Happy Belated Thanksgiving from the Waterstrauts. We've had another busy week, and while we've had a lot of fun these last few weeks, I could go for a slow, work from home week around here.
This year for Thanksgiving, we did something a little different. My entire family was headed to Disney, and so we stayed there too. While they went with Epcot resorts we picked the Cabins at Fort Wilderness. It gives you space, it's nice and quiet, and you have a whole kitchen. They are, also, newly renovated.
The biggest change is the kitchen.
They got rid of the full sized oven in favor of a convection oven and a couple of burners.
And the murphy bed is gone, in favor of a bigger TV. But, the couch still converts to a bed (a nicer bed than the normal pull out bed, but not quite as comfy as I found the murphy bed).
The bathroom is slightly upgraded too.
And the bedroom still comes with a set of bunk beds, and a full size bed.
The boys love the golf carts at Fort Wilderness. It's how you get around, since cars are only allowed if they are coming in or out- and the place is pretty spread out. They do have internal shuttles if you don't want to deal with the added cost of a golf cart though. (Except, I think they are totally worth it!)
We got there pretty late in the evening on Wednesday. Traffic was horrific- and it took nearly two and a half hours from home to get to Disney (it's usually just over an hour). But, Thursday morning Asa and I got up and headed to breakfast.
Another plus of Fort Wilderness: Trail's End. In my opinion, it's the best breakfast spot in all of Disney. If you aren't staying there, it's a trek to get back (you have to take the internal shuttle). But still totally worth it. The value is usually really good too. (Unfortunately, Disney is now charging extra for "premium days" including holidays, and blacking out Tables in Wonderland discounts.)
But they have french toast bread pudding, with praline maple syrup.
And pulled pork eggs Benedict.
Hayden got up while we were gone, and everyone else was still sleeping. So, he got to steer the golf cart around our loop as reward.
Asa put the turkey in our roaster- which we got since the oven had been taken out of the cabins.
Most of our Thanksgiving food we made at home and then through in all our slow cookers or heated up. The mashed potatoes, however, took on a funny shape. They were good once they were warm, though.
The boys played cards, played football and watched football per our usual Thanksgiving tradition.
Then, while the food cooked, we headed out to archery. We had made our reservations for it months ago, which was good because everything was packed. Peak season, you know?
You might remember, Asa and I did archery a couple of years ago on our anniversary. And it was SO. MUCH. FUN. There are a lot of rules and directions to follow though (and you ARE shooting an arrow- safety first!) and I just didn't think Hayden was ready for it. So he and I sat out.
But, everyone else had lots of fun doing it. And my mom apparently had never shot a bow and arrow before, so I was happy she tried it. We always rope her into things, and she's usually pretty game for it.
And Forrest, their teacher, was pretty patient with her. She had trouble at first (I think she held her bow backwards the first three times), and she did shoot her first arrow OVER the curtain, but after that she did really well, and didn't miss a target once.
Asa totally nailed it on one of his shots.
And Hayden was super well behaved and patient. Good kid!
After a few rounds, they got to go back to the next line.
When they're all finished, you get to take some pictures.
After archery, everyone else came over to the cabin for dinner. In an apparent first, Cort carved the turkey.
We also did facetime with my grandma and Aunt Bonnie.
And the kids played outside.
Even though we were in a tiny little kitchen, there was no shortage of food.
And in a first, we ate Thanksgiving dinner outside at a Picnic Table.
You might also remember our Thanksgiving table cloth. It's just a sheet that everyone writes on every year, but we brought it along so everyone could do a 2015 signing/drawing.
Garrett really liked the concept.
My oldest brother, Cort, turned 40 last month. So mom had a present for him. He got his old Dukes of Hazard lunchbox, complete with the cup that matched.
And that Geratol has been passed around the Sattler family for years, whenever someone hits an "old person" birthday. Cort's the first one of the next generation to get it.
My sister in law, Holly did the dishes- which was super nice of her, since it's Peyton's week.
And, I'm pretty sure this is the last time my brother Clint will see Calib and have to look down at him. Another two inches or so, and Calib will be taller.
It might, however, be a few years before Calib can take Clint.
And of course, we did our obligatory family pictures.
And Justin was there too! He drove over to eat with us. I think he's been with us for Thanksgiving for the last at least six years.
Cort, Holly, Gwen and Garrett were off to the University of Dayton basketball game at the Wide World of Sports, and invited my kids to come along. Hayden wasn't into it, but Calib and Peyton were.
Dayton won (and then they won again- but lost in the finals). But, Calib and Peyton had a good time at the game, so thanks to Cort and Holly for taking them, and Cort's old roommate Tom for the tickets!
Clint and Jess stayed a little longer, and then we drove them back to catch the boat over to the Polynesian so they could watch the fireworks.
Mom wanted to get Hayden something, since she ended up paying for the archery, and felt like Hayden got left out. We checked out the gift shop at Fort Wilderness, and played around. But, decided nothing was too impressive and we'd check out Downtown Disney the next day.
On the way back, we took a few detours to check out the Christmas lights. It's pretty cool how everyone decorates their cabins and campsites and RV's for Christmas. Some people even decorate their golf carts.
Plus, Disney was all Christmas decorated up.
Mom also treated us to drinks at Crockett's Tavern. Hayden even got a kiddie cocktail.
And mom though Hayden's cherry sword looked good, she wanted one too.
We went back to the cabin for more cards and football watching.
And eventually leftovers.
Usually Justin and Asa have second Thanksgiving dinner after Black Friday shopping, but there was none of that this year.
Calib and Peyton got back pretty late, so the next morning we let them sleep while mom, Asa, Hayden and I headed over to Downtown Disney.
Oh, time out to see Hayden and Garrett's squirrel house they built.
I actually thought it was pretty well constructed.
Downtown Disney was surprisingly unbusy when we first got there on Friday (we did get there just a few minutes after it opened though).
The new Hangar Bar is open too- this is next on our Disney bar stops.
The whole place is decorated for Christmas- I feel like this happens overnight at Disney. One minute it's halloween and then poof! Christmas!
Oh, and we got to see and Amphicar launch.
We enjoyed the sites, and did a little shopping. Plus mom had a mess with some days on some tickets, and some days on other tickets, and some missing days- but Guest Services at Downtown Disney figured it all out. They are the best, if you ever have an issue, that's where to go!
We picked up some maps for Garrett too.
And watched the glass blowing.
Hayden ended up picking out a Simba pillow pet.
And we got our free chocolate at Ghirardelli before heading back to the cabin. (And it was really busy by the time we left!)
At the cabin, you also get a grill for cooking out. We didn't have a lot of meals where a cookout would workout, but we did squeeze it in for lunch on Friday.
Calib and Peyton begged to drive the golf cart, and yes, you are supposed to be 16 to do it, but we let them go around our cabin loop (not on the main road), and to be fair I saw kids Hayden's age driving the thing around.
We took a trip around and saw lots more Christmas decorations..
And we stopped to play some basketball.
We had also brought along our fishing poles.
They sell bait at the bike barn.,,,
...but I'm not entirely sure that there are fish in that stream. We never caught anything.
While Asa and Peyton fished, the rest of us hit the pool. It wasn't super warm, but it was bearable.
We met up with everyone else at the Swan to re-create the family picture from Spring Break in 2009, the last time we were all at Disney together.
And, we got to see the Christmas decorations over there- which included this display, completely made out of chocolate!
It also seemed like a good place for a dip kiss picture.
After picture time we headed over to Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner. Asa and I ate there awhile ago, and loved it, but the boys hadn't been. It's African food, but really there's plenty of things to choose from.
We were joined by another one of my brother's University of Dayton roommates and his family.
The deserts at Boma are my favorite. So, so good.
Gwen sat next to Uncle Clint, and insisted he wear her tiara.
After dinner we got to use the night vision goggles to check out the animals. It's totally free, and you don't have to be staying at the hotel to use them. Love the Animal Kingdom Lodge, I just wish there was an easier way to get to the parks from there.
The tree there is also ginormous.
And there's Uncle Clint, always causing trouble.
After dinner, we headed back to the cabins, but Asa and Calib had to come home. Asa didn't have enough vacation/personal days to have off work, and Calib had a basketball game. Mom stayed with us two nights, and then headed over to stay with Cort- so it was just Hayden, Peyton and me. But we made do.
Saturday morning, Peyton slept in. Hayden and I collected pine cones (for a December craft project).
And we went over to check out the pool by our cabin (We had swam at the main pool the day before, it's the one with the slide!)
We had leftover cookout for lunch, and then I told the boys I would take them out for dessert.
We headed out to Trails end for the warm sticky bun sunday and a strawberry shortcake waffle.
I don't think I need to tell you how awesome it was. It was gone in about a minute and a half.
While we had hoped to ride horses this go around, it just didn't fit into our schedule. But we did make a trip over to the barn to visit the Fort Wilderness horses.
Then we hit the beach for a little while..
...and climbed some trees...
...and spent some time at the playground.
Plus there's always something fun going on around Fort Wilderness.
When we got back to the cabin, there were wild turkey's everywhere, which Peyton just thought was the coolest.
(Sidenote: I love how peaceful Fort Wilderness is, it's the one place at Disney that you never feel packed in).
After some hemming and hawing over whether it was warm enough for swimming, Hayden finally decided he wanted to go swimming.
After some major (MAJOR!) traffic issues, we made it over to the Beach Club to meet up with everyone for some smores. I was really hoping to go to the campfire at Fort Wilderness (Chip & Dale roast marshmallows there! Another free cool event!), but that just didn't work out this go around.
We all kind of decided to eat dinner on Saturday last minute- and you'd think it'd be tough to all find a place for the 12 of us to eat, but the Beach Club has a pretty great counter service place by the pool, and the tables were pretty empty.
Then we just sort of walked around, saw the gingerbread/chocolate carousel, did a little shopping, and got some dessert at Beaches N Cream.
Then we headed over to the Boardwalk, where you could see the Magic Kingdom fireworks. We watched the boardwalk entertainment for a bit, the kids watched some Inside Out on the Boardwalk lawn, and then we walked over to the bridge so we could catch Illuminations at Epcot.
That's my brother who has the Illuminations music on his phone and was trying to sync it up. Yup.
Since everyone was leaving Sunday morning, we had to say goodbye before we left the Boardwalk.
We let the boys have the bedroom on Saturday night, and we took the couch bed.
And then next morning we couldn't resist one more chance to eat at Trail's End.
While I packed up, Asa took Peyton over for some fishing.
And then we were ready to head out. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a late check out- but that just meant we got to be home for the Bucs game (or maybe unfortunately, after winning so awesomely last week, they really floundered.)
Oh, and we did let Calib take the golf cart out on the open road (and by open, I mean the roads within Fort Wilderness). We had two cars, and had to return the golf cart on the way out, so it just made sense.
Asa went in front of him, and I went behind him.
And of course he did a great job.
Oh, and in case you're wondering what I got instead of doing archery, well, I got a real life working Cogsworth. I LOVE him, and he's currently towering over home school central.
We had lots of errands to run today, and a free shake at Red Robin, so we got that and some poutine. Yum.
Once we got home, I worked on the board for December presidents (it isn't up yet, so I'll share that with you later), I also have a super fun surprise project in the works for the boys for the month of December. (We won't get too much typical work done this month- so I do what I can to "sneak in" learning). I also made our punch board for Christmas activities. Every year I do this, I think it'll be the last time- that everyone will feel too old for it-- but every year they ask for it again.
I can't believe tomorrow is December already, that's nuts.
Next Up: I'll likely be back before Friday when we have a president's birthday, but if not, I'll see you then for Martin Van Ruin.
