Little Did I Know

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Wish Trip - Day Four

10:26 PM

So here we are to day four, Thursday, already!

We began our day outside Julie's Safari Theater, for a chance to see the Disney characters who had come to the Village this morning. Outside the theater were Pluto, Belle, and Goofy! They loved all over Olivia, and the boys, but the boys were afraid! :) We then went inside the theater to see the head mice, Mickey and Minnie, themselves. It was lots of fun!

After the characters, we went into the Gingerbread House for breakfast. Then I took Braeden and Olivia to the Magic Kingdom for the day. Grandma and Grandpa were a little sore from all the walking and such, so I suggested they might like to stay and just spend the day at the Village with Liam, they all had a blast! And so did we!

It was a good day for a theme park! The day was not quite as hot as the last two had been, and with no lines it was great!

We went on lots of rides, made Braeden go on Splash Mountain :), he is not a rider like Olivia and I, and then were on our way to Toon Town. Olivia and Braeden saw the face painters and asked if they could get theirs painted. We never do that, a bit pricey, but as this was a special week, we went for it. Olivia was FREE!!! They said anyone from gktw was free! No idea, but such a great thing! She was also over the moon that she got to wear "lipstick!" :)

After the faces, we were near the large circus tent where they always have three lines to meet characters, with 3 characters in each. I asked the kids if they wanted to see some of the characters, knowing the lines were inside so it would be cool and not too hot. The one thing we were told with our Disney passes was that the "no line" policy did not apply to characters. That was fine, I completely understood. The kids were excited to see some charaters so we went in to see who was there. Today there were two lines, one was empty. One of the lines had Pluto, Goofy, and someone else (can't remember), and the other had three of the Princesses. I figured they'd (at least Olivia) be excited about the Princesses since we saw Pluto and Goofy that morning, but neither were interested in either. I asked who it was they wanted to see and they both practically yelled "Mickey!" I was so surprised, we saw them that morning, but I knew that his line was outside his "house" in Toon Town, so we headed that way.

On the way up the steps to the tent where he is, I said I wasn't sure about the line, so we would see what it was like and they could decide if they wanted to wait or not. I barely noticed an employee at the bottom of the stairs. At the top of the stairs I saw one of the biggest lines ever. I couldn't believe it. But I did let the kids know and ask them what they wanted to do. Just when we were about to leave, someone came up to us on the other side of the ropes and said oh, here's the Make a Wish family, come right this way. She took us directly to the front of the line, and ushered us in to see Mickey and Minnie ALL BY OURSELVES!!!! Wow!!! I was speechless. That was NOT expected in the least! Of course Braeden was around the corner and not wanting to see them once we were there! :) But Olivia was LOVING it!!! :)

It was still hot, even though not as bad as the last two days, and that face paint on Braeden didn't last real long. It was drippy and he asked me to take it off so we did.

We rode some more rides, made Braeden ride Splash Mountain a second time, and then rode Buzz Lightyear a second time since that was his favorite, and headed back to the Village. We were able to ride everything except maybe 3-4 things in the time we were there!!! (Oh, and I got 255,000 on Buzz! I love that ride! :) )

Back at the Village, we saw the gift they had left this day, a great big purple duffle bag with the gktw logo! That night was Winter Wonderland at gktw and what a blast it was! We started with a horse and carriage ride around gktw. At the festivities itself, they had cookie decorating, snow cones, cotton candy, characters such as a tree, gingerbread man, Mayor Clayton, etc, and then inside the movie theater was Santa himself!!!

We all went to see Santa, but Liam of course wanted nothing to do with him unless I was holding him. :) After seeing Santa, the kids each were allowed to pick a gift from this HUGE section of brand new toys! Crazy! Liam got a little kids transformer police car, Braeden got a Star Wars figure set, and Olivia got a Furreal Monkey. They also got the Original Memory Game as a family gift!!!!

We had so much fun, and went to bed once again tired but happy. :)

| 1 comments

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Wish Trip - Day Three

7:47 PM

Our third day, Wednesday, came quickly.

This day we had grandpa along as well and had made reservations for all of us to start the day with a character breakfast at Seaworld with the Sesame Street characters. Liam, again, not so crazy about them. :) But did light up upon seeing Elmo! :)

After breakfast we headed into the park and had a lot of fun. If it wasn't so darn hot, I could see the kids loving all the things we didn't quite get to (they LOVE animals!), but we did quite a lot! :) We saw sharks, rode kiddie rides (with no wait!), ate ice cream (more discounts from amazing workers), and watched a wonderful Shamo show called Believe.

Then we headed toward a ride for Olivia and I while grandpa waited toward the front of the park and grandma took the boys to see the penguins. Olivia and I rode Atlantis (similar to Splash Mountain) and LOVED it! We went twice, and were SOAKED!!!

After, we went to feed Stingrays (they gave us a free tray of food for each child!). Braeden fed one ray, he and I jumped a million feet in the air as another came at us from the front! and that was that for the feeding! :) Olivia and Liam wanted nothing to do with it, and Braeden was done. Olivia asked me if she could give her tray to another child, so I had her give all three away and she was on cloud nine. She is a great giver!

Then we went to feed the dolphins. We got one free tray of food here which was three large fish. Each child fed one fish, but they were all so quick I got pics right after each one. :)

We came back to the villa shortly after and changed clothes! That night we took advantage of the discounts and took the kids to the Pirate Dinner Adventure. It's similar to Medieval Times if you know what that is. We have MT here, and I've been to it as have my parents, the kids haven't. So I thought the Pirate one would be perfect. It was! Even Liam who wouldn't watch Ariel, watched the whole thing. Olivia got to go up on the ship, and Braeden was mesmerized. It was great! The funniest was that we had small candles on the tables. The one in front of Brae and I he wanted to blow out from the time we sat down. I told him that after the show he could. I told him that each of the approximately 10 times he asked during the night! Right at the end they shoot off things and have a "storm" and the "wind" BLEW OUT THE CANDLE!!! I was laughing so hard. My mom gave us her candle and he blew that one out! :)

After arriving at the villa, we saw today's Village Voice and another gift left behind. This time, a pile of about 6 DVDs! Couldn't believe it! Then, we had the kids get into PJs and come into the living room with one of the new movies. Another fun thing at gktw is Mayor Clayton. Mayor Clayton and his wife Miss Merry are rabbits who often appear at meals and different things around the Village. You can also sign up for Mayor Clayton to do a "tuck in" with your children one night while you're there. This was our night. :)

Mayor Clayton came and Olivia was excited and loving toward him, Braeden was off the wall and hiding from him, and Liam was loving every minute of it. He LOVED those bunnies!!! :)

We then went to bed, late, tired, and after a great day!

| 4 comments

Wish Trip - Day Two

6:57 PM

Our second day, Tuesday, was no less special than the first.

We began the day with breakfast at Give Kids the World (gktw) at the Gingerbread House. Wonderful food and service again. Afterwards, a local horse program called Freedom Ride brought two horses to gktw for the kids to ride. Liam was too young, but Braeden and Olivia had a BLAST! The two pictures here of their ride were taken by a photographer at gktw. They had photograpers throughout the week at the special activities taking loads of pictures. At the end of your stay, each family receives a CD full of these pictures, as well as general pictures of the entire village. Amazing!!! Each of the three kids also received a cowboy hat after riding, can you say Braeden was excited!???

After horseback riding we went back to our villa and got dressed for swimming. We took the kids to the larger of the two pools at gktw. SO much fun!!! My eye was caught as we went in as there were two vending machines there. It surprised me since EVERYTHING at gktw is absolutely FREE. BUT, then I completely cracked up! The machine FULL of candy bars, chips, etc has a price tag of 25 CENTS EACH!!! I couldn't believe it!!! They so want this trip to be special and at no cost to the families who stay with them. They don't even have a "store" on property at all, though you can purchase small gifts and tshirts online.

Once we finished swimming and changed back to our clothes, grandma and I took the 3 kiddos to Disney's Hollywood Studios (formally MGM), and Animal Kingdom for the day.

We had made a reservation for lunch at Hollywood and Vine, a buffet we literally stumbled upon on our last trip last summer. We had hoped on that trip to eat lunch at Primetime Cafe while at MGM. I love that place, it's so Brady Bunch it's hilarious. The waitresses call you by name and they have black and white tvs and complete 50s/60s decor. BUT, it was booked last summer, so they suggested the buffet and that's where we ate. WE LOVED IT!!! It was amazing. A bit pricey, and if we hadn't been on the dining plan we probably wouldn't have done it, but it was so good!!! I found out that they have a character breakfast and lunch there, so we planned to lunch there on this day.

One of the unbelievable parts of Make a Wish and gktw trips to Orlando is the theme parks. We could NEVER have done even part of what's available to do. You are given one day at Seaworld, two at Universal, and three at Disney. Then, there are numerous others which you can get free tickets to as well, and many experiences which are extremely cheap. In addition, the wish child receives a large gktw button to wear and the rest of us had been given Make a Wish buttons. We wore these each day, and as someone had said to me once, they can sometimes "make magic happen." And they did. In addition, at each of the parks, we were able to ride rides without waiting in line. Disney had you go through the fast pass line, so at times we waited a short time, but nothing like the others who were there. It sure spoiled us!!!

After getting to MGM, we went first to Ariel's "show" as that is Olivia's very favorite and the one thing she really wanted to do. We got through quite a few things before lunch at 10:30, and even saw a short High School Musical "show" in front of the big sorcerer's hat. Olivia was in heaven!!!

Lunch was great, and we saw the Little Einsteins and JoJo's Circus which were a big hit! Liam wanted nothing to do with any of them - until Goliath came!!! He loved Goliath! Too funny!

After lunch we headed to Animal Kingdom. That park is good, but we really didn't want to walk through all the things, especially as we've been there a number of times. What we wanted to do there was see the Lion King show which is our favorite in the parks, and Olivia and I wanted to ride Expedition Everest since she was now big enough! Oh my goodness! I LOVED that ride! And so did she, we went twice, no waiting remember! :) Then went to Lion King, great as always, and then headed back to MGM. At MGM we went to/on a few more things. I "made" Olivia go on Tower of Terror with me since she was big enough, but she hated it! :) Oh well, now she knows.! She loved the drops, but hated the rest of the ride, too scary! :) While we were on the ride, grandma took the boys to the ice cream counter across the way. The woman who waited on her saw her Make a Wish button and said there was NO CHARGE! Unreal!

We then wanted to go to Fantasmic which we LOVE LOVE LOVE! You need to really go at least an hour early to get decent seats, and we wanted to be near the top, so we were there early. We waited and the kids did so great. A little before the show a dark cloud floated past, but I didn't see any lightening and there was no rain. The show started, played about 3 min of lights and music, then the "theater" lights came on and they thanked us for coming and said they hoped we could all come back to see it in it's entirety sometime!!!! What!? We were so upset. That is a long wait with kids for nothing. Oh well, at least we've seen it before, I really felt for those who had never seen it.

We then left for the villa and bed. When we got there, grandpa showed us something on our table. Three stuffed animals, one for each child, had been dropped off during the day along with our daily "Village Voice" which lists the schedule and menus for the next day. Wow! The kids were excited, but so tired they barely noticed. :) Off to bed for all...

| 1 comments

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Wish Trip - Day One

7:22 PM

So last week we were blessed to be able to go on a trip to Orlando through Make a Wish. My posts on this amazing and incredible experience won't come close to describing how wonderful it was.

We began at 3:30am on Monday, August 4th. We were picked up in the biggest limo I've ever seen and the kids were in awe. They did great getting up and ready and we watched Pippi Longstocking on the hour and a half drive to the airport. We barely made the plane. We had enough time to check in and run to the gate, but we did make it. We then had a connecting flight to catch in Atlanta which I was unsure about making as well, but God got us through and we ran to that gate just in time.

After arriving and picking up our rental car we drove to Give Kids the World Village. The most amazing place. It was founded by Henri Landwirth who was a child during the Holocaust and went through tremendous suffering during that time. He lost family and friends. He went on to come to America and eventually began Give Kids the World to help children suffering from life threatening illnesses come to a place where they were essentially the stars.

My parents drove from Clearwater to spend the week here with us as well and were waiting when we arrived. We went into the "House of Hearts" to check in and each of the kids were given a stuffed animal. Afterwards we drove to our villa for the week, a two-bedroom duplex.

A little while later Brandi and her three lovelies arrived. We got to know each other somewhat and then took her 3 and my older 2 out to explore. We went to the "Castle of Miracles" to play and ride the carousel first.

Then we HAD to check out the ice cream parlor!!! Sorry, but this picture was too priceless NOT to put on my blog.

How ironic that I captured this picture of Braeden and the now infamous phone!!! I told Braeden to leave it alone, Brandi assured me it was fine, and HE ERASED IT!!! I was completely embarrassed. I still can't believe how nice she was/is about it. (I am not so sad about the fact that the priceless picture of me she had taken was erased!)

After ice cream we went to "Amberville" to play with the huge model trains, boats, etc and then rode the train that was the perfect size for the kids. Then we headed back to the villa since they needed to get started back home.

It's hard to express the thanks I have for being able to meet Brandi and get to know her. Her blog constantly challenges and inspires me to walk God's plan for my life in the best way I can. We were able to share some of each other's stories and I wish we had had even more time. Her kids are precious and I hope that we can spend more time together in the future.

We took a couple pics before they left, and as Brandi expressed it perfectly, it shows two moms trying to spend time together with the kids. :)

After they left my parents and I took the kids to the "Gingerbread House" for dinner. Each of the places, but especially the Gingerbread House, humbled me to no end. There were volunteers all over the place helping to serve, clean, cater to the families, do anything they could to help the place run smoothly. Give Kids couldn't function without these volunteers. There were kids and adults, retirees, and boy scout troops. God's love and blessing was abundant in them! There were no short answers and hurried workers, but people willing to take your tray, get your drinks, fill you up with goodies and love alike.

After dinner we walked along the "Avenue of Angels" - the area around these wonderful buildings which have pavers inscripted with names of children and families who have come to this amazing place. A person from Discovery Cove was there with a sloth for the families and kids to see and ask questions of and touch. Braeden and Olivia LOVED it!

The first day of our trip was amazing, and it only got better from there! The kids went to bed late and without a peep. :)