Where Dreams Come True

We embarked on our first family vacation on September 20th of this year and we went to the most magical place in the country...Disney World!!! It was a wonderful trip, full of very happy memories. If you ask Alex what his favorite part of the trip was, he would say riding the Buzz Lightyear ride at Magic Kingdom. For Jenna, it was all about the Dumbo ride!! Both kids really enjoyed the parades. I loved watching their faces light up with excitement as they yelled "Look, look, there's (fill in the character)!" And I love how Alex sees the beauty in the elements of the parade. "Mom, look. Isn't that butterfly so pretty?" I loved watching Jenna's eyes widen and her smile get bigger as she met Pluto for the first time. The big hug she gave him and then, the absolute pure delight on her face as Pluto held her Dolly for a picture. (One of her wishes was for a princess to hold her Dolly, but she settled for Pluto). Rounding the corner at MGM to find a huge AT AT staring at us was magical as Jenna screamed "ALEX, ALEX, do you see that!! Do you see what is there?" But Alex didn't hear her because he was already running ahead to get a better look!! And my heart was bursting when Alex came face to face with Darth Vader. I saw the hesitation in his eyes, felt it in his body, but it was Darth Vader after all. He walked up, handed his clipboard over for an autograph, and bravely posed for a picture, then high tailed it out of there! It was good to expose them to new things, also, like live shows. In general, I think they liked them and it is something I will continue to do with them. We also really liked all the different dining we did. Alex's favorite restaurant was the Sci-Fi Dine-In (pictured at top). It was certainly different...we sat in a car and watched movie clips of old "B" sci-fi movies made in the 50's. It was unique and entertaining. We did so much on this trip - flew in an airplane for the first time, rode buses, boats, and monorails. We stayed up late, ate too many desserts, bought way to many weapons (2 storm trooper blasters, 2 small Buzz Lightyear blasters, 2 pirate swords, 1 large Buzz Lightyear blaster, and 1 Buzz Lightyear mechanical arm grabber). It was a good first vacation, yes, we had tears, tantrums, meltdowns, but for all the bad, there are very good memories. It is not a vacation we will take again next year, but we will go back. Alex wasn't quite ready for all of it. He is scared to try new things and sat out a lot of the rides. Hopefully, next time he will be more willing to venture out. Jenna, our fearless one, would have gone on everything if she were tall enough. We need to give her a few years to grow and then watch out, an adrenaline junky she will become!! Now, it's time to look over our 900 + pictures, yes, that is correct 900, and pick out the best for our scrapbook. Funny thing is, Joe says we should have taken more pictures!!!! I've got my work cut out for me, but am itching to get it started. I'll post more pictures as I weed through them all!