July 4th

Knowing the theme parks would be overly crowded on July 4th, we took it easy on Saturday and hung out at the hotel (we needed the rest from the previous two days anyhow).  The kids loved playing in the pool and also took advantage of some games and arts and crafts that were set up in honor of Independence Day.  We were there for a few hours when it got very crowded all of a sudden (I think a big tour group came in and decided to hit the pool), so we left to go shower.  After getting cleaned up, we took a trip to Downtown Disney to let big sister K trade some more pins.  Her current collection:

Some pictures taken at the hotel:

Animal Kingdom

On our way to breakfast before another HOT day at the park... if only they got along this nicely all the time.

 Can't complete our visit to Animal Kingdom without taking a picture in front of the big fake tree.

Killing time while waiting for the Finding Nemo Musical to start.

 Photo op with Russell and Dug:

 Photo op with Daisy Duck:

Baby M actually asked to take a picture with us while big sister K was off trying to collect her wilderness explorer badges.  One of the rare moments he chooses to smile and look at the camera.

Hollywood Studios

On Thursday, we headed off to Hollywood Studios.  We started the day with the Voyage of the Little Mermaid, a show we've seen every time we've been here (which is at least twice already).  In hindsight, we probably could've skipped it.  Even before we stepped foot into the theater, baby M was already freaking out and saying he didn't want to be there.  Silly me, I thought he would calm down and enjoy the show being that this would be his second time watching it (and he's seen much scarier things than this!).  Boy was I wrong!  Baby M was sitting on me, and throughout the entire show, he's crying hysterically as I have one hand covering his eyes (so he couldn't see and freak out more), and the other covering his mouth in attempts to muffle his crying.  I'm sure everyone sitting around us must've given us dirty looks.

One ride that big sister K insisted on going on was Star Tours, which had a minimum height requirement of 40 inches.  At the entrance, the cast member (I am getting my Disney lingo down pat thanks to my niece who works there) measured baby M and he just barely reached the top of the stick.  She claimed that he was tall enough, so we all went through.  Once we got to the ride itself, he was measured again, and this time, the cast member said he didn't reach the minimum height requirement (he was short by just a hair).  Baby M looked like he was about to cry, and I was a bit peeved that we waited all this time just to find out he couldn't go on it, but it was probably for the best (he would've probably freaked out on this ride too, and plus he had to go potty).  M ended up taking him to the bathroom while I went on the ride with big sister K.  When we got out, we made our way through the gift shop and found the boys chatting up with one of the cast members by the make-your-own light sabers.  I was actually thinking of getting one for baby M if he was still upset, but fortunately, he had gotten over it (phew.... saved me some dough!).

Between freaking out on the Voyage of the Little Mermaid and missing out on the Star Tours ride, it's safe to say that Hollywood Studios wasn't baby M's favorite theme park.  We had FastPasses for Toy Story Midway Mania, Frozen Sing-Along Celebration, and Disney Junior Live on Stage, so at least he enjoyed those.  He wanted to go on the Toy Story Midway Mania ride again, but the wait was over an hour long (hence, why we got the FastPass), so we never did make it back there.  The Frozen Sing-Along Celebration was new for us, and I was pleasantly surprised to find it so well-done.  The kids enjoyed the singing, but there was a good amount of silly humor added to it that kept the adults entertained as well.

Naturally, we had to take a picture with Buzz and Woody after going on the Toy Story Mania ride:

Monsters Inc!  I showed the kids the "NO WHINING" sign, unfortunately they're not very good in following directions:

 Big sister K's not really into all the Disney Junior characters anymore, but we still took a picture with Sophia the First:

 By the entrance of Hollywood Studios:

Winter Summerland Miniature Golf

I had some work to take care of the next day, so we took it easy and hung out by the pool at the hotel.  Big sister K enjoyed this just as much as going to the theme parks, if not more.  We tried to get baby M into the big pool, but he refused (even with a life jacket on) and just dipped his feet in the water.  After the pool, we went back to our room to shower, then headed out to play mini-golf at the Winter Summerland.

Mini-golf was fun, but it was HOT in case you couldn't tell from the photos where we were drenched in sweat:

 

This is by far my favorite picture from the trip:

Magic Kingdom

First stop in our week-long Disney adventure was Magic Kingdom.  It was crowded, but as in past years, we didn't go with a set of must-dos.  We had FastPasses for three rides (Journey of the Little Mermaid, Tomorrowland Speedway, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin), but other than that, we just walked around and if the line was too long on one thing, we'd simply go on to another.  This worked out well for us.  Other than meeting Elsa and Anna (they had run out of FastPasses for this one), I don't think we waited more than 15 minutes for anything.  Meeting Elsa and Anna took an hour, and the only reason why it was ONLY an hour was because this was at 9pm, when everyone else was out watching the parade and fireworks (we had stopped by earlier and the wait time was 180 minutes... umm... no thank you!).

Big sister K cooling off in the hot weather:

On the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMovers.  Love that there was no line... we did this multiple times:

Picture ops with the characters.  First time we didn't take one with Mickey:

I asked big sister K if it was worth the hour wait just to take a 30-second photo with them, and of course she said yes.

Road Trip: Orlando

I don't know what possessed us to do the long drive down to Orlando!  What were we thinking???  (Or more like we weren't!)  I can sum it up in one word: BRUTAL.  We left Washington DC at about 7pm, got stuck in a bit of traffic, stopped for dinner, and by the time we hit the road again, it was probably around 9pm.  The kids went to sleep, M drove the first leg of the trip, and I took over at about 2am.  I was only able to go a few hours before my eyes could barely stay open.  At a little past 5am, I found a rest stop and switched places with M.  We finally got to Orlando at 10am after a detour to IHOP for some breakfast.  All I kept thinking was, "oh man, we have to do this again in a week (for the drive back)!"

We checked into the Disney All-Star Sports Resort, settled in, and took the shuttle to Downtown Disney to meet up with M's niece (who works at Disney and helped us get our hotel/theme park tickets).  M's brother also happened to be vacationing in Orlando (only he was smarter than we were and flew down there), so we got to see him as well.  We just chatted with each of them for a few minutes (M's niece had to get back to work and M's brother was catching a movie with his friends).  Still, it was nice to see familiar faces away from home.

We had dinner at the T-Rex Restaurant... similar concept to the Rainforest Cafe, but instead of wild animals, you're surrounded by dinosaurs.  Every 20 minutes, the lights would dim, the dinosaurs would start to move, and you'd hear loud roaring over the loudspeakers.  This meant that every 20 minutes, baby M would start crying and insist on being carried or sitting on either M's or my lap (if he wasn't already).  Oh yes, dinner was loads of fun that night.

Me and my girl:

 All smiles with daddy once we left the restaurant:

Road Trip: Washington DC

Our family road trip down to Orlando, FL has turned out to be quite an experience.  With my atypical last-minute packing, I was bound to forget something.  This time, the “something” happened to be Winnie the Pooh bear, big sister K’s beloved lovey, whom she can’t sleep without.  I realized this on the way to Washington DC (our first and only pit-stop) and made the mistake of asking big sister K if she would be okay without Pooh bear for the next two weeks.  Her face slowly transformed to one of despair, and before she had a chance to break out into tears, I promised her we’d go shopping for a replacement Pooh.  As we approached our hotel in DC, a quick search on Google found a Target nearby.  Unfortunately, the closest parking spot we found was two blocks away (not far under normal circumstances, but when you're dealing with torrential downpour, the walk could seem like miles).  The kids were real troopers though, and we made it there in one piece, albeit a little wet.

Despite the effort, Target ended up being a real disappointment.  We searched all over, but couldn’t find loveys anywhere.  Fortunately, there was a Marshalls in the same shopping complex, so we gave that a try and hit jackpot.  It wasn’t the same as the other two (yes, two – she already has a backup) Pooh bears she has at home (in fact, this wasn’t even Winnie the Pooh), but she liked it enough that the rest of us would be spared her complaining for the duration of our trip.

BTW, if anyone is interested in seeing what big sister K's Pooh bears look like, here they are.  The one to the left is her favorite, followed by the "backup" in the middle, and then the new lovey on the right:

By the time we left Marshalls, drove to the hotel, and checked-in, it was almost 5pm already.  M didn’t want to waste the rest of the day since we only had one more day in DC, so we took the metro to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.  We were only there for about two hours before the museum closed, but that was enough time to walk through all the exhibits.  I think the kids (and M) would’ve preferred to see live animals instead of fake ones.  Hence, a trip to the zoo was scheduled for the next day…

When we got to our car Sunday morning, ready to make the short drive to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park, the car dashboard indicator warned us that we had low pressure on one of our tires.  M went out to check and saw a screw stuck in the tire.  We drove to a nearby gas station and started making frantic calls to AAA.  Unfortunately, they only covered services to replace our tire with a spare or tow our car somewhere (neither of which we wanted), but they wouldn’t actually fix the tire itself on the spot.  The nearest AAA Car Service Center did not open on Sundays, so I had the AAA rep look up other mechanic shops nearby that were open.  We ended up going to a Midas a few miles away (after an initial misdirection by the GPS).  They took the car in and the kids were kept occupied with the Incredibles movie on my iPad while we waited.  M found a coupon for Midas on his phone (very non-descriptive, so we couldn’t really tell what it was for).  When it came time to settle the bill, he asked if he could use it.  The lady put in the code, and the $40 charge came out to $0.  Nice!  Our two-hour detour to the auto mechanic shop ended up being free!

Parking near the zoo proved to be quite difficult, but we eventually managed to find a spot after circling around a few times.  It was still six long blocks away, but the walking saved us $22 from parking in the lot.  The kids were excited to see all the animals, especially the pandas.  About an hour into our visit, baby M had to go potty (and mind you, we had just asked him if he had to go and he said no; he ALWAYS waits until the very last minute!).  Unfortunately, I happened to be carrying him and he didn’t make it in time, so he peed all over both of us. I was so angry that I made baby M walk (or more like me dragging him) the six long blocks to the car to get clean clothes while M and big sister K explored the rest of the zoo.  After changing baby M in the back of the car, I started driving and found a closer spot to the zoo, but by the time I parked, baby M had fallen asleep.  I ended up staying in the car with him while he napped until M and big sister K were done.  After the zoo, we left DC and started the long 12-hour drive to Orlando. Stay tuned for the next segment of our family road trip!

Chinese School Graduation

Big sister K's kindergarten graduating class from Chinese school this past Saturday:

 Family photo!

 So proud of my little girl for winning 2nd place in the school's drawing contest: