Day 6: Animal Kingdom

Yeah, Audrey's diet that week was at least 50% cookie.

Gabe soaking wet after riding the Kali River Rapids ride.

Gabe with all of his prizes.

One of Gabe's 2 Pirates of the Caribbean tattoos -- which seriously are just now almost worn off.

Audrey has no idea who Lilo and Stitch are, but she loved them anyway. Gabe, who actually loves Lilo and Stitch in real life, refused to meet them and then began worrying that they wouldn't let him watch their cartoon anymore.

We then spent a day at Animal Kingdom, where we rode the safari, walked through the animal exhibits (and heard Audrey ask for "MO AMALS", or "more animals", repeatedly), and finished with dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. We were quite proud of Gabe for making it through the extra choppy, loud, scary Dinosaur ride, although he had a lot more fun playing the carnival games and winning 4 stuffed bats.

Day 5: Epcot and Magic Kingdom

Clearly enjoying dinner.

Playing the drums

Gabe the Conquerer

Audrey with Daisy

Audrey has become semi-obsessed with "A-yull", or Ariel, since our trip!

The next day we spent the morning at the Magic Kingdom and then headed back to Epcot to finish sightseeing and eat dinner. Yay to Canadians for beer cheese soup - yum! Audrey loved playing the drums at one of the exhibits, while Gabe's favorite part of the day was getting a foam Viking sword, shield, and helmet. (As a side note, while the sword technically is foam, it feels more like a wooden or metal sword when it is hitting your face and arms.)

Day 4: Epcot

At the end of the day, Gabe was worn out.

Enjoying a yummy French pavillion treat.

Audrey playing in the jumping water fountains.

A cute brother-sister picture.

The next day, we headed to Epcot. We checked out the Nemo/aquarium area for a while, and then walked around to the World Showcase. There are not as many rides there, so it was a good chance for the kids to play and just hang out a little bit. The best Gabe line of the day happened when we were watching the American Adventure show, which features the animatronic historical characters: "Are those guys real? 'Cause I thought they might be zombies." Zombie Mark Twain, now that's one Disney hadn't thought of!

Day 3: Magic Kingdom

Audrey and Gabe hugging Eeyore, until things got a little tense...

Hats off to Dad for being genuinely concerned while the rest of us laughed at poor, distraught Audrey.

At dinner. Oddly, Gabe didn't want to have anything to do with the characters unless he was seated for breakfast or dinner. That child!!

Dad and the tiniest driver ever.

Audrey putting her head down on the scary, scary carousel.

Gabe enjoying his lunch.

Audrey and me on Dumbo - she later put her head down on this one, too.

The next day, we returned to the Magic Kingdom. Luckily, my mom figured out how to get Audrey to take a long nap on her shoulder, which meant more pleasant days for the rest of us from then on. Thanks for taking one for the team, Mom! We rode a lot of rides and, surprisingly, Pirates of the Caribbean was NOT one of Gabe's favorites. In fact, he didn't like it at all. As he put it, "I was sure the pirates were real and were going to come get me." Audrey rode everything we did, and if the ride was dark or loud, she put her head down until it was over; then, when we got off the ride she would always say that she did like it. We had a great buffet dinner at Crystal Palace, where Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, and Tigger walked around the whole time. This was a fantastic way to keep the kids happy and entertained while the adults ate as well. But when Eeyore walks away from your child as she drags her Papaw after him, presumably to take a smoke break, that is when you see the dark side of Disney.

Day 2: Disney Hollywood Studios

This would have been cute if all subjects had been facing the camera...

Cookies make it all better.

We waited in a small line to see the yellow Power Ranger because Gabe wanted to see her. When it was our turn, he totally bailed, and Audrey and I had to meet the Power Ranger ourselves. I felt like the biggest dork meeting a Power Ranger with a 21-month-old. Thanks, Gabe!

Audrey trying to attack Gabe for who knows what. The girl needs her regularly scheduled nap!!

Look at the stinkin' awesome front row, next to the gates parking spot. Dad has a handicap (or, as Gabe would say, "handicrap") tag from his heart surgery a few years ago and it came in quite "handi". If you can convince your loved one to undergo major surgery, it is so worth it for Disney World purposes. :)

Gabe looking spiffy in his new Pirates of the Caribbean sunglasses.

Audrey loved, loved, loved all of the Disney characters, even though she didn't know who most of them were. (Gabe...not so much.) She did know Minnie, however, as she has a Minnie doll that looks just like this one.

After getting some much-needed rest, we got up the next morning and headed to Disney Hollywood Studios. There, Audrey met - and kissed - many Disney characters, we saw a lot of fun shows and walked onto pretty much every ride there without a wait. We actually had extra time, which is amazing in Disney World parks. Overall, we had a great day.

Oh, and we got this great statement from Gabe: "Water blew on me and I'm wasn't even warm. The fan blew on me and I wasn't even warm. Everything is going wrong today." Then, as we left the park, Dad walked in front of the big Disney bus and the driver had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting him. As if that wasn't funny enough in itself, as we passed the other drivers, they were all commenting on Dad's "close call". Nothing like a near-death experience to close out the day!

Disney World: Day 1

Dave. Barry. My favorite author/columnist ever.

Dave Barry, me, Dad, and his coauthor whose name escapes me at the moment.

Mom, Gabe, Papaw, and Audrey on our first monorail ride of the trip. (Audrey's favorite thing the whole week was to ride what she called the "ray-ull".)

In our leis upon our arrival at the hotel. Fun story: the girls' pink leis smelled like perfume, while the guys' yellow ones smelled like dead fish -- no joke.

The kids outside the Polynesian Resort. One is happy to be there, one is in a daze.

Since I have approximately 1,000 pictures from our Walt Disney World trip, I am going to avoid trying to cut and paste the pictures and text to get them in order and instead do several posts.

On Day 1, we arrived in Orlando after a very long trip...2000 Presidential Election long. It wasn't really that long except that Audrey becomes a *difficult* traveler after about 3 hours, and starts yelling at me to rub her leg. She also slept in the hotel bed with me, which is not exactly a restful experience (unless you consider having 20-something pounds lying on your neck, standing on you, and saying "hi, Dada, hi, Gabie" at 12 am restful). We got to go to the Magic Kingdom for a few hours before dinner, and, in a happy coincidence, Dave Barry was in one of the Main Street stores signing copies of his new book. That truly made me forget the harrowing trip down (well, almost).

Halloween with Peter and Tink

Audrey enjoying one of her trick-or-treating treats.

Gabe's "bow".

"Cool, I got spider rings, what did you get?"

Sitting pretty on some haystacks.

We were all shocked when Gabe picked Peter Pan costume over Captain Hook, but it worked out great because another boy in his class wore that exact same Hook costume.

Umm...is Tinkerbell supposed to pinch Peter Pan?

Tinkerbell not so happy that Peter is getting in her shot.

Gabe and Audrey dressed up as Peter Pan and Tinkerbell this year, in costumes Gabe picked out for both of them. Gabe loved his costume, except that he referred to himself as "Robin Hood" a few times. The kids got into their costumes 3 times, including a church party, Gabe's school party, and trick-or-treating around our neighborhood and at a friend's office downtown. They are very fortunate to be one of the few little kids in the neighborhood, as they got extra candy from everyone (and of course, a lot extra from all their grandparents, who made them special treat bags).

Bear Wallow

Gabe's preschool had a field trip to Bear Wallow Farm in Nancy, Kentucky. Yes, Nancy is as rural as it sounds. So rural in fact, that Gabe, Gabe's classmate, her mom, and I got lost trying to find the way to Bear Wallow Farm. Not lost as in "oops, we missed our turn", but lost as in "let's see if this mysterious hatch is the secret to getting to Nancy". We were two counties away. The kids sat in the back silently while we moms up front were about to pull out our hair trying to find the place. Enough said about that. We finally reached the Farm and its teeny, tiny sign (really, Bear Wallow, can't we work on a bigger sign for next year?), and there were surprisingly a lot of things to do there. There was a hayride, a petting zoo, duck and fish feeding ponds, a creek to pan for little "diamonds", and, my personal favorite, the pumpkin cannon. Luckily, we did meet up with the kids' class, and felt a little better to hear that other people had passed up the farm also (although no one went the distance we did). Since Gabe's class had already gotten their pumpkins, we had to join a first-grade class. We were very proud of Gabe and his classmate for being the first two kids back on the truck, as the older kids took a while picking their pumpkins. Gabe loved the trip even though it was a loooonnnng trip to get there.

Pumpkins...lots and lots of pumpkins

Gabe and Marley, incommunicado.

Gabe with his pumpkin. He picked a cute one!

Gabe in the mini corn "maze". (Maze is maybe not the right word to use; if you had any issues finding your way out of this "maze" you probably don't need to be out in public.) The larger maze was thankfully not available to the preschool group.

Aquarium Weekend

Gabe was so close to touching the sharks but I think he chickened out a little bit at the last minute.

I thought it would be a cute brother and sister picture to have them stand on either side of the shark...they didn't agree. This was the best I could get!

The bird room was seriously cool - and dangerous. You could walk into this room and feed birds nectar from a cup. They were free-flying and there was no separation whatsoever between us and them. This bird almost bit Barry - but the couple behind us narrowly missed receiving a little white gift on their head, so I think all in all, a bite would have been the better option.

Gabe and Audrey loved the sturgeon, although she kept calling them "sharks". They were indeed freakishly big, and I would certainly walk on water if I ran into one of them.

We made a trip to the Newport Aquarium at the end of Gabe's October fall break. We all enjoyed it (and the post-aquarium trip to a good seafood restaurant didn't hurt either!).

Happy 5th Birthday, Gabe...in November

Present time

The family jammed in like sardines.

Gabe's big payoff...a pile of presents

Ummm...and I'm standing by a giant rodent why?

Gabe forgoing traditional ice cream utensils.

His Scooby Doo cake. Yum!

On the way up to Lexington.

Gabe napping in preparation for the Chuck E. Cheese madness.

We had Gabe's 5th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. On a Saturday evening. With, to put a conservative estimate on it, about 47 other birthday party groups. That place is truly a migraine waiting to happen. It was definitely a little suffocating, but Gabe enjoyed it, and I think everyone else did too. Since his party was on Saturday, I made a family dinner for Gabe's actual birthday on Sunday. Since Gabe got to choose the menu, we had fried chicken, grilled steak, baked potato, and raw vegetables. (Yes, he actually picked two meats and raw vegetables!) It was a very nice weekend to enjoy Gabe!!