Disney Vacation 2017 and Pax turns 9 months

Before I get too far into the Disney vacation I just wanted to update on a few other things. First of all Benny is starting to actually go on the big potty. Not consistently and as with anything he does its on his terms but we are getting somewhere so Ill take it. He gets very proud of himself and then wants to tell everyone in a 5 mile radius of his accomplishment. :) 

Paxton turned 9 months on fathers day. He is 17lb 14oz and getting longer by the week. He continues to be super chill, always smiley, and developing lots of personality. He ADORES Easton and loves just watching his brothers run around like wild animals. He loves flipping to his tummy and has started to somewhat sit upright. We have seen a ton of progress with him physically in the last month which is so exciting! While we took the older 2 to Disney he stayed with my mom for all but 1 day. She loved being with him for both his inpatient and outpatient PT appointments and getting some major Pax snuggles in. Its so crazy to see our parents as grandparents now...even after almost 6 years of them being in this role I still find myself in awe. When we go visit my grandparents in Aurora (who are in their late 90s) they continually talk about the best times of their lives were when we were little and they watched us. All 6 of us grand kids would spent a week at their house and then off and on during the summer we would spend night at the cabin or have them watch us while our parents traveled etc. My grandpa still says his favorite times were when he'd have to take me to dance or my brother to baseball. And how as we got older those times became fewer and far btw bc we were old enough to be on our own, or would be off with our friends, or had other activities taking up our time. My parents really want to follow in their footsteps and savor these times with their grand babies while they are young and healthy. As fast as I see time flying by they know first hand how quickly kids grow up and they now get to be these super important figures in the lives of these little people and want to take advantage of that any chance they get. I just feel so lucky that they feel this way and we are close enough where my boys can really spend some quality times with their grandparents....and even great grandparents. Brian grew up super close to his grandparents as well and I am so happy that Brian's grandmother decided to make the move to his parents house down the street. How lucky are we that they can see their great grandma and Grandparents any day of the week. A simple 3 minute walk is all it takes for us. My mother in law being a nurse is a godsend. My mom still doesn't feel ready to give Paxton his GH shots so when she watching Pax, my mom in law stops over to do it for her...when they say it takes a village they aren't kidding and man I hit the village jackpot with our families. Brian's mom had Paxton for the last night of our trip. Of course that was the night of the giant storm that took our our electricity and our Maple tree in the backyard. She tended to Paxton via flashlight/candle light for the evening and luckily the power came back on fairly early the next day. All I kept thinking about was my 3 months worth of frozen breast milk in the basement deep freeze. If that would've thawed I would've had a mental breakdown for sure. Paxton was in the best hands possible while we were away and we were able to really enjoy time with the older two dudes without any reservations. 

Easton and Ben were glad to get back home and go to Mary's with their friends. It took a few days for them to go through a Disney detox so we tried to bite our tongues and breathe deeply as the crankiness subsided (especially with Ben). A lot of "I want ____" and then you get him whatever object or cartoon he is wanting and then "I didn't want ______" sigh! To be fair to him it was a lot of walking, late nights, and energy expending activity for a 3 year old day after day.  The great thing about Ben is that he LOVES baths....so anytime I need him contained or happy I just say "want to take a bath" and he instantly is on cloud 9 and agreeable to whatever task I need him to do for me. I think we have all adjusted back to reality and just in time to party with my mom at her retirement party at work on Wed. evening. So proud of her for the incredible accomplishments she made at LFG over 21 years, the countless lives she touched and mentored, and that she decided to retire while she is young, healthy, and can really utilize her new free time. 

He did it! 

stud muffin

pool day

Mr. 9 months

Disney was amazing start to finish. Although it rained daily we were still able to everything we set out to do and had plenty of sunshine to make up for the moments of rain. It was Benny's first flight so he was very excited for it. The flight kept getting pushed back in 10min increments so by the time we finally boarded he was already out of patience....not ideal when dealing with a very active 3 year old. Brian was already down in Orlando so it was just me, myself, and I taking these 2 on the flight. Thank the lord Southwest has a direct flight to Orlando so we didn't have to mess with any layovers or changing of planes. Brian took a giant suitcase full of our stuff down with him when he left 3 days prior for his work conference so all we had were our backpacks which also simplified things. Right when we started taking off Benny held on to the armrests and yelled at the top of his lungs "EVERYBODY...EVERYBODY HOLD ON TIGHT" it was hilarious! If you know him at all this shouldn't surprise you. He is literally always "on"! He laughed, ate about 4 suckers, and played with his ninja turtles the entire flight. He didn't want to stay in his seat so that was my biggest challenge. He tried to take a nap but he said the men behind us were too loud....he peeked through the crack in the chair to stare at them and "give them my mean face" but they apparently didn't get the hint lol. Needless to say when there was about 30 minutes left he was OVER it. He kept saying "this plane is so boring" and "this plane is making me so busy" (which I have no idea what that means). We finally landed and Brian was there to meet us with our magic bands and stuffed Mickey Mouse's

airplane sucker #1

here we go

night night Mickey

Day 1 we spent at the Magic Kingdom. We purchased the photo pass package and the meal plan and even though neither were cheap it was totally worth it. We didn't carry around any big cameras and got a lot of family shots without having to bother strangers. The meal plan was more than enough for our daily meals, snacks, and drinks. It was good at anything on Disney property which included other hotels as well as our own. As with any vacation we learned as we went and definitely know that next time we will utilize the meal plan even better. We ended up not using all our snacks so the night before we left we hit up the gift shop and got all the kids at Mary Pat's Disney suckers just so we wouldn't feel like we had money unused :) 

we've arrived (and i made Brian wear the obligatory family tshirts) 

 Ben is our "only happen when he's mad" kid. He literally finds any reason to be ticked off and has the shortest fuse. Then of course two seconds later he is laughing, hugging us, or giving us his million dollar smile so its very hard to be cross with him. It was rough getting him out of bed and onto the monorail to reach the park, but the second we got there he was all over it!

First stop Haunted Mansion (my favorite)

We did the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean numerous times during out two days at the Magic Kingdom. Easton and I got a little wet the first time we rode Pirates so he was reluctant to go back on. All the boys wanted were pirate swords so got them those. After trying to kill each other numerous times at the park we left them in the hotel room for the rest of our trip. Benny loved the teacups and rode those a couple times with Brian while I forced Easton onto the 7 Dwarfs Mine Train roller coaster. He was scared but had fun. Brian's goal the entire trip was to get him on either Space Mountain or Thunder Mountain. He ended up riding Space Mountain and was terrified. He admitted that it was "kinda fun" but if you ask him about it he will say he is "never going on a roller coaster again" We took Easton to Disney 2 years ago when he was around Benjamin's age and it was really interesting to see his take on things now and what he actually remembered. He surprisingly did remember most of it, but some of the "magic" is now gone for him. He is Brian and super logical. He likes to know everything and he wants facts. There were many "are they real or people dressed up" and "those animals are just machines right mom?" Benny on the other hand loved everything and couldn't wait to meet and hug every character we came across. He also lost the ability to walk on his own for more than 10 minutes so Brian and I spent majority of our time at the magic kingdom carrying him.  :)

tea cup time

 We had lunch at the Crystal Palace our first day and met all the Winnie the Pooh characters. they do such a nice job of making sure that each table gets a visit from each and everyone of them.

Eeyore

Pooh Bear

Piglet

Tiger

 Goofy was the man we HAD to see. Not only does Ben love to tell you what he is not happy with he also is the most stubborn human alive (pretty sure he got that from me...oops) He wanted to meet Goofy so bad, and every time we would say "we are going to lunch" or "now we are going to our next fast pass ride" it was always followed up by "Yes and THEN we are going to see Goofy" So we raced across the park to meet Goofy asap instead of waiting until we were already planning on heading his direction just to stop the Goofy nagging. The boys were so excited and luckily the lines move quickly (and it was indoors and air conditioned) so we were glad to do it for him.

GOOFY

Donald

Buzz Lightyear was another major deal for these boys. They wanted to ride this SO bad and we did a few times by the end of the trip. Benny was so worn out after being at the park for 5 hours that he fell asleep on Brian right before but he perked right up once we got onto the ride and he realized where he was. I also want to mention that in this ride you have laser guns (or "pew-mers" as Ben calls all guns) and it keeps score of how many bad guys you get...every time we rode this I had the highest score....just saying don't mess with mama if you are a bad guy~ I will take you down!

vacations are hard

His "I don't want to sit down Ill hold onto the rails bc I'm a big boy face " :) 

Last time I let Ben drive me for awhile :) 

first night at the park in the books! 

 Our second day we took a break from the parks and just did a pool day at the hotel. They had an amazing water park area/splash park for little ones and then a larger pool with a waterside that goes through a volcano. The boys spent about 5 minutes at the smaller splash pool and their little water slide and then spent the next 4 hours at the larger pool. We couldn't keep them off the water slide. We went down it too and it was very fun. These kids never cease to amaze me. Benny, our daredevil, had to be talked into going down the slide and then after that he was all about it....Easton, our cautious one, ran straight to the top of the volcano and flew down the slide without anyone having to encourage him. The morning prior to the pool marathon we had breakfast at a neighboring hotel, The Contemporary Resort, at Chef Mickeys. They have an awesome buffet and again you get to meet all the characters while you dine.

Chef Mickey himself

Minnie

Donald

Goofy

Easton...Mr No Fear this day

Brian and the boys waiting in line to do the water slide

Here comes Benny

Champagne and a view of my kids no fighting....perfection

nap time

That evening we had a luau at our hotel. We stayed at the Polynesian Resort so they do this nightly. Benjamin did not want to wake up for it hence why I am holding him in the photo below. We are lucky we got him to look at the camera at that time. :) It was raining pretty hard so we were afraid it would be canceled.....they basically told us they never cancel the meal portion of the luau, but the show might not go on if there was lightning etc. Basically as Brian put it "if the show gets canceled this will just be another overpriced meal" Luckily the show still went on, but it wasn't as long as it normal is. The boys loved it and the food was great. Easton said he liked the singing the best and of course Ben loved the fire dancer.

Brian playing thumb wars with Ben to perk him up a bit

Happily back to bed 

 Our last day we went back to Magic Kingdom. There is so much to do and see at this park that we decided to make it two day affair while they are still young and into everything this park has to offer. Maybe next time we go with Paxton in a few years we can hit up some of the other parks. They were able to watch some of the parades and go on some favorite rides a second and third time this day as well. This day was HOT so we had lots of drink and ice cream breaks.

Teacups again and again

That face! 

7 dwarfs mine train....Easton was not thrilled

Buzz lightyear again...and again

Brian and E on Space Mountain...as you can see Easton is not thrilled...again

Meeting Buzz....their highlight of the entire trip!

Back to Pirates we go....Ahoy!

Getting Popsicles and Benny letting us know he's not into having his photo taken..

We met Mickey in his dressing room which was really awesome. He actually talked to us (not sure how they do it but its pretty impressive). He told the boys jokes and gave them all lots of hugs and high fives!

waiting for their turn with the Mouse :) 

Daisey Duck

Miss Minnie

Pirate Easton

 This entire day all Benny kept asking for was a lollipop. Finally after he fell and "hurt" himself I caved and got them both suckers. Literally the second we walked out of the store Ben dropped his on the sidewalk. It still had the wrapper around it so we held our breath has he opened it. Sure enough it crumpled to the ground in pieces. The look of pure horror on his face was priceless. Brian and I tried so hard not to laugh, and Brian immediately did a U-turn and went back into the store to get him another. Again...meal plan for the win there!

so content now

my clean child and wild messy one

Last ride of the trip...my choice~ Haunted Mansion

 We finished up our last night at the Magic Kingdom but getting pretty close to front row seats to their fireworks/nighttime show. Its seriously amazing and mesmerizing. I cant even explain how cool it is. The boys really wanted balloons and after telling them "no" on repeat for the entire 3 days we were there Brian caved and got them each $15 dollar light up balloons. Of course minutes later I found myself holding the balloons for the remainder of the evening. Kids are fun! lol

I took this on my phone....so cool! 

We got back to the hotel late and had a very early morning to get to the airport. Thankfully Brian travels so much we get into Admirals Clubs at all the airports so we were able to go in there and get some food and let the boys run around (which Im sure all the early morning business men truly appreciated). The boys were great on the 2 flights home and all 3 of my boys got some napping in. It was such a fun 5 days and we were so grateful that we got to spend this time with the two older boys. They have had to be pretty patient these past 9 months, especially at the beginning after Paxton's birth, so it was fun to really spoil them without any distractions. Its always hard coming home from a wonderful trip, but when you are coming home to a sweet baby boy it makes it a bit easier. We are looking forward to 4th of July weekend when my brother and his family once again come to town and all the fun we will have with them for the long weekend. Summer is just like any other season....fun, busy, and flies by way too fast. Hope everyone survived the crazy weather/storms and continues to have a fun filled summer! God Bless!