Be careful what you wish for...

I remember getting home from Disney a month ago thinking, this is summer, right?  Temps were in the 60's, mornings started with sweatshirts or light jackets, and I wondered when we would ever get to play at places like splash park or an outdoor pool.  Everywhere I went people were making small talk with strangers about how unusual this summer has been so far.  Considering we left 95+ degree temps, it was a shock.

I guess our prayers were answered two weeks ago.  The hot summer weather came and it's stayed.  Our air conditioner was turned on for the first time and we've spent the past two weeks in water.  The aquatic center, wave pool, splash park, rec center pool, and even a friend's pool for a birthday party!  I'm beginning to think we could live in bathing suits alone.  Forget regular clothes.

The kiddie pool at my parents house is still keeping them entertained.  And we added a new element this year.  The 1984 version of a slip n'slide.  Yes, my parents saved every.single.thing. from our youth.  And it works like a charm!  Better than the one we bought this summer.  Figures.

Any other type of recreation has to be done in the morning before the heat of the day.  Even then, at 10am, the 85 degree temps and high humidity had me sweating.  But, it was well worth the sweat to reconnect with some work friends!

Trips to some of my old stomping grounds like the Troy Aquatic Center and the Red Oaks Wave Pool were fun over the past week!  And definitely nostalgic.  It's so cool showing your own kids some of the fun places you went to growing up.  Watching them make their own memories there.  Ahhh full circle.

Nothing has changed at these places and yet, they're still fun!

I'm enjoying how brave the boys are getting in the water too!  All these visits to the pools have given us opportunities to teach them independence in the water.  And I'm happy to report that we actually went to a birthday party where both boys were in the pool, in their puddle jumpers of course, by themselves for the first 15 minutes.  Then they requested Scott get in to help them on some of the water toys.  Hey, I'll take those 15 minutes of relaxation with Scott while the kids entertain themselves, safely.

Happy birthday, Maya!

I was actually relieved this morning as we all woke up and I realized I wouldn't have to deal with sunscreen, bathing suits, and towels.  We hung them all up and just laid low at home.  Sometimes you need a lazy day like that.  A BBQ dinner over at my sister-in-law's house was a great end to the weekend.  Safety Town is over and our agenda is wide open this week.  Toledo Zoo, perhaps?  We'll see where the wind blows us...

WDW Day 7: Magic Kingdom and Epcot!!

Our last full day in Disney and it was hard to imagine packing our suitcases that evening to go back home.  But, we went out with a bang on our last full day!  An early start in Magic Kingdom and a dinner reservation in Epcot had us using our park hopper tickets to our advantage!

Our morning and early afternoon in Magic Kingdom was set up like this:

Breakfast at Crystal Palace (8am reservation - got into the park at 7:45am for those "empty shots" of the castle)
Jungle Cruise
Magic Carpet Ride
Enchanted Tiki Room
Haunted Mansion
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (FastPass at 9:50am)
Splash Mountain (FastPass at 10:50am)
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (Extra FastPass - the ride broke down the last time we tried it)
Mad Tea Party Ride
Quick Service Lunch at Pinocchio Village Haus
Meet Anna and Elsa at Fairytale Hall (FastPass at 12:45pm)
Shopping down Main Street on our way out

Okay, so I was devastated to find out that the park hours changed from opening at 9am to 8am.  Basically, it meant that while we were eating at Crystal Palace, the park would be open to anyone and the lines would grow.  But, I got over it.  We got there at 7:20am and stood in a special line to let us in the park at 7:45am.  We ran down Main Street and grabbed a few near empty park photos in front of the castle.  It was a beautiful morning!

We looked at our watch and realized, "Holy cow!"  It was time for our breakfast reservation and time for park opening.  Check out this view standing at the castle.

I can't help but wonder where all these people were heading.  Space Mountain?  Anna and Elsa?  7 Dwarfs Mine Ride?  Ahhh the possibilities...

Breakfast at Crystal Palace was delicious.  I seriously love the breakfast buffets!  The characters were fun, although I don't think they were anyone's favorites.  We gobbled up some Mickey waffles for the last time and were ready to go on our way over to Adventureland!

We went over to Adventureland to get on the Jungle Cruise before it got too busy.  We walked right on every single thing in Adventureland after 9am (I was feeling pretty good about that!).  Evan preferred to ride the Magic Carpet Ride and Sean went with my parents to The Enchanted Tiki Room.  We met back up and decided we had enough time to do the Haunted Mansion one last time before our FastPasses started in Frontierland.

The boys seriously love this ride!  And since we didn't use a FastPass on it this time, we enjoyed the interactive things while we waited.

Evan and my mom sat out from Big Thunder Railroad and Splash Mountain, so they rode It's a Small World and met us back over in Frontierland for a Mickey ice cream bar.  Sean, on the other hand, was having the time of his life on the big rides!  He was a little freaked out on Big Thunder since it's pretty jerky and he actually slid on the seat multiple times!  I really think they need a better seatbelt system for that ride.  I was holding on to my bag, my camera, and him for dear life.

Anybody see Sean?  He's hiding in Scott's arm behind me.  Silly kid!  Evan was bummed he had to sit out since he stood over the bridge and watched the people going down the big drop.  Next time, bud!

We knew after this ride that we needed to do something Evan could do, so we decided to walk all the way over to Tomorrowland and use the extra FastPass we got for Buzz Lightyear when the ride broke down Sunday night.  By now, the park was extremely crowded and it seemed like Tomorrowland was more crowded than other sections of the park.  But, we perservered and rode it.  I was not impressed with it at all!  I thought the Toy Story Midway Mania in Hollywood Studios was 1,000 times better!

Mad Tea Party ride cheered everyone up after Buzz was a fail!  Look at those smiles!

Lunch was a bit tricky.  Originally, I wanted us to do Pecos Bill in Frontierland.  But, it was a hike from where we were and the kids were burning out on us fast.  So, we made a last minute decision to try Pinocchio Village Haus.  The inside of that place at lunch time was chaos!  A million different lines to order food, a mad dash trying to find a table as soon as a party cleared out of one, and a small space to stand in.  But, somehow, we survived and everyone was fed.  Food was about what I expected....okay.  Nothing special.

We headed over to Fairytale Hall for our last FastPass to meet Anna and Elsa.  Sean was not loving this plan.  Apparently, he was done and wanted to leave and go back to the hotel.  We bribed him with the promise of shopping on Main Street as we left and that was enough to get him to cooperate.  And it was well worth it!  The FastPass line was less than 5 minutes and the boys enjoyed Anna talking to them about chocolate!  Elsa was her true self.  A bit snobby.

If we had any chance of the boys being in decent moods for dinner in Epcot, we knew it was time to exit Magic Kingdom and hope that they get a nap on the bus or at the hotel.  We did some last minute browsing and each of the boys got some goodies (even though Evan slept through the shopping).  I was so excited to buy a CD of all the songs from the rides in the parks!

I think we all felt refreshed going back to the hotel for a bit.  Everyone rested/napped (thank God!).  We rode the bus over to Epcot for a dinner reservation at Garden Grill at 5:45pm.  We got to the park with enough time to ride Nemo and Friends since it was pretty close to the restaurant.  The boys loved that ride!

Garden Grill was such a neat restaurant!  From the fact that it slowly rotated to the family style meal (a much needed break from buffets), everything was fantastic!  The food was different and so yummy!  The characters were very interactive too, especially with Evan when he was playing on the iPad.

The dessert was my favorite part.  I skipped the berry cobbler the adults were served and asked for the kid dessert - an ice cream cone cupcake!

Unfortunately, our plans to go back to the World Showcase and catch Illuminations had to be cancelled.  It was pouring rain as we left the restaurant.  We all had fun splashing in the puddles and using our ponchos we bought for the trip knowing it was our last night.  We went back to the hotel, packed up our bags, and sat around sharing our favorite memories from the trip!

One more post recapping our last morning at the resort and our trip back home will be up next.  I still can't believe after months of planning, obsessing, and dreaming about this trip that it's really over.  We are left with some of the best memories and pictures!  And of course, the need to plan another trip!  Summer 2017 look out!