A Disney Vacation

....well, I'm not sure if I'd call it a vacation exactly....a workout, a marathon, a festival of brisk walking and of carrying heavy things?  I suppose whatever you call it, it was fun although I don't think we'll be doing it again in the near future :)

Aunt Courtney treated us to a wonderful (albeit tiring) trip and the boys had ridiculous amounts of fun--and candy (aka "special treats")--I'm not sure if you can still call them special treats if you eat them all day long though.....

By far the biggest hit of the trip was riding the monorail, followed by riding the ferry, and then by playing in the sand and pool behind the resort.....and if you ask David what rides he liked best he will reply that he liked the "boat" rides at the park (i.e. It's a Small World) but absolutely not the train ride through the mountain (i.e. Thunder Mountain) which daddy and aunt Courtney tricked him into riding based on his love of all things train.

The biggest food hits of the trip were found in Gaston's Tavern in the new addition to Fantasy Land that was open for "dress rehearsals."  For the boys it was Lefou's Brew which is a frozen apple juice concoction with a whipped marshmallow topping and for dad it was the pork shank which is now his favorite park food--winning out even over the famed turkey leg which, if you know Chris, is saying something :)  I on the other hand think it's pretty much the most disgusting thing I've ever seen anyone eat and had to look away during the whole pork shank eating ordeal......

Did you know there were two Dumbo rides now?  I scandalized my sister with my lack of current Disney knowledge and the fact that I hadn't been in the park for going on nine years.....

We went to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party on our first night with the boys dressed up in their costumes of choice.....as advertised, it was not too scary and the boys liked trick-or-treating in the park although David made sure I knew that it was not really Halloween yet.....

We actually spent three of the four days of our park hopper passes at the Magic Kingdom with one day at the Animal Kingdom and one evening excursion for Chris and I to Epcot for a date in Japan......

David loved meeting all of the characters and mostly gave them hugs and high fives with the occasional punch to the stuffed belly......Henry on the other hand preferred at least a two person barrier between himself and anyone dressed up as a gigantic Disney character.

We did the Electrical Parade on our last night and David made it about halfway through before passing out--Henry made it all the way to the end--but neither made it to any fireworks........

David made sure to hold his glow necklace up near his face so that Mickey would be sure to see him......

We had a lot of fun and even managed to squeeze in a little time for relaxing and bubble baths....although we may have gotten a tad carried away dumping hotel shower gel into the whirlpool tub......it's the little joys :)

I think it's going to take us all of next week to decompress from this trip....and to convince the children that although we did have "special treats" all day every day while we were on vacation, aunt Courtney isn't here any more and mom isn't as much of a "special treats" pushover as their sweet aunt is :)

Thanks aunt Courtney for all of the fun!