Isaiah 7.17 : Updates, etc.

So since we have annual passes it really opened us up to taking our time and helped us not feel like we had to cram everything into 2 days worth of tickets. We got a little bit of extra time Friday night when we came in to Orlando, and Monday, after we checked out of the hotel, we went to Disney's Hollywood Studios for a few hours. We started off with the Indiana Jones stunt show and we realized that Isaiah has seen way too many action movies for his young age because the majority of the bullet sounds and explosions didn't phase him in the least. I think I figured out he can handle the loud bangs when he sees what goes with them. The delay from the fireworks confuses and scares him since its not as readily apparent where the sound is coming from to him. Hollywood studios doesn't have a ton of rides, and most of them aren't kid friendly so we mostly walked around, went through the Star Tours gift shop and a Narnia exhibit, before we went to the big hit of the trip...

Sunday Isaiah decided to wake us all up at a bit past 7am. We tried to get him back to bed so we could rest a bit, but to no avail so we decided to get a jump on the park. We decided we were just going to take it slow today after yesterday's meltdown at the end of the day, and we just didn't want to kill ourselves. It's a vacation after all and we know we're coming back in March with my Mom. We got into the Magic Kingdom just before 11am and were promptly greeted by the street party parade which Isaiah seemed to enjoy. We followed it up Main Street and watched it for a little while before heading to Peter Pan to get Fast Passes. We were about the wait in line there after what happened last time. Isaiah, of course, decides this is a good time to sleep, so we window shopped for a bit and headed over to the Winnie the Pooh ride. He wasn't pukey this time like he was back in March and really enjoyed the ride, especially the bouncy part with Tigger. At the ...

So Saturday after a dip in the hotel pool we headed over to the Magic Kingdom mostly to take Isaiah to the Spectromagic parade. We had a little time before the parade started at 9pm so we got the token ride of It's a Small World out of the way. You could tell certain parts of the ride were already being decorated for Christmas. There were some reindeer peeking over the hills at the beginning of the ride and the former hot air balloons at the ceiling looked amazingly like christmas ornaments. Another area had snowmen in the sky. Most of the changes were the aerial things, and not that noticeable unless you're an anal retentive architect type person like me who is trying to drown out the song in your head. I apparently fell asleep on the ride at the end since we were stuck for a couple minutes in the last room due to slow loading/unloading. We started making our way back up to the front of the park to find a spot for the parade. Its a pretty cool parade with all sorts of l...

So we made it. Our 'resort' hotel room is alright but nowhere near the look of the pictures, but hey we spent next to nothing on it so we can't really complain. We're right by Downtown disney and 5 mins from EPCOT. Since we have annual passes we checked in last night and went to the EPCOT for a couple of hours. We went on The Seas with Nemo, ate dinner in Morocco, and had a pretzel in Germany before attempting to watch the illuminations fireworks at 9. You could tell he liked looking at the fireworks but absolutely hated hearing the bangs. He had a bit of a meltdown just before the finale so we started for the exit just a little bit before it was all over, but we didn't miss much. We're noticing he's not liking the rides as much this time around. He's cried on pretty much everything he's ridden on except for Spaceship earth which he slept through for the most part. We did lift him up for the picture on the ride which they use for a little vid...

Day 4… Magic Kingdom part two. After our late morning trying to make sure Isaiah was hydrated and well rested we got to the park around 1pm and met up with Grandma Kolis and Aunt Becca in Tomorrowland. We rode a few rides, he enjoyed It’s a Small World and tolerated Peter Pan, but while in line for Peter Pan, only little more than an hour and a half into our visit he was already getting crabby. We walked back to the other side of Fantasyland and got some ice pops to let him have some down time in the stroller and wait for our fast passes for the Winnie the Pooh ride. Just before we boarded the ride he spit up right down Rachel’s shirt. He was really warm and since Rachel felt pretty gross, (which is understandable) we left the park around 5. He slept the monorail ride back to the car and most of the way back to the condo. When we got him home we were worried he was suffering from heat stroke since his whole body was hot and his heart was beating crazy fast. We stripped him dow...

So day three… This was our supposed slow day since it was just the three of us since Becca and my Mom were swimming with the dolphins. We took our time in the morning and got to the Magic Kingdom around 11am. He was still pretty pooped and slept the whole way into the park and halfway through his first ride, the Pirates of the Caribbean. He finally woke up at the little flume ride down to the pirate battle since all the sudden there was a rush of air and a little mist of water from the boat. He didn’t freak out or anything, but kept nodding off during the ride. We then went next door to the Jungle Cruise which was alright, but he was already getting crabby and had a little fit on the boat thanks to me trying to clean some boogies from his nose. We could tell today was going to be a bit of a battle. We took it slow from there and tried to go on the Haunted Mansion after a leisurely walk, but the ride broke down while we were in line. We went back to the stroller and he promptly fell bac...

We did pretty good today. More than I thought we would. We went to EPCOT today and had a few more firsts. Half the park is Future World and the other half is the World Showcase. We got to the park around 10:30 and after grabbing some fast passes for the Test Track ride we went to Mexico and Isaiah had his first boat ride and helped find Donald Duck in the ride. He liked that alot so we went next door to Norway to ride the Maelstrom. This too was a boat ride, but a bit more adventurous than Mexico's lazy river like ride. There are some trolls, a portion where you go down a hill backwards and then down a much bigger hill to the end. We were a bit worried but he was laughing all the way down the hill. So that we consider his first 'thrill' ride. We continued around the World stopping in China, Germany, Italy, and Japan. We stopped for lunch in Morroco and Becca and Grandma K went to France for lunch. We then went on to England and Canada before heading back to Future World. I ...

We've nearly finished our first full day here in ORL. It was fun but tiring. We did have a happy suprise tonight though. We just watched 3 different parks' closing fireworks from the screened in porch at my Mom's time share while Isaiah slept on Mommy's lap. Today was filled with a lot of firsts for Isaiah. It was his first Disney experience, his first theather show, his first parade, his first eating solids not in his high chair at home, and his first swim in a pool. We went to Disney's Animal Kingdom and while we didn't get to ride a ton of rides it was still fun. We went on the Safari, and while my sister Becca and I waited to ride the Everest Rollercoaster, Grandma Kolis and Rachel took him to see the Lion King musical which I'm told he started dancing alot too and enjoyed very much. We stuck around for the parade which he fought to stay awake through (though he did flirt with Minnie a bit by giving her a big smile) and fed him in the park just before le...

So the little guy is nearing 8 months old now. He's pretty much been sleeping through the night for the most part, with occasional nigh terror like cries and with a little whimper he usually falls right back asleep. It's been nice to be able to get sleep again. So we're going to Disney World in a few weeks. March 16-20th to be exact. My Mom's got a time share in Orlando, my sister is coming down from Minneapolis, and hopefully we'll be able to meet up with my Uncle Bob and Aunt Connie and possibly my cousin Dave and his family who all live in Naples. I haven't been to Disney since maybe 2000 so I'm sure a lot has changed, but I'm super excited. I know Isaiah won't remember much if any of it but both Rachel and I need a vacation of sorts and this fits the bill. Since my Mom has the time share all we have to pay for is park admission (which isn't that cheap), food, and gas. We totally have to get Isaiah some Mickey ears with his name embroi...