad) and then we waited and and argued with disney's finest for about 3 hours to get mom back to the park. Oveall it was a pretty fun day despite Cohen and face looking like a pucnhing bag!

Day 4 magic kingdom post from the dad perspective. The day started with the clay boys hustling around to make a breakfast date with that sweatheart lalo and her pal stich. 1 bus, 1 monorail, and one boat ride later we had eaten a very good breafast (well the grownups ate breakfast) the nitwits just played and did the congo line with disney characters. The park was off to a rocky start when Cameron was in ultra meltdown mode. Personally, I thinkall he needed was a 4 dollar Capt Jack Sparrow Sword and the Day probably would have been just fine. That darn disney and his gift shops. Anyway it was going alright, we were pushing our luck trying to get one last ride out of CamCam, when there at the peter Pan ride I witness Britteny drag CamCam down an entire row of the line in front of many other onlookers with Cameron saying "I don't want to ride Peter Pan." I was pissed and a little bit laughing at the situation. When Brittney got to the end of the line i said (while pointing very sternly) "Just keep right going" and we left the park ASAP! By the time we got home the boys chilled out and got back to normal a little swim, a little din din and things were good in the magic kingdom.

Day 5 - Magic Kingdom

Today we let the boys sleep in, hoping for a better day than yesterday! We took our time getting ready but decided to save our meal for lunch, so on the way over to Magic Kingdom we filled up our mugs and had a Powerbar, then hit the bus!Once we got in we headed straight for Fantasy Land and rode Peter Pan's Flight, which was something Mommy really wanted to ride and it was not scary at all for Cameron, which was a good start to the day. After Peter Pan we headed to Ariel's Grotto and let the boys run around the splash area for awhile, which was LOTS of fun for them! They met Ariel and showed them that they were super heroes. Today was already looking MUCH better than yesterday!!!

Next we headed over to the Mad Tea Party, which I KNEW Cameron would like because he just doesn't get dizzy!!! And sure enough, he had us SPINNING ROUND AND ROUND AND ROUND!!!
After the Mad Tea Party we packed up and headed to The Toontown Fair. We were having a great time, everybody was happy and we were all riding rides...little did we know our luck was about to change. Our first ride in Toontown was Goofy's Barnstormer. It is a great little rollercoaster that Carson was even tall enough to ride. Carson was SOOOOOOOOO excited to get to ride, but we had to do a baby exchange so he had to wait while Eric and Cameron rode first (we had to drag Cameron onto the ride, he was terrified but had a blast once they got going). So, because we had to wait we got our first fit of the day from Carson:

Carson and Cameron both LOVED the Barnstormer but on the way off was where our day went south. We were trying to get out of the way quickly and I grabbed Cohen from Eric and went to put him on my back. Cohen was a bit fussy because it was nap time and he didn't want to give up so he twisted and threw himself back while I was trying to put him on my back and I dropped him face first onto the pavement. We immediately called first aid, which was there instantly and they called paramedics. Cohen and mommy got the "backlot tour" on our way to the ambulance (and let me tell you Disney is not quite as glamorous backstage as it is to the crowd!). We were taken by ambulance to Children's Medical in downtown Orlando where they decided that Cohen did not have a concussion but possibly had a broken nose but there wasn't much we could do about it but put neosporin on his big forehead bump and go on with our day. So, they discharged us and called a cab (which was a disaster in itself and took 4 hours to arrive). Once the cab picked us up we were back to the park and ready for dinner. Here is the damage done to our little guy:
It actually doesn't look as bad in the picture as it does in real life, he's pretty scuffed up and very puffy. Mommy is feeling terrible about this but Cohen is taking it like a trooper...we'll see how he sleeps tonight. We all ate dinner at Tony's on Main Street and Cameron and Carson provided plenty of table antics for us to come back to.
After dinner we decided to stay at the park and enjoy what else we could after dark. We headed to Tomorrow Land and met Buzz Lightyear and rode the Carosel of Progress. When we came out of the Carosel we were surrounded by terrential downfall, so we sat as long as we could outside the ride and tried to keep the kids entertained but eventually we were asked to leave so we booked it over to Tomorrow Land Transit Authority.
We rode the Transit ride about halfway through, but the rain caused it to break down, so again we got a special look at Disney as we disembarked the ride by foot!!! After the rain stopped we got to enjoy the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor where Cohen was spotlighted as a "cute baby" on the bigscreen!!! Then we used our FastPasses (the boys and Eric were given 6 FastPasses to ANYWHERE in the park for our trip to the ER...they also got to visit Mickey & Minnie as "special guests!") to ride Buzz Lightyears Space Ranger Spin. After the rides we enjoyed the fireworks show and got to see Tinkerbell make her decent from the castle!! It was really cool.

We were going to attempt to go back to Adventure Land and avoid the traffic to the bus. Cameron and Cohen were asleep so we thought we would do the walking tour of the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse, but as soon as we got to the top the sky opened up again!!! So, there we were stuck in a downpour with two sleeping kids and Carson!! Eric had to carry Carson all the way back down, then we loaded up the stroller and booked it to the front to catch our bus!

It was a trying day, but we all made it back to the hotel...tomorrow we are sleeping in and then hitting up Animal Kingdom in the morning and Epcot for dinner...wish us better luck tomorrow!!!

Day 4 - Magic Kingdom

Today we were up bright and early and out the door by 7:30a.m. - we are realizing that our boys are no longer the early birds they used to be and more accostomed to the night life!!! Our breakfast was at The Polynesian Resort with Lilo & Stitch, the food was great and the boys loved getting to see Lilo & Stitch (well, all but one), and Mickey & Pluto in their finest Hawaiian gear! Cameron and Carson even participated in the Hawaiian Parade, Carson got to hold Mickey's hand the whole way around!!

After breakfast we took a boat over to Magic Kingdom and started our day in Adventure Land. We started off the day riding Aladin's Magic Carpets and headed over to Pirates of the Carribbean...Cameron was not a fan of Pirates, but Carson was super excited! Outside the ride we got to meet Hook and Smee, which cheered Cameron up a bit.

After that we headed to Frontier Land where we didn't do much because Cameron refused to ride, but we did join the Country Bear Jamboree and Cameron also wanted a photo in the little thing that you put your head and hands in, although he was too short...which posed a problem for a short time.

Cameron was really having a rough time the rest of the day. We headed over to Fantasy Land and rode Dumbo and the carosel, which was nice, and we got our first smiles of the day when we rode It's a Small World, but shortly thereafter Eric made an executive decision and we left the park and went back to our resort for swimming and early bed time. I was out of camera battery anyway!

A post from Eric

tHIS IS ERIC i AM ON THIS TRIP AND THOUGHT i WOULD ADD SOME DAD INFO: fIRST bRITTNEY HAS NOT OVERPLANNED THE TRIP LIKE i WAS WORRIED SHE MIGHT. sHE HAS ALLOWED THE CLAY BOYS TO BE FREE AND EASY DURING THE TRIP. sECOND: cAMERON IS PRETTY FUNNY WHEN IT COMES TO RIDDING RIDES. yES THE EASY ONES POSE A BIT OF AN ISSUE AS HE SEES MORE OF THE FLOOR THAN THE ATTRACTION. hIGHLIGHTS ARE TOWER OF tERRRRROR AND THE tWLIGHT zoNE THEM THAT IS PLAYED THROUGHOUT. tHE RIDE GOES UP 10 FLOORS DROPS YOU DOWN THREE AND THEN BACK UP 5 AND THEN SLAMS YOUDOWN 7 ETC. cAMERON AND i SCREAMED LIKE CRAZY THE WHOLE TIME. aLL HE WOULD SAY IS "GET ME OUTTA HEAR" iT WAS PRETTY FUNNY. Ridding space mountain with CamCam was pretty funy too. THe kid thought space mountain was going to be a smooth sailing ride, but I wil be darened if that thing didn't go 0-60 in 5 sec, then turn left than up thendown and probbaly left I don't even remember, but it was dark loud and BUMPY all of CamCams favorite. Well I gotta go Its going well and if he "Daddy up me's" don't drive me insane I will come home normal and pretty much a disney happy camper.

Day 3 - Epcot

Today we decided to let the boys sleep in a bit to catch up on some sleep...although one little guy decided that sleep was not his thing, so mommy and Cohen were up by 7a.m. We had breakfast at our resort and then headed out to Epcot...we were DEFINITELY not the first ones there, but we were rested so that counted for a lot. Our first ride was Spaceship Earth - yes, I was there:

As you can tell by Cohen's face the flash was BRIGHT in a really DARK ride. Cameron was scared, what's new...but we had a good time. One of our favorite attractions for the day was Finding Nemo. We had some meltdowns happening on the way in but once we were out of the ride and into the aquarium and Turtle Talk with Crush we had a great time.

We had our first peek into the first aid kit today when Cameron traumatically got a small (and I mean TINY) scrape on his knee...but we had some definite drama to go along with the scrape:

For the rest of the day we did lots of touring, we experienced Honey I Shrunk the Audience and Cameron was TERRIFIED...we lost our 3-D glasses a few times just so we could stay in the theatre. We had dinner at the Garden Grill, which was a restraunt that spins over The Land ride, it was really cool because we rode that ride earlier that day, plus we got to see lots of characters!!

After dinner we used our FastPasses to ride Soarin', which was sooooo cool!! Cameron actually rode this ride twice, I was so proud of him! We tried to go over to Test Track but the wait was very long and it started raining hard so we decided to pack it up for the night and head home since we would finish our night at Epcot another day. We are back in our room, we had a snack, the boys actually bathed for the first time this vacation, and now it is time to pack it in for the night. We have an early morning tomorrow...we will be having breakfast with Lilo and Stitch at the Polynesian!