DisneyWorld - Animal Kingdom

Finally, we decided it was the right day to head over and start our adventures in Disneyworld.  We started with Animal Kingdom which was a good choice because we got to see all kinds of characters without waiting in too long of lines (like we did in the other parks). 

Jaydon had no idea what to expect but could not contain his excitement about meeting Pooh, Eeyore, and Tigger.  Tylor thought life sized stuff animals that moved was the coolest thing he had ever seen. 

He also fed off Jaydon’s excitement and could hardly be contained.  Tylor grabbed and hugged and laughed at the characters – he became as much of the show as the characters were. 

He even tried to take Tigger’s ear home with him, it’s time like these that you realize the professionalism the people in the costumes have to put up with the over adrenalined, wide-eyed, crazy kids that they get stampeded with.

Jaydon got to learn about dinosaur bones and was very good at putting together the life size dino bone puzzle. 

He also got to touch one of his favorite animals - a real life snake. 

But even a real snake couldn’t hold water to the petting zoo with more of Jaydon’s new favorite animal … goats. 

He followed them around, gave them hugs, petted them and talked to them. 

We spent the most time with the goats then any other attraction at the park.  It’s at about this time that you realize why Disneyworld doesn’t even bother charging an entrance fee for anyone younger than 3. 

We finally got the whole family together to go on the safari ride to see some real animals like hippos (those are the grey humps in the water). 

Giraffes - and this one actually ran alongside our truck for a few yards to the delight of everyone on board, and rhinos. 

After the animal safari Jaydon fell asleep which was too bad because we found ourselves located right along the parade route with a parade coming down the street. 

Tylor was awake though and couldn’t keep his eyes off the neat characters and shiny costumes going by – until Tanner came by with his whirly hat. 

Tylor loved that hat; it was instant distraction for him and became a useful tool when he became overtired and cranky.  Tanner also enjoyed having a way to interact with his baby cousin so would strategically place himself just in reach of Tylor. 

After the parade it was time to finish off the visits to the Disney characters. 

Tylor and Jaydon loved seeing the rabbit and she gave them lots of hugs and was very sweet. 

We got a couple of great pictures with Goofy, all dressed up for Christmas (and if we were to do Christmas cards this would be the one - but we don't so never mind). 

And don’t forget Mickey.  On our way out of the park the sun was just going down and one of the park photographers was hanging around with nothing to do so we actually managed to get all of us in a picture, looking at the camera, with our eyes open, with the big beautiful tree. 

This picture is testament as to why there are professional photographers!

LegoLand

We had several Lego fans in our group so going to Lego land was a must. 

We also didn’t feel like we were quite up to taking on Disneyworld yet so tried to have another ‘easy’ day.  Well Lego land is a lot longer than just a short drive down the highway – more like an hour away, and all of our easy days plus, the fact that all the cousins had so much fun at night they didn’t go to bed until very late (and Jaydon was sure to wake everyone up first thing in the morning) meant all the kiddos were already getting very tired already. 

Legoland actually ended up being one the best places for Jaydon’s age. 

They had a tons of cute little rides with no lines that he could go on over and over again as he pleased (we of course didn’t appreciate this until later in the week). 

They also had an air conditioned kids quite play room which was a perfect place to let Tylor take some time out of the stroller or Bjorn. 

He had a great time trying to figure out the neat contraption Cody made with all the duplo legos that were there to play with. 

At lunch time we headed over for some burgers in the old world part of the park where they had ladies dressed as princesses walking around and interacting with people. 

This one came up to Jaydon and said “It’s so nice to meet you sir knight.”  Jaydon laughed and said “I’m not a knight”.  The princess said “Excuse me, are you a prince then?”  And without skipping a beat Jaydon responded “No, I’m the KING!”  I was flabbergasted at his response and the princess did everything she could to stay in character and not join in with all of us laughing.  She quickly curtsied and said good-bye.  I’m not sure where he comes up with these things some times… 

After lunch we headed off to see the cities made of legos and Jaydon’s favorite the lego dinos. 

After all that lego fun Jaydon finally fell asleep for a short nap and woke up just in time to sit in his carseat for the drive home to get ready for our first big day at DisneyWorld.    

SeaWorld

Jaydon, Tylor and I headed up north to meet up with Steve and his family in Kissimmee, Steve flew back to the US from Doha and a long 3 weeks away from his boys.  I had rented a 7 bedroom house and the plan was for all 3 of Steve’s sisters plus their kids and grandma and grandpa to join us and spend Christmas together (for the first time since Steve left for college).  Headcount was 10 adults, 4 kids, 2 infants all under 1 roof for a week – what could go wrong…  We all made it except for Steve’s sister Renee and her husband (they had an unexpected death in the family) but they still sent along their son Tanner with Steve’s other sister Niki. 
We decided to ‘take it easy’ for the first day and headed off to Sea World. 

One of the first things we watched when we arrived was the dolphin nursery.  This is a play tank where they have adult and young dolphins together so the young ones can learn how to do some of the tricks like jumping out of the water and sliding around on slippery surfaces.  The dolphins were having a great time and we found it difficult to tear ourselves away to see more until we realized that it was time to see Shamu. 

Talk about a flash back to childhood – watching the Shamu show was absolutely wonderful and almost emotional, I remember the first time I saw it and falling totally in love with Killer Whales.  It was great to see again and to watch Jaydon’s reaction to getting splashed by a whale. 

He and his cousin Karlee had a blast. 

Next we headed off to the Polar Express ride where the kids got to see Santa except Jaydon didn’t want anything to do with him, even with his cousins being so excited about seeing him. 

We had to settle for pictures with the Christmas dolphin and Santa Shamu. 

Jaydon got to experience some of his first amusement park rides.

Karlee and Jaydon did a train ride by themselves which Jaydon thought was great

and Tylor just hung out getting passed from relative to relative (until he saw mommy and started fussing). 

Nap time quickly came and went and finally Jaydon and his cousin James succumbed and had a quick nap on the go –

one of many to happen that way during the week. 

Once napped and refreshed Jaydon saw some of his favorite birds the flamingos (or mingos as Jaydon used to say) and we said good bye to Shamu and his friends after a fun day at Sea World. 

Athena

But before Steve could join us back in the US he had to take Athena to the vet for her last days of battling lymphoma cancer.  When she was first diagnosed the vet said typical survival time was 2 months after diagnosis.  Athena managed to fight for over 6 months before finally succumbing; the vet was always impressed with her when we brought her in and she became a bit of a celebrity among the Doha vet community with how well she was doing.  When we first learned about her illness in July, I never thought that we would be leaving for our trip to Florida in November with the possibility of seeing her when we came home.  Unfortunately, she didn’t hold on quite long enough for us to make it make from our trip which was very sad.  As anyone who knew our dog can attest, she was a wonderfully happy lab who loved people and wanted to do anything that would make you pleased.  She was great with kids and even got a few people in this dog-aversion culture to put aside their fears and play fetch with her.  Jaydon is still trying to understand what it means for Athena to be gone.  He’s woken up a few times in the middle of the night asking about her and has asked if someone stepped on her (he associates being dead with stepping on bugs).  Now when someone asks about her he explains that she is bones in the ground (actually she was cremated but we figured that was TMI for an almost 3 year old).  She left us just shy of her 9^th birthday and we miss her terribly.  I still find myself every once in awhile expecting her to walk in or meet me at the door when I get home.  Our cat Mav also misses her and has become a bit more obnoxious with his meowing and is also needing a lot more lap time then he has ever put up with before.  A few of our favorite photos of her…

Our sweet little puppy

Athena doing what she was born to do

Athena taking her turn watching baby Jaydon

and keeping a close eye on baby Tylor

Athena and Jaydon playing rodeo

A bunch of bird dogs taking a nap

Athena and the Connor family

One of Santa's helpers

Athena 2002-2011

Last days in Ft. Myers

Just in case we hadn’t seen quite enough Florida wildlife we visited one more nature preserve and Jaydon got to pet another alligator which he was thrilled about. 

Jaydon helped out in the kitchen to celebrate Ian’s birthday by decorating the cupcakes. 

And Tylor was on presents duty.

However, I think Jaydon ate more of the decorations then he used on the cupcakes. 

They also went out to practice their casting techniques (as best you can with a spiderman fishing pole). 

We were coming to the end of our time with the Forte side of the family so decided to treat ourselves to dinner out at the Crab Shack. 

Jaydon ate crab for the first time and liked it (and was not allergic like his father is which is good to know).  The boys also got in some good quality grandpa time and it was even documented through pictures (my Dad is notorious for ducking out of photos). 

The quite, low key, relaxing part of our vacation was over.  Next adventure was road trip from Ft. Myers to Orlando just me and the two boys (Tylor did great, Jaydon got a little whinny towards the end).  And the best part was Daddy was coming back from Doha to spend Christmas with us.