It's Gobbles Time!: April 2015

Way back in January, I did something crazy. I ran a marathon. In the happiest place on Earth. The trip was a 35th birthday celebration for me and we also managed to squeeze in some celebration for the Lobster Roll's 3rd birthday as well. My parents and sister joined us and were pleasantly surprised to find out that a vacation with every minute planned out can be just as fun as laying on the beach for a week without a care in the world.

So I'll start at the beginning. With the race on Sunday, hubs, the kids, and I headed down on Friday in order to have sufficient time to shake out any travel woes prior to the race. The flight down went by without a hitch as hubs took care of the kids and I read a deposition for work, so at least it was easy for me. Really though, the kids were good, enjoying a movie on the kindle and lolipops at takeoff and landing to help with ear poppage.

After we arrived, we made one more last ditch effort to get the two-bedroom suite we had waitlisted after my parents decided to come (we originally booked a one bedroom for just us, and by the time we booked the two the only availability started the day of the race, so cue switching rooms on race day...). The effort was fruitless and our room wasn't quite ready so we changed the kids into their park garb and headed to our first stop- the Wide World of Sports to pick up our race packets. The wait for the bus was long and the ride was longer (cue the dread setting in realizing that this was just a portion of the race length). We walked about a mile or so from the parking lot to the expo where we ran into our friends, Gobbles' old teachers, one of whom was also running the race, fresh from packed pickup. We exchanged brief hellos and got into line ourselves to get our stuff. We then browsed the expo, mostly sold out by now as race weekend had officially started the day before, but I managed to snag a 26.2 magnet for my car, that sits on my fridge because hubs makes fun of them whenever he sees them on cars "oh i'm the best at exercising".

Finally we left the expo and got down to the real start of our vacation. We headed to Epcot in time for us to use our fastpasses for Test Track (well, all but the Lobster Roll, who enjoyed a private photo session with hubs while Gobbles and I rode before we rider swapped and hubs rode with Gobbles). By then it was time for dinner at Germany's Beirgarten restaurant, where the food was pretty good and the atmosphere was a lot of fun. We sent the kids down to the dance floor for a bit and the Lobster Roll immediately found a pair of sisters to dance with, while the Gobbles jammed like no one was watching. Before I retrieved them we enjoyed a musical display where two men dressed in lederhosen played bells, glasses, and those giant things from the Ricola commercials.

We decided to call it an early night because the fatigue of all the plane and bus travel from the day was setting in. We made three quick stops on the way out- first to my 2nd favorite ride Living with the Land (which is now one of Gobbles' faves), the Seas with Nemo and friends, and finally back to the character spot so we could get pictures with Gobbles. It was so convenient not having to lug our camera around and just buying the memory maker ahead of time, so all of the character photos, ride pictures, and even some ride videos were ours with the scan of a wristband.

The next morning, we woke up ready to enjoy an easy Magic Kingdom day before the race. Because it was the day of the half marathon, the crowds were rather light in the morning and we enjoyed a lot of rides in a short amount of time, including Buzz Lightyear, the Speedway, Dumbo, the Barnstormer, Thunder Mountain (well not the Lobster), and of course my favorite, the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. We even had a meet and greet with Buzz after the Lobster insisted we wait in line. Gobbles was surprisingly pretty anti-Character after the previous night at the character stop. For the life of me I can't remember where we had lunch that day or if we just went back to meet my parents and ate / rested there, but oh well, all I know is that soon my parents arrived and we were back in the parks just hours away the Lobster's big moment, meeting Anna and Elsa.

First though, we gave my parents a proper Disney intro. As we walked into the park, the afternoon parade was winding down, so they saw about a half a float but got to experience the crowds head on. They did pretty well as we made our way down Main Street to Tomorrowland, where I was almost giddy with excitement to introduce my dad to the Carousel of Progress, an attraction I knew he'd love. Bonus points, my mom enjoyed it too! Gobbles, of course, was mad that this was not really a ride, and this was kind of the way he was all trip, just all about the rides. We went on TTA again (can't get enough!), Cinderella's Carousel, and possibly Mickey's Philharmagic (I know they did this once, but I can't remember which day). Then it was time...

I purposely set the Frozen fastpass up to be the first princess meeting she had, and boy was it worth it. As we waited in our short line, the Lobster excitedly talked about what she was going to say to Anna while Gobbles looked begrudgingly at the piece of paper his old teacher had given to him earlier that day for a pair of Frozen signatures for one of his old classmates, a girl she nannies for. When we got to Anna, my little Anna latched on like there was no tomorrow and would not let go to a chorus of awwwws from the people in line. As the seconds went by and they remained embraced, hubs tried to move the Lobster along. Anna replied sweetly Shhh... it's a warm hug moment, she's fine! Neither she nor Elsa broke character as they bantered back and forth about the kids, and Gobbles was happy to have acquired the signature he needed and even smiled for a picture. I hopped in one with Elsa since my visions for tomorrow's race all involved me crossing the finish line in happy tears to Let it Go blaring through my headphones. (note to self... cool it with the expectations! that was your first downfall!)

Anyway, after that it was time to head back up Main Street to Tony's Town Square. We were sidetracked by a dance party "parade" where again, Gobbles was lukewarm but the Lobster was all over it! She was dancing in the street with my Dad so happily that at one point she almost got run over by a float! By then we decided it was time to head off to dinner, where we enjoyed an Italian meal in a restaurant modeled after Tony's in Lady and the Tramp. We were going to attempt to wait for the electrical parade, but the thought of waking up at 3am (after having walked at least 14 miles in the past 2 days - 2nd downfall) to run 26.2 miles got the better of us and we headed back to the hotel. Hubs again tried with the front desk to at least get a later checkout time since we were running the race, and finally someone agreed to give us an extra hour, 11am. We packed up as much as we could and went over the instructions with my parents, still assuming we'd be back (5:30 start, 4 hours to finish = 9:30 finish... right?) to help bell services gather our stuff to move to the new room.

Finally, the kids relaxed with Grandpop and watched fireworks from our room with the perfect view while we laid our our marathon clothes, bibs, sneakers, and attempted to go to sleep around 10:30. I think I went down around 11 only to wake up each hour (3rd downfall) until the alarm went off at 3. Until tomorrow...

Gobblesfamily takes on Epcot

I LOVE you Mickey!

I'm just gonna plant myself right here, kay?

Look Minnie - we're twinsies!

Waiting for our table at dinner!

Silly faces!

That was hubs' beer, as I didn't want to drink too much (two days in advance)
before the marathon. Looking back, I should have enjoyed myself a little more, it
wouldn't have made a difference! I was just too nervous and anxious with anticipation (4th downfall!)

Now that's a handsome duo!

First and last character hug? Maybe.. Belle may have gotten one!

Check out this crew!

Hey there big Fella!

Peas in the pod!

Oh what the heck, another family picture!

It totally looks like they photoshopped Gobbles' head,
but I think it's hubs' backpack and the way he's leaning...

Gooooood morning Magic Kingdom!

Now we know we're in Disney World!

So much fun riding with Daddy!

Big Buddy! I took this pic to compare to his other two- in this post

I'm here too!

It's like we have a secret!

Calling buzz lightyear of star command!

Very serious about attacking Zurg!

Ready to race!

Ready to fly on the shortest kiddie coaster ever- 30 seconds of Barnstormer!

It was still long enough to do a wonder on my hair!

that's it! Time to ride Dumbo!

More photo fun!

Look who's here!

6 of the 7 of us have arrived!

you're right, this ride isn't bad!

This one is just our speed, too!

Cheeeeese!

Ahem.. can you just sign this real quick? Excuse me....

Warmest of warm hugs!

She is my Anna and i'm never letting go!

We love Elsa too, but not as emotionally..

Well, Mommy does...

Dance Grandpop!

See Grandpop? It's Magical!

This is really it, the last of the winter-time memories (besides Disney!) that I need to get down on paper. I'll start with two "day trips" we had- a few hours of fun at each but a lifetime of memories.

First, we went ice skating at the river rink downtown with daycare friends. It was during hubs' busy time at work but because his commute was short, he was able to meet up with us for the skating hour and I'm forever thankful he did because I don't think either of the kids would have enjoyed it otherwise.

When we first stepped onto the ice, the Lobster was all for it, decked out in a sparkly skirt like a natural performer, linking to her Daddy's hand and ready to go. Gobbles, on the other hand, had a terrible first lap and I just kept thinking, oh boy, what did we get ourselves into? After a few minutes of composing himself though, he began to get a little braver and relied on my hand instead of the wall, as I was able to catch him so he could fall "gracefully" instead of splatting on the ice. We started picking up momentum and going faster, Gobbles occasionally slowing to grab his girl D's hand and do a lap with her (and me and her mom flanking the sides). Hubs and I traded kids back and forth and we all had a blast. By the end of the session the Lobster was done, seeking out her friend K and K's dad, while Gobbles skated until the last call off the ice. On our last lap, he decided to go it alone, and made it pretty well, only falling once.

When the skating was over, hubs departed back to work and we continued the party at the "winterfest", where the adults had beer and the kids had cheese fries before enjoying some of the sideshow activities. It was a nice laid-back afternoon letting the kids enjoy something new and different with their friends, and, since Gobbles is still asking about more ice skating regularly, we're looking forward to it again next year.

Next up, probably a month or two later, we hit up the Crayola Factory with the Poozers. The kids are the absolute perfect age for this and I'd never been, so it was really neat to see the demonstrations and activity centers available. They made their own crayons with personalized labels, watched machines make custom two-tone markers for them, made various shaped crayons, model magic creations, and water color art, all which came home with us. We enjoyed coloring on ipads and watching our air animate on a giant screen for all to see. There was also a two story play-structure in the heart of the factory where they ran and played for a decent amount of time, Gobbles in charge to make sure his fearless sister and cousin were ok in the upper bowels of the place where parents couldn't fit to venture. After we were all sufficiently exhausted, we all hauled across the street to a seemingly hole-in-the-wall pub for what turned out to be a fantastic early dinner with craft brews, wings, sandwiches, and more. Another enjoyable day out!

Finally, despite a ton of running around and socializing this winter we had plenty of downtime too. Gobbles took advantage of his home days and, after completing all of his birthday and Christmas lego sets in record time, settled in to do puzzles, science kits, and more. Santa had brought him a little electronics set which basically has different wiring diagrams to follow and create various circuits to turn on an alarm, music, or a fan. He got the hang of it surprisingly quickly and loved showing me when he completed different projects.

Since the Lobster Roll moved up a classroom at school to the 3 year olds, she has progressed leaps and bounds on her letters, identifying and writing a good number of them, and finally spelling her name (which even gets me tongue tied still). I'm happy to see her confidence soar as she draws her stick figures and tells me detailed stories about what's going on in her artwork.

The crazy juggling of school and play is in full swing!