Florida - Day 4 - Magic Kingdom

Tuesday was another big day for us - we went to Magic Kingdom at Disney World! This was another super fun day.

Carter woke up screaming at 3 am. I have no idea what was wrong, but he fell back to sleep quickly when I picked him up. Unfortunately, I was never able to go back to sleep. Luckily I'm starting to get used to not getting much sleep again.

Carter was up early and I got him around 5:30 am. We were moving to a different hotel for the rest of the trip so we had to pack up all our stuff that morning. It was a little bit of a pain to switch hotels, but it was worth getting free nights in suites.

We got to the parking lot for Magic Kingdom around 8:30 am and it wasn't very busy at all yet. Carter got a short 10 minute cat nap in on the drive over. We went straight to will call to get our free tickets.

This year Disney is giving away a free ticket for doing a day of service. I had seen the commercials for this but never thought about it when we decided to do this trip. Luckily Sarah reminded me about it and also told me about a volunteer opportunity that we could squeeze in before our trip (we had only decided to go on the trip two or three weeks beforehand and didn't have much time to plan it). Anyway, there is an organization that donates blankets to hospitals in the area for children (we actually got one for Carter when he was born). So Brian and I both made blankets (they were very simple fleece blankets but the organization had instructions for making them on their website so they must like them). After turning in the blankets, we got vouchers to use at any of the Disney parks for a free ticket. Disney is so expensive (Epcot cost us about $165 later in the week) that it was awesome getting in free. And it is so nice that Carter still gets into everything for free. It's going to be disappointing once we have to start paying for him too!

Once we got our tickets we took the boat over to Magic Kingdom.

Carter waiting for the boat to start moving ...


Carter enjoyed pointing out everything (birds, boats, etc) to Brian as the boat crossed the lake ...


We walked up to the entrance just as it was opening. We went to Adventureland first.



We rode three rides in that area and didn't have to wait for any of them - we just walked straight onto the rides. I was able to ride all the rides that we took Carter on to. I was worried that I wasn't going to be allowed on some of the rides because of being pregnant, but no one ever said anything.

Our first ride was Magic Carpets of Aladdin. Carter did fine, but he wasn't as excited about the ride as I had expected.

Ready for the ride to start ...


Dad, I'm not too sure about this ...


As this video shows, Carter was happy at first but then got pretty serious.

Our next stop was The Jungle Cruise. Carter really liked this ride. He pointed out EVERYTHING to us on the ride.



Next we rode Pirates of the Caribbean. The ride was really dark so I couldn't see Carter's expressions very well. He did like the dogs in the pirate scenes and pointed them out.

After Adventureland we went to Liberty Square and rode The Haunted Mansion ride (again, no wait). Carter's mouth was gaping open the entire ride as he looked at everything.

After the ride we headed over to Fantasyland and rode a few more rides with no wait.

First was It's a Small World. Carter chewed on his hands the whole time as he watched everything. He really liked how bumpy the boat was after loading up before we entered the water.

Carter sitting next to Brian while loading the boat ...


What's that???


Sitting with me for once! Carter was so attached to Brian this trip! It was rare that he let me hold him or sat with me. If Brian was holding Carter and I tried to take him, he'd just give Brian a bear hug and hold on tight so I couldn't take him.


The next ride was Cinderella's Golden Carousel. Carter liked the carousel, as usual.


Then we rode Snow White's Scary Adventure. Carter was as fascinated with this ride as the others. He did a really good job staying seated on all the rides too which was great. And he never got scared even though there were lots of loud noises and dark sections on the rides.

There were a few more rides in Fantasyland that we would of liked to ride (Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Peter Pan's Flight, and the Mad Tea Party), but all those rides had 20-40 minute waits every time we checked and we didn't think Carter would put up with being held for that long. And we figured we could just ride some of the other rides again with no wait and he'd like them just as much.

Cute pictures of Carter eating a snack ...



We did a quick walk through in Mickey's Toontown Fair. The line to get Carter's picture with Mickey was really long so we moved on.

Tomorrowland was our next stop. We rode Tomorrowland's Transit Authority. It was nothing too exciting.


But Carter did sit with me for awhile!


We stopped for lunch at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe. After lunch we walked around so that Carter could take a nap. He ended up sleeping for about an hour. Brian rode Space Mountain during Carter's nap since the wait was only 20 minutes. I enjoyed taking a break and sitting for awhile.

Once Carter woke up, he made our way back towards Adventureland. On the way, we passed the castle.


And stopped to watch a parade (Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Street Party) in front of the castle.




The only part Carter really liked was when Sebastian, the lobster from The Little Mermaid, popped out of a box and danced.


We decided to watch a couple of the shows next. First was The Enchanted Tiki Room. The wait was a "long" 10 minutes.


Carter really liked the fake birds (he's very into birds right now) and kept pointing them out. He also danced a lot while sitting on Brian's lap.

Then we went to the Country Bear Jamboree in Frontierland. This was another 10 minute wait. It was awesome that our longest waits with Carter were only 10 minutes!


Instead of the bears, Carter liked these guys the most. He kept pointing and yelling at them whenever they talked.


My favorite ride was next - Buzz Light Year's Space Ranger Spin in Tomorrowland. We rode this ride twice since there was no line.


Brian and I each had a gun that shot at targets. Carter helped to spin the car (he surprised me a few times).



Monster's Inc Laugh Floor was next door and Carter was in a good mood so we figured he could handle it. The show is a cartoon but entertaining because they use interaction from the audience. Carter did great during the show - he paid attention even though it wasn't geared for his age.

We all walked around the park a little more and then rode the Walt Disney World Railroad from Frontierland to Mainstreet USA to head out of the park. Carter was really noisy during the ride - everyone kept staring at us. It was a happy noisy though.



We got a picture in front of the castle since we skipped doing this on the way in.



On the way out, we ran into Pluto ...


We also saw part of the same parade again. We took the monorail to the parking lot and were at the car at 6 pm.

We checked into our new hotel before dinner (the Staybridge Suites near Downtown Disney). We got upgraded to a two bedroom suite for some reason which meant Carter got his own room. The hotel was older and more heavily used by families since it was closer to Disney, but overall wasn't too bad.

We got the car unpacked and then did a quick dinner at Chick-fil-A. Carter was so tired that he fell asleep on the drive back to the hotel and didn't even really wake up as Brian held him while I finished setting up Carter's stuff. We put Carter down around 8:30 pm and were asleep not too long after him.

We had a really long day, but we all had so much fun. Carter did awesome. The weather was overcast with a few sprinkles in the morning, but it cleared up and got really warm by the afternoon. We had a beautiful last hour in the park as the breeze picked up and the sun started to set.

23 Weeks

I'm 23 weeks along today and feeling huge ... already! Here's a picture from today:


I'm up 20 pounds already!

This baby has been really active for the last couple of weeks. He likes to have a crazy dance party if I wake up in the middle of the night. He makes it really difficult to go back to sleep. Carter never kept me from sleeping with his movements. Brian's already able to feel the new baby move.

I'm feeling pretty good still. The last 2 weeks of traveling and not sleeping well wore me out, but it would have even if I weren't pregnant. My hips are starting to hurt again when I'm trying to sleep so I'm waking up a lot more. My knees and feet hurt more during the day, but it's nothing too bad yet. If I have to pick up Carter a lot during the day my back will bother me too. But I know all these pains are nothing compared to what they'll be in a month or two.

Once I finish unpacking and cleaning the house it'll be time to get back to setting up Carter's new room and transforming Carter's nursery into the new nursery. I'm looking forward to working on those again!

Florida - Day 3 - Kennedy Space Center

On Monday (Feb 22nd) we went to the Kennedy Space Center. The day was supposed to be mostly overcast with rain in the late afternoon so we didn't want to risk doing a day at Disney in the rain. Also, since we had such a big day at Sea World the day before, we figured it was good to do a slower paced day to not wear out Carter too quickly.

The drive out to Kennedy Space Center took about an hour and Carter slept the entire drive. His naps in the stroller weren't so great the day before so it was good to give him the car ride for a long nap. We got there around 9:30 am and it wasn't very crowded yet (not that it ever got too crowded).

Our first stop was the Rocket Garden. There are a bunch of old rockets set up outside that you can look at and read about. Carter enjoyed running around the area.



Carter and Brian checking out a rocket ...





I think this picture is so cute. Carter loves to take us places now by holding our hands and pulling us in the direction he wants to go (but he'll also refuse to hold our hands when we want to lead him to where we want to go).



A couple of pictures of Carter and me ...



After the Rocket Garden, we stopped by the Children's Play Dome. Unfortunately Carter was too small for most of the play equipment, though he did try this slide a few times.


Next was the Shuttle Launch Experience. This is the newest attraction at Kennedy Space Center. It's a simulator ride that mimics a shuttle launch and journey into orbit. Our wait was only about 5 minutes. We all watched the introduction video and then Brian got to ride the simulator. Carter and I got to watch Brian though on a video feed in a waiting room (about 5 other people were with us because they didn't want to do the ride with the rest of their groups). Carter kept waving at the television but I'm not sure if he really saw Brian or not (these were very small televisions). I did say to him a few times "There's Daddy" so maybe he recognized him.

Next we toured the Explorer shuttle.




We got to see the payload area and a little bit of the cockpit area.




We walked by the Astronaut Memorial on our way to lunch.


We had lunch at the Orbit Cafe and then did the Space Center Tour. For this, you take a bus to 3 separate sites that aren't part of the visitor's center where we'd been so far. The line was a little long for loading the buses (it took about 30 minutes), but Carter did okay. We had to leave the stroller at the visitor's center so we had to hold him the whole time. At this point in the trip, Carter was still letting us hold him without too much protesting. He got worse and worse about this as he wanted more and more independence.

Carter did pretty good on the buses. Most rides took almost 20 minutes but we kept feeding him snacks and that helped distract him.

Our first stop was the LC 39 Observation Gantry. From here we were able to view the 2 launch pads that are currently used. This was a pretty quick stop for us.



The next stop was the Apollo / Saturn V Center. We enjoyed this stop the most. The tour of this site started out with a video in a big open room about the Apollo / Saturn V mission. Somehow Carter fell asleep during the loud video while Brian held him. Next we moved on to the Mission Control Room that was used for the mission. Brian's arm was tiring out so I took Carter in here for awhile. In this room, they replicated the countdown and launch. It got really, really loud. I covered Carter's one exposed ear and he never stirred.

Then we moved out to the exhibit hall with the restored Saturn V rocket. Carter woke up from his 20 minute nap shortly after we entered this section.


The Saturn V rocket ...




Carter was getting a little fussy so Brian took him for a walk outside ...


They found an alligator!


The third stop was the International Space Station Center. This is where they build some of the space station components. There is an observation room above the floor where you can see the actual components being worked on.

Brian and Carter in a mock-up space station module ...


The tour took us almost 3 hours. When we got off the bus at the visitor's center, we ran into an astronaut! Carter even gave the guy a high five.


Our last stop was the Early Space Exploration and Nature Technology Buildings. We strolled through some of the exhibits and enjoyed having Carter in his stroller again.


There were 2 IMAX theaters with movies playing throughout the day, but we skipped them because we didn't think Carter was going to make it through a 45 minute movie. I think we've already seen one of the movies several years ago anyway.

We left around 4 pm and drove back to Orlando. Carter slept for about half the drive.

We went to dinner at Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza. This ended up being a fancy little pizza place and Carter was not in a good mood when we got there. Luckily he cheered up a little as the meal went on.

Carter was generally good whenever we went out to eat, but he's starting to get really loud. He doesn't have an "inside voice" at dinner. I really hate disturbing other people when they pay to eat out so I have a hard time ignoring him (he stops squealing a lot quicker if we don't give him attention). Sometimes I cover his mouth lightly with my hand to try to make him stop and he'll start laughing (Brian calls it my "Mom Palm"). Because of this, we ended up doing a lot of quicker dinners at less fancy restaurants during our trip. We were okay with this though because we could then get Carter to bed closer to his normal bedtime and have some down time to ourselves in the evenings.

On that night we got Carter to bed around 8:15 pm and got a few hours to relax.