Strawberry Farm

Once in a (great) while, Chuck will randomly take a day of leave - just because. A few weeks ago was one of these occasions.

Last year Addison and I went out to a strawberry farm with a friend and her daughter. It was such a blast and it was something I thought Chuck would love to do with Addison. We had been waiting and waiting for the farm to open and I noticed on my way out of town for our Disney trip that they were open and ready for business. Chuck was eager to do this with her and I think he was really happy that he was able to take a day off and go with us.

The most amazing thing about this day was Addison remembered it from last year. All the way there she asked if she was going to get to see the animals like last year at the "library farm." (Library farm = strawberry farm.) Amazing to me for two reasons. The first is that it was a YEAR ago we were out there last and second was that last year she didn't TALK! Boggling to me what their little brains hold onto!

Unlike last year, she did not love the berries. She ate the tip of one and spit it out! Last year, she didn't eat many, but she ate a few and seemed to like them. Our strange child doesn't like OR eat fruit. We picked a tone of berries - so much so that I still have three gallon sized bags of them in our freezer. (AND we went back a couple weeks later with our playgroup. I didn't get nearly as many that time and Addison still didn't eat any berries.)

And of course, Addison showed her daddy all the animals. She loves animals, something she gets from him. Don't get me wrong, I like animals too, but not like this girl and her daddy.

She wasn't ready to leave - proof from the screaming and carrying on that she did - but we had done our damage and it was hot. It was time to go. Luckily, there were very few people at the farm while we were there so her fit wasn't really noticed by anyone but us. Note to all you wanna-be berry pickers out there! Go in the middle of the afternoon during the week. Hardly anyone is there!

Tuesday and Wednesday

With the jet being broken and Addison and I having no reason to rush back, Chuck and I decided that we should have a down day on Tuesday. Rather than driving back exhausted, Addison and I spent Tuesday in the hotel room while Charlie was back and forth between the hotel room and the air field. She and I slept in late - which was much needed for the both of us, did some laundry, got all of our bags repacked and organized, and watched tv. I would have loved to have taken her to the pool, but it was pouring down rain - another reason I am so glad we didn't drive home that day.

Charlie came back to the room and we went to lunch at a great Mexican place right behind our hotel and than we came back and took a long, family nap. That was heaven!

By the time we got up from our nap, Charlie had to go back over to where the jet was to meet the security forces that were coming over to guard the jet while it was getting fixed. Addison and I walked over to Chili's right next door, had dinner and decided to walk over to the outdoor mall that was right behind our hotel. (Our hotel was actually in a great spot with the exception of being so far from WDW.) After a nice little walk we got some cookies for a treat and walked back to our room.

Not knowing when the jet was going to be fixed, Chuck and I decided that I would head home on Wednesday. Our dogs were in the kennel and needed to be rescued! I got up early on Wednesday morning and put Addie in the car in her pajamas. If our trip was really over, I was really ready to be home. It was a gorgeous day out and the trip home was uneventful other than a little traffic in Tampa - hence rushour! Addie and I got back to Panama City a little after 1 on Wednesday afternoon... and with that comes the end of our Disney Adventure.

Oh and Chuck got home on Thursday morning!

Lessons Learned

Although our trip to Walt Disney World was fabulous and we all had a very wonderful time, there were some lessons learned along the way. Or rather "things I would do differently." These are important to share with you especially if you have young kids and you are thinking about making a trip to WDW.

#1. Don't go during spring break! The weather in FL is nice enough that next time we go, I am going to push to go in late February or early March before the spring break MASSES. Or even in the fall after everyone has gone back to school.

#2. Stay in a hotel CLOSE! I think had we been in a hotel much closer to the park we would have been able to take Addison back to our room everyday for a much needed nap. This would have made her enjoy the parks that much more since she wouldn't have been so tired. But because we were "TDY" with Chuck we had to stay where the AF was paying him to stay - which allowed this trip to be much less expensive.

#3. WAIT! Although we didn't have to have a ticket for Addie because she was under 3, I think she was still too young. If we do it again with baby #2, we will wait until peanut is a little bit older than Addison was. There were just so many things we couldn't do with her or things that we thought she would love and she didn't.

#4. Spread the trip out over more than four days. I felt like we were really rushing to cram everything in. My thinking was that we spent all the money to make the trip that we needed to see as much as possible. Had we had a few extra days, we wouldn't have stayed at the parks as late at night and would have been able to have some "low key" days to rest up in between activities!

Monday

Chuck and I debated on what we should do the last day of our Disney trip. It was down between another day at Magic Kingdom OR Hollywood Studios. However, in talking with the Arkema's, we decided to go with another day at the Magic Kingdom. They had taken their boys to Hollywood Studios on Sunday and didn't really think their son Jack enjoyed it as much as the other parks.

Once we got there, we discovered it wasn't nearly as busy as it had been the previous Friday. Good thing too because there were lots of things we didn't get to ride on Friday.... But it was much hotter that day and there was virutally NO wind at all.

Addison and Charlie rode the teacups again as well as the carasoeul. We also got on the Jungle Cruise, Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride, Winnie the Pooh, the People Mover, and many, many more. And let's not forget! The Buzz Lightyear ride - by far one of the best ones. Luckily, they didn't do quite as many of the round and round rides so I got to partake a little bit more.

After spending the day there again, we had a very nice dinner at one of the nicer restaraunts on Main Street and pretty much called it a night. It was a fabulous trip but at this point, I think we were all over it! We said our goodbyes to "Mickey Mouse's House" and headed for our hotel.

Bye, Bye Disney World - until next time! And oh yes! There will be a next time!!!!

Downtown Disney Pics

More Ecpot Pics

Sunday

By the time Sunday arrived, I think we were all a little tired. The plan for the day was to spend half the day at Epcot an the other half at Hollywood Studios. Since we were moving slow, we got a late start on the day.

I was leary all along about Epcot because I remember it not being really a place for little kids, but we had heard that all the Princesses were there and that Tinkerbell was also there. (Tinkerbell is a must at our house!) We had also heard that the Finding Nemo ride was great for little kids and since Addison like that movie, we thought "why not?" We were also there during the Flower and Garden Show - which turned out pretty cool as all the bushes were shaped like any number of all the characters.

Once inside the gates, Daisy Duck was there almost immediatly to greet guests. Since Addison had been hesitant about meeting the characters in the previous days, we asked her if she wanted to meet Daisy. She did. And she did GREAT - although Daddy still had to go with her.

And since we were there to meet Tinkerbell, Addison HAD to wear her Tinkerbell dress, even though it was really hot that day...

After a quick lunch, we headed over to the Finding Nemo exhibit. Somehow we got really lucky and the line was really short. Thinking she would love this based on her reaction to what she had seen walking in we loaded up into the moving clam - or tram and away we went. However, it didn't go well. It was dark and a couple of the characters - the sharks and the fish with the light that dangles from his head - came up out of nowhere and scared her to death. "I want to go home! I want to go home!" Not at all the reaction we thought we would get out of her. From that point on the ride for her was ruined - although, I admit it is really cute.

To recover from that expierence we spent sometime in the aquarium attached to the ride and she seemed to be ok by the time we left to move on. But boy, were we wrong! Meltdown after meltdown after meltdown! Even ice cream didn't help this child and that ALWAYS helps. We put her in the stroller determined to get her to take a short nap because it was obvious that these meltdowns were due to exhaustion! But again, no such luck.

By the time we got over to the country exhibitions, she had calmed down a lot. When we saw that "Belle" would be appearing shortly, she perked up. Which is still funny to me because she doesn't really like Beauty and the Beast. We waited in line and Addie started to get really excited. When it was her turn to meet Belle she walked right up to her like they were long lost friends AND WITHOUT daddy this time. Belle will always be one of my fondest memories of this trip! Because not only was Addison totally comfortable with her, the two of them were telling secrets - too precious for words!

Next we stood in line for Princess Jasmine and Aladdin. But when it was her turn to meet them, she walked away.

Snow White was next. Again she marched right up to Snow White like they were pals, however, there were no secrets shared this time. And she didn't stay as long with Snow White as she had with Belle. One of the things that I will always remember about meeting Snow White with her was the man in line in front of us. Grown man, in his 40's at least and seemed perfectly normal. At first we thought he was holding a spot in line for his wife and kids, but nope! He was there for an autograph and picture - can we say CREEPY???

After meeting Snow White, it was pretty late in the day and we decided to call it quits and just go back to the hotel. Since the jet was broken, we had all ready decided that Addie and I would stay an extra day to get our fourth day in. We could always hit Hollywood Studios on Monday. And it was clear Addison had had enough, but we still hadn't met Tinkerbell. Since she was out by the front gate we decided we would press our luck and try to get her up to see Tinkerbell - since that is what we were at Epcot for afterall. When we got to Tinkerbell's line, they had it closed and she was just finishing up. She wasn't going to be back for TWO hours. No way were we going to press our luck that far!

Getting back to our car we loaded up - Addison was asleep practically before we were out of the parking spot. Based on that we decided to head over to Downtown Disney for dinner and to go into the Mr. Potato Head store. Lucky for us, Addison slept all the way over to DDD, all the way through it and the whole time we stood in line to get a table at the Rainforest Cafe - at least an hour and a half. With her batteries re-charged, she ate like a truck driver and was rearing to go!

The Mr. Potato Head store was awesome and again Addison made out like a bandit. Even Charlie and I had a blast in there!

It was 10 in the evening before we got back to the car to head back to the hotel. So much for our "short" day, but after all the meltdowns and as exhausted as we all were, it was still a pretty good day!

Monday would be Hollywood Studios - or so we thought!