A Magical Vacation

The week before Thanksgiving, we took an amazing family vacation to Disney World.  We had been planning this for almost a year (although if you ask Daddy, he would say he's been planning it since our last trip in 2008 before I was even pregnant with Liam) and were so happy that Grandma was able to come with us.  We had so much to celebrate on this trip: Liam and Joergen's first Disney experience, our 10th Anniversary, and Grandma's retirement.  And celebrate we did!

In all honesty, I have no idea how to blog about this experience.  Our week-long vacation and 5 days in the parks were so full of both big adventures and little moments, all of which are precious to me as I look back on our time together.

We took hundreds of photos (which, if you really want to, you can check out here and here), and I could easily do a post for every day we were there.

Instead, and in no particular order, I will share my top 10 favorite memories from the trip.

#1: The Characters
We met so many of our favorite characters that week!

Liam and Joergen's very first encounter was with Pluto at Hollywood Studios.  We spotted him walking with his handlers from out of nowhere and followed him to his meet-and-greet spot where we were first in line.  The boys looked at him with such awe!

You know, kind of like this:

Joergen spotting Mickey

And this.

Liam asking Pluto for his autograph

And then there was this.

Hugs and kisses for their pal Pluto

I loved watching them both interact with characters for very different reasons.  For Liam, it was his thousand-watt smile and the way he would always find something to say to make the character swoon. 

With Joergen, it was the way he approached each character with wonder and curiosity, carefully touching their whiskers, paws, eyes, and gently stroking their fur.  

Those interactions alone made the trip worth it a hundred times over.

#2: Going Around the World at Epcot

The park we were most concerned about visiting with the boys actually turned out to be everyone's favorite!  We were worried that they might be bored with the World Showcase, but that couldn't have been further from the truth.  We had a blast.  Even when it comes to theme parks, simpler really is better.

My favorite moment within the moment would have to be trying the sake in the Japan showcase...

Not even the pouring rain could put a damper on our fun that day!

#3: Finding Fun in Unexpected Places
For example, what Liam and I did while waiting for the gates to open at Hollywood Studios:

And this of the boys one morning, goofing around in the bedding at the hotel:

Which is closely related to...

#4: Finding Magic in Unexpected Places
Like this trashcan!

It moved and talked.  What the...?!

Moving trashcans are hilarious!

#5: Late-Night at Hollywood Studios
One night after dinner, we took Liam back to the parks for some "bigger-kid" adventures: watching Fantasmic!, riding Tower of Terror (which I still can't believe he did!), and visiting the Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights.  I loved watching him chase snowflakes and wonder at the amazing, well, spectacle of those millions of lights.  This picture with Liam that night just might be my most favorite ever taken.

#6: Our 10th Anniversary Dinner

To celebrate our special milestone, Anthony somehow scored us reservations at the Chef's Table at Victoria and Albert's in Disney's Grand Floridian Resort.

It was life-changing.

Want proof?  On the menu was lamb.  Anthony hates lamb.  But perhaps not anymore?

Hands down...

Best

     Meal

           Ever.

#7: Downtime at Our Hotel

We spent the week off-property at the Wyndham Bonnet Creek, where we snagged a 2-bedroom timeshare condo with a full kitchen so we could make our own meals and have some room to relax (without paying Disney property prices).  And with their lazy rivers, water slides, pool-side bars, and beautiful lagoon, it was a destination in itself.

Liam and I floating down the lazy river

  

Joergen enjoying the pool

The view from our floor (that's Epcot in the distance)

Liam learned to swim on this trip- we were so proud of him!

Our cabana rental on our "day off" from the parks.

Homemade grilled pizzas by the lagoon

Dad having fun on the water slide

A sweet moment with Joergen and Dad

#8: Spending Time with Grandma

We were so grateful to have Grandma with us on this trip!  For Dad especially, walking through the gates of Magic Kingdom and heading down Main Street USA with her and their many shared memories from the past was beyond words.

Some of our other favorite moments with Grandma that week:

Cheers!

Dinner at Bongos in Downtown Disney

Riding It's A Small World

The "Jingle" Cruise

Liam and Grandma in the pool

Ogling the construction at the Polynesian Resort from the boat to Magic Kingdom

I don't think we could have done this trip without her!!

#9: Sleeping.

No, that is not a typo :)  There is a very special, serious kind of sleep that follows the excitement and magic of a day at Disney World...

#10: This.

Sometimes, the best moments are those that have nothing to do with time or place... they just are.

Boys Weekend

(Well, boys plus me that is!)

In early November, while Aunt Jackie enjoyed a well-deserved girls weekend with her friends and little Genevieve, Uncle Tim and Colin brought their boy-ness to our house for some quality cousin time and general seasonal fun.

The weekend started off with a no-girls-allowed trip to the Philadelphia Zoo (why yes, I will take a quiet Saturday morning at home, thank you!).  Liam's name was drawn at school that Thursday to care for the class mascot, George, for the weekend, so he thoughtfully took him to visit his relatives in the Primate House.

Joergen and Colin getting up close and personal with a lion:

And miracle of miracles, all three boys (and George, too) fell asleep on the ride home.

Back at the ranch, it took the boys a matter of minutes to get into some serious playing.  I just love how nicely they play together, not to mention how much those toys get played with when those three join forces!

Our first leaf collection for our neighborhood was right after that weekend, so we spent some time on Saturday raking leaves into the street for pick-up.  This is a new one for us, as our last house required almost no raking whatsoever.  Call me crazy, but I am loving having a nice big tree that dumps a ton of leaves in our yard.  It's nostalgic and fun, and the exercise isn't bad either :)

Before we moved the leaves to the street, though, we had to make a giant pile for playing in.  They boys had so much fun jumping and throwing and rolling around.

"Look what I found in my diaper!"

Liam and Colin

Colin sweeping the leaves with a little broom- hey, whatever works!

After all that hard work and a big pizza dinner, the boys snuggled in their pjs under a blanket on the sun porch and had a movie night with Monsters University, while the rest of us watched football in the living room.  And if the Irish had won, it might have just been a perfect night :)

After church on Sunday morning, we decided to go to Dave & Buster's to watch the Bears game and let the boys run around a little.  While these two hit the games almost immediately...

 ... this one crawled into our booth and fell asleep.  D&B's was perhaps a little too much for this little guy!

Joergen continued his nap all through lunch while the rest of us chowed down.

It was such a fun weekend, and we feel so fortunate to live so close to Uncle Tim and his family!  Looking forward to many more great times together.

Halloween of Heroes

Gotham City had nothing on King of Prussia this Halloween, as two superheros descended on the city to restore order and "die bad guys" for its unsuspecting residents.

The day I brought home those costumes and the boys tried them on for the first time, their transformation to Batman and Robin began.  And it was awesome.  The couch became the Bat-Mobile, their hands became 2-way radios so they could summon each other's help, and their former identities as "Liam" and "Joergen" were no more.  I discovered the latter when calling the boys for dinner that night (after they'd spent over an hour chasing those elusive bad guys), only to receive the news from Batman that he hadn't seen "Liam" in a long time-- so strange! He was here a little while ago!-- but he would help look for him.  Batman then ushered Robin out of my sight to the living room, where they wiggled out of their costumes and nonchalantly strolled back into the kitchen as their former selves.  Liam then exclaimed, "Mom, have you seen Batman?  I just heard you talking to him...!"

LOVE!

Seeing the boys take on these new identities - and especially Joergen, who really seemed to morph into a different personality all together when he'd put on that Robin costume - was nothing short of awesome.  They had decided weeks ahead of time that this was what they wanted to be for Halloween.  Liam and Joergen love watching the old Batman series from the 1960s (all the fun of Batman without the violence- it's great!), and Liam was quite adamant that his needed to be the blue Batman, thankyouverymuch.  Joergen, on the other hand, was quite adamant that he wanted to be The Joker to Liam's Batman.  I was hesitant to jump on that idea (those Joker costumes are just so creepy!  And our time with cute innocent costumes is so limited before they only want to dress up as gory slasher-movie types and zombies, right?), so Dad had a brilliant idea.  He brought up the Target website with all their Batman-themed costumes, showed Joergen the page of all his choices, and said, "Joergen, show us who you want to be for Halloween."  Joergen emphatically pointed to a Robin costume and said, "Dat one. Joker."

YES!  You can be "JOKER" for Halloween, Joergen!  Done and done!

The boys took advantage of every opportunity to dress as their alter-egos.  A couple of days before Halloween, we went to a party sponsored by the sororities and fraternities at Villanova.  Candy, games, face-painting, and cute sorority girls?  Liam was in heaven.

Liam getting his face painted

Joergen playing a bean-bag toss

Cheesing it up in the student center

At school, Liam got to bring in his costume for a Halloween parade, and I was excited to snag a spot on the parade route :)

Liam and his teacher, Mrs. Trumpler

VFPNS Pre-K Class

Finally, Halloween arrived, and the boys couldn't wait to trick-or-treat in both our old neighborhood with me and our new neighborhood with their butler, Alfred.

What used to be our most frightening holiday of the year because of Liam's food allergies has now, 3 years later, become one of our favorites.  Believe it or not, Liam loves to dump all the loot out, locate the labels, search for ingredients that aren't safe, and sort out the good from the bad.  I think it lets him feel in charge of his allergies, which is just so important!  He also dictated and signed this special note for the Great Pumpkin, when he left all the unsafe candy out for him that night:

The next morning, Liam and Joergen were thrilled to discover a Batman book and a new movie, The Croods, left by the Great Pumpkin in return.

Their superhero costumes still get worn pretty often, and they are hoping that Santa replaces their "hand radios" with real walkie talkies this Christmas... it was the only thing they asked Santa for this year!

Dad's 35th Birthday

Daddy's birthday was the weekend after our Danbury trip, and with its proximity to Halloween, we decided along with Uncle Tim and Aunt Jackie to take all the little ones to York so GG could see them in all their Halloween glory.

On our way to York on Saturday morning, we stopped by Millersville for their Homecoming festivities.  It has been over 10 years since I graduated from Millersville with my M.Ed., and when I found out they were planning to tear down my former home, Hobbs Hall, at the end of the semester to make way for a new housing complex, I knew that it was time to get to Homecoming!

Our first stop of the day was the Homecoming Parade, and even though we were 2 hours late, we still caught a good hour of it-- it was impressive!  On our way there, we realized we were walking toward the very end of the parade route and got to see all the performers dispersing.  The boys had a major celebrity sighting when they caught Darth Vader and a squad of Storm Troopers exiting the parade route...

After the parade, we went to a Housing and Residential Programs Reunion in Lenhardt Hall (which would also be torn down in just a few short weeks).  It was wonderful seeing so many of the HARP staff who mentored me into the field of university housing all those years ago, as well as some other familiar faces from my time in MACUHO.  We then stopped by Hobbs to say (*sniff*) goodbye.  I loved my two years as a hall director there!

After saying my goodbyes, it was time to get to York to begin celebrating Dad's birthday!  No party would be complete without GG and Aunt Jayne, but when I went to pick them up at Normandie Ridge, I was totally shocked to see GG's new companion.... what?!!

Liam was slightly freaked out at first, but then totally relieved (and seriously amused) to discover who was hiding behind that mask.  Aunt Jayne's sense of humor is the best!!

After dinner, Grandpa put candles in Dad's birthday apple pie...

... which then took three people to blow out! :)

And then, it was time to party.  Put on your party hats, everybody!

After church the next morning, we all gathered for brunch at Normandie Ridge along with Uncle Tim, Aunt Jackie, Colin, and Genevieve.

Nana, Genevieve, and Aunt Jackie

We then snuck the kids upstairs to change into their Halloween costumes so they could put on their own little parade for GG and Aunt Jayne.

Batman (Liam), Clifford (Colin), and Robin (Joergen)

Our sweet strawberry (Genevieve)

And don't forget the "other" kid!

Dad and Lilly

This little crew brought a lot of smiles to Normandie Ridge that day!  It was such a fun preview of what was to come on Halloween.

Happy 35th, Dad!  Here's to many more!!