Not so scary

Really really awesome. We trick or treated, watched the parade, and then the fireworks show. Got some great pictures of the castle with Halloween lighting. The real camera died at the beginning of the parade but Jared got it on his iPhone. And he videoed the fireworks. Unbelievable fireworks. Destin 4th of July is amateur compared to this.
Porter loved the trick or treating, and by the end he totally got it. He would ask for his bag when we would get close to the people with candy, and say "trick treat" over and over when they were putting candy in his bag. He waved at all the characters in the parade and was completely happy sitting in my lap taking it all in. That just doesn't happen with him. He even wore this "spiyaman" mask most of the time. Here is the pre party pic.



I've got so many cute pics of him in his costume.
I'll be slowly adding the pictures by day or event over the next week or two.
I will give this overall trip a 10 out of 10 (if we make it home safely tomorrow.). So much fun. Way more fun to bring your kids than be a kid.

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Trick or treat time

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Pirate pumpkin apple

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Pumpkin apple bite #2

And caramel!!!


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Pumpkin apple

OMG. It is covered in white chocolate.


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Back for naptime

This was the scene this morning as we were trying to get out the door. Porter pushed the stroller to the door and was standing in it to try to open the door.



Another good day at magic kingdom. We made it for the opening ceremony today and then went straight to fantasyland to ride dumbo, something porter has been asking to do, but the wait has been too long. Here's what else we did this morning:
Carousel
Snow white's scary adventure
Got picture with Alice in wonderland
Buzz lightyear
The peoplemover train
I rode space mountain
Astro orbiter
Swiss family Robinson treehouse
Aladin's magic carpets
Peter Pan's flight

Here is my special treat for Halloween.



The best looking candied apple I have ever seen. I'm about to dive right in since porter has now fallen asleep.
Jared is out and about today's naptime. He is on a mission to find a candy pumpkin--the kind you collect candy in while trick or treating. We had planned on getting one while we were here. They have cute ones with mouse ears. We went through one of the big stores on main street right after lunch and didn't see any. Apparently they have sold out at that store and pretty much all over the MK. So Jared is hunting for one during naptime!!!
We trick or treat at MK tonight. We are going to go to the pool after naptime and then head back to MK either right before or right after we eat--depending on where we decide to eat. If we can make it until the parade and fireworks around 9:00pm (which is only 8:00 our time) then we will call our not so scary Halloween a success.
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Some Disney thoughts

Well, it's definitely not a waste to bring a toddler. Porter is having a great time, as well as the adults. Here are my thoughts so far on toddlers and Disney:
1. Observe naptime. If you are at the park of your choosing when it opens it's not crowded and you can accomplish a lot before lunch. We have been eating lunch in the park and porter falls asleep shortly after, for which we use to shop a little and then head back to the room to finish naptime.
2. Scout out the toddler friendly rides. If you have done a little research before you go, you can get a little gameplan together for the day or park you are visiting. There are some many things to do you could basically have a totally different vacation every year for many years as your kids grow and change interests. This year we can't do any roller coaster type things, and Porter isn't quite ready for the 3D movie type attractions, but we have had plenty of stuff to do.
3. Make dining reservations. I wasn't going to structure our trip so much by making a ton of reservations, but I highly recommend it. I ended up scheduling lunch every day, which has been wonderful because if you don't want to eat a hamburger or chicken fingers every day for lunch you would end up waiting forever with a tired, hungry (=cranky) child, and by the time lunchtime comes, you want to just sit and relax for a little while. This place is just too packed to "wing it" with a toddler. That would be much easier to do when your kids are a little older and more flexible.
4. Hoop Dee Doo Revue is a great dinner show. It totally held Porter's attention for the entire 2 hours. That has NEVER happened with anything before.
5. There is a pharmacy that will I'll prescriptions and deliver them to your resort. We have taken advantage of this for 2 years now.
6. Don't take the buses to downtown Disney at night. It takes entirely too long, and if you are hungry on your way there or tired on your way home, it just makes for a miserable trip. They have plenty of parking that is close, so drive your own car.
7. Use the fastpass system. If a ride has a long wait you can get a fastpass. It will give you a time range for when to return and you go in a separate entrance and it cuts the wait to 5-10 min.
8. Stay at a magic kingdom resort. With toddlers you are going to want to spend most of your time at MK, so staying at a MK resort gives you direct transportation that is very easy to use.
9. Get on the Disney destinations mailing list. We got our room at a discount of 40% for this trip by using the code from a Disney email!!!! Basically cut the cost of our trip in half. We are staying at wilderness lodge this year, and love it!! We stayed at the polynesian last year and it was great too, but I think we like wilderness lodge a little better.
10. Get a 4 or 5 day park ticket. The difference in cost between a 3 day and 4 day ticket is $8 per ticket. Difference in 4 and 5 day ticket is $5. Difference between 1,2, and 3 day tickets is $80+. We originally got a 3 day ticket, but when we got here so much earlier than we expected I checked in to adding a day to our ticket and found out it was only $8. We definitely got our $8 worth out of the first afternoon.

That's the quick list I have come up with so far.

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Animal kingdom

We were at animal kingdom this morning in time for the opening of the park, where mickey, Minnie, and Pluto have a little act. We just missed the one at MK yesterday. Here's what we did:
Kilamanjaro safari
Pangani exploration trail--monkeys, birds, fish, gorillas
Rafiki's train--backstage animal quarters
Petting zoo--goats, sheep, cow, pig, donkey
Lunch at yak and yeti
Asian exploration trail--birds, giant fruit bats, Komodo dragon, tigers
Monkey island--don't remember the name, but that's what it was
It's tough to be a bug 3D movie
Picture with Hotdog aka Mickey mouse at camp Mickey

Porter's favorite thing was getting to see Hotdog. He did his arm flinging thing when he would catch a glimpse of him, and when he got up there he stood perfectly still to get his picture made. So funny. Those pics are on our photopass and my real camera.
Here is the only phone pic I have to post so far. We are on our way back to tbe room to finish this...



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Back from hoop dee doo

Great great great!!! A must see. The best thing we've done so far. Now we're in the tub with our new friends--a set of bath toys. We got a different set last year, and have been learning who they are in the weeks leading up to our trip. Now we can add to it.




Every time we get to mr incredible or dash, he says spiyaman.

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Porter's still sleeping

Here's the rundown of what we did this morning:
Aladin's magic carpets
Pirates of the carribean
It's a small world
Carousel
Peter pan's flight
Haunted mansion
Mickey's philharmagic 3D movie
Ate lunch at Tony's town square

We are going to the Hoop Dee Doo revue for supper at 5:00pm. Don't have any plans after that but we may be able to venture out since porter is getting such a good nap.


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Pics not posting

This is frustrating. Here is one from the last post.



Here's the other.


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Headed to the room for naptime

Apparently some of my pictures aren't posting. Here is the one from this morning.



Here are others from this morning.








It's a small world.


Carousel.


The weather is great. The waits are posted as 5-10 min, but usually shorter. Longest wait was Peter pan's flight, which was posted as 25 min but we got a fastpass and waited maybe 5 min. He didn't get scared on pirates of the carribean, but did on haunted mansion. All he did was laid his head on me and tucked his hands under my hands. I enjoyed the snuggling. :)
Anyway, we are headed to the room for naptime.
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Waiting on the boat to magic kingdom

And here is the picture from the post below when we first arrived.
Pulling up to the wilderness lodge.


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Pics from today.

This is tara. I hijacked jared's phone because my battery is very low from all the activity today and we took his phone the the MK, so he has all the pictures.



We did the buzz lightyear ride. Porter gives a thumbs up. We also did the monsters Inc laugh room, which he was a little young for, and the racecars, which he was a little too small for.






We rode the train. Porter loved.



We also went through Mickey's house in toontown and porter really enjoyed that. He got his picture made with "hotdog" and saw Minnie too.
Oh, he played on the little playground in toontown forever. He loved that too. Those pics are on the real camera.
Tonight we went to downtown Disney to eat. We really probably overextended ourselves, but we had a good time anyway, and a great meal at Bongos Cuban cafe. Porter got a toy to occupy himself while we waited. He fell asleep in my lap in the restaurant as soon as his little belly was full, and didn't wake up through all the walking and bus ride back to the room.







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Post from earlier

This was supposed to be on the blog around 1:30pm, I think.

We are here.


We are now in our room waiting on our luggage. And then we are headed to the magic kingdom!!! Trip was not bad at all.

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Stop #2

Rest area somewhere on I-75 south. Still don't know where we are. Passing mile marker 377 now. About another 2 1/2 hours driving time. Gotta stop and get gas in a little while and lunch at some point. Porter is doing pretty well. We're getting close to his regular naptime, so maybe, hopefully, cross your fingers he will fall asleep.


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Entertainment

Currently, he is occupied by this bracelet that we got at the AES fall festival. It's the little things...

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First stop

We are 2 hours down the road. We just stopped to change a diaper, change from pj's to clothes and eat breakfast. I didn't know where we were, and neither does Jared. I just saw exit 152 on I-10 headed east, so it was before that exit. Porter is in a good mood. He was dancing to the music in mcdonalds. I don't think you can ask for much better than that after being plucked from your bed at 4:30am.


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We did good!

We only went back to the house once for jared's cup of coffee that he had just made and to get porter's pre-fixed cup in the fridge. We tag teamed porter. I got him, and Jared got all his bed necessities. We got up a few minutes before 4:00 and we are all showered. We left the house (for the 2nd time) about 4:45.


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Packed, loaded, and in bed

The title means exactly what it says. We are packed and loaded minus my toiletry back, porter's "bed in a bag" (blankets, dog, and pillow), and what we are wearing in the morning. We are getting up at 4:00. We meaning me and Jared. Porter is the last item that will be loaded. We'll need a prayer vigil for this monster road trip. We may be riding with a monster.

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Underwear video

I forgot about this one. It's from about 2 minutes before the porter unplugged video. Never a dull moment....

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Porter unplugged

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Watering can fun

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Jared says I'm gonna hear about the "allergic to Andalusia" comment

It's a joke. I have battled allergies for a really long time. Testing, medicines, shots, and misery. It continued when I was in college and medical school, but didn't seem to be as bad. When we moved to Daphne, I was mysteriously better. Like never ever having to even take any medications type of better. I just thought I had finally outgrown them like I was told I might when I was younger. Occassionally when we would visit Andalusia could tell that I was having some symptoms, but since we were never here very long I didn't think much of it. Now that we have moved, they're baaaaaaaccccck. Full blown. It took a little time for it to get bad, but about a month ago I decided I had to do something, so we've been making the trip to Dothan every Monday for doctor visits and allergy testing. Basically I was told I haven't grown out of it, and I am as allergic as I was as a child. To be exact, I had significant allergy to 23 of the 26 things they tested for the first time, which prompted more testing the next week. It all boils down to 3 shots a week to get it all. They have to mix it in 3 vials. Do that for one year, then every other week for four more years. Hopefully that will confer some real immunity and I can get off the medications. For now it's singular and zyrtec washed down with liquid benadryl every night. So the real question is why was I so much better in Daphne??? There are all the same things there that I am allergic to (mostly trees, grasses, weeds, and molds), but supposedly there are just more of them. Maybe being that close to the cost and having the salty air neutralizes it?? Just a theory. Anyway, it just sounds better to say I'm allergic to Andalusia.


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Sitting in spiyaman's lap

And this isn't the first time he's made this request.



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Harden happenings

From the backseat: "hat! hat!"


Hmmm.... Passing the time on the ride back from Destin. Why are we in Destin? We have been going to Niceville United Methodist Church, and we take that out of town opportunity to visit some out of town establishments--today we went to Osaka for lunch. FYI: not kid friendly. Not trying to offend anyone about their church or religious beliefs, but we just haven't found a church in town that we like.



I am enjoying my new ride, and it's a good thing because I have been burning up the roads lately. Last week we were in Dothan on Monday for my allergy doctor appointment (I am allergic to Andalusia), I have been going to Opp every day to see patients in the hospital, wednesday and Friday I went to luverne for work, thursday i went to mobile for a haircut and to do dream dinners, and friday we went to enterprise to pick up the truck again. After we got it back Jared discovered that some other things weren't working and it has been in enterprise for the last two weeks getting replacement parts again.



We are getting very excited about our trip this weekend to disneyworld!!! I haven't decided if I'm going to try to take my computer to update while we are there, but I will have my phone.



When we picked up porter from the nursery at church they informed us that he bit and was trying to bite more. Yes, thank you, we know that already. Sorry jack if you were a victim. Any suggestions on that one anybody? We have been working on it.



Also, on the topic of the potty. Porter is starting to understand more about the potty, and it's not as much of a game. We ha e gotten one pack of big boy underwear (I will slowly collect them as I suspect we will go through many pairs a day to begin with) and are not going to buy any more diapers when we are out. Pull ups only. However, since we don't want to spend our whole trip mapping out the potties in Disney we have just not pushed it. We will try a little harder when we get back.

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One, two fee!!!

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Shirt made yesterday

Nannie, porter, and I watched football and sewed.



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"I wanna watch pets" (wonder pets)

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Streakin'

"I get you..."

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Fixing the tractor part 2

Monkey see. Monkey do. Porter saw Jared get under the "tractor," so he had to try it too. I don't think he's quite got the hang if it yet.

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Fixing the tractor

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Beauty Pageant and Fair Night #2

Catherine didn't place in the pageant, but we think she looked beautiful and I think she really enjoyed the experience.


Roller coaster in progress

Roller coaster stopped



Blurry due to motion.... These two are like wild indians together, but they have so much fun.





I know this pic is blurry, but here's the story.... Porter rode the "roller coaster" and saw some of the bigger kids with their hands up in the air, so he copied them. With the ride going, my camera couldn't keep up with them to focus, so it's blurry. But it's still funny to me.

Last night we went back to the fair to see Catherine in the beauty pageant and for the cousins to ride a few things together....