The Janky Stroller Rides Again COMPLETE

[MikeWsGirl]

All right fellow Dis-Lovers let's do this. I mean, I kind of owe it to you all. I have spent my lunch hour for the past four years reading all of your reports so I think it's time for one of my own. At the very least, I do owe @GrandCalifornian, @chunkymonkey, @TheLittleKatie, @Lesley Wake, @fractal, @StarWarsMomofGirls!, and @Clarf some reading material because I've read every single one of your trip reports. I just about lost my mind when I realized that GrandCalifornian left the same day we arrived and were STAYING DOWN THE HALL from us.


So this is my first trip report. Bear with me, I'm not great with the technologies, but I'm going to try my best.

If someone feels like posting in the comments how in the heck I create subchapters, that would be super crazy helpful. Even when I follow the instructions posted on the Welcome to the Disboards, troubleshooting post, it calls the links spam.

My trip journal is 30,000 words long. I might not post all of it but I will definitely post all of the painful parenting moments because I love the honesty of that and I owe it to StarWarsMomofGirls! who is past that age now but always gave a vivid picture of what it's like to parent at the parks. So Ariella, I dedicate all my children's meltdowns to you. Thank you for braving that and writing about it. I thought about Gwen crying at five am when you woke her up to ride ROTR when my daughter had a meltdown so awful at the parks that she gave her little baby self a headache.


Cast of Characters

So who is this silent stalker lady?
I'm Sarah, a Canadian, we live in the very very very far North. Not quite midnight sun territory but close-ish. Thirty-six at the time of traveling, I am a former cast member and am liable to burst into sobbing, hysterical tears at the sight of Mike Wazowski or Terk luckily they are not common in the parks or that would be super awkward. I sometimes poke fun at Americans mostly because I kind of am one. David jokes that Toronto, where I grew up is basically the states. I also came back from my college program with a full on Florida accent which I still have over ten years later. I am a part-time teacher, a part-time writer - hence the endless trip report - and a part-time stay at home mom. In this photo, I am waiting for a Cast Member to come pick up this filthy droid to take it to Goodwill's dumpster.

I've made an agreement with myself that I have to finish this trip report, finish my printed version of the report for my family and make our photo album of the trip before starting to plan another trip in earnest. Because, for serious, I'm going to need that amount of time for my littlest to grow up, three years old was way way way too young to take a child to Disney.

My kid's Dad is David. He is from the northern middle of nowhere hence why we live there. His favourite ride is Splash Mountain. It took some timing to catch the gravestone with her eyes open.

My son was six at the time of the trip. I struggled with whether to put up their pictures because watching other people's children grow - Ariella baby Gwen was so cute! - brought me joy but ultimately I felt like too much of a hypocrite at the idea. I kept a humor blog for ten years and intentionally never showed my face so I want to give my children the same choice of when and where they reveal themselves on the web. I will post photos of the backs of their heads. Luckily we have a lot of those shots. #parenting

Clark loved everything about Disney, his top rides were Slinky Dog Dash and Big Thunder Mountain. He did not get to ride Splash Mountain and we hear about that EVERY. DAY. Clark likes all food but his favourite was probably the frequency that his Dad served him cake for lunch.

Claudia turned three two days after we arrived home. She is a COVID baby because she doesn't remember a time before the pandemic. Claudia found this trip wildly overwhelming and spent a lot of time asking for her pacifier and a "big squishy nap". Her favourite thing was being carried and being held.



My Dad came along. He is a huge lover a Disney but mostly a lover of his grandchildren. His favourite thing was being left unsupervised in stores and buying way way way too many toys. We have approximately five pictures of him from the trip. We have more pictures of the tree of life. We spent a lot of time running after the kids, feeding the kids or trying to get a halfway decent photo of the kids. The only reason David and I have photos of ourselves is we had five count'em five date nights. I don't even want to say how much we spent on babysitting but I will if someone asks because @StarWarsMomofGirls! taught us all that honesty is the key to winning the Disboards. On their nights off, my Dad and Stepmom collapsed in a heap so there are very few photos.

My stepmom also came along. She likes wine, dogs and high end shopping. Not necessarily in that order. We have a grand total of two pictures of her from the trip and in one of them, my stepmom isn't even looking at the camera. #ParentingSmallChildren
My Stepmom has a lovely smile, we just didn't bother to capture it. We have a hundred photos of Clark not looking at the camera instead.

Table of Contents

Cast of Characters

January 28th 2022 Day Minus Two – An Alternate Location for Hell

January 29th 2022 – I’m Tired of Other People Picking My Nose

January 30th 2022 – Child Projectiles

January 31st 2022 – Licking ‘Cheampeen’ and other Questionable Parenting Decisions

February 1st – Mr. Cool Half Mill

Wednesday February 2nd 2022 – Do we get your Lightning Lane?

Thursday February 3rd, 2022 – A Conveyor Belt of Carbs

Friday February 4th - Sweaty, Secondhand Caramel Corn

February 5th, 2022 – Secret Sandpits and Rejected Bird Snacks

Sunday February 6, 2022 – A Duck Stole My Pull Up

Monday February 7th – A Night of Debauchery and Light Arson

Tuesday February 8th 2022 – Mike Wazowski Pixie Dust and Elephant Teapots

Wednesday February 9th 2022 – This Better Live Up to the Hype

Thursday February 10th 2022 – Near Death Experiences and Trigger Words

Friday February 12th 2022 – Perfection

Saturday February 12th 2022 – A Nineteen Hour Day

Reflections? Epilogue? Another Gratuitous Chapter? Yes, the last one.

 

[Mich123]

Great intro! I’m looking forward to reading your report!

 

[MikeWsGirl]

January 28th 2022 Day Minus Two – An Alternate Location for Hell​

Before the trip, David and I discussed whether I should bring my computer. His response was, “You need to bring your computer, it is bad when words fester in your head.”

Truth. It’s kind of like wearing a hair shirt when I have something that I want to write badly. The ideas scratch at me until I finally get them down on the page at which point I have no recollection of the story whatsoever.

On the Disney Boards that I follow, people list the travel day of their trip report as day zero. It takes so long to get to Winnipeg that we had a day minus two.

The night before we left to drive to Winnipeg, I declared that we had to make sure Claudia’s car seat could fit on our GoGo Baby. This lead to an hour of troubleshooting car seats on the GoGo Baby and David installing and uninstalling car seats until we figured out which car seats were coming with us installed in the van and which ones were riding in the back ready to check at the airport.

The kids loved this because each time David strapped a car seat onto the GoGo Baby which turns a car seat into an oversized wheelie bag, the kids got to ride in it. We needed to test the GoGo Baby because Claudia FREAKED OUT in the Ergo baby carrier; screaming, crying, fighting to get out and we didn’t want a repeat performance at five am at the airport.

To say the kids love riding in the GoGo Baby car seat contraption is an understatement. They fought over it, they begged for a longer turn, they cheered every time David brought a new car seat into the house. Riding around David’s kitchen while strapped in the GoGo Baby was the highlight of the night.

At one point while tilted and moving backwards, Clark exclaimed, “This is like a ride!” It occurred to me that the GoGo Baby was the exact angle of the Haunted Mansion ride when you go backwards into the graveyard. So I turned off all the lights and dragged Clark around the house singing the Haunted Mansion song.

Claudia was bereft when we said no more rides on the GoGo baby. I assured her that she would get the world’s longest ride when we went to Pearson. Queue Claudia shouting, “I want to go to Pearson! I want to go to Pearson!”

David remarked, “Said no one ever.”

Side note. My cousin gave me the GoGo Baby over four years ago. In that short time, I destroyed it. I don’t think it was intended to be wheeled for kilometers up St John’s steep hills or at top speeds while running to catch a bus. It’s an incredible piece of baby equipment that should have been resold for a good price but after it’s lived with me, I think I’m going to have to sell the GoGo Baby at the annual “Everything for a Quarter” sale here in town, with a caveat of, “Be nice to the GoGo Baby; it’s had a hard life.”

Please fellow Dis-ers I have a photo of me abusing the GoGo Baby, dragging it uphill to go with this text, can someone help me with putting in photos? The site says that my post is spam? I'll cop to my photos not being great but I take offense at the spam bit.

The next day, David picked Clark and me up right at the bell and we drove the five and a half hours to Winnipeg. It was the best road trip we’d ever had with the kids. That is until we decided to throw the whole good experience away by stopping in Portage.

A little background on Portage; you know the saying, “When hell freezes over?”

Turns out the alternate location for cold hell is Portage La Prairie, Manitoba. Nothing good ever happens there. Clark, David and I spent a disastrous weekend at a conference with bad food where the main attraction was the slide at the hotel pool, and the pool’s heater was broken. The hot tub was filled with miserable, shivering families.

David almost brought home bedbugs from a different hotel in Portage who pretended to be surprised when David said he found the insects during a precheck of the room where they had obviously sprayed before.

You’d think all of these things would have convinced us not to stop.

But it would seem the pandemic has given us head injuries because I told David to stop at the Kid City indoor playground despite Portage’s Kid City not picking up the phone when I called. Of course it was closed when we got there and Clark was disappointed. To rescue the situation I promised Clark McDonald’s which was 500 metres away. As we were driving there, I joked, “And that’s how we got food poisoning.”

Fast forward to two hours later; Clark did a convincing impression of a vomit fountain, he got David, both chairs in the room, a significant portion of the carpet, all of the towels in the room and himself. Claudia escaped unscathed somehow. Our tiny ginger ninja who avoids barf.

Later on that night David felt ill but he managed not to toss his cookies. Claudia didn’t eat any McDonald’s, she only squeezed yogurt all over herself from the tube in her Happy Meal. I forewent the fast food gut bomb so I was fine.

It’s official - Portage is cursed.

January 29th – I’m Tired of Other People Picking My Nose​

The next day more than made up for the sour end to our evening even though Claudia went to bed with what I suspected was pink eye and woke up with what was definitely pink eye. We used leftover breastmilk - Claudia was weaned months ago - to treat her eye and it WORKED.

David was tired from washing clothes late into the night so I took the kids to explore the hotel to let him sleep. Exploring hotels was something Diana and I loved doing as children because you never knew which corner was going to reveal a magical vending machine. And because we were on vacation, sometimes our parents would let us get a snack.

So Clark, Claudia and I ran up and down every single hallway on every single floor. Clark liked finding the stairwells to go to the next floor. We’d peek out every window and watch as the view changed as we descended the floors. Clark was good and would run silently down the halls, on the lookout for anything neat but Claudia sometimes got caught up in the excitement and would let out a shriek as she ran.

Claudia was wearing my favourite pair of jammies – the Minnie Mouse ones from Jen. Claudia looks unbearably grown up in them. I loved watching her little bum as she sped down the hall trying to keep up with her brother, and the happiness in her gait.

Claudia couldn’t keep up with Clark’s long strides but he frequently turned around to wait for her. It was magical; it was one of those times where I revelled in their innocent joy. Once we finished, I went into the car to grab some Lego that David had packed for Clark and some magnet activities for Claudia.

I left the kids sitting together on a chair in the lobby with the instructions to stay where they were, hold onto each other and not to talk to anyone. When I returned a couple minutes later, the kids were exactly as I had left them; Clark with his arms wrapped around Claudia, both of them with their masks on, waiting silently. My heart swelled with love in that moment, Clark is always protective of Claudia but the way he gripped his little arms around her waist was so precious.

David came down and found us shortly after and we went to Polo Park mall. If you’ll remember from a couple of years ago, Clark loved the car carts. And the only thing better than one car cart is two! The universe gifted us one by the entrance to the Starbucks so we plopped Claudia in. After Clark proclaimed that he would rather have a car cart than go to the Lego store, we went and got one for him too.

It made me laugh, the two of us pushing the kids in their own car carts. So ostentatious but so fun. David amused himself and Claudia by making the cart go where she was pretending to steer. The kids had so much fun that they didn’t want to get out when it was time to go. So I did a slalom course around the poles and benches near the exit.

The day was amazing as it was but somehow it managed to get better. David took Clark to the lobby to do some Lego sets that he had brought with him. (In addition to the sets that David bought at the Lego store.) Then we realised that we could see a Kid City across the street. So we planned to go there after Claudia’s nap and the Covid tests.

I don’t know who was more upset going into the Covid tests, me or Clark. My little boy did not want to be swabbed again. We had swabbed the kids the morning before we left for Winnipeg because why drive six hours if you won’t be able to get on the plane anyway? So the prospect of another swab was making Clark melt down a little. Even the reassurance that it was just a nose swab where someone else essentially picks your nose didn’t make it better.

I was all but hyperventilating at the prospect of our trip being ruined by a positive result. All the same, I tried to make it fun for the kids. Escalators are new for Claudia so we rode the ones at the airport twice while waiting for David to park the car. After the test we rode them again. Then David dropped the kids and me at Kid City while he went to do errands.

 

[MinnieFan4ever]

Can’t wait to hear more!

 

[KenyaSierra]

Dying to know why you had leftover breast milk available to treat Claudia’s pinkeye

 

[MikeWsGirl]

Dying to know why you had leftover breast milk available to treat Claudia’s pinkeye

I weaned Claudia the summer before because my family nurses FOREVER. We found leftover breastmilk when cleaning out the freezer and since I was so nervous about Claudia going on the trip without being vaccinated, gave her a bag each day the week before the trip. So we had two full bags with us.

 

[MikeWsGirl]

Can’t wait to hear more!

That’s good because there is so so much more. To quote Mark Twain, I was lazy so I wrote long.

 

[KenyaSierra]

I weaned Claudia the summer before because my family nurses FOREVER. We found leftover breastmilk when cleaning out the freezer and since I was so nervous about Claudia going on the trip without being vaccinated, gave her a bag each day the week before the trip. So we had two full bags with us.

Very cool! It’s a precious resource so grest to find a use for it

 

[MikeWsGirl]

I'm Tired of Other People Picking my Nose Part Two

Caption: A photo of me convincing myself that excited play is a Covid symptom. There are anxiety fumes coming off of me in the form of skunk sweat. Also that is a level 5 Canada Goose parka hanging off of my back. It's rated to -25 Celsius or -13 Fahrenheit. We live five hours north of Winnipeg. The kids are wearing their car jackets. Most of the winter, they need parkas just to be transported the five minutes to school.

Claudia is effectively a COVID baby. She went to Winnipeg for four days just after her first birthday but since then, the only places she’s visited have been the grocery store, daycare, the library and the farm. So the wedding the kids and the grandparents attended last month was a huge, overwhelming deal. But nothing compared to walking into a warehouse-sized playground full of screaming children. Clark took off for the slides while Claudia hung close to me, climbing in and out of the quarter machines near the exit, watching the shrieking children with trepidation.

After we’d been there for about half an hour and Clark had explored the entire playground from top to bottom, he got tired of playing by himself. He ran up to Claudia who was sitting in the big red dog machine. “Claudia! Come on the slide!” he grabbed her hand and tugged his sister after him.

I felt a little nervous. I didn’t feel like shucking off my coat in the freezing room to climb up and retrieve an abandoned little sister. “Clark, you have to help her. You can’t leave her anywhere and you have to hold onto her.”

Claudia was too little to even climb the big steps up to the slide by herself. I figured Clark would lift her maybe once or twice then tell her to climb down. But no, he painstakingly lifted his little sister so she could scramble onto the next level, then they arranged themselves so Clark could lift Claudia again. Finally they disappeared into the structure.

I watched anxiously to see them come out the bottom. First Clark shot out and ran back to where they had started. Then Claudia appeared, Clark hung back a little, “This way Claudia!” he shouted beckoning her back towards the padded steps.

And so they went, up and down, and up and down, and up and down. I kept waiting for Clark to get tired of lifting her, of having to wait for his toddler sister to catch up but he never did. Whenever they got too far apart it was like there was an invisible string tethering them together. I was reminded of how precious and special sibling relationships are, that Clark will always be Claudia’s first friend. I smiled watching as Claudia would speed to catch up with Clark or the way he’d look for her if a bigger kid pushed their way in front of his sister at the slide.

Claudia worked hard to keep up. Although she was getting a boost to each level, it wasn’t easy for her to climb, she had to hold her body completely straight to make it easy for Clark and then grab quickly onto the next step when she could to haul herself up.

Claudia was also scared of the slides but managed to make it work. There was a giant slide that was like three bumpy slides stacked on top of each other. It looked daunting to me, so I can’t fathom how scared my little two year old must have been. However Claudia simply turned around and rode backwards on her stomach and slowed herself to a stop after each bump to ensure she didn’t go too fast or catch air at the bottom.

Watching the two of them work together and play so nicely made my heart so glad. I could have stayed there all day. After another hour David showed up. As we were going out the door, Clark said, “Feel my hair, Mom.” It was soaked with sweat, the little guy had been working his butt off not only to make sure he had a good time but to include his sister too.

I’d told David to leave the car at the hotel and that we would walk back. David slipped Clark’s hand in his and said, “Think of it as a training walk buddy,” when he told Clark that we were walking. Clark looked at the hotel across the street and declared, “This isn’t a training walk!”

True. All of his walks were at least one point seven kilometres or one mile for my American friends. I’d wager Kid City was four hundred metres or a quarter of a mile from the hotel if that. We fed the kids and put them to bed shortly after.

Update on the photo debacle: David downloaded a program onto my computer that shrinks our giant photos down to size. They were too big for paint. Also, because I felt badly for enjoying watching other people's children grow up, I've decided to put up my previous trip report from 2016 when Clark was eleven months old and an only child. I swear I can't see any remnants of that little baby face in his kindergarten features now. Except for the gorgeous brown eyes of course.

So here I am.
And this is David.

Come back next time to find out how much water we smuggle onto the plane under the guise of it being for 'the baby'.


Thanks for following along!

 

[MikeWsGirl]

Great intro! I’m looking forward to reading your report!

There are pictures now! I'm more excited than I ought to be because it was so difficult.

 

[Northern Disney Girl]

Fellow Canadian joining in!

Love your report so far.

 

[Mich123]

The pics look great! I was hoping for a pic of a GoGoBaby because my kids are older and I had no idea what that was. Thanks to google, I now know.

Your son sounds like such a sweet and patient kid. I still appreciate it when my kids support each other. For Claudia, Clark was literally supporting her.

 

[Isabelle12345]

Joining in! Fellow Canadian too!

My kids have about the same age difference as yours (5 and 7 1/2) and my son is also very protective of his little sister. When you described your kids sitting still in the lobby, I could just picture my son a few years ago, holding his sister by the waist, not letting go of her for dear life... it was so sweet! True sibling love!
Covid has made my kids even closer (they were each other's only friend for months!) and it's so fun to watch their bond grow - it's a pure joy for a mother's heart!

Can't wait to read more!

 

[jrmint427]

Claudia turned three two days after we arrived home.

Joining in! My daughters are 5 and 7, we took both right on/just before their 3rd birthdays, had to take advantage while they were still free! Can’t wait to read more.

 

[MikeWsGirl]

January 30th 2022 – Child Projectiles: Part One​

The day started at five am but I woke up much earlier. I remember rolling over at two and not being able to get back to sleep. I was fearful that we’d sleep through our four alarms and miss our flight. David had set two on his phone, I’d set one on mine, David figured out how the bedside clock worked all this in addition to the wake up call I arranged with the front desk.

We scrambled a bit and got to the gate just in the nick of time. It meant that David and I walked onto the plane with full coffees which made installing Claudia’s car seat challenging.

Clark was delighted – he was heading to Mickey’s house so he was on his best behaviour. Clark settled into the wrong seat and was so happy and polite that rather than moving him, the flight attendants made the passengers who were supposed to sit in that row move. It meant that all of us were sitting in the same row which was nice. Clark did twenty pages of Jump Math before getting to play Angry Birds. My goal was for him to finish the book so we didn’t have to come home with it.

Len Testa, the author behind the Unofficial Guide to Disney series recommends that parents train their school age children to walk five kilometres a day in preparation for going to Disney. Obviously I don’t know this for certain, but I don’t think Len resides in a place where it’s regularly minus forty degrees Celsius and there’s a lot of snow half the year.

In lieu of five kilometres, Clark had to walk the one point seven kilometres across town in a heavy parka, with crampons on his little boots to give him traction. Claudia rode in the stroller. There were days when the snow was up to Clark’s hips and I was dragging the stroller backwards over what used to be a sidewalk while the wind howled into our frost nipped faces. Despite not getting in the mileage, I think Clark was well prepared. So those endless slogs are what I’m referring to whenever I mention training walks.

Caption: Actual photo of me during a training walk, laying down and waiting for death because making two children walk through the canadian north in a blizzard is too much effort. Also I am wearing adult sized crampon things on my boots. They're kind of like the chains you put on car tires but for footwear.

If people are interested, I can take a photo of the crampons that went on Claudia's little baby boots. She lost the right to use them the first week we had them after she almost kicked her brother during a tantrum. hers funny enough were the sharpest pair, which was a bit of a head scratcher. "Let's make these little baby feet into weapons." Admittedly, Claudia would need sharper spikes to dig into the ice. The force of my body weight helps me to grip the pavement.

The walk from the gate to customs at Pearson was like a training walk. Clark kept up the whole time without complaining or asking for a piggyback. We walked for days. Possibly weeks. Claudia rode in the GoGoBaby. Caption: Photographic evidence of GoGo Baby abuse. I'm nearly horizontal pulling the GoGo baby because the hill is so steep. I think this is when I managed to bend the metal clip on the side. So all of you don't have to Google what a GoGo Baby is.

Customs was empty but even still the air felt heavy and a little menacing like the room would turn on you for any reason. Clark understood that he had to be extra extra polite here. Whenever we played pretend and walked through what would happen on the Disney trip, I included customs and talked about how it was important to be silent, to only speak if you were asked a question and when in doubt apologize.

I was so glad that Claudia was still two, we got to bring all our liquids through security without incident – they’re for the baby. Never mind that a toddler couldn’t drink two litres of water. The eight Gogo Squeezs on the other hand.

Caption: She’s sooooooooo thirsty. The thirstiest toddler you’ve ever seen.

We got to the gate with lots of time to spare. David gave me a chance to walk around and explore while he fed the kids lunch. Then we waited in the line. In Winnipeg, they had let us board as soon as we showed up. By contrast Pearson lived up to its reputation of being a jerk and the guy at the counter pointedly ignored David who stood there with the giant car seat.

For the first time ever, David got ticked and was openly hostile to a stranger.

“We should join the line,” I said.

David held my elbow, “No, we are going to be the very last ones to board and they are going to regret not letting us on.”

When we finally pulled up to the counter, the flight attendants looked us up and down. “Are you going to check that car seat?”

David held their gaze defiantly, “No, I’m going to install it.”

Lucky for the flight attendants David was installing the seat rather than me so the process actually went quickly.

Claudia and I fell asleep and Clark got a free pizza on the flight. Many people stopped by to comment about how well behaved the kids were. It made up for the fact that no one exclaimed how beautiful Claudia’s hair was. When we’re out in our home town a minimum of one person comments on how beautiful she is. It made me sad that no one talked in the cities. I made a point of going up to moms to tell them when their children were adorable or well behaved or to remind them that they were rocking the parenthood thing in a rough situation if their child was freaking out.

Caption: I gave the kids string and Froot Loops to make a necklace as soon as we got onto the plane. Claudia didn’t eat hers because she was too busy drinking a month’s worth of water.

The cards were stacked in our favour in terms of the kids’ behaviour – Clark played Angry Birds for both flights. If given the choice between parents or video games, David and I might be out the door. Video games are Clark’s favourite thing in life.

Caption: I brought a staggering amount of crafts, brand new small toys and snacks to amuse the kids. We only opened one of these things. The kids opened little Shopkin stuffy keychains while sitting waiting for the plane to clear out. Also, yes that is a library book on my lap. I travel with them. In a former life, I was a librarian so I don't feel guilty about it.

The Orlando airport was lovely as ever –it’s as busy as other airports but the green carpet combined with all the soft light makes it feel more calming. As opposed to Pearson which is an echo-y atrium filled with impatient people.

Clark shouted, “The monorail!” and I corrected him, “The fake-o-rail.” It’s so charming to me that every Florida vacation begins with a miniature ride.

 

[MikeWsGirl]

January 30th 2022 – Child Projectiles: Part One​

The strangest thing we saw at the airport was the breastfeeding bombshelter. I nursed both my kids for two and a half years each. When walking into a space designed for breastfeeding, ideally one should think, “Oh darn, my baby isn’t hungry; this place is so nice,” not “I hope there’s enough canned corn and that door will hold against the nuclear zombies.”

Caption: Quick! Shove the newborns and newly postpartum moms in here; they don’t know whether it’s day or night anyways.

For serious, it was like a panic room for nursing. Fibreglass exterior, the lone overhead light illuminated an uncomfortable bench because there were no windows. Bizarre. I was sad that I had weaned Claudia because I would have rebelliously nursed outside of the bombshelter – thanks for providing me with this strange, giant backrest MCO.

Grandpa Jim met us at the Orlando airport. Clark asked a lot of questions about where we were, trying to figure out the different places and the various names. Pearson is an airport, but it’s also Toronto. Orlando is in the states. It’s also where Mickey lives.
Caption: We encountered this beauty in the parking garage. Seeing as David and I drive an electric car at home and I've written said squinty-eyed dreamboat begging him to design me an electric van, I had to stop for a photo.

Grandpa Jim brought oatmeal raisin cookies for the kids. David was impressed with the minivan Dad had rented – it’s one step fancier than ours. Being in that and driving to Winnipeg in our gas burning vehicle made both of us wish for an electric van.

Check in took forever because Dad wasn’t on the reservation and the Stormalong Bay pool is notoriously tricky to get into, so we had to figure that out. The kids sat in the lobby and watched Disney Junior on tiny chairs so they were happy as clams. TV is something that they have to bargain for and get infrequently at home.


Caption: The soundtrack for this room is Abba’s ‘Money, Money, Money’. Thanks Grandpa Jim for our swanky digs! My Dad paid for his grandkids to go to Disney, luckily they can't travel alone so David and I got to go along too.

We stayed in room 239 at the Beach Club Villas. The room was so lovely and perfect that I cried. It was everything that I had dreamed of for years. I told Clark there were two secret beds in the room. He found the one hidden in the pull out couch lickety split but the one that sits behind the table took a little more searching. Clark was the one to find the hidden button to release the bed though.

Caption: As perfect as the room was, it doesn’t hold a candle to Minnie ears kisses with my girl. Please note the all new, all pink clothing she is wearing. It was the only way I could entice her to get dressed in the airport bathroom. The Minnie ears are from Chasing Childhood. I found them on Instagram, they're the Pandora ones. They are also courtesy of Grandpa Jim who was delighted to buy girly things because the rest of his grandkids are boys.

After that, we took a walk around Crescent Lake to get ice cream. We took the long way so we could go see the lighthouse and the lit entranceway to the Boardwalk. I reminded the kids that alligators live in all of the bodies of water.

Caption: Psssssst, don't tell anyone but sometimes when I worked as a cast member in 2009, I'd come here to run around the Crescent lake. I was pretty sure that wasn't allowed then and am certain it isn't allowed now. Mind you, the only people that I used to see at six am when I'd pull up were the people hosing down the walkways or painting.

The lights reflecting off the water, the music floating in across the lake from the Boardwalk and the energy of the place always remind me of the Great Gatsby. I love it. Beach Club is my favourite resort for so many reasons. It felt perfect, the four of us there all together. Holding Clark’s hand as he took it all in was magical.

Caption: Mommy sneak-attack hug.

Come back next time to see whether we freeze to death from eating ice cream during a Florida cold snap.

 

[MikeWsGirl]

Fellow Canadian joining in!

Love your report so far.

Welcome. You will understand the cold descriptions then.

 

[MikeWsGirl]

The pics look great! I was hoping for a pic of a GoGoBaby because my kids are older and I had no idea what that was. Thanks to google, I now know.

Your son sounds like such a sweet and patient kid. I still appreciate it when my kids support each other. For Claudia, Clark was literally supporting her.

I put up a picture when I mention the GoGo Baby again. He is very patient as an older brother.

 

[MikeWsGirl]

Joining in! My daughters are 5 and 7, we took both right on/just before their 3rd birthdays, had to take advantage while they were still free! Can’t wait to read more.

Three at Disney World is madness. Six was divine. I think our next trip will be even better than this one which was great.

 

[MikeWsGirl]

Joining in! Fellow Canadian too!

My kids have about the same age difference as yours (5 and 7 1/2) and my son is also very protective of his little sister. When you described your kids sitting still in the lobby, I could just picture my son a few years ago, holding his sister by the waist, not letting go of her for dear life... it was so sweet! True sibling love!
Covid has made my kids even closer (they were each other's only friend for months!) and it's so fun to watch their bond grow - it's a pure joy for a mother's heart!

Can't wait to read more!

I really feel like I lucked out with our two. We got one of each; Clark is like David, is serious and caring and Claudia is wild and a performer like me. Definitely the order of traits you want because I can leave Clark with Claudia to do something and know he will be responsible.