This 'weekend', we headed out to Disney to meet up with my mom. She's at a conference the next few days in Orlando, and when she realized how close she'd be here to Hayden's birthday, she thought it would be fun to spend a couple days at a resort of Hayden's choice. We looked around a little and he toyed with the idea of the Contemporary, but he decided on the Cabins at Fort Wilderness.
If you've never been, it's a really great option. First of all, the cabins are pretty awesome. Plus, everyone travels around the resort by golf cart (that you rent by the day), and you have the added bonus of being just a boat ride away from the Magic Kingdom. But, besides all that, they have SO. MUCH. to do.
Asa took a half day on Monday, so after Calib's last MOSI class for this session, we headed on over.
The living room has a rather comfy Murphy bed.
And the bedroom has a full size bed, and a set of bunk beds.
You get a full sized kitchen stocked with anything you would need.
And a nice sitting area inside.
There's also a picnic table outside and a grill. It was pretty rainy on Monday though, so I didn't take a picture. Mom's plane flew into Orlando, and the 'Magical Express' brought her over from the airport to the check in desk. Asa and Calib took the golf cart over to pick her up.
We had made reservations at the Whispering Canyon Cafe at the Wilderness Lodge for Tuesday, but when we saw the weather was not going to cooperate with a cookout on Monday we switched our nights. So, we headed over to the lodge and nosed around in the gift shop for a bit before dinner.
Oh, and it might have been a few days ago, but since we were there to celebrate Hayden's birthday, my mom made sure to get him his birthday button!
Whispering Canyon Cafe is so much fun. We'd been there once before, and the boys all remember it fondly. It's a little rowdy, loud, and well, rude (in a totally funny way!), so if you're not into that sort of thing, this place isn't for you. But, I have boys. This place was made for my family.
We didn't have to wait long, but we got to play with the Lincoln logs before dinner. (Fitting since it was William Henry Harrison's actual birthday, you know, the log cabin candidate and all.)
We sat down, got our drinks, and had our straws thrown at us. (Asa's rootbeer actually looked larger in real life, folks.)
Then, you just get tons of yummy food. Sausage, ribs, chicken, beef, pork, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, baked beans, salad and corn bread. It's served family style, and they'll bring you more of anything.
And only one table gets ketchup at a time. You have to yell 'WE NEED KETCHUP!" really loud, and then all the bottles are brought to your table.
We also did some hokey pokey.
And enjoyed unlimited bottomless milkshakes.
Of course, the whole restaurant was also informed of Hayden's birthday and sang very loudly.
And there are pony races around the dining room. (That's Hayden there on his horse, he was moving pretty fast).
The aftermath.
I think Asa might have had a little too much.
And Peyton too.
Calib was on a sugar high, thanks to all his milkshakes.
The employees here really make it a fun place. Kudos to them!
We spent a bit of time in the lobby and Hayden made a wish in the fountain. (Fun story, I can't ever wish in a fountain again, since the last time I did I wished for Peyton Manning to sign Peyton's jersey and it came true. I'm not going to top that one, and it'll always be a great 'last time I threw a penny' in a fountain story)
After dinner we went back to the cabins and put on our pajamas and played some games. But, then we noticed how ridiculously low wait times were in the Magic Kingdom, probably due to the fact it had been raining all day. Mom wasn't going to use a ticket for just that little bit of time, and Calib didn't want to go out in the cold (or his pajamas, party pooper), so Asa, Peyton, Hayden and I decided to head over to ride a few things while the lines were so low. (Even if it was still drizzling, and even if we were already in our pajamas)
So we took the golf cart to the boat docks,
and the boat over to the Magic Kingdom, with about an hour before close.
We were there mostly for the mine train, we were THRILLED with a 10 minute wait.
I had to throw this picture in, apparently my flash was bright.
That ten minute wait, was actually FOUR minutes. And, we were riding it as Wishes was ending, so as we're on the roller coaster, fireworks are going off everywhere. It was the stuff commercials are made of.
When we got off the ride, the time had gone back up to 20 minutes, but Peyton and Hayden said we should go again, so we did, and still had a short line.
We were back on the ride in SIX minutes! SO awesome.
We hit the cars with zero wait.
And the Astro Orbiter. This is one of those things Hayden always wants to go on, but we never do because the line is always disproportionately long compared to how exciting it is.
And you get pretty views while you're up there.
Right as the park was closing, we got in line for Space Ranger Spin. We all got our own carts!
And Asa, for the second time ever, earned himself Galactic Hero Status and a button by getting the max score.
We caught the boat back to Fort Wilderness and even got to see the boat parade up close on our way back to the cabins.
We were in bed and toasty warm by 11.
Hayden was super excited to have the top bunk. He used the beams to make himself a little fort.
The next morning it was cold, but at least it wasn't raining, so while Asa ran home to take care of things here, the rest of us went into the Magic Kingdom. (I got to drive the golf cart then, and it was super fun!)
The Kingdom was super crowded though. We were pretty disappointed. (Come on, why is it packed on a Tuesday in February?!?) But, we did things that you can always do when it's crowded, like the Tiki Room, and the Hall of Presidents and such.
And we saw the Sword in the Stone actually come out of the Stone. We've never seen that before. Hayden was standing next to the kid that got picked to pull it out of the stone. So close, yet so far away.
It really does come out though!
By now, Asa was nearly back and it was time for lunch, so we headed back to Fort Wilderness, hoping for a less crowded park that evening.
Just a boat ride away, so convenient!
Asa was so nice as to already have lunch waiting for us when we arrived.
After lunch we had decided to hang around for awhile. We went up to the Meadow Outpost to check out the gift shop there (lots of gift shopping, since Hayden had lots of birthday money, and Calib and Peyton had gotten some Valentines Day money a little early)
It's really lovely and really quiet and peaceful around there. Much more relaxing than a lot of places at Disney.
Then we decided to take the canoes out.
I'm not really sure how we decided who was going in which canoe, but me and Asa went in one with Hayden.
Calib (who had never steered a canoe before) went with mom (who self-proclaimed she could not steer a canoe) and Peyton (who wasn't sold on canoeing all together)
And so that went about as well as you might expect.
They really just kept running into one bank, and then the other.
Calib wasn't too amused at my attempt for a picture.
They were really struggling,
So we decided to head back to drop them off so we could go out on a nice paddle.
So they get out, and realize they still have all kinds of time, talk about it, regroup, and decide they won't let the canoe beat them.
And then, HUGE improvement.
We really got going too. They did an awesome job the second time out.
Passholders really get a nice discount on the canoes. Two canoes for an hour were $13 total.
The boys had also wanted to go fishing while we were there. It's just a catch and release pond, but they rent you a pole, and they gave us some worms for free, so we did that for awhile too. Though, we didn't catch anything.
We headed back to the cabin for dinner. Asa cooked us brats and hot dogs.
While everyone else relaxed in the cabin.
It was a little cold, but I really wanted to eat outside, so we made the best of it.
At 6:30 every night they have a campfire with Chip and Dale. There's some games for the kids, you can make smores, and they follow it with a movie. We didn't want to miss that, so we thought we'd stop by on our way back to the Magic Kingdom.
There weren't a whole lot of people down there though, so my 'I'm much too old for characters' kids got trapped. Chip and Dale chased them around.
They were quite happy to take a self taken picture too.
Hayden was happy to get his picture taken though.
We roasted some marshmallows.
And ate some smores.
Before heading back to the Magic Kingdom. We groaned when we heard the park was staying open an hour later, and adding an electrical light parade thinking that meant it was going to be really busy the whole night. But, we decided we'd power through, and hope that if we rode rides during the first parade and Wishes, it wouldn't be too bad.
It really wasn't either, I mean, it kind of worked out great. We had next to no wait for Space Ranger Spin, where I got my highest score ever.
The teacups were practically walk on.
(We had the no-spinning pink girl teacup)
(While the boys had the spin-crazy blue teacup)
Pst.. in case you're ever at Disney, there is ONE horse on the carousel with a ribbon on it's tail. That's Cinderella's horse, and I got to ride on it!
Philharmgic was minimal wait, as always.
Oh, and it was cold. I don't have shame is sporting my slipper socks with my sandals.
With a wait time of 30 minutes, we were willing to take mom on her first ride on the Seven Dwarf's Mine Train. Plus, we got to watch Wishes while we waited.
And since the line was longer (than you know, the six minutes we waited the night before), we got to play with all the fun things they have in the line.
There was no waiting for It's a Small World, and we got the front of the boat.
And no waiting for Big Thunder Railroad either. Awesome!
Then we were in the back of the park, and there was next to nobody there. But, it was time for the second not scheduled electrical light parade.
Now, the boys love a good electrical light parade. One time Dopey gave them an 'air high five' and since then, they've been hooked. (Asa especially). But, with nobody around us, and Hayden's birthday button plain as day he got more attention than I've ever, ever seen. Tinkerbell was smitten with him. He got the hand in the shape of a heart, many blown kisses his way, and tons of Happy Birthdays.
My favorite (besides Tink going on and on about him), was Mickey. He stands on top of the float, but he spotted the button, pointed to Hayden, pointed where the button was and then clapped. So cute.
He got lots of high fives and hand shakes from the guys who walk the parade.
Cinderella blew him kisses, gave her wave, and told him Happy Birthday. The step-sisters flirted with him, held out their ring fingers and told him he was a better choice than Prince Charming. Alice told Asa blue was her favorite color too, and she liked his outfit.
...More high fives, waves, and happy birthdays...
And Pete had a whole conversation with Hayden, and even asked him how old he was. He said his conversation with Pete (who has a microphone) was his favorite. I wish you all could have seen his face, it was soooo exciting for him, and we all clapped and yelled every time someone did something for him. It was SO. MUCH. FUN. Really, the best electrical light parade ever.
We still had about 20 minutes till the (new) park closing time, so we walked right on the Magic Carpets.
It's another one of those that we don't do because the line is always way too long (it was 45 minutes that morning, in fact!)
Then mom, Hayden and I went on the Jungle Cruise while Asa, Peyton and Calib hit Space Mountain. We stopped by to do a little shopping. Asa and I each got new coffee mugs (he got a mad hatter one, I got one with Lumiere that says 'be our guest'), Peyton got a pillow pet, and Hayden got some toys.
Then we waited with the ducks for our boat back.
When we arrived, mom had a gift basket waiting for her. She had a meeting with the Disney Communications Director (or something like that) about a grant, and so they had sent her this. Pretty cool if I do say so myself.
Also, it was nearly midnight, but we couldn't go to bed without some cookies and hot chocolate to warm us up.
This morning while mom was at her meeting, we went down to the docks to play some tether ball, and rent some Speed Racers.
Asa took Hayden out in one boat.
And Calib was REALLY excited to drive his own.
..And they're off! They really, really enjoyed their time out on Bay Lake.
Peyton wasn't interested in doing them though, so we stayed behind on the docks and read our books. It was a much nicer day out, so we enjoyed the slightly warmer temperatures and the sunny skies.
The weather really hadn't cooperated with us going swimming, but the pool was heated, and the boys wanted to go down to the pool. Peyton and Calib then backed out and said they weren't sure they wanted to swim, for fear of freezing to death. But, poor Hayden really wanted to go, so we headed down to the pool, and Hayden wasted no time.
I was pretty sure Peyton and Calib would change their minds when we got down to the pool, so I grabbed some towels and their swim trunks just in case.
And I was right, they got in eventually too.
We checked out of our cabin, had a quick lunch, and headed over to Downtown Disney.
We took the boat to the Marketplace area in search of an Ipad Case. It didn't quite work out, but we had fun anyway.
Related note: Hayden needs new sandals apparently. He is so hard on his shoes!
Oh, and the new parking garage is done, and it's awesome. Too bad the rest of Downtown Disney/ Disney Springs is still under tons of construction.
We dropped mom off at her hotel for her conference and headed home. We got stuck in tons of traffic, but everyone had excellent team work, and we were packed and all settled in at home really quickly.
We had a great time, and I'm the new owner of an Ipad thanks to my moms donation to the School of Waterstraut! I'll see mom again in a couple of weeks, when you know, I go to Hawaii, but I don't think the boys will be seeing her until June.
Next Up: Happy Birthday Mr. Lincoln!
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