She'll smile if you say "poopy sh^t"

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

Great pictures of MK. I love that you recreated poses with your sister, how fun is that :banana:

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

After a full day at MK, we headed over to the Grand Floridian for dinner with Cinderella and her crew!

Ali, unfortunately, by this time was not feeling well. At this point in her life, she was still getting used to the medication she was on and it sometimes cause her to get constipated which made her miserable (as you can imagine). And of course, one of those times happened to be this night. We tried not to let it interfere with all of us having a good time, but the poor little thing kept wanting to go to the bathroom. So we had a kind of up and down night.

We were seated in a nice area...sort of towards the back, but with easy access to the buffet. The characters were wonderful and we got TONS of interaction.

Our blue shirts had the castle on them and Cinderella took time to point out to Ali on her shirt which parts of the castle were her favorites. She really was lovely.

You can kind of tell in that picture that Ali was out of sorts. But we got a better one later.

Prince Charming was good too, though I don't really remember a lot about him.

But what really stole the show were the Stepmother and stepsisters! They were a hoot!!

First, Anastasia came over and right away started talking about the fact that we were all wearing matching shirts. She told Ali she needed to talk to us ahead of time so we didn't all wear the same clothes cause it was embarassing. She was SO funny. She hung out at our table for quite a while.

Up next was Lady Tremaine.

She really looked the part.

What I thought was so great about her, was that she was in character without being mean. She was really fun.

I really enjoyed that buffet. I still think about the salmon in dill sauce. Mmmmmmm.

Ali was still asking to go to the bathroom every 5 minutes and she barely ate anything. My mom and sister were on the Dining plan, but my gang was paying for meals out of pocket (MAW had given us some expense money as part of the trip). Our server must have really been paying attention because when he brought the bill over, he let me know that he wasn't charging us for Ali because she really hadn't eaten anything. I certainly wasn't expecting that! I was really touched. It's one of those little things that really shows you sometimes people do care.

Anyway, and this is probably TMI...but Ali finally felt better. I'll just put it like that. And came back to the table in time to meet Drizella. She REALLY looked like her!

Then, because Ali was finally feeling ready to smile, we managed to ask Cinderella for one more picture.

So at least we ended the night on a good note.

Tomorrow...Epcot!

[kampfirekim 260]

Wow! I have to say I am so glad I finally read this TR! It wasn't easy to read through without tearing up ....

As a mom of a "spectrum kid" this report especially touches my heart. Thank you sooooo much for sharing it!

A word of explanation on my title.

For a very long time, Ali had a severe speech delay (she’s making up for it now ). Now, we’re a bit of a loud-mouth group in my family and expletives do tend to get dropped now and then. So when Ali finally spoke her first word was “shit”. And she’d use it in the proper context. Being her first word, I admit, I didn’t correct her either. I was so glad to hear her say anything. Fast forward, Ali thinks any word related to “potty humor” is hysterical. :laugh:

:rofl2: I totally agree. My son has a severe speech delay as well, he's 6, and I almost don't care what he says. Just grateful when he DOES use words... and if the're in the proper context, well, that's just the cherry on top.

Ali has NEVER been the type of kid to shy away from characters. She LOVES them and usually runs up and immediately poses with them...even before she hugs them. There was only a small line for Chip and Dale and I was slightly nervous about using the button, so we waited.

Don't feel guilty about using the button. That's what it's for. People are very compassionate and gracious for the most part. A couple of years ago we only had a GAC but the entire crowd in line unanimously sent us to the front of the line to meet Buzz.

Great report and I'm ready for more! :banana:

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

The family and I were up bright and early the next morning for ICE CREAM FOR BREAKFAST!!

That's right, because the Ice Cream Palace is open almost all the time, a lot of families enjoy ice cream for breakfast.

On certain mornings at GKTW there are characters from the different parks (Disney, Universal, SeaWorld) that visit to take pictures with the families. GKTW has their own sort of Photopass...free of course...where they take pictures for you and at the end of your stay the give you a cd with all your pics on it.

On our next morning, Mickey and Minnie were visiting in the theater and Mary Poppins, Goofy and Pluto outside.

It was nice to be able to get a pic of the 4 of us!

Then we wanted a couple of just the kids with Mickey and Minnie...but Ali decided she'd rather make funny faces than smile. She'd put her fingers in the sides of her mouth and pull them down. At first we kept trying to get her to stop, but then Mickey noticed what she was doing and motioned for Minnie and Wil to do the same thing. So we have pictures of the 4 of them making silly faces. :rofl2:

PRICELESS!! I think it's one of my favorite moments of the trip. Kind of sums up Ali in a nutshell. :heart:

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

Wow! I have to say I am so glad I finally read this TR! It wasn't easy to read through without tearing up ....

As a mom of a "spectrum kid" this report especially touches my heart. Thank you sooooo much for sharing it!

:rofl2: I totally agree. My son has a severe speech delay as well, he's 6, and I almost don't care what he says. Just grateful when he DOES use words... and if the're in the proper context, well, that's just the cherry on top.

Don't feel guilty about using the button. That's what it's for. People are very compassionate and gracious for the most part. A couple of years ago we only had a GAC but the entire crowd in line unanimously sent us to the front of the line to meet Buzz.

Great report and I'm ready for more! :banana:

Thanks Kim!

Glad to have a mom along who understands. LOL

I was slightly nervous at first about using the button, but by the second day, I was fine with it! LOL And especially by the time we got to Toy Story Mania, I couldn't flash that thing fast enough! :rofl2:

[Roller ... aka Ed 351]

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

PRICELESS!! I think it's one of my favorite moments of the trip. Kind of sums up Ali in a nutshell. :heart:

That is, indeed, priceless!

I didn't know Disney and the other companies sent characters over to GKTW. That's great!

TCD

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

Ed,I think you and my DD would get along wonderfully!

That is, indeed, priceless!

I didn't know Disney and the other companies sent characters over to GKTW. That's great!

TCD

It really is wonderful. Later in the week we had Belle too. All those resorts, but especially Disney really go out of their way to make a truly beyond magical experience for the Wish families.

[MLM5.. aka Judy 97]

Your TR is awesome! Your children are so beautiful, it's great that you guys had such a wonderful time and it's nice to know that the pixie dust was abundant! :heart:

[stefa70 205]

Great report!

You had me at...Ice cream for breakfast!! ;D

How cool is it that Mickey & Minnie made silly faces with the kids? I bet nobody else has pictures like that.

Looking forward to more.

POOPY SH*T!! :jumpforjoy

[kampfirekim 260]

by the time we got to Toy Story Mania, I couldn't flash that thing fast enough! :rofl2:

You'd better be glad the tag fairy is on hiatus! :rofl3:

For the record there are times I can't flash mine fast enough either! :rofl2:

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

I'm looking forward to more too!

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

You'd better be glad the tag fairy is on hiatus! :rofl3:

For the record there are times I can't flash mine fast enough either! :rofl2:

LOL!!

You've seen the line for Toy Story Mania...I'll flash whatever I have to to get thru that line quicker! :dropjaw: :bugeyes:

:rofl3: :rofl3: :rofl3:

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

After ice cream and characters, we headed off to Epcot to meet up with mom and Casey.

Right at the entrance, we nabbed a Photopass photographer (I had prepurchased the cd before we left) and tried to get some family photos, but Miss Ali was having none of it.

You’ll notice in this picture, we’re all smiling and Ali has her head on my shoulder.

No amount of saying “poopy sh*t” would get her to cooperate.

She did decide to smile when it was a picture of just the two of us.

And she lightened up when it was Aunt KK taking the picture.

We decided we needed something a tad more substantial than ice cream to tide us over till lunch so we went to the Land and hit Sunshine Season for some snackies. I don’t remember exactly what I got, but I remember the intention was for me to split with Ali and DH to split with Wil (neither of our kids are big eaters).

But I apparently took my eyes off of Ali for half a second and turned around to find her standing there eating a pumpkin muffin she had helped herself to. Lesson learned. :-\

So then it was onto Soarin’. We managed to get Ali on to that one. She really wasn’t tall enough for a lot of rides, which ticked her off to no end. She may be afraid of the tiniest bug, but that child will ride any thrill ride and laugh the whole time!

We all loved Soarin’. What a great ride. We still talk about it.

I’m a little fuzzy on the sequence, but I know we rode Spaceship Earth, Test Track and Mission Space (the lite version) and then found ourselves at The Seas.

That picture is one of my favorites and one that I intend to make my kids duplicate everytime we go.

In this one, I'm not sure you'll be able to tell (I still can't make my pictures any bigger) but Wil has pulled his hand inside his shirt as if Bruce ate it! LOL

We did Turtle Talk and loved that too. There really isn't much there that we don't love!! :heart:

At some point, we ended up at those leaping water fountains. My kids love anything to do with water! Pools, sprinklers, creeks, whatever...they would live in water if they could.

So this provided lots of entertainment for us all.

After that, we were starting to get hungry. Now, the last time before this that I was in Disney World, was in 1999 for my honeymoon. Back then, the whole ADR thing was not so necessary. So, other than our big character meals, I had not made any reservations and of course, all the places we would have eaten were booked solid.

So we all started to get a tad cranky. And you wouldn't like us when we're cranky.

After much deliberation and, dare I say it, snarkiness...we somehow came up with the notion to get over to Wilderness Lodge for lunch at Whispering Canyon.

Great.

Except that by the time we got there, they had just closed and wouldn't be open again until dinner.

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

The Crank-0-meter went thru the roof!!

We put our name in for whatever time it was that they would be open again and decided to just explore the resort for a while. I have always loved WL and would love to stay there someday. This was my first time actually setting foot in the lodge and although my stomach was sucking up against my spine, I was excited to be here.

Happily, one of the first things we stumbled upon was Roaring Forks the quick service eatery at WL! Oh happy day!! We got some snacky food...all I really remember is someone got carrots because Ali proceeded to try to feed everyone carrots while we sat there. Black clouds gone, we were all much more civilized after that.

We were lucky enough to find another Photopass photographer who took these photos

And this one which is actually the one we had enlarged and put out at my mother's funeral service.

Having that afternoon at WL wasn't what we planned, but it was a nice break from everything and we really enjoyed it.

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

Your TR is awesome! Your children are so beautiful, it's great that you guys had such a wonderful time and it's nice to know that the pixie dust was abundant! :heart:

Thank you Judy. I'm really glad that I went back and did this...I almost forgot how much pixie dust there was. It's good to stop and remember!

Great report!

You had me at...Ice cream for breakfast!! ;D

How cool is it that Mickey & Minnie made silly faces with the kids? I bet nobody else has pictures like that.

Looking forward to more.

POOPY SH*T!! :jumpforjoy

HAHAHA! There's nothing better than ice cream for breakfast! We still do it sometimes. GKTW even has a campaign that they run to raise awareness and funds based on the ice cream for breakfast.

Here's the link

http://icecreamforbreakfast.org/

[PureTcrazy...rita 380]

Loving this!

[Roller ... aka Ed 351]

Pooty Poot Poppy Shirt

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

I love this report, The picture of your kids with the Nemo characters is adorable. The one with your whole family at WL choked me up. I'm sure your mother is following this report and smiling too. Poopy sh^t :heart:

[kampfirekim 260]

:heart: What a heart warming installment. I love the family photos!

I'm glad you did this TR too. It's always good to reflect back over happy magical times. :)

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

Finally it was time to eat! We were seated pretty quickly but not before the kids got to play a little bit...

Apparently those are the only photos we took at Whispering Canyon. I guess we were all too hungry to care about pics. And while I don't remember much about the food, I remember that we LOVED Whispering Canyon. This place is right up my alley. I'm that goofy person that always tries to start the wave, I'm the loudest respondent during anything that involves audience participation! Basically I have no problem making an ass out of myself...in fact, I rather enjoy it. I will be (and already am) a source of complete and utter embarrassment to my kids...especially Wil. Ali still gets a kick out of my tomfoolery. (I really try to instill in my kids that whole "dance like no one is watching". Wil's almost 10 now and starting to care about who is watching. But we struck a deal for our next trip that all bets are off in Disney World. You can be as silly as you want there and not care about what anyone else thinks. I hope he holds up his end!)

So WC was SO much fun for us. We loved the ketchup and fork silliness and my son still talks about wanting to go back to "that restaurant where they threw all the straws at us." At some point they called all the kids up and gave them little stick horses to ride around the room while all the adults whooped it up and waved our napkins in the air. So as the kids go flying past us towards the back of the restaurant they are then supposed to make a left and go along the back wall.

Not Ali.

All the kids turn, and Ali just keeps going straight. Past what I think was the kitchen and out towards the lobby. I am not a runner, but I was making Olympic Gold time as I caught up to her and directed her back to the stampede. :rofl2:

We went back to Epcot and then headed to our respective resorts from there.

Up next...more horsey riding and DHS!!

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

Yay for the rogue pony :banana: She's going to be a leader not a follower :heart: I haven't tried WC yet, but then there are several on site table service places I haven't been to. I like a little tomfoolery now and again so I may give this one a try.

Keep up the good work :popcorn:

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

The next morning we were off to ride the horses...except these ones weren't attached to sticks in WL.

On certain mornings, GKTW brings horses into their corral, Keaton's Corral, for the kids to ride. After they get to ride around, they get a cowboy hat and a certificate for riding. My kids couldn't wait!!

Then we made a pitstop at the GKTW carousel

Next stop Disney Hollywood Studios!!

[mgsmom 9]

You really have some amazing and precious pictures here! Thanks so much for sharing your trip! I'm enjoying getting caught up today! Work, shmerk.

We went to WL for food on our trip too - anyone who stays at the Fort needs to keep that info in their back pocket!

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

Due to the insanity of getting ready to go back to school (well, the kids...not me lol) I have been terribly neglectful of my TR!

But now...

ON WITH THE SHOW!!

This is DHS morning, although I must admit I still call it MGM Studios. And all the grumpiness from the day before had headed for the hills. Everyone is happy. The kids just got done riding horses and we are feeling fine!

DHS was probably our most anticipated park because it housed three things that are much loved in our house...Toy Story, Star Wars, and Muppets. The kids couldn't wait. And by kids, I mean all of us!

This is another one of those days where I don't quite remember what we did when, but we hit all the highlights. Wil was big enough to go on the Tower of Terror and LOVED it! My kids are total ride commandos!

I, of course, was convinced that he would somehow go flying out and I clung to him the entire time. :rofl2: I think the poor kid had marks on his arm by the time we got off.

I remember on this day walking over to a cart to buy popcorn and a drink and when I turned a looked over at my family I had this moment of euphoria. It kind of hit me all at once that we were all there in Disney World and it was a beautiful day and things couldn't get much better. I walked back to my gang and I must have had a crazy grin on my face cause my mom asked me why was I smiling like that. :heart:

DH and I have a friend who works in the lighting department in Disney World. He's in charge of all those 8 ba-jillion lights they put on Cinderella's Castle for the Holidays. When he found out we were in Disney World he called us and told us he got us VIP seating for the Lights, Motors, Action stunt thing. So sweet of him.

We all had a great time at the show. Personally, I think it's a little long...but the hubby and Wil thought it was the best thing going. As is in evidence from the 3000 pics my DH took of the show. We still tease him that we don't have to go back to this show because we can print out his pics and just do a flip book and relive the whole thing. :rofl2:

We checked out the Disney Playhouse show. Even my son adored it even though he probably wouldn't admit it.

At some point we of course headed over to Toy Story Mania. This was easily the favorite ride of the trip for everyone! This was one time when I wasn't afraid at all to use our magic button. We missed some of the cute stuff in the que, but we sailed right on thru and were on the ride in no time. I should say here that Toy Story has been a favorite in our house since my son was old enough to talk and tell us which movie he wanted to watch. When he was very little he used to say lines from the movie, but in 2 year old talk, and we couldn't figure out what he was saying. It became almost like a game show for DH and I...Name that Baby Babble line from TS1! LOL So the TSM ride was a real highlight.

And the moment we've all been waiting for

I'm sure then that it will come as no surprise that we ate lunch here

Ah...Pizza Planet! We had a great lunch. We used some of Mom and Casey's counter service credits for all 6 of us and there was a TON of food. More than enough.

After this, you may notice the kids have on different shirts. (no, not poopy shirts :rofl2: ) but this is what happens after they eat pizza. My beauties are not the neatest eaters. So mama always has a change of clothes for them. Always.

I think right after this, we went into the Muppet Vision show. We LOVE the Muppets. DH would find videos of them on You Tube and show the kids. Our favorite one is one with Beaker doing 4 parts of a classical piece of music ( I want to say it's Vivald's The Spring, but not 100% sure ). Anyway, Ali adores Beaker and the Swedish Chef. She calls them "Mi Mi Mi" (beaker) and "snorgy borg borg borg" (chef). So after the ride we went into the gift shop and wonder of wonders, they had Mi Mi Mi and Snorgy Borg Borg Borg stuffed toys! They came home with us!!

Next on our hitlist was the Star Wars ride!

Wil liked the ride, but looked a little green when got off. I think it made him a little sick, but he wouldn't admit it.

Up next, we stray from Disney (gasp!) and then visit POR.